The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Full Title: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Genres: Comedy, Psychological, Science Fiction, Romance, Supernatural
Episodes: 14
Uploaded By: Penad8
My Age Rating: PG-13 (Mild Language, Violence, Some Adult Situations)

Kyon is a self-pronounced slightly-above-average student with a very content and uneventful life. That is until the first day of his high school when he met an eccentric and energetic beautiful girl by the name of Haruhi Suzumiya. When asked to introduce herself, Haruhi stands up and tells the class she is looking for aliens, espers, and time travelers, an act that catches Kyon's attention. Even though his friends tell him to stay away from her due to her oddness and lack of camaraderie, his fascination brings him to attempt to befriend her. After managing to engage her in a spontaneous conversation, she opens up to him. During the next several conversations, he gives her the idea to start her own group, one that would search for aliens, espers, and time travelers and "hang out" with them. She takes the suggestion and runs with it, quickly sets up a club, (forcefully) recruits members, and drags Kyon (literally) along with her. Kyon takes these changes in stride, but several revelations reveal that the new recruits, and even Haruhi herself, aren't quite how they would seem...

Although the story mainly focuses on the exploits of Suzumiya, it is told (brilliantly) through the thoughts of Kyon. His sarcastic, ironic, and generally unenthusiastic commentary on the happenings around him is where most of the comedy in the series resides. In an anime practically overflowing with interesting personalities, Kyon, normal as he is, manages to consistently be the most fascinating of the bunch, and there really is a mystery behind his existence in the group that will have viewers watching the second season as fast as they can get it. (Also, the fact that there seems to be a developing romance between him and the title female doesn't hurt anyones enthusiasm at all...)

As far as the production value goes, this anime deserves every award ever given to it and more. Fascinating storyline, stunning music, clean opening and ending credits (because synchronized dancing cracks me up every time, I find the ending to be hilarious), excellent voice acting for both languages, perfect dialog, beautifully smooth animation sequences, (does it sound like I'm raving yet? good...), etc... If there is any part of this series that you might turn your nose up at, it would probably be Haruhi's excessive and unrelenting molestation of Mikuru, or the frequent lack of action, but hey, I have to have some excuse not to give this a perfect score, right? If you like anime, any anime at all, than you owe it to yourself to give this series a watch. If you're anything like me, this series will have you hooked from the first animated frame to last. Yep, it's that good... (hmm, it would appear that good ratings lead to short reviews... oh well...)

My Rating: 9.6/10 (Masterpiece)