The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu) is a 2006 television anime series based on Nagaru Tanigawa’s light novel of the same name. It was adapted into an anime by studio Kyoto Animation with director Tatsuya Ishihara and published by Kadokawa Pictures. The series first broadcast in Japan on April 2006 as part of the Spring season.
A re-broadcast featuring the second season from the same studio and director aired in Japan on April 2009 as part of the Spring season. Just before that, there’s also The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yūutsu) and Nyoro~n Churuya-san, both of which are a 2009 original net animation series based on Puyo’s and Eretto’s mangas of the same name respectively. Both were adapted into an anime by studio Kyoto Animation with director Yasuhiro Takemoto and the same publisher as before. The two series first broadcast in Japan on February 2009 as part of the Winter season.
Then we have The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan (Nagato Yuki-chan no Shōshitsu), a 2015 television anime series based on Puyo’s manga of the same name. It was adapted into an anime by studio Satelight with director Jun’ichi Wada and the same publisher as before. The series first broadcast in Japan on April 2015 as part of the Spring season.
Brief Unboxing Redux Note:
I first received The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya back in September 2016 but it arrived as I returned to University during the time of arrival so it wasn’t unboxed until December 2016 over on my Normanic Vault blog via Blogger. This post here is a remaster, but mostly a remake (or redux no pun intended) & revisit with better photos, updated information and any added extras. Enjoy!
Background:
“Kyon is a cynical and sarcastic teenager. The first day of his first year of high school is filled with hopes of a normal school experience hopes that are immediately dashed after meeting the beautiful and eccentric Haruhi Suzumiya. Haruhi is athletic, brilliant, and completely bored with life. At Kyon’s accidental suggestion, she decides to create her own club dedicated to finding and observing life’s oddities like the aliens, espers, and time travelers she believes walk among normal people. Now, Kyon and a ragtag group of recruits are Haruhi’s right-hand men in the newly formed SOS Brigade. But all is not what it seems. The quiet bookworm? Alien. The busty sophomore? Time-traveler. The handsome transfer student? ESPer. And the biggest surprise? They’re all there because Haruhi herself has the ability to reshape the world as she sees fit. Maybe Kyon should have joined the literature club.”
Plot Synopsis for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya via Funimation, September 2016
Before we had Free!, Sound! Euphonium and Violet Evergarden, studio Kyoto Animation were known for animating a series that basically made anime go viral on the internet for two different occasions with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It’s a classic amongst fans and holds up pretty well not just for its story direction and characters but also for the English dub which features top talent from the US voice acting industry scene.
The reason I say this anime went viral is because when the first season aired in Japan, the show’s music gathered a lot of attention. Most notably the show’s closing theme song “Sunny Sunny Happiness”, also known as “Hare Hare Yukai” which went viral due to its dance number shown in the anime. Aya Hirano’s vocal song “God Knows” during one of the episodes was also loved by fans in Asia and the anime community.
The other reason this show had a lot of attention is more-so on the infamous side of things. For starters, the first season when it aired in 2006 was done out of order which is bizarre (and eventually this idea recently came back with the 2021 anime series Peach Boy Riverside which is based on a manga by the creator of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid).
But it was the 2019 re-broadcast that essentially damaged its reputation. The re-broadcast presented the series in chronological order and spliced in episodes from the second season which wasn’t an issue at all – the issue was what happened in the second season which features a story arc that is forever known for its infamous concept. ‘Endless Eight’ is a story arc that has the same episode structure with visual tweaks repeated at least 7-8 times. There is a meaning behind this as it’s crucial to providing the context for the franchise’s theatrical film, but overall it’s described by many as a complete waste of time and ruining the anime’s future success.
Despite having tons of content available to adapt, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya did not get any more anime adaptations since with the exception of the theatrical film The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya in 2010 and a spin-off series based on that film called The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan in 2015 which was handled by a different studio by the voice cast reprised their roles. Both were well-received for different reasons but many consider the former to be one of the best anime films ever released.
