The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya craze has just begun in the U.S. Watch as Haruhi-ism continues to overtake the world! I’m actually overstating this a bit, but when mainstream media starts picking up on anime (that isn’t tentacle-related) – it’s a good thing. From Wired Magazine’:
What’s Wired This Month: Paper Planes, Top-Secret Tourism, Aliens: #7. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
A manic schoolgirl, the title character of this hilariously self-referential anime, attempts to stave off boredom by searching for extraterrestrials. The TV show is a phenomenon in Japan, and fan translations on YouTube have primed the pump for the official US DVD release. Expect it to convert American geeks to Haruhi-ism.
I think it’s good to see coverage of an anime series like in the (semi) mainstream media. It provides additional proof to the general public that anime isn’t all tentacles, explosions and violence! 
Oh, and animeOnline also has a nice article about Haruhi’s rise to fame too! Here’s an excerpt:
Haruhi Suzumiya has no right to be melancholy. She’s the star of a TV show so popular that a special word was coined for its fandom: Haruhiism. She has legions of fans in Japan, America, and the rest of the world. She also unknowingly has the ability to bend reality to her will, a power her four chosen subordinates – klutzy time-traveler Mikuru, quiet alien robot Yuki, suave psychic Koizumi, and the much-beleaguered, perfectly normal Kyon – fear she’ll use to destroy the world to replace it with something more interesting.
So what do you think about The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya? Do you think the show is awesome? Do you think it’s overrated?
“Watch as Haruhi-ism continues to overtake the world!”
I’m not sure about Haruhi-ism, but Haruhi has certainly popped up in some
unexpected places and used for some unexpected purposes. This event happened
a few months after the series aired in Japan:
http://www.afpbb.com/article/1174867
A brief English explanation of the article from ANN:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2006-12-19/haruhi-suzimiya-in-gaza
If this is a religion, then it is a mockery of every religion known to mankind.
I’m with DrmChsr0 no this one. It’s even a cult to boot. Hasn’t reached “religion” status. :/
Yeah. It’s nice that anime gets the treatment it deserves.
mochi – Interesting. See what I mean about the Haruhi invasion?
DrmChsr0 – I take it you’re not a fan?
Ronin – I don’t know about it being cult-like or religious…I guess anything that people obsess over could be considered cult-ish…like anime!
Confession: I’ve not seen the show yet, but the buzz about Haruhi is starting to pull me in. I sense myself only a few days away from full-on obsessive about this show, lol!
So you might start seeing a large volume of posts related to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (or TMOHS as I like to call it) in the next week.
Actually, I’m teasing – seriously. Well, partly anyways.
So is anyone else obsessive about TMOHS? Surly if you are, you’ll have found this post by now and will want to comment!
@David, noooooooo! I know I won’t like this anime but if you really wanna watch it, we’ll do the customary 5 episode viewing together to see where TMOHS falls on the loathing scale. Geez, I sincerely hope you were only teasing, mainly
The “Hare Hare Yukai” dance seen in bits and pieces in the credits to the show (and
later released in its entirety as an extra on the DVD) had taken on a life of its own
spawning all sorts of copies, parodies, and cosplay performances. A recent version
called the “Pika Pika Yukai” is rather impressive, showing the dedication (obsession?)
of the editor/animator…as the title suggests, Pokemon characters take the place of
the Haruhi characters (with one exception at the end):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoyZQfO7nls
For a comparison, here is the DVD non-credit version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpVyi37cy3E&NR=1
David: I got nothing on the show itself, but it’s fans are some of the worst examples of humanity I’ve ever seen. Going so far as to wanting to take over the world and rewrite history. Plus the girl herself is annoying to the point where even if I had the insane notion of breaking her soul, I’d derive less pleasure than watching paint dry.
I guess you have a point on that.
Still, it’s not something to go gaga over. In with DrmChsr0. ^^
Mark – Thanks for the link!
DrmChsr0 – But who doesn’t want to take over the world?
Ronin – So I won’t fall in love with the show and make Rachel change the site to ‘The Melancholy of The Anime Blog’?
This show is overrated. A few ecchi here and a few gropes there. And perhaps that is all for there to be watched. I mean sure, the show explores the possibility of Haruhi possibly being a being with the ability to rewrite the world around her. But, I have done an obligatory four episode watch and my decision is that this show sucks.
How dare you say that! XD If you watch the show in the right order, it’s much better, in case you watched it in the “broadcasted order”. After you watch the entire series you think “Meh, that was cute.” Afterwards, when you search up all the fan made Haruhi stuff, you slowly begin to like it more and more. And thus I learned how thousands of people could degrade themselves to learning a silly dance done by cartoon characters.