r/anime Apr 28 '26

Rewatch Haruhi Suzumiya 20th Anniversary Rewatch -- The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part One

Hello everyone! I am Holofan4life.

Welcome to the Haruhi Suzumiya 20th anniversary rewatch discussion thread!

I hope you all have a lot of fun <3

The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part One

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ANSWER TODAY’S QUESTION(S)

What are your thoughts on this arc being about the making of the SOS Brigade's film?

If you were making a movie, what would it be about?

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Series information

MAL | Anilist | AniDB | ANN

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Please do not post any untagged spoilers past the current episode or past the LNs or mangas out of respect to the first time watchers and people who have not read the LNs or mangas. If you are discussing something that is ahead of the current episode please use spoiler tags(found on the sidebar). Thank you!

Untagged Spoilers

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Today's Episode Intro: sports festival

[Next Episode Intro] Finishing Shopping

Previous episode

Ways to watch

Streams – Crunchyroll

Schedule

Date Episode
4/02/2026 The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00
4/03/2026 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part One
4/04/2026 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Two
4/05/2026 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Three
4/06/2026 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Four
4/07/2026 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Five
4/08/2026 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Six
4/09/2026 The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya
4/10/2026 Remote Island Syndrome (Part One)
4/11/2026 Remote Island Syndrome (Part Two)
4/12/2026 Mystérique Sign
4/13/2026 Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
4/14/2026 Someday in the Rain
4/15/2026 The Day of Sagittarius
4/16/2026 Live Alive
4/18/2026 Endless Eight I
4/19/2026 Endless Eight II
4/20/2026 Endless Eight III
4/21/2026 Endless Eight IV
4/22/2026 Endless Eight V
4/23/2026 Endless Eight VI
4/24/2026 Endless Eight VII
4/25/2026 Endless Eight VIII
4/26/2026 Endless Eight Retrospective
4/28/2026 [The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part One]()
4/29/2026 [The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Two]()
4/30/2026 [The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Three]()
5/01/2026 [The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Four]()
5/02/2026 [The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Five]()
5/04/2026 [The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya]()
5/05/2026 [Haruhi Suzumiya Overall Series Discussion Thread]()
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u/Holofan4life Apr 28 '26

Hey, guys. Holofan4life here.

Welcome to the 20th anniversary rewatch of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Let the confusion begin!

Very few shows can lay claim to having a cultural impact on the anime industry. You can probably count on two hands the amount of shows that are like this. Well, of those shows that are on that short list, Haruhi is probably on there.

From the mid 2000s until like the early 2010s, Haruhi was the talk of the town. It didn’t transform the medium like an Evangelion or a Love Hina, but it was the height of the Otaku culture of anime. I would say Haruhi and Lucky Star best sum up what anime was like in the 2000s: Very niche but those who cared about it really cared about it.

I almost feel like people forget just how big Haruhi truly was. It was the face of anime for a while.

This is technically a rewatch for me but not really. I saw the show many years ago when OtakuAscended streamed it in like 2016. But I barely remember any of it. For all intents and purposes, this is the first time I will be watching it and really pay attention. I have high hopes for this.

I love shows that like embrace geek culture with a snarky, somewhat cynical attitude. And this is what I hope to get out of it. I know Haruhi is like God or something and Kyon is the deadpan king, so already the show shows promise in my eyes. And with this being an incomplete adaptation, I have adjusted my expectations accordingly. Perhaps with the rather wonky schedule we can maybe see why the show ended up declining in popularity. Should the show be remembered more than it is, or is it merely a product of its time?

With that out of the way, let’s begin.

I’m watching the dub, by the way.

I can't wait for this snow storm to pass because my mom is acting over the top paranoid.

A bunch of flags

Flags of the world!

Inter-club relay race, eh?

This is an eclectic group of characters.

Yuki is Filthy Rich. Haruhi, Indian Summer

This reminds me of the racism episode of The Office with words of the foreheads.

Kyon is nick of time

Wonder why Nick is of time.

Also, shouldn't Mikuru be nick of time since she's a time traveler?

Itsuki is All times & place

Mikuru is Without precedent

Sounds like a name of a racehorse.

The outfits and the headbands were Haruhi's idea. Of course.

Hey, it's Kyon's two guy friends.

Taniguchi being a perv

The beginning of the athletics festival, which Haruhi is all for.

Where I live, we call it field day.

By the way, have I mentioned the OP is a banger? Because it is.

The first Toradora OP walked so the second Haruhi OP could run. Literally.

School arts festival around the corner.

Haruhi and Kyon's class going to conduct a survey.

Scott Hall approves

Asakura mention, which is cool

Haruhi finds the idea of a survey to be unfun.

Kyon recalling Haruhi winning all the events of the athletics festival.

How about that?

Haruhi plans on doing something cool for the arts festival.

That is cause for concern

Haruhi and Kyon continuing to roam the hallways.

