I watched all the episodes of the ever popular The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya almost a year ago. After going through the series the first time (I watched the fansubs in the original TV broadcast order by the way), I liked it a lot but I don’t think I loved it. Surprisingly, almost a year later, I got a sudden new interest in the series, probably mostly due to my 4 day attendance at Anime Expo this year. TMoHS was everywhere at AX, not just the autograph session and concert, but all over the shops as well. After getting a full dose of Haruhi-ism while I was there, I decided to watch the series a second time. Turns out I loved it more than I did the first time (I should’ve known that all good anime series’ should be watched at least twice to be fully appreciated). I then decided to try and find translations of the light novels. Luckily, thanks to the dedication of Baka-Tsuki, finding them wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought. And now that I’ve read the majority of them, I have an even greater appreciation for the series…

UPDATE: A 2010 revised version of the timeline is now available here

First thing I have to say is that Nagaru Tanigawa is an incredible writer. As anyone who’s read the novels knows, the unique similes/metaphors he comes up with are especially noteworthy and often times quite humorous. The novels are written from Kyon’s POV and the choice of words and descriptions Tanigawa-san uses to show Kyon’s interesting views and method of narration stand out as one of the highlights of the books. And of course, Kyon’s sarcastic remarks, whether they be in his mind or out loud, are always entertaining. Luckily a lot of the unique writing style of the novels is kept intact in the anime since Kyon is frequently narrating throughout the episodes. But if you want to delve even more into the depth and complexity of the story and characters, and see it all from a unique literary perspective, then I can’t recommend the novels enough. Of course, many of the stories in the novels have yet to be made into anime episodes. But with the announcement of a second season of TMoHS recently, it might not be too long before that happens =D

The storyline and sequence of events of the TMoHS can get quite complicated and confusing at times…a lot of this is due to the fact that the series has a habit of showing its episodes out of order (both the novels and anime do this). I was actually thinking of making a timeline for the series, in which I listed all the events in the correct chronological order. I knew it would be a big task starting this from scratch so I was very relieved to find that Baka-Tsuki had already made a timeline on their site. But I still felt like making my own, which I did, and you can see it below. Wanting to make my timeline unique, rather than just listing the titles of the stories in chronological order, I also added brief descriptions of some of the important events as well as a little bit of trivia. Also, concise spoilers of stuff that hasn’t yet happened in the anime.

Just so you know, the timeline isn’t totally complete yet. As of now, I’m in the middle of reading volume 7 of the novels and still have to read volumes 8 and 9 (volume 10 has yet to be released). So some of the later stories don’t have descriptions yet but I’ll get to them once I read those volumes. If anybody wants to contribute any info or point out any mistakes in my timeline, feel free too =)

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Chronological Timeline of Events

*Much thanks goes to Baka-Tsuki for their great TMoHS timeline, which I used as a guide

*Thanks also goes to ANN’s TMoHS trivia page, which helped me out too

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July 7th
Three years ago from when the story starts
– Kyon and Haruhi actually meet for the fist time here. Kyon from the present (July) traveled back in time to trigger this event in “Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody” (volume 3).
-Kyon from the present (December) was also here during this time trying to restore the world in “The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” (volume 4).

April-May

Vol. 1, Ep 1
– Kyon and Haruhi meet for the first time (technically second time)
Trivia: Haruhi asks Kyon in episode 1, “Haven’t we met somewhere before?” obviously a reference to the fact that they did meet three years ago.
Trivia: It was actually Kyon who drew the alien symbols on the school ground for Haruhi three years ago. The symbols read “I’m here.”

Vol. 1, Ep 2
– The SOS Brigade is formed! Yuki and Mikuru join.

Vol. 1, Ep 3
– Itsuki joins; Kyon learns the truth about Haruhi and the other Brigade members.

Vol. 1, Ep 4
– Ryouko Asakura attempts to kill Kyon but is stopped by Yuki.

Vol. 1, Ep 5 to 6
– Haruhi attempts to recreate the world and drags Kyon with her, but Kyon is able to stop her.

June

Vol. 3, Ep 7
– The events of “The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya” occur. The SOS Brigade participates in a baseball game. Also, Tsuruya makes her first appearance.

July

Vol. 3, Ep n/a
– July 7th: The events of “Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody” occur. On the date of the Tanabata festival, Kyon goes back in time with Mikuru three years ago and meets Haruhi when she was in middle school.

Vol. 3, Ep 8
– The events of “Mysterique Sign” occur.

Vol. 3, Ep 9 to 10
– The events of “Lone Island Syndrome” occur.

