The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a series including the original series of light novels, an anime, a manga, a series of radio drams, and some video games. Additionally, three parody series exist, named The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya, Nyoro~n Churuya-san, and The Disappearance of Yuki-chan Nagato. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has great popularity and knowledge in Japan and in other countries. The author of the original light novels is Nagaru Tanigawa.

Plot

Kyon, a sarcastic, serious high school student and the narrator of the series, meets a girl on his first day of high school. In homeroom, all of the students are forced to introduce himself. After a bland introduction, the girl behind him, Haruhi Suzumiya, makes a surprising statement: She has no interest in ordinary humans, and only in time travelers, espers, aliens, sliders, or other supernatural people. She tells any such people to report to her immediately, and sits down. This meeting prompts Kyon to talk to Haruhi in curiosity, about her behaviors and beliefs.

Although he does engage in serious, interesting discussions with Haruhi, he finds no way to convince her to act normally. and she soon decides to form a club about finding such supernatural occurrences and things - the SOS Brigade, named so for its full name: Sekai o Ooi ni Moriageru Tame no Suzumiya Haruhi no Dan. In English, this is translated as Save the World by Overloading it with Fun - Haruhi Suzumiya's Brigade, or Spreading Excitement All Over the World with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade.

Haruhi "recruits" Yuki Nagato, Mikuru Asahina, and Itsuki Koizumi as members of the brigade. However, they reveal themselves to be no ordinary people. In fact, they are the specific people that Haruhi stated herself to be looking for, coming from different factions. Yuki Nagato is an emotionless humanoid interface, sent from the Data Integration Thought Entity, a sentient collection of data far away in the universe, to observe Haruhi Suzumiya. Mikuru Asahina is a time traveler from the future, sent also to observe Haruhi Suzumiya. Finally, Itsuki Koizumi is an esper who is a member of a group referred to as the Agency or Organization, also sent to observe Haruhi Suzumiya.

The three are all sent because Haruhi Suzumiya is essentially a god, or at least a warper of reality: whatever she wants will come true. Three years ago, she wished for time travelers, aliens, espers, and possibly sliders to exist - and so they came into existence. Kyon, just a normal person, is dragged into the whole situation for reasons out of the others' knowledge - they can only say that Haruhi chose Kyon in some way. The series chronicles the SOS Brigade's various adventures and embarkments, and sometimes some dangerous or strange situations that Kyon finds himself in. Throughout the whole series, Kyon narrates with a tone of reluctance and sarcasm about Haruhi's reckless personality and crazy behaviors. Currently, no sliders seem to have appeared.

Other characters who have appeared in the anime are Ryoko, the hard-working class representative, Tsuruya-san, an energetic backup SOS member, Taniguchi and Kunikida, two of Kyon's other friends who are completely normal, the Computer Research Society president, who is forced to surrender a computer to Haruhi, Kyon's sister, who is unnamed, Emiri Kimidori, the Computer Research Society president's girlfriend, and Shamisen, Kyon and his sister's cat.

Anime episode order

Although the episodes for the anime do have a set chronological order, they were aired in an almost completely different order, possibly to end the series with a climax. They are aired out of order, creating much confusion among viewers about the order of events and also about how to number episodes. The episodes here are referred to in chronological order.

Songs in Nico Nico Douga medleys

Songs from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya are very commonly used, present starting from the very first medley, Chuudoku no Kata e Okuru Ikkyoku, with God knows... . They have been in many, if not most, medleys.

• God knows... - an insert song in the twelfth episode in both broadcast and chronological order, God knows... is probably the most used song in Nico Nico Douga medleys, in at least thirty-three medleys. It is played in the anime at a school fair, where two of a band's members are sick or injured, and Haruhi, along with Yuki, steps up to help the band. Yuki plays the guitar, and Haruhi sings the song, voiced by Aya Hirano.
• Hare Hare Yukai - the ending theme of the anime, translated as "Sunny Sunny Happiness", or "Sunny Sunshiny Happy" in the official anime ending credits. Hare Hare Yukai is very popular and well-known. It has been used in at least twenty-seven medleys to date, and has many remixes. Each character album includes a version of Hare Hare Yukai. Most use the original karaoke; exceptions are Kyon's version, Emiri's version, and Itsuki's version. Also, the different versions have different lyrics to match the character - for example, Kyon's sister's version is about being ditched by Kyon.
• Bouken Desho Desho? - the opening theme of the anime, translated as "It's an Adventure, Right? Right?" Bouken Desho Desho is less popular or used than Hare Hare Yukai. Its lyrics are about adventuring and exploring, sung by Haruhi's voice actress, Aya Hirano.
• Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite. - the character song for Yuki Nagato, translated as "Snow, Silence, by the Window." Yuki sings about her status and philosophy.
• Select? - Yuki Nagato's other character song. Yuki sings about her status, thoughts, and memories.
• Cool Edition - the second character song for Ryoko Asakura.
• Imouto Wasurecha Oshioki Yo - Kyon's sister's character song.
• Maggare ↓ Spectacle - the character song of Itsuki Koizumi, translated as "Twisted ↓ Spectacle".
• Kentai Life Returns! - Kyon's character song, about his life being changed by Haruhi's appearance.
• Saikyou Pare Parade - the opening to the radio drama.

Two medleys using only Haruhi songs were composed, Suzumiya Haruhi no Kumikyoku and Suzumiya Haruhi no Henkyoku.