It’s North High! It’s Kyon! It’s Yuki Nagato! It’s Ryoko Asakura! It’s the Literature Club’s clubroom! It’s…wait a moment. Something’s off. Have I wandered into a parallel world? Why yes,…you have.
What They Say:
Episode 1: “Precious Place”
With Christmas around the corner, Yuki Nagato and her fellow Literature Club members are planning to hold a Christmas party in the clubroom. One of Yuki’s wishes for the party is to eat turkey, which ends up landing her in a series of weird competitions.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I could spend a very long time on exposition and explanation, but I think that would probably not help in certain ways. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, the light novel series by Nagaru Tanigawa, is well-known enough that it is unnecessary to say much more. Where does this spinoff come in then? Those familiar with the franchise, whether through the novels or the anime adaptation of several of them, know that at one point Kyon, the narrator of events, was thrust into an alternate universe where Haruhi and Itsuki are not at North High and Yuki Nagato is just a normal–and painfully shy–girl. A perfect fit for the sole member of the North High Literature Club. (For those who need greater guidance, please read The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya or watch the animated feature by Kyoto Animation…if you can find it, as the now-shuttered Bandai Entertainment’s North American release may not be so easy to get a hold of these days).
This new series is an adaptation of Puyo’s manga which imagines that the world of Disappearance is still out there. The baseline for the setting is taken from the alternate world of Disappearance without significant change. In this version of events, Yuki, faced with the Literature Club’s dissolution, is saved by Kyon and by her good friend Ryoko Asakura, who join the club to keep it alive. So, Kyon spends his days with the shy Yuki Nagato in the club room, occasionally visited by Asakura, who is something of a caretaker of the withdrawn and bumbling Yuki. If you are expecting the wacky antics of Haruhi and Kyon’s acerbic commentary on them…sorry, they’re not here. They took the shuttle back to the Prime Universe with the bitingly satirical Kyon. It’s not that this Kyon is without his wit and trademark smirk at times, but he is a somewhat more kinder and gentler version of himself.
The show is both aimed at dedicated fans who know the franchise and might be going out on a limb that some of them may desire to cut off. The lack of detailed introductions to the characters make it clear that they’re not particularly interested in bringing in new fans afresh. If you want an entry into the Haruhi Universe, try another door; this one has a combination lock and you need to know the key code. Well, certainly, you can watch it with no prior knowledge, but the in-jokes will whizz over your head at Mach 3 and you’ll be experiencing the characters’ personalities without knowing the major divergences from the “main” universe, some of which are important in understanding later events. There are also seemingly unimportant background events (as well as one very deliberately timed and emphasized encounter shortly after the episode start) that gain added nuance with at least a passing knowledge of the original franchise.
But it’s hard to say whether or not this show is aimed at Haruhi fans in general and not just fans of this specific spinoff (I happen to like the Nagato Yuki-chan manga, so I was on board with this from the start). If you are expecting the Nagato you know, you may well be in for a rude awakening unless you have seen or read the Haruhi Disappearance novel. If you don’t like this Nagato…you may have some issues. For those who have been waiting for more anime adapting the original novel series, you may feel frustration from all of the familiar sights and sounds presented here…in a slightly altered form. It’s all so very familiar and yet not. The literature clubroom with Yuki, Kyon, and Asakura in it. The classrooms, hallways, and playing fields of North High, all of these things are here and seem tantalizingly close to what you might recall. But animation studio Satelight bathes it all in a different atmosphere from the original through a different color palette and lighting choices. Both are far more subdued than the blinding brightness of the original: this is Yuki’s pale moonlight to the fiery starlight of Haruhi.
The character designs are also altered, Ikuko Itoh taking her cues from Puyo’s redesigns, but adding her own spin to things. The most noticeable difference is probably Kyon, who feels much more rounded and far less sharp in his lines, perhaps reflecting his slightly less barbed persona in this world. Yuki has always been seen by many as cute, but this Nagato is different, naturally since this Nagato actually has a full range of facial expressions. Her cuteness no longer comes from the juxtaposition of cute behaviors with a blank stare. Instead, she has the face of a dreamer and her earnest attempts to do things (anything, really) with matching looks expressing effort are what drive her appeal here. Many of the other characters are also recognizable, but slightly different, with a slightly warmer Asakura (though elements of the nasty main universe Asakura appear at times as part of the in-jokes) and a less exaggerated Tsuruya-san and Mikuru Asahina.
