Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu

If a survey were conducted to see if people believed in aliens, time travelers, or maybe espers, most would say they do not; average high school student Kyon considers himself among the non-believers. However, on his first day of school, he meets a girl who soon turns his world upside down.

During class introductions, the beautiful Haruhi Suzumiya boldly announces her boredom with "normal" people and her intention of meeting supernatural beings. Dumbfounded, Kyon learns of her frustration with the lack of paranormal-focused clubs at their school and unwittingly inspires her to start her own club. She creates the Spreading Fun all Over the World with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade, otherwise known as the SOS Brigade.

Following the SOS Brigade's founding, Haruhi manages to recruit Kyon and three other members: quiet bookworm Yuki Nagato, shy upperclassman Mikuru Asahina, and perpetually positive Itsuki Koizumi. Despite their normal appearance, the new members of the SOS Brigade each carry their own secrets related to Haruhi. Caught up in the mystery surrounding the eccentric club leader, Kyon is whisked away on a series of misadventures by Haruhi and the SOS Brigade, each one bringing him closer to the truth about who and what she is.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Suzumiya, Haruhi Main

Hirano, Aya Japanese

Kyon Main

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Nagato, Yuki Main

Chihara, Minori Japanese

Asahina, Mikuru Main

Gotou, Yuuko Japanese

Koizumi, Itsuki Main

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Tsuruya Supporting

Matsuoka, Yuki Japanese

Asakura, Ryouko Supporting

Kuwatani, Natsuko Japanese

Kyon's Sister Supporting

Aoki, Sayaka Japanese

Shamisen Supporting

Ogata, Kenichi Japanese

Okabe Supporting

Yanagisawa, Eiji Japanese

Yamaguchi, Mayumi Assistant Producer, Production Manager

Ishihara, Tatsuya Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Takemoto, Yasuhiro Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Dec 12, 2025

No_Durian_6987

Recommended

You know, I always envisioned God as a kooky Japanese high school girl delicately toeing the line between spontaneity and sociopathy.

Jokes aside, as lighthearted and comedic as this series can be, it kind of turns existentialism and religion on their respective heads. What if God walked among us but didn't know they were God? What if it were someone you knew? What if you found out before they did?

Haruhi and Kyon kind of represent the gap between optimistic escapism and cynical realism, or lingering childhood and sobering adulthood. Haruhi is obsessed with aliens, espers, generally paranormal or supernatural concepts, whereas Kyon's concerned with what's ... in front of him, only accepting what he knows to be real. The two end up sitting next to each other in class, and though they don't exactly become friends, they recruit three other members to form a club intent on finding supernatural beings.

Well, unbeknownst to Haruhi, those three recruits happen to be supernatural beings, all of whom believe Haruhi to be the creator of the universe; poor "normal" Kyon just ends up caught in the crossfire, perplexed by the absurdity of it all. Rather than explicitly focusing on theology or ontology, the writers twist this concept into a seamless sci-fi/fantasy/comedy/mystery blend - what if we put God, an alien, an esper, a time traveler and a normal dude in a high school club together? Wouldn't that be hilarious?

And honestly ... yeah. It's pretty damn funny.

Mikuru's anxiously helpless (time). Koizumi's incurably optimistic (perception). Yuki's clinical and quiet (paranormal communication). All of them exist in the palm of Haruhi's hand, and she doesn't even know it. Kyon's just trying to navigate the situation, but parallel Haruhi, he's more powerful than he realizes - if anything, his relative groundedness might make him the anchor to everything.

As far as the technical aspects to the show, KyoAni does great with the animation as always. We're given both action-packed sequences and moments to breathe. Things only truly feel serious maybe once or twice, but the complexity of their situation is made apparent both to the characters and the audience. There's a clear amount of logic behind the writing, and it's incredibly self-aware with the occasional metafictional touch or fourth-wall break (example: the in-universe Evangelion reference). It's also unafraid of getting avant-garde or weird (nonlinear timelines, the Endless Eight, Someday in the Rain, et cetera) to reflect the world the show resides in.

All in all, I found the show both thoroughly enjoyable and surprisingly artful for what mostly feels like an absurdist comedy, and it's well-deserving of its place in the anime landscape.

