Haruhi Suzumiya/Tropes J-Z

Tropes for Haruhi Suzumiya, J to N:
"Q: What was written on that piece of paper? A: A confession of love for Nagato. Q: Whose handwriting was on the paper? A: My handwriting. Q: What would a strange think if he had read this? A: He'll probably misunderstand.
 * Jerkass: Haruhi in the beginning of the series. Until...
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: What Haruhi eventually matures into.
 * Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: A Gambit Pileup, Stable Time Loop and Love Dodecahedron form around a Wrong Genre Savvy Ontological Mystery title character and an Unreliable Narrator protagonist who doesn't really understand what's going on (or does he?). Said narrator relays most of the background information and interpretation from a Mr. Exposition who nobody completely believes or trusts.
 * Joshikousei: In the book, Kyon wonders if the principal has a fetish for this, since male students wear blazers and ties, but girls wear the more traditional sailor uniform. Ironically, the real school North High is based on features the opposite uniform configuration, with militaresque gakuran for boys and parochial-style uniforms for girls.
 * Just Eat Gilligan: In Sigh, Kyon repeatedly suggests doing this to Haruhi to solve the problem.
 * Kansai Regional Accent: Notable for its absence -- the series is set in Nishinomiya, on Osaka bay, in between Osaka and Kobe, home of the Hanshin Tigers, etc. As the creator of the series was born and raised in Nishinomiya, it's not surprising he'd want to avoid the usual grossly exaggerated, stereotypical Kansai accent heard in most anime.
 * This can also be excused by the fact that Kyon is an Unreliable Narrator; he could easily be rendering everyone's dialect (including his own) as Standard Japanese, just because.
 * The author could also be doing this to sidestep the stereotypical characterization associated with the dialect. It might partially agree with Haruhi and Tsuruya's personalities, but it would be very much at odds with Kyon's Ordinary High School Student/Unfazed Everyman role in the narrative.
 * Kawaisa: The show is actually a huge sendup of the entire concept on some level. Mikuru is selected by Haruhi for SOS membership due to many of these characteristics... and those characteristics make her a doormat as a result. Haruhi herself could be a kind of Genki Kawaisa... except that her exuberance means she doesn't understand what's appropriate and not (or at least, she doesn't care) making her profoundly annoying in many cases.
 * Keep It Foreign: "Why?" -> "naze?"
 * Kick the Dog: Haruhi, obviously. Most famously, the blackmailing of the computer club president. Some people don't find the molestation of Mikuru very funny, either. In the novels,  She nearly gets hit by one really (and understandably) upset Kyon, but Koizumi restrained him.
 * Knife Nut:.
 * Lampshade Hanging: Where to begin?
 * Among the popular Japanese media tropes, if it isn't lampshaded, then it was probably invoked by Haruhi.
 * Language of Magic: Sped up and backwards played SQL queries.
 * Layman's Terms: Particularly in the Drama CD. Kyon is fond of asking for his companions' Infodumps to be rendered in words he can understand, though he's generally good at getting the gist of things.
 * Leeroy Jenkins: Haruhi behaves this way when they play a LAN game against the Computer Club.
 * Lemony Narrator: Kyon, especially in the novels.
 * Lighter and Softer: While the main series is relatively light in tone, The Vanishing of Yuki-chan takes it even further -- there's no impending threat of the world being remade, Kyon isn't a nervous wreck from waking up in an Alternate Universe, Asakura isn't a Knife Nut Psycho Lesbian, and the closest things the series has for "antagonists" are Mikuru and Tsuruya, with the former only having that status because she follows the lead of the latter. Of course, when Haruhi shows up again, she and Tsuruya team up almost immediately.
 * Light Novels: Yes, the anime is based on them and covers the first novel of eleven and some side stories. The second season covers the first three novels, plus chapters from novels 5 and 6.
 * Including the movie, the first four are completely done, and as above, chapters from 5 and 6.
 * Limited Wardrobe: Yuki. Eventually Kyon picks up that maybe she just likes her school uniform.
 * Little Miss Almighty: Haruhi, or maybe not.
 * Little Stowaway: Kyon's sister tries this when the SOS brigade goes on vacation, but she gets caught in an instant. In the novels, she has to stay home, but in the anime they ultimately allow her to go with them.
 * Locked Out of the Loop: There's a lot of things Haruhi doesn't know about herself and the other members of the SOS Brigade.
 * The Time Travel arcs often leave Mikuru in a similar position. Kyon, Yuki, and all know what she needs to do and why, but they can't tell Mikuru 'cos of paradoxes.
 * Kyon himself seems to be left out of a lot of the secret meetings between Yuki, Itsuki, and Mikuru.
 * Locked Room Mystery: "Remote Island Syndrome."
 * Done again with Where Did The Cat Go?, the murder mystery that was supposed to be the main excitement during the Snow Mountain Syndrome trip.
 * Loli In A Bag: Kyon's little sister hid in his duffel bag so he would take her on vacation with him.
 * Amusingly, Reality Ensues - Kyon immediately notices that his bag is a good 30 kilos heavier than it should be and catches her. In the anime he brings her along anyway, whereas in the Light Novels he sends her back home.
 * Lost Him in a Card Game: Haruhi bets Mikuru during "The Day of Sagittarius." When the Computer Club President is taken aback by this, she offers Yuki instead. And when Kyon protests her willingness to wager other people, she relents and offers herself — an offer which the Computer Club president very much rejects...
 * Love Letter Lunacy: in the short story Charmed at First Sight LOVER, Kyon transcribes a (hilariously melodramatic) love note from an old classmate to Yuki. Unfortunately, he when he's done reading it, he tosses it out the window--just as Haruhi is passing by. Or as Kyon puts it in helpful question-and-answer format:

Q: Then what would Haruhi be thinking if she read it?

