Characters / Haruhi Suzumiya: SOS Brigade

L-R: Itsuki Koizumi, Yuki Nagato, Kyon, Haruhi Suzumiya, Mikuru Asahina

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Tropes common to the group

• Barrier Maiden: The rest of the SOS Brigade hang out with Haruhi partly to prevent The End of the World as We Know It.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Mikuru, Yuki and Haruhi. Kyon thinks Mikuru's future self is supermodel level, Yuki is smarter than any human being, and Haruhi is the envy of all the athletes in the school.
• Five Temperament Ensemble:
  • Kyon: Phlegmatic/Choleric
  • Haruhi: Sanguine/Choleric
  • Itsuki: Phlegmatic/Melancholic
  • Mikuru: Melancholic/Phlegmatic
  • Yuki: Leukine
• Muggle in Mage Custody: Downplayed, as Haruhi isn't even aware that she's a "mage". But the other members of SOS Brigade are de facto her servants.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Out of the three girls, Mikuru is nice, Haruhi is mean, and Yuki is in-between. Though, in the long run, Yuki becomes a genuinely Nice Girl as well, and Haruhi becomes less of a jerk.
• Town Girls: Haruhi is a boisterous, sporty Shorttank (Butch), Mikuru is a sweet, emotional Girly Girl (Femme), and Yuki is the Neither.
• Two Girls to a Team: Gender-inverted; the SOS Brigade is made up of three girls and two boys.

Haruhi Suzumiya

Voiced by: Aya Hirano (JP), Wendee Lee (EN)

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

An eccentric, hyperactive young girl who enrolls in North High in her first year. She starts off the plot by roping in an unwitting Kyon into forming a club with her, the "Spreading Excitement All Over the World With Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade", or the SOS Brigade for short. Her eccentricity stems from the fact that she can't come to terms with the fact that she's not a special person, so she spends every day trying to look for something out of the ordinary.

In an ironic twist, Haruhi is unwittingly a Reality Warper sought after by several factions who have an interest in her — the very students which she recruited in her club, and the very people she wanted to look for: an alien, a time traveler, and an esper.

The story essentially revolves around the antics caused by her powers, directly or indirectly, and the Character Development which ensues within the SOS Brigade.

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See her page here

Kyon

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (JP), Crispin Freeman (EN)

"The question of how long someone believed in Santa Claus is a worthless topic that would never come up in idle conversation. Having said that, if you're going to ask me how much of my childhood I spent believing in an old man in a red suit, I can confidently say that I never believed in him to begin with."

The viewpoint character and narrator of the series. Kyon presents himself in the narration as a levelheaded, objective, philosophical guy, but he's really nothing more than a bright but somewhat lazy Ordinary High-School Student who has given up his childhood fantasies of aliens, time travelers, espers, interdimensional travelers, Government Conspiracies, etc., as he explains in his opening narration on his first day of high school. He just wants his high school life to pass by uneventfully.

Unfortunately for him, his curiosity gets the better of him when he is introduced to irritable Cloudcuckoolander Haruhi Suzumiya, and they strike up a sort of friendship, which eventually leads to him being the first member inducted into her bizarre "SOS Brigade", a club dedicated to finding all those things Kyon refuses to believe exist.

Naturally, all of them turn out to be real. And they all join the club, to boot.

What follows is the story of an ordinary (maybe) young man caught up in extraordinary events. While he constantly bemoans the insanity he's been thrust into, he adapts to it out of necessity, and gradually (several novels into the series) comes to look on the lunatics he hangs out with as a sort of True Companions, helping them prevent The End of the World as We Know It with a resigned sigh and a constantly suppressed panic.

