I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers here, come join me.

It’s a simple enough premise: Crazy girl does crazy things. She starts a club, looking for things straight out of anime. And she gets them: Shortly, the club membership contains, predictably, an alien, a time traveler, and an esper. Only, poor Haruhi doesn’t necessarially realize it. Also, she herself is stranger than them all.

Perhaps what I like most about this series is it’s most controversial aspect: It’s very much anachronistic. It’s designed to be watched out of order. If you’re watching it in chronological order, it’s just not as good. Perhaps fun to do once you’ve seen it in it’s proper order, but not the way anyone should see it.

It bugs me, therefore, that it’s being released in chronological order. Certainly, it makes more sense that way. The best art doesn’t make sense. I’m a fan of absurdism, and this show provides it in droves: But the effect is lessened if you follow Kyons journey and know the secrets before the bizarre episodes (Funnilly enough, even though I refer to it as Kyon’s journey, Kyon’s numbering at the end of the episodes is the anachronistic, and Haruhi’s is the chronological).

If you get a chance, pick up the Limited Edition versions: The combination of the original-order episodes and the SOS-brigade armband you get in Vol 2 make it well worth it. And either way, try and watch it as it was intended by it’s creators. It’s better that way.