Haruhi Suzumiya (Japanese: 涼宮ハルヒ, Hepburn: Suzumiya Haruhi) is a Japanese light novel series written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito. Initially released in Japan in 2003 with the novel The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, it was followed by ten additional volumes, an anime television series adaptation, four manga series, an animated film, two original net animation series and several video games.
After the anime adaptation airing in 2006, publishing company Kadokawa Shoten received offers for licensing the novels and their adaptations. The novels are licensed for English language release in the United States by Little, Brown and Company, for young readers by Yen Press and the anime adaptation was licensed for North American distribution by Kadokawa Pictures USA division which then sub-licensed production and distribution to Bandai Entertainment.
The anime is currently licensed by Funimation.
Kyon is a student at North High School in Nishinomiya. He is dragged along by his classmate, the titular Haruhi Suzumiya, an eccentric schoolgirl who seeks supernatural phenomena and figures, such as aliens, time travelers, and espers. With Kyon's reluctant help, Haruhi establishes a club called the "SOS Brigade" (SOS団, Esu-Ō-Esu Dan), short for "Spreading excitement all Over the world with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade" (世界を大いに盛り上げるための涼宮ハルヒの団, Sekai o Ōini Moriageru Tame no Suzumiya Haruhi no Dan) (In the school's official paperwork Kyon renamed it "Support the Student Body by Overworking to Make the World a Better Place Student Service Brigade") to investigate mysterious events.
Haruhi soon recruits three additional members: the laconic bibliophile Yuki Nagato, the shy and timid Mikuru Asahina, and the unflappable transfer student Itsuki Koizumi. These members soon reveal themselves to Kyon to be the types of extraordinary characters that Haruhi seeks. They have been sent by their respective secret organizations to observe Haruhi—who is unaware that she possesses destructive reality warping powers—and to prevent these powers from being unleashed. Each of the three believe that it would be dangerous were Haruhi to discover she had such powers. Together with Kyon, they work to keep life interesting for Haruhi and to prevent her from becoming bored enough to imagine a new world, as they and their organizations fear that this would destroy the current world.
The anime adaptation of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu), produced by the Japanese animation studio Kyoto Animation and directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, contained 14 episodes which aired in Japan between April 2 and July 2, 2006. It was originally aired in a nonlinear order, with the prologue and first seven chapters of the first novel intermixed with chapters from some of the later novels. The "next episode" previews feature two different episode numberings: one number from Haruhi, who numbers the episodes in chronological order, and one number from Kyon, who numbered them in broadcast order. The DVD releases start with "Episode 00" and are then shown in chronological order.
The anime was licensed and distributed by Bandai Entertainment over four DVDs released between May and November 2007. A complete box set was released on July 29, 2008. It was broadcast in Italy on Rai 4 between October 24, 2010 and February 6, 2011. Each of the North American releases offered a limited edition collector's set featuring the English dub DVD in chronological order, a subbed-only disc containing the episodes in broadcast order, and an official CD release of the opening, ending, and insert songs appearing in the show.
The second season of the anime series was announced in a full-page advertisement of Asahi Shimbun on July 7, 2007 in Japan. Promotional videos included a live action sequence, inspired by the "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" chapter from the third novel The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya, depicting Haruhi and Kyon breaking into a school shown by footage taken from surveillance cameras.
On December 18, 2007, the anime's official website, haruhi.tv, was replaced by a fake 404 error with five form-input fields, a reference to the pivotal date in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, the fourth volume in the light novel series.
A re-broadcast of the first series began in April 2009. Following a comment by Teletama, one of the broadcasting stations, that the 2009 broadcast would be 28 episodes long, there was speculation that the re-broadcast would be followed by the second season, though this was not confirmed by Kadokawa at the time. The first new episode, "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" (笹の葉ラプソディ, Sasa no Ha Rapusodi), was aired on May 21, 2009, as the eighth episode of the re-broadcast. Unlike the original run the re-broadcast was shown in chronological order, with new episodes intermixed with the old ones. Episodes were later shown on Kadokawa's YouTube channel after the broadcast and started showing English-subtitled episodes. Bandai Entertainment licensed the re-broadcast in 2010 and released a complete collection in North America on September 14, 2010. Manga Entertainment released the season in a 4-disc DVD box set, including the Haruhi-chan mini-episodes, in the UK on July 4, 2011. Following the 2012 closure of Bandai Entertainment, Funimation announced at Otakon 2014 that they had licensed the anime television series.
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