Now I have seen all 14 episodes of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It was crazy.
The last episode I saw was the movie Haruhi made. That thing looked like it was shot on a cell phone camera. And Kyon's "narration" was hilarious. "And now . . . the camera is panning up again." Itsuki sounded much more flat than he normally does, and it was just silly. And of course, shots of Mikuru running and camera positioned to see her breasts jiggle! Not that I enjoy that sort of thing, but I've never seen a show make fun of sexual fanservice like this.
But, for all of its silliness, there were some episodes that were, sweet. You know how people often forget that the older episodes of the Simpsons often had genuine moments of warmth to them? Haruhi kinda does, too. Episode 6 (which I'm told was the actual season finale in the Japanese broadcast.) ends on an almost heartfelt note. And "the one where Haruhi sings two rock songs" was awesome, and made me smile more often than laugh. You see, despite all of the weirdness, this show has real emotional development, too, and that allows for the viewers to get more attached to the characters. I like that.
Then again, not every episode was great. The two-parter on the remote island was a bore, save for a few one-liners from Haruhi, ("I stole every pillow from every room, so I'd be ready for a pillow fight!" or some such.) and the last episode, if you go by the DVD version episode order, was quite literally about nothing. And lastly, if you aren't intimately familiar with anime cliches, you may not get a big kick out of many of the gags.
But, despite such faults, I had a blast watching Haruhi Suzumiya. I now look forward to the next season. Although I'll probably wait for an (inevitable) English dub again. By the way, if a program has about the same acting quality in both Japanese and English, I will prefer to watch it in English. The reason being, I understand English a little better than Japanese.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Final Score: 9 out of 10. I won't compare this to Futurama, or the older Simpsons, or my favorite episodes of South Park, but it's definitely the funniest anime series I've seen.
