The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya really only falls flat on the character that bitches her way to success and continuously cleans her superiority complexion. Allow me to elaborate.
I mean, normally those kinds of characters are just a means for comedy and we just see them scoffed off for fun. But, actually seeing one have their way was a bit strange and made the anime feel awkward since she was literally a god and had to be pleased or else she could destroy the world she lived in; unintentionally that is.
Just Haruhi alone is almost worse than the Endless Eight was; only because she started out good and then progressively became worse. It had a fun story, sure, but the story felt a bit plain in the long run; no thanks to the aforesaid arc and Haruhi. For what it is worth, I do remember it having pretty good visuals.
Actually, you know what, once you see an arc where the episodes begin to repeat themselves, just skip to the end of it. There are eight episodes in it and the eighth episode resolves the whole ordeal. Besides that, the rest are vital spoilers; but feel free to skip this arc when you come across it.
But if you are a fan of character development, this anime falls flat after the beginning. Mikuru gets tortured constantly, up to the point where she inadvertently drank a spiked beverage and was told to kiss Itsuki just so that Haruhi would be satisfied with her film; makes sense to have a love scene and all, but she was drunk and had no say in the matter.
Oh, and she probably had the most grief caused throughout that whole movie arc than anyone else, up to the point where Kyon almost punched Haruhi in the face to knock some sense into her until damn Itsuki had to stop him; she was about to finally have some justice served to her. At one point, Haruhi gives Kyon an arbitrary task just so that she could be alone with Mikuru for more torture. In the long run, character development just suffered thanks to Haruhi.
Well, except for Kyon and Mikuru that is. And I admired how the way Kyon was thinking in the anime is a reminder that even the nicest guys can still be perverts, but that does not mean they are bad people on the inside; simply means they are normal and healthy as they have urges like all men do. It sure stays true to a quote that Family Matters brought up once: "If you think it, that is just your imagination. If you do it, then you will suffer dearly" which can be applied to lots of things, such as this.
If I have to be completely honest, though. Well, actually I was being honest. It was thanks to how arrogant Haruhi was that the anime fell flat. After sharing her tale to Kyon about the vastness of the world and how it changed the way she viewed things, I imagined that she would have simply been rude on the outside, but showed a soft side to him whenever they were alone; which I believe was a recurring instance during the first season. But, after the next season, Haruhi became an indefinite tsundere and it ruined the nice nature of the previous season.
Though if you enjoy characters that torture other characters and do not mind that the bitchy character finally has her way, then this anime might be alright. But, in all fairness, outside Haruhi, the story is alright and pretty imaginative. But, nothing out of the ordinary that I would call incredible and unforgettable; besides how Haruhi got away with how mean she was to people. But, in all honesty, when she is not being rude, she is actually one of the more attractive anime characters that I have seen; I give them points on giving her a design that stands out from other female leads.
Should you watch it? Only if you are in a hiatus and have been unable to find anymore good anime in the past while. Otherwise, I would skip this one completely if you are on a roll and have been watching lots of good ones before this.
