http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TMOHSpromo.jpg
[[caption-width:400:[-The SOS Brigade. From left to right: [[RidiculouslyAverageGuy Ky]][[CosmicPlaything on]]; [[StrangeGirl Haruhi]] [[RealityWarper Suzumiya]]; [[{{Moe}} Mikuru]] [[TimeTravel Asahina]]; [[AmbiguouslyGay Itsuki]] [[PsychicPowers Koizumi]]; [[BadassBookworm Yuki]] [[HumanoidAliens Nagato]].-] ]]

-->''"I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers here, come join me. That is all."''

''Haruhi Suzumiya'' is the central character of a series of {{Light Novel}}s by Nagaru Tanigawa. A first year high school student (equivalent to 10th grade/sophomore year in the USA), she is considered beautiful, athletic, intelligent, and ''[[StrangeGirl extremely]]'' eccentric. Haruhi has come to the conclusion that ordinary humans are, as a whole, utterly boring, and that she would rather hang out with aliens, time travelers, espers, and the like. In her quest to find them, she promptly joins ''all'' the clubs in school for exactly one day... and quits them all just as rapidly. One day, her classmate Kyon (the {{Narrator}}) unwittingly gives Haruhi an idea: if there aren't any decent clubs, why not [[StartMyOwn make one of your own]]?

Haruhi instantly switches from an [[{{Jerkass}} irritated, sociopathic, pompous brat]] to an irritating, sociopathic GenkiGirl who vows to allow nothing to stand in her way. She conscripts Kyon to help her set up the club: the SOS Brigade, whose mission is to find aliens, time travellers, and espers, and have fun with them. Kyon quickly learns an explosive secret that must be kept from Haruhi at all costs, the details of which must be seen to be believed. The story is notable for having [[GenreBusting no definite genre]] -- it convincingly uses comedy, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance and SliceOfLife in one of the most typical anime settings: an ordinary high school, all the while with well-developed GenreSavvy characters. The SOS Brigade is made up of [[Characters/SuzumiyaHaruhi five members]] that represent a spectrum of anime character types, both in their identities as high school students and their secret identities...

The novel series contains the following titles:

#''The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (''Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu'') ([=JP=] June 2003/[=EN=] May 2009)
#''The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (''Suzumiya Haruhi no Tameiki'') ([=JP=] September 2003/[=EN=] October 2009)
#''The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (''Suzumiya Haruhi no Taikutsu'') ([=JP=] December 2003)
#''The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (''Suzumiya Haruhi no Shōshitsu'') ([=JP=] July 2004)
#''The Rashness of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (''Suzumiya Haruhi no Bōsō'') ([=JP=] October 2004)
#''The Disturbance of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (''Suzumiya Haruhi no Dōyō'') ([=JP=] March 2005)
#''The Scheme of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (''Suzumiya Haruhi no Inbō'') ([=JP=] August 2005)
#''The Anger of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (''Suzumiya Haruhi no Fungai'') ([=JP=] May 2006)
#''The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (''Suzumiya Haruhi no Bunretsu'') ([=JP=] April 2007)
#''The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (''Suzumiya Haruhi no Kyogaku'') ([=JP=]...[[http://foolrulez.org/forums/spam-goes-here/last-new-haruhi-episode!/msg66996/#msg66996 in progress: 2010]])

The first two novels are available in English from your local online bookseller; previews (the prologue and first chapter) of both can be read at [[http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/haruhi/home.html the English novel/manga website]]. The fan translation project for the novels can be found [[http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=1446680&postcount=860 here]], to get you up to speed on the rest.

An {{anime}} series based on parts of the novels was released in 2006, titled after the first novel. Cries for a second season seemingly went unanswered until mid-2009, when several brand-new episodes popped up in the middle of a supposed re-run of the first season (this time done in [[AnachronicOrder chronological order]]). These new episodes constitute the "second season", and are interspersed among the old episodes according to where they chronologically belong in the plot. Also, a movie has been announced for novel four (''The Dissapearance of Haruhi Suzumiya''). An English dub of the first season was produced by BANDAI Entertainment, showcasing [[CrispinFreeman five]] [[WendeeLee of]] [[StephanieSheh the]] [[JohnnyYongBosch most]] [[MichelleRuff well-known]] names in ADR acting. No announcement has yet been made for a dub for the second season, or for the gag side-series.

There is a manga adaptation by Gaku Tsugano (there was an earlier adaptation by Makoto Mizuno that was [[OldShame discontinued/disowned after one volume]]). There is also a self-parody gag anime released on YouTube called ''The Melancholy Of {{Haruhi-chan}} Suzumiya'' (''Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yūutsu'') based off an official self-parody manga; this aired in tandem with a spinoff, ''{{Nyoron Churuya-san}}'', based off a certain {{Yonkoma}} that's been subject to MemeticMutation. There is also a SpinOff called ''The Vanishment of Yuki-chan Nagato'' (''Nagato Yuki-chan no Shōshitsu'') featuring Yuki Nagato as main character of a romantic SliceOfLife comedy.

If the length of this page is any indication, the anime in its first season became such a hit that it spawned unthinkable levels of praise (with resulting amounts of HypeBacklash), a globe-spanning CashCowFranchise, probably the largest body of InternetBacklash in the history of all anime, and made KyotoAnimation a household name.

The [[LightNovels novels]] vary between several short stories and one story of several chapters, and have their differences from the anime. [[AdaptationDecay Usually because of the time limit the anime has]], it compresses Kyon's narration process as well as the romantic focus and the character insight one would usually get from the novels, at the cost of saving comedy and the plot. While the plot alone is interesting, it leaves many actions and motives to the interpretation of the reader (often triggered by Kyon being an UnreliableNarrator), which makes you think about it long after you finish the book. However, the realistic CharacterDevelopment of the Brigade members is also impressive.

If you check out the impressively big [[Characters/SuzumiyaHaruhi character sheet]], please beware of spoilers, even if you've finished the anime.

There is also a rather substantial collection of FanWork known collectively as ''FanFic/SuzumiyaHaruhiNoSeitenkan'' (''The Gender-Flip of Haruhi Suzumiya''), which posits what would happen if all the characters in the series exchanged genders. It's worth checking out, but prepare to be [[StupidSexyFlanders confounded]].

----
!!This show also provides examples of:
* AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil -- In the novels, Itsuki ''creates'' one to give Haruhi a foil and thus something to do. It quickly gets filled with members of at least two of the factions.
* AccidentalPervert -- Kyon
* ActionSurvivor -- Kyon
* AdamAndEvePlot -- The end of ''Melancholy''.
* AdaptationDecay -- Both manga; the first one was just a lot ''more'' unbearable.
* AdaptationExpansion -- "Endless Eight".
* AdaptationFirst -- The anime ''and'' manga were licensed and began release in English before the first novel was translated (about two years before and about half a year before, respectively).
* AllJustADream -- Subverted in the "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya VI," and discussed by Koizumi in "Sigh V."
* AllThereInTheManual -- You're not going to understand everything in the anime if you're entirely unfamiliar with the books. Then again, you might not even if you ''have'' read them...
* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame -- Even without having ever watched/read/anything ''Haruhi Suzumiya'', thanks to this series' raving fandom, it's pretty well known in anime communities that Haruhi is an omnipotent god. [[spoiler:Though it is in fact {{Fanon}}.]]
* AloneWithThePsycho
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation -- Let's not even start about Haruhi and Kyon.
** And also [[KnifeNut Ryoko Asakura]]. Even her [[ImageSong theme songs]] project polarizing views of her true nature. Her version of "''Hare Hare Yukai''," for example, decries [[TastesLikeDiabetes everything in the normal version]] but ends with "But I want to have big dreams too!"
** Instead of listing examples, list people who ''don't'' have widely varied opinions of who they really are. Not even {{those two guys}} are immune.
* AlternateUniverse -- The subject of ''Vanishment''.
* AmbiguouslyGay -- Itsuki seems to like invading Kyon's personal space, and there are several lines in the novels that seem like outright flirting. In ''Rashness'', he expresses envy over Mikuru being able to just be herself, while he is forced to wear a mask of sorts so that his personality matches Haruhi's expectations.
* AnachronicOrder -- The main plot of the first season consists of the six episodes that draw from the first novel. First episode aside, these six are spaced out (but kept in order) so that the anime begins and ends climatically with this arc. Filling in the gaps are episodes that each draw from a short story from a later novel (which take place after the events of the first). The "next episode" previews have Haruhi stating the episode number in chronological order, while Kyon corrects her with the broadcast order. When the twelfth episode airs twelfth (right between the thirteenth and the fifth), Kyon ''still'' corrects her, then realizes she's right. In any case, the episodes are in ''chronological'' order for the [=DVD=] release (except for Episode 00, which is still first), though the special edition of the American release also contains [=DVD=]s in the original, anachronic broadcast order. Note that when the story was originally being published in magazine form, it followed yet another anachronic order. ([[http://www.baka-tsuki.net/project/index.php?title=Suzumiya_Haruhi:Timeline Timeline]])
** The anime is especially good at this, with in-joke references to events that have transpired but that aren't shown until later episodes -- for example, having random items lying around the club room that are obtained in later (earlier?) episodes. Several episodes in the first season even include set-ups from earlier events whose episodes didn't get animated until the second season. [[AllThereInTheManual Not as hard as it sounds]], since the novels were written before the anime, but still shows very remarkable attention to detail on the animators' part.
** The Rebroadcasting of Haruhi Suzumiya mixes old and new episodes (including Episode 00) in the order that Kyon experiences them -- chronological for the most part, [[TimeTravel but not in every instance]]. Thus the so-called "second season" is, strictly speaking, neither a sequel nor a prequel to the first, but more of an "interquel".
* AndIMustScream -- "Endless Eight". [[spoiler:Yuki, who is supposed to be an EmotionlessGirl (or at least ''really, really'' bad at expressing herself), is shown to be ''visually bored'' and possibly sad from having to re-live the same two weeks over and over again for over 595 years worth of time. She's the only one who realizes that they're looping and she can't do a thing about it because her job is to "observe."]]
**Thankfully, for the viewers it's (only?) 8 episodes.
* AndThenThereWereNone -- "Remote Island Syndrome"
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling -- Kyon's little sister, to him at least. Everyone else seems to think she's adorable, but then again, that's how it often works out in RealLife.
* AnthropicPrinciple -- Koizumi's explanation behind Haruhi's power.
* ApocalypseHow -- The possibility of Haruhi having a bad day and unconsciously recreating the universe, [[spoiler:or a certain someone hijacking Haruhi's power. The former seemed to be creating a new separate universe rather than rewriting the old one]].
* ApocalypseOfTheWeek
* ArcFatigue -- The appropriately titled "Endless Eight".
* ArcNumber -- The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin eight]] [[ArcFatigue endless]] episodes of "[[StoryArc Endless Eight]]."
** The tragic thing here is that it's only a reference to [[spoiler:the endlessly repeating ''August''.]] There is no actual ''significance'' to this ArcNumber!
*** Well, an 8 is an infinity sign sideways.
* ArcWords -- After [[WhamEpisode a point]], it starts to seem like every past-tense sentence in the MythArc contains the words "three years ago."
