Haruhi Suzumiya/Characters: Difference between revisions

 

Also note that there are '''unmarked spoilers for the novel series''' as of this writing,<ref>for your information, the anime and [[The Movie]] completely covers first four volumes and few side stories from later volumes</ref> so if you've only watched the anime, you might still be getting spoilers for future seasons.

 

== The SOS Brigade ==

 

The story essentially revolves around the antics caused by her powers, directly or indirectly, and the [[Character Development]] which ensues within the SOS Brigade.

* [[Agent Mulder]]: Or she'd like to be. Her inner [[Agent Scully]] keeps her from [[Weirdness Censor|actually recognizing the weirdness around her.]] When Kyon actually tells her about the truth about herself and the other members, she doesn't believe him at all and scorns him for it.

* [[Allergic to Routine]]

 

Kyon [[Unreliable Narrator|presents himself in the narration]] as a [[Blatant Lies|levelheaded, objective, philosophical guy]].

* [[Accidental Pervert]]: Although his thoughts regarding Mikuru sometimes move toward [[Covert Pervert]] territory.

* [[Action Survivor]]: Several times. One of the most dramatic ones being when he's attacked by Asakura, which causes some severe [[Mood Whiplash]]

{{quote|'''Kyon:''' [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Position target in the center, pull the switch.]]}}

* [[Meaningful Name]]: [[wikipedia:Cynic|according to Wikipedia]], Kyon's nickname might come from κύων / kyôn, 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'.

* [[Meta Guy]]

* [[Morality Chain]]: To Haruhi.

 

The author of the light novels has commented that Yuki is one of his favorite characters to make stories about, since [[Robot Girl]]s are easy to write [[Character Development]] for, hence the number of short stories (and one whole novel) focusing on her emotional development.

* [[Adorkable]]: Few people make dopey ignorance towards Earth-Technology so darned cute, as show with [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHZmor8eadU&feature=related THIS little old scene].

* {{spoiler|[[And I Must Scream]]: Her fate during the "Endless Eight" arc, in which she is forced to relive the same 2 weeks for approximately 595 YEARS!}}

 

Mikuru is, as far as the audience can tell, the least diligent in the whole "observe/control" Haruhi business. Indeed, she seems content to be the SOS Brigade's personal [[Meido]] (having an especial fascination with tea-brewing for some reason), deal with 21st-century culture shock, and endure Haruhi's [[Black Comedy Rape|constant molestation]] and enforced [[Cosplay]]. It's not that she's around [[Ms. Fanservice|solely for window-dressing]]. It's just that she's passive to the point of being [[The Chew Toy]]. (And partly around for window-dressing).

* [[Adorkable]]

* {{spoiler|[[Anti-Hero]]: Her older counterpart can be quite morally ambiguous and manipulative at times. Her younger self [[Alternate Character Interpretation|may or may not]] [[Obfuscating Stupidity|have her moments.]] Koizumi definitely originally thought she was faking her "moe" tendencies to manipulate Kyon.}}

 

If Kyoko's words in Volumes 10 and 11 are anything to go by, he is {{spoiler|[[King Incognito|the founder and the leader of the Agency]].}}

* [[Alternate Character Interpretation]]: Oh, so much. That he keeps his own emotions hidden behind [[Stepford Smiler|a plastered smile]] makes him the one character in the series almost no one in the fandom agrees on.

** There's even a bit of this in-universe with Mikuru distrusting his motivations originally, Koizumi swearing loyalty to the brigade, and Kyon being simultaneously annoyed by and trusting of him. Koizumi himself all but confirms his personality is an act, but even then he might have been lying...

Interestingly, she has a [[Evil Twin|good twin]] in ''[[The Vanishing of Nagato Yuki-chan]]''; a dimension where she ''is'' Yuki's [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/nagato_yuki_chan_no_shoushitsu/v01/c002/16.html best friend]; and genuinely tries to help her be with Kyon. Although she is just a little bit jealous ([[Les Yay|of Kyon]]), she tries to hide that.

 

* {{spoiler|[[Anti-Hero]]}}: {{spoiler|As of Book 10, a definite Type V. She's still the same Asakura, she just happens to be fighting on the same side as the Brigade now.}}

* [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]: It can kind of be argued either way; on the one hand, when dealing with the vast majority of people, she seems to be legitimately, actually nice and to even enjoy it, doubly so in ''Disapperance's'' [[Alternate Reality]] and its related spinoff (which, given the nature of [[The Verse]], [[Mind Screw|may or may not count, depending]]). Her interactions with Kyon, however, run the gamut; she starts out nice, then there's the big stabbing incident, then a lot of her lines with him in ''Disapperance'' straddle the line between "good-natured ribbing about Yuki" and "passive-aggressive bitchiness", {{spoiler|then she stabs him ''for real''}}, and '''then''' {{spoiler|in Book 10, she saves his life ''[[Big Damn Villains|while holding a knife to his throat at the same time]]''}}. Perhaps it's most accurate to say that if she has an Inner Bitch, Kyon brings it out, and since [[Unreliable Narrator|he's our narrator]], we may get a disproportionate view of it.