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• Accidental Pervert: Although his thoughts regarding Mikuru sometimes move toward Covert Pervert territory.
• Action Survivor: Several times. One of the most dramatic ones being when he's attacked by Asakura, which causes some severe Mood Whiplash.
• Agent Scully: At first. Now he wants to go back to being a Scully. But he gets so much incontrovertible proof thrown at him early on he becomes a rather grumpy Agent Mulder.
• Alternate Character Reading: Apparently the nickname "Kyon" is a shortened form of a rather obscure reading of his name. Of course, we still don't know what his name is, so...
• Alternate Self: From the ninth novel on, the narrative is split into separate (but concurrent) timelines, and both unknowing Kyons recount the events of both the SOS Brigage gaining a new member (line α), and facing off against the Anti-SOS Brigade (line β). By the end of the eleventh novel, he is recombined as one, and given a Flash Sideways, thereby easily being able to recall his experiences in both timelines.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: With Haruhi, very frequently. Has a subtle but serious one when he accidentally travels a few years into the future in Surprise; the now college-age Haruhi smiles at him in a way the current Haruhi never has, making him "dizzy". The moment is interrupted by future-Kyon calling out to her. This moment is particularly noteworthy in that at the end of "Wandering Shadow", Kyon speaks of having arbitrarily received a book from Nagato about the romance of a boy and girl transitioning from high school to college together, his thoughts simultaneously referencing Nagato's "fortune telling" abilities.
• Badass Boast: The message he gave to the Data Entity. "If anything happens to Yuki Nagato; I will let all hell break loose." He tells Yuki to tell the Data Entity that if it ever remotely thought of punishing her; he'll tell Haruhi everything. And make her believe it with "I am John Smith." Then he and the SOS would go as far as destroying existence and rebuilding it to get Yuki back. Oh, and the rebuilt reality would not have the Data Entity in it.
• Badass Bookworm: Not in Yuki level, but qualifies to a degree. For bookworm part, he can make references on obscure and complex topics. For badass part, he can freaking recreate the world by telling Haruhi that he's John Smith.
• Badass Normal: It´s really impressive, how a humble human can fare against aliens, espers, time travelers and monsters and how far he can get just by saying the right words at the right time.
• Badass Unintentional: At least at first.
• Beleaguered Assistant: To Haruhi.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: That's the whole point of the Kyon/Haruhi ship. Haruhi's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Kyon's a Tsundere who wouldn't dare beat up God. Actually he's stopped by Koizumi when he moves to strike her.
• The Big Guy: Per Haruhi, being the one who does grunt work for the group
• Bishie Sparkle: Once, during the second Endless Eight episode.
• Blatant Lies: Uses one whenever he's caught with Yuki.
• Book Dumb: Lampshaded by Kyon himself: "Why is it that I can be so smart when it comes to reading Nagato's facial expressions or Koizumi's hidden clues, but fail to answer every single test question?"
• The Call Knows Where You Live: No matter how hard he tries, he just keeps getting dragged into everything.
• Cassandra Truth: Kyon stutters out an explanation of the SOS Brigade to Haruhi in the prologue of Sigh. She doesn't buy a word of it. Obviously.
• Character Catchphrase: "Yare yare"^note In English: "Good grief" which he picked up from Sasaki.
• Character Development: As mentioned under Pinball Protagonist Kyon goes from being incredibly Brilliant, but Lazy to much more assertive and active in the story's action. This is because his lack of action and over-reliance on the other SOS Brigade members (especially Yuki) lead to the events in Disappearance.
• A Chat with Satan: His confrontation with...himself in the movie. Does he just want to be normal or not? Make a choice and stop Contemplating Our Navel.
• Chick Magnet: He seems to be one due to the fact all the girls like him. While most of the SOS girls have reasons he's the only guy they interact with, He's Haruhi's first friend since elementary school according to Taniguchi, Mikuru has regulations that limit how much impact she can have on this timeplane and Yuki won't talk to anyone unless she has to. Still, Tsuruya seems to approve of him and there is Sasaki, so he seems to fit.
• The Chosen One: Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki all say that Kyon is "chosen" by Haruhi. Chosen for what? Nobody's sure, but the events by the end of The Melancholy gives one meaning that he is the only person in a supposedly boring world that Haruhi would rather be with.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Possibly the only reason he never pulls a Screw This, I'm Outta Here.
• Classical Anti-Hero: He starts out as one before developing into a Knight in Sour Armor.
• Closet Geek: He tries to downplay his hobbies, but it's shown that he's a avid manga reader, plays lots of video games, may be familiar with American cinema (in the anime he wears the wristwatch from Men in Black, and mimics Marty McFly's sleeping position) and mentioned model-making as a hobby (with a focus on giant robots).
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Kyon hangs out with Haruhi mostly to keep an eye on her antics and stop them from going too far.
• Consummate Liar: First word of advice with Kyon he's both easy to trick and a Tsundere so half of his dialogue is him lying.
• The Comically Serious: His aloofness doesn't prevent him from getting stuck in alternate worlds with a magical 'girlfriend,' or from finding himself smack-dab in the middle of mysterious murder cases.
• Conveniently Seated: In the traditional second-from-the-back window seat when the seats change, and always right in front of Haruhi.
• Covert Pervert: Overwhelmingly towards Mikuru. He does occasionally admit that he thinks Haruhi is nice to look at and sometimes does for Yuki as well.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: How the supernatural 'operatives' view him. He's a lazy, purely mortal high school student, with no training or prior knowledge of Haruhi. But he has the courage and freedom to act that they do not, and he will use it.
• Deadpan Snarker: Dear God, the Deadpan Snarker. Second only to the Web Head and Daria, and just barely edging out the other one with his girlfriend's name.
  • Taken to hilarious extremes in his version of Hare Hare Yukai in his Image Song album, itself a sarcastic parody of the original song, where he keeps interjecting in between his own singing to snark at the lyrics.
  • Just read the script for episode 0. Any text in blue is Kyon and is pretty much 100% free range organic snark.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Both the novel and the anime play with this. In the novel, Kyon's dialogue is very rarely formatted as such, leaving it indistinguishable from his usual narration. The only way to tell if he's either saying or thinking something is from his interlocutors' responses. The anime achieves this effect by having his mouth offscreen during these parts. In both cases, it is the audience that is meant to be confused, Kyon himself never makes the mistake.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Did you just French the Lord thy God? And in the second season of the anime, he literally tries to punch out God. And for his next trick, one must emphasize, he blackmails the Data Overmind. Really, considering the nature of both Haruhi and the threats he faces, this entire index applies to him. Thankfully given what it would most likely lead to, Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? has thus far been averted (just).
• Dismotivation: One might ask if he's gonna be an Almighty Janitor someday.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Everyone is Itsuki for Kyon!
• Face Palm: Often does one anytime Haruhi brings up her crazy ideas for the SOS brigade.
• Female Gaze: The Endless Eight arc just loves showing Kyon lacking upper body wear, and in some shots he's noticeably more muscular than others.
• Fauxlosophic Narration: The series is about 90% Kyon talking to himself.
• Filming for Easy Dub: Used in the anime to recreate the novels' lack of distinction between Kyon's thoughts, narration and speech.
• First-Name Basis: With Haruhi.
• First-Person Peripheral Narrator: Either played straight or subverted; the former if you believe Haruhi is the main character, and the latter if you believe Kyon is the main character.
• First-Person Smartass: A variation of the character type, as even though he's very intelligent and literate, he's Book Dumb and rarely gets anything more than a B+.
• Flashback Nightmare: Though a daydream and not a nightmare, one of his dreams in class is a word-for-word flashback of a conversation he had with Sasaki about quantum physics.
  • He also has dreams about the time he and Haruhi were trapped in Closed Space together.
  • "Editor-in-Chief Straight Ahead!" suggests he has them about the events of Disappearance:
    I did not want to remember that bespectacled Literature Club member who wore a troubled face in front of an outdated computer at a time like this. Seeing her in my dreams at night is enough.
• Foil: Arguably the whole point of the Haruhi/Kyon relationship is how their opposing personalities come to a balance.
  • Foil to the rest of the Brigade as well in certain ways personality wise, being the Only Sane Man that glues the team together.
  • Can serve as this to his more average friends too.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Itsuki Koizumi. He initially dislikes and distrusts Koizumi, seeing him as a suck-up to Haruhi, does not initially even notice when Koizumi's class vanishes in the 4th novel, and the two seem to share a unstated mutual jealousy. Kyon starts warming to Koizumi as an ally around the 6th or 7th volume, and by Dissociation, the two boys have come to trust each other as allies, Kyon admits (internally) that he gets bored in the SOS Brigade clubroom without Koizumi there to play games with, and has even started tacking Koizumi's name unto the list of people he cares about (whereas earlier novels only listed Haruhi, Mikuru, and Yuki). They are still definitely Vitriolic Best Buds, though.
