Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu

Honestly the most boring "must watch" anime I think I have had to endure

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is one of those anime that most agree is one of those series everyone should watch. As such, about this time last year, I started watching it, and after 3 episodes dropped it as it didn't interest me. A few months later, I tried again, and dropped it again as it still failed to interest me. But this time, this time, I was certain I was going to finish it... So I downloaded the episodes onto my phone, and watched it on the bus to/from work, so it was either Haruhi or nothing to entertain me for an hour and a half a day.

I finished it, in 2 weeks, but it felt like 2 months.

English Name:

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Japanese Name:

涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱

Studio:

Kyoto Animation

Episodes Watched:

28/28

Posted on:

08/Jul/2019 at 17:05

Why was it so bad?

There's a few reasons that come to mind. The main one being the Endless Eight arc.

The Endless Eight arc was 7 episodes of torture. I could have sat through 2 or 3 episodes of the same thing. But 8 episodes where the plot is pretty much the same, bar a few minor interaction differences is a lot to deal with when you're binge watching - I can imagine it not being as much of an issue with weekly watchers, but even so, you may assume the episode was a re-run. The end of the arc was pretty good, but it wasn't good enough to offset almost 3.5 hours of the same episode over, and over, again.

The second major issue worth talking about is the length of the series.

Whilst I thought it was a pretty average first season, it wasn't too bad. But the second season, oh dear god the second season. Excluding the 8 episodes of hell, mentioned previously, there really isn't any saving grace in the second season. Apart from a killer OP, there's nothing in the second season which is even remotely interesting.

We had murder mystery, closed spaces, Nagato being awesome, and time travel in the first season. And in the second season; 8 long episodes from hell, a boring cultural festival, and Nagato being somewhat awesome. There really wasn't anything in season 2 which was worth watching.

But it's not all fault!

Whilst it's a very disinteresting story, with a pretty unlikeable main character. There is still praise that the series deserves.

For a start, the sound is pretty good, with decent background music, amazing OP and ED, which spawned a small craze around its dance, and great voice actors to boot. It was extremely easy on the ears, and definitely was one of the more standout parts of the series... It's just a shame that the sound is one of the best features, when I would usually be happy to have the sound be terrible, as long as everything else was top notch.

In addition to this, the rest of the cast, besides Haruhi, are all very well rounded. Though I wasn't a fan of Koizumi or Asahina too much, I could still appreciate that they were pretty good characters.

All in all, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu would have been a pretty solid anime if both seasons had a combined episode count of something closer to 14. The fact that more than half of a season was pretty much the same episode just detracted too much from the overall experience, and didn't do an already average anime any justice.

I've decided that instead of doing a review for every anime I watch, I'm either going to limit it to one or two a month, and I decided to choose Haruhi... Why? I watched some really good anime in June, Girly Air Force, The Magnificent Kotobuki, and Gakkougurashi! to name a few, but I think there's not really much outside of praise I could give them, whereas Haruhi is one of those anime which should have been nothing but praise, but instead was pretty awful.