- Mangaka : Nagaru Tanigawa
- Publisher : Yen Press
- Genre : Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure
- Published : February 2021
It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the Haruhi Suzumiya series has taken the world by storm. It’s warranted its cult following and even has its mock religion. The series is divided into multiple books with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya being the first two. With Kyon being fully aware of what Haruhi is highly capable of and the amount of damage she can cause, we’re to witness how the SOS Brigade handles Haruhi’s ever so versatile whims and pendulum-esque mood swings.
Contains Spoilers
Discussion Time
Unlike the first book of the series, The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya is more of a collection of the SOS Brigade’s short adventures. The SOS Brigade finds themselves in various peculiar scenarios as they follow Haruhi’s desires. What’s unique about this book, however, is that it doesn’t necessarily mean the present-day Haruhi. The brigade faces interesting hurdles, which proves that Haruhi is really far more than what meets the eye.
1. Meeting Young Haruhi
One of the (mis)adventures in this book, the Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody to be exact, includes going back in time. Mikuru, the time traveler, drags Kyon back in time to ensure that everything falls into place. She leads him to somebody he must help, and it turns out that the person he will be helping is no other than Haruhi herself. Given that he has traveled back in time, this timeline’s Haruhi is a first-year middle school student trying to trespass at the school. She’s trying to send a message to the stars. Despite her being young, her character is still very distinct. Fortunately, she doesn’t even bother asking for Kyon’s name, which results to her forgetting about ever meeting him that night.
2. SOS Brigade’s Antics
Since the book has four different short stories about the SOS Brigade doing what they must do, we are served a plethora of crazy antics. Interestingly, we get to see the whole brigade work together to ensure the success of the mission -- maintain Haruhi’s happiness. If we’re going to ignore the fact that three of the SOS Brigade’s members have supernatural abilities, this book may have passed yet another typical high school slice of life story.
3. Nagato Flex
The one that catches the eye in this book is Nagato, our not-so-friendly alien. From the two previous books, we’ve already ascertained that Nagato is something else, quite literally. But it turns out that she’s more than what we’ve expected. During the brigade’s match against athletic baseball players, she tinkered the bat to ensure the brigade’s win. She is also the one responsible for making sure Kyon and Mikuru safely come back into where they are supposed to be. That’s just two of her wonders, and we don’t really want to spoil more than that.
Final Thoughts
The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya is probably the lightest among the first three books of the series. It’s subdivided into multiple stories, making it light to read. It’s easy to put the book down after each arc, then pick it up again when time presents itself. It’s also an interesting slice of life, which we didn’t really expect. We mean, Haruhi is strangely fixated with the supernatural and the occult that we’re convinced that the series will have more weird stories than what we consider normal.
Author: Christian Markle
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