

A strong-willed girl wants to meet aliens, time-travelers or espers…but she never does…or does she?
Of the hundred or so anime series broadcast in 2006, this was by far the biggest hit. The quirky story, clever writing, hilarious characters and first-rate animation caught the attention of millions of viewers. It catapulted the small animation studio to the front ranks, and made a cult idol out of Aya Hirano.
Now it is available on DVD, but unfortunately in a degraded form.
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Original TitleSuzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
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GenresScience Fiction, Comedy, Metaphysics
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DemographicSeinen
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Contents14 Episodes on 4 (or 3) DVDs
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LanguagesEnglish, Japanese with subtitles
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Based onA series of light novels by Nagaru Tanigawa
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DirectorTatsuya Ishihara
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Original Character DesignNoizi Ito (novels)
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Character DesignShoko Ikeda
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Art DirectorSeiki Tamura
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Chief Animation DirectorShoko Ikeda
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MusicSatoru Kousaki
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Animation StudioKyoto Animation
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Broadcast2006
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Region 1 DistributorBandai Entertainment
This series, at least as originally broadcast, is not afraid to challenge its audience. The first episode starts out, without any explanation, with an extremely bad student film. One can only imagine the reactions of the first viewers. Some of them probably thought they had stumbled on the worst anime ever. (Those who stayed to watch were soon rolling on the floor.)
The series continued with the episodes out of chronological order. Some viewers clearly found this frustrating. Hoping to see what happened next in the story, they would instead get something entirely different. However by the final episode it all became clear.
The publishers of the Japanese DVDs, in one of the most bone-headed decisions in the history of anime, decided to rearrange the episodes into chronological order. The effect was to ruin the dramatic structure of the series. The rearranged series builds up to a premature climax half-way through the story. This is followed by some seemingly random episodes, with a final episode in which nothing at all seems to happen.
The U.S. distributors were required by contract to release the Region 1 DVDs in the same order as the Japanese DVDs. Knowing that this would annoy the fans, they came up with an expensive workaround (explanined here.) If you buy the more expensive “Special Limited Editions” of the DVDs they will throw in 3 “Bonus DVDs” containing the episodes in the original broadcast order. (You must buy Special Limited Edition DVDs 2, 3 and 4 to get all three Bonus DVDs.)
If at all possible, I recommend watching the series for the first time in broadcast order on the Bonus DVDs. Then, if possible, watch it a second time in the same order. (There are certain jokes that are much funnier when seen that way.)
It is also very desirable to watch this in Japanese with English subtitles. Japanese voice actors usually do a better job then their American counterparts, but in this case the Japanese cast is so outstanding that they bear a great deal of the responsibility for the success of the series. Aya Hirano is the only real Haruhi. Accept no substitutes!
Parental Advisory
This story is not intended for young children and I don’t recommend it for them. They won’t really understand it and they might pick up bad behavior.
The primary problem from a parent’s standpoint is that the main character does some fairly reprehensible things with no real consequences. This fits into a long comic tradition, but the school setting makes this show more problematic than a typical Bugs Bunny cartoon.
This show should only be watched by people who are mature enough that they can see characters behaving badly in school without feeling the need to go to school and imitate that behavior. American school administrators are notoriously humorless and would probably react to some of the hijinks depicted here by calling the police.
Premise and Characters
















Translation Notes
Some fans have harshly criticized the translation on the DVDs, comparing it unfavorably to the translation on a popular fansub. The fansub translation was witty and idiomatic, occasionally even inserting jokes that were not in the original text. The DVD translation is much more literal and often has a strange sound. For example in the fansub translation Haruhi says that she wants to meet “aliens, time travelers, sliders or espers.” On the DVD she says “aliens, future men, otherworlders or espers,” which sounds very odd.
The question of “literal vs. idiomatic” is a constant problem for any translator. If you translate Japanese literally it will sound strange and stilted to an English ear. If you try to convert it to idiomatic American English you risk distorting the meaning or losing the cultural context (they really don’t talk like us.) So a translator must try to strike a balance, and there is always room for disagreement about where the balance is.
Rika Takahashi, the translator for the DVDs, is one of the most experienced anime translators around, so when she makes a choice there may be a good reason for it. In this case it is worth noting that for various reasons the main characters tend to speak in ways that are not normal idiomatic Japanese. In other words, they are supposed to sound strange.
However in at least one case I am pretty sure that she has made a mistake. The phrase “anthropic principle” is an accepted term in cosmology. When she translates the Japanese phrase literally as “human principle” the point is lost. Either she wasn’t aware of the correct English term or she didn’t recognize that that was what Itsuki meant.
Other DVD Notes
The Bonus DVDs contain the original 14 episodes in broadcast order, with no extras and no English dub–just Japanese with English subtitles. They also include reconstructions of the original broadcast episode previews.
In addition to the English dub, the “non-bonus” DVDs contain some interesting extras including Japanese promotional spots and some crude but charming “home movies” of the making of the series. One thing that comes through on these is that in real life Aya Hirano is shy and soft-spoken and spends a lot of time drawing “Nekoman” cartoons. In other words she is nothing at all like the character she plays!
Links
Wikipedia entry. (Spoilers as always.)
Anime News Network listing.
Bandai explains the episode ordering issue on their official English web site.
My own notes on the series. (Major spoilers.)
Notes
[1] “Kyon” is not his real name; it is a nickname that he rather dislikes. However everyone calls him “Kyon” and he probably has only himself to blame since we never hear him tell anyone his real name.
[2] The word “asobu” means “play,” but it doesn’t have the childish connotations of the English word. It would be quite natural for one adult to invite another to “come to my house to play.” That would just imply a social visit with no business purpose. Nevertheless it seems a strange choice of words when discussing contact with aliens.
[3] An acronym for a Japanese phrase that could be loosely translated as “Suzumia Haruhi’s brigade to spread excitement over the world.”
[4] Which is more or less what Haruhi means when she says that Mikuru is “moe.”