There’s still a lot to be said for the good old-fashioned medium of words stamped onto slices of dead trees. I honestly believe certain stories work better in one medium than another; Haruhi Suzumiya is I think a case in point. The TV show’s shuffled broadcast order never significantly improved the experience because I’ve yet to hear a convincing explanation for it. The translation of the light novel on the other hand seems to keep an ordered chronology as nature, and Nagaru Tanigawa, intended and is more satisfying for that.
The prose reads smoothly and I’m pretty impressed with the presentation too (my only regret is not getting the hardback version. I’m anal about such things). What makes an even bigger difference than its adherence to the timeline, or the fact that it retains Noizi Ito’s original illustrations, is the first-person narrative approach that the novel takes. Unlike the TV broadcast order, which came across as little more than a cool gimmick, this detail makes the world of difference.
This device is traditionally associated with detective fiction but I guess the same applies to many stories that revolve around a sense of mystery. In this case Kyon’s narration means the reader has no idea of what’s going on, and you learn about the situations as they arise; interestingly the answer to the biggest question is as elusive and tantalising as ever. The appearance of Nagato, Asahina and Koizumi is fair enough, but what does Kyon have to do with any of this?
I really can’t over-emphasise the importance of the novel being told from his point of view. For starters his laconic and sarcastic turns of phrase are genuinely funny – there’s even a point in a later chapter where he jokes, “Yeah, I don’t understand my metaphors anymore either.” Time will tell if these one-liners wear on me but for now Kyon is even more entertaining than I remember him being in the TV show.
It works on a more far-reaching level too. I recall things like Asahina’s cosplay torture being more tiresome in animated format but perhaps because it’s verbal rather than visual this aspect of the plot is not as in-your-face. Speaking of being in-your-face, Haruhi is still every bit as infuriating as she was in the anime. the bottom line is, actually spending time with someone like her is a pain. Seriously. Being in the company of people who are thoughtless, shameless, moody and self-absorbed is NOT cool and it’s NOT fun. Whether it’s more fun to observe from a more detached perspective is a different matter.
The beef I had with the anime in that regard is the fact that the medium of TV is more…impartial? Asahina’s suffering felt slightly voyeuristic, and the “She’s a pain in the arse, you know…” portrayal of Haruhi didn’t come across very clearly. Thanks to events being coloured by Kyon’s viewpoint and wisecracks, her behaviour in the novel is not excused and he is able to make it clear how he is in two minds about witnessing what Haruhi does to Asahina, for instance.
I’ve heard time and time again that the Haruhi Suzumiya TV show is groundbreaking and different but for me it’s one of many high school comedies with supernatural underpinnings so this aspect held satirical value but little else. Telling it from Kyon’s perspective works much better, however: it instead offers a premise of “My life was normal, then this crazy girl showed up and weird shit started happening.” Rather than being yet another KyoAni high school show to add to a lengthy list, the unique-ness of encountering the character of Haruhi Suzumiya is much more obvious in novel format.
Perhaps because of KyoAni’s polished finish I was surprised at the pencil-sketchiness of the novel’s artwork but to be honest I think this is preferable because it’s less distracting; the text tells the story while the occasional illustration adds a dash of visual reference. I’m sure the manga works differently in that sense, but I think the emphasis will be different again: from what I’ve seen in the previews it relies more on the situation-comedy.
The novel on the other hand is less about the gags and highjinks, and more concerned with the dialogue and thematic comedy. I like that a lot. I dug the irony and absurdity of the whole situation and got the impression that this may be some sort of karma coming back to the guy who has a mildly Holden Caulfield-esque outlook. As much as Kyon talks of how Haruhi has rudely interrupted his quiet routine, life is now more interesting for him. As the prologue hints,
“Deep in my heart, I wished that aliens, time-travellers, ghosts, demons, evil organisations or espers might just pop up in front of me one day.”
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Nagaru Tanigawa, © 2003, 2009
The final argument I have for the advantages of Kyon’s narration therefore is this: the idea of Haruhi taking centre stage and a story telling us about how Haruhi takes centre stage are not the same thing. Just for the record, I prefer the latter.
Don’t take just my word for it. Even Baka Raptor has read it.
Well, I’ll keep my Haruhitardedness in check but must say a couple things.
I read the first book, but since I’ve seen the show countless times I had a hard time getting into it, because I knew everything that was coming, and the series had done a good job mirroring the book’s events.
