The Total Series Rating of Haruhi Suzumiya
 

This poll is for you to give the entire series an over all numerical rating (from 1 to 10). http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...iggrinlove.gif

Now before you simply pop off and give it the first rating that comes to your mind, I suggest you sit back for a minute, curl your toes and go through a few episodes rating them each from 1 to 10. I always write this type of stuff down because I'm a "list" person. So mine might look like:

Ep. #1 – Rating: 0 – I was confused and didn’t get it.
Ep. #2 – Rating 7 – I get it. Looks like a great show.
Ep. #3 – Rating 8 – Excellent animation. Voice Actors aren’t the best, but tolerable.
Ep. #7 – Rating 6 – I can’t wait for the English Dub so I can finally understand what they’re saying.
Ep. #10 – Rating 10 – I saw God.
Ep. #14 – Rating 9 – Awesome ending. Would have given it a 10, but it ended before I could.

Etc., etc., etc...

Take those numbers and average them. That should give you a general idea of what you think/thought of the show in totality. Just a suggestion. Or maybe you'd rather break down the show by its technical/artistic merits:

Animation Quality: 1-10
Voice Actors: 1-10
Script: 1-10
Adaptation from Novels: 1-10
Editing: 1-10

And so on...However you do it, make sure you’re rating the entire show and not just the ending. Feel free to post how you arrived at your rating and what not. Cheers. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Misc/happy.gif

I rate the show 10. Even if I did all the calculations it will end up with a 9.xx rating.

I've never been absorbed by a story so much, it literally changed my life. NGE, Macross 7 and Gaogaigar affected me alot before, they tossed my personalities from pessimistic depression to a much positive outlook. Haruhi reminded me of my earlier years and made me ponder my existance, which I've always wanted to know. I want to know what am I going to do in the future, but I think that this world is boring much like Haruhi felt.

lol I think I should continue this post at the impressions thread instead.

The animation quality is of the highest quality, undeniable.
Voice acting is outstanding, the characters sound very true and convincing.
The script was a genius, I pity those who couldn't get why the episode orders are 'random'.
The adaptation from novels was very good, though they had to leave out quite a bit.
I don't know what editing means though lol

Episodes 1-14 : 10
Animation : 10
Voice Actors: 10
Script : 10
Adaptation from Novels : N/A
Editing : 10 (Even though Episode 00 intentionally had film mistakes xD lol it was a nice touch.)

I just really can't put into words how much I love this show. So many things struck a chord with me (some literally ;)), and many points touched me on a much deeper level than other series I've watched. In fact, the only things I can remember affecting me on this level are Eva and Saikano.
And that's what separates a 9 from a 10. A 9 is: 'Wow, this show is so amazing! I have to make all my friends watch it now!' while a 10 would be: 'This show will change your life.'
And, of course, it's a technically great show, too, with all the wonderful animation, voice acting, music, story, characters, etc.

I wouldn't say that the show changed my life. I thought it was just a fun series as a whole, including the music.

9.0

No series gets a ten, but this would have got a 9.5, if that were available. I don't believe in breaking ratings down into plot, character, voice-acting, animation, or whatever (as on AnimeNfo): the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. But if I had averaged my individual episode ratings, it would have been around 9.5. The epsiodes were 9's, 10's and a single 8.

I can't think of any show I would rate higher, though some are around the same for me. But this show is excellent in more dimensions (so to speak) than any show I can think of. The animation rivals Miyazaki, for me. Kyon hitching up the heater box as he started up the hill reminded me of the scene where the girl taps her shoes on in Spirited Away. Far less detail, but the same understanding of movement.

I'm still not sure if the show ended in the same universe it began in. My universe has changed, anyway.

I rated it a 9.

The show had some problems. Most outstanding one was three minutes of Yuki reading; if I were to recommend this show to other people, that would be the point where I'd cringe to say was "good". Other inexplicable bits (the weird focusing on Kyon's mole in episode 8) made it more "wth?" than "ah, that was subtle". Subtlety in entertainment doesn't quite work when it flies over the head of most of the viewers, with nobody actually knowing the true significance.

The episode shuffling also lost several viewers I know of. It's something that I doubt everyone can really agree on. I think that it was ultimately necessary, but that's an entirely subjective view.

