Is the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise still popular on a worldwide level today?

[Akito Kinomoto]

Originally Posted by Westlo

And the Code Geass franchise is just as long lived as the Haruhi one.... check what's the current best selling Bluray....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Geass#Reception
By August 2008, over 900,000 Code Geass discs had been sold in Japan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruhi_Suzumiya#Reception
The first two volumes had sold 70,000 and 90,000 units respectively as of August 2006.

[JamesMayFan]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

In terms of global impact, I stil recall the photograph from 2006 of a little girl protesting in the Gaza Strip carrying a sign beseeching the Israelis not to kill children with a picture of Haruhi on it.



I doubt the English dub mattered to her.

LMAO XD that's kinda funny, I remember sawing a similiar kind of pic like that in Uncyclopedia back then, that's just ridiciulous…

[risingstar3110]

It's simply hard to say honestly. I still think Haruhi is one of the benchmark within otaku cult, all the dances and stuffs. Death Notes, One Piece, Naruto, Attack of The Titan and etc probably was much more mainstream. Maybe Haruhi was once of a first series that managed to boost the popularity of LN as well. Never managed to watch Code Geass, but i think it came at the time where mecha genre was... kidna...dead. So maybe that's why it does not feel such last impacting. The number sold of 2 Code Geass series, K-on and Haruhi was occupying 11-14 on the most selling in average so they were quite in similar packet

Meanwhile Lucky Star and K-on was popular because they kinda promoted its own genre (SoL and moe musical-sport-ish). Of course people will argue Azumanga Daioh comes first but as a fan of SoL, i think SoL shows since are a lot more like Lucky Star than Azumanga Daioh.

Then we have whole My-little-sister-can't-be-in-such-a-long-name-anime. I swear that 90% of recent light novel that have ridiculously long name is inspired by this one.

Oh and don't forget Madoka. It literally was showed on TV here during mainstream hour awhile back. Just shortly after finished airing in Japan too

[DragoonKain3]

For the record, I wasn't the one who brought it up despite wanting to agree to disagree...

Originally Posted by Akuma Kinomoto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruhi_Suzumiya#Reception
The first two volumes had sold 70,000 and 90,000 units respectively as of August 2006.

I just find it odd you skipped out the line preceding that one.

"In December 2006 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya anime adaptation was the most popular anime series in Japan at that time according to Newtype USA magazine."

At that time, CG has already aired since October, and as such the hype should have already eclipsed Haruhi if indeed it was more popular than Haruhi. Heck, the fact that CG was a current airing show means that the hype for it should have been at an all time high, and yet Newtype USA claimed Haruhi is the most popular anime series in Japan still.

But that's in Japan, and we're talking about outside of Japan. At least in North America, despite being released the same year in Japan, Bandai decided to release Haruhi first in NA@mid-2007. There are a lot of reasons why Haruhi was released first, but the biggest one would be because even North America was already affected by the Haruhi fever, and they wanted to cash it in while it has high.

In contrast, Code Geass was so late to have its NA dvds released in late-2008. But one can ask "DragoonKain, maybe Bandai could only localize one title at a time? Maybe Code Geass was released later because it was aired a few months after Haruhi?" To which I counter, even frigging Lucky Star got it's NA dvds released BEFORE CG, and Lucky Star's original airing was in 2007.

So why Lucky Star? Because even in mid 2008, North America was STILL in the Haruhi craze, and so Bandai wanted to release Lucky Star to bandwagon it (both being made by KyoAni among other things). This is really evident in that Bandai decided to follow the casting of Haruhi VA = Konata VA, and that the limited editions of Lucky Star emulated the limited editions of Haruhi (both in design and in similarity of content).

Bandai did all of this despite them already releasing a lot of Sunrise's mecha anime before, while this was their first ever Kadokawa property (meaning they had to go to greater lengths to get the rights). Even more damning, Code Geass DVDs outsold Haruhi on a per volume basis in Japan (anime total sales thread here in Asuki ranks CG over Haruhi). Despite that info, Bandai decided to rush Haruhi DVDs AND the Lucky Star DVDs because Haruhi was so just god damn big in North America at that time, in comparison to other anime (including Code Geass).

So no, I don't really think Code Geass was bigger than Haruhi outside of Japan, from 2006 to the entirety of 2008. Code Geass may have been more popular with the hardcore audience (the romance thread is an attest to that), but something about Haruhi appealed to even the most casual of the anime audience that led to it dominating for three years.

[Triple_R]

There is one additional thing that maybe should be considered here...




I don't know precisely how popular the Haruhi anime was on the whole. But the image of Haruhi Suzumiya was insanely popular. It was even used by the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

It seems to me that this is one of the highest levels of brand/image recognition that an anime property could ever reach.

[Zwei]

Incredible how times flies by so fast. When I was still very much active and into anime, all I could see was Bakemonogatari and Haruhi discussions, but now it seems like most people don't even ever mention or know about them especially Haruhi which was immensely popular back then (Mind you, I wasn't particularly interested in both especially Haruhi during the Endless Eight when it was airing, that was dreadful) and here we are discussing whether people still remember or talk about Haruhi. It makes me feel kinda old to be honest.