A: I don't even want to know."


 * Lotus Eater Machine: The Alternate Universe in Disappearance seems to be like this for Kyon, but gets subverted hard when he goes into a panic over the one good thing it had over the real world -- that is, the SOS-Dan.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: Kyon on a bike with fireworks, in "Endless Eight".
 * Magical Girlfriend: Or at least Magical She Is Not My Girlfriend.
 * Magical Incantation: See below.
 * Magic From Technology: Yuki's incantations in SQL.
 * Male Gaze: Really confusing when used on Yuki's chest in Disappearance.
 * The pool scene in the 7th Endless Eight episode begins with Haruhi's bikini-clad butt taking up almost the whole screen.
 * Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Haruhi
 * Masquerade: On just about everybody's part
 * Mayfly-December Romance
 * Meaningful Background Event: For just a split second in "Live Alive," when Kyon is talking to Taniguchi and Kunikida, Haruhi and Yuki can be seen in their costumes with guitars strapped to their backs.
 * Meaningful Name: according to Wikipedia, Kyon's nickname might come from κύων (kyÃ´n), Ancient Greek for "dog", from where the word "cynic" may come from. Another possibility: Haruhi in the novels loves the story of Tanabata, involving a romance between a man and a woman separated and only allowed to meet once a year; the Korean name for the man can be romanized as 'Kyonu'.
 * It should be noted that while Kyon is certainly a cynic in the modern sense of the word, the Ancient Greek Cynics (i. e. the Dog Philosophers) actually espoused a philosophy that has more in common with Haruhi's than Kyon's.
 * Probably unintentional, but 'Kyon' is also Hindi for 'why?': something Kyon must be repeatedly thinking throughout the series...
 * Keep in mind, however, that while the name "Kyon" is pronounced as you'd expect a Japanese name to be, the Hindi work "kyon" is pronounced like "kyo" or even "kyo", with a slight nasalization of the final consonant. The resemblance really ends at the transliteration.
 * Yuki's name as written means "has hope", which arguably fits with her later Character Development. Written in another way, it can also mean "snow", leading to several snow motifs. The 8th novel suggests that "snow" meaning was why she chose this name for herself as a metaphor, because as the Entity is formless and unified, like a mass of water, or a cloud, she is individual, and material, like a snowflake originating from that water.
 * Additionally, the kanji in her surname name can translate to "gate manager" (or "master", in that context), which makes sense since she's essentially managing a "gate" to the Data Overmind.
 * Another probably intentional one -- 'Mikuru' written a certain way in kanji can mean 'future'.
 * Meaningless Meaningful Words: Played with in The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina when Itsuki and Yuki, to fill Haruhi's Wall Banger script improvise a dialogue and manage to talk for a full minute without saying anything that makes the tiniest sense!
 * Meta Guy: Kyon, Genre Savvy Deadpan Snarker that he is.
 * Mind Screw: If you haven't been spoiled, watching the series from the start in its original out-of-chronological-order order, will mess you up.
 * Miracle Rally: Played with in "The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya". Yuki cheats and modifies the attribute data of the baseball bat the team uses ('Homing Mode'). Kyon asks her to disable it afterwards, and the team go right back to sucking again... but they still win. And then forfeit, because Haruhi's had her fun. And then Kyon sells the other team the bat.
 * Mistaken Message: Ryoko's anonymous note on Kyon's Inside Shoes locker.
 * Moe: Mikuru, who Haruhi tries to make as Moe as possible..
 * Also, Kyon's little sister. You can't look at her and not say that she's adorable. (Unless you're Kyon, who would disagree.)
 * Yuki, especially in Disappearance (and is turned Up to Eleven in the movie).
 * Also,
 * Moment Killer
 * Mood Dissonance: The episode "Sometime in the Rain" has Haruhi share an umbrella with Kyon, and act like she cares about him, as they walk home together. There's a sense of them almost being friends, honestly. It's a noticeable difference from where Haruhi was at the beginning of the show, and definite character development. It was a little hard to take at face value though, considering that Haruhi had spent the day forcibly dressing Mikuru up and filming her, after sending Kyon off on an errand so he wouldn't interfere.
 * Mood Whiplash: Ryoko's conversation alone with Kyon at first sounds like a heartfelt confession of love... then it starts making no sense ("the higher-ups are all sticks-in-the-muds who can't keep up with change, but I can't afford such complacency out in the field")... and then.
 * The movie
 * Watch the cheery first episode of "Endless Eight," then watch the following ones.
 * Kyon's confrontation with Haruhi in Sigh leads to a sudden change of the mood. And to a dark, overcast, rainy, musicless day.
 * Morality Chain: The only reason Haruhi got any nicer is Kyon. And we don't wanna know what would happen if he should die.
 * But
 * The Movie: An adaptation of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, to be exact.
 * Big Damn Movie: Naturally, since Disappearance is one of the more epic stories in the series.
 * Mr. Exposition: The show hangs a lampshade on this with Kyon constantly telling Itsuki, aka Mr Exposition, that he talks too much.
 * Mr. Vice Guy: Haruhi starts out as a jerkass Genki Girl and eventually becomes, well, a selfish jerk who means well and values her friends more than making the world exciting.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Mikuru again.
 * Mugged for Disguise: Invoked by Kyon during Disappearance (when ), but averted with them using Kyon's P.E. uniforms instead.
 * Multiple Demographic Appeal: And how.
 * Mundane Fantastic
 * Mundane Utility
 * Murder the Hypotenuse: . Probably also
 * Musical Pastiche: Soundtrack during the baseball match pastiches the theme to Touch).
 * Myself My Avatar:
 * Mysterious Backer: The Data Entity.


