Haruhi Suzumiya (franchise)

The Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒ, Suzumiya Haruhi^?) franchise, originally created by Nagaru Tanigawa in 2003, is an internationally popular teen and young adult series. It consists primarily of a light novel series, two separate manga series, three video games, and two television anime adaptations. Of the works, the light novels, second manga series, and first anime season have been licensed by companies for release in English in North America. The story of Haruhi Suzumiya follows the title character Haruhi Suzumiya, a young high school girl, and her strange antics with her friends in a school club she formed called the SOS Brigade.

1 Plot
2 Characters
3 Media formats
4 Series concepts
- 4.1 SOS Brigade
- 4.2 Affiliations
5 Notes and references

[edit] Plot

The Haruhi Suzumiya story focuses on a girl named Haruhi Suzumiya who is obsessed with the supernatural. To find the supernatural, she forms The SOS Brigade to investigate mysterious happenings. Without realizing it, she recruited an alien, time traveler, and esper into her ranks. It is later found out that Haruhi herself is not a normal human, as she has the ability to alter, destroy, or create the world as she wishes. The story is narrated by her classmate, Kyon, who had given up his beliefs of the supernatural just prior to meeting Haruhi.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Haruhi Suzumiya 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, Kyon^?): A student with whom Haruhi willingly interacted. 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

Main article: Haruhi Suzumiya (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 entitled The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It was originally published by the Japanese company Kadokawa Shoten, but has since been licensed for release in Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China by Kadokawa Media, in South Korea by Daiwon CI, and in the United States by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Yen Press.^[2]^[3] The first novel of this series was awarded the Grand Prize in the Eighth Annual Sneaker Awards — only the third Grand Prize given out in the Award's history. As of April 1, 2007 there are nine individual novels.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya second manga adaptation volume 1 cover.

[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 six volumes have been released. 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 Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yūutsu 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.

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.^[4]

[edit] Anime

Main article: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (anime)

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is the name of the 2006 television anime based on the series of novels, the first of which bears the same name. The anime adaptation, produced by Kyoto Animation, shares the first novel's plotline, interspersed in six self-contained episodes. Intermixed between them were seven episodes based on chapters from the third, fifth and sixth novels. The ninth episode (in broadcast order), "Someday in the Rain", was a new story written specifically for the anime by Nagaru Tanigawa. The first of the fourteen episode series premiered in Japan on April 2, 2006 and aired until July 2, 2006. Notably, these episodes were not originally broadcast in chronological order.^[5] There has been news confirming a second season.^[6]

Soon after the show aired, Kadokawa Shoten received various offers from companies in regards to licensing the anime, manga, and novels.^[7] On December 22, 2006, the website asosbrigade.com revealed that the anime version of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was licensed for North American distribution by Kadokawa Pictures USA, who sublicensed production and distribution to Bandai Entertainment.^[8]^[9] The first DVD was released on May 29, 2007.

[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

Three 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^?).^[10]^[11] Namco Bandai Games released another adventure game, The Promise of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの約束, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku^?),^[12] for the PlayStation Portable on December 20, 2007. The third game developed by Kadokawa Shoten for the Wii, The Agitation of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの激動, Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekidō^?), is slated for release in the latter half of 2008.^[13]

[edit] Series concepts

[edit] SOS Brigade

The final version of the SOS Brigade logo.

The SOS Brigade (SOS団 (エス・オー・エスだん), Esuōesu dan^?) is a club that Haruhi started shortly after entering high school. The club name is an acronym of "Sekai o Ōini Moriageru Tame no Suzumiya Haruhi no Dan" (世界を大いに盛り上げるための涼宮ハルヒの団^?), which roughly translates into "Haruhi Suzumiya's Brigade to Greatly Enliven the World". To retain the acronym, the official North American adaptation refers to the group as the "Spreading Excitement All Over the World with the Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade",^[8] whilst unofficial fan translations generally adopted the title "Save the World by Overloading it with Fun, Haruhi Suzumiya's Brigade".

Haruhi initially conceived the club idea when Kyon lectured her about how meaningful inventions throughout history were created by geniuses: that technological advancements in the world were wrought by a limited number of lucky individuals. Inspired by this speech, Haruhi decides to create a club to address the woeful lack of aliens, time travelers and espers in her life.

The goal of the SOS Brigade is to "Bring More Excitement to the World" through finding aliens, time-travelers and espers and hanging out with them, according to Haruhi. The club's main contribution is a film intended for the High School cultural festival entitled The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina: Episode 00 starring Mikuru, Yuki, and Itsuki as the main characters. It was filmed and narrated by Kyon and directed by Haruhi. Kyon stayed up all night attempting to edit the footage into something coherent, but was only partially successful. The film's plot consists of a number of meta-fictional parodies of anime clichés.

