Haruhi Suzumiya Ds
Saundra Balock
Haruhi Suzumiya (Japanese: 涼宮ハルヒ, Hepburn: Suzumiya Haruhi) is a Japanese light novel series written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito. It was first published in 2003 by Kadokawa Shoten in Japan with the novel The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and has since been followed by 11 additional novel volumes, an anime television series adaptation produced by Kyoto Animation, four manga series, an animated film, two original net animation series and several video games.
After the anime adaptation airing in 2006, publishing company Kadokawa Shoten received offers for licensing the novels and their adaptations.[3][4] The novels are licensed for English language release in the United States by Little, Brown and Company, for young readers by Yen Press and the anime adaptation was licensed for North American distribution by Kadokawa Pictures USA division which then sub-licensed production and distribution to Bandai Entertainment. The anime is currently licensed by Crunchyroll.
Kyon is a sardonic, witty student at North High School in Nishinomiya who once sought to have an extraordinary life, but after deeming the notion childish, now seeks little more than a normal life. At school, however, he ends up befriending Haruhi Suzumiya, an eccentric schoolgirl that sits behind him in class who is constantly seeking to make life more interesting for herself, ranging from doing her hair a certain way each day of the week to actively searching for supernatural phenomena and figures. One day, Kyon accidentally plants in Haruhi's head the idea for her to start a club to engage in her eccentricities, so she establishes a club called the "SOS Brigade" (SOS団, Esu-Ō-Esu Dan), short for "Spreading excitement all Over the world with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade" (世界を大いに盛り上げるための涼宮ハルヒの団, Sekai o Ōini Moriageru Tame no Suzumiya Haruhi no Dan) (In the school's official paperwork Kyon renamed it "Support the Student Body by Overworking to Make the World a Better Place Student Service Brigade") to investigate mysterious events, while roping Kyon into being a member himself.
Haruhi soon recruits three additional members: the laconic bibliophile Yuki Nagato, the shy and timid Mikuru Asahina, and the unflappable transfer student Itsuki Koizumi. Over time, these members soon reveal themselves to Kyon to be the types of extraordinary characters that Haruhi seeks: Yuki is an alien interface sent by a hive mind; Mikuru is a time traveler sent from the future; and Itsuki is an esper that works for a secret society. Each of them have been sent by their respective organizations to observe Haruhi, who is unaware that she is a god that possesses the ability to create and destroy the fabric of reality on a whim. Haruhi's powers activate without her knowledge whenever she wills really hard for something to happen and when she is in a bad mood, and each of the organizations believes that should Haruhi learn of her powers or be put in a bad enough mood, it could destroy the entire universe. As such, the three club members, together with Kyon, work to keep life happy for Haruhi to prevent such an apocalyptic scenario under the guise of being part of the S.O.S. Brigade, as well as combating external threats that seek to exploit Haruhi, all while forming a bond as a band of misfits.
Written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito, the light novels alternate between full-length novels and collections of short stories and novellas that initially appeared in The Sneaker, a seinen novel magazine published by the Japanese publishing company Kadokawa Shoten. Kadokawa Shoten published 11 volumes from June 6, 2003, to May 25, 2011. In an official guidebook titled The Observation of Haruhi Suzumiya published in June 2011, Tanigawa mentioned in an interview that he had finalized the plot for at least one more volume in the series.[5] A short story was published in a special one-time revival issue of The Sneaker on October 31, 2018.[6] A 12th novel, The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya, was announced in August 2020 for release in Japan on November 25, after a 9-year break from publishing.[7]
The novels are licensed for release in North America by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Yen Press.[8] The novels will be reprinted under Yen Press's Yen On imprint.[9] They are also available in Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China by Kadokawa Media; in South Korea by Daiwon CI; in Spain and Argentina by Editorial Ivrea; in Italy by Edizioni BD; in Thailand by Bongkoch Books; and in Vietnam by IPM.
