Prelude to a Review – The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Showing in Los Angeles

For the past few months, I’ve heard reports about how people who’ve watch the cam-rip of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya absolutely loved it. I didn’t pay too much attention to the details though since I didn’t want any of it spoiled, at least, that’s the reason I told myself. In reality, I might have been just a bit burnt out from the Endless Eight debacle and was pushing that out of my memory.

When I heard that they’d have a showing in LA, I was lukewarm about it, but what the hell, I gave it a shot and, buoyed by Shadowmage’s review of the movie on the Nihon Review, hoped that it would at least be passable.

Do you remember when you watched the first episode of the second season of Haruhi and all the positive goodwill you had about the franchise just kind of gushed out and gave you that pleasant buzz that made you feel warm and fuzzy? Well, watching the movie gives the same kind of feeling, except it felt even better than that!

Without going too much into a discussion of the movie (feel free to talk about it in the comments section though!) all I’d have to say is that the experience was an amazing one. Watching the ramifications of Haruhi’s disappearance was wonderful because the calm, sober atmosphere contrasted so much with the usual level of energy and excitement that we’ve come to associate with the Haruhi franchise. It just felt wrong, and in doing so, fit the scenario perfectly!

So yes, if you want a take on the movie, just read the review I linked to above. My only disagreement is that I thought it was worthy of a 9/10, but that just might be because the high the movie gave me resulted in a euphoria that’s lasted up until now and is still going strong. It made up for Endless Eight and then some and being able to experience it in the setting of a movie theater along with other anime fans who made the trek was fantastic!

So what else happened there?

Well, it was kind of cool that they gave us a free copy of the first volume of the manga. Beyond that, they had Wendee Lee (who voices Haruhi) and Crispin Freeman (who voices Kyon) show up to give a 1-2 minute blurb on how much voice acting meant to them and in being able to see the popularity of anime grow since they started their careers. Stephanie Sheh (Mikuru) was also there to sign movie posters.

The Haruhi girls (no idea who any of them were) also performed a song and dance routine right before the movie started. It’s not hard to guess at which of the songs came up. They also told some lame jokes that people laughed at out of politeness and only made me more impatient for the film to start.

At the very end, they had a drawing for some Crunchyroll subscriptions, and that concluded the night.

The music

I call these “preludes” because I do want to hit on the music the way it was presented in the film as opposed to listening to the soundtrack on a standalone basis, which can affect my judgment of it depending on how strongly I can conjure images of the anime in question while listening to it.

Well, I did pay attention to the music while watching the movie, and afterward, I can recall about 6-7 tracks that made a good impression on me. Naturally, me knowing that Eminence Symphony Orchestra performed the music for the movie gave me hope that it would be amazing and as far as I can tell, Disappearance’s music is promising both within the context and as a standalone listen. The panicky track that plays as Kyon is trying to get a lay for the altered world carries the urgency that you’d expect. Another was the piece that plays when the SOS-dan is reunified once more since it does the “happy-end” theme really well.

The solo piano stuff was also a joy to listen to. Of course, Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies made its appearance, but there were also a few others that hit upon the minimalist feeling that Kousaki is known for composing (see his work on Bakemonogatari) but those somehow had the depth of emotions that worked with the context of the movie. I do hope it’ll translate over well once I give the soundtrack a closer listen.

Anyways, that was a long way to say that I have high hopes for Disappearance’s score to really jibe with me. I’ll be working on that for the next few days as well as cobble my Anime Expo schedule together so that I can figure out who I can meet when depending on what I happen to be doing. Finally, if you’re even remotely cautious about the Haruhi franchise post-Endless Eight and aren’t sure whether you want to give the movie a go or not, don’t be. It’s very much worth it in every way!

zzeroparticle

Anime Instrumentality's Founder and Editor-in-Chief. As you can probably guess, I'm a big anime music junkie with a special love for composers who've put out some beautiful melodies to accompany some of my favorite anime series. I tend to gravitate towards music in the classical style with Joe Hisaishi and Yoko Kanno being a few of my favorite composers, but I've come to appreciate jazz and rock as anime music has widened my tastes.

8 thoughts on “Prelude to a Review – The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Showing in Los Angeles

  • June 25, 2010 at 5:32 pm
    Permalink

    Good catch on Satie’s Gymnopedia! I haven’t been keeping up with this anime… maybe I should at least keep up with the soundtrack. How was its complete soundtrack?

  • June 25, 2010 at 5:48 pm
    Permalink

    Endless Eight might be outright horrible, but I think this redeemed what happened in the tragedy of a season last year…

    Can’t wait to watch it once it get released.

  • June 26, 2010 at 10:18 am
    Permalink

    I was at the LA premiere too. I wish I’d known you were coming…I would have said hi. Even though I already went to the San Fran premiere, I couldn’t resist going to LA since it’s less than an hour away from where I live.

    But yes, it was fun and I’m so glad you enjoyed the movie. I had read The Disappearance novel in late ’07, so since I already knew what would happen, the movie wasn’t as shocking to me as to others. But I still loved it ^^

    You’re going to AX too? Someone should organize an anime bloggers get together there XD

  • June 26, 2010 at 11:13 am
    Permalink

    @Marcos G
    I’ll have a better response once I actually listen carefully to and review that darn thing. Right now, it’s teetering on a good, not great, but I’ll explain that more fully once I get the chance.

    @chikorita157
    I was surprised even though I shouldn’t be but I really can’t wait for more to come. It seems like they foreshadow enough of the future events to get me real interested!

    @Yumeka
    Haha, well, that presumes that you know what I look like :p But yeah, loved the movie, loved the crowd, and like I mentioned above, I just can’t wait for more Haruhi material to be released. And after seeing the movie, I do understand why it is that people say that Disappearance is the best Haruhi story arc yet, and the movie reflects that quite well.

    And yup! I’ll be going to AX. I do hear rumors of a meetup, except no one seems to be at the center of organizing it, but it’d definitely be awesome to put faces to screennames for sure! =D

  • June 28, 2010 at 10:45 am
    Permalink

    I really should catch up on all the Suzumiya stuff.

  • June 28, 2010 at 9:19 pm
    Permalink

    @Yi
    Yup, you’d be missing out on a crucial part of the fandom! (yeah, it’s an exaggeration, but the franchise is pretty important. :p)

  • July 6, 2010 at 2:03 pm
    Permalink

    Glad to hear that it was an amazing experience. I found out about the showing in SF after all the dates had already passed. :/

  • July 7, 2010 at 12:15 am
    Permalink

    @Reltair
    Not to mention it sold out pretty quickly too. Let’s hope the DVDs come soon!

Comments are closed.