The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 1

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 1
Japanese title	Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu I (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱I)
Season	1
Season One Broadcast No.	02
Season Two (Chronological) Broadcast No.	01
Air date	April 9, 2006
Episode Guide
Previous (Season One) The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00	Next (Season One) The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 2
Previous (Season Two) None	Next (Season Two) The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 2

Key events

• Kyon meets Haruhi.
• Kyon helps Haruhi form the SOS Brigade.
• Yuki Nagato and Mikuru Asahina are recruited to the Brigade.

Summary

North High student Kyon has grown up to reject the possibility of aliens, time travelers, ghosts, monsters and espers as nothing more than fiction. On his first day of high school, as the members of class 1-5 are introducing themselves, he is struck by the girl seated behind him, Haruhi Suzumiya, who introduces herself by saying she is not interested in normal humans, only aliens, time travelers, and espers. Hoping to pursue her romantically, he strikes up a conversation with her between classes, but she proves highly antisocial and bluntly dismisses him.

Kyon remains intrigued, and he and his friend Kunikida press Taniguchi, one of Haruhi's middle school classmates, for more information. Taniguchi warns them against courting Haruhi, saying that though she is smart, beautiful, and athletic, she is exceptionally eccentric (in particular, three years ago she snuck onto her school grounds and drew bizarre symbols on the quad) and unattainable, having dated every boy who asked her out but dumped every one within a week. Kyon is keenly observant of Haruhi during the first weeks of school, even noticing the exact pattern with which she changes her hairstyle daily. He asks her about the reasoning for this pattern, and this time she responds positively, sparking a routine of the two of them conversing before class each day. Impressed, class president Ryoko Asakura informs Kyon he is the first at the school to have a real conversation with Haruhi, and asks him to act as a go-between.

Kyon delicately asks Haruhi about why she tried out every club at school only to join none of them, and she explains that all of them failed to live up her expectations for adventure. Kyon comments that such dissatisfaction is the motive for human ingenuity, and normal humans are better off simply being satisfied with dull, ordinary activities. Contrary to his expectations, Haruhi reflects on the first half of this comment and concludes that she should form her own club, enlisting Kyon's assistance.

Haruhi takes over the Literary Club room, since the only remaining member of the Literary Club is Yuki Nagato, who is strangely unbothered by the annexation. Kyon is wearied by Haruhi's energetic assembling of the club, but continues to follow her directions. Haruhi pulls Mikuru Asahina into the clubroom and locks the door, explaining that her cuteness fulfills the club's need for a "moe" factor to draw in paranormal beings and events. Asahina is terrified by the abduction but suddenly becomes compliant when she notices Nagato, which triggers some realization. Now with four members, Haruhi calls the club the SOS Brigade. Kyon notes that despite the name, the group still has no designated mission.

Characters

• Haruhi Suzumiya
• Kyon
• Mikuru Asahina
• Yuki Nagato
• Ryoko Asakura
• Taniguchi
• Kunikida

Paranormal phenomena

When the class seating arrangements are changed, Kyon is again seated in front of Haruhi, seemingly due to Haruhi's subconscious manipulation.

Quotes

Kyon: "Okay. Asking somebody how long they believed in Santa Claus is so stupid, you can’t even consider it a topic suitable for idle conversation. But if you still wanna know how long I believed in some old fat guy who wears a funky red suit, I can tell you this: I’ve never believed in him, ever. The Santa that showed up at my kindergarten Christmas festival, I knew he was fake. And I never saw Mommy kissing Santa or anything, but I have to say that even as a little kid, I knew better than to believe in some old man that only worked one day a year. Now having said that, it wasn’t until I got older that I realized aliens, time-travelers, ghosts, monsters, espers, evil syndicates and the anime/manga/fantasy-flick heroes that fight said evil syndicates, were also fake. Okay. I guess I always knew those things were bogus. I just didn’t wanna admit it. All I ever wanted was for an alien, time-traveler, ghost, monster, esper, evil syndicate or the hero that fought ’em to just appear and say, “Hey!” Unfortunately, reality is a hard road, indeed. Yep, you gotta admit. The laws of physics definitely puts a damper on things. I even stopped watching those TV shows about aliens and ghosts and stuff. Aliens, time-travelers, espers, ‘course they don’t exist. But a little part of me wishes that they did. I guess I’ve grown up and realized that I can think about those things and still accept reality. But by the time I got out of junior high, I pretty much outgrew that kind of stuff. And I guess I got used to the idea of living in an ordinary world. And just like that, I was in high school. And that’s when I met her."

Haruhi: "I’m Haruhi Suzumiya, from East junior high. First off, I’m not interested in ordinary people. But if any of you are aliens, time-travelers or espers, please come see me. That is all."

Taniguchi: "Look, if you’ve got the hots for her, take my advice. Forget it. After being in the same class as her for three years, I know her pretty well. Let’s just say she’s what you might call beyond eccentric. But all the same, man, she’s pretty popular with the guys. She’s not too hard to look at, you know. And she’s freaking good at sports. And on top of that, she gets good grades. She’s a super weirdo. But if she’s standing there quietly, you’d never know. For a while, she was going out with one joker after another. I think the longest any one guy lasted was about a week. And the guy that had the shortest relationship with her, he asked her out, she said okay, and it ended five minutes later. I don’t know why but she never turns a guy down when he steps out to ask her out. And so, before you get any bright ideas, buddy, take my advice. Forget it."