• Freak Out: Has one for an entire day during Disappearance while he realizes what's going on.
• Geek: In the novels, Kyon often makes tongue-in-cheek references to his HP and MP and Haruhi's negative effects on both.
• Grammar Nazi: To give just one example, he always uses 訊く for "kiku" in the sense of "to ask". 聞く is the accepted norm, because although it isn't strictly correct — it actually means "to hear" — the character 訊 occurs rarely and is not taught in school.
• Gratuitous English: Dubbed in one instance into Gratuitous Japanese.
• Guile Hero: Eventually becomes this. He achieves some truely impressive feats on this front as well, such as blackmailing the Data Integration Thought Entity to keep it from taking Yuki away by threatening that he can convince Haruhi to use her Reality Warper powers to do all kinds of horrible things with only a single phrase.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: The rest of the Brigade have been training their whole lives (or so it is implied, at least) to work with God and keep her from endangering the world. Kyon is an Ordinary High-School Student who works with God because...she grabbed him by the collar and forced him to.
• The Hero: Given everything he does for the sake of maintaining the Universe and helping his friends, he's one of these; albeit one who complains a lot.
• Heroic BSoD: In The Movie; when he's confronted with a normal world. Everything he's always said he wanted; and isn't happy; a mental version of himself pushes him down and tramples on him; mocking all the things he had said in the past; until Kyon rips out from deep inside himself that yes, he wants a world of time travellers, espers, and aliens.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: At first.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In the fourth novel/The Movie.
• Inner Monologue: All the time.
• I Should Have Been Better: His reaction to Yuki gaining emotions, and the consequences thereof. He notes that it's a really common plot, and as someone who prides himself on paying attention, he should have stepped in and spoken with her before things got out of hand.
• It's All My Fault: He feels personally responsible for the events of Disappearance as even though the Integrated Data Thought Entity failed to give Yuki a more complete personality (which put a strain on her) he decides that his over-reliance on her was the straw that broke the camel's back.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his snarky dismissal of, well, everything and everybody, Kyon is a deeply compassionate person who treats everyone equally and seriously in thought, if not in action. This applies whether they're a normal student, a living computer, or God.
• The Lancer: His deadpan normal-seeking personality does contrast Haruhi's energic paranormal seeking.
• The Leader: Type 2 'level headed'. The other three look to him more often for orders than Haruhi and even she listens to him occasionally.
• Last-Name Basis: Refers to everyone by their last names apart from Haruhi. Even when asked by Mikuru to use her first name, he continues to use her last name.
• Lemony Narrator: He's already a Deadpan Snarker in general, and this naturally bleeds into his narration in both the light novels and the anime. He also serves as this when he plays the narrator in the SOS Brigade's movie, where he can't help but make sarcastic asides.
• Little Professor Dialog:
  • Even disregarding all the esoteric knowledge and vocabulary that very few 16-year-olds would be expected to know, Kyon's speech patterns make him sound much older, as though he grew up in the 1950s or '60s.
  • The author himself lampshades this during an interview:
    Nagaru: In a sense he reasons philosophically although he is a first-year student of high school.
• Male Gaze: Makes his filming of the student film...interesting.
  Kyon: Position target in the center, pull the switch.
• Meaningful Name: 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'. Kyon's real name remains undisclosed. This alone implies that it is relevant, and Sasaki tells us the full name Kyon prefers is noble, and the sort which one would question the reasoning behind....
• Mistress and Servant Boy: His relationship with Haruhi, to an extent.
• Morality Chain: The only reason Haruhi got any nicer is Kyon. And we don't wanna know what would happen if he died. Without Kyon around Haruhi's selfish, arrogant and domineering. With Kyon around she's... let's start that over. At the start of the series she's incredibly abrasive and thinks only of herself, but as the series goes on his influence on her leaves her as someone that is still annoying to be around, but at least a person that thinks of others.
• Mr. Fanservice: Remote Island Syndrome and the Endless Eight arc in particular have him shirtless a lot.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Kyon at first seems to constantly despise Haruhi's antics even though he begrudgingly goes with the flow. He often complains about wanting to have a perfectly normal life. Then in the Disappearance film and novel, Nagato changes the world to more or less be a normal one without crazy stuff going on. After some soul searching within himself, he realizes that he prefers the crazy world after all.
  • He also has one in the anime adaptation of Sigh after realizing just who he had nearly punched in a blind fury at the same time she invokes this trope (you can tell by how she's struggling to fight back tears).
  • Also for the disappearance example he feels responsible because he was constantly relying on Yuki all the time to solve everyone's problems which he felt caused her Freak Out.
• Nay-Theist: He can't deny that the supernatural exists but prefer it leave him alone. He gets over it.
• Non-Action Guy: When compared to Yuki or Itsuki, at least.
• Non-Action Snarker: More snarky than violent or a fighter.
• No Name Given: For anyone in his family, including himself.
• Not a Morning Person: He'd always be Late for School if not for his sister's daily glomps.
• Not So Above It All: Kyon admits to himself that he does, in fact, enjoy the crazy antics the SOS-Dan finds themselves in.
• "Not So Different" Remark: From Taniguchi, he realizes in Sigh IV that Taniguch's complaining about the film is no different from his own complaining about Haruhi.
• Not What It Looks Like: One example of this happens when he's holding Nagato as Taniguichi walks into the classroom. He even tries a lie later to cover it, but Taniguichi doesn't believe him.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Especially obvious in the novels, where we see even more of his thought process.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "Kyon" is just an irritating nickname his aunt once gave him and that his sister spread, that ended up sticking despite all his efforts to discourage it.
• Oblivious to Love: Kyon's (un)awareness of Haruhi's attraction to him is complicated to judge.
  • On the one hand, there are a few points where his internal dialogue makes it clear that he's aware of it, which means that there is definitely some Selective Obliviousness going on (required for stretching the Will They or Won't They? for ten freakin' novels). For example, in "Live Alive," Kyon rejects Taniguchi's suggestion that they go try to pick up girls, precisely because there'd be huge trouble if "somebody" saw him doing that.
  • On the other hand, there are places where Kyon acts in a way that seems genuinely oblivious to Haruhi's attraction. For example, in "Melancholy IV," Kyon suggests to Haruhi to "find [herself] a nice guy and go walking around the city looking for strange things; [she] could even call it a date and kill two birds with one stone," which is a very stupid (and maybe even cruel) thing to say if you realize that that was exactly what Haruhi had wanted to do with Kyon in the mystery search the previous weekend.
  • This scene from "Remote Island Syndrome I" could go either way:
    [Kyon wakes up to the sight of Asahina taking a photo of him]
    Asahina: I just took a picture of you waking up. And I took a couple of you sleeping. You were sound asleep, weren't you?
    Kyon: [thinking] Really? Why would Miss Asahina want to take pictures of me sleeping?
    Kyon: [still thinking, starts smiling] Maybe she wants to put a picture of me in a cute frame, keep it next to her bed and every night, just before she drifts off to sleep...
    [Haruhi brusquely takes away the camera from Asahina, who's been reviewing the photos, and puts it in her own pocket]
    Haruhi: [to Kyon, interrupting his thoughts] What's with the goofy face? You might wanna stop 'cus you look like a moron!
    Haruhi: [to everyone] I've temporarily given Mikuru the responsibility of being the SOS Brigade's photographer! It's important to maintain a record of the Brigade's activities for future generations. But I decide what pictures to take!
    Kyon: [out loud] Why would anyone care what I look like when I'm sleeping or when I'm waking up?
  • Itsuki points out Haruhi's attraction a few times, once to tell Kyon that he and Haruhi are the new Adam and Eve, and then later telling Kyon to embrace Haruhi from behind then whisper "I love you" into her ear. Kyon reacts angrilly, at which point Itsuki tells him it's a joke.
  • Disappearance!Itsuki, after having been told of the adventures the SOS Brigade has in the real world, remarks to Kyon that Haruhi took a genuine interest in the latter despite him having absolutely no powers or extraordinary traits, leading Disappearance!Itsuki to whisper "I envy you" in contemplation of how fragile and superficial his own romantic relationship with Disappearance!Haruhi is.
  • Also made hilariously obvious in the prologue of Dissociation when Itsuki has to devote a couple pages explaining to Kyon that the reason Haruhi got upset after meeting Kyon's childhood friend was because she was jealous.