** Eventually subverted when Itsuki starts a sentence this way, and Kyon interrupts him with "Screw three years ago!"
** ''Dissociation'' takes place a year after ''Melancholy'', so the ArcWords have appropriately changed to "four years ago."
* ArtShift -- "Remote Island Syndrome"
*ArthurDent -- Kyon, quite obviously. He's quite GenreSavvy about it, too, although having a world-changing demiurge as a friend/boss kinda forces him to be.
* ArtificialHuman -- [[spoiler:Yuki, Ryoko and the others of their kind.]]
* AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance -- Tsuruya's fang.
* AuthorAvatar -- One fan theory is that Kyon is [[spoiler:Nagaru Tanigawa]] himself.
** Well, they both own cats.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther -- Despite arguing every other minute, Haruhi and Kyon are shown to care for each other in the last chronological episode of the anime. Nothing of this sort has been shown in the LightNovels...[[OrIsIt at least, not yet]].
* BadassAdorable -- Yuki
* BadassBookworm -- See above.
* BadBadActing -- The SOS Brigade's film.
* BeachEpisode -- "Remote Island Syndrome".
* BeleagueredAssistant -- Kyon
* BerserkButton -- What would make Kyon literally try to beat the hell out of a God-like being? Though, to be fair, [[spoiler:Haruhi]] was messing with (and by that I mean berating her, hitting her, [[KickTheDog spiking her drink]], and some more abuse) Mikuru to the point where it had crossed the line...
** Though a less charitable interpretation towards Kyon would say that a lot of his reaction had to do with his jealousy over Koizumi getting to act in a love scene with Asahina.
* BetterThanABareBulb -- Kyon's unsuccessful attempt to explain the student film's plot; the irony here is that he did it this way on purpose to prevent SkepticismFailure.
* BigOlEyebrows -- Ryoko Asakura, not in a manner which is [[TVTropesDrinkingGame particularly egregious]], but definitely more so than the rest of the cast.
* {{Bishonen}} -- Itsuki and possibly Kyon
* {{Bishoujo}} -- The series has posters and articles serialized in Megami, as well as far more bunnygirl Haruhi figures than any in her other outfits. Mikuru is a sendup of the whole concept.
* BlackHoleSue -- Haruhi according to AlternativeCharacterInterpretation.
** Or alternately, she could be called an in-universe example. Seeing how she's [[spoiler:something like a god]], the world ''has'' to revolve around her.
* BlandNameProduct -- Espon laptops, Sicao cameras, and the characters eat at [=WcDonalds=]. Also done with brand logos: one episode shows a box with a logo shaped like an unbitten apple.
* BlingOfWar -- In "Day Of Sagittarius"
* BluntMetaphorsTrauma -- Yuki
* BookDumb -- Kyon comes across as very smart and well-read (even though he isn't quite sure who {{Shakespeare}} is), but is barely above average in school, to the point that Haruhi's had to help him out with schoolwork.
**I don't think Kyon needs help doing his homework right as much as he needs help just doing it.
* {{Bowdlerize}} -- "Remote Island Syndrome" is changed from the book through the addition of Kyon's little sister, who in the novel ''attempted'' to come along, but was discovered and left at home. Once on the island, the SOS Brigade members avail themselves of as much alcohol as their host can muster, which can't be shown on Japanese TV, since the characters are still in high school. The TV show has them doing things appropriate for the presence of a grade-schooler instead. Minus the [[spoiler: murder-mystery]] part, anyway...
* BoyMeetsGirl -- Essentially.
* BrainySpecs -- Yuki, though she stops wearing them later.
* BreadEggsMilkSquick -- [[spoiler:Asakura]] complains about how Haruhi is not doing anything interesting and talks to Kyon about whether or not it is all right to enact a change to get a result, even if it is dangerous, right before [[spoiler:trying to stab Kyon with a knife to get a rise out of Haruhi]] -- all without changing the pitch in her voice.
* BrokenBase -- ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin ENDLESS EIGHT]]''. To summarize each side's arguments: those ''for'' "Endless Eight" call it a stroke of genius that illustrates the GroundhogDayLoop concept very effectively (if you think going through the loop [[spoiler:eight]] times is grating on your nerves, imagine how ''[[spoiler:Yuki]]'' feels), and argue that the episodes are distinct because they never share or re-use animation. Those ''against'' "Endless Eight" call it exploitative {{filler}} that is selfishly sucking up time and budget from the rest of Season 2, citing the relatively small amount of space the story was allocated in the original novels as evidence that Kadokawa and [=KyoAni=] are spending an unwarranted amount of time on one short story.
* BrokenMasquerade
* ButtMonkey -- Poor, poor Computer Club President...
* [=~Can't Hold His Liquor~=]: Oh, man, Mikuru. It's worse in the anime, where she passes out after a bit of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazake amazake]] (which is so weak you can give it to children no problem) for some EnforcedMethodActing. It feels much more justified in the novel, where it's tequila.
* [[{{Ptitlecxy2puv74cfr}} Can't Stand Them, Can't Live Without Them]] -- Kyon and Haruhi's relationship gets this way, which comes to a head in ''Vanishment''.
* CaramelldansenVid
* CareBearStare -- Haruhi's ''intention'' was to send her "warm energy" into Kyon. However, it was nothing but a scary DeathGlare.
* CassandraTruth[=/=]SarcasticConfession -- [[spoiler:In the novels, Kyon ''tells'' Haruhi about Itsuki, Mikuru, and Yuki's supernatural powers, and she flat-out doesn't believe him, saying that would be too easy. She does correctly guess who's supposed to be which and makes it the basis for the student film, though.]] The anime holds this scene off until the end of ''Sigh''.
* CashCowFranchise -- {{Image Song}}s out the wazoo (see below) and loads of other merchandise show that they could probably go more for years without even making more episodes. Which is good, because book 10 seems to be [[ScheduleSlip being pushed back a few months/years]].
**In the meantime, we can buy a Haruhi game for the {{PSP}}, the {{PS2}} or the {{DS}}. And we still have two more games to choose from on the {{Wii}}. Milking the cash cow at its finest.
* CatchPhrase:
** Mikuru- "Classified Information." Taken to absurd lengths in "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Endless]] [[RunningGag Eight]]": "I used ''classified information'' to contact the future or for ''classified information''... But when I hadn't heard from ''classified information'' for a week I thought something was wrong. And then ''classified information''... I was shocked so then I ''classified information'', but there was no ''classified information''... What should I do?" All while crying her heart out.
*** Absurd? [[BrokenBase I think you mean ''hilarious'']]!
*** It's a mechanism deliberately put into place by her superiors to prevent her from divulging sensitive information, even if she wanted to. Normally, she just avoids using the taboo words altogether, but here the programming trips because she's too emotionally vulnerable to watch what she's saying.
*** Am I the only person on earth who thinks she might be full of [[spoiler: classified information]]?
**** Are Mikuru's supervisors actually the [[spoiler:[[MetalGearSolid La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo]]]]?
** Haruhi- "I'm so bored!"
** And then of course there's Kyon's "Good grief/Yare yare".
** In the Preview of the next episode. Yuki: "Watch it."
* CaughtTheHeartOnHisSleeve
* CaughtWithYourPantsDown -- A double entry when Kyon was closing the pictures of Mikuru's chest with star-shaped mole: He forgot to close the folder which had the name of "Mikuru" written as the folder name.
**He also forgot NOT to name the folder "Mikuru".
* CharacterAlignment
**Haruhi: ChaoticNeutral. She is willing to do anything so long as she thinks it will have an interesting result. Some [[FanDumb people]] think she's more ChaoticEvil sometimes, though...
**Kyon: TRIES to be a TrueNeutral due to his circumstances, but usually sits between NeutralGood and LawfulGood. As much as he may try to keep to himself, his actual caring for the SOS Brigade makes him stand up.
**Yuki: LawfulNeutral. She's usually content either going along with whatever the SOS Brigade is up to or not getting involved at all, but if she gets orders from above [[spoiler:or Kyon]], she complies without question. She does develop more of a personality later, though, which makes her veer towards NeutralGood.
**Mikuru: LawfulGood. Both her dislike of trouble and her obedience to her superiors place her squarely in this spot.
**Itsuki: Probably the most vacillating. Can go between LawfulNeutral, TrueNeutral and NeutralGood depending on the situation.
* CharacterAsHimself -- '''Ultra''' Director Haruhi Suzumiya!
** Similarly, some of the real life creators are listed as members of the SOS Brigade. The credits have several other similar jokes.
* CharacterDevelopment
**The [[LightNovels novels]] are, to a relatively big portion, focused on the character development. It is very well made, and in a constant flow. It is often left to the readers interpretation just how far the characters have changed within the progress of the story (Hello AlternateCharacterInterpretation!).
*** The best example would be Yuki Nagato. There lies a clear CharacterFocus on the development she makes (to the point of [[SpotlightStealingSquad stealing the spotlight of Haruhi]]). She grows from a [[TheStoic stoic]] "machine-like" ExtremeDoormat into a person who is not only kind and caring, but also independent from her [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien boss]]. Hell, her [[spoiler: rampage in ''Vanishment'' '''because''' she developed feelings]] must not be forgotten. Furthermore, the relationship between her and Kyon gradually expands over the time, to the point where Kyon stated that no one would "shake the bell in him" quite like Yuki. Nagaru Tanigawa himself stated that he likes focusing on Yuki's development.
*** Haruhi herself started out (before the SOS Brigade) as a [[{{House}} self-absorbed, misanthropic loner]], but quickly changed into (as she is pulled out of her grey melancholy) a [[GenkiGirl cheerful]] and hot-blooded, yet still quite sociopathic jerk who doesn't really ''get'' what she's doing wrong... Eh, well, see KickTheDog. Then, in the later novels, she has become far more sociable, even to strangers, and generally has come more to terms with "this boring world" (and has come OutOfFocus).
*** Kyon himself also changes visibly from an apathetic, cynic and distrustful DeadpanSnarker who has little care for anyone besides "his" Mikuru and tells himself that he hates the brigade into a {{Nakama}}-caring, less cynic DeadpanSnarker with occasional {{badass}}-moments who freely admits that he's a member and would follow their commander Haruhi.
*** Compare Present Mikuru, whose seemingly only plot purpose is to act as the group mascot, and Future Mikuru, who is an assertive and empowered woman who is almost always in control of the situation (even if the characters don't know it at the time) and is [[spoiler:responsible for setting the entire plot in motion by masterminding Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody.]] The exact details of how this transformation takes place is somewhat sketchy (time travel is involved), but its seeds are present in some of the later novels. Presumably future instalments will continue this trend...if they ever get released, that is.
* ChekhovsGun -- Offhandedly mentioned objects usually play an important role later in the light novel it is mentioned in or in the whole novel series itself.
** KyoAni is very careful about this. Objects that serve a purpose in a story are seen in the club room WAY before the season season was made (ex.- the bamboo leaf potted plant).
* ChekhovsGunman -- Seemingly minor characters, if named, will usually have some major significant role in the plot later in the series.
** A rather major example would be a character so minor she isn't even directly mentioned. [[spoiler:Sasaki, the reason why Kyon's classmates from middle school think he has a thing for weird girls, is never mentioned at all until her appearance in the ''ninth'' novel, where it is revealed that she is the cause of that particular misconception.]]
