Suzumiya Haruhi Series Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links   p5y6c

Suzumiya Haruhi is about a lot of things.

Haruhi is about youth; it is about growing up, about finding a place in the world.

Haruhi is about the fact that truth is almost never straightforward. Seeking an objective truth is often fruitless. The only thing there is to be found is the perspective of each individual, permeated with their beliefs and agenda.

Haruhi is about love; it is about caring for someone, so deeply and so fully, that one is willing to change the whole world for their sake and, maybe even more difficult than that, seeing one's self being changed by that love.

Haruhi is, perhaps, less about ... what is written down on the page and more about what is left unsaid.

Haruhi is about a lot of things. It is about aliens, time travelers, espers, sliders, urban legends, giant bugs, talking cats, shadowy organisations and wild conspiracies. It is about secret ideological warfare waging just beneath the surface of the page. It is about a bunch of teenaged misfits going about their days.

It is about a girl that refuses to accept that each person in the world is just another brick in the wall. A girl that seeks aliens, time travelers and espers amongst the faceless crowd. Or rather, it is about a girl that calls out for the alien, the time traveler, the esper inside each one of us.

It is a beautiful story. You should go read it.

Melancholy of haruhi Suzumiya is a masterpiece from the early 2000s.

Well written science fiction with an emphasis of slice of life story of a high school boy with no willingness to explore the joy in the world as he is coping with the reality, and a girl who is willing to take an action on every opportunity for fun things like aliens, time-travelers or espers.

Only thing people may not enjoy is the overabundance of monologues, where every thoughts of the main character is being described.
Many of the characters' emotion are being described with unconventional similes and metaphors or detailed gestures, which may slow pacing down. ... For me it helps my mind to settle the emotions of the characters, but some may find this frustrating.

Suggested reading: watch the anime in chronological order first, it's a phenomenal adaptation and extremely faithful to the source material. If you really liked it and would like to see more of the story, start from book #5. Then don't rush and take breaks between books.

This series does a lot of different things. Not sticking to a single genre can be a good thing sometimes, but in this case it's a mixed bag. At times it feels like you have to trudge through whole chapters of fluff just to get to the good part. And don't get me wrong, the good parts are *really* good, ... but not everyone can enjoy action, mystery, comedy, slice of life, romance and deep philosophical discussions all at the same time.

The good: The best aspects of the Haruhi light novels are their overarching plot and the feeling of mystery they carry. The reader is often left in suspense that's sooner or later resolved by a satisfying conclusion, yet there are always unanswered questions left to hook you into the next volume. The author often employs subtle foreshadowing which may take half of the series to come into effect, yet it works masterfully even despite (and occasionally thanks to) the non-linear narrative.
The plot isn't easily predictable and some concepts are pretty unique. You can tell by the numerous references that the work is heavily inspired by some of the greatest mystery and sci-fi works.

The okay: The characters are well-written. While not always believable, their actions reflect their personalities and the cast overall is varied enough to keep you entertained. Though they do lack a bit of depth, as most are either entirely one-dimensional or so sophisticated that they don't make any sense. They develop over time, but not as much as you'd think for a 13 volumes (or 12, depending how you count).
The structure of the novels is all over the place. Some arcs are contained in a short few pages of a chapter while others span multiple books. It's a nice change of pace. What doesn't help is that the story is out of order - much like the anime. Haruhi doesn't quite manage to make that type of storytelling interesting as it often feels unnecessary, and sometimes even spoils future books which is never ideal.

The bad: You have to be a Japanese speaker and know about Japanese culture to fully enjoy the comedy and rarely even some minor plot points in this series. Having to use Wikipedia to get half of the jokes makes them, as you might imagine, not very joke-y. The translation often leaves a lot to be desired too. And of course that's not an issue with the original work. But when that's pretty much the only way to experience it, you're bound to have a worse time because of it.
As already mentioned, the novels touch on a lot of different topics and span quite a few genres. Reading could feel like a chore if you're not a fan or not in the mood for a 5-page philosophical monologue or an entire laid-back slice of life arc. Hence my recommendation to take breaks between different volumes. Don't rush and the story won't feel samey.

In short, this story is a jack of all trades and master of some. With some high highs, unique ideas and unfortunate flaws, the source material is best left to the dedicated Haruhi fans... and Japanese natives. (Don't tell Her I said that.)