NOTE: This post is a part of an effort on my end to bring my Reddit content to Lemmy.
Original Posting Date: 29/07/2022
Post:
She's an insolent, stubborn, selfish piece of shit that won't stop for anything to get things her way. Cast aside the over arching plot of supernatural stuff, she's still an asshole. I hate her and the more I go into this series, the more I hate her with a burning passion.
Edit: adding that I'm yet to watch the movie. My opinion could change over time so let's hope for the best.
Also, some people seem to think that I hate the series. Hell no. I've laughed my ass off at Kyon and the gang being annoyed at her whims and fantasies. I also know that that's the point of her character. But apparently it's criminal to join the subreddit of an anime to discuss our thoughts unless they're positive opinions.
Lemme know what your views are.
Edit 2: This comment is really awesome. (Was posted by u/Cerber4444 on Reddit)
Okay, hear me out. I'm a big fan of this show myself. But Haruhi is indeed has not the best character in universe. But its kinda the point of the show. She isn't badly written character, she's a character with bad behaviour. She is designed with that in mind.
This whole show is partially a big self aware parody of clichés in anime. You know like in typical anime there is always main girl who is loved by people in anime itself and fans, but in reality she would be annoying and simply toxic friend/girlfriend.
Haruhi is this character but put in realistic setting. That's why everyone in school avoid Haruhi, despite her being beautiful looking. Because that's how any real person would react to insane girl who is not considering of their surroundings.
Same with other cast- Koidzumi, Mikuru and Yuki seems to be your regular one dimensional characters. But in reality they are good writen characters with their own motivation, secrets, internal conflicts and overall depth.
Overall this show is about four students who is friends with that annoying and toxic main character, and despite understanding that she is bad for them, they can't leave this relationship because of existential threat for our world from Haruhi. Well three of them arrived to this time and place specifically because of this threat.
And remember how sometimes this show gets a little bit dark? Koidzumis monologue in taxi and on bridge, for example. He is turning it to a joke, but it doesn't feel like a joke. That kind of moments make me confident, that all this dark theme between the lines was intentional.
And yeah, like Kyon said- he is a voice of reason for Haruhi, and he is changing her to a better side little by little. And his love to her is becoming obvious in this context. Because it's isn't rare, when a person falls in love with someone who is toxic, but displays a redeeming qualities time to time.
I could go on and on about all of this, but I already said a lot. And that is making this anime one of my favourite. It has so much depth, despite appearing as regular one dimensional anime at first glance.
Update: I watched the movie. Here's my post talking about it.
Oh and one more thing: Nagato is best girl. Fight me, Harusimps.
Obviously Haruhi (the character) is a bad person and she is written to be like that. I also find the series good but I share your frustration a little bit. When I asked myself why I was kind of upset at Haruhi when watching it took me a while to come up with a reason. In the end, I think the irritation comes from the lack of consequences for Haruhi. Usually one expects, or hopes, people who structurally hurt others to bite the dust in the end. That one can only temporarily get away with hurting others. But in the Haruhi story, they can't exactly stop her easily because she might end the world if she grows tired of it. Kyon stops her sometimes but usually he does not have that strong of a backbone (he vows to protect Mikuru from Haruhi but usually has to let it go). Another option is that bad people in fiction usually are expected to have some personal growth if they are not villain (and even if they are, sometimes). Haruhi seems to change and soften up a bit but I guess not as much as many hoped for.
In the movie, Yuki seems to be more important than Haruhi which some may regard as a positive. In the spin-off Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu (長門 有希 ちゃん の 消失), Haruhi is clearly still "Haruhi" but a much softer version that is more likeable and shows more of the good sides she has.
I've noticed that the series never got around to showing Haruhi growing. There's a lot to say about why that is. But as I've gathered, the sequel Light Novels apparently show her grow.
The most important reason for why Haruhi's character seems to not grow in the first 2 seasons at all is probably easily boiled down to the fact that this series was released at a time when weekly show watching on TV was the trend as opposed to the streaming approach that we are now used to in today's Internet era. I think they planned on a longer run that allowed them to cover all the stories. What ended up happening was that after the fire in KyoAni, they decided to just do one movie. This made it a sudden jump for many characters' arcs.
For example, as I've mentioned before, Haruhi's character is much more "mature" in the movie, meaning she's not an asshole. She cares about Kyon and she shows it.
This is a stark contrast to the pace they had in the show. Plus, IMHO, the Endless Eight arc could've been 2 repeated episodes and one montage episode. Instead of wasting a good 8 episodes on this crap.
That would've also allowed us to add another smaller story before the Endless Eight arc (EE from now onwards), and having EE end the season would've made it a seamless transition into the movie.
As far as I remember, they also released the show our of order (for whatever reason), and that, to me, would've helped them solve the EE situation further...
Anyway, on to the more important aspect of your comment...
There's nothing that would sell me this movie more than an extended focus on Yuki and just ignoring Haruhi. 😂
I like the endless eight arc. It's daring, bold and shows artistic expression over just pleasing the crowd. I like the focus on Yuki in the movie, the rooftop scene was quite touching. I have to admit, Haruhi and Kyon were very cute in the hospital scene. Until she starts making demands again haha.
I appreciate the effort that went into EE and the amount of time it probably took to set it all up. But I feel like even a 3rd day would've been fine to hammer home how suffocating that moment must feel. And followed by the 5th one with that compilation of all the various endings.
Ikr. That last scene is beautiful. Plus, it's snowing, and her name is Yuki (literally snow in Japanese). Truly beautiful.
Agreed. That scene was the real Tsundere Haruhi (Tsunderuhi lol).