P.S. - I'm sure multiple coworkers caught me shamelessly doing the "Hare Hare Yukai" in front of my monitor.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 18, 2025

Animablisher

Mixed Feelings

Funny

[Outdated Review. I plan on making a more rational one eventually. Feel free to laugh until that happens]

PLEASE READ THIS TO THE END!!!
For starters, what the hell was this????
I mean, I know it's a parody show but... having tons of unjustified fan service, cringy OVERRATED internal MC dialogues, and the most boring and random cast you could ever think of... is absolute missed potential here ladies and gentlemen.
But hold up! I said it has tons of crap but is still "missed potential"??? The hell am I talking about????
(Note : I will be talking about both seasons here and not just the first. I'll explain why ... at the end)
Well, the thing is, this show starts as an actually geniune mystery/supernatural show. The first 6 episodes titled, you guessed it, "The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya", sets the stage for something grand, something unique. I would have been OKAY and FORGIVING even it slapped its meta humour on top of the supernatural stuff, but instead, what this show ended up doing is "supernatural stuff slapped on top of cringy slice of life meta humour'

After finishing the first 6 episodes you might think that the sky is the limit, right? right???
Wrooooooooong.
After those episodes, we get nothing but a lame baseball match, an undercooked small island ark, an infamously controversial set of 8 identical episodes, followed by the worst arc of them all, AND FINALLY one boring slow episode that does LITERALLY NOTHING.
Everything you shouldn't be doing in a supernatural parody show was done here.
HOWEVER, I think it deserves a watch for two BIG REASONS. The first being that it is an infamous show that you need to know of. While the second is that... the final episode was not the end. After the release of seaon two, we got something huge. A movie titled "The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya" which is, hands down, one of the best cinematic experiences ever. A movie that you cannot miss.
To actually FEEL the movie, you NEED to watch the show.
Now how come a bad mid show be so essential? Well, just as I told you, the movie slaps hard that it makes you like the characters and the world that you hated initially.

Now... there is one crutial detail about the airing of this show.
This show was released in NO ORDER. Can you believe that?
Even if you go to wikipedia, you will only find multiple different watch orders which I think are... let's just say the creators themselves had no idea what they were doing.
However, I took it upon myself to come up with the most tolerable watch order that would allow the consumers to make sense of this show.
There you go :
-I- Season 1
01 - The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya Part One
02 - The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Two
03 - The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Three
04 - The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Four
05 - The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Five
06 - The Boredom Of Haruhi Suzumiya
07 - Remote Island Syndrome Part One
08 - Remote Island Syndrome Part Two
09 - Mystérique Sign
10 - The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Six
-II- Season 2
01 - Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
02 - The Sight Of Haruhi Suzumiya Part One
03 - The Sight Of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Two
04 - The Sight Of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Three
05 - The Sight Of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Four
06 - The Sight Of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Five
07 - Live Alive
08 - Someday in The Rain
09 - The Day Of Sagittarius
10 - Endless Eight I
11 - Endless Eight II
12 - Endless Eight VIII
-III- The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya

I split them in the form of seasons because it's more fitting. What I mean is that once you reach the tenth episode in this order, you can consider that a either a turning point that you should be prepared for, OR a stopping point if you decide to drop the show. Maybe you'll get it once you watch it.
As for the "Endless Eight" episodes there were EIGHT OF THEM but I believe you only need those three that I listed here. You can find more info about endless eight in youtube because, wo ho ho I DO NOT INTEND ON BRINGING THIS TOPIC IN HERE.
And finally, if you wish, you can just skip "The Sight Of Haruhu" episodes. I only listed them here because they are one of the infamous things about this show.
Anyways, I hope this helps.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 31, 2025

jlzap

Not Recommended

This series annoyed me SO much. It starts off acting like it's gonna be some cool thing with lots of details and with the multiple watch orders. It doesn't matter. It truly feels like the writers had ambitious ideas that they didn't commit to. For example, in episode one Haruhi changes her hairstyle each day, there's a long scene about it. And then that's it. She has the same hairstyle the rest of the show. What was even the point. And this is a RECURRING THEME. So much "what was the point" throughout the whole show. ... We hardly even get to see any of the cool sci-fi stuff. There are probably like 5 things throughout the show that you need to remember, and half of those you don't REALLY need to remember.

Also, the way Haruhi treats Mikuhara is just SOOO gross. It genuinely bothered me so much. Also, Kyon "caring" about it, he tells her to stop then does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help Mikuhara. Mikuhara's whole character just disappoints me, I hate hate hate the fanservice of her she is literally nothing but an object to please the eye. It's the worst.

It took forever to get through this; it was so incredibly boring. Also, don't be misled by the different watch orders, it really hardly matters. It matters in probably like 1‒2 episodes between all seasons, and that's it. The only reason this would be worth watching is if you find it to be "mid" not "bad," then the movie would be worth the watch. That movie is the only good part of the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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