In addition to the movie project, Haruhi involves the club in various activities such as participation in a baseball tournament and a summer trip to a tropical island owned by one of Itsuki's acquaintances.

[edit] Affiliations

There are multiple organizations who have taken an interest in Haruhi and the SOS Brigade, which ties all of them together. Only three of them appear in the anime and the novels corresponding to the anime. Each has their own reasons, which stems from one single incident three years prior to the storyline. Each has managed, half through coincidence and half through design, to have a representative within the SOS Brigade.

[edit] Organization

Three years prior to the storyline, a seemingly random selection of people in the world were given abilities that could only be described as those of 'Espers'; they were able to enter new closed spaces, which they could instinctively feel and of which they were given innate knowledge. These select few banded together, and have found the epicenter, the source of their powers, Haruhi, and now seek to protect and appease Haruhi without letting her know of their existence, while simultaneously containing closed spaces as they appear. They fear that if anything were to happen to her, or if she were to become displeased with the world, that she could simply wipe it clean and start it over. Itsuki Koizumi is their member in the SOS Brigade, for the purpose of preventing this from happening. This trend of thought often leads to seemingly harmless situations becoming something on which the fate of the world hinges, such as a simple game of baseball.

A Shinjin in a Closed Space

"Sealed Realities" or "Closed Spaces" are odd occurrences in the cross-dimensional faultlines catalyzed by Haruhi Suzumiya when she is antagonized as a sort of practice round for her godly powers. The world within the Sealed Reality is almost identical to a corresponding area of the world, but is colored in grey tones completely and devoid of people. If her frustration grows yet further, it manifests itself in as giant blue monster called a Shinjin (sometimes referred to as "Celestials") contained within the Sealed Reality, where it wreaks havoc harmlessly, unbound by the laws of physics. The more a Shinjin destroys in the Sealed Reality, the more the Sealed Reality grows, enveloping and eventually replacing the world if left unchecked. When the Shinjin is destroyed, so is the Sealed Reality. At one point during the anime series, a closed space is populated by multiple Shinjin.

Though they are normally impossible to enter, Itsuki and others in "The Organization" have the ability to sense and enter a closed space. There, the powers of the members of "The Organization" are realized; they may create a large red ball of energy around themselves which makes them capable of flight. "The Organization" uses these abilities to hunt the Shinjin in order to keep the closed space from consuming the world.

From the inside, if one were to try to leave the confines of a closed space, they would find a forcefield—impenetrable except by espers (aside from aliens such as Yuki Nagato); that resistance marks the boundaries of that dimension.

[edit] Integrated Data Entity

The Integrated Data Entity, also known as the Data Integration Thought Entity (情報統合思念体, Jōhō Tōgō Shinentai^?) is a being of the Haruhi universe born from a "sea of data" which covers and parallels the universe. This data accumulated until it gained consciousness and sentience which became the Integrated Data Entity. It continued to evolve in this fashion, obtaining more data until there was no more to gather, effectively meeting its own evolutionary dead-end. Data lifeforms themselves possess no physical body but are highly intelligent. This entity grows with the expansion of the universe and the addition of more data.

Much of the data manipulated or utilized by the data lifeforms cannot be observed by humans by ordinary means. The exact nature of this data usage remain too nebulous and abstract a concept for most humans to grasp. In spite of this, The Integrated Data Entity took a particular interest in humans over any of the other sentient creatures in the universe because of their unprecedented ability to seek and obtain data, or knowledge.

Three years prior to the storyline, an extraordinary explosion of data came from one of the islands of Japan. At the source of this odd, spontaneous generation of data, they found Haruhi Suzumiya. In order to observe this phenomenon firsthand they created a number of "humanoid interfaces," in the hope that they could find a way to break through their own evolutionary dead end. Humanoid interfaces are able to reprogram or react with their environment in ways that would seem spectacular or magical to most humans. Humanoid interfaces are capable of superhuman feats of logic, hand-eye coordination, endurance, agility, memory and perception. Two of these humanoid interfaces, Yuki Nagato and Ryōko Asakura, were introduced to Kyon. Yuki became a member of the SOS Brigade, effectively being pulled in by Haruhi's strong wish for aliens to exist.

There are conflicting voices within the Data Entity. The dominant mindset wishes to simply leave Haruhi undisturbed and provide minimal interference so as to observe her under controlled conditions. The dissenting voices within the Entity wish to provoke a reaction from Haruhi; with the goal being to motivate Haruhi to gather information and generate data faster, regardless of the possible negative consequences. The latter course of action was attempted when a rogue agent, Ryōko Asakura, assaulted Kyon in the hopes of killing him to cause the reaction the dissenting voices have been looking for.