There is no major plot so far to speak of: in this outing, it’s near Christmas and Yuki would like to eat turkey at their club Christmas party (unlike here, where there is turkey all year from any supermarket, it’s not so very easy to get one where they are in Japan unless you go to a major department store’s food hall). So, Kyon and Ryoko do their best to make Yuki’s dream come true, with a little help from Tsuruya-san and Mikuru, though Ryoko and Tsuruya-san start off as fierce rivals (there’s a war over the acquisition of Kyon by their respective friends, with Ryoko championing Yuki while Tsuruya-san leads Team Mikuru). This leads to the comic highlight of the episode, the nominal competition between Yuki and Mikuru to impress Kyon which devolves into a manic farce of a contest between Ryoko and Tsuruya-san.
So, for those who enjoyed some of the mad and weird humor of the original franchise, there are elements here that should appeal. I think the biggest adjustment those who are only somewhat familiar with the original universe might have to make is in the changes to Yuki Nagato. The first thing that was noticeable for me was how Minori Chihara voices this Yuki. Of course she should sound somewhat different, as personality-wise, you could not have two more different characters. For those expecting the dull monotone…it is not there (except briefly in a couple general voiceover moments…which themselves might have some meaning perhaps later on). What is noticeable is how her voice here is more reminiscent of her more recent anime voice roles in register and pitch. It sounds fine for this Nagato (I did not have a chance to revisit the Disappearance movie to hear her performance as “this” universe’s Nagato before watching this episode, so it may well track more closely to that than I can remember at the moment), but will feel alien if all you know is the main franchise anime adaptations.
The same is true, but to a much lesser extent, for Tomokazu Sugita’s Kyon. His voice here is much lighter in some ways and far less biting. It’s not that he does not still deliver the occasional zinger in his customary style: in-jokes very much feel like they are voiced in the “traditional” Kyon style. For Natsuko Kuwatani’s Asakura, her delivery is normally fairly sweet but she gets in her original character’s “evilness” well on occasion when it’s called for (all part of the humor).
I noted the color palette and visual look before, but what really is the greatest departure in many ways is the sound. In addition to the difference in vocal performances (and frankly, it would be hard to expect no change in the acting and the way the actors sound now, six years from the last time they worked on these roles), the music too, by Tatsuya Katou (who has scored many recent shows including Celestial Method, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, Free!, and Yatterman Night; he is also providing the music for Food Wars this season), who has not worked on any of the Haruhi franchise previously, has a very different feel, especially in the opening moments of the show. The background music fits the different feel of the show well. We only get one of the theme songs as the closing animation is accompanied by Minori Chihara’s quiet “Arigatou, daisuki” (Thank you, I love you).
Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. There were some cute moments with Yuki and plenty of humor, not only in-jokes and cross-franchise referential humor (though that may be a significant draw for many viewers), but also decently executed absurdity, especially the competition between Ryoko and Tsuruya-san, even if that is also a gigantic in-joke of sorts, but may well work independently of any franchise-specific knowledge. But this is likely going to be a dividing line for the viewing audience, one that can separate them in several ways: there will be those who know little of the franchise and feel there’s too much they’re missing to bother continuing; there will be those who love the spinoff manga by Puyo and should be happy by this adaptation; and then there will be those who are knowledgeable Haruhi fans and demand that an adaptation of the untouched novels be done instead of this, since they may not be pleased by how radically different Yuki is. This is a good show but might have some limitations to its appeal.
In Summary:
Yuki Nagato is a shy bookworm who spends her days in the Literature Club reading and pining after the boy she quietly has a crush on, Kyon. Kyon is there in the clubroom with her, doing what Kyon likes to do best: nothing in particular. Yuki is looked after by the kind (but slightly scary at times) Ryoko Asakura. So do the three of them spend their carefree lives as first-year students at North High. In this outing, Yuki would like eat turkey at the club Christmas party, so Kyon and Asakura do their best to get one, finally managing with a little help (and interference) from second-year students Tsuruya-san and Mikuru Asahina. There are in-jokes aplenty as this adaptation of Puyo’s spinoff manga from the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise takes off. Fans of that manga should like this adaptation. All others might have to adjust their expectations.
Episode Grade: A-
Streamed by: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
You sold me. I’ll check it out… after I watch that OTHER Disappearance that I somehow procrastinated on.