With that context out of the way, how’s the home video distribution then? Well the entire franchise except for the 2015 series was distributed in North America by publisher Bandai Entertainment and they did a pretty good job in terms of the releases with limited edition goodies and even a Blu-ray release for The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. However, licensed anime eventually expires and in this instance Bandai Entertainment (and Beez Entertainment in the UK who handled the first season) closed down so those titles went into limbo. In the UK, Manga Entertainment was able to acquire the rights to the rest of the franchise at the time (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2, Haruhi-chan & Nyoro~n Churuya-san, and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya).
It took a few more years but eventually Funimation was able to rescue a number of Kadokawa Pictures titles from the Bandai Entertainment catalogue which included pretty much the entire Haruhi Suzumiya franchise. However and you can probably tell by how I have bolded the anime mentioned for this post – Funimation did not have The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya until a bit later after their release of the other instalments, so it wasn’t included in their special collector’s edition release.
Before they released the original series, they did manage to acquire the North American & UK rights for The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan series. This series is a spin-off for The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and is recommended to watch after checking out that film. Despite having UK rights, the show was not sub-licensed to any UK distributors.
Anime Limited did try to take over the franchise distribution for the UK, starting with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 1 but were unable to figure out how to present the release because Funimation authored both seasons in chronological order on the discs, which meant that re-using them were not an option. That being said, they took too long to sort it out on time and were unable to release the series before Funimation revoked their whole sub-licensed catalogue (because they eventually acquired Manga Entertainment for UK distribution). Funimation UK (formerly known as Manga Entertainment) did list a Blu-ray collection for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in November 2020 but no other details were known since.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Funimation during this time mainly focused on offering a rigid box with some amaray cases, but over time were slowing trying to present better packaged titles. PSYCHO-PASS for instance came included with the show’s original soundtrack, while Cowboy Bebop had different variations between retailers with unique artwork and artbooks.
This release of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has a slightly controversial angle to it. The packaging is very simple – you have a rigid box that houses three amaray Blu-ray cases and a cardboard box that comes with 8 flimsy art cards. In addition, one of the cases also comes with an episode guide mini-booklet to explain the different viewing order of the main series as well as listing what was included on the other discs.
The collector’s edition covers both seasons for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, the ONA series The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and Nyoro~n Churuya-san, and also The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan. Despite not including The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, you can in fact slot the film’s regular Blu-ray release into this set by swapping out the cardboard box and reverse the artwork to have consistency.
Now you’re probably wondering where the controversial angle is with this release. Long story short, this collector’s edition release is the only way you can own The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and Nyoro~n Churuya-san on Blu-ray in North America. That’s right, the standard edition release is DVD only even though HD masters exist and were dubbed by Bandai way back. Even weirder, the Japanese Blu-ray release already has English subtitles included so I have no idea why this restriction is in place at all.
The collector’s edition was priced at SRP $149.98 and sold out pretty fast which was no surprise given it had been out of print for a while at the time. I pre-ordered the set not long after it became available to order on Rightstuf but my payment was affected by the EU referendum so it ended up being more expensive than it should. If you wished to acquire the shows individually it would retail for $64.98 for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya on Blu-ray, $24.98 for The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and Nyoro~n Churuya-san together on DVD, and $64.98 for The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan as a Blu-ray & DVD combo pack.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box packaging with three Amaray Blu-ray cases and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification
- Episode Guide Mini-Booklet
- 8 Art Cards
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Funimation
Released: 13th September 2016
This release has a lot of discs and content. To avoid repeating myself, all of these discs were authored and encoded by Funimation themselves.
Starting with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which contains all 28 episodes from both seasons across 3 Blu-ray discs with an additional Blu-ray and DVD disc each for extra bonus features. 28 episodes on three discs sounds a bit much at first glance, but it’s worth noting that the first season is a 1080i upscale using the first transfer of the two that were available in Japan (basically the one used in the original Complete Series BD-Box). The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Bang Zoom! Entertainment English dub commissioned by Bandai. The white subtitles are locked during playback, and despite the info sheet and disc labelling, the disc regions are actually playable on Region A & B for Blu-ray players, and the bonus features disc is playable on Region 1 & 2 for DVD players.