I don’t quite understand how you think the book’s emphasis on Kyon improves the story, since in the series everything is seen from Kyon’s point of view anyway. He’s the narrator, after all, and I can think of only one ep where the series turns to scenes away from him. His asides are taken directly (or paraphrased) from the book, including the last one you quoted. Now, agreed, focusing on Kyon, letting him buffer the impact of Haruhi’s antics, is a terrific idea, but I think the series’ producers knew that and kept it. In fact, I’d argue that this dynamic between Haruhi and Kyon, seen from his viewpoint, is one of the strongest things in the show. They took it from the book and did it well.
In fact my problem with the first book is that it was a little too much like the series. Unfair to the author, I know.
As for the manga, meh. Not worth looking into.
It’s been a while since I watched the TV show (I followed it in broadcast order then rewatched it in chronological order) so I can’t honestly remember if Kyon’s narration features prominently. I do remember the Haruhi/Kyon dynamic being done very well in the anime though.
Point taken on the manga. I’ll give it a miss and save up for the other light novels instead!
I read the first three books. The first one was quite enjoyable. Sighs killed me dead. I really appreciate what the anime has done: a devotion to the narrative while adding lots of value, whether it’s the self-references (otaku) beyond the obvious charms of moving images.
And yeah, there are the delicious Macross shout-outs (Macross 7, DYRL?, and Macross Frontier).
Sighs is out this month, but if it’s not as good I’ll stick with the paperback version again. If you mean it killed you dead through its excellence, I’ll get the hardback!
Pingback: Yen mystery solved, NYAF wrapups, new things to read « MangaBlog
My theory on why Kyon’s one-liners work better in the book: he thinks these lines to himself so they’d feel most natural when we’re thinking them to ourselves. Hearing the lines changes that effect a lot more than reading them.
Another thing we can do in the novel is manipulate time when Kyon’s thinking. In the anime, time keeps running when we’re hearing Kyon’s thoughts, which can be awkward when the rest of the world sort of has to pause for him. Consider a scene where Haruhi has a bunch of consecutive lines and Kyon’s making several one-liners along the way. In the book that might feel like Haruhi’s speaking all her lines continuously, but in the anime it’d be broken down something like Haruhi line/Kyon line/Haruhi line/Kyon line.
Interesting theory. I like it. For me the most important thing was everything in the book is painted in a really cynical and judgemental light, while the anime is more ‘neutral’.
@ Baka-Raptor I’ll agree that there were occasional dead moments while everyone waits for Kyon’s internal monologue to catch up. I’d have to go back and watch, but I believe season 2 especially suffered more for this. On the other hand, I thought the Haruhi line/Kyon line exchanges produced a rapid-fire dialogue that I found quite enjoyable.
Ah yes. The dialogue. I recall a scene in the second broadcast episode where Kyon talks about the hairstyle thing; the dialogue was superb. Really sharp and witty. It makes the DVDs tempting, if it weren’t for other things on my wishlist (e.g. importing the Banner of the Stars and Macross discs).
Ah, that’s an interesting observation Re: everyone waiting for the monologue. As far as the reality of the TV series goes, it gives further credence to the “Kyon is God” hypothesis I see bandied about occasionally.
@ Martin: I’ve been meaning to read this book, but for some reason I’m just biased about translated light novels (as opposed to something by, say, either Murakami). I suspect the people in charge of art design were aware of this bias too, which is why we see the softcover the way it is. Since you gave it a chance and liked it, though, I don’t see any good reason why I shouldn’t. Cheers.
I’ll explain the subtle brilliance of the broadcast order as well as I know it, just tell me if you’ve heard these before. Also, I have to say I haven’t read the novels, so I’m just trusting everyone’s word that the novel and anime are really, really similar besides minor trans-medium adjustments. However, this might work in my favor since I’m able to only compare Broadcast TV vs Chronological TV, not Broadcast TV vs Chronological Novel, which might or might not make a difference, I don’t know.
The most important thing was that the shuffled storyline made certain events more relevant. Playing baseball, trip to the island retreat, the cultural festival, etc., there were no big revelations to be made after the Melancholy arc. They’re pretty filler-y in chronological order. But in broadcast shuffled order, things take on greater significance. The baseball ep hints at Nagato’s powers before they’re told to us or shown to us in full, and what would be a reference to the end of the Melancholy arc becomes foreshadowing instead. We see Koizumi and get to know his personality a bit before he’s officially introduced, and see some of his esper network at the island retreat before he explains they exist. Things are set up for us, we see these fantastic abnormalities, and we’re prepared to believe what we’re told when the characters do finally tell us/Kyon.
