The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Kyon arrives at school in December to find everything altered. There is no Haruhi, no club, a friend who died is alive, and nobody knows him. The only familiar face is Yuki Nagato, and she is an ordinary, shy library student. The film is generally regarded as the high point of the franchise, and the reason is that it puts Yuki rather than Haruhi at the centre. When the cause of the change is finally explained, what emerges is not a villain but the loneliness of somebody who chose to stay silent. Kyoto Animation produced it, with Yasuhiro Takemoto directing. It runs over two hours and forty minutes, unusually long for an animated feature, and the length is used deliberately, since the first half proceeds very quietly. Its flaw is that it is entirely closed to newcomers. The characters' history, the rules and the events of earlier episodes are never explained. Who it is for: viewers who have watched Haruhi Suzumiya. Who it is not for: anyone starting the series here.