** Kimidori. Tsuruya. The [[strike:esper girl (though really, who thought she WOULDN'T come back up again?)]] Kyoko Tachibana. If they get a name and they're not Taniguchi or Kunikida, expect them to be important. Those two are probably only still unimportant so that they can be ThoseTwoGuys... and the light novels aren't finished, so it's hard to know if it'll stay like that.
** In a way, Kyon himself is a ChekhovsGunman. To quote Haruhi's extremely inconspicuous line: [[spoiler:"Have I met you somewhere before?" She has in fact [[TimeTravel met him before]], and the encounter is what led her to North High.]] This is also invoked when [[spoiler:Kyon wonders what criteria Haruhi used to pick her high school.]]
** How inconspicious is it? In the anime, it makes sense in context of the conversation so much so that it can simply be taken as an example of Haruhi's eccentricity! (That and the fact that it's ''the'' stereotypical pick-up line in Japan...)
* CheshireCatGrin -- Haruhi.
* CicadianRhythm -- One of the various summery activities Haruhi forces the Brigade to participate in during their endless summer vacation is cicada-catching.
* ClosedCircle
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}} -- Haruhi...or at least that's what it looks like at first.
* ClubPresident
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience -- Lately each SOS member has been affiliated with a color.
** Haruhi is Red, which shows her [[GenkiGirl genkiness]] and her status as Brigade Leader.
** Kyon is Blue, which is [[RedOniBlueOni the opposite of red]], which suits him as Haruhi's opposite.
** Itsuki is Green, which stands for intelligence.
** Mikuru is Orange, because of [[HeroesWantRedheads her hair]].
** Yuki is Purple, [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair same as above]].
*** Yuki and Mikuru's colors don't have anything to deal with their personalities though.
**** Yuki's does -- she seems to be the [[RedOniBlueOni the blue oni on the outside, but is actually the red one on the inside]]. Red and blue make...?
** The image song albums had this first, but a few were switched around. Kyon's color is Yellow, Yuki's is Light Blue (which might have something to do with [[MinoriChihara her seiyuu]]), and Itsuki's is Purple. While we're at it, the covers also give us colors for Ryoko (Dark Blue), Tsuruya (Green), Emiri (Light Green), Kyon's Sister (Pink), and Taniguchi (Gray).
* ComedicSociopathy -- If you can't [[InternetBackdraft handle]] Haruhi, stay back!
* ComfortingComforter -- Last episode "Someday in the Rain". It's left unclear whether it was Yuki or Mikuru.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard -- The Computer Society are cheating bastards. Yuki plays by the rules when she's asked to, but has no qualms with fixing a game, computer or otherwise, to keep Haruhi happy.
** Of course, Yuki playing by the rules is like asking Stephen Hawking to do elementary school algebra. She's still a highly advanced lifeform capable of ripping out a complex guitar solo mere minutes after being asked to play one or simultaneously control 20 independent units in the above mentioned game while at the same time hacking into said game, rewriting/reprogramming while said game is being played (at super speeds flipping through multiple windows), and carrying on a conversation.
* ContemplateOurNavels -- Itsuki's favourite activity, much to Kyon's irritation. And, well...Shamisen too.
* ContemptibleCover -- The English translation seems to be trying to avert this with their (admittedly rather classy) mainstream-friendly [[http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/teens_books_9780316039024.htm redone]] [[http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/teens_books_9780316038799.htm covers]] for the paperbacks. (You can always buy the hardcover edition if you want the original Japanese art.)
* CookingDuel Chapter 3 of ''[[SpinOff The Vanishment of Yuki Nagato]]'' has one (or two, or twenty) between Yuki and Mikuru. [[spoiler:Asakura and Tsuruya win.]]
* CovertPervert -- In the novels (and sometimes in the anime), Kyon is frequently filled with inner {{squee}} when Haruhi makes Mikuru cosplay. He also secretly likes how Haruhi's bunny costume shows off her curves.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome -- "God knows..." and "''Yuki, Muon, Madobe nite.''" are probably the best examples. The symphony playing over ''Melancholy''[='s=] climax, too.
** ''The Symphony of Haruhi Suzumiya'', an album of orchestral arrangements, manages this for the ''majority'' of the soundtrack, and shows that the soundtrack for "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina" is just as good (if not ''better'') than the show proper's soundtrack--it was just run through a [[StylisticSuck really bad synthesizer]].
* CulturalCrossReference
* CuteLittleFangs -- Tsuruya, also known by her FanNickname LOL Fang-tan. Played straight in that it actually gives her a speech impediment, which can be heard clearest in the school festival's restaurant speech.
* CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon -- Haruhi in "The Day Of Sagittarius".
* DancingTheme -- The ED song "Hare Hare Yukai".
* DarkWorld -- Closed Space.
* DayInTheLife -- "Someday in the Rain."
* DeadpanSnarker -- Kyon, the narrator.
* DeathGlare -- Haruhi in "The Day Of Sagittarius".
* DeconstructorFleet
* DeepImmersionGaming -- "The Day of Sagittarius".
* DeliberatelyMonochrome -- The beginning of the anime.
* DepravedBisexual -- Haruhi, though one should ''not'' take it as seriously as the trope depicts it.
* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud -- The novels frequently play with this. Since we almost never [[strike: hear]] read Kyon talking, only ''thinking'', it is even more surprising when people ''reply'' to thoughts they really shouldn't have heard.
** The anime does this too on occasion. Sometimes it's a direct reply to a thought, other times people ask Kyon if he just said something.
** In order to keep the use of this trope ambiguous, Kyon often narrates with his mouth off screen, so the audience can't tell if he's speaking out loud or not.
*** Made even more ambiguous; Kyon's expressions aren't exactly opaque, and anyone paying attention can come to the right assumption of what he's thinking and respond to that. And even if he was speaking everything aloud, Haruhi's selective hearing could steamroll right past it.
*** Also ambiguous was whether Kyon's voiceover commentary was actually on the movie the SOS Brigade produced, or if that was just what he was thinking while operating the camera.
* [[DidntSeeThatComing Didn't See That Coming]]: -- A note to Kyon to meet after class was not what it seemed.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu -- In ''Vanishment'' -- Kyon vs [[spoiler:the Data-God that created Yuki.]] Kyon wins, by simply pointing out that he knows how to end the world with 4 little words: [[spoiler:"I am John Smith."]]
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu -- [[spoiler:Kyon saves the universe by kissing Haruhi]], making this something more like "Did You Just [[spoiler:Make Out With]] Cthulhu?"
** Never mind that Azazoth would be a more apt comparison, what with them spending the whole show trying to entertain her so she won't destroy their universe unwittingly.
** Kyon comes within a hair's width of punching God when she abuses Mikuru.
* DieForOurShip -- Some Yuki/Kyon and Mikuru/Kyon shippers ''really'' hate Haruhi and love to [[{{Demonization}} remark and insist on her flaws to paint her as a demon]]. Also played with in the series itself: if Kyon is too nice to Mikuru, Haruhi gets jealous and (unbeknownst to her) uses her powers to rewrite reality.
* DissonantSerenity -- Koizumi.
* DisturbedDoves -- "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina."
* DoesNotLikeMen -- Haruhi at the beginning, though she mainly doesn't like humans in general.
* DoingItForTheArt -- "Endless Eight", each episode of which is completely re-animated, even though there are only minor differences. [[TropesAreNotGood This doesn't keep people from thinking it was a horrible idea.]]
* TheDragAlong -- Kyon
* DramaticWind -- "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina."
* DrivesLikeCrazy -- Arakawa. Played for laughs in ''{{Haruhi-chan}}''
* DudeNotFunny -- Haruhi's treatment of Mikuru crosses into outright sociopathic abuse in ''Sigh''.
* DudeShesLikeInAComa -- Subverted: Kyon is shocked and starts threatening violent retaliation when Itsuki seems about to act out this trope with Mikuru in their film.
* DynamicEntry -- Haruhi gives the Computer Club president one with both legs at once.
* EarWorm -- In-universe example in the Drama CD "Sound Around", which later manifests as an actual worm-like monster.
* EldritchAbomination -- [[spoiler: Possibly Haruhi, depending on the reader's interpretation of her origins.]]
* EmotionlessGirl -- Yuki Nagato.
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt -- which, once, hinges on, of all things, the outcome of a baseball game.
* EndOfTheWorldSpecial -- The entire plot revolves around Kyon, Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki preventing Haruhi from causing such a thing with her powers.
** [[spoiler:They're not successful. Season 1 of the anime ends with this... (Extra Spoiler) and they persuade Haruhi to remake the old one.]]
* EnemyMine -- The SOS Brigade and the Computer Club team up to stop the StudentCouncilPresident from evicting the Brigade from the Literature Clubroom.
* EnforcedMethodActing -- Presumably the reason Haruhi had Mikuru get groped and not herself. Nobody's gonna believe those photos without the girl showing true horror and shame!
* EnigmaticMinion -- Yuki and Itsuki. Haruhi herself. Also Emiri later. Unclear for Mikuru.
* EnsembleDarkhorse -- Taniguchi, Tsuruya (and her superdeformed version, Churuya), possibly Emiri.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Kyon.
* EvolutionaryLevels
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin -- "[[RunningGag Endless Eight]]".
* EyeBeams -- Two words: [[MemeticMutation MIKURU BEEEEEEAM!]]
** To be more specific, in ''Sigh'', Haruhi keeps coming up with colored contact lenses that each have a different type of eye beam. First is a laser, second is some sort of RazorFloss; Kyon states there are a few more, but the one we're shown shoots ''large metal spikes''.
* EyesAlwaysShut -- Itsuki, and in some cases, Kyon, as seen in ''The Day Of Sagittarius''.
* {{Facepalm}} -- After [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration Picard]], Kyon is the best known Facepalmer on the Internets.
* FakeBand -- ENOZ, whose name is a homage to the real band ZONE.
* FallingInLoveMontage -- Parodied without mercy in "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina."
* FalseCameraEffects -- Most notably, the first/zeroth episode consists of a simulated student film; but the whole anime has scenes drawn with simulated lens flare, barrel/pincushion distortions and fisheye lenses all over the place.
* FanCommunityNicknames -- The philosophy of "[[IntellectualPropertyReligion Haruhiism]]", or "SOS Brigade". Also, [[MarySue Mary Suzumiya]].
* FanDisservice -- In episode six of season two, Koizumi's swim trunks are swapped with a tiny, black Speedo. Ugh.
** Where's the disservice part?
*** It's only disservice if you're a Fanboy.
* FanDumb -- Quite a bit of it.
* {{Fanservice}}-- Special mention to episode [[spoiler:three]] of season two. [[spoiler:It's essentially a repeat of episode two by nature of being part of a GroundhogDayLoop, but has gratuitous amounts of fanservice for both guys and girls]] Specific focus given to Itsuki's and Kyon's bodies during [[ShirtlessScene shirtless scenes]] [[spoiler:and an ''additional'' shirtless scene for Kyon at the beginning (he was wearing a shirt that time last episode!)]] as well as to Haruhi's and Mikuru's... assets. Also, close ups to the face play up Itsuki's [[{{Bishonen}} bishonen-ness]] and the girls' [[{{Moe}} moe-ness]] (and the entire episode seems to ''intentionally'' defy anyone to resist hugging Yuki). To cap it all, there's some ShipTease all around for Kyon/. (Kyon has reactions to each of the girls' aforementioned {{Moe}} facial expressions, [[GayOption and even Itsuki arguably has his bit of ship tease]]). The episode just screams "intentional gratuitous fanservice."
