The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is one of my biggest obsessions in the world of anime. There are many reasons for it. Part of it is because I love the atmosphere, part of it is because I like the detail put into the anime, but one of the biggest reasons is Haruhi herself. There are few characters in animation that I love more than Haruhi Suzumiya. This post is going to analyze that, using a concept that few animated creations can really tap into. It’s not over the top, but it’s not subtle.

It’s both

She is a very eccentric and excitable character, but her drive is unquestionably human. This kind of characteristic fuels everything she does. From the creation of her club, to her relationships with the club members (especially Kyon), to the way she unknowingly exercises her god-like powers.

Spoilers ahead for the whole Melancholy series, so stay away from this post if you haven’t finished it.

Let’s start with Haruhi’s single most important monologue throughout the whole series, from the episode Melancholy Part 5. The “Have you ever realized just how insignificant your existence on this planet really is?” speech. In this speech, she describes how she found out she wasn’t the center of the world, and that there are a lot of people on the planet. Her problem is that she believes now that she isn’t really very important, and that shocked a young immature Haruhi. This over-turned her entire ideology about the world, because it’s not longer her world.

To someone as selfish and crazy as Haruhi, it has a deeper impact than she was accustomed to. She can’t deal with it like her usual eccentric way, (assuming that her 10th grade eccentricities exist in her younger self). This is also were her idea that the normal world is boring most likely came from. So, someone headstrong like her would need to change that somehow. She joins every club to find something exciting, none of them can cut it for her. She accepts every chance to have a boyfriend, but they don’t cut it because they aren’t any kind of unusual. Then, she forms the idea to do something for herself.

So she forms the SOS Brigade. The fact that she did proves my point. Subtly, she has trouble believing the world doesn’t revolve her. The most showy and prominent way she can think to do that is make a club. A club dictated by the fact that she wants to find out the worlds mysteries and oddities, but she also needs to find personal control in this big crazy world. She creates a setting where she is in the center of that world, because that’s the only world she thinks she can control. Depending on your personal take on Haruhi’s character, you can say it’s because of her selfishness or because of inferiority complex (the fact that she needs control of a world where she thinks she doesn’t mean anything). Most of the actions also solidify this, but she isn’t the only character in the SOS Brigade.

Human nature dictates that people get along easiest with people like them. So a snarky guy, crazy girl, silent girl, cutesy shy girl, and a easygoing guy have little chance of getting along in real life. The only reason that Kyon, Haruhi, Nagato, Asahina, and Koizumi get along is because Haruhi wants to surround herself with “different” people. This means more than just aliens, time travelers, and espers. It means different kinds of people, and she purposely brings them together because of it. Not just any will do, she needs someone super cutesy, or super silent, and that’s why Mikuru and Nagato make sense in character. It may also serve as an extent to Haruhi’s wish to have control, if she has it over different kinds of people. She has this overpowering kind of control, but she can be checked. This is very important, because she likely never had plans for this.

Now, maybe Kyon provides a check in power because he gave her the idea for the club. It could be that it’s because he’s the only human person. It doesn’t seem like Haruhi knows that Nagato, Asahina, and Koizumi are an alien, time traveler, and esper respectively, but Kyon very well could be the most human to her. Some people go along with every wierd thing she’ll throw at them, but Kyon doesn’t. Koizumi provides a lot about detail for this throughout the series, and overall tells us that Kyon and Haruhi’s relationship is one of a kind in this world, (Haruhi’s world). She may want control over aliens, time travelers, and espers, but she would also need a way to remember she is human and isn’t in full power.

If you’re still with me, I believe there is proof to my words. It’s all demonstrated in the second season, specifically The Sigh of Suzumiya arc.

In this arc, they shoot the “Adventures of Mikuru Asahina” movie. Her 3 main film starts are Asahina, Nagato, and Koizumi. When she created the club, she wanted an alien, a time traveler, and an esper, so she gathered all 3. It is the roles she wanted them to play in real life. When she created the club, she wished she could be associated with them but never thought she could. So in the film she has them literally play that role because that’s what she wants in her life, to direct and use these 3 kinds of people. The film is the most over-the-top way to how she subtly needs to be the center of the world, and to be around different kinds of people.

Notice, though, what Kyon’s role is.

She trusts Kyon to be a huge help to making her dreams come true, trusts him to literally bring her ambitions to life while the others are her pawns/toys (that’s my theory on why the film finished even though Kyon fell asleep, because Haruhi believed he could do it). She may not be able to fully control him, but she can always use his help. Kyon can’t act in her fantasies because he helped bring them to life. This of course is when he accidentally gave her the idea for making a club. He is also a huge help to her, for support and execution. She may not know how much she cares and even depends on Kyon (she would have kept playing the baseball tournament in the Boredom episode if it wasn’t for Kyon’s convincing).

That’s what makes it especially dramatic when Kyon flips his shit in the 4th episode of the Sigh arc.

After 3.5 episodes of Haruhi’s perfect way to exercise control over people and her inferiority complex, it all boiled up. She was ruthless in her treatment of Asahina, because she thought of her as a pawn in her game. One of the pawns of Haruhi’s world. Her filming and production schedule was sort of wreckless, and unplanned. Kyon complained, as usual, and Haruhi would brush it off because she is on the ultimate power trip. Nothing could have stopped her at this rate, except for Kyon. Haruhi spikes Asahina’s drink so she can perform the way Haruhi wants, and Kyon couldn’t take it.

He yells at Haruhi for abusing her power and mistreating the people in her world, and nearly beats the shit out of her. Koizumi, to no one’s surprise, stops him. Koizumi’s usual smile and cheery nature is frozen, for the only time, we see Koizumi’s serious side. We also get a close up of Kyon’s fist, so he (and the audience) realize exactly how bad it’s gotten. After Haruhi responds with her “I can use Mikuru however I want” rant, Kyon tries to wrestle out of Koizumi’s hold and tells him “let me go, so I can beat her to a pulp“. After this Haruhi is really distraught, of course, but she must have realized she went to far. Chronologically, after this episode her harassment of Asahina calms way way down. (In Someday in the Rain, she sends Kyon away so he doesn’t see her use Asahina to take pictures around the school. It’s not a matter of not wanting Kyon to smack her, it’s a matter of keeping her relationship with Kyon secure).

Haruhi Suzumiya is not the most complex character in anime, and in no way has the most sad backstory. However, the ways that they subtly sneak in the effects of her backstory (as someone with an inferiority complex) are ways that not everyone will notice. Even if you don’t like Haruhi Suzumiya, you have to acknowledge that everything she does is for a sensible reason no matter how selfish it is, or no matter how much she doesn’t realize she’s hurting others. She is a character that embodies over the top eccentricity. She also has a big heart, and she may not even realize it (her reasoning for breaking the Endless Eight is among the best examples). Her story and her adventures only ever make me happier over time. I fall in love with the franchise the more I learn and realize. Even after 3 full rewatches, I learn something new. Even rewatching Melancholy Part 6 and Live Alive more than any other single episode of any existing TV show, I find new ways to appreciate the series.

Maybe one day I will get tired of it, but for now, I doubt it.

This has been Animated Monologues, thanks for reading. Have an animated day!

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