At the end of The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyon has Yuki remind the Entity that should anything happen to her, he could easily influence Haruhi to unwittingly warp reality to bring Yuki back and make the Entity non-existent. This marks that Yuki could easily be the most important humanoid interface of the Entity, to the point that she is more important than even the Entity itself for merely being a member of the SOS Brigade.

[edit] Future humans

Time travelers from an unspecified time in the future were surprised to find, like the other two groups, that a ground-shaking incident had occurred three years before the storyline began centering around Haruhi Suzumiya. From their perspective, a timequake had occurred, fissuring the time-space continuum in such a manner that time travelers were rendered incapable of traveling further back in time than that event. In the novels, Koizumi suggests that three years before the storyline begins Haruhi created the current version of the world - which included espers, aliens and time travelers - therefore there is no time existing before the event to travel back to.

In order to investigate how and why this event occurred, they sent their very own time agent - Mikuru Asahina - to observe Haruhi. When asked of nearly anything that pertains to the future, Asahina replies "classified information." It is unknown whether she does this to avoid temporal contamination and changes in history or simply to confound whoever is asking, especially when it comes to her true age. More has been revealed about the future humans in the novels. Asahina occasionally receives orders from the future (some of which seem to be coming from a future version of herself) and often enlists Kyon's help. In one such incident, she is told to be with Kyon on certain intersection at a certain time. There Kyon saves a boy's life when he is almost run over by a truck. Later he finds that the boy he saved eventually goes on to invent the device Asahina uses to travel through time (which Kyon is told is called the "Time Plane Destruction Device").

[edit] Other groups

As of the ninth book, an opposing group has been introduced for each major force following Haruhi. These opposing groups believe that Sasaki, an old friend of Kyon's, should be the one to wield the power that Haruhi currently holds. Sasaki's followers are Kyōko Tachibana, a member of an organization who consider themselves the rightful bearers of the Organization member's powers; Kuyō Suō, an alien and data entity from the Sky Canopy Domain; and Fujiwara, a time traveler (referred to by Kyon as "sneering bastard" in previous books). For yet unknown reasons, Kyōko and Fujiwara attempt to kidnap Mikuru, but are foiled by Kyon who is aided by future Mikuru. Kyōko is the firmest believer that Sasaki should have Haruhi's power, and tries to prove it to Kyon by showing him Sasaki's version of "Closed Space," which is less dreary and lacks the Shinjin. Sasaki seems to be mostly uninterested in the powers stating, "I am not too interested in myself and have no strong desires [to become God-like]."

[edit] Notes and references

^ Animax Korea Program Page for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Korean). Retrieved on 2008-01-03.
^ Rights Report. PW Children's Bookshelf. Publishers Weekly. Retrieved on 2008-04-17.
^ Little, Brown Gets Haruhi Light Novels in English. Anime News Network (April 17, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-04-17.
^ Yen Press Acquires Haruhi Suzumiya Manga in N. America. Anime News Network (April 17, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-04-17.
^ The original "next episode" previews broadcast after the closing credits featured Haruhi announcing the episode number according to its chronological place in the storyline. Kyon then interjects, 'correcting' her by announcing the episode number in order of broadcast. These have become known as the "Haruhi order" and "Kyon order" respectively. This was done because the climax of the story, in chronological order, occurs barely halfway into the series, and thus causes the story to lose some dramatic effect.
^ Haruhi 2nd Season News. Kurogane's Anime Blog (2006-11-10). Retrieved on 2006-12-23.
^ "Otakon 2006 - Kadokawa Shoten", Anime News Network, 2006-08-05. Retrieved on 2006-12-23.
^ ^a ^b ASOS Brigade - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - North America. Retrieved on 2006-12-23.
^ "More Haruhi Suzumiya News", Anime News Network, 2006-12-24. Retrieved on 2007-01-02.
^ Image depicting an advertisement for the PS2 video game (Japanese). Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
^ Haruhi Suzumiya PS2 video game official website (Japanese). Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
^ Haruhi Suzumiya PSP video game official website (Japanese). Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
^ Haruhi Suzumiya video game announced for the Wii (Japanese). Retrieved on 2007-07-22.

v • d • e Haruhi Suzumiya

Series	Anime (Episodes) · Light novels (Novel list)

Characters	Haruhi Suzumiya · Kyon · Yuki Nagato · Mikuru Asahina · Itsuki Koizumi

Albums	List of Haruhi Suzumiya albums · List of character song albums