But all in all, I'm hard-pressed to slam the show, largely because everything else was done in a technically perfect manner. I can't fault the animation quality. I certainly can't fault the dedication to following the source. I definitely can't fault the VAs.

So this show gets the highest that it can reasonably get, which is a 9. For the record, a 10 would be the sort of show that would undeniably and immediately convert an anime-hater into an anime-lover, and every single person in the entire world would love it utterly. In other words, a near-impossibility. (I rate episodes more leniently than I rate series, since if I'm watching an episode it's assumed that I can at least tolerate the series.) Even CCS, my all-time favourite anime, gets a 9. (I'm assuming no decimal places, and everything rounded down if there were.)

Like CCS, it gave me a new outlook on like. Now, I can use the term "Haruhiism" to describe my newfound philosophy of always hoping that there are aliens, time-travellers, ESPers, and other interesting things in this world... and that they'll all be willing to be friends.

After thinking this over a little I've made up my mind to give this great show a 9 (though like Kaoru Chujo, I more or less averaged out my votes for the individual episodes). To wit: Notice that '8' for ep 2... I don't remember why I gave it such a low score, but in hindsight it deserves a '10' for the way it set up the series and hinted at the wild ride ahead. The '9's were for the episodes not "wowing" me in some way I just can't really explain. :confused:
I liked how the animation was done when it was pointed out how much stuff is going on in every frame. Unlike some anime I could mention produced by a "top studio" (**cough**xxxHolic**cough**), the visuals don't look flat, background characters aren't white, paper cutouts, and the color scheme is bright and vibrant complimenting the visuals not overwhelming them.

I'll add more as my muse dictates... ;)

I Give the Show a 7 out of 10, The novels are way better and go into far more detail, and its really not my type of show anyway in all honesty. Why did I watch it? Well, I needed something too do while waiting for my Metal Armor Dragonar DVD's. The novels I'd give a 9 out of 10 too though. I've seen lots of better show and far more shows that are worse. I found it to be Above-Average, there's no way I personally can justify any higher or lower.

How did I arrive at this rating, well as people including my mother and best friend tell me I analyze everything to death:

Animation 10 - I'm not gonna sit here and lie to everybody, this is obviously where the bulk of the budget for the show went.

VA's 7 - Well there wasn't a single mis-cast character in my opinion, but the performances for some, especially Yuki's VA Minori Chihara whose acting ranged from tolerable to "please shut up", weren't the best I've seen in an anime.

Script 6 - I've gotta say they could have chosen a lot better chapters and done a lot more with the chapters they chose. I get the feeling they wanted to focus on the in your face stuff and decided to say "Screw the novels subtlety and just go for the wow factor". The scripts held together within the episodes themselves, but the incredibly pretentious shuffling of the episodes crippled the character development by having it go all over the place. Whoever had this idea should be drug out into the street and shot to quote Garfield.

Adaptation from Novels 4 - Well what do you expect when a show is so short it can barely wrap up its own story in a reasonable amount of time, important details are left out entirely in the series in favour of "The Wow Factor", especially with the Day of Sagitarius 3 episode which featured more changes and ommisions then I can count, making what should have been an exciting episode end up a lame ripoff of Legend Of The Galactic Heroes and just about every other Sci-Fi anime.

Music 8 - Well its better than the music for most modern anime series, throw in a decent insert song in the Live Alive episode and Mahler's 8th in the last episode and you've got a respectable soundtrack, although nothing outstanding.

Characters 6 - Well since they only did the stories that focus on Haruhi and Kyon we are left with very little development for Mikuru and none for Yuki, Little Sis, Tsuruya and Tanguchi and Kunikida. Otherwise the two main characters are some of the most intersting I've seen in a while. Still you've got other characters, use them. There's no excuse for the lack of developlment for some of these characters when the novels develop them quite nicely within self-contained short stories that could very well have been used for the series.

Themes 9 - Well we pretty much have it all, Love, Social Issues, Religion, Meta-Physics etc. Can't complain about a lack of themes for this show.

Gave it a 9 .... not a 10 because it should have been a longer series (but I suspect we may get more) and I usually round down.

I'll agree with Kaoshin that the novels are better but then I find that is true of any visual treatment of a novel (the sole exception I can think of is Blade Runner - which I found more focused than the novel it derived from by Phillip K. Dick).

