[therationalpi]

There are two ways to see the airing order, really.

At its best, the airing order creates suspense, mystery, and allows the series to end in a climactic way, by spreading around the exposition and lengthening the most important story-line. There's plenty of suspense built by splitting up Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya II and III, because it's quite a cliffhanger to leave Kyon just sitting across the table with Yuki. There's mystery created in several ways, like exposing the audience to characters that haven't been introduced to, like Itsuki in Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya. Similarly, the nature of Haruhi is obfuscated by things like Lone Island Syndrome II, where we find out that entire situation was a setup, which make us question Itsuki's theory which we learned of just a few episodes earlier. It goes without saying that there is some mystery created by seeing Yuki's power in BoredomoHS before it is fully explained. Finally, the series can either end in a high intensity way, or a low intensity way. In my opinion, which of those is preferable is a matter of artistic taste. Personally, I feel that the high intensity ending has a bigger impact, and spreading the most important story around helps to keep the audience through to the end. More importantly, I think that MoHS VI has more impact the more you know about the world.

At its worst, however, the airing order confuses the audience, artificially manufactures suspense and mystery, and loses the audience's interest before the last episode runs. Pick up any fiction book that you've never read before, and without looking at the dust cover, flip to a random page in the middle of the book. If you start reading there, you will indeed find a story that is mysterious, but very confusing. Who/What/Where/When/Why questions may not even be answered until you go back in the book and find the answers yourself. With that in mind, emulating that experience as a story telling device is very similar to what MoHS does. It artificially creates mystery by simply leaving the audience in the dark about information they really should know already. Moreover, cliffhanger situations are pretty cheesy. As such, the suspense is manufactured, and comes at the expense of the audience. Finally, if you look at MofHS I-VI as being the meat of the show, then it's very easy to lose the audience before the last episode is seen. If they are shown as a group, it makes for a concise and well told story. Told apart, however, there's a distinct possibility that the audience will forget what happened in just the last portion of the show. I am, of course, assuming here that the audience isn't watching all in one sitting. As such, combined with all the other difficulties of watching an out of sequence show, the audience may just walk away from the series without a second thought.

It's hard for me to make a decision either way. I watched it in Kyon's order first, but I did so all in two days. That really lessened the confusion and heightened the impact of the out of order viewing. Afterwards, I went back and watched it in Haruhi's order. I caught a lot of new stuff, and really enjoyed that way too. In truth, I love "Someday in the Rain" as a final episode. Slow endings really work well for me. Watching "Someday in the Rain" last really gives a feeling of nostalgia, and is a good open ending. "Life goes on as it always does," the episode says to me, "but that's not to say that nothing happens."