• Only Sane Employee: Compared to everyone else in the Brigade who "works" to serve Haruhi.
• Only Sane Man: He likes to think of himself as this, though it probably should be taken with a pinch of salt.
  • It should also be noted that he accepts the eccentricities around him quite well. He claims it's because too much evidence has been thrown in his face for him to deny it, but overall he gets used to the idea of all this fantastic stuff around him much faster than any normal person would.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Or so he would like to think. But the other SOS members, particularly Koizumi, constantly have to remind us that there's more to him than this trope alone.
  • In the seventh novel Koizumi offers to train Kyon to be an esper. Apparently there are not a whole bunch of other persons who can be trained.
• Precision F-Strike: From Disappearance: "Tell them to go fuck themselves!" Watered down in the anime adaptation to "Then you can tell them to go to HELL!"
• Rage Breaking Point: Sighs has his patience repeatedly tested by Haruhi's bitchiness, particularly her shoddy treatment of Mikuru. When Haruhi spikes Mikuru's drink, hits her over the head repeatedly, and openly calls her her "toy," Kyon snaps, furiously chews her out, and has to be physically restrained from punching her lights out.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: Kyon is essentially the exception that proves the rule on this trope being an annoyance. He's a very average guy... but he's a realistic average guy, instead of the bland doormat other uses of this trope usually are. He actually hits that range of being easy to relate to because he completely avoids the pitfall of This Loser Is You.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: In Disappearance. Yuki says at the end of the movie that while she couldn't prevent herself from rewriting reality, she COULD ensure that Kyon would be unaffected. The reason he needs protection when he goes back is because her failsafe was used up when Kyon chose to activate it at the READY? prompt. The program said that once it was run it would be deleted, so it time-travelled him outside the sphere of effect at his choice. Presumably had he chosen to stay, he would have subsequently be subjected to the re-write (as seen in the spin-off manga).
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Savvy Guy to Haruhi's Energetic Girl.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Kyon's personal theory as to why Yuki granted him his Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory in Disappearance, because he would choose to do the right thing and stop her despite being granted his fantasy.
• Secret-Keeper: He never breaks The Masquerade, though he comes close in one of the Endless Eight episodes where he outright says Yuki is an alien to Haruhi, something she completely ignores.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Manly Man to Itsuki's Sensitive Guy. This gets played with, as though he's one of the more badass characters in the series (even weaponizing Haruhi to prevent the Data Overmind from killing Yuki), he's more of a Non-Action Guy than anything.
• Servile Snarker: He's very snarky towards Haruhi, who treats him as essentially nothing more than a slave and toy for her amusement.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: His outfits in Endless Eight are of the casual variety but still incredibly sharp and stylish. He even manages to out-dress some of the girls.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend:
  • With Haruhi. He does like Mikuru, but is forbidden to date her due to her restrictions as a time traveler. Not to mention the one time he accidentally got a little too friendly with her, Haruhi nearly destroyed the world.
  • Neither is Yuki, even if they were on the floor in a compromising position.
  • And neither was Sasaki.
• Ship Tease: With everyone in The Team, bordering on an Unwanted Harem.
• The Snark Knight: Kyon is this trope in spades. Most of his dialogue revolves around him being snarking over how the world literally revolves around Haruhi's whims.
• Sitcom Character Archetypes: The most sane and serious, that is, to the point of humor at times.
• Stable Time Loop: Kyon is particularly careful about not screwing these up when he gets involved.
• Stock Light-Novel Everyman: He can be considered the Trope Codifier; he's an Ordinary High-School Student who initially has resigned himself to living an ordinary life, but it isn't long before he finds himself roped into a club where the other members are definitely not ordinary. He's a major Deadpan Snarker (which extends to his narration) and often acts as the Straight Man to Haruhi's antics. He's also a Non-Action Guy due to lacking any powers or fighting ability like Yuki or Koizumi, so he typically has to use his wits to get out of sticky situations. While he doesn't necessarily have a harem, several female characters show varying degrees of romantic interest in him, and he has the most romantic tension with Haruhi herself.
• Straight Man: Kyon is always the one to call Haruhi out whenever she does something too ridiculous.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Fanboys are so hot for Kyon, and yet so doggedly heterosexual, that a Gender Flip version called "Kyonko" was made to satisfy the fantasy. At least one of the reasons for Kyonko's popularity involves the way Kyon's personality just works for her.
• Supporting Leader: Mixed with A Protagonist Shall Lead Them, resulting in Supporting Protagonist, since at first glance it may look like Haruhi is the main character (she is after all the poster girl) when she's not. It's patently obvious how much the other SOS Brigade members respect his judgment (even Haruhi) and leadership to the point where some people think for all Haruhi's bluster it's actually Kyon who's calling the shots.
• Supporting Protagonist: When Haruhi dominates the spotlight on screen.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: No, he doesn't have footage of Mikuru changing clothes nor feel any jealousy when Haruhi makes Itsuki the Deputy Brigade Leader. Trust him.
• Talks Like a Simile: His narration is littered with disturbingly descriptive comparisons.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Dull appearance, but also quite attractive and good looking in school.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Doesn't stand out, but is a Deadpan Snarker.
• The Team Benefactor: A variation. Haruhi makes him pay for their food wherever they go.
• The Team Normal: Subverted. While he insists that he's a normal person, Itsuki thinks otherwise.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: For all of his emphatic narration, we rarely see Kyon show any emotion about anything at all. We can, however, expect entire paragraphs dedicated to his insistence that he's emotionally overwhelmed about something. This isn't to say he doesn't show emotions; merely usually not quite the ones he's talking about at the time.
• True Companions: Starting around the third through fifth published books.
• True Love's Kiss: Sort of.
• Trust Password: Revealing to Haruhi that he was John Smith will make her believe everything he says.
• Tsundere: A male Dere type who only gets angry when provoked. While he's endlessly exasperated by Haruhi's problematic personality, deep down Kyon thinks it's fun to hang out with her.
• Unfazed Everyman: Kyon does have one thing that sets him apart from everyone else: He's John Smith. This fact puts him in Badass Normal territory, because it allows him to control Haruhi, Yuki's boss, and almost anyone who knows of Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody. It also explains why Haruhi gravitated towards him: he's the reason she came to North High to begin with (she just doesn't know it yet).
• Unreliable Narrator: Essays can be written here.
• Unwanted Harem: It's perfectly easy to make the case that everyone in the SOS Brigade, even Itsuki (what with the sheer amount of Ho Yay), is out for him. Though downplayed in that he actually WANTS Mikuru, who is not the archetypal "first girl" of the Harem. He has also expressed interest in Yuki. Most of all, he made out with Haruhi, which is followed by him cursing away at his subconscious, and noting that it doesn't take Freud to comprehend the dream.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With both Haruhi and Koizumi.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: At least according to Kuyo, in her first coherent sentence ever.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?:Answer: exactly the same.
  • He also treats the resident esper the same as he'd treat anyone with his... quirks.
• What the Hell, Hero?: While he normally snarks about what Haruhi is doing, he rarely truly objects. However, all through the movie filming in Sighs he can be seen getting angrier and more upset with each passing scene while his snark gets more and more hostile. Eventually, despite Koizumi's efforts to hold him back for fear of the consequences, Kyon nearly hits her. While he ends up being stopped, it's clear to her that he intended to do it, which was upsetting enough on her part to nearly cause another catastrophic event and, after they make up, to start being less abusive.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Apparently his real name is weird enough that he asked his parents about it. Seems there's a story behind it, though we don't get to hear it.
• Would Hit a Girl: Haruhi seriously pushes it, once or twice. While he takes a hell of a lot of pushing for him to get that far, he will hit a girl if he really thinks that they deserve it. Such as when Haruhi has been going above and beyond her usual abuse of Mikuru for days (at this point Haruhi has spiked her drink so that she will be willing to kiss Itsuki, and possibly more knowing Haruhi and is now hitting the poor drunk girl over the head repeatedly to try to make Mikuru listen to Haruhi's directions)) he finally snaps and goes to hit her to teach her a lesson, only failing to connect because Itsuki physically stops him. Everyone is shocked, none more so than Haruhi.