August

Vol. 5, Ep n/a
– August 17th to 31st: The events of “Endless Eight” occur. Not wanting summer to end, Haruhi makes these two weeks repeat endlessly (15,498 times to be exact). Kyon is finally able to stop the cycle by suggesting the one fulfilling event they need – doing summer homework together.
Trivia: Ever notice that frog costume among Mikuru’s cosplay outfits? She got it during one of the “Endless Eight” events in which the Brigade do part-time work at a toy store dressing up as frogs and handing out balloons to children.
Trivia: The quick scene in the anime opening of Haruhi and Kyon riding on a bicycle together is from “Endless Eight”.
Trivia: Apparently the official web site says that the series has 15,498 episodes. Obviously this is a reference to “Endless Eight”.

September-November

Vol. 2, Ep n/a
– The events of “The Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya” occur. The entire volume 2 is dedicated to showing all the details of how the “Mikuru Asahina Adventure Episode 00” movie was filmed.
Trivia: The cat that appears in the movie and talks briefly was given its speaking powers by Haruhi. She wanted to use a cat in the movie to be Yuki’s familiar so she chose that one, a rare male calico among some stray cats near Yuki’s house. Because Haruhi thought a talking cat would be more interesting, the cat, named Shamisen, was suddenly able to talk. Kyon took him home and told him not to talk to anyone. Finally, after the movie was completed, Shamisen lost his talking ability and became a regular pet at Kyon’s house.
Trivia: The reason Yuki randomly attacks Mikuru during the making of the movie is because Haruhi had wished that Mikuru would be able to shoot beams from her eyes. That ability then became real and so before the beam could fire, Yuki jumped in the way and injected Mikuru with a nanomachine that would stop the affect.
Trivia: The disclaimer that appears at the end of the movie was thought up by Kyon as a way to keep Haruhi from blending too much of the movie’s fantasy into reality. It worked, and it also resulted in Shamisen losing his speaking ability.

Vol. 6, Ep 11
– The movie “Mikuru Asahina’s Adventure Episode 00” is complete!

Vol. 6, Ep 12
– The events of “Live A Live” occur.
Trivia: In a few random scenes in this episode that focus on Kyon, you can see Haruhi, Yuki, and the ENOZ band members briefly in the background.

Vol. 5, Ep 13
– The events of “Day of Sagittarius” occur.

December

Vol. n/a, Ep 14
– The events of “Someday in the Rain” occur. This is an anime original story.

Vol. 4, Ep n/a
– December 18th: The events of “The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” occur. The entire volume 4 deals with a very complex time-traveling misadventure in which Kyon is trapped in a newly-created world where he’s the only one who retains memory of the previous world and all the SOS Brigade members are “normal” human beings. This story’s too intricate to go into detail but lots of stuff happens; the return of the older Mikuru and Ryouko, more time travel to three years ago, and Kyon waking up from a three day coma after falling down some stairs. Think of the time-traveling in Harry Potter book 3…the story in this volume is about 10 times more complicated than that XD It’s brilliant nonetheless but I still have trouble following everything that happens.
– December 21st: After time-traveling, Kyon wakes up in the present, in the hospital after being in a coma for three days. He still has to go back one more time in order to complete the entire task of restoring the real world.

Vol. 6, Ep n/a
– The events of “Charmed at First Sight Lover” occur. An old colleague of Kyon’s has fallen madly in love with Yuki because he was given a mysterious ability to sense her alien powers (courtesy of Haruhi). Yuki eventually erases this power so he’d give up his vain yearning to marry her.

Vol. 5, Ep n/a
– The events of “Snow Mountain Syndrome” occur. While on winter vacation at a ski resort, the SOS Brigade gets trapped in an illusionary mansion. They eventually get out thanks to Yuki and Itsuki’s powers but the “enemy” who did this to them has yet to be found.

Vol. 6, Ep n/a
– The events of “Where Did the Cat Go?” occur. This is basically the winter version of the “Lone Island Syndrome” murder mystery except this time they know it’s been set up and a clue to the murderer’s identity revolves around Shamisen.

January
Vol. 7, Ep n/a
– Kyon finally goes back in time to three years ago and finishes what he has to do in order to totally fix the “normal” world, time-traveling mess from December.

Vol. 7, Ep n/a
– The events of “The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina” occur. Mikuru and Kyon spend some time together one Sunday. Mikuru had been ordered to be at a certain place at a certain time to save a certain little boy that lives near Haruhi from a hit-and-run accident.

