Anime is gay. Gay. Gaaaaaaaaaaaay. That may be true, and I may not know what makes a good anime, but I do know what I like. I like "The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". The show has become fairly popular, at least popular enough for it to catch my attention and have me actually watch it. People have been singing its praises for a while, and even though I have said I liked it, I do find some of the stuff that spews out absolutely ridiculous. Like, Star Wars fandom ridiculous. There are people that won't shut up about this even though its kind of old. I know they made new Star Wars, but they didn't always make new Star Wars.

And, really, anime is gay. Full of gay. Just look at this guy

See? This guy just screams gay and I haven't even told you about him yet. I could probably go on and on about how gay anime is (anime is gay), but I will go on to tell you about the show. The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, simply put, is about a high school girl who is bored. Well, not exactly. Its more like the story about a high school guy who meets a high school girl who is bored. They make some club and then do stuff. Actually, that's not entirely true either. There's some other crap going on that's mentioned fairly early, like, third episode early (out of fourteen), and is the entire premise for the rest of the show.

Though, here's the other thing: the show's airing order wasn't its chornological order. This makes things a little confusing the first time watching, escpecially if you don't have any idea what to expect and especially because the first episode aired is very different from every other episode. It doesn't really take away from anything, as the final airing episode is the sixth chronological episode and is also the only one that has any sort of conclusion. Watching the episodes again in chronological order lets you pick up on some subtle things that would probably have been missed the first time through.

As for the episodes on their own, and all together in a sense, they are all pretty entertaining, in their own rite. This anime has certain stereotypical tones in it, more so than I probably would have noticed, but they're not so present enough that they remind me why I never watch anime anyway (other than the fact that it is gay). There are episodes with wacky hijinks. There are episodes with crazy drama. The final chronological episode is so unremarkable that its fantastic.

I could probably sing praises of this show myself for pages upon pages, but at the same time, hype is this show's worst enemy. I know of people who had watched it expecing it to be the anime for people who don't like anime, or perhaps something new and fresh. I don't really think this has either of these. Its just a show that is pretty much better than most of the drivel on TV. Of course, at the time of this writing, you can't acquire a disc copy in the US, so downloading is really the only option. I would encourage people to watch it while they can. At least if the so far unspoilered parts make this show sound good. I didn't particularly think it was that interesting of a show until I learned of the secrets or whatever it had to offer, and as I said, they're pretty early chonologically, and so far as aired order goes, its the fifth episode. And if we want to be really technical, most of the stuff is mentioned in the first (aired) episode. If you still don't want to learn the secrets through me, then skip this next paragraph as I tell what really happens (which is not really amazing).

"Three years ago," whenever THAT was, Haruhi "changed the world" and now she's become god or something. Good news is that she doesn't know it. Basically, whatever she wants to happen bad enough happens. Take the first chronological episode though, the first thing she wishes is for time travelers, espers, and aliens to come meet her. After she makes the club with our handy narrator (who is unfortunately just human), the next and only three people she recruits into her club are a time traveler, esper, and alien. Fancy that. Along the way there's some philisophical "what if" stuff, too, mostly mentioned by the gayest character ever. All in all though, the world seems to revolve around Haruhi, and our heroes do... something(?) about it.

All in all, its a pretty decent show, and its fairly well animated, which is worth mentioning since I haven't yet. I would watch it again, and I have

8.5/10