Haruhi Suzumiya (light novels)

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For other uses, see Haruhi Suzumiya (disambiguation).
Haruhi Suzumiya

The first novel: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
涼宮ハルヒ
(Suzumiya Haruhi)
Genre Comedy, Science fiction
Light novel
Author Nagaru Tanigawa
Illustrator Noizi Ito
Publisher Flag of Japan Kadokawa Shoten
English publisher Flag of the United States Little, Brown Books for Young Readers & Yen Press
Demographic Male
Serialized in The Sneaker (short stories only)
Published June 6, 2003 – ongoing
Volumes 9

The Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒ Suzumiya Haruhi?) series is a collection of Japanese light novels written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito centering around the high school girl Haruhi Suzumiya, her strange antics, and her friends in a club she formed called the SOS Brigade. The series started with the release of the first volume on June 6, 2003 entitled The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya which was originally published by the Japanese company Kadokawa Shoten, but has since been licensed for release in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China by Kadokawa Media, in South Korea by Daiwon CI, and in the United States by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Yen Press.[1] The first novel of this series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was awarded the Grand Prize in the eighth annual Sneaker Awards—only the third Grand Prize given out in the Award's history. The series went on to be a huge success in Japan, selling over 4,300,000 copies collectively.[2]

As of April 1, 2007, there are nine individual novels published in Japan. The first novel will be available in English in April 2009.[1][3] Later, an anime adaptation was created entitled The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya after the first volume, though the story covers material from several of the books.

Contents

[edit] Outline

The story is told by Kyon, one of the members of SOS Brigade, and is centered around Haruhi Suzumiya, a first-year high school student, and a group called the SOS Brigade (SOS団 エス・オー・エスだん Esuōesu dan?), which she formed in order to look for and play with aliens, people from the future, people from alternate worlds, and other such extraordinary entities. The club name is actually an acronym of: Suzumiya Haruhi's Brigade to greatly enliven the world (世界を大いに盛り上げるための涼宮ハルヒの団 Sekai o Ō(O)ini moriagerutame no Suzumiya Haruhi no dan?). It is described as an unusual school story (非日常系学園ストーリー hinichijōkei gakuen sutōrī?).

[edit] Light novels

Main article: List of Haruhi Suzumiya light novels
  1. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu?)
    Published on June 6, 2003 (ISBN 4-04-429201-9)
    • Haruhi forms the SOS Brigade.
  2. The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya[4] (涼宮ハルヒの溜息 Suzumiya Haruhi no Tameiki?)
    Published on September 30, 2003 (ISBN 4-04-429202-7)
    • The SOS Brigade films a movie for the school cultural festival.
  3. The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya[4] (涼宮ハルヒの退屈 Suzumiya Haruhi no Taikutsu?)
    Published on December 27, 2003 (ISBN 4-04-429203-5)
    • A collection of short stories.
  4. The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya[4] (涼宮ハルヒの消失 Suzumiya Haruhi no Shōshitsu?)
    Published on July 31, 2004 (ISBN 4-04-429204-3)
    • Haruhi vanishes one day, and it seems like she was never there. Confronted by a "normal" school life, how does Kyon react?
  5. The Rashness of Haruhi Suzumiya[4] (涼宮ハルヒの暴走 Suzumiya Haruhi no Bōsō?)
    Published on September 30, 2004 (ISBN 4-04-429205-1)
    • A collection of short stories, taking place in summer, autumn, and winter.
  6. The Disturbance of Haruhi Suzumiya[4] (涼宮ハルヒの動揺 Suzumiya Haruhi no Dōyō?)
    Published on March 31, 2005 (ISBN 4-04-429206-X)
    • A collection of short stories.
  7. The Scheme of Haruhi Suzumiya[4] (涼宮ハルヒの陰謀 Suzumiya Haruhi no Inbō?)
    Published on August 31, 2005 (ISBN 4-04-429207-8)
    • Mikuru from eight days later shows up before Kyon, and she was sent back in time by Kyon himself. Why?
  8. The Anger of Haruhi Suzumiya[4] (涼宮ハルヒの憤慨 Suzumiya Haruhi no Fungai?)
    Published on May 1, 2006 (ISBN 4-04-429208-6)
    • Two stories. First one is centered on Literature Club and the other one on another client of the Brigade.
  9. The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya[citation needed] (涼宮ハルヒの分裂 Suzumiya Haruhi no Bunretsu)
    Published on April 1, 2007 (ISBN 4-04-429209-6)
    • SOS Brigade is being confronted by an enemy.
  10. The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya[citation needed] (涼宮ハルヒの驚愕 Suzumiya Haruhi no Kyogaku)
    Publication date TBA[5] (ISBN 4-04-429210-8)[6]

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Haruhi Suzumiya characters

In the series, there are five main characters that are all members of the SOS Brigade. The founder of the club, Haruhi Suzumiya, is a very energetic and often eccentric girl who began the club after talking with the only other person that would converse with her, a fellow classmate nicknamed Kyon. Her main purpose to start the club was to be able to find aliens, espers, time travelers, dimensional travelers (specifically sliders), and other oddities so as to alleviate some of her boredom.

Kyon, a cynical classmate of Haruhi's who began talking with her out of pure curiosity alone, is dragged into the club, though is unsure what will come of it. When two other members are "recruited" by Haruhi to join, Kyon decides to stay in order to make sure no harm comes to them per Haruhi's wacky ideas. He serves to stop Haruhi from going too far most of the time, but is not always able to stop her. Also, even with all his complaining, it is apparent he obviously feels for her.

The third member of the club is Yuki Nagato, a very silent bibliophile who usually wants to simply be left alone to read. Unknown to Haruhi, Yuki is in fact a "humanoid interface", or artificial human, created by the extraterrestrial Data Integrated Thought Entity. The fourth member is the shy and timid Mikuru Asahina, who happens to be one year above Haruhi. She is actually a time traveler. The final member of the SOS Brigade is Itsuki Koizumi, who is almost always smiling and more than willing to give in to Haruhi's strange demands. He turns out to be one of many espers. All three of these members were sent by their particular group to investigate Haruhi Suzumiya, who appears to all three of them to have extraordinary powers equivalent to that of a god, such as the power to remake the world into anything she desires. However, Haruhi herself does not realize she has such power and additionally does not realize her own club contains the very people she is searching for.

Of the remaining characters, a good amount of them are other schoolmates such as Tsuruya, one of Mikuru's good friends, and classmate, or The Computer Research Society President, whose clubroom is unluckily right next to the SOS Brigade's. Additionally, there are many more characters featured in the novels than are found in the anime series, though it is likely that several such characters will be introduced in the upcoming second season of the anime.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Rights Report. PW Children's Bookshelf. Publishers Weekly. Retrieved on 2008-04-17.
  2. ^ Kobe News Article (Japanese). Retrieved on 2007-06-30.
  3. ^ Little, Brown Gets Haruhi Light Novels in English. Anime News Network (April 17, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-04-17.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g English title as found on some official bookmarks. Retrieved on 2007-07-24.
  5. ^ The notice of the adjourned sale of Suzumiya Haruhi no Kyogaku (Japanese). Kadokawa Shoten. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
  6. ^ Two new novels newspaper article (Japanese). Mainichi Shinbun. Retrieved on 2007-02-28.

[edit] External links

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Haruhi Suzumiya
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