Where is Haruhi? – ‘The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya’ DVD Review

Thanks to Madman, we had the chance to see the first Haruhi movie ever made on DVD.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, is directed by Tatsuya Ishihara and is based on the anime phenomenon, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The almost 2 hours film follows a weird event, because just few days before Christmas day, SOS brigade member Kyon wakes up, just to find out that Haruhi is missing and nobody seems to remember who she was. Moreover, all his fellow members from the SOS brigade barely know him even pointing out that there is not such a thing like an SOS brigade team at school.

Kyon, can’t understand what is going on every day, until he finds some clues around making him to jump in a quest to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and bring the world back to balance.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, takes place immediately after the“endless eight” and is based on the fourth light novel in the series, so if you are not familiar with the series you might get very confused while watching it, because the character are not introduced at all and there are some very clear and important references to the tv show that you must understand in order to follow the story of a film that jumps on time and space quickly sometimes taking some elements from films like Groundhog Day (1993) and The Back to the Future films.

It’s also a bit weird watch a Haruhi Suzumiya film, with an absent Haruhi most of the time, leaving the quote of comedy from the tv show apart, focusing more in a drama and time-space confusion. However, the film gives you a huge message of friendship between Kyon and Harumi, because the former seems to be annoyed by the way Harumi treats him every day until she is no longer next to him, driving him crazy, missing her every second and even risking his life to find her, in a way to say to the viewer that we are not be able to see the value of the things until they lose them.

The animation is great and follows the same style of the original tv series with a bit more details in colours and better treatment in some backgrounds something that perhaps only die-hard fans of the series will notice.

The DVD also contains a disc of extras, that includes a 2 cool behind the Scenes: ‘Cutting, Dubbing, Video Editing’ and ‘BGM Recording at Victor Studio, Australia’, plus our favourite extra called ‘Stage Greetings’ where we can actually see all the voice actors of the film working in Tokyo at the beginning of the production.

The extra DVD also includes Location Hunting “Kounan Hospital”, the theme song of the film, trailer and teasers and commercials of the movie and some additional trailers for other animated films and series such as our beloved K-on!.

Madman brings The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya to Australia, a film that was totally made for fans of this anime hit.

Watch the Trailer of the film here

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya out now on DVD and Blu-Ray thanks to Madman.