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Haruhi Suzumiya
Japanese version of the first light novel, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
涼宮ハルヒ (Suzumiya Haruhi)
Genre	Comedy, Science fiction
Light novel
Author	Nagaru Tanigawa
Illustrator	Noizi Ito
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
English publisher	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers & Yen Press
Other publishers: Daiwon C.I. Kadokawa Media Bongkoch Publishing
Demographic	Male
Magazine	The Sneaker (short stories only)
Published	June 6, 2003 – ongoing
Volumes	9
Manga
Illustrator	Mizuno Makoto
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Shōnen Ace
Original run	May 2004 – December 2004
Volumes	1
Manga: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Illustrator	Gaku Tsugano
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
English publisher	Yen Press
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Shōnen Ace
Original run	November 2005 – ongoing
Volumes	6
TV anime: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Director	Tatsuya Ishihara
Studio	Kyoto Animation
Licensor	Madman Entertainment Bandai Entertainment
Network	Chiba TV, SUN-TV, Tokyo MX, TV Aichi, TV Hokkaido,TV Kanagawa, Teletama
Other networks: ntv7
Original run	April 2, 2006 – July 2, 2006
Episodes	14
Manga: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya-chan
Illustrator	Puyo
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Shōnen Ace, The Sneaker
Original run	July 26, 2007 – ongoing
Volumes	1
ONA: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya-chan
Studio	Kyoto Animation
Episodes	18
Released	February 13, 2009
Runtime	5 minutes
ONA: Nyorōn Churuya-san
Studio	Kyoto Animation
Episodes	8
Released	February 13, 2009
Runtime	2 minutes
Other
Haruhi Suzumiya video games
Anime and Manga Portal

Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒ ,Suzumiya Haruhi^?), is the general name for a series of light novels written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito. The first novel was published in Japan on June 6, 2003 by Kadokawa Shoten. As of April 1, 2007, there are nine individual novels published in Japan. The story follows titular character Haruhi Suzumiya, a young high school girl who can change reality without knowing, and her strange antics with her friends in a school club she formed called the SOS Brigade.

The light novels have been adapted into three separate manga series, three video games, and a television anime adaptation. After the anime adaption aired in 2006, publishing company Kadokawa Shoten received various offers licensing both the novels and its various adaptations.^[1][2] The novels are licensed for English language release in the United States by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Yen Press. The anime adaption was licensed for North American distribution by Kadokawa Pictures USA division, which then sublicensed production and distribution to Bandai Entertainment.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Media formats 3.1 Light novels 3.2 Manga 3.3 Anime 3.4 Audio dramas 3.5 Video games 3.6 Albums 4 Reception 4.1 Cultural impact 4.1.1 ASOS Brigade 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Plot

A high school girl named Haruhi Suzumiya is obsessed with the supernatural and forms the SOS Brigade to investigate mysterious happenings. Narrated by her classmate Kyon, who had given up his belief in the supernature before meeting her, the story follows as Haruhi and those around her are drawn into surreal situations and a world full of fantasies. After Haruhi forms her club, she forcefully drafts Kyon, who decides to stay in the club to protect other helpless victims of Haruhi's "voluntary arrests". As the series progress, Haruhi recruits three additional members into her club, without realizing they are the very things she is seeking. Among them are Yuki Nagato, a silent bibliophile who is actually an artificial human created by the extraterrestrial Integrated Data Entity; shy and timid Mikuru Asahina who is also a time traveler; and the always smiling Itsuki Koizumi who is always willing give in to Haruhi's strange demands and is actually one of many espers in an organization known as The Agency.

Each of the members, except Kyon, are secret agents who were sent to observe Haruhi because she herself has unique powers she is unaware of. Haruhi possesses a superhuman control over the universe, so when she becomes dissatisfied with reality, she subconsciously creates a new universe—one more to her liking—and attempts to switch over, thus leading to the destruction of the current universe. In order to prevent this, the members of Haruhi's club spend their time attempting to keep their god-like leader entertained, hold her powers in check, and maintain the illusion of a normal life.

[edit] Characters

Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮 ハルヒ ,Suzumiya Haruhi^?)

The title character and leader of the SOS Brigade. Her energetic and eccentric character proves to be a driving force for the series.

Kyon (キョン ^?)

A student with whom Haruhi willingly interacted, and is the only normal human in the group. Even though Haruhi is the title character, the story is told through his viewpoint. Through narration and dialogue, he provides his insight, perspective, and opinions on the series' events.

Yuki Nagato (長門 有希 ,Nagato Yuki^?)

A humanoid interface created by the Data Integration Thought Entity whose responsibility involves the monitoring of Haruhi and the investigation of the events three years prior to the present story. She possesses the ability to manipulate the surrounding environment as she sees fit. Also, she has the capability to access Closed Space.

Mikuru Asahina (朝比奈 みくる ,Asahina Mikuru^?)

A time traveler from the future who is assigned to investigate the reason for the inability to travel to any point in time before three years prior to the present story.

Itsuki Koizumi (古泉 一樹 ,Koizumi Itsuki^?)