In broadcast order, the imfamous Episode 0, Mikuru’s Adventures, takes on different meaning in its purpose in the story: it’s an elaborate tease in the Who and What of the Haruhiverse, an obfuscated microcosm of what’s to come. We get a fictional time traveler, alien, and esper, who are poorly acted. We hear Kyon’s voice as the narrator before we see him, and we feel that omnipotent force, egotistical and controlling, driving the production forward before we see her. We get to know these people before they introduce themselves to us, and I’d say it affords us a more genuine window as to who they are.
Another thing the broadcast order does is break up the longish Melancholy arc into digestible pieces. Melancholy basically is a string of expository info dumps by Nagato, Mikuru, and Koizumi, essentially communicating the same thing: Haruhi is a super special person and that they all want to observe/control. There’s this closed space phenomenon, Kyon kisses Haruhi, cue 8 episodes of filler. Part of me thinks Haruhi wouldn’t have been nearly as popular shown that way, chronologically that is. In fact, I don’t think so, I know so. I’ve showed friends a couple episodes of chronological Haruhi, they thought it was interesting, but also kinda boring. Then I showed them some episode 0 and the baseball episode, and they wanted to see more. It just works that way.
The broadcast pace of Fun->Story->Fun->Story->etc. is enormously entertaining. Episode 0 was made to be the opening episode, and the end of Melancholy was made to be a season finale, yet between them, nobody knows what to expect. A criticism of mine about the second season of Haruhi was that it lost a bit of its mysterious edge, it lost the sense that it could do anything at anytime. The randomness and freshness of the first season transformed into 8 episodes of Just-As-Planned E8 trolling and 5 episodes of mostly retreading material we saw in one episode over 3 years ago. Remember, I never read the novels, so I wasn’t spoiled yet as to what the new story arcs were going to be about, and I came away thinking, “I waited 3 years for that?”
Well, that sums up my viewpoint about it. Maybe it can change some opinions?
Ah! I can’t resist replying when it comes to Haruhi, even though I draw away from Martin’s focus on the novel. Sorry, Martin.
I’m a broadcast-order fan, but I admit it does lead to a dead zone of episodes, where it looked like the series had lost its way amidst islands and murders and carrying space heaters up a hill. Get to the important stuff!
I absolutely agree with you about Episode 0, which, interestingly, is the first ep on the DVD no matter where you buy it. It’s a brilliant tease, establishing each character in ways we couldn’t understand yet. Maybe the best thing it did was give the narrator great lines, so that even if I didn’t understand WTF was going on with this weirdo home movie, I had a guy there who was thinking the exact things I was. Next episode, we learn that the man who had my back in ep 0 was this guy named Kyon, and because of Ep 0, I’m already on his side. Ep0 is the best first ep I’ve seen, not only in anime, but in television.
Enough. My fanboying is through!
@kadian1364: that’s actually a great help. I recall lots of people saying how cool and clever the episode shuffling was at the time, but I never read anyone explain why they thought that was the case. Looking at it that way, it makes sense that the studio didn’t keep the novel’s chronological order (which is fine to read but I imagine would lose its manic edge if televised that way).
@Peter S: no probs. I often had mixed feelings about the TV show – some episodes were brilliant while others felt like filler. If there was one thing episode 0 managed, it was preventing me making any sort of snap judgement. I didn’t know what to make of it, so HAD to watch the next one just to make up my mind! In the case of a book this isn’t much of an issue, but for a TV series trying to get viewers tuning in the following week, it was a really neat idea.
I love this series. I’ve read all the volumes at baka-tsuki, and am actually going to buy them once I can find them.
Kyon’s narrative is brilliant (and doesn’t get old) and Haruhi gets way more tolerable as time goes on. Also, you will be coming up with a *lot* of theories, mainly about Kyon’s status in everything (a few of Tsuraya’s comments to/about him will really raise your eyebrows if you think about it). Also, yay multi-layered time travel paradoxes!
The novels are indefinitely superior to the anime, which is still pretty good in itself.
Pingback: Yen mystery solved, NYAF wrapups, new things to read | Manga World
Haruhi Suzumiya is in a TV ad for lotte gum
http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/lotte-acuo-gum-tvcm-features-haruhi-suzumiya/