Yuki Nagato

Voiced by: Minori Chihara (JP), Michelle Ruff (EN)

"..."

Yuki Nagato is a severely quiet bibliophile and the only member of the Literature Club, from whom Haruhi takes over the SOS Brigade's new headquarters. She's quickly and unresistingly assimilated into the SOS Brigade, where she's described by Haruhi as their "invaluable silent character", and helps a great deal when the club is in need of The Smart Guy. She also enjoys reading Science Fiction and playing the strategy game The Day of Sagittarius III possibly a bit much (although she is very good at the latter).

Actually, she's an advanced Artificial Human Robot Girl controlled by a Sufficiently Advanced Alien known as the Data Overmind, which exists on a mostly non-physical level. Her purpose (and that of her fellow Humanoid Interfaces) is to observe Haruhi and her Reality Warper powers. Her Character Development stems from her continuing closeness to Kyon, to the point that her loyalty ultimately lies towards him and the SOS Brigade.

---

• Artificial Human: She's called a "Humanoid Interface", though the precise details are somewhat obscured by copious amounts of Technobabble. The series itself references the Hyperion Cantos in relation to Yuki, suggesting that she is something like a cybrid (human body, alien intelligence). It seems that the non-corporeal alien Data Overmind (and later, the Canopy Dominion) created fully biological human bodies to house data-entities in order to interact with humans. Whether the data-entities that control these bodies are minds created by the Overmind or are extensions of its own intellect is rather unclear, as the series goes back and forth on exactly how much autonomy the Interfaces have.
• Badass Adorable: She seems quite huggable because of her quietness and lack of understanding when it comes to earth tech (among other reasons) but is easily the most powerful of the SOS besides Haruhi.
• Badass Boast: After she deletes Ryoko, Kyon asks if the 'opposing faction' in the Data Overmind might again try to kill him. Yuki's response? "I won't let them."
• Badass Bookworm: Outside of Haruhi using her Reality Warper powers, Yuki is the strongest and most intelligent member of the SOS Brigade.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: Does it one handed, and saves Kyon this way when he was about to get knifed by Ryoko. It works, naturally, but it results in a really nasty cut in her hand.
• Battle Butler: Not to be confused with the SOS's battle waitress.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Two ways, with the SOS-dan and also with the DITE agents.
  • With the SOS-dan, she's the brains to Mikuru's beauty and Haruhi's brawn.
  • With the DITE agents, she's the brains to Emiri's beauty and Ryoko's brawn.
• Bespectacled Cutie: She wears glasses when she's first introduced, though she comes off as more of the Stoic Spectacles type and she stops wearing them altogether after her fight with Ryoko. The version of her introduced in Disappearance is a much straighter example, being a sweet, shy human girl whose glasses add to her cuteness.
• Big Eater: Or better said, fast eater. She doesn't consume very large meals, but those she gets to eat, she gulps them down fast.
• Big Fancy House: The huge sparse apartment in the anime is a downgrade from the three bedroom spread she has in the novels.
• Breakout Character: She got her own Spin-Off manga which takes place in an Alternate Universe.
• Character Development: Her development goes in the direction of emotions and individuality. In one of the later novels, she refuses to synchronize with her self from a different time, in order to retain her individuality. She flat out says "Because I don't want to." She also begins to treat the SOS-dan more akin to True Companions, going from caring about Kyon in particular, to also caring about the rest of the members.
• The Comically Serious: She's usually very stoic and serious, but this sometimes results in funnier moments where she'll say something surprisingly ridiculous with a completely straight face.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Subverted. Yuki was created by the Data Overmind to observe Haruhi, but after a backup(Ryoko) influenced by another portion of the D.O. attempts to provoke Haruhi by killing Kyon, she not only stops it but switches her allegiance.
  Kyon: Will another one like Asakura attack me?
  Yuki: Don't worry. [beat] I won't let them.
• Covert Pervert:
  • Considering the many ways she could have removed Mikuru's contact lenses in Sigh, the one she chose was rather... suggestive. Supposedly, she wanted to remove the contact as fast as possible seeing as how it was shooting deadly lasers at the time.
  • There's also the incident in "Snow Mountain Syndrome" where each Brigade member encounters the apparition of another character who tries to seduce them. We later find out that Yuki sent the specters and the pairings are a coded message, which explains why, for example, Koizumi saw Kyon and Mikuru Haruhi. But that doesn't explain how the phantasms behaved.
• Creepy Monotone: Although... she's not creepy, especially when compared to Ryoko Asakura. Neither is the monotone, really. It's arguably part of the charm.
• Deus Exit Machina: Kyon resolves to rely less on her. His wish is granted.
• The Dreaded: Both versions of Mikuru are terrified of her, and avoid interacting with her directly as much as possible. When forced to, even future Mikuru gets very quiet and withdrawn. It's implied that, unlike Kyon and Koizumi, Mikuru knows exactly what Yuki is capable of.
• Dull Surprise: She is shown to be capable of emoting but cannot expresses them like how a normal human would, leading to this.
• Emotionless Girl: Subverted, since she does have emotions, but was ill-equipped by her creator to actually express them. She's even aware of it herself, leading to some frustration and bitterness on her part that she still can't express. It can be quite pitiful.
• Extreme Doormat: Starts out as this, changes significantly over the course of story.
• First-Name Basis: Or rather, personal-pronoun-only basis toward Kyon.
• Foil: To Haruhi who is hotheaded and impulsive, while Yuki herself is calm and thoughtful.
  • Also, to her counterpart in the Disappearance Arc.
  • Her logical personality is a foil to the emotional Mikuru.
  • Opposite of the bubbly and animated Ryoko who's actually a psychopath, while Yuki isn't deep down.
• Fortune Teller: Whose predictions are ludicrously specific and accurate.
• Gamer Chick: She's surprisingly more invested in the game "The Day of Sagittarius III" more than anyone else and turns out to be an absurdly competent player.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: When we are first introduced to her Yuki wears glasses. After her first fight with Ryoko Asakura to stop the latter from murdering Kyon, she loses her glasses and neglects to recreate them after restoring the classroom where the fight took place to how it was beforehand. Kyon quips that he doesn't really like glasses anyway, so she simply goes "I see" and doesn't bother with them from that point onward. It makes for a quick visual indicator of when we are in the story's timeline once time travel starts being a factor.
• Going Native: A human anthropologist who came to prefer their company over that of her own kind. Even Kyon, who knows her true identity, thinks of her as human.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: As a result of the time loop in “Endless Eight”, the accumulated experience breaks her out of her Emotionless Girl existence, although indications are subtle up until Disappearance. She still doesn’t actually emote all that much, but her interactions with the other members of the Brigade become more nuanced, and some of her actions are clearly based on selfish impulses separate from the wishes of her creators.
• Heroic RRoD: Appears to be dangerously close to one in the beginning of Book 10. She got better.
• Hikikomori: Sits in her room, in her high school uniform, for three years until finally attending that school.
• Hilarious Outtakes: For the English dub: "I don't really have a glasses fetish." "What kind of a fetish do you have?"
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: This is pretty much Alternate!Yuki's reaction to Kyon suddenly (from her viewpoint) taking any interest in her in Disappearance.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Kyon's interpretation of her motivation in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya; Yuki being Yuki, whether she actually thinks this is left ambiguous.
• Instant Expert: Any skill she needs she can rapidly acquire, or just cheat with data manipulation.
• Large Ham: Downplayed in The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina episode 00. Keep in mind that Yuki's speeches usually come in two flavors: either brief response or Technobabble. While she's still monotonous in the movie, her lines would be very hammy were they spoken by anyone else. Whether this is Ham and Cheese is up to interpretation.
  "Please make your funeral arrangement for when next we meet it will be the last. Next time you may be certain that I will intend to take you down and destroy you without mercy".
• Leitmotif: "Nagato's Confession"
• Literal-Minded: Given that she's basically a hyper-advanced, living program installed in a human body, she doesn't have the best grip on slang or subtlety, though this is typically played for laughs. For instance, in "Remote Island Syndrome", when Haruhi goes out to search for the killer, she orders Yuki to lock the door to their room and not open it for anyone. Cut to Kyon showing up as Haruhi is arguing through the closed door with Yuki, who is refusing to open the door because of what Haruhi previously said.
• Magic from Technology: Yuki's powers are described as "magic" but basically come from post-mechanical technology overwriting local reality. As a bonus, her "incantations" are Microsoft SQL scripts sped up and backwards.
• Meaningful Name: Yuki's given name is obviously meant to evoke "snow", especially given her hinted-at backstory and Image Song, but is written with the kanji for "hope".