I guess I'd class this series as one of the best "should-have-been-a-Twilight-Zone" mini-series I've ever seen with its combination of science fiction, philosophy, romance, and anime archetype tweaking. I'll put it up against most television of any kind (anime or live action) and it'd fare well.

I'm mentally thumbing through every series I've ever seen. Some were great ... but almost every one of them had significant defects of some sort (animation, tripped up on ending, wierd derails that wasted episodes, etc). This show had almost no production problem outside of the "problem" that it required people to show up with an attention span and some clues.

I voted earlier, but needed some time to get my thoughts in order.

Over all, I gave the series a 9. The actual average of the episode ratings came out to an 8.4, but that was dragged down by the poor adaptation of the second part of the already weak Lone Island Syndrome *Gave that ep a 6*, and the 3 minute scene of Yuki reading in Someday in the Rain which dragged that episode down a point*got a 7*.

However, a series is more than just the episodes, one has to consider how they fit together. The non-linear ordering was a stroke of brillance. While it might have lost a few people, putting the adventures of Asahina Mikuru as the first episode was a great move. It was a great introduction to the series, only people who were unfamiliar with the novels couldn't see it at the time. If you haven't done so yet, go back and watch that episode again, and you'll see what I mean.

Further, 3 minute scene shouldn't have the same impact on the entire series that it did on just that episode, and Lone Island Syndrome wasn't part of the main storyline, so let's put them aside and move on.

The main story line from was solid, and taken alone would almost get a 10. There were some minor issues, but they were very few in number. Most of the other epsiodes were also great, though in general they weren't as strong as the Yuuutsu episodes. Still they were enjoyable for the most part, if not quite as well executed.

A well done series that makes my top five list. I hope there's a second season, though even if there isn't I'm satasfied with what we have already. If the series is ever licensed, I'm sure to buy the dvds even if I can't quite afford them at the time and need to put them on my credit card. *something I really hate to do*:heh:

just... overall:10.00000000000000

10 no doubt about it
its one of the serie which has a special place in my heart

Ah well, just so you know I voted :p

I can't give it less than 10, really, the detail, the animation, the characters were epic. The story was nice, too.

Gave it a 10. The only way they could have improved the show was to double the amount of episodes.

10, yeah, 10. Some people would complain about many things, but it's worth it. Technically first, then scenaristically, humoristically, etc, etc... Not mentioning the actors, the characters...
I said what I had to say in the final impressions thread so...

I'll just watch it again before burning it. :p

(And wait for an unlikely French release...)

Animation Quality: 10 - It was alive in the animation. The animation wasn't perfect always but it never suffered any in quality. There was always a quality production put out, an inspiration to all anime.

Voice Actors: 10 - Kyon's VA was just utterly nailed through the whole thing and it actually was acting. One of the most interesting acting jobs in all of anime and Aya Hirano just as good if not better. Yuki's VA though understated did an awesome job of conveying her terseness without sound artificial. Her words just flow. Itsuki's did a great job of taking dry exposition and making it compelling. Mikuru's VA while not terribly layered, still showed a fun and compelling range.

Script: 10 - Perfect. Granted from translation but I could not imaging a better script. A post-modern, layered, literary tale which just blows my mind, highly developed characters and perfect pacing in aired order especially. My only complaint is it's hard to reconcile that space between episode 6 and 7 but I suspect that a followup OAV or series would fill in that gap.

Adaptation from Novels: 10 - The best novel adaptation I have ever seen in my entire life. Movie, play, tv show or anything. Books always tend to get the screwed in translation. This work if not pays tribute to it in every possible way while only literally being the book at certain points, exists as a declaration of keep the original author involved

Editing: 10 - Hilarious editting particularly obvious in episode 9, that first episode and others. But also editted to dramatic effect too. I don't know put this show together but they should get a medal.

