The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi

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Finished with A-Kon, day two (see separate post) and probably the coolest thing I saw was 4 episodes of an anime called The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, based on the Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu novels by Nagaru Tanigawa. It began screening in Japan this spring and (I gather) has practically become a state religion known as Haruhi-ism.

The opening episode was one of the cleverest, goofiest things I'd seen in a long time: a fan film made by the characters in the anime. The second episode then started before the first episode, and introduces the characters for the first (second?) time.

The Anime News Network describes it thusly:

    "On the first day of high school a beautiful girl named Haruhi Suzumiya introduces herself as having "no interest in ordinary humans". She asks for any aliens, time travelers, sliders or espers to join her. Watching her weird behaviour is Kyon a boy who sits in front of Haruhi and is the only person who talks to her. Commenting on Haruhi's joining every club in school and then quitting Kyon unwittingly gives Haruhi an idea to start her own after school club. Thereafter Kyon and several others find themselves literally dragged into the Save our world by Overloading it with fun Suzumiya Haruhi's Brigade (the S.O.S. Brigade for short)."

So far there are no US distributors (what I saw was a fan DVD, not a commercial release). Based on previous timing, it will hopefully be here by next year. Bandai or TokyoPop (or Funamation) need to get on the stick and grab this one.

I'll certainly be waiting for it.

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