• Mental Time Travel: She is incapable of changing her "location" in time, but she can sync her memories from any point along the timeline.
• Nerds Are Sexy: Yuki has a large fanbase within the story.
• Never Gets Drunk: Yuki is shown to be capable of downing several glasses of wine without so much as a stagger.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: She survives getting impaled with about seven spears and a lance made of energy, and all it really does is tire her out a little. It's not technically invulnerability since she still gets injured, but its implied she can heal from pretty much any injury by rewriting her own data.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Inverted. She's a passable (if somewhat dull) human by the standards of that species. However, where she comes from, being able to understand independent biological beings- at all- marks her as one of the most empathic and adaptable interfaces in existence. Another interface in the cast can't understand something as basic as the self-preservation instinct.
• No Social Skills: She was created with a limited set of social skills, though those have improved a little.
• Not So Above It All: Even Yuki has moments where she gives into just blatant silliness such as wearing her fortune-telling costume when it's not required, buying cheap play masks to wear at a festival, insisting on wearing her party hat while in the clubroom in the lead-up to the Christmas Party, or choosing a silly nickname for herself when Kyon blackmails Haruhi with one.
• Not So Stoic: In the Alternate Universe, where she smiled at Kyon. Even before that, she's visibly scared by Kyon's actions when they first meet.
• Physical God: We still gotta find out what Yuki can't do. We know she won't change weather because it might screw up the environment. On a geological scale of time.
  • In Melancholy, she claims that she will not travel through time. She prefers cross-temporal synchronisation. However, it's unclear if this means that she permanently lacks the ability to travel in time, whether she's generally capable of doing so but unable or unwilling at that time, or whether she simply hasn't learned how to do it (given her remark that time travel is "not difficult"). In Disappearance, Nagato says that she cannot accompany Kyon and future Asahina back to December 18 because she must stay and guard their time-frozen past selves in her guest room, and for all we know, this may be the only reason for her statement in Melancholy.
  • In the novels after Disappearance, Yuki reveals to Kyon that she has voluntarily had the Entity restrict her time-related powers, because synchronizing with her future self robbed her of the ability to freely choose her fate.
  • More or less, it seems she self-imposes a limitation not to cause any significant harm and maintain the Masquerade.
  • Let's not forget the fact that she's capable of OUTRUNNING LASERS!
• Prescience Is Predictable
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: In The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: She wears glasses when she's first introduced, but she loses them after her battle with Ryoko and doesn't wear them again afterwards. It's implied that she never actually needed them to begin with.
• Purple Is Powerful: Has purple hair, and is among the most powerful characters in the series.
• The Quiet One: She's not very talkative.
• Reality Warper: One that's more in control of her powers. She can snatch Haruhi's powers, making Haruhi powerless, but herself pretty much a Physical God. Since this is Haruhi we're talking about, it could be argued that the only reason Yuki could do something like that is because Haruhi, on some level, allowed it to happen (because she wanted it that way, because she was bored, because doing so would be interesting, etc etc etc).
• Rei Ayanami Expy: A young-looking alien girl and some sort of Artificial Human with short purplish blue hair, dark amber eyes and pale skin who starts out emotionless, but comes to gain emotions as part of her Character Development. Her name even puns on Rei's name: Yuki is a homonym for "snow" in Japanese, while "Rei" can also mean "cold", and "Ayanami" and "Nagato" are the names of two WWII Japanese warships.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Passes as human, but robotic in personality and role.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: She's the only one who can remember what happens after each loop during Endless Eight.
• Robe and Wizard Hat: And we all know it looks damn awesome on her.
• Stoic Spectacles: She wears glasses when first introduced, and given her true nature, she comes off as very stoic and emotionless. She later loses them after her fight with Ryoko, and Kyon comments that he's not into the glasses fetish anyway.
  Yuki: [deadpan] What is a glasses fetish?
• School Uniforms are the New Black: Very rarely does she wear anything else (a notable exception is "Remote Island Syndrome").
• Secret-Keeper:
  • In "The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina", she helps Haruhi plot to give the boys Valentine's chocolates.
  • In "Surprise," Kyon is shocked that Yuki refuses to give him a key piece of information about Yasumi (though she does confirm she's not a threat). She only insists that positive outcomes are more likely if Kyon remains ignorant. She knew that Yasumi was Haruhi, and that Kyon would likely derail the plan if he was aware of it.
• Shorter Means Smarter: At 154 cm, she's among the shortest members of the SOS Brigade and is arguably the smartest. The only person shorter than her is Mikuru.
• Shrinking Violet: While her normal self is simply very quiet and unfamiliar with human social norms, her counterpart in the Alternate Universe shown in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is very much this, being a normal human girl who's a timid, easily flustered bookworm.
• Shrouded in Myth: Her class treats her this way. Apparently, they firmly believe that if she says anything on any given day, something important will happen, for good or ill. This was before the school festival and her ridiculously accurate "fortunes."
• Silent Bob: And I quote: ". . ."
• The Singularity: See Magic from Technology above. This actually makes her love for Scifi books an interesting quirk.
• The Smart Girl: Haruhi's perception. Actually The Big Girl, when you get down to it because of her controllable Reality Warper powers.
• Spin-Off: Has an Alternate Continuity manga based on her called The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, roughly based on the Disappearance of Haruhi arc, if there weren't any interference.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Although she comes across as emotionless, she is actually a kind and caring girl.
• Superpower Lottery: Yuki's supernatural abilities are vastly more useful than Itsuki's (only useful in Closed Space) or Mikuru's (largely nonexistent). Kyon realizes at a few points that he's relying too much on Yuki to keep up the Masquerade, and resolves to ease up on her.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: She has amber eyes, which hints at the fact she is an alien, and also (more importantly) a Physical God with a Superpower Lottery.
• Super-Speed: She can move really quickly when she needs to. Probably the crowning example being when she apparently blocked the lasers Mikuru was inadvertently shooting out of her eye. Any attempt at blocking the lasers would have required reflexes that are faster than the speed of light.
• Time Loop Fatigue: During the "Endless Eight" arc, she is forced to relive the same 2 weeks for approximately 595 YEARS and she's the only one in SOS Brigade who remembers all of it. Even though Nagato is the epitome of Emotionless Girl, her exhaustion, stress, and sadness are way too easy to see. The resulting trauma is so serious that it eventually makes her steal Haruhi's powers and create an Alternate Universe where everyone is normal and Haruhi is Put on a Bus.
• Token Non-Human: She's the only member of SOS Brigade who is an alien and artificially created.
• True Companions: It is made obvious several times that she will not stay neutral when the Brigade members are in danger, even though her task is to simply observe.
• Understatement: Nagato's laconic nature, lack of affect when she does speak, and way of explaining things in overly technical terms, can make even the most earth-shattering pronouncements seem rather trivial. This occasionally seems to mask a depth of feeling not present on the surface: after determining that Kyon's old friend Nakagawa fell for her based on a misunderstanding, she says it was "a little bit" disappointing. Coming from her, this could easily be the equivalent of "devastated".
• The Uriah Gambit: The Data Overmind can't directly retaliate at Nagato for Disappearance due to Kyon. It can, however, elect her to be the "Ambassador" to the Canopy Domain, exposing her existence and sanity to something which is as alien to her as the Data Overmind is to humans. A lesser being would Go Mad from the Revelation. Fortunately, if this ever ends in something seriously bad for Yuki, Kyon will retaliate, so the only thing they can really do is torture her, not eliminate her completely. At the end of Surprise, she says she has been taken off the job of trying to contact the Canopy Domain and that a different interface will take over future attempts to contact the Canopy Domain, who Yuki believes would do the job much better than her; Yuki's job now is to merely observe the Canopy Domain's interface in addition to Haruhi.
• When She Smiles: After Disappearance, Kyon chose the original world over the one Yuki made for him but admits in Intrigues that he still has small lingering doubts about his choice. Wanting to see Yuki's smile again is part of the reason.
• The Worf Effect: The threat posed by the Sky Canopy Domain is illustrated by how quickly they can put poor Yuki out of commission. Twice.
• Yellow/Purple Contrast: A rare example where she has both colors, with purple hair and yellow eyes, both of which signify her as a God by the series's standards.

