“I used to read often. When I was in elementary school, my mom used to borrow illustrated books from the children’s book section for me to read. There were all sorts of books, but I remember that all the ones I’d read were quite interesting. However, I can’t remember any of their names anymore. When did I stop reading? When did reading start becoming boring for me?”

So we may be convinced by now that something is going on. (Or we may not be; plausibly, each of these could be explained by something like an error, a consequence of time travel, or artistic license etc.)

But what is the real story? It could be anything, from what really happened to who characters really are. In Wolfe, though, deception tends to focus on characters and issues of identity. In Peace, Weer is not what you think he is. In The Book of the New Sun, characters like Dorcas are not who they appear to be . So what character should we be most suspicious of?

I didn’t have to think a lot on whether that girl’s a normal person or not. But why did Haruhi have such omnipotent power that she’s unaware of? Enough power to turn pigeon feathers white. Why? Who was behind this?

“This is what I think,” Koizumi continued to ramble on, “Someone granted Suzumiya-san omnipotent god-like powers, yet they did not allow her to become aware of it. If there were a God, then Suzumiya-san would be the person chosen by God. But no matter how you look at it, she’s just a normal person.”

’What’s wrong with that? So you’re saying if the movie ends in such an unresolved way, this reality would be permanently distorted and become the new reality? Haruhi must have an ending in mind, and it must be an ending that is in line with reality. This is a problem that we must consider, as Haruhi would never consider such stuff, and even if she does, it would only end in disaster. So it’s still better for us to do the thinking. But why must we think of such stuff? Isn’t there someone else that can carry this cursed burden for us? “If he even exists, then yes.” Koizumi shrugged his shoulders, “I believe he would have appeared before us long ago if he existed. So we must find a solution as soon as possible, especially you. I look forward to seeing you work harder.”’

If Haruhi is not the god, then who is (s)he?

I believe the god is really Kyon. We are expected to swallow the thesis that the god of this fictional universe is ignorant of its identity, and wouldn’t that describe Kyon as well as Haruhi? What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. All throughout the series, Kyon is as much of an anomaly as Haruhi. We are told this quite directly:

“The biggest mystery would be you.” Koizumi, to Kyon

Even bigger than Haruhi, eh? As well, Kyon is one of the 2 people who has not “shown me honest proof of their identity”.

Kyon claims to be an ordinary high school student, and the other characters constantly tell Kyon how normal he is - but he’s much like Haruhi. In the introduction, he tells us that he was once obsessed with the same subjects as Haruhi - but he gave them up on entering high school (that is, 3 years ago, while in middle school). He claims to dislike the adventures and be stressed out, and this is the public image put forth in things like his image songs , but actions speak far louder than words; Kyon has never had to be seriously forced into club activities. His reluctance is only feigned.

Many of the things that seem to apply to Haruhi only, with a small shift of perspective, apply to Kyon. Consider Kyon’s criticism of Haruhi-kami:

“If that’s true, then why hasn’t Haruhi discovered that [existence of ESPers etc.] yet? In contrast, it’s just you and me who know everything. Isn’t that a little strange?” “You find it inconsistent? It really isn’t; the real inconsistency is within Suzumiya-san’s heart.” Can’t you say something that I can understand, please‽ “In other words, she does hope for the existence of aliens, time travelers, and ESPers. Her common sense, however, is telling her that these things don’t exist, and this creates cognitive dissonance. Though she may be eccentric in her actions and speech, her thinking is still no different from the ordinary person…”

We already know that Kyon hoped/hopes for the existence, and that he has given in to his common sense. And Kyon has already joined the SOS-dan and survived Ryouko Asakura’s reality-warping assassination attempt, both eccentric actions. Notice that the criticism doesn’t apply to Kyon-kami - he knows perfectly well of those entities’ existence!

