The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Complete Collection (DVD, 2008, 4-Disc Set)

$49.99 paid. Very common

Based on a short novel series from Japan, this high school comedy stars Kyo. Wait, what about that chick! We will get to her later. Narratived constanly by Kyo throughout the series, he doesn't believe in alien, time travelers, and espers but he hopes that they are real. But he wants to have nothing more than a normal, quiet high school experience till he mets the hyper active cutie Haruhi Suzumiya.

Haruhi wants something besides a normal life (unlike Kyo) and wants meet to have a weird encounter. After Kyo makes a comment about changing her hair style constanly to confuse the aliens as a joke, Haruhi is convince that Kyo is the one to help her and forces him to join her crazy SOS club.

Joining them are three other students: Yuki (a quiet, dull bookworm), Mikaru (a kind, sweet moe-like (turn-on) girl who is used by Haruhi as a sex toy to get other students to join the club), and Izumi (a sly, too philosophical always happy guy). They are really the alien (Yuki), the time traveler (Mikaru), and the esper (Izumi). They tell Kyo that they are part of Haruhi's imagnation and that they need Kyo's help with controlling her powers over reality. That means putting up with her hare-brained schemes for invegastions and keeping her active from boredom so the world doesn't end.

Voices: Voices are uneven in English dub. Kyo's voiceover (the cop guy from Ghost in the Shell) sounds good with inner voice but bad with the outer voice. No child speaks like that. One of other character (Jim Hawkings's voice from Outlaw Star) was horrible also. But the other voice actors seem to pull it off easily (easily Yuki).

Typical episodes: A typical episode of the show deals with Haruhi being bossy and forcing the gang to help her get what she wants (such as stealing a computer, going on a mystery tour). Other episodes deal with the gang trying to undue Haruhi's reality wrapping or stop the world from ending. There is a hint of people after Haruhi but this never pays out in series.

Is it good or bad?--MHS is a hard one to judge. I read a manga first of it and like it. MHS did not meet the expectations from the magna (through the anime was first). The art is good in the story through clothes could have been worked on. It is very short(12 episodes of it!). The only episodes I like were the bad movie one and playing a game against the computer club. But the rest I'm not into. If the plot had been worked on a bit longer and made a bit more interesting, I would give a higher rating.

MHS is so-so anime. Some people might like it and some don't