First and foremost, I would like to start off by informing you that this is my first review. I have lurked on here for quite a while before I felt confident enough to have a go at writing a review. So I encourage you to leave feedbacks/constructive criticisms regarding my writing style. Please also keep in mind that English is not my first language so feedbacks regarding that are also greatly appreciated.
I asked for a few of my friends' opinions on the series before I gave it the green light. General consensus amongst them was that the first half was very good whereas the second half was complete ass. Knowing that they were die-hard fans of the light novels, I can't help but think that their opinion on the first half was somewhat skewed towards the positive side due to how bad the second half was.
So as someone who has yet to watch the second half of the series, I hope that this review will be as unbiased as it could be.
Now let's get right into it.
I watched the series in a very weird order. I downloaded the whole series, not knowing it was sorted in the chronological order. I was 6 episodes in before I realised this and episode 6 was meant to be the mid-season finale. Safe to say that I completely ruined it for myself. So I recommend watching this in the release order.
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu is almost an episodic like series depicting the lives of a few unique high school students who met through the SOS Brigade, a club Haruhi created. Beneath this is quite a significant supernatural element woven into the story, with Haruhi literally being the centre of the universe without her knowing it, almost analogous to being god in a sense.
The characters I feel are one of area that the series was a bit lacking in. They are unoriginal - you have Kyon, the calm, collected and witty protagonist; Haruhi, the egocentric, eccentric and sometimes arrogant female lead. Along with Asahina (moe girl), Nagato (loli/kuudere-ish girl) and Koizumi, whom I felt was pretty much there just so that the show doesn’t become a harem. The characters are nothing out of the ordinary, which is not necessarily a bad thing but it did made some parts fairly predictable. Character development is close to non-existent, but that is to be expected from an episodic SoL/comedy anime.
Haruhi was definitely one hell of a character. It’s a love and hate relationship. She is ridiculously cute at times but most of the time I just found her to be annoying. The times when she practically made forced Asahina to whore herself out was particularly hard to watch. On the other hand I was very fond of Kyon, I really enjoyed his narration and the monologues when he just goes off in a tangent. The exchanges between Kyon and Haruhi were definitely some of the best parts about the anime, as it was interesting to see two polar opposite characters clash. The voice actor/actress for Kyon and Haruhi was on point at portraying their personalities.
The story itself was told in a non-linear fashion, which was one of the peculiarities of the series, adding a bit of mystery and suspense to it. The story was paced really nicely and quite interesting once you buy into the idea that everything revolves around Haruhi. There is a little dab of romance integrated into the story. The comedy was definitely well done. There were a few subtle references to other anime which I can’t help but chuckle at, and there were scenes that just made me burst out laughing.
The first episode was a rather odd one. It might seem off-putting to some even, but please do stick with it to the end. The episode was made to look goofy and I found the awkwardness of it pretty amusing.
There were a few things which I did not particularly like. Despite being only 14 episodes, there were 2 or 3 episodes which I felt was completely pointless. There was an obnoxious amount of fanservice and most of it was pretty cringe worthy. I felt like too much of the budget was spent on animating the asynchronous jiggling of Asahina’s chest.
As a hobby artist, I can say that the art in this series is excellent for an anime that is almost 10 years old. Animation and art quality is crisp and consistent throughout all the episodes. Character designs are generally good, but I feel that the size of the eyes relative to the rest of the facial features on the girls is a bit high for my liking, which made them look quite odd. However, this shouldn’t be a problem to most people.
There are anime which I sit through the OP or ED every single time, this was not one of them. The OP and ED are decent but is nothing to boast about. The other soundtracks are adequate and do the job just fine, but then again, I am not the kind of person who pays much attention to the music anyways. So I do apologise for not being able to offer much insight regarding the sound.
Overall I have really enjoyed the series so far and will be watching the second half despite the amount of hate on it. I definitely recommend checking this out if you’re looking for something light-hearted to pass the time with.