An esper who suddenly acquired his powers three years prior to the present story. Along with other espers, he uses his power to combat beings of energy within Closed Space.

[edit] Media formats

[edit] Light novels

The Haruhi Suzumiya series began as a collection of Japanese light novels written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito. The light novels alternate between full length novels and collections of short stories; the short stories initially appeared in The Sneaker, a seinen novel magazine published by the Japanese publishing company Kadokawa Shoten. The first volume was released on June 6, 2003 by Kadokawa Shoten.

The novels are licensed for release in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China by Kadokawa Media, in South Korea by Daiwon CI, and in English in the United States by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Yen Press.^[3] The first novel's English adaptation is due to be published in April 2009.^[3][4]

[edit] Manga

Kadokawa Shoten published two manga adaptations of the Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series. The first one, illustrated by Mizuno Makoto, ran from May 2004 to December 2004 and the second, illustrated by Gaku Tsugano, started in November 2005 and is still in production. The first seven volumes have been released till December 2008. Their target age group is younger than the original novels in order to expand the series' fan base. Both manga adaptations were published in Shōnen Ace, but the earlier one was canceled after the first volume. The reasons for this stem from the fact that the manga was considerably different from the novel and had little input from the original author.

An official parody four-panel comic strip titled The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya-chan by Puyo started serialization in Shōnen Ace on July 26, 2007, and also started serialization in The Sneaker on August 30, 2007. The first bound volume was released on May 26, 2008, the second on December 26, 2008.

Another four-panel parody manga, Nyoro~n Churuya-san by Eretto (Utsura Uraraka), was originally a dōjinshi published in three volumes (released August 2006, February 2007, and October 2007).^[5] The manga is about a smoked cheese-loving super deformed version of Tsuruya that started serialization in the magazine Comp Ace in November 2008.^[6]

On April 17, 2008, Yen Press announced that they acquired the license for the first four volumes of the second manga series and will release them in English in North America. It was also stated that the manga volumes will not be censored.^[7]

[edit] Anime

Produced by the Japanese animation studio Kyoto Animation and directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, the anime adaption of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya premiered in Japan April 2, 2006 and ran for fourteen episodes until its conclusion on July 2, 2006. The anime primarily adapts material from the first novel, from which the series takes its name. They were 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. During the previews for the next episode, two different numbers for the following episode are given: one number from Haruhi, who numbers the episodes according to where they actually fit chronologically in the plot, and one number from Kyon, who numbers the episodes in the order in which they aired. The sole exception is episode twelve, which is both the twelfth episode aired and the twelfth episode chronologically, a fact Kyon mentions in the preview.^[8] Both the Japanese and English standard edition DVD releases use "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00" as the first episode, but otherwise follow the chronological order.^[9] The episodes are distributed throughout the volumes as follows: episodes one through four in volume one, episodes five through eight in volume two, episodes nine through eleven in volume three, and episodes twelve through fourteen in volume four.

The anime had two opening themes; the first was "The Mikuru Legend of Love" (恋のミクル伝説 ,Koi no Mikuru Densetsu^?) in episode one^[10] performed by Yuko Goto, and the second, spanning episode two through thirteen, was "It's an Adventure, Right? Right?" (冒険でしょでしょ? ,Bōken Desho Desho?^?) performed by Aya Hirano. The main ending theme of the series was "Sunny Sunny Happiness" (ハレ晴レユカイ ,Hare Hare Yukai^?), performed by Aya Hirano, Minori Chihara, and Yuko Goto, which spanned the first thirteen episodes. In the fourteenth episode, the extended version of "It's an Adventure, Right? Right?" was used as the ending theme.^[11]

The second season of the anime series was announced in a full-page advertisement of Asahi Shimbun on July 7, 2007 in Japan.^[12] Promotional videos included a live action sequence, inspired by the "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" chapter from the third novel, depicting Haruhi and Kyon breaking into school grounds with the 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 Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya, the fourth volume in the light novel series, seeming to indicate which novel the second series would be taken from.^[13] As of March 2009, however, the reported second season has not aired.

A spin-off series based on the parody manga The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya-chan by Puyo and Nyoro~n Churuya-san by Eretto was announced in the October 2008 issue of the Shōnen Ace magazine. It was scheduled to begin streaming on YouTube's Kadokawa Channel starting February 13, 2009,^[6] but was not finished by that date, and a placeholder video was posted instead.^[14] Both series began streaming the next day, in Japanese and English-subtitled.^[15] All the regular voice actors reprised their roles in both series.

[edit] Audio dramas

A series of radio dramas have also been released. The first volume entitled SOS Dan Radio Shibu Bangai Hen CD Vol.1 is based on the anime version of the series and was released on July 5, 2006 by Lantis. The second volume was released on September 21, 2006 while a third was released on December 21, 2006. A drama CD entitled Sound Around, based on the anime adaptation was released on January 24, 2007 by Lantis.

