Last night, I went to the second US theatrical screening of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Bandai put on a few little things there: they were raffling off Crunchy Roll memberships, they had some of the English voice actors signing posters, someone was singing the various Haruhi theme songs (relatively well, actually), Yen Press/Little, Brown, and Co. were apparently giving away copies of the light novels and manga, etc. The main event was, of course, the film.

First off, the bad, the movie basically requires you to have seen some of the second season of Haruhi. So far, there has yet to be a US release of the second season of Haruhi. There isn't even a release date (beyond the vague indication of "2010") as far as I know. I blame Bandai for being Bandai. Much as I might dislike Funimation, at least they tend to give release schedules for things that I care about. That aside, I don't think the movie is at all accessible to people who haven't at least seen the first season. Very little of the backstory is explained in anything more than a passing way. Honestly, I consider this a fine thing as it gives the movie more time to focus on its story rather than wasting time relating what I already know.

Setting that aside, I would say that this movie is probably the best of the animated Haruhi properties so far. I'm almost willing to forgive Kyoto Animation for the Endless Eight debacle. Almost. Regardless, once Bandai decides to actually release it on DVD, I would recommend picking it up with a great degree of insistence.

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