Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Blu-ray Movie Review

Does anybody know what space-time it is?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 10, 2011

Remember the “dream season” of Dallas? Or the “sideways reality” on the final year of Lost? Viewers tend to react to these sleights of hand with less than favorable acclaim, and often feel cheated that they’ve invested time and energy in storylines that turn out to be artificial constructs. For those of that particular persuasion, it might be best to steer clear of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, a feature film continuation of the long running Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series which was adapted into a television series. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is in fact culled from one of the original light novels by Nagaru Tanigawa, and while it is interwoven with the larger saga of Haruhi, Kyon and the other members of the SOS Brigade, it also functions fairly well as a standalone entity that is at least relatively easy to follow even if some of the details won’t be completely clear to those unfamiliar with either the novels or the television show. Viewers who don’t exactly cotton to the idea of “dream seasons” or “sideways realities” should know going in that one of the central plot conceits of the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise is that its titular heroine is able to subconsciously alter reality, so that one is never quite sure what exactly is real and what is a construct of Haruhi’s febrile imagination. Without posting too many spoilers, the light novels and television series slowly reveal that Kyon is in fact the only (relatively) normal human hanging out with Haruhi, and that a number of other friends actually have extraordinary powers themselves, powers they are devoting to keeping Haruhi’s penchant for changing the fabric of space-time in check so that everything appears normal. Those very attempts are turned completely on their heads in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, a charming little fable that takes place over the week before Christmas one year as Kyon arrives at school to discover that Haruhi and Itsuki Koisuma, one of the other faux students whose “real” job it is to keep Haruhi stabilized so that reality is, well, real, have disappeared. Even more troubling, Ryoko Asakura, a character who had tried to kill Kyon previously but who had been banished to a little pocket of space-time, is back, and no one except Kyon seems to even realize that things have changed, rather drastically it seems.

Part of what might be problematic for anyone coming into The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya cold, as it were, is that fact that the basic setup of the novels and the television series is so exceedingly complex to begin with. When people start throwing around terms like “humanoid interface” or “SOS Brigade” or “Macrospatial Quantum Existence,” the tendency might be to simply heave a deep sigh and reach for the “off” button on the remote. But if you can get past the very real possibility that you’ll be confused at least part of the time, there’s an intriguing little mystery in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, and one which plays fairly artfully with time honored (no pun intended) science fiction tropes of time traveling, alternate realities and paradoxes which arise from both of these elements. In fact with multiple versions of several characters popping up at various times (no pun intended) throughout The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, one might be tempted to think of the more manic sections of Back to the Future II, when various Marty McFlys and other characters are traipsing around each other, trying not to completely screw up the timeline and their own futures.

In fact it's in this multi-version character aspect that The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya may put off not just those who aren't very familiar with the franchise, but for longtime fans as well. Once Ryoko gets back to her cheerfully murderous ways, we get an onslaught of different versions of at least a couple of characters, and following whom these are, what timeline they're from, and what they're up to becomes something of a chore. The film gets rather ridiculously complex at this point and even Einsteinian geniuses may be scratching their heads trying to figure out what exactly is going on.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya does benefit from the drier than dry narration of Kyon, which helps to orient the viewer and which provides an often funny running commentary as to what’s going on, or at least what Kyon thinks is going on. The film is probably overlong (it clocks in at close to three hours), but that at least allows scenarist Fumihiko Shimo the chance to adequately explore the many conundrums that Kyon faces as he attempts to figure out why reality has suddenly shifted into an alternate version of events.

Some may not be exactly thrilled that there’s a certain Wizard of Oz denouement to The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. L. Frank Baum purists have been infuriated for years over the glossy Hollywood “was it all a dream?” coda tacked onto the film version of Oz, and while the conclusion of The Disappearance of haruhi Suzumiya is similarly contrived and ambiguous, it does tend to bring up the same issues that disapproving fans of “dream seasons” and “sideways realities” complain about to from the get go, namely that they’ve invested a lot of time and energy into something that was never real to begin with.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Disappearance Haruhi Suzumiya is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. There's nothing extremely innovative in either the character design or the backgrounds in this anime, but it is nonetheless one of the sharpest looking releases in recent memory. Colors are beautifully saturated and very robust, line detail is exceptional, and overall the image boasts an impressive clarity and focus. The film does have some very nice light effects which pop very well in this presentation, and some cooler effects like frost emanating from Kyon's frigid nostrils are also rendered very well and look crisp as can be. There are some minimal CGI elements which are woven into the more traditional cel animation and while they're not mind-blowingly brilliant, they also look great on this Blu-ray.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Two very good lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks grace The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and they both have a lot to offer. As seems to be the case, for some reason the English dub has just slightly more low end, with a noticeable bump up in LFE and the thumping bass that accompanies some of the score. Otherwise the two tracks are virtually identical with the obvious exception of the voice work. Purists will want to stick with the original Japanese language track, but for those who don't like to read subtitles, the English track is very well done, though Kyon's voice may strike some as a bit too "mature" for a younger teen. Fidelity on both of the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks is excellent, dynamic range is similarly well presented, and the balance between all elements is very good. Surround channels are not given an amazing workout, but they do come into play consistently enough to create a fairly solid sense of immersion a great deal of the time.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Bandai is joining the bandwagon of other anime distributors in releasing combo packs that don't just include a DVD of the main feature but also a second DVD full of (most of the) supplements.

BD Supplement:

• Trailers for other Bandai Releases

DVD Supplements:

• Location Hunting (SD; 9:49) finds the crew scouting a number of locations like Konan Hospital.
• BGM Recording (SD; 15:49) focuses on the recording of the background music (BGM) and has some interesting footage in the recording studio and with the featured pianist Seiji Honda.
• Special Screening in Tokyo (SD; 1:03:44) took place on February 6, 2010 at Shinjuku Wald 9 and features a lengthy Q&A.
• Special Screening in Kyoto (SD; 16:36) does similar duty for a February 20, 2010 screening at Kyoto Cinema, with a considerably shorter Q&A.
• Cutting, Dubbing, Editing (SD; 29:11) is an interesting piece taped in 2009 at Studio Gong where post was being done.
• PV Making (SD; 25:55). Not quite sure what "PV" stands for (something probably very simple that I'll slap my head over later), but this documents some location scouting at the school used as the model for Haruhi's school, as well as photo shoots for the soundtrack CD cover and the like.
• Teasers (SD; 2:21)
• Trailer (SD; 1:03)
• BD/DVD Commercials (SD; 00:34)
• TV Spots (SD; 3:10)
• ASOS Brigade Episode #A (The Disappearance of Cristina) (SD; 00:51) is a brief live action quasi-trailer intercut with scenes from the film.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is perhaps too convoluted for its own good, especially for those who are just now joining the franchise. For those more up to speed with the world(s) of Haruhi and her SOS Brigade comrades, this is a very enjoyable, if overlong, outing that is a worthwhile adaptation of one of the best remembered novels in the original series. It's a bit tough to follow at times, even for diehard fans, but it looks and sounds great and comes with a wealth of bonus material on the supplementary DVD. Recommended.