Story - 6/10
Set in an alternative time-line of the Haruhi universe, the Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan premise is, what would happen if the world of Haruhi was missing the supernatural plot elements and becomes a normal slice of life? Well to put it to short Kyon would’ve never met Haruhi, but instead gets closer to Nagato. The plot of the whole show is about the relationship between Nagato and Kyon, with the question during the series, can Nagato get Kyon to fall for her, and so for fourth they go and perform a huge range of normal activities building their relationship. Pretty much everyone knows Nagato has a crush on Kyon, except Kyon himself, and everyone is playing wingman hoping to get the two together. Unfortunately for the story, nothing really happens, they go on do a various range of normal activities you find in a slice of life genre. The story does get interesting at episode 10 with the sudden shift in tone, turning it from a comedy to a drama. However this is short lived.
So unfortunately the story is nothing special, it’s a simple romance story of can the girl get the guy. And the whole shot is like this for the majority of the time. Only at one part the story, it gets really interesting. At episode 10, things change up, because we get so used to this new world of Haruhi and get used the characters, but what happens when you take that away just for a bit. The show’s pace and tone changes drastically from a silly slice of life comedy to a supernatural drama. And unfortunately it is just for a bit, as the show changes back to its generic slice of life format. The show does have a slow start and doesn’t really get interesting until Haruhi arrives at episode 3, but it also has a rather underwhelming, unsatisfying ending. But seriously if it wasn’t for the fact that these were Haruhi characters, there’s not a lot going for this show.
Characters - 6/10
Yuki Nagato is the main character this time around in this universe. Unlike her character in Haruhi, she is more awkward and shy this time around. She gets nervous a lot when she gets close to Kyon. And she is also a gluttoness gamer girl that has the personality traits of a little girl, and that is kind of annoying as she can’t really do anything on her own. As the series progress, she gains more confidence in herself and she starts to become more opened to the people around her. Eventually wishing everything stays the same as it is, that is until episode 10, when she completely does a 180. For episode 10 to 13, Nagato personality changes to a more familiar appearance, resembling that of the mute, emotionless Nagato from Haruhi. And I love that the did this change to the plot up a bit, as we have gotten so use to the Nagato in this world, so it was very surprising to see her completely different suddenly.
Kyon is Nagato’s primary love interest. And from a far we can tell, he is pretty much the same as he was in Haruhi, although he’s probably has a more laid back attitude. But pushing him from the main character to the plot device was kind of a detrimental to him. His interactions with Nagato felt rather force, and it seems as if the relationship was going nowhere. However he does get some good development towards the series end, especially during the Disappearance Arc and the last couple of episodes, where he felt like the main character. But other than that, nothing really changes.
As far as supporting characters go, pretty much everyone from the original Haruhi are a part of it, with the addition of some others. Such as Ryouko Asakura who plays the role of a big sister and overbearing friend to Nagato. Maybe too supportive of Nagato, she doesn’t really do anything for herself as she is just trying to make Nagato happy. Haruhi Suzumiya makes a return as supporting character this time around. Although I love her interactions with Kyon because it shows reminisce from the original and it’s pretty comedic to watch, but it doesn’t really add too much to the storyline, because it’s seen from a different perspective, as we see her more of an annoyance. She’s still the energetic eccentric girl we know from the original though. Asahina and Koizumi return as well, but they get very little screen time this time around and have no development in the story whatsoever.
Animation and Sound - 5/10, 7/10
Seeing the characters that I’ve known to love was kind of hard at first, I did get used to the art style eventually but I don’t think the designs were that good to look at. The show was trying to be a very moe show, so the characters had a very cute design added towards them. Not that I mind them, but it was very distracting sometimes, especially during the disappearance arc. And Kyon’s design really distracted from his personality, as I don’t think it really fitted at all. The animation is rather standard it’s nothing special, but it’s not bad it runs smoothly, but at times the frame rates aren’t right. It spots a very moe art style, but the colours and designs are rather basic, there is not a lot of attention to detail in the art, especially when most of the scenes contain a lot of white or either bright.
As for the soundtrack, it is neither memorable or forgettable as it does its job. There’s a great variety of music to be heard which really compliments the more light hearted comedic scenes. And the soundtrack gets better between episodes 10 and 13 because of the shift in tone. The opening theme is not that great, it fits the light hearted moe theme, but during those 4 episodes of the disappearance arc, it didn’t really belong. However the ending theme, although it didn’t really fit the general show, it was perfect for the disappearance arc. One thing I did love that Satelite did was the casting, they got the original cast from the original Haruhi series to do the voices for their characters, which I love because we’ve grown accustom to these characters and voices.
Enjoyment - 6/10
When I look back at what was the most enjoyable part of this show it all comes back to the Disappearance Arc, episodes 10 to 13. The best parts of the show was 10 to 13, because of the sudden change in pace and tone. However if it weren’t for the build-up pre episode 10, I didn’t think I would be as surprise as how it turned out. Yes it does take a while to get interesting as it’s really a generic romance slice of life to begin with, but those episodes, between 10 and 13 were the most heart-warming, intense and interesting moments of the show. But that’s all there is, it’s a long build up and can get kind of boring with nothing happening at all for the most part. And the ending was kind of underwhelming as it kind of just ended. But if it wasn’t for the Haruhi characters I probably wouldn’t have had any interest in this show, simply I enjoyed this show because it contained Haruhi characters, that is it.
Verdict - 6/10
For the story I give it a 6, only because of the Disappearance Arc and how it completely surprised me, made was really interesting. But for the most part it plays a safe generic slice of life romance story. It does take a while to build up, but those 4 episodes were worth it. However the ending after it is underwhelming.
For the animation and sound they get a 5 and a 7 from me. The art style is fine for the genre, but felt very unfitting to some of the characters, especially Kyon, and when the tone changed in the Disappearance Arc it was kind of hard to take everything to seriously. Also the fact the animation is nothing special, it is rather simple. The sound however did a good job fitting with the different scenarios. And it peaked during the Disappearance Arc. However the Opening the and Ending themes fitted only to a portion of the anime and they weren’t really all that memorable.
The characters get 6 from me because like everything else seeing Nagato and Kyon in the disappearance arc really made things interesting and the show really needed it. And I love the interactions between Kyon and Haruhi. However nothing really happened for the rest of the characters of show, even the interaction between Nagato and Kyon felt like it was going nowhere.
For my enjoyment of the show, I give it a 6. This would’ve been a 4 or lower if it didn’t have Haruhi characters and if it didn’t have the Disappearance Arc. Everything before the disappearance arc is fun to watch for a bit, but it gets kind of repetitive. And honestly I just watched this show for the Haruhi characters, but I didn’t find the show as enjoyable as I could’ve had.
So after rounding the scores up I give The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan a 6/10. If weren’t for episodes 10 to 13, the show would’ve been a generic slice of life romance show with Haruhi characters. The story even though, it starts off slow, the surprise factor of the disappearance arc made things really interesting and I was really hooked on to it. I recommend this show to fans of the slice of life genre and romance genre for a simple basic anime with a surprise factor. However if you’ve never really enjoyed Haruhi, this would not change your opinion at all, so this is a fine skip able anime as well. And it was probably my most disappointing anime of Spring 2015, because I really wanted to enjoy Haruhi characters again.
