Adopting a transition immediately from the ordinary to the extra-ordinary which very much defines the core plot of this anime, “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” is truly a remarkable project that has been based upon a series of light novels, yet has defined its own purpose and quality. The anime encircles a select “league of the extraordinary”, not out to live and experience a rather monotonous and repetitive style of a high school life, but for a notoriously serious purpose of defending the world actually, through the unorthodox style of offering protection to the world from the essence of a certain hyperactive, multi-talented, and multi-directional person: Haruhi Suzumiya.

Kyon is just another very ordinary high school student when his ordinary ways of life are suddenly thrown into an abrupt turmoil by the “discovery” or “coincidental” meeting of Haruhi who surprises just about everyone including Kyon in the classroom by announcing on the very first day of her high school life, that nothing other than espers, time travellers and all sorts of bizarre objects and occurrences is of any value and interest to her. Not interested in any of the things the school clubs have to offer her, she catches the glint of making one of her own after an uneventful and sentimental conversation with Kyon, in which Haruhi observes a personality that can be admired yet conquered conveniently, and the club? Well that’d be SOS Brigade, otherwise known as "Spreading Excitement All Over the World with the Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade". Kyon’s snide remarks that sparked this revolution ultimately dragged himself into the club, alongwith other welcomed members each of whom although appearing helpless have an unusual purpose there, although Kyon’s membership drags him further into surreal situations with Haruhi and others.

So much for spreading excitement, the SOS Brigade has a more elaborated though secretive purpose of guarding the vanguard of SOS Brigade, Haruhi Suzumiya, without anything to her knowledge whose sinister innocence in not just overloading the world with fun, but also examining and solving mysterious and supernatural cases relating yet again, anything to espers, time travellers, humanoids etcetera. Yet, ironically these are the very people that are members of SOS Brigade: no coincidence! According to them, Haruhi is a “creator” of the world whose conscience manifests in formation or destruction thereof of discrete spaces in the world known as “closed space”, where as “sealed reality”, the Shinjin, accommodates itself and is responsible for “underneath the feet” destruction. This situation usually manifests when Haruhi is bored, making her some sort of a space-time continuum. And the members? Itsuki is responsible for checking upon the closed spaces, Yuki Nagato is a humanoid-interface manufactured by integrated-data entity that keeps a check on “data-flow” through the world, undoing some of the discrepancies caused by Haruhi’s subconscious self and Mikuru is a time-traveller.

And Kyon? Well he’s just there, to entertain Haruhi’s prospects of running SOS Brigade, in the best possible manner. Kyon is basically the focal point of all activities, though very unwillingly and happens to be directly linked to Haruhi’s conscience, such that a mere frank conversation with another girl can spark a turmoil in Haruhi.

While the science-fiction genre is a mere humorous off-shoot, it doesn’t define the core genre of the anime which is very well classified under “eccentricities”. Virtually all aspects are supposed to be eccentric, ranging from characters to animation, the activities, the conversations though nothing more than Haruhi Suzumiya herself. Though there are references to some scientific topics that left alone, would rather not interest any anime fan, the odd ways of carrying it around the characters and using it to spark comedy, yet being unusually noble to a normal high school setting is a definite plus point of the anime, with underlying hints of action, adventure and even romance that is more suggestive of “data-flowing” between Kyon and Haruhi rather than a serious presumption.

The characters carry a very strong tradition of being unusually bold and clearly defined in the anime. Haruhi’s hyperactivity, eccentric personality that sets herself (and the anime) apart from everyone else, a preference for the supernatural and multi-talented mind that fares well in anything academic, sports and administering the club though not usually receiving much appreciation from anyone other than the members, and their neighbours (out of fear of Haruhi). However Haruhi does manage a magnetic aspect to her personality, through acting out as a temporary member of the school band (ENOZ) as the lead singer and guitarist, and sometimes a serious subsidiary through questioning the existence of humans and herself, and inevitably explaining to none other than Kyon who’s quite a character himself. Kyon’s main talents lies in his sarcasm, virtually being targetted almost entirely at Haruhi yet the most glamorous aspect there is to the anime. Kyon isn’t pessimistic and mocking; he’s just sarcastic about himself, and the way his life has been dragged into SOS Brigade narrating every moment of it as though it’s for granted. Whilst Yuki is just a quiet person, always engaged in study of her favourite books yet a genius computer hacker, and analyst inside. Mikuru is forced as a mascot for SOS Brigade by Haruhi, and a shy and timid character by nature though a time traveller. And finally the congenial Itsuki, able to mix in with everyone even managing to deal with Haruhi alongside Kyon.

The animation quality does brilliant to manage the eccentric nature of the anime, and the characters. The visuals are bright, bejeweled by scintillating and detailed background designs that dissolve and accentuate beautifully the characters themselves. The visuals of odd environments such as closed spaces and the Shinjin are ultimately pleasing and very relevant, as is the design of the high school characters and their actions, very suggestive of their respective ages. The model designs of the SOS Brigade members show exactly the right mix for their personality traits, as cute and bold for Haruhi yet sometimes stern, sometimes cynical but definitely attractive looks for Kyon, and a cheerful smile always exhibited by Itsuki.

The narration itself is absolutely perfect, being decorated most of the time by none other than Kyon who spends a fare share of the time into interesting conversations with Itsuki, Mikuru and Yuki and sparkling with full-of-oddities, conversations mixed with inconspicuous sarcasm with Haruhi that is the trademark of the anime. The sound-track although is unusually a quiet attribute of the anime, still does perfect to portray the odd environments and plotline of the anime, picking up pace as it goes with the development of action into the anime, developing a comic attribute usually in relation to Haruhi and Mikuru and maintaining a serene pace with Kyon kicking off the start of the episode, or the start of the event with his delicious narrative talent. The voices of the characters are clearly suggestive of their talents and personality, with Haruhi’s voice stealing the show full of enthusiasm, energy, mockery, attractiveness and a commanding audacious tone whilst Mikuru’s is a complete mirror-reflection, Yuki’s is once again a quiet one, Itsuki’s cheerful and Kyon’s the usual trademark masculine, commanding and sarcastic.

Even though the anime does not provoke the same degree of thought and discussion as does an anime like Death Note through its massive references to ethical values and human life, it nevertheless does exhibit contain talks of philosophical aspects of life, albeit maintained at a very humorous tone, decorated by a multitude of other aspects such as the characters, their lives and their roles. Consequently such philosophical derivatives serve a more discrete purpose of providing entertainment and humour rather than any thought, and this anime defines entertainment in a different way than others, usually not just through telling jokes but through the eccentric behaviours, actions and narrations of each character. This anime is a remarkable achievement by the producers from Kyoto Animation and is highly recommended to every anime fan. A!!!

~Reviewed By Ayaz