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The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is an anime series about an eccentric and hyper-active high school girl who is bored with her life and the world. While Haruhi is the central character in the plot, the story is told from the perspective of Kyon, one of her classmates. The anime is an adaptation of a series of Japanese novels. The first six episodes of the show adapt the story of the first book, while the next seven episodes adapt random chapters of later novels, and the final episode is an original story written specifically for the anime.
The story begins with the beginning of a new school-year. When Haruhi has the opportunity to introduce herself to the class, she flatly declares: “I'm Haruhi Suzumiya, from East Junior High. First off, I'm not interested in ordinary people. But, if any of you are aliens, time-travelers, or espers, please come see me. That is all!”
Haruhi quickly imposes her forceful personality on Kyon, a rather easily overshadowed guy, and draws him into her wacky antics and her search for the mysterious and abnormal. Together they form a school club called the SOS Brigade with a mission statement of: “Spreading Excitement All Over the World with the Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade” They quickly build the cast of supporting characters by enlisting three more students into their club: a quiet, brainy girl who seems to do little but read, a meek girl who Haruhi bullies into cosplay hijinks, and a ‘mysterious’ transfer student with a carefree attitude.
Gradually, Kyon discovers that Yuki, the brainy girl, is in fact a “humanoid interface,” or an artificial human, created by an extraterrestrial supercomputer in order to interact with organic life-forms. Mikuru, the meek cosplayer, soon reveals to Kyon that she is actually a time-traveler from the future. And finally, Itsuki, the easy-going transfer student, shows Kyon that he is actually an esper, a human gifted with psionic powers. All three of them have been assigned by their various agencies to observe Haruhi whom they each believe is critically important for various reasons. Yuki says that Haruhi’s existence produces contradictory data in the universe, Mikuru says that Haruhi disrupts the time stream, and Itsuki claims that Haruhi may be more than human, and that the entire universe may exist in its present state because of her. Haruhi remains, and must remain, unaware of her importance, and Kyon must now help the other three prevent one crisis after another, as Haruhi’s reality-changing powers threaten to destroy the world if left unchecked.
Now, when I first began watching this anime, I knew nothing about the novels it was based on, or about the plotline in general. All I knew was that it featured a young, spunky female lead. Any of you should know by now that those kinds of characters appeal to me (witness Ahsoka Tano, Rosetta Passel, Rani Dashel). Haruhi doesn’t quite shine as bright as she could in this way, however, because she pushes the paradigm just a bit too far, to the point of obnoxiousness. She does soften up a bit in the latter part of the series, but I would have liked to see her do so just a bit more, and maybe form some more obvious attachments with the supporting characters.
Likewise, I was pleasantly surprised by the wacky sci-fi elements, but was a little disappointed by the way that, after the first six episodes, the show abandons any over-arching plot and simply becomes “what crazy story can we tell this time?”. Also, the series lacks a satisfying conclusion, though supposedly there is a second season in the works.
However, after doing a little more research and learning about the show’s origins, I can understand why the show turned out somewhat dissatisfying. I think they would have done better to fill the second half of the show by completely adapting another one of the books instead of grabbing random stories from the rest of the series. I think I might be interested in getting the complete story from the novels if there is an English translation.
As far as production values go, it’s a newer anime from a good studio, so overall the art, music, etc. was very nice but not ground breaking. Some of the writing was hilarious, especially some of Kyon’s internal narrations. The Japanese voice-acting was good, but I didn’t listen to the English dubs, so I can’t say anything about them. The show featured some perverted humor/fan-service, but it wasn’t a pervasive element, and only appeared periodically.
Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Non-serious Sci-Fi: I’ve only ever explored this once in RPGs with the game InSpectres. This show definitely has fun with its mix-match of sci-fi tropes, and I think running a sci-fi game that’s loose and zany could be fun.
A Supporting Character's Narration: I think it’s interesting how this show is obviously about Haruhi even though it’s narrated by her friend Kyon. This might be challenging to set up, but I think it could be interesting to play a game where the player characters are the supporting cast through whom the life of the main character is explored. This goes against the grain of RPGs in general, where the PCs are supposed to be the stars of the show. It also threatens to leave the players feeling bored and disaffected. If it could be pulled off it would require a central NPC character with a really dynamic personality that could capture the players’ interest and affection, and the PCs would have to be allowed to have an important impact on the story even as supporting characters. Perhaps the central character could even be a sort of “communal” PC that the players share, while they each also have their own side character.
This outstanding anime from Makoto Shinkai (the creator of Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days), 5 Centimeters per Second uses thoughtful narration, beautiful artwork, and a complimentary musical score to tell a touching story of adolescent frustration. Through 3 separate acts, this short film tells a story about a boy named Takaki who is separated from his childhood sweetheart when her family moves away from Tokyo, and how he struggles to cope with that heartbreak on into young-adulthood. The film tells the story in a way that is very true to real life adolescence, and conveys self-defining moments in a way that gave me pause for reflection.
What I think makes this movie really special is how true-to-life it is. It isn’t as if the writer sat down to write a romantic tragedy and said: “Let’s come up with the most tragic set of circumstances we can.” No, instead the scenarios are just everyday scenarios that millions of people have experienced. The person you love moves away and there’s nothing you can do about it. The person you love is in love with someone else. Who hasn’t been in a situation like one of those? Because of this, you can really feel the characters' heartbreaks with them.
I think as adults it might be easy to dismiss the frustrated relationships of these characters as foolish, but you have to remember that to the adolescents involved, the situations are very real and immanent. I hope that adults who watch this film will be reminded of their own adolescent heartbreaks and be able to connect with a younger generation.