Mikuru Asahina

Voiced by: Yūko Gotō (JP), Stephanie Sheh (EN)

"That's classified information."

Painfully shy, walked-upon, and adorable, Mikuru Asahina doesn't seem to serve much purpose on the show other than Fanservice, a rival Love Interest for Kyon (and the one he actually expresses interest in), and being the much-abused subject of Haruhi's "admiration". However, like the other characters, Mikuru has her own secret: she is a Time Traveler from an unspecified date in The Future, sent to study Haruhi like Itsuki and Yuki, since Haruhi is the source of a temporal disturbance Three Years Ago that prevents time travel to any previous period.

Mikuru is, as far as the audience can tell, the least diligent in the whole "observe/control" Haruhi business. Indeed, she seems content to be the SOS Brigade's personal Meido (having an especial fascination with tea-brewing for some reason), deal with 21st-century culture shock, and endure Haruhi's constant molestation and enforced Cosplay. It's not that she's around solely for window-dressing. It's just that she's passive to the point of being The Chew Toy. (And partly around for window-dressing).

---

• Age Insecurity: She insists that her real age is "classified information".
• Ambiguously Bi: She clearly likes Kyon, but also is rather responsive to Haruhi. In the novels, she appears to be smitten with Yasumi as well.
• Anti-Hero: May or may not have her moments. Koizumi definitely originally thought she was faking her "moe" tendencies to manipulate Kyon.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: There are some moments where we see that, despite all the grief she causes her, Mikuru does care for Haruhi as a friend, and vice-versa.
• Bad "Bad Acting": As evidenced in The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina she's very stiff and awkward.
• Butt-Monkey: She's the most frequent victim of Haruhi's antics, particularly whenever Haruhi tries to invoke Fanservice tropes by shoving her into cosplay against her will.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: She has a busty figure, which Haruhi usually focuses on (and Kyon tries to ignore).
  Kyon: So, you brought this girl, Ms. Asahina, up here just because she happens to be cute, tiny and extremely well endowed?
  Haruhi: That's right.
• Brainless Beauty: She's The Cutie and has a buxom chest but she's really not very smart, and is often tricked by Haruhi.
• Celibate Heroine: While none of the characters are currently dating anyone, Mikuru isn't allowed to get involved with anyone out of her timeframe. However, she does seem to have a strange interest in Yuki in the 7th book. And is too embarrassed to look at Haruhi in a cheongsam later on.
• Character Catchphrase: "That's classified (information)", whenever she's asked about details related to her mission or the future that she can't reveal.
• The Chew Toy: She eventually ends up being Haruhi's literal chew toy◊. In the opening, she cries as Haruhi forces her to be a cheerleader. She can go either way in The Woobie Vs. The Chew Toy debate, depending on how sadistic the viewer is feeling at any given time, or how serious Haruhi's abuse of the moment is.
• Cosplay: Against her will.
• Curves in All the Right Places: In the light novels, Kyon describes her this way the first time he sees her wearing the bunny girl costume.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: At times Haruhi expects her to act like this when serving as the SOS-dan's Meido.
• Cuteness Proximity: While petting Shamisen in "Where Did The Cat Go?" (Disturbance), she says to herself, "Kitty, kitty, um… Kitty, calico, mew… Umm~ umm, little kitty eat cat food."
• The Cutie: An adorably pretty girl with a timid personality.
• Defiled Forever: Mikuru worries that Haruhi's treatment may leave her ruined for marriage.
• Demoted to Extra: From novel 10 on, she is mostly relegated to the role of serving tea while wearing her maid outfit.
• Distinguishing Mark: Her mole.
• Even the Girls Want Her:
  • Haruhi in particular seems to quite "like" Mikuru.
  • In Intrigues, Haruhi puts her in a shrine maiden outfit and auctions off some of her tea for a contest, attracting half the population of the school—the male half. However, in the end, a very embarrassed first-year girl wins.
• Eye Beams: Only due to colored contact lenses that Haruhi obliviously modifies in Sigh, though. They're rather interesting eye beams, too—there are the standard lasers as well as Razor Floss, enormous metal spikes, and miniature black holes.
• Extreme Doormat: Part of her submissive Moe character. She just cries when she's being harassed by Haruhi. Plus there's evidence that if Mikuru wasn't an extreme doormat, Haruhi would make her one. Future-Mikuru, on the other hand...
• Fainting: Emotional Faint, when Keiichi is found dead in Remote Island Syndrome II. Later she has a Monster Faint. The monster in this case is herself.
• Faux Action Girl:
  • Parodied.
    Kyon: Don't you have a laser beam or something?
    Mikuru: No, carrying weapons is forbidden!
  • And later Subverted. The reason she has to be in the past is to protect and inspire the inventor of time travel, who is currently a primary school kid living near Haruhi. Mikuru indirectly and unknowingly is responsible for saving his life.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Perfect maid and good cook who is a girly girl.
• Femme Fatale: At least Itsuki suggests this to Kyon.
• Fetish: Haruhi wants to make her as 'fetishy' as possible.
• Fiery Redhead: Inverted; she's a redhead, but she's very timid and has problems standing up for herself.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Koizumi, from book 7 onwards. Though they initially distrust each other, they form an odd alliance in which Koizumi is the first person Mikuru contacts in Endless Eight and he helps rescue her when she is kidnapped in the seventh volume.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: She's from a future that has passed The Singularity. While she's not allowed to talk about it, she has absolutely no understanding of modern technology more complicated than a teapot. Not only does she consistently fail to make any type of machine operate, but she doesn't even know how boats work, leading Kyon to assume that the future has moved past buoyancy.
• Future Me Scares Me:
  • Averted insofar as Mikuru doesn't know that her boss is her future self. However, Koizumi is highly suspicious of the future Mikuru and by the end of Scheme Kyon's starting to agree.
  • Koizumi re-iterates this in the 11th book, telling future Mikuru to her face that he considers present-day Mikuru a friend, but he's not so sure about her.
• Gaussian Girl: Mikuru in a Yukata from Kyon's POV.
• Girly Girl: Compared to all the other female characters, she is the girliest.
• Girly Run: She runs like this in the season 2 intro song.
• Heroic BSoD: She starts crying constantly and can barely speak after finding out what's happening in Endless Eight.
• Hidden Depths: It may surprise you that she has an Image Song about being bitter and wanting to get revenge upon all those who have used her as a tool.
  • In the 5th novel, she sharply tells off Kyon for taking Yuki for granted after Kyon calls Yuki for help on an adventure without briefing her to the circumstances and forces Kyon to apologize to Yuki. (This is Fridge Brilliance when we learn in the 6th novel that Asahina hates it when her superiors give her orders without telling her what's going on. See Locked Out of the Loop below.
  • Disappearance-universe Asahina has no problem punching Kyon in the face when he talks about her star-shaped mole. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Implausible Hair Color: She has red hair, which does exist naturally in Japan, but is unspeakably rare. Might be a symptom of being from the future, where Japan is likely more multicultural.
• Informed Attractiveness: She's the Ms. Fanservice of the series, but she isn't any more attractive than other female characters in terms of design aside from her larger bust size. While Kyon frequently notes her good looks and tends to put her on a pedestal, his narration is often colored by his own opinions.
• Intimate Marks: She has a star-shaped mole on her right breast.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Light Feminine to her future self's Dark Feminine. She's a girly girl while her future self isn't as pure, but more badass.
• The Load: When Kyon isn't carrying her unconscious body around, she's likely to be clinging to him to prevent his escape from the battlefield.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • She suffers a Heroic BSoD in Volume 6 because her superiors are always giving her orders without explaining their purpose.
    • She's also the only one in the SOS Brigade (except Haruhi) who isn't aware that her boss is her mature self.
  • Tends to be the case with the SOS Brigade too: most of their talks about battle plans, philosophy, and metaphysics tend to exclude her, only involving Kyon, Nagato, and Koizumi.
  • Justified in Volume 7: Kyon and others can't let Mikuru become aware of "Michiru", because "Michiru" wasn't aware of her being present when she was Mikuru.
• Loves Secrecy: Sometimes tends to say "classified information" in a playful way.
• Meaningful Name: Assuming the most obvious choice of Kanji for her name, it could alternatively be read as "mirai", meaning "future".
  • Alternatively, it could be a play on "Mi" as in "see", and "kuru" as in "come". Meaning she sees what's coming.
• Meido: Perhaps oddly for a time-traveling secret agent, she seems to enjoy playing this role.
• Moe: Invoked to the point of absurdity by Haruhi, who recruited her specifically because her cute looks and timid personality have a lot of moe appeal.
• Ms. Fanservice: She was "recruited" (as in, literally dragged kicking and screaming) into the SOS Brigade by Haruhi specifically to fit this role with Haruhi that force her to wear sexy outfits (and Kyon not dislike). Future Mikuru fits this trope better, though. Each novel volume has a picture of her in costume before the prologue.
• Neutral Female: SOS Brigade Mikuru that is.
• Nice Girl: She's usually a very innocent and kind girl.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: It's hinted that Mikuru is less of a 100% doormat than she looks like, pretending to be super ultra submissive in order to hide her true identity.
• Older Than They Look: Despite being the oldest member of the SOS Brigade, she can be mistaken to be a junior high school student. For some reason, the English dub has her as Haruhi and Kyon's underclassman instead of being their upperclassman although the same episode also states that they are freshmen at the school (this is likely because the dub uses the term "junior" for her; while in North America this would refer to someone in 11th grade, which Mikuru is, some viewers might mistake this to mean "underclassman").
• Playboy Bunny: The other Bunny Girl when Haruhi promotes the SOS Club. Compared to Haruhi, who wears her suit with absolute glee and is really enjoying the way she looks in it, Mikuru just... feels like she's forced to do it for a payday, regarding her reluctance about fanservice. And she kinda is considering Haruhi's overall weird ways of having fun.
• Pom-Pom Girl: When Haruhi forces her to be a cheerleader. She is seen with this outfit also in the anime opening.
• Prone to Tears: Takes this to satirical lengths. Whenever Haruhi does anything vaguely harassing, she bursts into tears.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: Mikuru's the closest the SOS Brigade has to a Proper Lady, and guess who wears tights with her uniform during the winter months?
• Pink Means Feminine: Wore pink kimono and the only one who wore a pink uniform, representing her as a girly girl, when battling the Computer Club President.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Haruhi is constantly trying to invoke tropes, including ones related to Fanservice. As a result, she recruits Mikuru solely for her attractive looks and constantly shoves her into cosplay outfits, much to Mikuru's despair. While Mikuru eventually gets used to wearing her Meido outfit, she's still not happy whenever Haruhi tries to put more revealing outfits on her.
• Shrinking Violet: Mikuru also has shades of this, as part of her Moe appeal.
• The Singularity: Why Mikuru doesn't know how anything in the 21st century works - future society surpassed mechanical technology long ago.
• Sparkling Stream of Tears: In opening credits. At least she has a reason, given what she's subjected to by Haruhi.
• Team Pet: How Haruhi sees her: the club's moe mascot.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl to all the other females, except Ryoko.
• Transhuman: Her TPDD and her means of contacting the future are apparently embedded into her brain. It's presently unknown what else might be.
• Undying Loyalty: As Koizumi points out in the 11th book, whatever future Mikuru is like or feels on the matter, present Mikuru is unquestionably a loyal friend.
• Vague Age: Mikuru's denials of telling Kyon her age implies that she is not really high school age (by our standards). She has the face of a little girl and the breasts of a much older woman so it's difficult to tell.

Itsuki Koizumi

Voiced by: Daisuke Ono (JP), Johnny Yong Bosch (EN)

"Relax! I don't believe in the existence of an Almighty God, or the Ultimate Creator that created humans. Many of my companions think the same way as well. Yet, there's one thing that bothers us."
Bothered by what?
"The things that we do. Are they as foolish as a clown doing a handstand by the edge of a cliff?"

— Haruhi Suzumiya (volume 1)

Itsuki Koizumi. New Transfer Student. Prodigious talker. Perpetual annoyance to Kyon, and toady to Haruhi. Also the wielder of (rather specialized) Psychic Powers and representative of a shadowy conspiracy of similarly-empowered people, who credit Haruhi as the source of their abilities. Like Yuki and Mikuru, he's here to observe Haruhi and, more so, keep her under control; he knows from regular experience the highly destructive nature of Haruhi's teen angst, and his "Agency" is tasked with keeping it under control.

Itsuki is the most active in interacting with Haruhi, usually actively finding ways to keep her occupied and feeling good via thorough ass-kissing. Aside from that, he greatly enjoys Contemplating His Navel, spouting Expo Speak, and playing a variety of board games (poorly), all but the last of which annoy Kyon immensely. In his spare time, he beats up Kaiju manifestations of Haruhi's irritability in Closed Space, a sort of Phantom Zone.

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Tropes associated with Itsuki:

