The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya [DVD]

Five years ago, the world was introduced to THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA, and a cult phenomenon was born. In 2009, it's reputation was almost destroyed by the 'Endless Eight' controversy. But then, a year later, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA was made. When fans learn that it was going to be a movie, they hold their breath, hoping it would rescue HARUHI SUZUMIYA, given the fact that it was adapted from the fourth and most popular of the light novels.

When THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA came out, it was a success. For the fans, it was a miracle. And it's easy to see why. It truly is a superb film. One obvious thing about THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA is that it's one of, if not the, longest anime films made to date. Just seventeen minutes short of three hours. But when I watched the film, it didn't felt like three hours, because I was so caught up in the story, which has to be a good thing. I don't mind long films at all, as long as the story is interesting.

But what makes this film so great is that it adds more character development into two of the characters - Kyon and, my favourite, Yuki Nagato. There are some great scenes between the two. Haruhi herself doesn't have much screen time in the film, but she is still important to the overall plot of the movie. Both the art and animation is beautiful with great detail, and the music's nice, too.

The only downside I have about the film is that it's doesn't work as a stand-alone film. You've got to have seen the two seasons of the TV series and/or read the light novels to truly understand about the characters and the events that are mentioned. But if you don't want to waste three and a half hours of your life watching the 'Endless Eight' arc, just read the story in one of the light novels.

Before I finish my review, I would like to point out that there's a post-end credits sequence. I won't say what it is, but I'm pretty sure it might make you go 'Awwww'.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA is strongly recommended (To the newcomers, make sure you watch the TV series and/or read the light novels before seeing this).

Reviewer: Ben David W

This is an excellent adaptation of 'The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya' light novel. The story isn't groundbreaking, original, deep... or anything like that, but it is a quirky time-traveling adventure that's on par with the quality of Season One. It's a perfect addition to the Haruhi Suzumiya universe. It should also be noted that the animation is absolutely gorgeous, and two of the main characters develop a little bit more by the end.

The only two problems I have with the movie are: the length, which is over 2 hours, and the fact that if you aren't familiar with Haruhi Suzumiya nor seen The Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody story arc from Season Two, then you'll be totally lost! This movie is really for the fans. It's not an anime movie I'd recommend to a casual viewer or anyone who isn't familiar with the series.
As for the running time: it's both a good and bad thing. Bad because it's only a short story based on a short novel... Good, because, as a result, it's faithfully adapted just like the rest of the series.

Recommended, but recommended only for fans of Haruhi Suzumiya!!

EDIT: Just like JediFineTricks rightly pointed out - and like I informed amazon, which they totally disregarded - this DVD contains a second disc packed with over 2 hours of extras!

Going in, it may seem there is little reason to be hopeful of this movie's prospects, coming in as it is off the back of a second season that was mostly one big disappointing slap across the face to the fans and sporting one of the longest running times ever for an animated movie (around 15 minutes shy of 3 hours!)... There was no reason to believe Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi was going to be a good movie... and yet it is. It is one hell of a good movie in fact. Just don't get any funny ideas about skipping over the TV series to watch it or you will not enjoy a bit of it.

Starting with a brief catch up showing life in the SOS Brigade continues as "normal" with timid time traveller Mikuru, smarmy psychic Koizumi, emotionless alien android Yuki and series "protagonist" average joe, Kyon all once again helplessly held hostage by the eccentric whims of oblivious, reality altering nutjob Suzumiya Haruhi. We're then rather quickly taken to the next morning with Kyon waking up and heading into school only to find that no one remembers who Haruhi is, leaving Kyon in a desperate race to find the truth about what's happened to Her... or at least that WOULD be the usual pattern such a story would take, but this movie plays things a little different. It isn't just that no one remembers Haruhi, it's more like she's been wiped from existence... and stranger still, while Koizumi is also seemingly gone Mikuru and Yuki are still around, they are now just normal teenage girls, their histories changed completely. So as Kyon desperately searches for answers and makes himself look like more and more of a deranged lunatic to his schoolmates in doing so it starts to become increasingly clear to him that he, as the only regular guy of the SOS brigade can't really do anything without some help. It's here the movie moves from a frantic search for answers to a slow paced character drama, as Kyon is forced to try and accept that he now has everything he's always 'wished' for: no supernatural or alien craziness, no giant monsters and most importantly no Haruhi making his life miserable all the time. As time passes and Kyon becomes more restless with his new more normal life, he begins to spend more time in the old SOS Brigade club room with the now-human Yuki (who still just sits alone reading books in there all the time) apparently secretly hoping she'll eventually come up with some plan to put things right as she usually always does... even though she has no clue who he is or what he wants. It may be down to someone else to save the day though, as it isn't long before Kyon meets someone else who knows the name 'Suzumiya Haruhi' and from there, the plot goes fairly nuts... as always.