I think it’s interesting how the story ends. Without giving too much away, it says a lot about the value of letting go.
Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from 5 Centimeters per Second.
3 Act Narrativism: This anime is told in 3 distinct acts which each take a leap forward in time, and each move the narrative forward significantly. I think it would be interesting in a Narrativist game to play a story out in 3 separate acts this way, with a definite beginning, middle, and end. I’m not sure how well that would work, but it’s an idea I’ve thought about working into one of my games-in-design: Breaking the Limit.
First Person Narration: A lot of this story is told beautifully through first person narration. It might be interesting to play a roleplaying game in which the players actively narrate events as their characters perceive them. I wonder what that would be like?
I recently bought the anime movie The Girl Who Leapt Through Time because I enjoyed it so much. The story is a lighthearted drama about a teenage girl named Makoto who discovers that she has the ability to leap through time. At first it seems great, as she can go back and correct any little mistakes she makes over the course of the day, but eventually she realizes that her good times are causing other people misfortune, and she only has a limited number of time leaps left with which to fix all of the problems she's caused.
I like that this movie shows how an ordinary kid would likely use time travel. She isn't using it to save the world or rewrite history, just to go back and correct little mistakes or avoid slightly embarrassing situations. How many youths haven't wished they could go back and do something over? The story is more about relationships and accepting responsibility for your actions than it actually is about time travel.
The movie features quite a few laughs. Some of this comes from the fact that Makoto must literally leap to travel through time. Because of this she's always crashing through doors and such as she recovers from her leaps, leaving people asking, "What in the world are you doing?" The movie grows more serious though as it progresses, with some very dramatic moments towards the end, and a rather unpredictable plot throughout.
The character designs seem a little bland at first, but they grow on you as it goes, and the backgrounds are very nicely illustrated. The writing is very well thought out and executed. The music score fits the movie nicely, and the theme song is very nice. (The DVD features a music video of the movie's theme song and the singer is really cute in a very nerdy kind of way. ^_^)
By the way, most anime I watch with Japanese audio and English subtitles. I've seen this movie now both that way and with English voice dubs, and I have to say that the English dub was well done.
Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
Play Narrativist Games: The theme of taking responsibility and facing the consequences of our actions is strong in this movie. Narrativist play could facilitate roleplaying where your characters are similarly forced to face up to the consequences that they reap from their choices and actions. The key here would be to give players real opportunities to make meaningful choices, and then make sure that they felt the repercussions of those choices for better or worse.
Time Travel as a Rewind Mechanic: Play a game where all of the player characters have the power to leap backwards in time, perhaps a limited number of times per game session. Each time they leap the story is "rewound" a number of scenes and play continues from there again. You could add an element of unpredictability by incorporating a randomizing mechanic to how many scenes back characters jump, representing an imperfect technique and adding an element of risk. Characters might not jump back far enough, or they might go back farther than they planned.
I just finished watching the series Noir, so here's my review:
The series follows the story of two young female assassins who embark together on a personal journey to seek answers about mysteries from their past. Yumura Kirika has no memory of her past. She awoke one day with only an identity she knows is fake, a gun, and a mysterious watch. Mireille Bouquet has repressed memories of her parents' unsolved murder, but Kirika's watch begins to bring those memories back.
During the course of the series, they are lured into more and more traps by a secret organization named Les Soldats ("The Soldiers" in French), and eventually find themselves caught up in a globe-spanning conspiracy.
The plot develops at a steady pace, gradually revealing more secrets and surprises until the very end. Amidst the danger and intrigue, they still find time for a good amount of character development. The conclusion of the series was as satisfying as the journey.
The anime is somewhat unique among serious anime stories in that it takes place squarely in the real modern world. The action takes place in various countries, mostly in Eastern Europe. The creators scouted locations just like they would for a live-action production, and scenes that take place in Paris and other real-world cities are based on actual locations. The guns and other props, and costumes, were likewise drawn from actual real-life sources. While a lot of these details will go unnoticed by most viewers, I think the effort put into it probably helped the show capture a realistic feel.
The animation wasn't as stunningly beautiful as some I've seen, but it was consistently good, and there was some clever use of lighting and camera angles that made it rather exceptional. The musical score was also very well chosen and conducted. It's cool to see various musical themes carried throughout the series, and some of the music they choose for the action scenes was great.
The action in the show was pretty well done. The fight scenes aren't especially flashy, but they're made interesting by Mireille and Kirika's clever tactics. Also, while the series did feature plenty of gun-play, there was very little blood and nothing gruesome. Actually, I thought the way they handled the violence and killing was rather mature. Rather than trying to justify the main characters' violent lifestyle, or trying to make it seem appealing, they made it obvious that the violence was actually quite pointless and tragic. While they didn't exactly shove that message in the viewers' faces, it was definitely a running theme throughout the whole series. This combined with Kirika's amnesia, and the extensive action scenes, actually reminded me a bit of the Bourne movies.
Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to watch most movies and shows with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from Noir.
Amnesiac characters: Rather than having a player create a background story for their character, have them begin with no memory of their past, and let the GM fill it in as they go. I've done this once with my Times Forgotten campaign. It's worked out alright there, but not every player might be up for this idea.
Play Wushu Open: This show actually reminded me of a free generic RPG I read recently called Wushu Open. The show features numerous battles wherein the main characters mow down a large number of nameless evil minions, punctuated by more intense battles against a single more worthy foe. Wushu Open features rules for descriptive action of exactly this type.
Shadow Conspiracies sans Sci-Fi: Some time ago I was working on writing a sci-fi mystery/conspiracy/thriller RPG called Shadow Conspiracies (working title). This anime strikes me as a good example of what that RPG might be like if played without the sci-fi elements.