Part 2 of our Kyoto Vacation chronicles ‘When Christmas Came to Otaku Town,’ beginning with a look at the first season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Based on the light novels by Nagaru Tanigawa, Haruhi is a seminal work of 21st century anime, with the first 14 episodes from 2006 creating an absolute sensation with major impacts on the future of the industry. It’s also an incredible set of episodes, presented in an out-of-chronology ‘shuffle order’ mixing stories from all over the Haruhi timeline in with a 6-part adaptation of the eponymous first light novel. It’s a structure that throws the viewer in the deep end, but also leads to a deeply compelling engagement with these off-beat characters and their very strange world, one that pays emotional dividends by the end. We talk about all of that, the history of the series, and the idea behind ‘moe’ on this very exciting episode! 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review the 2007 ‘slice of life’ comedy Lucky Star!  

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:31

Intro and History: 0:01:31 – 1:05:34

Eyecatch Break: 1:05:34 – 1:06:12

Haruhi Season 1 Review: 1:06:12 – 3:15:44

End Theme: 3:15:44 – 3:16:46

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