[edit] Video games

Five separate video games have been produced based on the series. Banpresto released an 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^?).^[16][17] It was the 95th best-selling game in Japan in 2008, selling 139,425 copies.^[18] Namco Bandai Games released another adventure game, The Promise of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの約束 ,Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku^?),^[19] for the PlayStation Portable on December 20, 2007. The third game developed by Kadokawa Shoten for the Wii, The Excitement of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの激動 ,Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekidō^?), was released on January 22, 2009.^[20][21] The fourth and fifth games by Sega for the Nintendo DS (The Series of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの直列 ,Suzumiya Haruhi no Chokuretsu^?)) and the Wii (The Parallel of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの並列 ,Suzumiya Haruhi no Heiretsu^?)) are still in development and slated for release on March 26, 2009.^[22]

[edit] Albums

The anime had two opening themes; the first was "The Mikuru Legend of Love" (恋のミクル伝説 ,Koi no Mikuru Densetsu^?) in episode one^[23] performed by Yuko Goto, and the second, spanning episode two through thirteen, was "It's an Adventure, Right? Right?" (冒険でしょでしょ? ,Bōken Desho Desho?^?) performed by Aya Hirano. The main ending theme of the series was "Sunny Sunny Happiness" (ハレ晴レユカイ ,Hare Hare Yukai^?), performed by Aya Hirano, Minori Chihara, and Yuko Goto, which spanned the first thirteen episodes. In the fourteenth episode, the extended version of "It's an Adventure, Right? Right?" was used as the ending theme.^[24]

Several songs and musical pieces were included in the anime. Among the insert songs used were "God knows..." and "Lost my music" performed by Aya Hirano in episode twelve.^[25] Segments of Symphony No. 4 in F Minor^[26] originally composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 7 in C Major, "Leningrad"^[27] originally composed by Dmitri Shostakovich, and Daphnis et Chloé^[28] originally composed by Maurice Ravel, were used in episode eleven, while Symphony No. 8 in Eb Major, "Symphony of a thousand",^[29] originally composed by Gustav Mahler, was used in episode fourteen.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisō (涼宮ハルヒの激奏 ,The Extravaganza of Haruhi Suzumiya^?) was a live concert event held at Omiya Sonic City on March 18, 2007 that featured songs from the anime sung by the voice actors. The DVD of the concert was released on July 27, 2007.

[edit] Reception

The first novel of the series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was awarded the Grand Prize in the eighth annual Sneaker Awards—only the third Grand Prize given out in the Award's history. The series went on to be a huge success in Japan, selling over 4,300,000 copies collectively.^{[30][dead link]}

In December 2006, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya anime adaptation was the most popular anime series in Japan according to Newtype magazine.^[31] The first two volumes had sold 70,000 and 90,000 units respectively as of August 2006.^[32] A 2006 online poll of Japan's top 100 favorite animated television series of all time, conducted by TV Asahi, placed the series in fourth place.^[33] By the end of 2007, the seventh installment of the series sold 45,000 units.^[34] The anime adaption won the Animation Kobe Award for TV Feature in 2006.^[35] At the Sixth Annual Tokyo Anime Awards, the series won the category "Best TV Anime Series" and Aya Hirano won the "Voice Acting Award."^[36][37]

[edit] Cultural impact

The anime series has become somewhat of an internet phenomenon in both Japan, Asia and English-speaking countries. Over 2000 clips of the series and user-created parodies and homages were posted to video sharing websites such as YouTube.^[38] The popularity of these clips (and those of other popular Japanese series) led the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) to request that YouTube remove clips claimed to be under the copyright of their members.^[39]

[edit] ASOS Brigade

In December 2006, Bandai Entertainment registered the website asosbrigade.com.^[40] On December 22, 2006, the website opened with a live action presentation video resembling a fan-made production featuring Haruka Inoue and Akiyo Yamamoto in the roles of Mikuru Asahina and Yuki Nagato, with Haruhi Suzumiya being played by Patricia Ja Lee.^[1] The video confirmed (in Japanese) the specifics of the licensing arrangement. After a few days, a subtitled version of the video replaced the original on the site, translating the Japanese licensing announcement into English.^[41][42] The website also linked to a blog on the popular social networking website MySpace, which entered the list of the top 50 most viewed MySpace pages within 24 hours.^[43]

On May 30, 2007 the SOS Brigade Invasion Tour was announced for Anime Expo 2007 on June 30. Aya Hirano, Yuko Goto, and Minori Chihara were part of this event, "being flown in directly from Japan." Anime Expo attendees were able to participate in the ASOS Dance Contest held on Friday and the winner would have the chance to dance on stage with the guests of honor.^[44] Ever since the event was announced, advance ticket sales for pre-registered attendees have caused AX officials to cut down on the amount of tickets sold due to the overwhelming amount of advanced tickets sold (despite the event being free of charge to attend).^[45][46]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Kadokawa Shoten 'Haruhi Suzumiya website (Japanese)
• Sosbrigade.com (Japanese)
• Official The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya anime website (Japanese)
• Official Kyoto Animation The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya anime website (Japanese)
• Asosbrigade.com Official North American The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya anime website
• Official SOS Brigade Australian Division website
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia

v • d • e Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa Franchise Light novels · Episodes · Video games · Albums · Character song singles Characters Haruhi Suzumiya · Kyon · Yuki Nagato · Mikuru Asahina · Itsuki Koizumi