I have such fond memories of Haruhi, and I think I'll probably never quite outgrow it - there's a lot to love about its quirky cast and their zany adventures, and I think Disappearance is genuinely a really great movie. I end up coming back to Haruhi every few years and rewatching the whole show (though I'll admit I usually skip around endless eight). But here's the thing - I can't in good conscience ever recommend it to anyone. And that's because of the ugly thing that rears its head every time I try to rewatch and makes me wince - that being the routine sexual harassment / assault of Mikuru. It really is a shame that the show dedicates so much time to playing that "gag" (that being that she is absolutely devastated and violated by Haruhi, routinely, until she is forced into submission). Fanservice is hard to escape in this field and I have my own set of qualms with it, but it is a whole other territory to use a female character's routine violation for titty shots and then tell you that she's so distraught by it that she believes she's ruined for marriage. I get that we're not supposed to love this trait of Haruhi's, but the way the show plays it it's like it's more of a nuisance than you know, a serious violation of one's bodily autonomy. And honestly! That's just a shame.
I likely will always love Haruhi. But its' gender politics? Woof.