[Archon_Wing]

To be fair, there aren't too many things that were red hot in 2006 that are popular now.

People's minds are fleeting; the masses are fickle.

[Dr.]

It could've continued the huge wave it caused if not for the studio. I mean, NA is just now getting the novels. They should have rushed a licensing agreement as the series started to gain traction.

[Liddo-kun]

Well, I can't say for the entire world.. but over here Haruhi is still going ok - in our cosplay community at least. Nisekoi and Chuunibyou are both very popular as well of course, but people have not forgotten about Haruhi. I still see people cosplaying SHnY characters when I go to conventions here.

Last June 21 at Toycon 2015. The group of my friend Ross, danced to it. Video not shot by me. I was too late, it was the last 5 seconds of their performance when I got to the side of the stage.

Name of the group is "Raindrop", and the name of my friend is Ross (Asahina cosplayer). She is the group leader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHGRKNkbqLc

[GuidoHunter_Toki]

Originally Posted by Dr.

It could've continued the huge wave it caused if not for the studio. I mean, NA is just now getting the novels. They should have rushed a licensing agreement as the series started to gain traction.

That and I think the lack of proper continuation in the anime series, coupled with the novels not actually having a conclusion for however long now kind of threw Haruhi into this frozen state where people I think just stopped being excited about what was next to come.

Kind of took the wind out of them sails and I feel like without any kind of proper conclusion out there for the novels or anime it kind of lessens Haruhi's long term memorability. Then again it could just simply be that it didn't have long term staying power with many people, who knows.

[cyth]

You can say to a new anime fan to watch Haruhi, but he won't be watching the broadcast order version, speculating what is this madness, get bombarded with news going crazy around the world, Hare Hare Yukai dancers everywhere ... The hype of that time is irreproducible. I think it's the same case for those of us who weren't there when Evangelion was first airing in '95 and in subsequent years. Whenever you talk to those people, Eva wasn't just a TV series for them, it was like a post-celestial body collision event.

[GDiddy]

Haruhi's probably still popular due to older fans and is a cult classic....but there's been tons of anime since then that's taken over its popularity, like KON, Attack on Titan, SAO series, Free, Love Live...

[JamesMayFan]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Dubs rarely if ever influence the popularity of shows among people posting here or among much of the contemporary audience for anime outside Japan. Peoples' reactions to Haruhi were largely based on the story and the performances by the Japanese seiyuu. By the time shows have been licensed, dubbed and released in R1, much of the audience for anime has already moved on to the current season's offerings.

huh… atleast in the core audiences, but as for the casual audiences, or maybe just some random person who's just looking a good show to boot up or something, i'd say dubs can boost popularity among western/foregin fans alike, and bonus points if a show has a good dub voice-acting the show will be remembered as a classic among to both core fandom(who watches a good amount of dubs) and casual blokes alike…

[RichardFromMarple]

While I've not paid too much attention to Haruhi so far I normally spot a cosplayer or 2 at conventions here in the UK.

I've seen all the regular Lucky Star episodes & really enjoyed them, though thanks to Ban Dai USA collapsing it's hard to access it legally, I had to import an Australian DVD set.

Aya Hirano also voiced Lucy in Fairly Tail, which still has a high profile here, partually because it's on Netflix.

[SeijiSensei]

In terms of the dub, remember we're talking about 2006 here. The only way anyone in the West could watch Haruhi was via fansubs. The furore cyth described happened as a result of fansub watchers; I was one of them and remember it well. That poster I showed was photographed in 2006 as well.

No one's denying that dubs expand the audience for anime, but those effects were pretty limited for Haruhi in my recollection. It was the much more intense foreign fanbase of sub watchers that fuelled the enthusiasm for Haruhi.

[cyth]

^Add to that, American Haruhi DVD sales were by all corporate accounts not spectacular. They hit their targets as far as I can remember, but if you were to measure Haruhi success by overseas sales numbers they just weren't a proper indicator. Also, tons of marketing went into it, specifically targeting fansub watchers, which is why I also bought the DVD sets. Whether or not the dub was received good, in terms of boosting popularity it didn't do more than the occasional solid performer. The explosion of popularity indeed happened on the fansub level.

[Ravagerblade]

Some of us who entered later in time who like the series also don't add to that number. Unless there was a recent Haruhi to see where the number is at, this is biased. No offence though it's imo.

[Ithekro]

We'll see how the Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan does.

[Ravagerblade]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

We'll see how the Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan does.

That may have the same named characters, but they aren't totally the same. So not going to take that as such. imo.

[dantonsam85]

Haruhi is a cult classic, and still loved by fans for the series.
The recent anime I can think is The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and The Disappearance of Nagato-chan.
The popular anime that everybody knows now is Attack on Titan. It is really good, and I can't wait for the second season to come out!