Kadokawa Shoten published two manga adaptations of the Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series in Shōnen Ace. The first one, by Makoto Mizuno, ran from May to December 2004 issues and was partially compiled in one volume published in August 2004. It was considerably different from the light novels, having little input from the original author. The second series, illustrated by Gaku Tsugano, ran from November 2005 and to November 2013 issues, having been published in 20 volumes,[10] with a younger target audience than the original novels. Though mostly consisting of straight adaptations of the light novels, the manga also included 13 new stories scattered throughout, each one chapter long, and most of them spinning off of one of the light novel stories. On April 17, 2008 Yen Press announced that they had acquired the license for the North American release of the first four volumes of the second manga series, promising the manga would not be censored.[11]
The anime adaptation of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu), produced by the Japanese animation studio Kyoto Animation and directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, contained 14 episodes which aired in Japan between April 2 and July 2, 2006. It was originally aired in a nonlinear order, with the prologue and first seven chapters of the first novel intermixed with chapters from some of the later novels. The "next episode" previews feature two different episode numberings: one number from Haruhi, who numbers the episodes in chronological order, and one number from Kyon, who numbered them in broadcast order. The DVD releases start with "Episode 00" and are then shown in chronological order, with Yuki narrating the "next episode" previews.[19]
The anime was licensed and distributed by Bandai Entertainment over four DVDs released between May and November 2007. A complete box set was released on July 29, 2008. It was broadcast in Italy on Rai 4 between October 24, 2010, and February 6, 2011. Each of the North American releases offered a limited edition collector's set featuring the English dub DVD in chronological order, a subbed-only disc containing the episodes in broadcast order, and an official CD release of the opening, ending, and insert songs appearing in the show.
The second season of the anime series was announced in a full-page advertisement of Asahi Shimbun on July 7, 2007, in Japan.[20] Promotional videos included a live action sequence, inspired by the "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" chapter from the third novel The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya, depicting Haruhi and Kyon breaking into a school shown by footage taken from surveillance cameras. On December 18, 2007, the anime's official website, haruhi.tv, was replaced by a fake 404 error with five form-input fields, a reference to the pivotal date in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, the fourth volume in the light novel series.[21]
A re-broadcast of the first series began in April 2009.[22] Following a comment by Teletama, one of the broadcasting stations, that the 2009 broadcast would be 28 episodes long, there was speculation that the re-broadcast would be followed by the second season, though this was not confirmed by Kadokawa at the time.[23][24] The first new episode, "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" (笹の葉ラプソディ, Sasa no Ha Rapusodi), was aired on May 21, 2009, as the eighth episode of the re-broadcast.[25] Unlike the original run, the re-broadcast was shown in chronological order, with new episodes intermixed with the old ones. Episodes were later shown on Kadokawa's YouTube channel after the broadcast and started showing English-subtitled episodes. The second season features the controversial "Endless Eight" story arc, in which the members of the SOS Brigade are stuck in a time loop which lasts for eight episodes, each of which is practically identical.[26][27] Bandai Entertainment licensed the re-broadcast in 2010[28] and released a complete collection in North America on September 14, 2010.[29] Manga Entertainment released the season in a 4-disc DVD box set, including the Haruhi-chan mini-episodes, in the UK on July 4, 2011.[30] Following the 2012 closure of Bandai Entertainment, Funimation announced at Otakon 2014 that they had licensed the anime television series.[31] Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll.[32]
An animated film by Kyoto Animation titled The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの消失, Suzumiya Haruhi no Shōshitsu) was adapted from the Haruhi Suzumiya light novel of the same name and released in Japanese theaters on February 6, 2010. It was announced via a teaser shown at the end of the 2009 re-airing of the anime.[38] This film has also been licensed by Bandai Entertainment, who released it for the North American market on September 20, 2011.[39][40][41]
Six video games have been produced based on the series. Namco Bandai Games released an adventure game, The Promise of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの約束, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku),[42] for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) on December 20, 2007. Banpresto released another adventure game available for the PlayStation 2 on January 31, 2008, called The Perplexity of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの戸惑, Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi).[43][44] It was the 95th best-selling game in Japan in 2008, selling 139,425 copies.[45]
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