 * Necktie Leash - Mostly just in the anime. In the novels she leads him arm in arm.
 * Neutral Female: Mikuru. She even knows that she won't be a combatant or competent.
 * Newspaper Dating: Kyon in the novel of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.
 * New Transfer Student: Itsuki.
 * Nightmare Fetishist: Haruhi.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Episode 00 "The Adventures Of Mikuru Asahina", Mikuru's and Yuki's characters.
 * Kyon's suggestion for the cultural festival: "Let's combine everything and do a fortune-telling survey play cafe."
 * Next Sunday AD: It's implied in Disappearance that Kyon's freshman year in high school started in April, 2010. (He mentions that the date,, is a lucky date --  .)
 * No Communities Were Harmed: The series' setting is described/rendered in sufficient detail (in both novels and anime) to be readily identifiable as the author's hometown of Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, but it's never referred to by name in-series. Most likely, unwillingness to come out and say it is to avoid invoking a different trope based on the dialect of the region. Nevertheless, there are a few dead giveaways in the series, such as scenes directly in front of (a circa-2006) Osaka Station in "Melancholy III" and an establishing shot in "Endless Eight" that is unmistakably the waterfront of Kobe. (Perhaps the series' attention to detail is also its own undoing.)
 * Dead giveaways, you say?
 * The American DVD release of Season 2 includes extra videos where some of the crew walk around the town visiting the real-life locations that served as the models for many of the scenes.
 * No Name Given: Kyon, the Computer Club President, and Kyon's sister -- Kyon bemoans his stupid nickname but never says his real name (his school introduction is cut off). Even his sister's image song had to be titled as "Kyon no Imouto-san" or "Kyon's Little Sister". When someone is about to say the president's name, it is covered up by a sudden cut-off to a random cat meowing.
 * The novels tease us by saying that Kyon's actual name is "hard to spell" and "regal sounding."
 * At the beginning of "Melancholy", the introductions were alternately boy/girl, with boys and girls each being alphabetically ordered. After Kyon, Haruhi Suzumiya introduces herself, then Taniguchi. So Kyon's name likely starts with "Su," "Se," "So," or "Ta." Among the resulting possibilities are and.
 * Haruhi introduces Asahina to Kyon, but then fails to introduce Kyon to Asahina, a fact that doesn't escape Kyon's attention. And a few days later, when Koizumi is introducing himself to the Kyon, Haruhi interrupts Kyon's self introduction with "That's Kyon!"
 * Non-Indicative First Episode: First episode, which parodies most of the Japanese Media Tropes and many others in The Catalogue.
 * Non Sequitur Thud:  Not Played for Laughs.


 * Noodle Incident: Only Kyon's "dream" is shown in Snow Mountain Syndrome, the other "dreams" sound interesting.
 * No Sense of Personal Space: Koizumi, to Kyon's constant annoyance and the fangirls' constant delight, as well as Asakura, which doesn't stand out too much for various reasons, and for both the question if it is intentional or not is valid.
 * No Such Thing as Wizard Jesus: There are alien data creatures, life forms that are based around physical bodies, but their data can live without their silicon-based bodies. Wait! Doesn't it mean that maybe if humans are also like this, it could be proven that there is life after death for our non-physical part, call it data, mind or soul? The trope is averted, as Kyon does ask this question as soon as he can, and Nagato knows the answer
 * Not a Date: Kyon and Mikuru. Aww.
 * If you're talking about Haruhi's insistence in III, there's an even bigger one in the later novels. Mikuru actually asks Kyon out at one point, but
 * Not So Stoic: There's definite traces of actual emotion under Yuki Nagato's Extreme Doormat Emotionless Girl facade. She's still pretty hard to read though.
 * Not What It Looks Like