 

No one really knows what's up with '''Tsuruya-san''', Mikuru's classmate, ersatz SOS Brigade member and something of a [[Sixth Ranger]]. She's got the ([[Rapunzel Hair|ankle length]]) [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair|green hair]] one would expect from a Humanoid Interface, but seems to be totally normal, if just as much of a [[Genki Girl]] as Haruhi. She's also notable for her [[Cute Little Fangs|Cute Little]] [[Fashionable Asymmetry|Fang]], [[Big Fancy House]], [[The Hyena|tendency to point and laugh (very loudly)]], and for inspiring the [[Fan Web Comic]] and [[Memetic Mutation]] Sensation, Churuya. She also seems unusually aware of the SOS Brigade's oddities for a [[Muggle]], but seems content to enjoy the show rather than disrupt the Brigade's attempts to keep Haruhi under control. Sort of an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]].

* [[Big Fancy House]]

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Her tendency to laugh at almost anything.

 

'''Emiri Kimidori''' is a mysterious student in North High—somewhat of a [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] and a [[Mysterious Watcher]] to the Brigade. She is revealed to be a humanoid interface just like Yuki, but has done very little, save for a couple of minor plots and being an ally to the [[Student Council President]]. That is, until Volume 10, where {{spoiler|she reveals herself to be somewhat of an [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] working under the Data Overmind. She becomes an observer to the Sky Canopy Domain, but refuses to act unless ordered by the Data Overmind.}}

* [[Adaptation-Induced Plothole]]: More regarding characterization. The character songs for the anime's first season were released prior to the tenth-novel preview; building off the fact that she's an interface, the songs portrayed her as someone reaching for humanity and wanting to participate in the fun everyone else has but being unable to. The tenth-novel preview, however, revealed that {{spoiler|she doesn't give a damn about anything that interferes with what the Entity wants, not even Yuki's personal safety}}.

* [[All Powerful Bystander]]: {{spoiler|Of the first and last variety at the same time: she hasn't been ordered to help out Nagato when she gets sick in the tenth novel, and she doesn't care enough about her to do so either. Thus, she just continues to watch.}}

 

'''Taniguchi''' and '''Kunikida''' are [[Those Two Guys]] and Kyon's main non-SOS Brigade friends. Both totally normal to all appearances, Taniguchi is a [[Big Eater]] and something of a teenage [[Casanova Wannabe]] who is implied to have dated Haruhi for exactly five minutes back in junior high. Kunikida is Kyon's junior high friend, and receives no [[Character Development]] or [[Backstory]] detail whatsoever - except that he gets better grades than Taniguchi or Kyon {{spoiler|and, as is revealed in the eleventh novel, may have a crush on Tsuruya}}. They both act as an anchor of normalcy for Kyon, and occasional extra bodies in the SOS Brigade for things like baseball games or magazine publishing.

* [[Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?]]: Taniguchi briefly tasted Haruhi's shortest relationship, listed one alien as a top pick then dated another one for a few months. Fortunately for his sanity, he's [[Locked Out of the Loop]] and just a [[Romantic False Lead]].

* [[Shipper on Deck]]: Taniguchi for Kyon x Haruhi and Kunikida for Kyon x Sasaki. (In the novels at least.)

 

'''Kyon's Little Sister''', [[No Name Given|known only as]] [[Japanese Sibling Terminology|Imouto-chan]], is a [[Cheerful Child]] who occasionally tags along on her brother's sort-of-adventures, being a bit [[Genki Girl|hyper]] but still better-mannered than most [[Annoying Younger Sibling]]s. Because [[Adults Are Useless]], she forms the core of Kyon's family life in the novels. He doesn't get much screen time at home in the anime, so she's follows he him out of the house more often.

* [[Cheerful Child]]

* [[Genki Girl]]

* [[No Name Given]]

 

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A nameless character who is the president of the Computer Society. His role in the plot is essentially [[The Chew Toy]], being the subject of several of Haruhi's antics—being blackmailed into giving away computers to the SOS Brigade, getting taken over by a cricket-like Data Entity, etc. He declares himself and his club to be rivals to the SOS Brigade and challenges them to a game of their own creation, but they lose and become "vassals" to the SOS Brigade. Emiri Kimidori also pretended to be his girlfriend. [[Butt Monkey|It must suck to be him.]]

