‘The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya’ is an Unlikely Film Embodying the Christmas Cheer

Every year (starting November for some) people go on a Christmas movie marathon binging session, because who doesn’t want to watch feel-good sentimental movies as you wrap up both the year and Christmas presents?

Kyoto Animation’s film based on Nagaru Tanigawa’s light novel of the same name The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010) at first glance doesn’t seem like your typical Christmas movie. It’s a direct sequel to the series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and takes place where the series ends.

You cannot talk about The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya without giving a bit of background to the setting. The series follows Kyon, a cynical high schooler who is reluctantly coerced into forming the SOS Brigade with his strange classmate Haruhi Suzumiya. Haruhi is a girl obsessed with otherworldly supernatural entities and phenomenon with a complete disdain for mundane reality. They are soon joined by Yuki Nagato (an extra-terrestrial), Mikuru Asahina (a time-traveler from the future) and Itsuki Koizumi (an ESPer). All of them being the very kind of people Haruhi is searching for and who’ve joined the club for the sole reason of observing Haruhi and preventing her descent into boredom. Why? Because Haruhi Suzumiya has the ability to change reality and create a new world, even subconsciously.

The irony is that she doesn’t know it.

The SOS Brigade exists to combat her boredom and keep Haruhi happy so that the world isn’t thrown into chaos.

The film is set in December with the SOS Brigade planning a hot pot Christmas Party. The preparations seem to going well until Kyon wakes up on the morning of December 18th and finds out that all is not right with the world.

It’s normal.

Haruhi and Itsuki are missing. Asahina isn’t a time-traveler anymore and doesn’t even recognize Kyon. Nagato, the sole member of the literary club, is a regular human girl. Kyon quickly realizes he’s in an alternate reality, one in which the SOS Brigade doesn’t exist and everything is blissfully ordinary. Faced with the decision of living an idyllic, mundane life in this new reality or figure out a way to revert things to their original chaotic existence, Kyon’s dilemma is unenviable.     

The animation is gorgeous, which is expected from KyoAni. It starts off with a bright holiday-themed color palette in the beginning and as the film progresses, gradually fades to become duller and darker to echo Kyon’s perception of the world around him. The nuances and even the subtle changes in the characters’ emotions are conveyed well, particularly in the case of Nagato.

Nagato — who is more or less a very stoic, emotionless character in the main series — is completely different in the film, though she’s still quiet (and now terribly shy). Eyes they say, are windows to the soul. Nagato’s are large picture windows that give you a full view of what’s taking place inside.   

The pacing is slow, more in the lines of arthouse cinema than a standard action-packed adventure anime, deliberately done to portray the monotony of the altered world without Haruhi’s shenanigans. Though humorous at times, the tone is somber, serious, complemented wonderfully by Erik Satie’s “Gymnopedie No. 1” which plays throughout the film.

Kyon, who usually functions more as a sounding board for the group as the sole member of the SOS Brigade without any power, now has the reigns to change the course of reality. It’s certainly a very refreshing turn of events. His exposition and monologue (especially at the end) are very well written; they have to be, as the film takes place entirely through Kyon’s eyes.

Character development of both Kyon and Nagato, though subtle, is the best part of the film and both their voice actors Sugita Tomkazu (Kyon) and Chihara Minori (Nagato) do a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life.

But all that aside, why is it an ideal Christmas film? It’s not like Christmas is the main theme of the film. There’s too much of displacement in the space-time continuum for Kyon to actually enjoy the Christmas cheer, which is arguably quite hard to do traveling through time. Before you lump this in the same category as ‘Die Hard is a Christmas film’ (it is), let’s take a look at the evidence.   

For starters, it takes place around the holiday season. Before the shift in reality, you can feel the joy and excitement, from the decorations to the topic of conversations — the one thing on everyone’s mind is what to do on the holiday. But the moment Kyon is thrust into an alternate reality, the difference is stark, it’s morose, uncomfortable, jarring and bitterly cold, further driving in the feelings of isolation and alienation that Kyon feels.    

At the core of the film is the question — is an ideal blissful mundane existence without the migraine-inducing headaches that are part in parcel with Haruhi, better than the original state of the world? That is a question that can only be tackled after watching the film so as not to invertedly spoil the many plot twists.

It’s about accepting your friends for who they are. Being there for them when they need you. Looking for signs when they’re overwhelmed and overcome by the weight of the world. It’s about appreciating what you have. Kyon realizes there’s a lot he’s been taking for granted. Meeting the alternate versions of his friends makes him face an uncomfortable truth of the impact they’ve had on him and he, in turn, on them.

Fundamentally, both realities are similar on the surface but yet so vastly different when you take out the little things from the equation. It’s like decorating a Christmas tree; every single one of them has the same ornaments hanging on a similar tree, but why is it unique to the owner?  

What exactly makes a film a Christmas film? Is it because it brings you the feeling of comfort? Of home? Of belonging? Of a family and friends who accept you for who you are no matter what? Is it because of snow? Or is it simply because it’s set during the Yuletide?

If your answer is all of the above, then The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is the film for you.