Customer Reviews

The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like most people who would get this book, I am a big fan of the anime. When the first book came out, I picked it up immediately. Same with this one. So what were my thoughts? In one word, mixed.

Unlike the first book, this one was not apart of the original first season (though it is in the new series), but we did see the aftermath of this story in the first episode. Yes, this is how the movie was made.

Let's get this out of the way first, there are some issues with the novel. While the book looks to be accurately translated, some of the lines don't flow. The translation would have been helped incredibly just by using a syllabus to change use a few different words. It also occasionally feels like the characters are repeating themselves, but I don't know if that's the translator or how it was originally written.

It also doesn't seem quite as funny as the first book. That is not to say that there are no laughs, there is a particularly funny scene involving a talking cat, but the book is mostly filled with chuckles rather than laugh out loud moments.

Now that the complaints are out of the way, let me say that this is a very fun novel. It has moments of wit and filled with whimsy throughout. There are nods to films that are at times very clever (such as the Amadeus reference) and one of the greatest philosophical conversations about human speech ever put into words.

The best part of the book would have to be the insight we get into the characters and their motives. This doesn't happen until late into the book, but it does make you question the actions of some of the members of the SOS Brigade.

I would also like to add that the ending is perfect. An oddly satisfying anticlimax that doesn't feel like the author cheated, but ended the story in the only way it logically could end. Well, logically in this illogical filled world in which the characters reside.

Like the first book, I knew going in that this was not great literature, but it is fun and definitely worth reading if you were a fan of the first or the anime series. I eagerly look forward to the third book.

The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya is the second in a line of books revolving around Kyon, a hapless high school student, and his inexplicable relationship with the extremely eccentric title character, Haruhi Suzumiya. Apparently, Suzumiya possesses the power to change reality and even destroy the world, but she has yet to realize this fact. The original book (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) introduced a cast of memorable supporting characters, provided plenty of laughs and action-packed scenes, and even concluded with a somewhat epic finale that ended on a surprisingly touching and humorous note. In fact, the author, Nagaru Tanigawa, has even stated that he had not originally intended to turn Haruhi Suzumiya into a series, and judging by the second book, it shows.

The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya is based entirely around a single idea: Suzumiya wants to shoot an independent film of her own designs, so she naturally drags Kyon and the rest of the gang along to help out. The problem is that, the more engrossed she becomes with the film's production, the more she begins to unwittingly warp reality to mirror that of her film. It's not a bad idea, per se, but it's also not a deep enough concept to base an entire novel around, making for a two hundred page story that is surprisingly uneventful. There are no trips to closed spaces, no battles with E.T.s, and few interesting revelations. Even the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) romantic intrigue of the first title is largely missing here, beyond Kyon's regular fantasizing about one of the other key characters. And perhaps worst of all, the book is simply not as humorous as its predecessor.

On the flipside, the title does introduce an element of distrust between the core characters, leading the reader to wonder if perhaps Kyon is being misled and manipulated by the others. And despite its overall lack of laugh-out-loud moments, there are still some gems here that are very funny. It'll take getting to the second half of the story to find most of them, however.

The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya is a merely decent, somewhat flavorless retread of the first book. Fans will still want to give it a read, but here's hoping volume three brings back the spice that made the original so captivating. If not, it may be time to move on with life and leave Haruhi Suzumiya and her weird issues behind.

As fun as Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was, The Sigh of Harushi Suzumiya seems to fall short of the feeling of fun and excitement that was prevalent in the first book. In some ways that's not surprising since (from my understanding), Tanigawa never originally anticipated in creating a sequel, and this book in some ways feels a bit light in content and plump in filler. After all, how can one top a (potentially) world ending cataclysmic event that occurred in Melancholy?

Compared to that, the 'crisis' that is prevalent throughout this book seems somewhat anti-climactic and in some ways petty. For the most part, this book is basically about the ego of Haruhi. Although it was present in the previous book, it was only visible in palatable doses, while here, we're treated to the whole enchilada. In addition, about five percent of the book is of Koizumi's (for better lack of word) technobabble, as he talks one theory of 'reality vs fiction' after another.