Also the series has so much stuff hidden in it, that I'm still laying up late at night mentally deconstructing its composition.
So far as individual episodes

1 - Thoroughly enjoyable. It's nice looking back especially but it's a perfect in-media-res presentation of the show where you're playing catch up. Fun parody too.
2 - Great intro to the show, hilarious sequences, unsettling composition. So disorienting and it sets the mood for the rest of the show so very well.
3 - Kinda quiet episode, fun the first time and you gotta wonder how Haruhi can kick like that X_X. But it's all about setting up the clues for the end of the episode and episode 5. It also has the best line "I'm begging you. Establish context before speaking."
4 - A nice, utterly disorienting diversion but still fun. Probably the hardest episode to reconcile until the end where Haruhi smiles.
5 - Info dump of epic proportions and the library trip is classic. So funny. This is the episode that puts all the pieces together.
6 - A probably the most unnecessary episode but it still has enough cute little character moments and developments.
7 - Big mind-screw ever. But again, it's tough for me to reconcile how Kyon expresses his feelings on Yuki.
8 - Much more interesting than 6 and also more perplexing. I need to rewatch it a couple more times.
9 - Finally a respite. A chance to just sit back and let this series creep you out in quiet.
10 - @_@ Epic! An awesome melding of action, themes and characterization to just reveal not only details about Kyon but about the what's been going on behind the scenes.
11 - Plain old fun with plenty of Yuki development.
12 - My favorite episode if only for the play's inclusion. Perfect choice. Perfect music. Perfect character moments and till I saw 14, I figured the perfect culmination to this show.
13 - A quiet but philosophically dense episode which still has me pulling it apart.
14 - The perfect ending to the perfect show, Kyon is revealed as is Haruhi.

I could not imagine a better show. This is my gold standard for all anime from now on. Sure there'll be fun ones or good looking ones or philosophical ones but can any of them bring all those elements together in such a perfect way like this one did? It will be a challenge to see and I doubt any show will ever surplant in till there's a 2nd season of this show.

French anime magazines are just now starting to talk about Haruhi. Of course, they're praising the series (who couldn't?), and begging for a license, so we can only hope they'll be heard by some company, although it would still surprise me.

____________

Being the anime "newbie" that I am, I'm so giving this series a 10. My 10 may not mean much since I've yet to catch up on the so famous old series, but out of the titles I've had the chance to see, this would rank as #2, right behind Mai Hime.

Just like many of us, I was really surprised by the first episode : I loved the humor, but was wondering how they'd be able to keep up with the level, since making 14 amateur movies would have gotten old someday. I obviously hadn't heard anything from Haruhi at the time.

I ended up seeing the second episode and being even more satisfied. The animation we weren't really able to see at first came off as wonderful for me, I immediately fell in love with the characters, and the humor was just great. I later read some spoilers about the real story, on Memento I believe, and got a bit spectical about the introduction of sci-fi elements into what I thought was a great humor series.

Later on, my mind quickly changed after the baseball episode, when I concluded that Yuki's spells just made the thing a lot more fun. And I understood that the series was crazy. The revelations that came later started some speculation, which became really interesting when combined with some spoilers. SHnY wasn't just something funny, but it went even deeper into a story that particularly interested me. I loved thinking about the possible actions of Haruhi, the oh so powerful Kami-sama. The parallels were also fun, maybe there's a Haruhi somewhere in the world that's controlling us. :uhoh:


I won't keep on detailing my pleasure while watching the series, but I thought the level was constantly increasing to reach its best with episodes 10-12-14. I've never wanted a sequel so badly, and any news regarding the possible making of more episodes might make me happy for a whole month.
In the end, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu stays memorable for the humor, the animation, the well-handled sci-fi, and more importantly, the lovely characters. Kyon reaches the spot of the best male lead ever, leaving me in a state of fangirl-ism (another effect of Haruhiism?) that I've never been in before. The females were great : Haruhi for her little bit of tsun and the massive dere that's been shown in the last episodes, Mikuru for the squealing, Yuki for the show in episode 10 and the emotions starting to show up, and Tsuruya for the genki. Itsuki may be the least liked character, but he's fun for shonen-ai hints.

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to the appreciation of the series, especially a.f.k. who's done an awesome job. I also liked reading the opinions in the episode threads, there were no useless posts here (Shuffle! flashbacks, anyone?). See you for a second season, I hope. Or maybe for a future series that will be just as interesting, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. ^^

I simply give it a 10. I see nothing wrong with it, and I loved every single second. No unlikable characters to be seen, either. And it was just the highest quality series I've ever seen (animation, voice acting, script, unique characters and the flaws of Haruhi, everything...).

It did not change my life although it serves to summarize many things observed throughout the years. I am giving this a 10 because of how much interest this series give me and how suddenly the theory of everything seems to have a place to vent.