Why I hated Haruhi Suzumiya and everything that show stands for

[feuervogel]

Pursuant to a discussion on another, locked journal, I was reminded how violently I hated "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya." At the time I watched it, I couldn't really put into words why I hated it, other than I wanted to stab Haruhi in the eye, kick her in the teeth, rip her head off, and shit down her throat. I also thought the bullshit pretentious wankery of "we're gonna show the episodes out of order!" was a bunch of bullshit pretentious wankery for the sake of being Experimental and Pretentious Wankers.

There was also an extreme discomfort at the way they treated Mikuru (aka tits-girl). Yay, reducing a woman to a sexual object (and never a subject, Mikuru... she was literally incapable of saying no or even giving consent. Seriously fucking gross.)

But eisen, who writes amazingly thinky things about cartoons and society and culture and whose brain I fangirl mightily, put into words her own loathing of TMHS, and in her words, I found the expression of what I found so disgusting.

It is intellectually and emotionally dishonest, its characters never rise above cardboard cutouts in temperament, personality, or character designs - and it chooses the most tawdry and tautological justifications why - its most popular and beloved running gag involves the nonconsensual molestation and sexual abuse of a girl who's repeatedly demonstrated to be psychologically incapable of saying "no" and even if she were THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNIVERSE HINGES ON HER ALLOWING HARUHI TO DENY HER RIGHT TO CONTROL HER OWN BODY because otherwise Haruhi might get fucking bored, the number of "funny molestation" gags don't end with just Mikuru, Kyon is supposed to come off like a beleaguered Everyman but instead he comes off as an insufferable, cynical, selfish, egotistical boor (and a bore!) who's deluded himself into thinking he and he alone really understands the situations they're all stuck in - and the series wants you to believe he's right, not to mention that for all Haruhi's vaunted control over the fucking cosmos DID YOU PERHAPS NOTICE THAT HARUHI WASN'T IN CONTROL OF THE FIRST TIME SHE USED HER ABILITIES? No, that was Kyon, aka "I am John Smith", thanks for playing "I might be impotent and a loser but I bet if I just knew a reality warper she'd listen to me and it would be my will that shaped the world after all, haha".

[...]

The entire premise of the show is that the main characters can and will have their own identities, their bodies, nonconsensually violated at any time, without permission, and that they should just shut the fuck up and deal because Haruhi's just too awesome to be denied, and really, it's okay, because Haruhi just wants to have fun! And Kyon can control her, don't you know? Don't you trust Kyon? You should! Because he's a jackass, but he's a jackass Haruhi will listen to!

In summary: Consent? Who needs that?

If you like the show, I'm not judging you. Just recognize and acknowledge the vile misogynist shit that TMHS (and a lot of anime full of fanservice, moe-blobs, and otherwise directed at the male gaze) are perpetuating. Be aware. There's some sketchy shit out there that I like, but I still acknowledge it's sketchy.

eisen again: The most execrable part of HARUHI and its fandom is not that the show itself contains cynically misogynistic elements - but that the show itself, and its fandom by extension, often sees nothing wrong with the way these elements are presented, and in fact considers them exemplary of their worldview, glorifies them as wish fulfillment.... I just can't accept a show that treats learned sociopathy as a desirable characteristic in everyday life.

If you think I'm overreacting, being too sensitive, and ought to just let it go or ignore it? Kindly go fuck yourself. I don't need to enjoy yet another piece of popular culture that perpetuates vile, heteronormative, patriarchal crap while reducing me to a sexual object.

Comments

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

I read a whole bunch of the Haruhi novels a while back, up to like...I dunno, volume eight or nine or something like that? (The anime series adapts maybe two of them.) I'd hardly recommend them to you, obviously, but they go some interesting places eventually. As you say, the comedy bits often range from boring retread to sick and creepy. The bits where the stories start to work really well are when it decides to go for suspense and horror.

When the author is willing to look straight-on at the fact that his premise is completely fucked, he ends up somewhere worthwhile, I think. Only happens so often, though.

[feuervogel]

I can't comment on the novels, obviously, but the show was definitely not that self-aware. If it *had* been even remotely aware of how creepy and gross it was, there might have been a shot at redemption.

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Like I say, the larger series has its moments.

As a for-instance, the fourth book, which is the last of the novel-length stories (that I know of), begins from the premise that Yuki actually does have a personality, albeit a deeply submerged one, and it's been driven to the edge of sanity by the torture of putting up with Haruhi's shit. It doesn't go quite as far with said premise as it could, but it's interesting enough. To a bored-ass shut-in like me anyhow.

[feuervogel]

That could be close to worthwhile.

Because god DAMN did I want Haruhi to die in a fucking fire.

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

One of the other things the series does after a while is sort of develop her in a more humane, properly socialized direction. But only a little bit.

I'd still say she's best as a hook for a horror story, though. One of my favorite scary books, actually, is Forever Free by Joe Haldeman. Which I'm still not sure was meant to be scary, but it fucking terrified me. It is based on a similar idea -- i.e., we are in the hands of a being of godlike power that cannot be understood, cannot be reasoned with and does not give a shit about us.

I guess I'm kind of thinking that the ideal Haruhi story would handle her more or less in the same way as a Great Old One.

[feuervogel]

Yeah, that's definitely a terrifying thought.

Hmm, if I cared enough about the franchise to write fanfic, that's where I'd go: take the "Haruhi is a sociopathic demigod" and go horror. (I also can't write horror, because I don't enjoy reading it, so that's another reason to avoid it.)

[kirin]

That particular angle is also reminding me of a classic SF short story where some young kid wakes up with god-like powers. And it goes in a realistic direction - young kids don't have much empathy, have a hard time thinking of anyone but themselves, don't properly understand consequences, etc, and so the consequences of this are *terrifying*. I forget who it was by.

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that became an episode of the Twilight Zone. I forget what it was called, but I totally know what you're talking about.