Frustratingly, most of this would have been bearable if not for the odd translation decisions made by the translator throughout this book. For a book that's set in Japan, most of the cultural references were replaced with an American equivalent. While that is certainly understandable to give the non-Japanese speaking reader a certain context to understand, it leaves me somewhat puzzled as to why then, certain terms themselves are left untranslated? Unless, one is familiar with Japanese or has a dictionary handy, I doubt anybody would know what 'hikkikomori' or 'tokusatsu' means. Personally, I'd have been find if the translator left the name of a Japanese band in the script, if it meant translating the rest into English. At least with the bands, I would still understand the context.

Overall, it's a decent book, but mainly for fans of the series who would be reading this just to barrel through to the next book in the series.

As you can tell by the review's title, this is about the movie which Haruhi Suzumiya did for a cultural festival so the SOS Brigade can get some needed attention by the rest of the school...

However, since this IS Haruhi Suzumiya we're talking about...chaos ensues, in a good way.

Just like the first novel (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya), The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya has coloured pages near the end plus regular black-and-white, but there is no manga preview.

Even though I found "Melancholy" to be entertaining, "Sigh" kind of drags on for a while and can be boring in some parts, but it redeems itself with its humour and comments from Kyon (whose personal-point-of-view we're reading in).

Still, you should give this a chance if you're either a casual fan or hardcore fan of the animated series.

A quick summary: a few months after the melancholic events of the last book, Haruhi, in anticipation of North Highschool's cultural festival, decides to mobilize the SOS Brigade into make a movie. Though soon after they start filming, odd phenomena begins to take place alongside Haruhi's usual crazy antics. Kyon has the dual role of cameraman/editor/doer-of-tedious-things for the the movie while trying to keep Director Harhui's stormy emotions in check.

Although it is a bit slower in pace than it's predecessor, I found this book to be nonetheless as equally enjoyable as the first.

While I read & liked the first volume, I'll admit that this one was a little tedious at times to read.

I just couldn't help but feel that Haruhi was a little too obnoxious of a character in this book & didn't really see a huge amount of growth as a character. The first novel established her as a quirky character who might have been a little irritating, but more importantly was someone who made the effort to live her life as she wanted it. I couldn't help but like that about her & I felt like that just wasn't as well done in this book. The story also seemed to tread a little too much water at times & I really feel that the story was overinflated for the page count. The story could have been told in less & been all the better for it.

It's not all bad, though. Despite its shortcomings the book still managed to hang on to that feeling of crazy fun & keep me interested for the long haul. The artwork in this was fantastic & I really feel that this was some of the best artwork in the series so far. It intrigued me enough to want to check out the next volume in the series, which is one of the most important things about a book in the long run. (Not *the* most important thing, but still important.

3.4/5

Everyone remembers the first episode of Haruhi Suzumiya. Well, the 00th episode, actually. Remember that crappy movie they made? Well, yeah. This book is basically a behind-the-scenes of it. There are no new encounters, no new story elements. Even if you skipped this volume, you'd be OK. However, it's Haruhi Suzumiya, and the writing style is as good as ever. Not to mention Noizi Ito's drawings. It's great to have it on my bookshelf, but it's not necessary.

3/5 stars.

Overall, this book was a good read. However, it took too long to get to the heart of the story, and the excessive pop culture references annoyed me after about 100 pages. Despite that, once the story got into gear, it was very well written.

Though it starts off a bit slower than the first book this sequel quickly picks up and delivers the same wit and off-the-wall circumstance that the series is known for. If you enjoyed the first book then this is a great buy.

The anime version of Haruhi Suzumiya opens up with a spectacularly awful student film featuring an incoherent story, laughably bad camerawork, cheesy special effects, ultra-low budget commercials, and a talking cat. No one who has seen the film has ever forgotten it. This book chronicles how the movie was made.

For this reason alone, I recommend this book. It isn't as funny as the first book (although it's still very humorous), and it takes a while to get going; however, learning the reason why Nagato tackles Mikuru during one scene, as well as the real reason Haruhi narrates a disclaimer at the end of the movie, are worth the prices of admission alone.

This book also hints at the various conflicts the secret Haruhi-watching organizations have with each other. After reading the book, I went back and watched the movie again. The bizarre conversations that Nagato, Mikuru, and Koizumi have in the movie (especially Nagato and Koizumi) seemed to make more sense, although it could just be my imagination.

Overall, I really liked this book. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of them, and then watching season two of the Haruhi anime to see how the episodes stack up.