Kyon: "Now, all of this was happening when Haruhi Suzumiya was still acting sort of normal. For that whole month, even I was feeling pretty good. However, it should be noted that bits and pieces of Haruhi eccentricities were already starting to make themselves known. Haruhi eccentricity number 1. A different hairstyle everyday. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. As the days passed, the number of places she’d tie off her hair increased. On Monday, she resets her hair and then adds a tie off point each day until Friday. Wonder what her hair looks like on Sunday–think I’d like to see that. Haruhi eccentricity number 2. Our P.E. class is separated into boys’ and girls’. When changing into uniforms, girls use the odd numbered classrooms and boys use the even numbered. It didn’t matter that guys were standing around. She’d just start changing out of her school uniform! To Haruhi, guys were pretty much the same as a bag of potatoes. Eccentricity number 3. It was rather irritating that Haruhi joined every team and every extra-curricular club the school had to offer. Every single one of the sports clubs lobbied for her to join their respective teams. And she turned every one of them down. She changed clubs on a daily basis depending on her mood. In the end though, she didn’t remain a member of a single one of the clubs. I mean, what the hell does she wanna do, anyway?"

• Kyon: "So, there’s this rumor going around. Is it true you’ve dumped every guy you’ve ever dated?"
• Haruhi: "And just what gives you the right to ask me a question like that? I don’t know about anything you've heard. Whatever. You wanna believe it, it’s probably true."
• Kyon: "Well, with all that dating, wasn’t there at least one guy you were even a little serious about?"
• Haruhi: "Absolutely not. They all took themselves way too seriously. And not even one of those dorks was an alien, time-traveler or even an esper."
• Kyon: "That’s how people are normally."
• Haruhi: "Okay, so what’s with most of them asking me out over the phone? I mean, shouldn’t important stuff like that be done face-to-face, not phone-to-phone?"
• Kyon: "I’ll just agree with her for now. Yeah, I mean if it were me I’d see her in class and then ask her out."
• Haruhi: "Yeah, well none of that’s important anyway!"
• Kyon: "So, what is?"
• Haruhi: "Here’s the problem: So far, the way it looks is that all the men in this entire universe are pathetic. I mean all through junior high that was the one thing that irritated me the most."
• Kyon: "All right then, so what kind of guy would you have really been into, an alien or something?"
• Haruhi: "Yeah! Anything like an alien, or something else along those lines. Anyway, as long as the person isn’t an ordinary human, I don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl."
• Kyon: "Hang on a sec. What’s wrong with being human? I mean, why do they have to be an alien?"
• Haruhi: "Because that way, life’s more interesting!"

• Haruhi: "Oh, man! I’m so bored. With all these clubs, you’d think there’d be a couple of really strange, cool ones out there."
• Kyon: "Listen. You can’t help it if there aren’t any. Besides, us normal human types, we gotta be happy with what we’re given. You know what I’m saying? You could look at this way; the people who don’t like what they’ve got are the same people who invent things, and make discoveries, and advance civilization. They made airplanes ’cause they wanted to fly, and they made cars and trains because they wanted to go from place to place. It’s as simple as that. The only reason that we’ve got all the things we have now is because a certain group of people got together and used their talent or imagination or genius or whatever to make it all possible. Ordinary people are probably better off living their ordinary little lives in an ordinary manner."
• Haruhi: "Shut up!"

• Haruhi: "I got an idea!"
• Kyon: "About what?"
• Haruhi: "I can’t believe I didn’t realize it before. It’s so obvious."
• Kyon: "What is?"
• Haruhi: "If it doesn’t exist, I should just make it myself."
• Kyon: "Make what yourself?"
• Haruhi: "Make a club!"
• Kyon: "Ah. I hear you, but you gotta calm down, all right?"
• Haruhi: "What’s with you? This is what we’re talking about. You should be happier about this development."
• Kyon: "Well, we’re in the middle of class."

• Kyon: "May I have your attention please. The name of the heretofore nameless start-up club has just been decided. And its name is …"
• Haruhi: "The SOS Brigade!"

Kyon: "The Spreading excitement all Over the world with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade. The SOS Brigade for short. Yeah, it’s okay to laugh now. Actually, the name should be something like “Spreading excitement all Over the world with Haruhi Suzumiya Organization.” But we don’t have the right to form an organization yet, and we still don’t know what the point of this club is."

Trivia

• This episode was broadcast as episode 2 of Season 1, and as episode 1 of Season 2.
• This episode is shown in grayscale until Kyon first meets Haruhi.
• In the subtitled version of the episode, Kyon asks Taniguchi to confirm that Haruhi was responsible for the quad drawings. In the dubbed version, he instead asks if Haruhi did it all by herself, seemingly foreshadowing the revelation in "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" that she had an accomplice.
• Nagato reads The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

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