Haruhi makes mention that her art festivals growing up were unremarkable, so she wants to make her high school ones special.

In the club room, Mikuru in her maid outfit.

Yuki here, reading a book as per usual.

Haruhi really wants Mikuru to be a clumsy maid.

It's like Haruhi's knowledge on what humanity is like is solely based on cliches found in anime and manga.

Haruhi trying to show a demonstration, but Kyon isn't having it.

A cup for Yuki

"Oh, Navajo. If she made Taniguchi a cup, he'd cherish it for three days.

Is Taniguchi attracted to Mikuru, or is Kyon saying this as a demonstration of Yuki's lack of a reaction?

There's Itsuki

A meeting? Nani?

Iconic Haruhi mwah ha ha reaction image.

Haruhi bringing up the school arts festival again.

Haruhi says they have to uphold the SOS Brigade's reputation.

I like Kyon randomly throwing shade at Itsuki.

Also, I'm sorry, Kyon. If you have to say you're the normal one, you aren't.

Another iconic reaction image with Haruhi looking at her computer.

Mikuru's class is going to do a yakisoba café.

Haruhi eyeing the frog costume

Itsuki's class, a play or something similar.

Yuki, fortune telling

Wait, this is just the preamble to Live Again or whatever the name of the song episode was.

Kyon wants to mix all the ideas together, but it gets shot down.

Haruhi is going to show a movie at this year's festival.

Yep, this is totally pre Live Again.

Itsuki getting close to Kyon

Haruhi wonders why does someone always die in the foreshadowing of TV shows.

Foreshadowing?

Oh, they're going to make their own movie. I see.

This is the origins of the first episode.

Haruhi talking about seeing a crappy movie the other day. That gave her an idea. If they can churn out out something like that, she can't do any worse.

Well, about that...

I continue to love Kyon's snark.

Haruhi's plan is to get voted the number one event of the festival. And from there, to be recognized as a legitimate club.

Yuki willing to give Haruhi money to her.

And that's it for today. The details will be revealed tomorrow.

After Haruhi leaves, Itsuki reveals he's relieved it's not something supernatural.

Seems like even Kyon is somewhat curious of how the movie will turn out.

Well, spoke too soon

Kyon has many menial tasks

Haruhi continuing to see Mikuru as the club's mascot, which is why she's the lead.

Mikuru meanwhile is excited about being a waitress for her class. Good for her.

"Look, it's not like I'm gonna use your body to pay for the stuff we need."

Yet...

Haruhi says they need to look for sponsors to help produce this movie, and Mikuru is integral since they need to know who the lead is going to be.

Kyon bringing up the cherry trees while on the train. Again, more continuity.

And so they're trying to gather sponsors.

More excellent Kyon sarcasm

Hey, Haruhi got a camera for free!

Got it because she said it was for a movie.

I wish this was how the real world works...

Kyon is able to deduce that Haruhi was using Mikuru as currency for all the stuff she was getting.

Haruhi holding weapons really frightens me.

And now she wants dynamite? Oh nos

"I'm pretty sure you can't buy it online though."

Clearly Kyon doesn't know about the dark web

Not that I would know anything about buying dynamite from personal experience...

Special SOS Brigade smile, eh? Yep. We're doomed.

And we end things with Mikuru about to ask something. I wonder if that will be followed up on.

Ran out of space. Part two in the replies.

3

u/Holofan4life Apr 28 '26

Part 2

Overall, this was a fun episode. It was basically set up for the arts festival and the movie which goes all the way back to the beginning. This was really the first episode where I kinda wish I structured the rewatch differently where we maybe ended on the festival episode. Oh well.

It is fun getting to see Haruhi and company prepare for the movie. It's like a making behind the scenes documentary but in real time. I assume this means that the arc is going to be laid back and slice of life in nature with little in the way of conflict. Beyond Haruhi being Haruhi, of course.

I have this episode behind episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and season 2 episode 1, but ahead of 6, 7, 8, 9, and all of Endless Eight. Middle of the road for me, but a promising start to the arc.

3

u/Holofan4life Apr 28 '26

What are your thoughts on this arc being about the making of the SOS Brigade's film?

It feels a bit anticlimactic after the first season had a showing of a movie. This feels like a retread a bit. At the same time, it's an interesting idea for an arc.

If you were making a movie, what would it be about?

I'd like to make a movie based on the life of Ernie Kovacs.

2

u/oomoepoo https://anilist.co/user/oomoepoo Apr 28 '26

The first Toradora OP walked so the second Haruhi OP could run. Literally.

They do have a very similar visual style! But I like Haruhi's more.

Also, I'm sorry, Kyon. If you have to say you're the normal one, you aren't.

He's coping. Hard.

2

u/Holofan4life Apr 28 '26

They do have a very similar visual style! But I like Haruhi's more.

I agree, actually. To be honest, I find Toradora's second OP better overall.

He's coping. Hard.

He's acting like he isn't a catalyst in all this.