Prologue summary: It starts by our narrator talking about how long he believed in Santa Claus, which is never, and how he knew that the ones he has seen in person were fakes. The narrator also talks about other fictional elements (aka aliens, espers, time travelers, etc.) and how much he wanted them to exist, but realized that they did not. Our narrator states that he would like to be in a world where such beings existed, but still admits that it is impossible, thinking that the year 1999 was his last hope for anything like that to occur. After graduating middle school and entering high school he puts those fantasies to the back of his mind until he met a certain someone.Chapter 1 summary: Our currently nameless narrator is entering high school, and he complains that his school is located at the top of a large hill and how the hike will be each day. He notes during the commencement ceremony the bright hope and anxiety with the other students in contrast to his own gloomy demeanor. In homeroom later, the teacher, Okabe, introduces himself, and has the students introduce themselves, they do so, talking about themselves, telling bad jokes that killed the excitement, until he hears the name and speech that he will never forget, "Haruhi Suzumiya. From East Middle. I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, sliders, or espers here, come join me.That is all." The narrator is perplexed and hopes that their meeting was only a coincidence. He observes Haruhi, and finds that she's quiet and seemingly harmless. In his stated stupidity, our narrator decides to talk to Haruhi and asks if she meant what she said, but she won't talk to him unless he's an alien or some other aforementioned being. He wonders if he should have spoken to her at all, and is seemingly right after nothing else happens for the rest of the week. Haruhi is apparently in a foul mood all the time from the narrator's perspective, noting a conversation between her and another student.
Later, during lunch, he eats with a couple of classmates, Kunikida- a classmate from middle school; and Taniguchi, from East Middle, and the topic of Haruhi comes up. Taniguchi states that he and Haruhi were in the same class throughout and tells of strange incidents that she conducted, specifically one in which she drew graffiti on school grounds. They also discuss her love life, she never turned down anyone, but always dumped them after a certain period of time, up to a week and as little as five minutes. They then discuss the other girls in class, notably Ryoko Asakura, who has great looks and a personality to match, according to Taniguchi. As time passes, the still nameless narrator decides to observe Haruhi's eccentricities, changing hair styles, number of hair ribbons based on day, changing into gym clothes with boys still present in the classroom, and leaving the classroom the very second the bell rings, apparanlty she joined every club after school each day.
Sometime later, after Golden Week (a Japanese Holiday), we finally learn our narrator's nickname, "Kyon", a name he does not like. He comes into class and talks to Haruhi regarding her hair and if she changes it for aliens, and she actually gives a serious answer! They talk for a bit and Haruhi asks if she had seen him before, a very long time ago, Kyon denies this, and the conversation ends. The next day, Haruhi comes in with her hair cut, Kyon asks why, but is told that it is none of his business.
Later they have a conversation regarding her love life and other rumors, she states that they are probably true and that there are no interesting men around to go out with. Later on (apparently I like using that a lot) Taniguchi and Kunikida talk to Kyon about Haruhi and how they're able to hold a normal conversation, Kunikida notes that Kyon was into strange girls. Ryoko comes up and is glad that Haruhi made a friend. In another conversation with Haruhi, she can't stand the fact the every single club is boring, Kyon responds by saying that humans have to settle for what's in front of them, he also notes various inventions and innovations made by people who wanted to do so. During the afternoon period, Haruhi has an idea of her own: To make her own club.
Review/Analysis: First, sorry for the wall of text, this was not easy to summarize without losing some of the context here. Anywho, this is only chapter one, but a lot happened, we meet our main character and eponymous character, both of whom share virtually the same interests. One of whom becomes jaded over time due to realizations that those phenomena can't exist (Kyon); the other, Haruhi, is irritated since there is no one interesting in the world and wants to search them out. More or less, they are two sides of the same coin. So far, these two seem to mesh well together despite their different outlooks. Kyon apparently had a thing for strange girls during middle school, so that might have something to do with his interest in Haruhi, it also helps his interest in her in that she has the same interests that he at least had. He is also the narrator in this chapter, and series for that matter, so we see everything from his perspective in the story.
Haruhi as a character stands out in that until the end of the chapter, she seems very irritable, mainly due to the lack of interesting people, clubs, etc. But, she opens up to Kyon for whatever reason, we don't really know at this point. My best guess is that he brought the theme of aliens and other phenomena when asking about her various hair styles. Also, he may resemble someone she had met in the past, which may have piqued her interest as well; I have read most of the series as released here in the states, so I do know what happens, but I won't say anything here about future events. Her bad mood virtually vanished when she came up with the idea to make a club, after Kyon indirectly suggested it to her during his speech about normal people accepting whatever their circumstances were and that changes and inventions and discoveries were made by those who wanted something different, noting that they were all geniuses who wanted something different. I could go on and debate his point, show where he is right and wrong on his point, but that's for another post.
Anywho (another word I like), back to the novel, I'd like to learn Kyon's real name, but to save everyone the trouble, it does not happen...ever...oh, well. But I digress, the story itself flows very well so far, it seems to follow a natural progression, which I like to see. Character development wise, it is only the first chapter, but Haruhi has developed a bit as a character, she is no longer in that permanent foul mood at least. My final thought on chapter 1 is that it was very well done, establishes the main characters, and establishes a theme the will be further fleshed out in future chapters,and servers as an interest grabber. Tanigawa Nagaru-sensei is taking the story in a nice direction and I look forward to what chapter 2 has to offer us.
One last note: Noizi Ito's illustrations are very well done. They do well in showing us the mood for certain situations.
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