The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi was a very surprising film for me. I didn't expect a lot going in and was actually kind of dreading that monstrous running time but I was truly shocked by how quickly those 160+ minutes went by. This movie did an excellent job of really drawing me into the story and even in it's slowest moments(And believe me, there are a lot of those) I cared about what was happening to Kyon and was aching to know what had happened to Haruhi, which you'd think would be the central focus of the plot, but is merely a catalyst for a scenario used to create a genuinely touching character piece that examines just how happy Kyon really was with his messed up life despite him complaining about it constantly and his dissatisfaction with having his life essentially reset to how it was before he ever met Haruhi. The movie spends a LOT of time showing Kyon's enforced acceptance of his new/old life and how he spends his days on auto-pilot once he realises he doesn't have a clue how to find out what has happened to the world and it works wonderfully. The heavy focus on Yuki and her pretty dramatic personality switch from emotionless automaton to awkward, twitchy loner also makes for pretty fascinating viewing. It's slow going for sure, but I really don't think I'd have cared nearly as much about the characters if this movie had only a standard anime movie length to tell it's tale. The movie undergoes a fairly dramatic shift in tone once you reach the last hour or so and there is some truly twisted continuity bending that will baffle you if you haven't seen the tv seasons beforehand but by the end it manages to run through a pretty epic story that may be fairly heavy on western science fiction TV show cliches at times, but does prove ultimately satisfying and does an incredible job of keeping your mind off of how long you've just spent watching the whole thing. Parts of it can be a tad TOO slow moving for it's own good and there are some overly convenient moments of 'deus ex machina' thrown in in addition to elements of the movie's climactic scenes which are perhaps a bit of a cheat to the viewer, but on the whole, this is good stuff.

As you'd expect from Kyoto Animation, the movie looks fantastic... if maybe not a whole LOT moreso than the original TV series did. Saying that, the TV series was also a very pretty piece of work and this movie does clearly have more fluid animation and more colourful and vbrant scenery work... just don't expect to have your mind blown or anything. The soundtrack mostly utilises tunes from the TV series again (Right down to a completely unnecessary 'opening' sequence with the season one theme song set to some ill-fitting Bond-esque silhouetted imagery) together with some perfectly used soft orchestrated numbers that do a tremendous amount for the mood setting during quieter moments of the movie. The voice work in the Japanese language version I saw was of the usual exceptional quality this series normally delivers, with a much more varied performance from Yuki's voice actress and a lot more of the deadpan monologues from Kyon that are the backbone of the entire series. Fans MAY be a tad disappointed by the relatively minor amount of screen time Haruhi herself gets, but to be honest it was nice to get a little break from the shouting.

This is a really good movie that manages to build on the established world and characters from the TV show in a very convincing and organic way rather than just taking the characters and transplanting them into a generic anime plot that ultimately proves completely inconsequential by the end ala movie spin offs of the likes of Naruto and Bleach and their ilk. This feels like a genuine progression of the TV series rather than a cash in and that makes it a much more enjoyable experience in my eyes. Even if you were put off this franchise by the second season's unbearably frustrating "Endless 8" cheapness I'd still urge you to give this movie a try as I have no doubt it would do much to redeem the series for you. Just keep in mind how long this movie is, how slow parts of it can be and how cheap some elements of the plot are when going in. It may not be perfect, but it is an extremely enjoyable movie that manages to feel about half as long as it actually is and provides a far more satisfying conclusion to the Haruhi anime than anything the lamented second season had to offer.

Recommended.