The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a franchise comprised of 1 movie, 2 anime series, 5 manga series
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The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is about a girl who unknowingly has the power to change the world as she sees fit. Add in a meddlesome psychic, an alien robot, and a ditzy time traveler, and you've got one exhausted Kyon.

Story of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Kyon is a completely normal first-year high school student. On his first day, he notices one of his female classmates: Haruhi Suzumiya, a girl who declares that she has no interest in normal human beings, only in aliens, time-travelers, and espers (psychics). He forms an odd friendship with Haruhi and one day inadvertantly inspires her to create a new school club for the purposes of finding the aforementioned types of non-humans. She steals the Literature Club's clubroom and its only member, the quiet Yuki Nagato. Before long she also drags in and molests second-year student Mikuru to be the club's "mascot character," and as soon as "mysterious" transfer student Itsuki Koizumi appears, she harasses him to join as well. Kyon's membership is, of course, a given.

It isn't very long before each of the club members comes to Kyon and reveals a unique characteristic: Yuki is actually an alien robot, Mikuru is a time-traveler from the future, and Itsuki is an espert. Each of them has been sent to the school to keep an eye on Haruhi, who appears to be at the center of some great supernatural mystery. As far as any of them can tell, she may actually be god: able to change the world as she sees fit. Each of them impresses the importance of keeping Haruhi, who always complains about how boring the world is, unaware of her abilities. However, because of Haruhi's obliviousness, sometimes the world starts to change even without her knowing about it.

In fact, Yuki, Mikuru, and Itsuki's presence is proof that Haruhi can change things-- their existence is a result of her desire for there to be aliens, time travelers, and espers, as is their proximity to her, even if she doesn't know it. As such, Kyon joins the three in trying to keep Haruhi unaware and trying to keep their world as intact as possible, leading them on an amazingly complex tangle of an adventure.

Haruhi Suzumiya Franchise

Light Novels

Haruhi is first and foremost a series of light novels, written by Nagaru Tanigawa, illustrated by Noizi Ito, and published by Kadokawa Shoten. The novels are famous in part due to their unusual format; the chapters are placed out of order, and not just within each individual book but within the entire series. Tanigawa's masterful ordering of the chapters allows this to be complicated but generally never conflicting. The novels are:
  • The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (June 6 2003)
  • The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya (September 30 2003)
  • The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya (December 27 2003)
  • The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (July 31 2004)
  • The Recklessness of Haruhi Suzumiya (September 30 2004)
  • The Disturbance of Haruhi Suzumiya (March 31 2005)
  • The Scheme of Haruhi Suzumiya (August 31 2005)
  • The Anger of Haruhi Suzumiya (May 1 2006)
  • The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya (April 1 2007)
  • The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya (TBA)

The light novels have been licensed for distribution in North America by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group USA, which also owns Yen Press, who has the license for the manga.

Anime

In the spring season of 2006, an anime adaptation titled The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya aired. About half of the 14-episode series was devoted to the first volume of the novel, and the other half included stories from the third, fifth, and sixth novels. The anime was incredibly popular world-wide; its popular and catchy end theme, Hare Hare Yukai, included a small dance number that became an instant YouTube meme, and a protester in Gaza was photographed holding a protest sign that featured Haruhi's face. The series was licensed for release in the United States by Bandai Entertainment Inc. after what is suspected to have been a lengthy bidding war for the show. Bandai's license took many by surprise, and their release included an expensive but swag-rich special edition with a box as well as a regular edition, and North American releases of many of the character and theme song singles.

A second season to the anime was announced, and was originally going to revolve around the events of the fourth novel, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.  Later, it was announced that the project was being reworked, but there has been no additional information revealed about the second season since.

Manga

There have been two manga adaptations of the Haruhi series. The first was illustrated by Makoto Mizuno and was published from May to December of 2004, but fans didn't take to Mizuno's adaptation. A second series began in November 2005, this time with Gaku Tsugano illustrating. This series is ongoing to this day, and was licensed for North American release by Yen Press, whose sister company Little, Brown is publishing the novel series in English.

Games

There have been five video game adaptations of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya:
  • (The Promise of Haruhi Suzumiya), a visual novel for the PSP, December 20 2007.
  • Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomodoi (The Perplexity of Haruhi Suzumiya), a Playstation 2 adventure game, January 31 2008.
  • Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekidou (The Excitement of Haruhi Suzumiya), a mini-game collection for Wii, November 27 2008.
  • Two games by Sega, Suzumiya Haruhi no Chokuretsu (The Series of Haruhi Suzumiya), still in development.
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The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 225 images
General Information Edit
Name: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Name: 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱
Romaji: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
Aliases: Suzumiya Haruhi
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
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