[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya episode 14: The end!
All good things must come to an end. So must bad things…and things in between. Okay, everything ends sooner or later. What worried me was that anime endings vary between the “hmm…” and the “wha…?” and given its patchy track record in entertaining me personally, Haruhi Suzumiya gave me quite serious cause for concern. Thankfully it was really quite good.
I didn’t so much as think along the lines of “is this the ending I wanted?” - rather, I was pleasantly surprised when things that could have gone wrong, didn’t. For one thing, it didn’t end with every member of the cast standing around cheering “Congratulations!”. It did however address the show’s underlying theme and even left things open enough for a second season. Weighing up the numerous ways in which the ending could have tried to be too clever or over-the-top, the writers seemed to have avoided the pitfalls and delivered a decent conclusion.
That’s all I have to say about this episode - I won’t go into any detail for fear of spoiling it. Instead I’ll waffle about my overall impressions on the show as a whole.
The Story
Apparently there’s a novel on which this is based; some generous individuals have translated it and put it online but I’ve been too busy to make use of their hard work. My only experience of the Haruhi Suzumiya story is that of the anime, which varied from the good to the mediocre. In retrospect the episode shuffling was a good idea but at the time it was quite offputting: I like complex sci-fi as much as the next geek but I’m less impressed with a simple story that pretends to be complex. If it had been a bit more ‘honest’ with its intentions, i.e. been a high school comedy with more originality I would have enjoyed it more: I loved the sharp dialogue and zany characters in the early episodes. Sadly the plot went off at numerous tangents, apparently to placate various types of people in its fanbase; good from a ratings/financial point of view but was just frustrating and the general experience a bit hit and miss.
The characters
While I can let the storyline side of things slide (more or less), the characterisation hampered my enjoyment of this series. I’m in a bit of a minority in that I value character interactions above the surroundings, even in a show such as this. How can you get drawn into a wild and surreal situation when you don’t care enough about the participants? My main problem is that I don’t like moe. Before you go reaching for the matches and brush the dust off the Sacrificial Alter of Fandom, I must stress that I’m aware of how many people were entertained by Mikuru-chan’s torture. I wasn’t, is all. It was predictable and overused.
If the show had made the SOS Brigade a more cohesive affair that made at least a pretence of friends enjoying their adventures, this series could have been truly great. As it was, it added to the unfocused, identity-crisis feel that the messy plot had already created. The warmth between the characters arrived too late for me.
Art, music and other bits
Art-wise, this series was a winner. I know the ‘animation was awesome’ thing has been said so many times, but it has been the most visually impressive series of its type since, well, ever. For once, I actually looked forward to getting screenshots for this series when writing these reviews! The music wasn’t bad I suppose but the concert episode and the song that went with it is my own personal highlight.
So, what to do now? Me, I’m going to start looking for new shows, read other blogs whose analysis of this series is infinitely better than mine and watch it in chronological rather than broadcast order. I’m hoping to discover some new details I didn’t notice before and, if I’m lucky, it will heighten my appreciation of the series in general. Until then, I’m going to reserve my final judgement on Haruhi Suzumiya. The best I can come up with for now is, having seen the whole series, I’m glad I took the time to watch it.
That will be all. For now at least.
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