I am so buying the first DVD when it comes out. Thanks to all the INH people who got me addicted to this anime.

It *is* the best series ever. Truly. Also, read the light novels, which expands the story, and creates depth and character development.

Whas it aboot?

It's a short 14-episode series chronicling the adventures of Haruhi Suzumiya and her "SOS-Brigade". Haruhi, to put it frankly, is bored to death of ordinary human life, so she's dedicated herself to seeking out aliens, ESPers, time travellers, and all matter of paranormal activity. And of course, that's what she gets. Sort of.

It's an amazingly fun and quirky series. The series was intentionally written and aired "out of order". Watching it in chronological order is perfectly possible, but it kills the sense of drama and mystery that's built up over the course of the show. What truly makes the show is the main character Kyon's narration. Delivered with a heaping dose of dry wit and sarcasm, it serves to ground the otherwise absurd happenings around him in a way that feels natural, and still goddamned hilarious.

Agreed, but I would not call it the best anime ever. HS has some great moments and the merchandising at least in JP is awesome you'd be hard pressed to find such cool items in the USA.

And after all that I still don't want to see it.

Your loss. I was holding off for awhile, too, as the impression that I had gotten was that it was some silly, stupid show that had gotten hyped out of proportion due to all the internet memes and such. Eventually, I caved, and I'm glad I did. It's just such a fresh and witty show, filled to the brim with energy and enthusiasm. I won't go so far as to say it's the best thing ever, but what it does, it does very well.

Ah well, can't force you to watch it, but I don't think it's something that you should just casually dismiss.

I have DVD special edition volume 1 and 2. I love it.

Yeah, that's the major point of contention I have for the series. Kadokawa Pictures' idiocy. Blasted chronological order *grumble*.

I couldn't bring myself to buy the special editions for sub-only broadcast order DVDs and a bunch of extras (hair ribbons? pillow cases? I'm obviously of the wrong gender there...) that I'll never use. Bugs me enough that I'll probably go and rebuild my own DVD set once the rest of them come out, and put the episodes back in the order they were meant to be watched.

Although I can understand how you must feel, the non chronological order in which it aired is actually part of the series proper. The light novels are also jumping from one story to the other, non-chronological. It also ties in with the post-modern feel of the series.

You will also be glad to hear that there will be a second season of this show. Personally, I can't wait. I've read all the light novels, and I can't wait to see how the stories would turn out for the anime.

Erm, I'm miffed that the DVDs are in chronological order. I loved the broadcast order, and the way certain things are set up, it's pretty clear that that's the way it was intended to be seen. So it ticks me off that Kadokawa is so adamant in forcing chronological order on the consumers.

Okay, I caught the first two episodes on Bittorrent. I still didn't like it. Too dry, like burnt toast. Guess its not for everyone.

No it's not, it was never created with Western audiences in mind.

At the risk of sounding pushy, you really should give it another shot. The first episode is very...odd. It's a brilliant piece of work, but it risks throwing the audience off totally as well. The episode after that is where the series still maintains a sense of normalcy (to a point), and still keeps its humor fairly low key. It's after that that things start to get really interesting.

The beginning of episode three actually has a really good scene for you to judge your sense of humor against, which involves the blackmail of the computer club president. If you don't find that scene gut-bustingly hilarious, then yeah, you're probably not going to get much more out of the show. Beyond that, Yuki's schpiel at the end of that episode should start to clue you in to the rest of the series' eccentricities (although due to the scrambled episode order, you don't get the rest of that speech until the beginning of the fifth episode. In between you get a parody of "miracle underdog sports team" movies, which is hilarious in its own way).