February

Vol. 7, Ep n/a
– The events of “The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya” occur. Mikuru from eight days in the future appears in the present, telling Kyon that she was sent here for some reason though she doesn’t know what it is exactly. After completing a bunch of seemingly random tasks assigned to her (one involving the boy rescued from the hit-and-run-accident), and hiding out at Tsuruya’s house while Kyon tries to figure out what’s going on, her reason for coming to the future becomes clear. The “enemy” of the SOS Brigade make their appearance and kidnap Mikuru (the one from eight days in the future) who had been sent as bait so they wouldn’t kidnap the present Mikuru. Two of the enemies, a stuck-up male time traveler and a female esper, are behind the kidnapping though their plans are thwarted with help from Itsuki and Arakawa and Mori (the maid and butler, who apparently have more important functions in the ‘Organization’ too). Though it becomes apparent that there are rival factions out there who are against what Mikuru, Itsuki, and Yuki are doing concerning Haruhi, their precise plans and reasons are still unclear…

March

Vol. 8, Ep n/a
– The events of “Editor in Chief ★ Straight Ahead!” occur. The student council president, who is actually an acquaintance of Itsuki’s in the ‘Organization,’ threatens the SOS Brigade and Literature Club, saying that the SOS Brigade is an unauthorized club and nothing resembling Literature Club activities has been done. So Haruhi commands Kyon and the others to write their own original stories to be published in the Literature Club journal. Somehow they manage to pull it off and the SOS Brigade is thus left alone for now…
Trivia: The quick scene in the anime opening of Yuki standing with snow falling down around her is from the story she wrote in this chapter. Her writing style is very ambiguous but the story seems to be about herself and the origin of her name (“yuki” means “snow” in Japanese).

Vol. 8, Ep n/a
– The events of “Wandering Shadow” occur. The SOS Brigade finally gets a client! Dog-lover Sakanaka says that dogs in her rich neighborhood, including her purebred terrier Rousseau, refuse to walk in certain spots when they’re out with their owners. The SOS Brigade go to Sakanaka’s house and investigate but find nothing at first…until later when it gets more serious as Rousseau and another dog, Micheal, get really sick. The problem turns out to be extraterrestrial data lifeforms that are using the dogs as hosts. While pretending to be performing some sublime ritual, Yuki transfers the data lifeforms from the dogs to Shamisen (so they can keep a close watch on them and they don’t affect Shamisen). So the dogs get better and everyone’s happy, but it seems like this event wasn’t accidental…

April

Vol. 9, Ep n/a
– The events of “The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya” occur. One of the most eventful of all the volumes, Kyon meets up with an old female friend from middle school, Sasaki. Not only that, but with her are the female esper who was involved in Mikuru’s kidnapping, Kyouko Tachibana, and an alien from a rival faction to the Integrated Data Sentient Entity, the Macrospatial Quantum Cosmic Existence, named Kuyou Suyou, who was the one responsible for trapping them in that mansion on the snowy mountain. Also, Itsuki tells Kyon that Haruhi has recently been creating a lot of Closed Spaces, from either jealousy or puzzlement at the arrival of Kyon’s old female friend.
-What’s different about this volume is that, starting in chapter 2, the story branches off into two different scenarios. I’m not sure what Tanigawa-san plans to do with this, but for now, here’s a quick rundown of what happens in both:
Scenario(α): Kyon gets a phone call from a mysterious girl he can’t identify. After she hangs up on him, he calls Itsuki and asks him about Tachibana and Kuyou though he only knows that Tachibana is unrelated to the ‘Organization’ but doesn’t seem to have any real villainous intent. After lazying around on Sunday, the new school term starts on Monday. After getting some math tutoring from Haruhi, they head off to the clubroom only to find it filled with new students who want to join the SOS Brigade. When she finishes giving them a big speech, Haruhi tells them to come back tomorrow if they’re serious about joining. Whether they do or not we have yet to find out…
Scenario(β): On Saturday, Kyon gets a call from Sasaki who asks him to meet her, Tachibana, Kuyou, and the male time traveler (who was the other one involved in Mikuru’s kidnapping) on Sunday. He later calls Itsuki and Yuki though they don’t know all the answers either. So he goes on Sunday and Tachibana reveals to him their true intent: they don’t believe that Haruhi is the original owner of the power she has…it belonged to Sasaki first and was somehow transferred to Haruhi. Tachibana tries to convince Kyon to help get the power back to Sasaki (Sasaki is also reluctant to receive it) but Kyon does not exactly agree. After leaving it at that, the next Monday the clubroom is pretty boring except for Haruhi making an exam for any new club members. But Yuki doesn’t arrive that day and they later find out she’s home sick. She also got sick back at the mansion on the snowy mountain from Kuyou’s influence, so Kyon thinks it must be happening again. Haruhi decides that they end early that day and go visit Yuki…
Image: Haruhi and Sasaki
Image: The new rival alien, esper, and time traveler!

*to be continued in Vol. 10: The Astonishment of Haruhi Suzumiya*