* {{Fanon}} -- [[spoiler:Haruhi is God]]. Most fans of the anime took Koizumi's speech in the 3rd chronological episode at face value, but other scenes in the novels and the anime (especially the 2009 version) [[JigsawPuzzlePlot cast doubt on it]]:
** In the third chronological episode, [[spoiler:when Koizumi tells Kyon that Haruhi is God, he presents it as the belief of the "higher-ups" in his Agency, and acknowledges that various people in the Agency have different ideas about how to deal with Haruhi. He also describes the theory as the "worst case scenario" that his Agency is acting to counter, which suggests that they're playing a form of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascals_wager Pascal's Wager]]: even if they're not certain whether Haruhi is God, they think it's just likely and dangerous enough that it's better not to risk the consequences of neglecting to placate her.]]
** In the ''Sigh'' novel and anime, [[spoiler:Asahina tells Kyon to be skeptical of Koizumi and his Agency's theories, and that the time travellers disagree with them. Nagato speculates on the time travelers' theories and their incompatibility with the espers', and hints that the Data Overmind believes something yet different about Haruhi. And to top it off, Koizumi himself also contradicts his earlier explanation that Haruhi is God, theorizing instead that Haruhi must be somebody chosen by God to fix the world.]]
*** [[spoiler:Or to break it, if their world is a "rejection" as it were.]]
** In novel 9 [[spoiler:we run into a whole three new factions, at least one of which (Kyoko Tachibana's espers) clearly disagrees with the assertion that Haruhi is God. Or at least she says they do]].
* FestivalEpisode -- Part of "Endless Eight".
* {{Fetish}} -- Kyon admits to Haruhi that he has a [[{{Moe}} thing]] for ponytails, and encourages Yuki to lose the glasses because he isn't a fan of {{meganekko}}.
** In one of the novels, he admits to himself that Mikuru's maid outfit is his favorite one and wonders if he has a maid fetish.
** And later novels he subverts this trope by noting he finds seeing Yuki [[LimitedWardrobe in her uniform]] especially comforting, but not because he has a [[{{Joshikousei}} sailor uniform]] fetish.
* FetishFuel -- Actually [[InvokedTrope invoked]], with all the cosplay and the groping.
*{{Filler}} -- In the books, "Endless Eight" was a brief story that lasted about 30 or so pages and the time loop was broken without the reader seeing any other repeats after [[spoiler:Kyon has Haruhi help him with his homework]]. In the anime, it's eight episodes of near-identical footage and dialogue, reanimated from scratch ''every single time'' (which in turn angered those who viewed the affair as a waste of money and season).
** You can just skip episodes 3-7 of second season and literally miss nothing.
* FirstKiss -- The climax of season one.
* FirstNameBasis -- Kyon refers to Haruhi by her first name, no honorific extremely soon after the SOS-dan's founding, and she's the only one to call him by just his nickname, no honorific. Also notable is that Yuki never, ever refers to Kyon by name, only "you".
** Also [[ShipTease significantly]], Haruhi's the only person that Kyon addresses by first name and no honorific.
** In the student film, the characters are supposed to refer to each other by first name, but the actors sometimes flub their lines and use last name.
* FirstPersonSmartass -- Kyon, in an combination of his DeadpanSnarker and {{Narrator}} roles.
* FiveManBand -- Lampshade hanging, Haruhi purposely creates the club to her expected stereotypes.
** Although, it should be noted that the roles change depending on the point of view. According to Haruhi, she is TheHero, Yuki is TheSmartGuy, Kyon is TheLancer, Koizumi TheBigGuy, and Mikuru is obviously TheChick. But for Kyon, Yuki is TheBigGuy and Koizumi is TheSmartGuy. (The rest of them stay the same.)
** Koizumi once says that he's pretending to be the agreeable YesMan everyone sees because he knows it's part of Haruhi's ideal.
* {{Flashback}} -- For example, after the SOS brigade finishes the movie, we see what happens right after Haruhi meets Kyon at the end of ''Melancholy Part VI''.
* FlashStep -- Done by Yuki twice to stop Mikuru's eye beams.
* FoeYay -- Yuki and Asakura. [[spoiler:Turns into LesYay in ''Vanishment''.]]
* ForScience -- Studying Haruhi? Okay. [[spoiler:Killing one of your classmates]] to see how she'll react? [[SarcasmMode Ooookay...]]
* FortuneTeller -- Yuki in "Live Alive".
* FourTemperamentEnsemble -- ''All in Haruhi combined''! It's... totally awesome.
* FrickinLaserBeams -- For the most part averted; nobody is able to dodge them and they're even invisible! ''Completely'' averted if you can believe Yuki can run at lightspeed to block them ([[PhysicalGod and she probably can]]).
* FunnyBackgroundEvent
* FunSize -- Tsuruya-san's fan interpretation, Churuya-san.
**Now ''{{Haruhi-chan}}'' as well.
* FunWithAcronyms -- SOS Brigade stands for '' '''S'''ekai wo '''O'''oini Moriagerutame no '''S'''uzumiya Haruhi no Dan'', or ''Haruhi Suzumiya's gang whose purpose is to greatly enliven the world''. To [[{{Woolseyism}} maintain the joke]], the {{fansub}}bers and the official manga and light novel, gave this as '' '''S'''ave the World By '''O'''verloading It With Fun -- Haruhi '''S'''uzumiya's Brigade'', while the official dub translated it as '' '''S'''preading Excitement All '''O'''ver the World with Haruhi '''S'''uzumiya's Brigade''.
** Of course, the FanNickname is '''S'''laves '''o'''f '''S'''uzumiya.
* FutureImperfect -- Asahina sometimes does this. For example, she comments on Koizumi's telescope being "not very different from Kepler's."
* GagBoobs -- Mikuru's lovelies are even used as a plot device.
* GagSub -- ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc-uGW5gmlg The Adventures of Nagato Yuki]]''
* {{Gainaxing}}: Poor Mikuru...
* GeniusBonus -- Did you know that the mathematical, physical and chemical formulas seen in opening animation are positronium, Lambda baryons, benzene ring, cyclohexanes, infinite number, Titius-Bode law, Planck's constant, Drake equation, time-dependent Schrödinger equation, Hubble's law, infinite product, definition of information entropy, large numbers1, stationary Schrödinger equation, the theory of relativity, probability axioms, definition of Laplace operator, the wave equation in one space dimension, and small numbers? Also, this wasn't just pulled out of a physics books, the writer Nagaru Tanigawa loves this stuff.
** The novels have even more, with countless throwaway references to astrophysics and at least one in-depth discussion (and illustrations) of Euler's planar graph formula. And let's not even start about the time travel incidents that reach a complexity where you just want to overlook it. Koizumi even talks about time-lines and alternate realities ''[[MemeticMutation at the SAME TIME,]] [[IronMan with some explanatory VISUALS]]''.
*** Also, ''Dissociation'' mentions Yuki reading a book about "Mathematicians, Artists, Musicians, and their Interrelations". This is probably "Godel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid.", by Douglas Hofstadter. The book deals heavily with recursion, parallel worlds, and uncertainty. Suspiciously Apropos Literature or what?
* GenkiGirl -- Haruhi, as well as minor character Tsuruya.
* GenreBusting -- It's depicted as Sci-Fi, come on...
* GenreSavvy -- Haruhi insists on seeing GenreTropes everywhere, even where they might not have existed; in a completely different way, Itsuki attempts to "appease" Haruhi by providing textbook, predictable examples of tropes. Haruhi does not do "predictable", so these tend to mutate.
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere -- More like a desert grasshopper made of rogue data from nowhere.
* GirlishPigtails -- One of Haruhi's haircuts. Also, Mikuru in her waitress outfit.
* GirlWithPsychoWeapon -- [[spoiler: Ryoko Asakura]].
* GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger -- Sometimes played straight but also used to reference PhoenixWrightAceAttorney.
** Or just outright parody Phoenix Wright, down to the dramatic speed lines.
* AGlassOfChianti -- The Computer Club President during the DeepImmersionGaming
** Also Haruhi in the manga, when describing the importance of {{moe}}. A glass of grape juice, that is.
* TheGlassesGottaGo -- Yuki Nagato, of course.
* {{God}} -- Or something similar...
* AGodAmI -- subverted and/or reversed: [[spoiler:the character with godlike powers, Haruhi, has ''no'' idea she has them. Her delusions of grandeur are just that.]]
* GratuitousEnglish -- Mostly Koizumi. Probably the most ridiculous is his line in "Endless Eight": "Perhaps grab her from behind, and whisper '[[NarmCharm AI LAAV YOU]]' into her ear."
* GroundhogDayLoop -- "Endless Eight", in which the SOS Brigade gets stuck repeating the same two weeks of summer vacation nearly 15,500 times and suffer from severe deja vu throughout--except for Haruhi, who remembers nothing, and Yuki, who remembers '''''everything'''''. The anime adaptation makes you feel it too, dragging the short story out ''beyond'' 15,500 and into ''eight'' repetitious episodes:
** 1. Original: An unnumbered early iteration, with no flashbacks or discovery of the loop. (If Nagato knows they're looping, she doesn't show it.)
** 2. Loop 15,498: First iteration we're shown where the looping is discovered.
** 3. Loop 15,499: 15,498 with {{Fanservice}}-tinted glasses.
** 4. Loop 15,513: 15,498 but with a darker and more melancholic atmosphere. Kyon and Koizumi seem to be much more sensitive to deja vu. Also, a glider keeps flying by some clouds.
** 5. Loop 15,521: 15,498 only with a few extra jokes, more of a focus on [[TheWoobie Nagato]], a [[RepeatCut Quadruple Take]] of Haruhi leaving the restaurant on August 30th (apparently to [[{{Anvilicious}} emphasize the hint of why Haruhi is imposing the loop]]), and an ominous clock ticking down the last minute of August 31st. As this description suggests, this loop starts off rather upbeat but arguably ends on an even bleaker note than 15,513 did.
** 6. Loop 15,524: 15,498 except Mikuru gets hit by a beach ball and nearly drowns. In the scene with Haruhi leaving the restaurant, the brigade members appear completely resigned to defeat.
** 7. Loop 15,527: 15,498 with moments of repetition and an even more freaked-out Kyon. As Haruhi leaves, there's a "screwed up broadcast signal" filter on the video.
** 8. Loop 15,532: 15,498 with a slightly bleaker mood and one major plot change: [[spoiler:as Haruhi leaves the restaurant, Kyon tells everyone except her to help him with his homework. Haruhi then angrily forces him to let her come too]]. And in a CrowningMomentOfAwesome, the "Endless Eight" are proven to be not so endless!
* HandsOffParenting - All characters' parents are so absent, they're not even mentioned. Yuki lives alone, being an alien, Itsuki's and Mikuru's parents are never shown, though presumably them being secret agent has something to do with their surprising amount of free time. Even OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Kyon is at home with his sister, but his parents are never seen. In the novels, we do hear about Kyon's mom now and then though.
