Haruhi’s disappeared! How does the manga adaptation handle the material from the film?
Creative Staff
Story: Nagaru Tanigawa
Art: Gaku Tsugano
Translation/Adaptation: Chris Pai for MX Media LLC
What They Say
Something very, very strange is going on… because nothing strange is going on… Overnight, the SOS Brigade, the existence of supernatural beings, and Haruhi Suzumiya’s obsession with finding them (not to mention Haruhi herself!) have disappeared. Has the goddess lost her touch? And why is Kyon, who so often longed for a normal life, so upset to find the SOS Brigade suddenly gone?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
In the previous volume, goddess and star Haruhi Suzumiya went missing without a trace. In investigating the disappearance, Kyon discovers that most students at the school have never even heard of Haruhi. Ryoko Asakura has re-appeared as well, and she doesn’t remember ever trying to kill Kyon. Furthermore, Yuki’s personality has undergone a shift, as she’s gone from being cold and emotionless to being very moe. It’s fairly obvious to Kyon that space and time are screwed up, and he’s got to get to the bottom of it.
Kyon returns to the literature club room (the former SOS club room) out of habit, and runs into moe-Yuki there. Moe-Yuki has no idea what’s going on, but when Kyon examines the copy of Hyperion Yuki once loaned to him, he finds an important clue. There’s a handwritten message on the bookmark: “Program execute condition – Assemble the Keys. Final deadline – two days.” Guessing that he was meant to find this bookmark a day earlier, he’s terrified to think that the deadline to correct the problem in space/time is tomorrow. It’s up to Kyon to solve the riddle as quickly as possible in order to set things right!
Or, rather, that’s what the urgency of the situation seems to demand, but Kyon seems rather lackadaisical in his investigation. He seems much more content to ogle the cuter, shier version of Yuki, and even considers whether it would be worth just staying in this parallel world just for her. Kyon heads to Yuki’s apartment to search for clues, but it just so happens to work out that he gets to have dinner with Ryoko and Yuki, and ruminate on the prospect of dating moe-Yuki.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya seems just as conflicted as Kyon: Does it want to focus on girls, or sci-fi? By mixing cute dinnertime scenes with a potential space/time crisis, it manages only to dilute the effect of both plot threads. I walked away from this volume neither charmed by cuteness or anxious with tension.
The manga adaptation of Haruhi seems somewhat extraneous, when an anime and novel are also available. Pages of the manga are taken up with Kyon’s narration, presumably taken straight from the novels, with panels after panel of talking heads. There’s no action or tension in the art that would give the manga an edge over the novel. Due to the sketchy and unconfident art style, it’s also hard to recommend for the sake of ogling cute moe girls.
The inclusion of two short side stories seem to indicate this series is for fans only: In the first, Haruhi is the head of the SOS Talent Agency, and she signs Yuki Nagato to become a star idol. In the second, Mikuru dreams she’s a boxer, conflicted about how to approach her next bout. If she wins, she’ll have to leave her old manager, Haruhi, behind. If you’re in love with the characters, you might be enchanted by these tales. However, as the main story of the volume ends on a cliffhanger, I think these pages might have better been used to continue the main story.
In Summary
This volume of the Haruhi Suzumiya manga does very little to recommend it over the novel or animated movie versions of the same story. The SOS Brigade characters still bring their charm to this adaptation, but the manga just seems a pale reflection of the property. Haruhi completionists and manga die-hards might enjoy this, but others would be better off going with the written or animated versions of the source material.
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: C
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B-
Age Rating: Older Teen: LSV
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: March 29, 2011
MSRP: US $11.99 / CAN $13.50