Next is The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and Nyoro~n Churuya-san, which contains all 25 episodes for the former and all 13 episodes for the latter across a single Blu-ray disc. These are short episodes so you can fit enough content on a single disc without issue. The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Bang Zoom! Entertainment English dub commissioned by Bandai. The white subtitles are locked during playback and the disc is region restricted to Region A for Blu-ray players.
Finally we have The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, which contains all 16 episodes plus an OVA across two Blu-ray discs. The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub, however one of the dubbed episodes has a different voice actor for one of the characters because of scheduling issues during the show’s simuldub, and the OVA was left subtitled only. The white subtitles are locked during playback and the disc is region restricted to Region A for Blu-ray players.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and Nyoro~n Churuya-san: English Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 |
| Video | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 1: 1080i High Definition Upscale format 16:9 Aspect Ratio The Rest: 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 Aspect Ratio |
| Region | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: A B The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and Nyoro~n Churuya-san: A The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan: A |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: 4 BD-50s The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and Nyoro~n Churuya-san: 1 BD-50 The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan: 2 BD-50s |
DVD Specs (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Bonus Disc):
| Languages | Japanese |
| Audio | Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 |
| Video | Standard Definition in NTSC format 16:9 Aspect Ratio |
| Region | 1 2 |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 1 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya – Disc 3:
- “Hare Hare Yukai” TV-Version Special Ending
- Textless Opening “Boken desho desho?”
- Textless Closing “Hare Hare Yukai”
- U.S. Trailer
- Funimation Trailers
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya – Disc 4:
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Making-of Parts 1-8
- New Mysterious Discoveries Journey Episodes 1-8
- Location Scouting Video Parts 1-8
- CM #1 – Ver. 1 & Ver. 2
- CM #2 – Ver. 1 & Ver. 2
- TV Commercial Spot Collection #1
- TV Commercial Spot Collection #2
- Retail Promo Video
- Promo Spots 1-14
The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya & Nyoro~n Churuya-san:
- How About Oniguchi? Episodes
- Oniguchi Commercials
- TV Commercial Spot #1
- TV Commercial Spot #2
- Retail Promo Video
- Textless Opening “Ima made no Arasuji”
- Textless Closing “Atogaki no You na Mono”
- Funimation Trailers
The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan – Disc 2:
- OVA: I Cannot Let Summer Break End
- Textless Opening “Fure Fure Mirai”
- Textless Closing “Arigatou, Daisuki” Versions 1-4
- TV Spots & Blu-ray/DVD Promo
- U.S. Trailer
- Funimation Trailers
DVD On-Disc Extra Features:
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya – Disc 5:
- Behind the Scenes of Aya Hirano’s Music Video Parts 1-8
- Anime Expo 2007 Guest of Honor Intro
- Uncut Launch Event Video
- Nekoman Gallery #1-#5
- Broadcast Previews #1-#13
- Special Teaser
- Endless Eight Prologue – Summer – An Audio Slideshow
- Textless Opening “Boken desho desho?”
- Textless Opening “Koi no Mikuru Densetsu” (Ep. 00)
- Textless Opening “Super Driver”
- Textless Closing “Hare Hare Yukai”
- Textless Closing “Hare Hare Yukai” (Ep. 00)
- Textless Closing “Tomare!”
- “Hare Hare Yukai” (duplicated extra of Textless Closing Ep. 00 lol)
- “Hare Hare Yukai” TV-Version Special Ending
- U.S. Trailer
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and Nyoro~n Churuya-san, and The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan were all licensed and released on home video by Funimation. This collector’s edition release was released half a decade ago at the time of this post and is no longer available to own, but each individual series is available to purchase separately (however Haruhi-chan & Nyoro~n as mentioned above are only available on DVD now). The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan is available to stream on Funimation if you live in the UK, Ireland, US & Canada regions.
The Normanic Vault 