* [[Butt Monkey]]

* [[The Chew Toy]]

 

Another character with [[No Name Given]], he is the school's [[Student Council President]] introduced in ''The Anger of Haruhi Suzumiya'' by Koizumi to give Haruhi an antagonist and to keep her from getting bored. He acts like a [[Bespectacled Bastard Boyfriend]] in his role as the president, but he is secretly laughing at how ridiculous his job is. Later on, it seems that Haruhi's influence is making him take his job more seriously.

 

* [[Becoming the Mask]]: He comments that he slips back into his mask every now and then, even when Haruhi isn't around.

* [[Full-Name Basis]]: Or a Japanese variant thereon: he always addresses female students with the honorific "kun," which is typically used for boys and young men. As [[That Other Wiki]] notes, there are two exceptions to that practice, "in business settings, young female employees may also be addressed as -kun by older males of senior status," and "in the Diet of Japan (Legislature), chairpersons use kun when addressing diet members and ministers." Either way, he's being pretentious.

 

Contrary to the popular pre-''Astonishment'' theories, Yasumi has not yet been revealed to be one of the supernatural beings that Haruhi has been pursuing. However, as her presence is the most obvious difference between the Alpha and Beta plots (aside from the mysterious phone call to Kyon {{spoiler|which was probably made by her in the first place}}), [[Haruhi Suzumiya/WMG|speculation has abounded as to her true nature]]. {{spoiler|But ''really'', she was born of Haruhi's subconscious to save Yuki and Kyon from the troubles they suffer in the Beta plot, causing the [[Alternate Universe|Alpha plotline]] to occur in the process.}}

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]

* {{spoiler|[[Deus Ex Machina]]: Literally, she was created by Haruhi's subconcious precisely in order to handily solve the plot.}}

'''Yuki:''' ''(Matter of factly)'' That was ventriloquism. }}

 

* [[Contemplate Our Navels]]: He's awfully philosophical, when he can speak.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Shamisen (the instruments) use cat skin in their construction.

Kyon's old girlfriend. Or at least the female person he used to hang around with, and the reason for his pre-Haruhi reputation for "liking weird girls." Sasaki is intelligent and analytical...but chooses not to do anything to change her environment. She knows about aliens, time-travellers and espers, which are interesting, but she's not going to change her daily routine over it. She's somewhat of [[The Spock]] and wishes to keep out of the God-business all the organizations have.

 

* [[A-Cup Angst]]: A one-off comment from her in ''Rainy Day'', where she expresses a hint of jealousy upon the idea of Kyon ogling the popular girl in their class and her larger "assets".

* [[Evil Counterpart|Antagonistic Counterpart]]: To Haruhi.{{spoiler|..[[Good All Along|at first.]]}}

=== Kyoko Tachibana ===

An Esper who believes that Sasaki {{spoiler|should be God}}. Reveals that in Sasaki's {{spoiler|Closed Space}}, nothing changes. Ever. [[Fridge Logic]] to ''that'' does not occur to her. She also believes that {{spoiler|Kyon has the power to transfer the power from Haruhi to Sasaki.}}

* [[Evil Counterpart|Antagonistic Counterpart]]: To Itsuki, even though she more resembles Mikuru.

* [[Dojikko]]

=== Kuyo Suo ===

An agent of the rival to the Data Overmind: the Canopy Domain. Has far, far less social skills than Yuki; she seems autistically unaware of anyone's existence. Has a lot of dark hair which is commented on, possible a reference to the [[Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl]] trope. She's a bit of an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]], and her managing to stuff her ridiculously large amount of hair into a tiny plastic umbrella has become a [[Memetic Mutation]], it seems. {{spoiler|She violently tries to attack Kyon in the tenth novel (or at least it seems), until she is stopped by Ryoko and has a knife fight with her. Kuyo almost kills Ryoko before Emiri intervenes.}}

* [[Artificial Human]]: She is an interface, after all.

* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: Does not understand morality. All she knows is that she wants to communicate, but doesn't know what it actually means to communicate or to fully grasp what other entities are.

=== Fujiwara ===

Kyon believes this name to merely be a pseudonym, so he is commonly referred to as '''[[Smug Snake|that sneering bastard]]'''. The most villainous of the group, he is a Time Traveller who believes that [[Time Travel]] actually makes humans slaves to Causality.

* {{spoiler|[[Big Bad]]: Of "Scheme of Haruhi Suzumiya" and also ends up as "Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya"'s one too.}}

* [[Deicide]]: Goes out of his way to {{spoiler|make a ''very'' serious attempt on Haruhi's life}} at the climax of ''Astonishment Vol. 2''.

* [[Wham! Line]]: During the climax of the 11th novel: {{spoiler|"Go kill Haruhi Suzumiya!"}}

* {{spoiler|[[Yandere]]: A brotherly one toward Mikuru.}}