Haruhi Suzumiya

Haruhi Suzumiya (TV):  AA+

If you've stood next to anyone who knows about anime in the past five years, you've heard the name "Haruhi Suzumiya," it's one of the single most popular and hyped series of the last decade and it's treated by older anime fans with the kind of obsessive reverence that Naruto, Bleach and One Piece are given by the younger generation.

I didn't watch it until 2009, partially because I (like most people) hate hype and the pitch of the series ("There's this high school girl and she's god, and her friends need to keep her from finding out") didn't really grab me.  But eventually I gave in and sat down to watch it, expecting the worst.

I was shocked to find that it deserves the better part of the hype it gets.  Not only is the animation and voice acting absolutely stunning, but it is extremely well-written, the story is detailed, brilliantly designed and highly rewarding of multiple watchings.

I specifically say the story is well written rather than the plot is well written, because as you may have also heard, this series stubbornly refuses to fall into a single genre, and instead of having an overarching plot, it follows the main characters through their adventures.  There are plots, the original arc, "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", has one, though the later "The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya" arc is more like a "the making of" story of the rather painful student movie episode.  The effect of this is that the fun of the series is in watching the characters act and interact, which, if you're willing to buy into the series, is a fascinating pastime.  It's so fascinating because the narrator, Kyon, is exceptionally unreliable, and we are not privy to any other character's thoughts, so the only personality we can be certain of is what we infer, and there is clearly more going on than both Kyon and the audience are told.

I really wanted to give the series an S ranking, but upon rewatching it, it doesn't quite meet my criteria.  It is in almost all ways a supremely stellar example of anime as an art form and a storytelling medium, but it lacks the "extra" something required by the formula.  Nevertheless, this series has brilliant art, brilliant music, brilliant voicing and sound direction, brilliant writing and brilliant pacing.  That being said, I will give it a recommendation I give most S-rank series.

Watch the first six episodes (of chronological order).  If you're still not interested in it, then drop it, but I think most people will find that after the cleverness and brilliance of that two hours of animation that they're curious about exactly what happens to Kyon, Haruhi, Mikuru, Yuki and Koizumi.

As kind of a post-script, I should also mention that the series aired in non-chronological order, and then, when it got a second season, those episodes didn't fit in any one point in the series either, instead being interwoven with the original series episodes.  Most DVDs show them in proper chronological order, and the wikipedia episode list will also provide the order the episodes aired in when they aired in 2009, including the second season.

There's also a movie ("The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya") which acts as a capstone arc to the anime series, though it does not come close to finishing the plot laid out in the novels where the series originated.  I'll review the movie separately, even though it doesn't make sense without having seen the anime.