* HaveWeMet -- Haruhi casually asks Kyon this in their first conversation. [[spoiler:She has in fact met him before, but Kyon hasn't; he [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble will meet her three years ago a couple of months later]].]]
** So it's really a case of HaveWeMetYet. There's a similar time-travel paradox in the first meetings of Kyon and Mikuru.
* HostileShowTakeover -- The entire plot of ''Vanishment''. [[spoiler:Yuki rewrites reality to change herself into the main character: a painfully introverted- but completely human- bookworm with a crush on Kyon. Meanwhile, Haruhi and Itsuki are PutOnABus and Mikaru gets [[{{Shipping}} shipped]] with Tsuruya so Kyon can't get close]].
* HowWeGotHere -- The movie.
* HoYay -- Itsuki sometimes stands a little too close to Kyon for Kyon's own good. Also, he is the only male path option in the visual novel ''The Perplexity of Haruhi Suzumiya''. [[http://es.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2911441]]
** LesYay -- Of course, there's Haruhi being ''all over'' Mikuru. And Yuki and Asakura, especially in [[spoiler:''Vanishment'']].
* HumanAliens -- The Interfaces...whatever they actually are.
* HumansAreSpecial -- Humans apparently are the only organic lifeform that can actively seek knowledge and continuously advance themselves.
* IAmWho -- [[spoiler: Haruhi Suzumiya]]. Kyon also occassionally discusses or invokes this trope when thinking about his own role.
* IdenticalGrandson -- In the manga, [[spoiler: Kyon looks just like his grandfather. ]]
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming -- Every book, video game, and full-length album is entitled "''Suzumiya Haruhi no ___''", or "The ___ of Haruhi Suzumiya".
* IdiotHair: Taniguchi.
* IJustWantToBeNormal -- Kyon, [[spoiler: though he decides against it in ''Vanishment''.]] and [[spoiler: Yuki]].
* IJustWantToBeSpecial -- Haruhi, though it's more like "I Just Want To Meet Someone Special".
* IKnowKungFu -- Yuki's unexplained guitar skills surpass even those of {{Buckethead}}!
* ImageSong -- The amount of additional music done for the show is staggering, rivaling ''MahouSenseiNegima''. 9 character albums, 4 soundtracks, 3 drama [=CDs=], plus 8 combination soundtrack and drama [=CDs=] that shipped with one of the [=DVD=] versions, a ''live concert'', and an ''orchestral'' concert. All this for just 14 episodes!
** Not to mention that four of the character albums are for characters who are either spectacularly insignificant or appear in ''very'' few episodes.
** Now that a second set is being released, let's just list all the characters covered:
***First set: Haruhi Suzumiya, Yuki Nagato, Mikuru Asahina, Tsuruya, Ryoko Asakura, Kyon's sister, Emiri Kimidori, Itsuki Koizumi, and Kyon.
***Second set: Haruhi Suzumiya, Yuki Nagato, Mikuru Asahina, Itsuki Koizumi, Kyon, Tsuruya, and Taniguchi.
* IndirectKiss -- In ''Sigh'', Mikuru shows some rare outgoing qualities by offering Kyon a drink from a water bottle that she already drank from, and Haruhi grabs it before Kyon can. Subliminal meanings runs rampant among fans.
* {{Infodump}} -- Lampshaded. Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki lay these down on Kyon, who usually responds by pointing out that he doesn't understand, or just facepalming.
* InnerMonologue -- Loves to edge on DidIJustSayThatOutLoud.
* InsideShoes -- See MistakenMessage.
* InternetBackdraft -- Whatever you do, do not mention ''Haruhi Suzumiya'' in the same sentence as ''{{K-On}}'' at FourChan and Sankaku Complex.
** The second anime season also attracted quite a bit of criticism because [[spoiler:it seemed like KyoAni was simply repeating the same episode with minor variations]].
* InvokedTrope -- {{Woobie}}, {{absurdly powerful student council}} and a few others.
* {{Jerkass}} -- Haruhi in the beginning of the anime/light novel series. Until...
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold -- What Haruhi eventually matures into. [[AdaptationDecay Not so much in the manga.]]
* JigsawPuzzlePlot -- A ThirtyXanatosPileup, StableTimeLoop and LoveDodecahedron form around a WrongGenreSavvy OntologicalMystery title character and an UnreliableNarrator protagonist who doesn't really understand what's going on ([[ObfuscatingStupidity or does he?]]). Said narrator relays most of the background information and interpretation from a MrExposition who nobody completely believes or trusts.
* {{Joshikousei}} -- In the book, Kyon wonders if the principal has a fetish for this, since male students wear blazers and ties, but girls wear the more traditional sailor uniform. Ironically, the [[http://www.hyogo-c.ed.jp/~nishikita-hs/ real school]] North High is based on features the ''opposite'' uniform configuration, with militaresque ''gakuran'' for boys and parochial-style uniforms for girls.
* {{Kansai Regional Accent}} -- Notable for its ''[[AvertedTrope absence]]'': the series is set in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishinomiya Nishinomiya]], on Osaka bay, in between Osaka and Kobe, home of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanshin_Tigers Hanshin Tigers]], etc. It doesn't appear to be NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent, since the creator of the series was born and raised in Nishinomiya and wouldn't have to fake it. More likely, he sacrificed his native dialect in the text for the sake of broader appeal.
** Of course, Mikuru, Yuki, and Itsuki are excused from this by the fact that they're not ''actually'' from there, but at the very least, Kyon and Haruhi should be speaking full-on Kansai-ben.
** This can also be excused by the fact that Kyon is an UnreliableNarrator; he could easily be rendering everyone's dialect (including his own) as Standard Japanese, just because.
** The author could also be doing this to sidestep the [[TheIdiotFromOsaka specific character trope]] associated with the dialect. It might partially agree with Haruhi and Tsuruya-san's personalities, but Kyon portrays himself as an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent / ArthurDent, which readers/viewers in Tokyo would be less likely to accept if he spoke naturally.
* {{Kawaisa}}
* KeepItForeign -- "Why?" -> "naze?"
* KickTheDog -- Haruhi, obviously. Most famously, the blackmailing of the computer club president. Some people don't find the molestation of Mikuru [[DudeNotFunny very funny]], either. In the novels, [[spoiler: Haruhi actually ''punched'' Mikuru on the head several times '''because her contact lens [[WrongGenreSavvy didn't fly out like in stories]]'''. ]] She nearly gets hit by one ''really'' (and understandably) upset Kyon, but Koizumi restrained him.
* KnifeNut -- [[spoiler:Ryoko Asakura]].
* LampshadeHanging -- Where to begin?
* LanguageOfMagic -- Sped up and backwards played SQL queries
* LaymansTerms -- Particularly in the Drama CD
* LeeroyJenkins -- Haruhi behaves this way when they play a LAN game against the Computer Club.
* LemonyNarrator -- Kyon, ''especially'' in the novels.
* LightNovels -- Yes, the anime is based on them and covers the first novel ''of nine'' + some side stories.
** With the second season, the first 3 novels are done, plus chapters from novels 5 and 6.
* LimitedWardrobe -- Yuki.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop -- There's a ''lot'' of things Haruhi doesn't know about herself and the other members of the SOS Brigade.
** The TimeTravel arcs often leave Mikuru in a similar position. Kyon, Yuki, and [[spoiler:Future Mikuru]] all know what she needs to do and why, but they can't tell Mikuru [[TimeyWimeyBall 'cos of paradoxes]].
* LockedRoomMystery -- "Remote Island Syndrome."
* LostHimInACardGame -- Haruhi bets Mikuru during "The Day of Sagittarius." When the Computer Club President is taken aback by this, she offers Yuki instead.
* MacrossMissileMassacre -- Kyon on a bike with fireworks, in "Endless Eight".
* MagicalGirlfriend -- Or at least Magical SheIsNotMyGirlfriend.
* MagicFromTechnology -- Yuki's incantations in [=SQL=].
* MaleGaze
* ManicPixieDreamGirl -- {{Deconstructed}} to hell and back.
** Unless that "dream" is a nightmare being run by a someone with the self-control of a third-grader.
* {{Masquerade}} -- On just about everybody's part
* MayflyDecemberRomance
* MeaningfulName -- [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynic according to Wikipedia]], Kyon's nickname might come from κύων (''kyôn''), Ancient Greek for ''"dog"'', from where the word ''"cynic"'' may come from. Another possibility: Haruhi in the novels loves the story of {{Tanabata}}, involving a romance between a man and a woman separated and only allowed to meet once a year; the Korean name for the man can be romanized as 'Kyonu'.
** Probably unintentional, but 'Kyon' is also Hindi for 'why?' -- something Kyon must be repeatedly thinking throughout the series...
** Yuki's name as written means "has hope", which arguably fits with her later CharacterDevelopment. Written in another way, it can also mean "snow", leading to several snow motifs.
*** Additionally, the kanji in her surname name can translate to "gate manager" (or "master", in that context), which makes sense since she's essentially managing a "gate" to the Data Overmind.
** Another probably intentional one -- 'Mikuru' written a certain way in kanji can mean 'future'.
* MemeticBadass: According to fans, Mikuru's EyeBeam attack is one of the most destructive forces in existence.
* MemeticMutation -- Tsuruya aka Churuya, nyoro~n!
** Not to mention all the Hare Hare Yukai videos floating around YouTube.
** WA-WA-WA-Wasuremono...
** And the GenderFlip version, which has become so popular that it has even spawned ''doujinshi'' aside of fanarts and cosplay.
** Kyon-kun, denwa~
** [[GroundhogDayLoop We've entered an endless recursion of time.]]
** Kyon-kun, denwa~
** [[RunningGag We've entered an endless recursion of time.]]
** Kyon-kun, denwa~
** [[RefugeInAudacity We've entered an endless recursion of time.]]
** Kyon-kun, denwa~
** [[OverusedRunningGag We've entered an endless recursion of time.]]
** Kyon-kun, denwa~
** [[HereWeGoAgain We've entered an endless recursion of time.]]
** Kyon-kun, denwa~
** [[GetOnWithItAlready We've entered an endless recursion of time.]]
** Kyon-kun, denwa~
** [[NoJustNo We've entered an endless recursion of time.]]
** Kyon-kun, denwa~
** [[ClusterFBomb We've entered an endless recursion of time.]]
** Kyon-kun, denwa~
** [[YourHeadAsplode We've entered an endless recursion of time]][[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiSg02Ll20s .]]
** [[spoiler:Do your homework.]]
* MetaGuy -- Kyon, GenreSavvy DeadpanSnarker that he is.
* MindScrew -- If you haven't been spoiled, watching the series from the start in its original out-of-chronological-order order, will mess you up.
* MiracleRally
* MistakenForBadass
* MistakenMessage -- Ryoko's anonymous note on Kyon's InsideShoes locker.
* MoodWhiplash -- Ryoko's conversation alone with Kyon sounds like a heartfelt confession of love... [[spoiler:that is, until she pulls out the knife and attempts to kill him.]]
* {{Moe}} -- Mikuru, who Haruhi tries to make as {{moe}} as possible. Subverted and deconstructed since [[spoiler:there are hints that Future Mikuru is driving the whole plot behind the scenes, and also (via Koizumi) that her ''moe''-ness is deliberate so that the time-travelers can use Kyon's protectiveness to manipulate him]].
