The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya – 涼宮ハルヒの消失 (Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu)
Out of all of Tanigawa Nagaru’s Suzumiya Haruhi light novels, the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is perhaps the most well known. At least, I personally felt it was the strongest novel out of the entire series, and knowing that, I was wondering just how well Kyoto animation would adopt the original source material. Well, the movie didn’t quite meet my expectations, but it still did a great job at portraying the Disappearance arc. In particular, the movie was great at fleshing out the two main characters of the story, Nagato and Kyon. The story really does a great job at bringing out the charm in the entire cast, especially Kyon and his witty personality. Not to mention, the pacing of the story is exceptionally well played, with a very interesting plot progression that keeps the viewer captivated for most of the story.
My only complaint with the story is probably just due to the fact that I read the original light novel, so there are some details or relationship developments that felt a little different than the light novel counterpart. That being said, though, the movie also handled some scenes much better than the novel did, which I think is probably due to the inherent strengths of each medium (in this case, movie vs novel). While a novel can go into explicit detail about even the tiniest aspects of a story, a movie can’t do the same without accidentally dragging out the dialogue, so to speak. The movie, in that aspect, maintains a great balance in terms of dialogue and pacing. The key difference here is that there are some moments in the movie where the actions for the characters speak for themselves, even without any actual verbal description. This in itself made some scenes much more powerful than it’s novel counterpart, or at least that’s how I felt about those particular scenes.
Okay, now that I’ve got my “to light novel” comparison written down and out of the way, what about the movie itself? Well, considering it’s a two hour and forty minute long movie, the most immediately noticeable thing about the movie would be the animation quality. The production quality from Kyoto Animation is exceptional for this movie; they maintained great visual quality for the entirety of the movie, and considering it’s rather long length, that’s a big accomplishment right there. The music was also fully orchestrated, with plenty of nostalgic pieces from the original Haruhi series. Overall, the music was good at setting the mood, but the real strength to the movie is definitely the characters.
What was done exceptionally well was the development of our characters, in particular Kyon, and to a slightly lesser degree, Nagato. The completely absurd situation Kyon gets thrown into really helps his quick-witted, slightly cynical personality really shine. His constant questioning of what’s going around him causes some visible changes in his actions, and really makes his progress rather charming to watch. There are moments that really make you appreciate Kyon’s witty comments, not only because they can make you laugh, but it really does show exactly what he feels about what’s going around him, and what he wishes it was. Along with that, Nagato’s development is a crucial part to the story. The story does a great job at being creative in developing her characterization, with some rather subtle development for Nagato as a result. She might rarely speak personal statements out loud, but the few lines she does say have a powerful impression, and really does a great job at showing just how much she has changed and developed.
All in all, the movie does an excellent job with progressing and revitalizing the Haruhi franchise, which took a huge hit from the endless eight arc that aired in the second Haruhi TV series. That being said, there is one bit of caution with regards to this movie; do NOT watch this movie unless you have either read the first few novels of the original series, or have watched the first two seasons of the Haruhi franchise. This movie builds up on a lot of previous events, so not being familiar with previous events is a terrible idea, if only for the fact that the impact of this movie would be weaker. Overall, an excellent adaptation of a great story. Kudos to Kyoto Animation for animating this excellent story.
Production Quality: 9.5/10
Characters: 9.0/10
Story: 8.5/10
Setting: 8.0/10
Overall Enjoyment: 8.8/10
Screenshots are later in the post. Warning for those with slower internet connections, there are 200 screenshots further on in the post.
Distant Paradise 