Achronological Order for the Complete Series

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (light novel)

Jan 2, 2017 2:02 PM

Offline

Dec 2016

So, for the unaware the original run of Haruhi in 2006 broadcast in an achronological order to give the series a similar feeling of disjoint like the novel series. I got the Fundimation re-release of the complete series these past few months and I've been thinking about how to introduce people to the series without the movie being available. I thought it might be a good idea to make up a viewing that gives a similar feeling to the original run but with the stories from the second season mixed in (skipping some Endless Eight for sanity). Hence I'd like some thoughts on what I've come up with and some critiques and suggestions.

My thinking and preferences are to try and start and end on the same build up of the 2006 run but to try and hit the beats better by how they are grouped and also present it in a way that makes the character development more apparent. Finally with the movie as an optional part at the end (but if you CAN watch it of course you would)

For reference here is the Achronological Original 2006 Run:

And here is the Chronological 2009 Run (with the movie Included in the timeline:

So without further delay here's what I've got:

Complete Achronological Order (For Introducing Newbies to Everything)
You can ignore all but the last Endless Eight (8.8), 8.1 gives a greater effect though

1 The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00
2 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 1
3 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2
4 The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya
5 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 3
6 Remote Island Syndrome 1
7 Remote Island Syndrome 2
8.1 Endless Eight 1 (So it's the Eighth episode and before you get to the good stuff)
9 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 4
10 Mystérique Sign
8.2 Endless Eight 2 (This is the ONLY loop in the books but you could just ignore it)
11 The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya 1
12 The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya 2
13 The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya 3
14 The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya 4
15 The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya 5
16 Live Alive
8.8 Endless Eight 8 (You should watch this here right before "The Day of Sagittarius")
17 The Day of Sagittarius
18 Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
19 Someday in the Rain
20 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 5
21 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 6
22 The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

By the time you hit "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 4" you have seen all the episodes you can still pass off as "normal" (without obvious otherworldly things being seen). This way you still get the shock and most impact of that episode and just how real the crazy actually is while introducing the characters. Specifically I tired to highlight that while Haruhi initially comes off terrible (and she is bad at first) that she still not so uncaring as to want someone hurt or not care about others at all. (I've had the benefit of owning and reading all the novels so I can safely say that- don't look at me like that! If you give her the benefit of the doubt because of Mr. Unreliable Narrator she's actually just really really immature most of the time... most, look just roll with it for the sake of argument, okay?).

After that the idea is to ramp up the crazy to see just how bad things can get by following up with "Mystérique Sign" then and optional "Endless Eight 2" or straight into "The Sigh" and "Live Alive." I thought it was important to follow up "The Sigh" with "Live Alive" because I think if you're gonna tolerate Haruhi as a character at all you need to be able to see that she's maturing and learning from her mistakes (even if horribly, terribly slowly; hey if Kyon can rip on her that much and snark about it in her head, so can we).

After that I thought it was good to put the final "Endless Eight" and "The Day of Sagittarius" together to show Nagato's struggles and development, and a bit of Haruhi's character. (It's important for the movie after all). I also put "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" and "Someday in the Rain" together specifically to highlight Haruhi's development, as a build up for the last two episodes and the movie.

Lastly doing things like this I spread out Adult Asahina appearances as much as possible and correct me if I'm wrong but because of how the ending of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 6" is handled in all the rest of the series you don't actually know what happens or what Kyon did until the very end.

Edit: I have found one issue with this though, At the end of "The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya 5" there is the scene at the cafe that has no context to go with where that comes from because the first part of that scene is at the end of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 6." The Best idea I have for dealing with that would be to just stop the video before that scene plays then come back to it after "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 6" but that doesn't flow well. It causes an issue where if you want the series to end on the same note as the original run then you that scene showing the results of the cafe meetup are going to be out of place not matter what you do.

Maximus_LightJan 3, 2017 4:35 PM

Apr 30, 2020 1:33 AM

Full_anime_Fan

Offline

Oct 2019

1456

I am watching Suzumiya Haruhi for the first time. So which in which order should I want to avoid spoilers

バンの一味

Apr 30, 2020 2:33 AM

Full_anime_Fan

Offline

Oct 2019

1456

Dankiyama said:

Full_anime_Fan said:
I am watching Suzumiya Haruhi for the first time. So which in which order should I want to avoid spoilers

The OP just wrote a detailed guide and yet you still ask :/
Just follow the guide above and don’t worry about “spoilers”. Haruhi as a franchise works by skipping around its timeline, that’s how the novels were written. As long as The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru (episode 00) is first and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 6 is last, you will get a much better experience than you would ever do by watching chronologically (which is a mistake I made back when I first watched Haruhi).

thank for the info. I am currently following the above guide and watched episode 7 where I felt I was missing a whole lot of information by suddenly jumping from ep2 to 7 and wanted to clear what is the best order to watch for newbies.

バンの一味

Apr 30, 2020 7:39 AM

Maximus_Light

Offline

Dec 2016

Full_anime_Fan said:

thank for the info. I am currently following the above guide and watched episode 7 where I felt I was missing a whole lot of information by suddenly jumping from ep2 to 7 and wanted to clear what is the best order to watch for newbies.

Yeah, that can be confusing and you're going to be missing some information but that's okay it'll eventually get filled in. I think it's worth noting that's how those episodes were originally broadcast and I believe it's for the sake of building suspense and mystery (personal opinion). I actually tired to group episodes based the broadcast order when possible because I just wanted that original sense of mystery without adding any more confusion.

Dankiyama said:

Keep in mind most anime websites will combine the two seasons into the chronological order, so to follow OPs guide, you need to understand which one is which. Episode 11 would be episode 00 for example. Here’s a handy-dandy chart which explains everything:

Oooo, I'm saving that chart. (I see you enjoy Stien's;Gate as well, another series of notoriety to which I also relish and advocate for).

May 1, 2020 7:07 AM

Tristar_Shinobi

Offline

Apr 2020

1946

Why they made it this way??
It's way more confusing even to start anyway
Is it of any worth??

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Achronological Order for the Complete Series

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