Search - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Volume 1 on DVD

Spreading excitement all over the world with...

A. Wescott | 05/30/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The first episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is actually a so-bad-it's-good video created by the cast later in the show's timeline, featuring a Battle Waitress from the future, in a Bunny Suit, defending an Esper who is unaware of his powers from an Evil Witch from Space. It is directed by the main character and narrated by the show's narrator, and is chock-full of obviously-drawn-in special effects and wooden student acting, among other things. Near the end of the episode, a cat clinging to the Witch inexplicably begins to speak; the Witch bops it on the head with her wand before the director notices, saying that as well as being a witch, "she is also a ventriloquist." But is she really?

Though the next episode is Melancholy's "proper" beginning, what's so remarkable about Episode 00 is that it perfectly summarizes nearly everything in the show.

About the show itself--the narrator is Kyon, a student who has recently given up dreams of aliens, espers and time-travelers for high-school life. But when he meets Haruhi Suzumiya (the Director), an eccentric transfer student who longs to meet aliens, espers and time-travelers, he is literally dragged (by his shirtcollar) into the Spreading Excitement All Over the World with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade, or S.O.S. Brigade for short. Other inductees include Nagato (the Witch), who uses the clubroom as a reading room, Koizumi (the Esper), a mysterious transfer student, and Mikuru (the Battle Waitress from the Future), who Haruhi just grabs out of the hallway so she can exploit otaku fetishes to raise club awareness. Yes, really.

But Kyon quickly discovers that in her search for aliens, time-travelers, and espers, Haruhi has unwittingly gathered together a group of none other than aliens (with magical powers), time travelers (who enjoy dressing up as waitresses) and espers (who are only useful some of the time.) What is even more worrisome, though, is that Haruhi is quite literally Director--and if she ever gets bored of Spreading Excitement All Over the World, she could easily abandon it and everything in it...

Besides the absolutely bizzare first episode, the others are business as usual--establishing exposition, etc. They are, however, pretty funny. Most people seem like the love-her-or-hate-her, unknowingly all-powerful high-school student Haruhi the best, but though she often overpowers everybody else through sheer force of personality, Kyon still holds his own, possibly because he has most of the best lines. The other characters hold their own too, but they don't really come into their own until later episodes. While there's plenty of reasons to watch the Japanese dub--the person who voiced Haruhi is supposedly now legendary--the English dub is pretty good too, with Crispin Freeman nailing Kyon and Wendee Lee holding her own against the Japanese seiyuu with Haruhi.

It's certainly not perfect, but at any rate, this is probably the best high-school comedy drama parodying anime stereotypes while exploiting fetishes and featuring questionable science fiction and crazy battle sequences while presenting metaphysical questions about the nature of reality ever, though admittedly most of the latter come up in the next disc. Reccomended! Also stay for the closer.
"

"Life is an adventure..." (but...)

C. Lara | 12/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"So I bought this set, and it's awesome. It's just plain awesome to actually have these episodes on DVD. The box is awesome too. As far as the review of the DVD goes, buy it. If you're an anime fan, or even if you're a non-anime fan living in a sea of fans of something else (video games, etc.) you'll enjoy this and find a real character connection with the narrator, Kyon.

But the packaging is where this set's all at. Great box with high-quality art on every side, even the inside, the doors to the front are magnetic, and there's places for the other DVDs and CDs from the other limited edition volumes. Getting the CD drawer out was a bit of a hassle. When I finally got it out, I put a loose piece of tape on the bottom of it to use as a pully to get it out easier next time. There's also a box holding the extra goodies that is holding space next to the dvd, where the others should go if you collect 'em all. This is where I get a little confused. It seems like they want you to buy the other dvds, and put them in this box. That presents a few problems. The first, being if you copped out and got the dvd only editions, is that now you have to take that box of goodies out and throw it somewhere. I guess if you actually used them for stuff then they'd already be gone, but collectors try to keep it all together and can't in this situation. The other issue involves the CDs. There's a drawer, for all the disks that come with the other limited edition dvds. Let's say you're a good fan, and you buy all 4 volumes, put the CDs and DVDS in this case, and think everything's complete... until you realize that you have 3 other fancy-shmancy boxes with extra goodies and nowhere to put them! You can't exactly keep them with your dvd collection as it defeats the purpose of having the volume one set.

Maybe they just don't want us to box it all in their specially designed volume one package."