** Also, Kyon's little sister. You can't look at her and not say that she's adorable. (Unless you're Kyon, who [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling would disagree]].)
* MoralityChain -- The only reason Haruhi got any nicer is Kyon. And we don't wanna know [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt what would happen]] if he'd die.
* TheMovie (Coming soon: ''The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya'')
* MrExposition -- The show hangs a lampshade on this with Kyon constantly telling Itsuki, aka Mr Exposition, that he talks too much.
* MrViceGuy
* MsFanservice -- Mikuru again.
* MuggedForDisguise -- [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Kyon during ''Vanishment'' (when [[spoiler: Koizumi and Haruhi, who attend a different school in the altered reality, try to sneak into North High]]), but averted with them using Kyon's P.E. uniforms instead. [[spoiler: Though Haruhi naturally thinks this trope is an equally good idea.]]
* MultipleDemographicAppeal -- And how.
* MundaneFantastic
* MundaneUtility
* MusicalPastiche -- Soundtrack during the baseball match pastiches the theme to {{Touch}}).
* {{Nakama}} -- The novels depict this heavily.
* NamesTheSame -- It's kinda funny that God, a certain WholesomeCrossdresser, and a MagicalGirl in training share the same name.
* NameThatTune -- Kyon's sister hums "''Bouken Desho Desho''" in "Melancholy VI", and Haruhi sings a few lines of "''Hare Hare Yukai''" while stripping Mikuru in "Someday in the Rain".
* NecktieLeash
* NeutralFemale -- Mikuru. She even [[GenreSavvy knows]] that she won't be a combatant or competent.
* NewspaperDating -- Kyon in the novel of ''The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya''.
* NewTransferStudent -- Itsuki.
* NightmareFetishist -- ''Haruhi''.
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot -- Episode 00 "The Adventures Of Mikuru Asahina", Mikuru's and Yuki's characters.
* NoNameGiven -- Kyon, the Computer Club President, and Kyon's sister -- Kyon bemoans his stupid nickname but never says his real name (his school introduction is cut off). Even his sister's image song had to be titled as "Kyon no Imouto-san" or "Kyon's Little Sister". When someone is about to say the president's name, it is covered up by a sudden cut-off to a random cat meowing.
** The novels tease us by saying that Kyon's actual name is "hard to spell" and "regal sounding."
** At the beginning of "Melancholy", the introductions were alternately boy/girl, with boys and girls each being alphabetically ordered. After Kyon, Haruhi Suzumiya introduces herself, then Taniguchi. So Kyon's name likely starts with "Su," "Se," "So," or "Ta." Among the resulting possibilities are [[spoiler:"Nagaru Tanigawa"]] and [[spoiler:"John Smith" (''Jon Sumisu'')]].
* NonIndicativeFirstEpisode -- First episode, which parodies most of the {{anime trope}}s in TheCatalogue.
* NotADate -- Kyon and Mikuru. Aww.
** If you're talking about Haruhi's insistence in III, there's an even bigger one in the later novels. Mikuru actually asks Kyon out at one point, but [[spoiler: it's under orders, and [[BatmanGambit all so Kyon can stop a kid from being hit by a truck]].]]
* NotWhatItLooksLike
* ObfuscatingStupidity -- Kyon constantly denies knowing or understanding things that the events or narration show that he does, as a way of avoiding conversation with others; most notably Koizumi, but also quite a bit with Taniguchi. For example:
** In ''Sigh'', when Taniguchi asks Kyon what the SOS Brigade is doing for the cultural festival, Kyon flatly denies knowledge of it, when he does in fact know.
** Kyon's internal monologue in "Live Alive" and ''Sigh'' reveals that [[spoiler:he knows that terrible things can happen if Haruhi gets jealous over him]], but in his actual conversations he steadfastly refuses to acknowledge it, most notably to Koizumi in novel 9.
** Kyon also pulls this out in Koizumi's white doves monologue in the "Sigh IV" episode, when Koizumi confronts him with the fact that Kyon did choose to return from closed space.
** Being the UnreliableNarrator that he is, he may even fool the ''reader''. Example "Remote Island Syndrome" -- He knew the real thing all along. This may however be supported by his almost magically precise character insight.
** Some of the times it seems more like he's just saying he doesn't know in a snarky sort of way precisely because he's so competent otherwise. Or as a way to keep himself grounded as an ordinary person because of the people he spends so much time around. [[spoiler: And, possibly, just as the other SOS members are part of what Haruhi is trying to find and express, Kyon may have been given various parts of Haruhi too such as her inner skepticism and ordinariness.]]
*** Kyon could also be bullshitting himself about his feelings toward Haruhi. Itsuki may not be the only one to notice this, but he's the one most willing to hint it to Kyon. Kyon plays dumb time and time again, and Itsuki lets him get away with it.
* OccultDetective -- Ostensibly the goal of the SOS Brigade, though they very rarely get around to it.
* OddFriendship -- Kyon (laid-back and skeptical) and Haruhi (borderline sociopath with a huge belief in the supernatural).
* OffModel -- Haruhi in the second season occasionally looks like one of the characters from ''[=~K-On!~=]'' (also produced by KyotoAnimation) cosplaying as her.
* {{Ojou}} -- Tsuruya (so far only shown in the novels and ''{{Haruhi-chan}}'').
** Not anymore: "''Sigh'' IV" shows Tsuruya's BigFancyHouse.
* OminousLatinChanting -- BilingualBonus, to boot; the music is part of the first movement of Mahler's 8th Symphony, and the lyrics are taken from the Latin hymn, "Veni, Creator Spiritus", which talks about the creator of the world.
* OmniscientMoralityLicense
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname -- Kyon and his sister.
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent -- Kyon actually is confirmed completely 100% ordinary. Through background checks.
** Although, one [[EpilepticTrees fan theory]] on the matter goes something like this: "That's just what he wants you ([[IJustWantToBeNormal and himself]]) to think." [[spoiler: And if you do believe this theory, there's some evidence of it starting to appear in Book 9 onward.]]
** Also, remember how Haruhi comments that she'll only deal with "Aliens, Time Travelers, Espers, and Sliders" at the beginning? We have the first three, so...
* OrWasItADream -- What Kyon is asking himself after the climax of ''Melancholy'', until it becomes obvious.
* OutOfFocus -- [[spoiler: Haruhi Suzumiya herself!]]
* OverlyLongGag -- "Endless Eight", with a full eight episodes. With each episode about 24 minutes long, the gag ran for three hours and twelve minutes. [[InternetBackdraft It has]] [[RuinedForever not been]] [[YourMileageMayVary received well]].
** The "eight" refers to the month of August, which is the eighth month of the year and the point in time that keeps looping.
** It is also a visual pun, because the symbol 8 is basically a rotated infinity symbol.
** In point of fact, the names of the month in Japanese are literally their numerical order. Instead of something equivalent to "August" (or perhaps some culturally significant name), the eighth month of the year is literally "eighth month" or "month eight" in translation. Hence, "Endless Eight" being an endless repetition of August, not merely an eight-day or eight-week recursion.
*** Either way, it's a really stupid reason to infuriate your fans for ''two months.''
* PalsWithJesus -- Kyon. To the point that anyone who wants to affect her in anyway goes through him first, to his irritation.
* [[PandaingToTheAudience Panda-ing To The Audience]] -- In Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, there is a picture of a panda on little Haruhi's shirt... teehee.
* PantyShot -- There's one in The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina. Guess who it's from?
* {{Paratext}} -- The layout of the 2009 episodes plays around with this by reflecting their content: the new episodes came three years after the first run, playing on the interval of time travel in "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody"; "Endless Eight" had eight iterations; and ''The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya'', about the SOS Brigade's creation of a movie, was treated like a single long movie-like episode and simply cut whenever each episode's time limit was reached (even in the middle of conversations). It had also become a minor meme to state that "Disappearance disappeared" or some variation of it, but we now know it'll be TheMovie.
* ParkerLewisFerrisBueller -- Haruhi has gotten away with hijacking the literature clubroom, blackmailing the Computer Club President and stealing their stuff, dressing as [[PlayboyBunny bunnies]], submitting her film to the culture festival with the applications already closed...
* PeekABoo -- Mikuru in "Someday in the Rain."
** It's a RunningGag to have characters and objects blocking the view of Haruhi forcibly stripping a flustered Mikuru while commenting explicitly on her body. It was played most obviously and repeatedly in "Someday in the Rain", with recurring shots of Yuki discretely turning to gaze into her locker while Itsuki courteously leaves the room.
* PerverseSexualLust -- Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
** If by "your feelings" you mean "the Internet," then the answer would be a resounding [[RuleThirtyFour YES]].
* PetTheDog -- Haruhi has a few. Most famously, the ENOZ concert and in the later novels... [[spoiler:Valentine's Chocolate!]]
** The way she deals with little kids, such as Kyon's sister, qualifies as well.
*** For that matter, there's something of a literal moment in one novel. Rousseau the terrier draws out some of the best parts of Haruhi.
* ThePhilosopher -- Itsuki.
* PinkySwear -- This gesture has apparently persisted into the far future, if older Mikuru in "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" is anything to go by.
* PlayboyBunny
* PostEpisodeTrailer -- The "[[AnachronicOrder broadcast order]]" featured Kyon and Haruhi arguing over the episode number. The "DVD order" has Yuki laconically state everything [[EmotionlessGirl deadpan]].
* {{Postmodernism}}
* PowersAsPrograms -- The humanoid interfaces.
* PowerNullifier -- Yuki Nagato.
* PowersThatBe
* PracticalVoiceOver -- Kyon, narrating the first episode film.
* PragmaticAdaptation
* PrecisionFStrike -- In the anime: "Then I'll tell everyone at school that all you geeks ganged up on her and ''[[ThisTropeIsBleep [bleep]]]ed'' her!" Of course, the line in the novel is the relatively innocuous "gang-raped".
* PubertySuperpower -- Haruhi and Koizumi (both at age 12).
* RapeAsComedy -- Haruhi's consistent sexual harassment of Mikuru.
* RapidFireTyping -- And Rapid Fire Speaking, too. In fact, [[spoiler: being an alien,]] Yuki takes this to such a ludicrous degree that Mikuru gets scared [[spoiler: and Kyon gets nervous she'll blow her cover]].
* RealityWarper -- [[spoiler: Haruhi]].
* RedArmbandOfLeadership -- Haruhi, naturally.
* RedEye -- The final shot of "Someday in the Rain."
* RedOniBlueOni -- Asakura (Red) and Yuki (Blue). Actually subverted, as their ''inner workings'' are exactly flipped.
* RedPillBluePill -- Kyon is given the choice to either [[spoiler:remain in the new world where espers, aliens, and so forth don't exist or return the world to its former crazy, troublesome self]].
* RefugeInAudacity -- "[[spoiler:Endless Eight]]". Or not.
* RewatchBonus -- You're almost forced to it, due to the MindScrew episode order.
* RippleEffectProofMemory -- Averted and played straight. Once in "Endless Eight" and once in ''Vanishment''. The times it is played straight are explained. [[spoiler:Yuki in "Endless Eight", because her information is the time frame]] and [[spoiler:Kyon in ''Vanishment'', because Yuki precisely made it so he'd remember.]]
