Ask John: What’s John’s Opinion of Suzumiya Haruhi?

Question:
In previous columns, you’ve mentioned Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu as being a smash hit, and indeed, Amazon.com’s Japanese site once featured its ending theme as its #1 selling CD single. However, in your column, “How Much Does the Anime Industry Encourage Creativity?” you mentioned the show as having easily marketable characters and utilizing cheap gimmicks, an opinion mirrored by other anime fans I’ve spoken with. Just what you contribute the series’ success to?

Answer:
In the three months since the “Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi” anime television series premiered in Japan, it has turned into an international sensation. Interest in the anime has caused Tanigawa Nagaru’s original Suzumiya Haruhi novels to sell out in stores throughout Akihabara. The series’ catchy ending theme song CD single became an instant bestseller. The ending animation has been parodied with a short video of stop-motion Gundam robot animation. And a multitude of fan drawn parody doujinshi based on the show’s characters are now turning up. In the English speaking fan community, the show is the focus of intense interest and adoration.

The show is overtly a lighthearted slice of life drama about the members of a Japanese high school club led by an eccentric president who claims that she wants to experience otherworldly excitement and has no interest in mundane, normal human beings and typical social relationships. The show’s quirky humor is conveyed primarily through Haruhi’s outrageous behavior and her foil’s mundane observations. The anime is also characterized by its impressively fluid animation quality, and its odd characteristic of airing episodes out of chronological sequence. The final quirky aspect of the show, the true natures of some of the characters, is a story spoiler which I’ll refrain from revealing.

My personal reaction to the show has been mixed. Beyond any debate, the show exhibits impressive animation quality and likeable characters. The art design and coloring are bright and appealing. The opening and ending credits sequences both do an outstanding job of drawing in and holding viewer interest. The show’s energetic atmosphere and diverse cast make the series lively and enjoyable to watch. However, in order to maintain the show’s mystery, viewers are given very little insight into the motivations and thoughts of the characters. Unusual chronological narrative development in films like Irreversible, Momento, and Pulp Fiction is carefully constructed to heighten tension or give viewers select advance knowledge. However, the Suzumiya Haruhi anime doesn’t achieve either of these goals. The gimmick of introducing new characters in medias res in the episode prior to their introduction is amusing after the viewer “gets” the joke, but well into the series, episodes that suddenly jump backward in time seem like a literal narrative step backwards. Once character personalities and relationships have been established it’s not merely distracting for the viewer to suddenly go backwards in time; going from well defined characterizations and relationships to superficial ones feels counterproductive. Becoming enlightened about earlier events late in the series creates a momentary epiphany, but also creates confusion because the show fails to illustrate how these early events affect the characters and their relationships later in the story. Because of the show’s disjointed narrative structure, the series lacks an unfolding sense of narrative development. Each episode feels encapsulated, so viewers never get a sense of the characters evolving. We don’t see them changing; we just see them changed. Major events which should be intensely dramatic feel isolated and ultimately insignificant because they’re not placed in context and their impact on the future is never illustrated. Rather than introduce viewers to characters, then depict the characters encountering major epiphanies and allow viewers to see how the characters react and mature, and allow viewers to empathize with the characters, the show simply drops elements on the viewer in random order. It may be fun to assemble the puzzle pieces, but the processes eliminates any sense of discovery, empathy, and amazement.

Furthermore, although Suzumiya Haruhi herself stereotypes Itsuki Koizumi as a mysterious transfer student, all of the major characters in the show are stereotypes, to one degree or another. Haruhi is the short tempered, aggressive heroine that we’re seen before as Chidori Kaname from Full Metal Panic, Kaoru Kamiya in Rurouni Kenshin, and Tomo Takino from Azumanga Daioh. Kyon is the typical passive male protagonist from slice of life anime. He’s similar to characters like Hiroyuki Fujita of To Heart and Kenji Tomosaka from Lamune. Yuki is the robotic introvert in the vein of Nadesico’s Ruri Hoshino, Evangelion’s Rei Ayanami, and Ninomai Kisaragi from Happy Lesson. Mikuru Asahina is the shy and easily embarrassed klutz, similar to Ai Yori Aoshi’s Taeko Minazuki and Mahoromatic’s Minawa Ando. The characters are interesting and fun, but not ground breaking.

I don’t wish to venture into spoilers, but I must vaguely state that the series’ final episode is somewhat disappointing because it’s unexpectedly conventional, and, in fact, even contradicts one of the main themes of the show. It’s a little bit disappointing to find that what Suzumiya Haruhi really wants is, in fact, not overtly what she thinks she wants. That particular revelation doesn’t come unexpectedly, as Koizumi predicts it throughout the series, but it’s disappointing that Haruhi’s motivations and desires are so minimally explored throughout the series that the final revelation feels somewhat out of character.

Despite the fact that the Suzumiya Haruhi anime relies on anime stereotypes and conventions as much as it parodies them, the show does work. I’ve been told that Japanese viewers enjoy the series because it offers wish fulfillment. The high school life shared by Haruhi, Kyon, Mikuru, Yuki, and Itsuki is the idyllic, memorable youth that Japanese viewers wish they had enjoyed. Furthermore, I can envision viewers worldwide wishing to be friends with Suzumiya Haruhi because she’s forthright, outgoing, and shameless in exactly the way people never are in real life. Kyon’s running commentary on the absurdity of the situations he finds himself in, and Haruhi’s behavior are the sort of parody that anime has used for years in comic anime like Ultimate Teacher, Prefectural Earth Defense Force, Miami Guns, and Excel Saga, but in the Suzumiya Haruhi anime, the parodies are conveyed in dialogue rather than as visual gags, which makes them more obvious and seemingly revolutionary.

The Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu anime is a vibrant and energetic show that winks at the audience, letting them feel like they’ve discovering something unique and unusual. The show is also involving because it literally makes the viewer an invisible sixth member of Suzumiya Haruhi’s school club. I think the show is good, but whether it’s great is a matter of highly individual personal taste. Viewers that identify with the cast, or want to identify with the cast, are likely to become enveloped in the show. Viewers like myself who don’t personally identify with the cast observe the show objectively and find it enjoyable, but not a masterpiece. There’s a difference between popularity and quality. In the case of the Suzumiya Haruhi anime series, the distinction is narrow, but I do think that the show is slightly more popular than it is technically excellent. I think that the fan reaction to the Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu anime is based more on how viewers interpret and relate to the show than on criticism of the animation’s technical qualities, which is a perfectly reasonable reaction to anime.