What was that famous quote from Paulo Coelho's book? "If you wish for something hard enough, the universe will conspire to make it happen". Was it? Or something of that nature.

What if that was really possible? What if someone had that power to change reality? The power of God. Is it really something to be desired?

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a high school freshman by the name of Suzumiya Haruhi. She has this power. God in the form of a 15-year old girl? Not exactly, but you could say that.

So, who is this God? Sad to say, she is extremely bored with the world, thus that scowl on her face. It's ironic though, because she holds the power that could have allowed her to do whatever she wants with the world. And she doesn't know it.

Haruhi introduces herself as someone who is looking for time travelers, aliens, and ESPers. And if you're not one of them, you are boring. Yet, because she has willed it to happen, time travellers, aliens, and ESPers have flocked in her direction. To answer your question, no, she doesn't know they exist, because it contradicts with her common sense, despite how much she wants it to happen.

Besides, if you were her, tired with the world, and you found out you were God (or if this is considered heresy, you can replace that with "Godlike), you couldn't even conceive it. The only thing other people can do about it is keep you satisfied, un-bored, amused, so that you may not change the way of the world. Yet.

It's actually quite simple, right? Keep the God Haruhi entertained, and she won't will the world to chaos. But this system is not perfect, as one would have liked. You forget, despite her ability, Haruhi is human, a 15-year old girl to boot. And what could cause a system like this to fluctuate more than anything? You guessed it. L-O-V-E. Kaching.

Do you still follow? Good. Let's imagine you are neither time traveler, alien, nor ESPer, but an ordinary, powerless human being. But what if you are the cause of this girl's fluctuating emotions, enough to drive the world into rebirth if she wishes it so?

Now are you completely powerless? I think not. If God was your lover, what would you do?

Have a nice field day.

Note: This is based on the Light Novels Suzumiya Haruhi, which was also adapted into anime as The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.

SUZUMIYA HARUHI: A review

My first encounter with Suzumiya Haruhi was some 8 months ago, through the light novels that were released. I honestly don't know how you get these but I got the 8 volumes that I have through a friend who uploaded them as PDF files. -_-  I was not really that giddy to read it. Truth be told, I didn't know anything about Suzumiya Haruhi beforehand. It was quite famous, but that it was a "light novel"*, I was reluctant to open the first volume. For a lack of better things to do though, I finally got to opening it. And I did not regret, for the most part.

I found the first two volumes to be very interesting, but it kind of dragged on a bit until the fifth or so volume where I eventually decided to drop it. The thoughts presented above were covered mostly by the first two volumes, and instead of moving on to answer that lingering question, the author (Nagaru Tanigawa) decided to insert some adventures that I found to be too repetitive. Repetitive in the sense that, Haruhi had been fully described in the first two volumes, it was completely unnecessary to tell me again and again that she's overreacting, or very excited, or really abusive. I know these things already, how about we move on back to the plot? Because, despite that, the premise is very very interesting, is it not?

That being said, I think that the anime, which covered mostly the first two volumes, and a little bit of the other volumes, is one of the best. To top it off, it was a brilliant scheme of the producers to release an anachronic order of the episodes. You watch the first released episode and it doesn't make any sense. Similarly, sometimes some episodes are totally not the continuation of the ones you were watching previously. And if you didn't read the novel, you would really be very, very confused. Yet the answer to all that is simply because "Haruhi wants it that way". Ha. I should have known. In effect, you re-watch it in the chronological order that it should appear, and there goes another 7 hours of your life, spent in front of the tube, trying to comprehend the powers of God in a bored fifteen-year old girl. And this experience isn't so bad. It's not a waste of time, really. The anime is so good that in fact, it's one of the very few 7 hours of your life that require brain power.

For now I can only rate the anime, because I feel I have been too harsh with the light novels, and will give it another shot.

Awards: Kobe Best TV Anime Series 2006

Rating:

*Light novels are a term for young adult novels.