* RobeAndWizardHat -- As the trope-page says, Yuki is the wizard of '''rock'''.
* RoleplayingGameTerms -- Often in the novels and once in the anime, Kyon references Haruhi having a negative effect on his HP and MP.
** Kyon also mentions stat points during "Endless Eight".
** In addition, during the baseball game, Yuki specifically says that she has enhanced the attributes on the team's bat.
* RubberFace -- [[strike:Poor Mikuru]] Hilarious punishment!
* ScaryShinyGlasses -- Yuki, until she stops wearing them.
** When the {{Student Council President}} attempts to shut down the SOS Brigade, Kyon notices his glasses were flashing for no reason. "Are those special effects?"
* SceneryPorn -- Compare [[http://www.rinku.zaq.ne.jp/p_v/haruhi.html the real town of Nishinomiya with the anime]]. (See also [[http://www.cuso4.org/photos/kix20060928/20060928-kix-haruhi.htm this page with photos of locations of scenes from the anime]].)
* ScheduleSlip -- The tenth light novel has been delayed for ''more than a year''. [[strike:The second season was delayed for almost three years.]] The first episode of the second season suddenly aired in the middle of a rerun of the first season. We can only hope that the updates stay constant.
* SchoolFestival
* SchoolUniformsAreTheNewBlack -- Yuki Nagato will wear her school uniform even when the rest of her friends change into their casual clothes.
* SecretKeeper -- For ''three opposing factions'', all whom seem to get along pretty well for opposing factions, although it is mentioned that certain parties within each group don't get along as well as the three close to Kyon.
** Until he actually [[spoiler: ''tells Haruhi about it''. [[CassandraTruth Luckily]] [[MoralEventHorizon (?)]], [[CassandraTruth she's an Agent Scully]].]]
* {{Sekaikei}}
* SelectiveObliviousness -- [[spoiler:Kyon's non-comprehension of Haruhi's feelings for him]] is acceptable in the anime, as the series is short and romance is not a gigantic focus, but it's getting downright ridiculous in the novels. It's even got Itsuki openly exasperated. Bear in mind though that in regards to his feelings for Haruhi, Kyon's an UnreliableNarrator. The issue is less any stupidity on his part and more of a refusal to understand.
** But on the other hand, there are occasions where Kyon's thoughts clearly betray that he knows that [[spoiler:if Haruhi gets jealous over him she might end the world]]. Happens in "Live Alive" and ''Sigh''.
* SeinfeldianConversation
* SempaiKohai -- Subverted: Although Mikuru is Haruhi and the others' senior, she still gets used like a dishrag by Haruhi.
* ShipTease -- Everyone and everything.
* ShirtlessScene -- Kyon in the second part of "Endless Eight". [[StupidSexyFlanders Stupid sexy Kyon]].
** Also, chapter 10 when Kyon and Haruhi crawled into a cave and took off their dripping shirts. This one, however, is {{fanservice}}-free.
* ShoutOut -- ''{{Shuffle}}'', ''Princess Nine'', ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'', ''MobileSuitGundam'', ''{{Macross 7}}'', ''Touch'', ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'', ''{{AIR}}'', ''StarBlazers'', ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' and other series.
** In "Live a Live", Itsuki is playing Guildenstern in ''RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead''. Poorly.
** The book Nagato gives Kyon is ''{{Hyperion}}''. It's a book/series about time travel, aliens, bizarre powers and things that may or not be gods/God... Hm...
*** More than that: After reading ''Hyperion'', one may gain a whole new level of insight into what Yuki is and what her (and the Data Overmind's) motivations are. This troper certainly did.
** In "Someday in the Rain", Kyon and Koizumi are playing a [=TCG=] called Dragon All-Stars; among the cards shown are [[{{Slayers}} "Lina and Naga" and a Gourry card]].
** In "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody", Yuki is reading ''Time Enough for Love'' by RobertAHeinlein. This, too, has implications for the story.
** In ''Dissociation'', Yuki is reading ''Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid'' by Douglas Hofstadter. Yuki could start the trope on Suspiciously Apropos Literature.
** Kyon notices that Time Traveller Mikuru has never been inside a fashion store -- rapidly changing clothes on mannequins in the window of a fashion store are part of the TimePassesMontage made famous by HG Wells' TheTimeMachine.
** Kyon, in [[spoiler:one of the "Endless Eight" loops]]: "Now I know how [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Unit 00]] felt after being hit by that beam."
*** For extra fun, remember who piloted Unit 00. Then look at [[{{Expy}} Yuki]].
*** And he also goes [[KeroroGunsou 'gerogeeroo']] at the end of this scene [[spoiler: in at least two of the loops]]. After Haruhi and Keroro have both been referenced in LuckyStar, this completes the triangle somewhat.
** In ''Sigh'' Kyon mentions Apathy Syndrome, a reference to {{Persona 3}}.
*** Also in the ''Sigh'' anime: "Target center, then pull the trigger."
* ShowWithinAShow -- The movie.
* SilentBob -- One single word with a bit of emotion from Nagato says it all.
* TheSingularity -- Mechanical technology is a dead end in the Haruhi-verse: both the [[spoiler:Aliens and Time Travellers]] are past it. [[spoiler: Mikuru]] can't operate anything more complicated than a flashlight because what she's familiar with isn't remotely similar; when asked about [[spoiler: the future, she can't reveal anything, but her non-answers imply that mankind doesn't even need to use ''boats'' anymore.]] This makes Yuki's love of ScienceFiction novels and games an interesting quirk.
* SitcomCharacterArchetypes:
** Kyon is the Square and the Wisecracker
** Haruhi is the Goofball and the Bully
** Yuki is the Stick
** Itsuki is the Sage
** Mikuru is the Precocious and the Goofball
** Ryoko is the Charmer.
* SkepticismFailure -- one character ''causes'' skepticism to fail.
* SleepCute -- Mikuru and Haruhi in "Endless Eight".
** And the "Endless Eight" episodes of the anime.
* TheSlowPath -- Mikuru.
* SomeKindOfForceField -- The walls of Closed Space.
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent -- "The Adventures Of Mikuru Asahina"; "Someday In The Rain" Arguably, [[GenreBusting most of the episodes anyway]].
* SoundEffectBleep -- Kyon's Little Sister and Computer Society President's real names.
* SparklingStreamOfTears -- Mikuru, in the opening.
* SpinOff -- ''{{Haruhi-chan}}''.
** ''The Vanishment of Yuki-chan Nagato''
* SpinningPaper -- Kyon randomly remembers a scene from a previous episode in this format.
* SpockSpeak -- Yuki Nagato.
* SpoilerOpening -- But only once you've seen the episode.
* StableTimeLoop -- Lots of these:
** Kyon is [[spoiler: John Smith]], who met a young Haruhi and influenced her to become who she is today; at one point in the novels, [[spoiler:there are four Kyons and three Mikurus existing simultaneously]].
** When an older Mikuru informs Kyon about her star-shaped mole, only to realize he was the one who told her about it, and he didn't know until she told about it. She's understandably upset at the implications.
** [[spoiler:Following Future Mikuru's instructions, the two of them plant the basic ideas of time travel in the head of a primary school boy. Present Mikuru recognises him as the future inventor of time travel.]]
** The events of ''Scheme''. At the end of the novel Kyon sends Mikuru 10 days back into the past to find him and follow his instructions, because at the beginning of the novel he finds the 10-days-later Mikuru that he will send back.
** At the end of ''Vanishment'', [[spoiler:future Kyon, Yuki, and Mikuru come back to save Kyon's life after he's [[DejaVu stabbed by Asakura]]. Think about that for a minute: If Kyon hadn't survived at that moment, he couldn't have gotten them to come back in time to save his life at that same moment. He lived because he lived.]]
* StarfishAliens -- The Data Overmind.
* StarfishLanguage -- They do not communicate through language - that's what the Interfaces are for.
* StartMyOwn -- Haruhi's motivation for starting the SOS Brigade.
* StepfordSmiler -- Itsuki, always cheerful and smiling even if the world is in serious danger. Kyon is ''not'' amused.
* StraightMan -- Kyon.
* StrangeGirl -- Haruhi. [[spoiler:Until Sakaki steals the title when Haruhi starts acting a bit more normal.]]
* StringyHairedGhostGirl -- [[spoiler:Kuyou Suou]]
* {{Student Council President}} -- The... um... Student Council President from the short stories. [[spoiler:Though he's really a {{Punch Clock Villain}} working for the same Agency as Koizumi, and was brought into the school to prevent Haruhi from inventing her own {{Big Bad}}. It doesn't work.]]
* StylisticSuck -- The student film in "[[NonIndicativeFirstEpisode Episode 00]]". One of the few justified examples, as it's a student film, trying to look like a {{Toku}} show. Oddly enough, the effort required to achieve this look in animation makes it perhaps the most technically sophisticated episode.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien -- [[spoiler:Yuki and the others of her kind]].
* SuperDeformed -- ''Haruhi-chan'' and ''Churuya-san'', though apart from these self-parodies, it consistently averts the trope.
* SuperPowerLottery -- Yuki, ''and how''!
* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic -- "God Knows" in "Live Alive."
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial -- In "Live Alive," after wolfing down his lunch at top speed, Kyon takes a walk just to settle his stomach. Seriously. There was no other reason. Don't read too much into it.
* TalkingIsAFreeAction -- Somehow, Kyon in the anime, when thinking or narrating (you can hardly tell the difference between the two).
* {{Tanabata}} -- One of the festivals the SOS Brigade celebrates in Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody. Also the day when [[spoiler:Haruhi first met Kyon.]]
* TeasingCreator: KyotoAnimation's "trolling" regarding this show has become ''legendary''. The worst so far just had its punchline delivered. Let me outline it for you:
##Air "Endless Eight" and not the arc every fan has been clamoring for.
##Expect everybody to buy four [=DVDs=] of said. To say nothing of the volume numbering gag, which just comes off as condescending.
##Hint at an Endless Eight movie.
##[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n7m0h8WGU4 Win every single fan back with a 30-second, unanimated commercial.]]
***Profit!!
* {{Technobabble}} -- Every time Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki explain something to Kyon, who normally lampshades it.
* TemptingFate -- Or rather, Tempted Fate [[spoiler: In the infamous "Endless Eight" arc, Koizumi said that Haruhi is so happy and could not possibly do anything horrible. Guess what happens.]]
* [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight The Cuckoolander]] [[strike:Was]] [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight Is Always Right]]
* TheMovie -- It was announced recently that a film based on the fourth light novel, ''The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya'', is slated for release in spring 2010. [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing The fans were not disappointed]].
* ThoseTwoGuys -- Taniguchi and Kunikida -- though we see a lot more of Taniguchi.
* TimeTravel -- The novels get ''really complex'' about this later.
* TheTimeTravellersDilemma
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks -- Many fans reacted this way to the new opening and ending sequences created for the 2009 episodes. Admittedly, the old themes had three full years to become ingrained into the collective fan-consciousness, and the [[DancingTheme ending theme especially]] achieved ''godlike'' levels of popularity, spawning thousands of fan-made videos and animations. Fortunately the creators of the anime were seemingly aware that they could never top themselves, and avoided the temptation to try simply by coming up with something Completely Different (neither of the new themes feature any dancing whatsoever, and their visual styles are quite distinct from both each other and the old themes).