• Ambiguously Bi: His interactions with Kyon tend towards this, though he tells Kyon that he acts that way because it's how Haruhi expects him to. Doesn't stop the Ho Yay... which seems to be carried out when Haruhi isn't around or paying any attention, though. On the other hand, he tells Kyon in the fourth novel that he is in love with Haruhi. Given that this took place in an alternate universe, it may or may not be the case in the main reality.
• Anti-Hero: Appears to be of the Pragmatic Hero type at first — not afraid to lie, cheat, or scheme to keep Haruhi from re-writing the world. By later books, while he has become genuinely attached to the SOS Brigade, his love for his friends manifests in a willingness to kill to protect Kyon and Haruhi and yet he also lies to them on a regular basis.
• Badass Bookworm: He is in North High's top class and a very competent esper.
• Bad "Bad Acting": an odd example. He's very stiff and lifeless in the Brigade's film, but he seemed to be doing much better in the play his class put on not long after. Then again, he's much better suited to the character he's playing in the play (Guildenstern from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead).
• Becoming the Mask: Whether or not he intended to genuinely care for the other brigade members, by "Snowy Mountain Syndrome," he has become genuinely loyal to and protective of his friends and the later novels give him opportunities to prove it.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Despite his apparent enthusiasm toward Haruhi's actions, he makes clear that the fact that he has to take care of the closed spaces (although their appearances become less frequent in the later novels) put him under a lot of stress, especially in the ninth novel.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He fights and apparently kills Fujiwara in the 11th book. And he does it with a smile.
  "I shall take care of that." A large, shiny, volleyball-like orb of red floated above the palm of Koizumi's right hand. "Now I feel like I'm becoming the protagonist of an esper manga. I've waited a long time for this, so please let me play an active role in this ending. This may be the last chance I'll have to fulfill my dream."
  He was saying this quite happily, but I think anger would be more fitting for his emotions.
• Big Damn Heroes: Note to Itsuki: It spoils the effect when you walk in smiling and give a jaunty wave at the guy you're going to rescue.
• Calling Your Attacks: In the Cave Cricket fight. His attack names are Shout Outs to the Full Metal Panic! series produced by Kyoto Animation.
• Character Filibuster: Koizumi frequently (ab)uses his role as Mr. Exposition as an excuse to fire off seemingly interminable dissertations about physics, philosophy, psychology and whatever other topic he can come up with that facilitates longwinded rants about abstract matters. He invariably ends these with some variation of I Was Just Joking to make absolutely certain that no concrete point whatsoever is ever made of these rants. Kyon, and most of the audience, are left with the impression that he just likes doing this For the Lulz.
• Chekhov's Gun: In the end of the Snow Mountain Syndrome, he said that he would betray the Organization exactly once to aid Kyon. We'll have to see when that comes to play.
• The Chessmaster: He's the leader of The Organization. That should tell enough.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: It's more obvious in the novels, but Koizumi is more than a bit...odd. Kyon and Taniguchi separately note (Kyon silently) that Koizumi is "weird" and Kyon notes everyone in the SOS Brigade is fairly socially awkward (without singling Koizumi out). The long rambling tangents into everything from orchid species to Hegel doesn't help.
• Contemplate Our Navels: He's very philosophical when talking about Haruhi.
• Deadpan Snarker: Shows hint of being one in volume 8 and onwards.
• Department of Redundancy Department: In the English dub he calls his situation in Endless Eight a "Never ending, endless summer."
• Dissonant Serenity: Seemed fairly cheerful when informing Kyon of the situation during their time Haruhi's world-ending Closed Space in Volume 1. Even moreso in Volume 11, while confronting Fujiwara. Kyon even notes that Koizumi's still smiling when he's threatening Fujiwara, and thinks that a look of anger would be more fitting...
• Extreme Doormat: Although he has plans of his own, he objects Haruhi's commands.Subverted in that he continuously goes behind Haruhi's back and pulls the strings. However it is rare for him to confront her to her face — though he does take Kyon's side in a few of Kyon and Haruhi's arguments.
• Eyes Always Shut: Zig-Zagged. The illustrations of the novels are fairly consistent with this, but the Animated Adaptation itself keeps them open just as if not more often, at least while he is speaking or doing other than standing around.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Asahina and Kyon. With Asahina, the two did not trust each other at first, but formed an odd "alliance" and became friends after Koizumi and his Organization helped rescue her in the 7th novel. Kyon initially disliked Koizumi but by later books came to genuinely consider him a friend in a Vitriolic Best Buds way.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: Invoked, as his speech patterns in Japanese are almost always extremely polite, which is part of his act as a deferential Yes-Man towards Haruhi. He admits to Kyon in private that he does get tired of speaking so politely all the time.
• Friendless Background: Canon in the "Disappearance of Yuki-chan" spin-off, but implied in novel 8 that he has never had a close group of friends before the Brigade.
• The Gadfly: Seems to enjoy confusing Kyon and then annoying him by retracting the statement way too much. Also one explanation for his constant Ho Yay. Considering his strongly implied attraction to Haruhi, it could be his way of getting back at Kyon for his distant attitude towards her.
• Guile Hero: Even though he does let Kyon handle most things, he is, by all rights, the leader of the Organization, if you believe Tachibana.
• Hero of Another Story: Literally in the spin-off manga "The Intrigues of Itsuki Koizumi," but even in series it's implied that his double life as an esper is much more complicated than we get to see and if he is indeed the leader of the Organization, then there was either an off-screen coup or a more convoluted scheme than Kyon and the audience were lead to believe.
• Hidden Depths: He has a much darker, even violent side that manifests when he literally kills or attempts to kill Fujiwara in order to protect Haruhi. On the reverse side, while Kyon initially assumes Koizumi is a pretentious suck-up, post-Disappearance it seems that Koizumi is a genuinely kind person who tends to try to believe the best of people (as seen with his interactions with Tachibana and the student council president, amongst others).
• Homoerotic Subtext: It makes Kyon pretty uncomfortable.
  Koizumi: [to Kyon] You appeared in my room as well. The appearance might have been you, but the behaviour was just terrifying... anyway, you did things that you wouldn't do.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: As Vice-President of the SOS Brigade, he is able to use his "connections" to pull together elaborate scenarios to keep Haruhi entertained.
• Improbable Age: If Kyoko's words in Volumes 10 and 11 are anything to go by, he is the founder and the leader of the Agency. He would have been approximately twelve when he first created it.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: For both beloveds, if you believe that he secretly loves Haruhi, and he does tries to 'give' Kyon love advice. Or, he could be a Shipper on Deck for KyonxHaruhi if you don't believe the theory about his secret crush for Haruhi or his Ho Yay with Kyon.
• I Was Just Joking: At least once, after another philosophical monologue.
  • Many of his statements to Kyon end with his (nearly signature) 'Ah, sorry, that was a joke'. He stops tacking this onto his persistent hints that he has a thing for Haruhi by Disappearance.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's not exactly a jerk except insofar as he is polite to the point of being obnoxious, passive-aggressive, and occasionally callous to the cost of Haruhi's happiness, most notably in his initial apparent indifference to Mikuru's humiliation. Ultimately a loyal friend, as even Kyon comes to acknowledge.
• Mirror Character: With Kyon. Both are low-key weird and socially awkward despite attempting to appear cool and unflappable at all times, to varying degrees of success. Both tend to keep their true feelings to themselves, but genuinely care about the Brigade. They also develop a habit of "riffing" off one another on subjects from orchid species to Hegel to other randomness and have learned to communicate by body language. Still totally Vitriolic Best Buds, though.
• Mr. Exposition: A trait that he seems at least aware of enough to make fun of during the School Festival. Or he could have just been doing what he does best (Ramble on forever and confuse the audience). Worth noting that his dialogue in the class play is actually an abridgement of the source material; the simple fact that he was cast in that role Lampshades the hell out of this trope.
• Mr. Fanservice: Shirtless in Endless Eight.
• New Transfer Student: Haruhi wanted a 'mysterious transfer student.'
• No Sense of Personal Space: The source of most of his Ho Yay.
• Not So Similar: Kyon notes that Sasaki reminds him strongly of Koizumi, but Koizumi insists they are only alike on surface but actually quite different. Sasaki is a pragmatist and empiricist who is skeptical of the supernatural even after she is revealed to be a Reality Warper. Koizumi is the one character with the deepest belief in the powers of reality warpers like Haruhi and holds beliefs that are ascientific and fantastical by Asahina's standards.
• Number Two: In the Brigade rankings.
• Perpetual Smiler: He's almost constantly smiling, something which tends to get on Kyon's nerves.
• The Philosopher: Calm and wise.
• Pretty Boy:
  Kyon: Was it a guy, or a girl?
  Haruhi: Could've been disguised, but for now he looked male.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: In a sense; when we were shown him fighting the Celestials, he seemed to be the most competent esper, and if the revelation about him, as well as how he dealt with Fujiwara in combat, are anything to go by...
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Taken to near damn omnipotent level; he has so many connections that he can pretty much do anything that doesn't involve supernatural phenomena.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Sensitive Guy to Kyon's Manly Man. This gets played with; he may be Ambiguously Gay and appear to be easygoing, but he has a hidden badass side that comes out whenever any of his friends, be they ESPers or SOS Brigadiers, are threatened.
• Ship Tease: A bit of it with Kyoko Tachibana at the end of the eleventh novel.
• Smart People Play Chess: ...only he's really bad at it.
• Spot the Imposter: He notes that as he's basically a tool of Haruhi's subconscious, he can easily identify her in any situation. Unfortunately, the reason this comes up is because Kuyoh is trying to kill someone who appears to be Haruhi—and Koizumi confirms that yes, it is her.
• Teen Genius: He's involved with an organization that is more or less omnipotent in human terms. And according to Kyoko Tachibana, he's the head of it.
• Touched by Vorlons: The vorlon in this case as she gave him his powers.
• True Companions: He declares that he would choose the SOS Brigade over the Agency, effectively betraying them Heel–Face Turn style, should they turn out to be opposing to the Brigade.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Kyon. He annoys Kyon most of the time, and occasionally gets back at Kyon for Kyon's obtuseness and neglect of Haruhi in his own passive aggressive way. But Kyon spends more time with him than any other member of the brigade and grows to trust him. And, when it comes down to it, Koizumi would side with Kyon over the Organization should it ever come to that. So he says.
• Yes-Man: He agrees with basically everything Haruhi suggests.

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