Cui bono? “No, wait, I probably did realize, I just didn’t want to admit it. Deep inside my heart, I still wanted those aliens, time-travelers, ghosts, monsters, ESPers and evil organizations to suddenly appear. Compared to this boring, normal life of mine, the world of those flashy shows was much more exciting; I wanted to live in that world, too!” Kyon Many of the otherwise peculiar events become explicable when considered from a Kyon-kami perspective. The curious 3 year gap where nothing at all curious happened? Kyon had vowed that high school would be different, until, of course, he realized how bored and depressed he was. Nagato’s observation that nothing unusual had happened during those 3 years, until high school started (and Kyon was around)? Unlike Kyon, she was fully bored and waiting for, something, anything, interesting to happen (like the return of John Smith); yet - nothing happened. But explained, if Haruhi has no powers: she was bored during those years and wasn’t deferring anything to the mythical ‘rose-colored life’ of high school, but Kyon was. The desert island incident? Kyon didn’t want there to be any real murders, but he was still interested. Witness his constant conversation and thinking on the topic. He is also the one who solves the mystery, and suspected the answer from the start. Is this combination of knowing the answer, being involved, and having fun really consistent with the Haruhi-kami hypothesis? The shadow at the end, one says? A gift from Kyon to a disappointed Haruhi; we never hear of anything happening on that island thereafter (an argument from silence which is more consistent with Kyon-kami than Haruhi-kami). In the universe of Haruhi, the answer for the theodicy is that God is human and is imperfect. Further, it is capable of the usual range of emotions: every character plausibly suggested to be God can apparently evince pleasure, anger, shame, etc. Thus, it is possible that this god might create a creature to do what he’d be too embarrassed to do. In this light, we must ask ‘cui bono?’ when it comes to Haruhi’s treatment of Mikuru Asahina’s body and Haruhi’s own exhibitionism I contend that Haruhi does not - as she derives no gratification from it, not being a lesbian, nor does she really care about Mikuru apart from her utility to the SOS Brigade (she’s a lackey, a rival, or a plaything) - but there is another major character who is both greatly pleased by Haruhi’s actions and shamed by his pleasure . Haruhi’s body is another issue; Kyon is quite physically attracted to her , yet Haruhi herself cares little for physical beauty and uses her athleticism without a thought. We can tie this line of thought to larger concerns: is it not true that fans enjoy anime in part because things happen in the anime that would never happen in real life (eg: harem animes), or that we would ever actually do (eg: martial arts, action, and sports anime)? For an anime, those who are gratified are the fans and creators, who stand to the anime in respect of god. The analogy for Haruhi is clear. More prosaic examples of the true beneficiary of events might include Haruhi obtaining a computer; who winds up using it and creating the SOS Brigade website? Kyon. Or, consider one of the examples in the Losses section: Haruhi wanted to be with Kyon, but on the other hand, Kyon likes Mikuru (whom he went with the first time), and had good reason to want to be alone with Nagato, who had only recently revealed her true nature to him. Under the Kyon-kami interpretation, Haruhi losing the draw is expected. “Endless Eight” “Endless Eight” puts the SOS-dan in a time loop where they repeat the end of summer vacation, endlessly going through a list of stereotypical activities like the pool or a festival with fireworks. Itsuki suggests that Haruhi keeps resetting the world (and herself) because they omitted some activity and left Haruhi unsatisfied. Eventually, Kyon realizes that the missing ingredient is a group session to do homework, and time moves on. Naturally, one assumes it’s Haruhi’s homework that was left undone. Japanese schools assign a lot of summer homework (unlike American schools) and it’s natural to regret and fear the first day of school. Perfectly reasonable for her to reset the universe, and then procrastinate her homework in favor of having fun. But no! Haruhi’s homework is done! (The anime even shows her spending the group session playing videogames with Kyon’s sister.) The person whose homework is undone is… Kyon. Once again, we see the question of cui bono. Who benefits from the group session? Why would Haruhi regret the SOS-dan not doing homework together, of all things? To suggest that she regrets it so much as to reset the world is… a bit strained, I think, especially considering that if she had ever thought of it, she would have put it on the list and they would have done it (Haruhi had even allotted a spare day for such a last-minute thought). Another explanation, that Haruhi wanted someone to take initiative and suggest something, anything, to do is also a little odd; in >15,000 iterations no one ever suggested a single activity? I could understand Kyon not suggesting - of all things - a homework session for that many iterations, but it beggars belief that not a single SOS-dan member would suggest a single activity for 15,000 iterations. Itsuki’s explanation - that Haruhi regrets the inconvenience the others will experience with undone homework - is so contradictory to what any person would expect of Haruhi (that monster of egotism) I am tempted to take it as sarcasm. But for Kyon? No, I could understand him resorting to a reset. When has Kyon ever worked hard? There is also an issue here of why Haruhi seems to suffer from no déjà vu whatsoever, while Kyon suffers the most - in other words, why the reset works perfectly on Haruhi and the world, not so well on Mikuru and Itsuki, even less on Kyon, and not at all on Yuki. This sort of consideration of ‘who has power over whom?’ leads directly into the next section.