* TinMan -- Subverted with Yuki, who legitimately appears to lack normal human emotions... at least, at first glance.
* TokenDeity -- As it turns out, God is actually a [[spoiler:bisexual Japanese schoolgirl]]. Who knew?
* TogetherUmbrella -- The anime-only episode "Someday in the Rain". D'awww...
* TouchedByVorlons -- Espers. But if you apply it strictly, then ''every'' super-natural being only exists because [[spoiler: Haruhi created a world like that 3 years ago.]].
* TropeOverdosed -- Really, it was inevitable.
* TrueLovesKiss -- [[spoiler:Kyon kisses Haruhi to convince her to turn the world back to normal]]) -- or at least [[spoiler: give her an interesting [[WillTheyOrWontThey romantic subplot]] with Kyon, keeping her from getting TOO bored...]].
* TrueNeutral -- Haruhi, "force of nature" style.
* TrustPassword -- A crowning moment of awesome for Kyon in ''Vanishment'': "[[spoiler:I am John Smith.]]"
** There's also "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" -- first, Kyon proves himself to three-years-ago!Yuki with a note from present!Yuki. She then proves herself to Kyon -- [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble after synchronizing with herself from three years from then]], Yuki pulls off her glasses as if to say "Yes, Kyon, you don't have a [[{{Meganekko}} glasses fetish]]."
** Adult Asahina attempts to use her mole as a TrustPassword with Kyon. It doesn't quite work.
** In "The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina," Kyon says that his option of telling Asahina [[spoiler:his knowledge of her future self]] is a trump card comparable to telling Haruhi that [[spoiler:he is John Smith]].
** Not sure if this should go here, but this troper is under the impression that Kyon is also the key to [[spoiler:unsealing Yuki's full power.]] Yuki says she has [[spoiler:willingly sealed off her ability to synchronize, and that she cannot unseal it herself. She says the password to unsealing is in someone else's hands, but doesn't actually say who.]]
* TwelveEpisodeAnime -- Plus two, originally. The second season's episodes (also presumably a TwelveEpisodeAnime) are interspersed in the rerun of the first season, making it twenty-eight in total.
* [[OneMarioLimit Two Haruhi Limit]] -- With [[OuranHighSchoolHostClub one exception]], this Haruhi is the only memorable one.
* UncannyValleyGirl -- [[spoiler:Ryoko Asakura.]]
* UnConfession
* UnequalPairing -- the Kyon x Haruhi pairing [[ShipTease hinted by the series]] comes with a really big double bind: Haruhi can't be Kyon's equal as long as he actively continues to [[LockedOutOfTheLoop deceive her about her true nature]], but Kyon can't be Haruhi's equal if she becomes aware of her true nature.
** The fans who want Kyon with Yuki (also a [[ShipTease hinted by the series]]) notice the all-powerful data entity probably doesn't want to see Yuki actually liking someone. SHOCK. And loli-Mikuru can't have any (sex) relations with anyone not from her future.
* UnlimitedWardrobe -- Mikuru Asahina and by extension everyone except Yuki.
* UnreliableNarrator -- But only in regard to his feelings about Haruhi and 'normalcy,' otherwise Kyon's pretty good.
** [[{{OrIsIt}} As far as we know, anyway...]]
* {{Vaporware}} -- The tenth novel's been delayed for nearly two years, and counting. It'll come out eventually... [[DukeNukemForever we hope]].
* ViralMarketing
** Perhaps most infamously, a twenty-ish minute-long live-action [[http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/archives/haruhi_surveillancevideo.html security tape]] appeared on July 7, 2007 that occasionally shows events from the John Smith Incident of "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody."
** There was a time when the official Japanese website ([[http://haruhi.tv/ currently modeled after the site as it was shown in the anime]]) contained a fake 404 and an obscure reference to ''Vanishment''.
** On July 7, 2009, the Tanabata plant was layered over the site. Visitors could enter their wishes that day.
** [[http://haruhi.tv/ haruhi.tv]] featured the list of activities from "Endless Eight" until about when the new episodes ended.
* VitriolicBestBuds -- As Taniguchi said about him and Kunikida, "So I threw him out the window, and that's how we became friends." *Tsuruya laughs*
* WallBanger -- Some people's opinion of the anime's take on "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Endless Eight]]". [[spoiler:Eight episodes. EIGHT.]]
** Yutaka Yamamoto, production director of the first season (and no longer with KyoAni), actually apologized for "Endless Eight", saying he thought it should have been done in two episodes, and knew for over a year that it would be dragged out this long. His head bangs with ours.
*** KyoAni's response was simply that Yamamoto no longer works for Kyoto Animation, so he doesn't speak for the rest of the staff.
* WeirdnessCensor -- It largely seems like nobody who hasn't had the {{Masquerade}} broken for them can connect the dots and notice the weird events that happen around Haruhi for what they are. Events or situations where this is evident:
** Haruhi's herself, of course. Most incredibly in the "Snow Mountain Syndrome" story.
** Many of the supernatural events in ''Sigh'' happen in the presence of Haruhi, Tsuruya, Taniguchi, Kunikida, and in one case '''the whole city''', who either don't notice them or come up with mundane explanations for them (for example, "the fence must be really old" when it breaks in perfect, neat lines due to Mikuru's cutter beam).
** Nagato's performance in "The Day of Sagitarius."
** Nagato's "ventriloquism" in the student movie.
** The SOS Brigade's baseball game -- though the Kamigahara Pirates become superstitious about Kyon's bat.
** Possible exception: [[spoiler:Tsuruya, as seen in Novel 7. She knows that the SOS Brigade isn't normal, but we don't know whether she's figured it out on her own, or whether she's been told.]]
*** In the second season of the anime, Tsuruya (who was thought to have left the scene) can be seen lurking in the shadows within earshot of Kyon and Mikuru having a conversation about Haruhi's status as "God."
*** Actually, the novel implies that she's not within earshot and is probably assuming the conversation is some sort of love confession. [[UnreliableNarrator Then again...]]
* WhamEpisode -- ''Melancholy'', part 5.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome -- Kyon using [[HotBlooded Hot Blood]] to [[spoiler:plan a day of homework and BREAK THE TIME LOOP]] in the anime version of "Endless Eight". It even had epic music to accompany it, and was preceded by the coolest and most dramatic "OhCrap Haruhi's about to leave the restaurant" sequence of all eight episodes.
** The music was most likely because the KyoAni staff knew the viewers would be celebrating.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse -- Shamisen, the talking cat, appears in episode zero (eleven chronologically) of the 2006 version of the anime, in the opening and ending animations, and nowhere else in that season. It's implied that Kyon takes the cat home with him after the filming incident, but he's never seen at their house in the later episodes (most of which take place [[AnachronicOrder earlier in the year]]). This can be confusing to first-time viewers, who might think of this as clumsy continuity until they figure out the gimmick of the first season. The 2009 version of the series, however, inserts the episode that introduces Shamisen into the proper place in the chronology.
** Amusingly, the short story that expands on Shamisen is called "What Happened to the Cat?"
* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve -- The anime's "Endless Eight".
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield -- Half-played straight, and half-averted. The series' setting is described/rendered in sufficient detail (in both novels and anime) to be undoubtedly the author's hometown of Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, but it's never referred to by name in-series. Most likely, unwillingness to come out and say it is to avoid invoking a ''[[TheIdiotFromOsaka different]]'' [[TheIdiotFromOsaka trope]] based on the [[KansaiRegionalAccent dialect of the region]]. Nevertheless, there are a few dead giveaways in the series, such as scenes directly in front of Osaka Station in "''Melancholy'' III" and an establishing shot in "Endless Eight" that is unmistakably the waterfront of Kobe. (Perhaps the series' attention to detail is also its own undoing.)
* WhyDontYaJustShootHim -- Despite having "total data jurisdiction over [the classroom]," Ryoko insists on using her military knife to do the deed when she obviously could've crushed Kyon with desks (or done ''anything'' else, really).
* WikiWalk
* [[strike:A Wizard]] [[AWizardDidIt Haruhi Did It]]
* WomanInWhite -- Haruhi during the prologue of "Remote Island Syndrome".
* TheWoobie -- Mikuru; Haruhi [[GenreSavvy went out of her way]] to [[RapeAsComedy make her one]].
** Mikuru would be one even without Haruhi's help. Think about it: She gets uprooted from her friends, family and timeline, is thrown into a culture alien to her without any of the technology she's used to in the future, where she is constantly manipulated, kept out of the loop and emotionally abused by none other than [[spoiler:her future self]]. Add to this the fact that before being sent back in time, she underwent mental conditioning preventing her from ever revealing anything details of her old life to any of her new friends, no matter how much she might want to. And all of this abuse came from the people she's supposed to be saving.
*** She doesn't seem to mind. Perhaps because she knows that in the future she'll be able to take it all out on [[spoiler:her past self]], who [[spoiler:doesn't [[StableTimeLoop seem to mind]].]]
** [[spoiler: So does that make her a sadist or a masochist?]]
*** Actually, it's made abundantly clear that Mikuru [[spoiler:doesn't ''know'' that her superior is her future self. Kyon even mentions that he's beginning to resent what he sees as the unfair treatment of younger-Mikuru by older-Mikuru.]]
**** Amusingly,at one point, [[spoiler:he makes the same complaint about ''his'' future self]].
** Also [[spoiler: Yuki Nagato]] in ''The Vanishment Of Haruhi Suzumiya''. Hell, everywhere after her HostileShowTakeover.
*** And during the "Endless Eight" arc.
* {{Woolseyism}}
* WrittenSoundEffect (The opening of the new episodes)
* YouFailBiologyForever -- The show contains quite a bit of nonsense about evolution, but it's more prominent in the {{light novels}}.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair -- Everyone has realistic hair colors, except for the Humanoid Interfaces. And Tsuruya.
* YoungerThanTheyLook -- Yuki is technically only 3 years old, [[spoiler:[[Really700YearsOld until]] "[[GroundhogDayLoop Endless Eight]]" [[Really700YearsOld anyway]]]]. (And if we are to believe Kyon and Itsuki, [[spoiler: the world is only 3 years old. Which means ''everybody'' who appears older than three are ''also'' only 3 years old.]])
** Not really. [[spoiler: Haruhi (supposedly) created everyone 3 years ago, so they exist since 3 years, but they were created with memories and such. Physically and mentally, they aren't 3 years old.]]
* YourMindMakesItReal -- [[spoiler:Haruhi can alter reality unknowingly.]]
* YouShouldKnowThisAlready -- Haruhi is [[spoiler:God]]. Where have you been the last years if you didn't already know this?
** Also, Yuki is [[spoiler:an alien]], Mikuru is [[spoiler:a time traveler]], and Itsuki is [[spoiler:an esper]]. Also, Ryoko is a [[spoiler:KnifeNut {{Yandere}}]].
*** And "Endless Eight" is [[spoiler:a WallBanger spanning more than half the second series]].
*** Thanks to Wikipedia and the Haruhi Wiki, pretty much everyone knows now that [[spoiler:in ''Vanishment'' Haruhi disappears off to another school, the other Brigade members are normal humans, and Yuki caused it because she wanted emotions.]]
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