Video Backlog: “The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya”/“Nyoron! Churuya-san”

Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 25 Episodes x 5 minutes (Haruhi-chan), 13 Episodes x 2 minutes (Churuya-san)
Production Date: 2009
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

I’ll readily admit that I’ve never been a big fan of “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” franchise. I only thought the original anime series was OK and the whole broadcast order gimmick was a bit lame really (though you must admit it worked like a charm). There were a number of references from the light novels which were never explained in the anime series. I always felt that was rather excluded a large part of the show’s audience. I really don’t see why I have to read a novel series to understand the anime. It should be self-contained. Somehow I enjoyed the second series a bit more than the first. The endless eight episodes could have been handled a lot better though (say, some more variation considering each one covers the same time period). And the movie, well I thought it was just a bloated, missed opportunity. That’s not to say the franchise isn’t entertaining. It’s just that I don’t see what others see in it.

I really regretted buying these discs and thought I was in for a relay bad two a bit hours when watching them. However I was really surprised. “The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya” is a set of five or so minute shorts released on YouTube back in 2009, based upon the spin off manga of the same name. Essentially it’s just an SD version of the show played for laughs. Pretty much everyone is the same as the original show. Except Yuki, who has given up books for video games, mostly of the ero variety (yes, the staff are playing to their target audience). The other big change is with Ryoko, who has revived in this incarnation of the show, except she’s a chibi version of herself and is no larger than say 20cm. Yuki manages to save her from a cat and then she sort of ends up as Yuki’s domestic slave, much to Ryoko’s horror. This odd relationship is where most of the humour comes from in the show. But Haruhi and Kyon’s antics are also pretty damn funny too. For the first half of the series, every episode did make me laugh at least once, but the humour waned as the show progressed. The format did wear me down a bit after a while. But then again I don’t think this show was meant to be watched in one hit.

“Nyoron! Churuya-san” is another kettle of fish. It ran in tandem with “The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya” on YouTube and is based on a bunch of four panel manga doujinshi by a circle called Eretto. The main character of this show is Churuya-san, who is essentially a stupid SD version Tsuruya. Everyone else has the same names as in the original show. Each two minute episode is broken up to four or so segment, most of which have to do with Churuya-san talking about, acquiring, eating or doing something else related to smoked cheese. Yup, that’s it. Sample dialogue runs something like this;

Churuya-san: “How do you make smoked cheese?”
Mikuru: “Google it.”
Churuya-san: “Nyoron~”

Vary the first two lines, change around the person Churya-chan is speaking to and repeat ad nauseum. Seriously, that’s it. As you can imagine it gets pretty old pretty quick. Add in the fact the rest of the cast have the exact same faces and the voice actors do weird deep voices for each of their characters. It’s quite dumb and not all that funny. Though I must admit some of the latter episodes did make me laugh. In the end it was pretty bloody annoying though. The disc is rounded out with some more of those bizarre live action commercials (one section is a thirty minute behind the scenes feature with the Japanese voice actor for Taniguchi, which is about 25 minutes too long. For about 10 minutes of that 25, two of the Japanese voice actors are seen wrestling each other dressed as oni in the grounds of a museum dedicated to oni myths. Yeah, great extra) and obligatory English ones made by Bandai Entertainment hyping the Haruhi releases. Seriously, does anyone watch those poorly acted, cringe inducing things? Overall it was quite a surprise and far better than I expected. The Churuya-san segments let down the Haruhi-chan stuff I’m afraid. 6.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 27 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).