Cui regio? Perhaps you dislike pointing to Haruhi losing in small incidents. Perhaps Kyon loses in some way, and often enough that his losses are as difficult to explain on the Kyon-kami theory as on the Haruhi-kami theory. Perhaps. So we might want an alternate tack - situations in which Haruhi is treated in a way that ought to be impossible for a god. One major example come to mind that is difficult to explain away with Haruhi-kami. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya While fairly complex due to its time travel, the plot of the 4th book is: Yuki falls in love with Kyon, and seeing his claimed distress at the SOS-dan’s paranormal adventures, rewrites the world to render normal all aliens, time travelers, or ESPers, leaving intact only Kyon himself. Her power to do so, it is claimed, is stolen from Haruhi. Haruhi is rendered as powerless and normal as anyone else; she is restored to her usual self when Kyon rejects the mundanified world in favor of the old one. There are multiple points of interest in Disappearance. Firstly, Kyon’s rejection of the truly normal world gives the lie to all his previous claims. We can no longer argue in good faith that Kyon dislikes paranormal phenomenon and his dislike is disproof of Kyon-kami. In book 1, Kyon rejecting Haruhi’s new world could be explained away as him fearing or disliking whatever extreme novelties Haruhi no doubt populated the new world with. But this rejection cannot be so easily escaped: it’s made 100% clear that Yuki’s world is completely mundane, safer in that regard, and circumstances even conspire to bring the SOS-dan together - so Kyon sacrifices nothing whatsoever. The only reason to reject Yuki’s world is if he truly does want paranormal events. This choice renders Kyon even more consistent with Kyon-kami. The second major issue is: how is Disappearance even possible? It’s glossed over, but it’s clear that Yuki has changed the entire universe, and is not merely masking things, nor is Haruhi a fake or deluded version, but a genuinely powerless high school girl. As Yuki says: “Therefore, the altered Suzumiya Haruhi does not possess the power to create data. In that dimension, the Integrated Data Sentient Entity is non-existent as well.” And the origin of the power? “Using the powers stolen from Suzumiya Haruhi, the temporal converter was able to alter data concerning past memories in the range of 365 days.” Riddle me this: how can an omnipotent god lose its powers? How can it be altered by its own powers? (Remember, Yuki never lies about important things to Kyon, and if you assume her power comes from her creators, that raises even more issues.) How can the power be restored to it? How does Disappearance make sense if Haruhi is the creator of the universe, its sustainer, and omnipotent? How does it make sense if she is only a unique data-generating organism more powerful than the IDE? How does it make sense if she is the master of dimensions and time, who can permit or forbid time-travel? On the other hand, it’s not so strange if the power is merely a gift, a loan, or stolen itself. What has been stolen once can be stolen twice. Haruhi wielded the power for a time, unconscious; little surprise if it could be stolen from its sleeping owner, and even less surprise if its new owner, Yuki, wields it far more dramatically. The Club “That’s how we first encountered each other. I solemnly swear—I really want to believe it was just a coincidence.” Kyon One thing would suggest the universe is designed for Haruhi and not Kyon. The club would seem to be the best example - doesn’t it just impose on Kyon? (Let’s leave aside the mystery for Haruhi-kami proponents of how Kyon, who Haruhi apparently didn’t love at that point, got into the club in the first place.) It is true that Haruhi enjoys the club, but ultimately she is not the instigator and main beneficiary of events. As Koizumi points out, Kyon suggested the club, and Kyon is in love with Haruhi from the start. From the moment she stands up, he is rapt and fascinated by her. They are even seated together (despite the seats randomly changing every month ). If the real story is just Haruhi-kami, then that’s some coincidence. But it makes perfect sense if we postulate Kyon-kami.