Haruhi Suzumiya / Tropes F to I

Tropes A to E | Tropes F to I | Tropes J to N | Tropes O to S | Tropes T to Z |

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Haruhi Suzumiya provides examples of the following tropes:

• Facepalm: After Picard, Kyon is the best known Facepalmer on the Internets.
  • Near the end of the Disappearance movie, after Kyon wakes up in the hospital, the first thing he says to Haruhi when she sees he's awake is, "Hey." Itsuki laughs and facepalms as soon as he says that.
• Faint in Shock: During the island getaway episode, the shy time-travelling Mikuru faints promptly upon seeing the stabbed body of the mansion owner, and stays out of the action for a while under Yuki's supervision, providing Haruhi and Kyon an excuse to go exploring alone together.
• Fake Band: ENOZ, whose name is a homage to the real band ZONE.
• Fake Mystery: The murder of Keiichi in the "Remote Island Syndrome" arc is revealed to have been staged by Itsuki and the murder "victim" to let Haruhi play detective, which she wanted.
• Fake Video Camera View: In The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru
• Falling-in-Love Montage: Parodied without mercy in "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina."
• False Camera Effects: 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.
• Fanservice: Special mention to episode three of season two. It's essentially a repeat of episode two by nature of being part of a "Groundhog Day" Loop, but has gratuitous amounts of fanservice for both guys and girls. Specific focus given to Itsuki's and Kyon's bodies during shirtless scenes 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-ness and the girls' moe-ness (and the entire episode seems to intentionally defy anyone to resist hugging Yuki). To cap it all, there's some Ship Tease all around for Kyon/<SOS member here>. (Kyon has reactions to each of the girls' aforementioned Moe facial expressions, and even Itsuki arguably has his bit of ship tease). The episode just screams "intentional gratuitous fanservice". In episode six of season two (during the same time loop arc), Itsuki's swim trunks are even swapped with a black Speedo.
• Feel No Pain:
  • Yuki. Grapples with a combat knife by its blade. Intercepts lasers with her palm. Takes several steel spikes through the chest. Impaled with steel spikes the width of a ship's mast and lifted off her feet. Only the latter is enough to make her fall over — and even then, it's from exertion, not pain.
  • Then, of course, it gets horrifically subverted in Disappearance — Yuki has made herself fully human to finally be with Kyon. Now that she's human, though, she can feel pain and has a natural terror of it... meaning she can't rush to his rescue when Ryoko shows up for round two, as her old crazy stunting would only get her killed in agonizing minutes as a human. It doesn't help that she can't even remember her old stunts due to the way she rewrote the world and herself. This can lead to a little confusion when it looks like she grabs the knife anyway, but later on in the novels we learn a bit more about the rest of the incident and it turns out the actual trope is still in full force.
• Female Gaze: Exactly how Tsuruya sizes up Kyon when they meet in The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya.
• Festival Episode: Part of "Endless Eight".
• Fetish:
  • Kyon admits to Haruhi that he has a 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 in her uniform especially comforting, but not because he has a sailor uniform fetish.
• Figure It Out Yourself: Both Mikuru Asahina (big) and Yuki Nagato give Kyon very incomplete information about how to ... save the world from Haruhi. Kyon puts both clues together at nearly the last minute to do just so. Justified to some extent because both Mikuru and Yuki are constrained by rules. It's actually pretty obvious. Kyon is just selectively oblivious as long as possible.
• 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 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.
  • Although overshadowed by "Endless Eight", the first season episode "Someday in the Rain" had 3 minutes and 23 seconds of continuous filler, with irrelevant chatter going off in the background while Yuki reads, occasionally turning the page. It was interrupted for a couple seconds with a scene of Kyon riding the train.
• First Kiss: The climax of season one.
• First-Name Basis:
  • 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". Neither does Itsuki.
  • Also 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.
  • End of the Disappearance movie (not the novel): "I'm sorry, Nagato...Yuki." However, it's unclear if he was using her name or simply pointing out the fact that it had started snowing (or both).
• First-Person Smartass: Kyon, in an combination of his Deadpan Snarker and Narrator roles.
• First Time Feeling: In Disappearance, Kyon discovers that Yuki set the whole plot in motion by developing emotions and, unable to deal with them, stole Haruhi's powers and remade the world.
• Five-Man Band: 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 the leader, Yuki is The Smart Guy, Itsuki is The Lancer, Kyon The Big Guy, and Mikuru is obviously The Heart. But for Kyon, Yuki is The Big Guy (and to an extent, his Lancer) and Itsuki is The Smart Guy. So Haruhi would probably be Kyon's Lancer or vice versa. (Guess who he calls first when something happens....) He calls Haruhi when a the time-shifted version of Mikuru(Michuru) gets kidnapped. Luckily she thinks it's a joke.
• Five-Man Band Concert:
  • In one of the drama CDs, Haruhi assigns the S.O.S. Brigade rock instruments, although the gang doesn't know how to play them.
  • The five main characters appear dressed as rock stars on the cover art of one of the Image Song CDs and on a poster◊ for the Haruhi Suzumiya concert.
  • Downplayed in the episode "Live Alive", as it's only Haruhi (The Leader) and Yuki (The Smart Girl) who go on stage as stand-in musicians for the Cultural Festival. They both play the guitar and are in costumes (respectively, Playboy Bunny and Wicked Witch). Haruhi is the vocalist as well, and because of the double role, she needs a musical score during the presentation. They perform "God Knows" and "Lost My Music".
• 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.
• Flash Step: Done by Yuki twice to stop Mikuru's eye beams.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Episode 00 has everyone in more or less role they play in the series, Kyon's the Narrator, Yuki's an Alien, Mikuru's a time traveller and Haruhi's the Director so everyone has to bow to her wishes.
  • Kyon makes an offhand comment in Novel 11 that Itsuki is the last member of the brigade you would want to see angry. And who should be the one to explode (literally) at Fujiwara in the climax?
  • In one early episode (chronologically, not the broadcast order) Yuki mentions that Haruhi would never believe Kyon if he told her about Yuki being an alien. This is exactly what happens when he finally does decide to tell her at the end of the series
  • In the third novel/first series story "Remote Island Syndrome," Haruhi notes that it's better to go to an island in the summer, because you can't get caught in a blizzard unless it's the winter, with Kyon even noting that isn't something to hope for. Sure enough, in the fifth novel, they visit the mountains in winter and get caught in a blizzard.
  • The anime has a subtle one in "The Day of Sagittarius." As the Brigade members walk home together after accepting the Computer Club's challenge, Haruhi confidently tells Mikuru that her skills will put Admiral Nelson to shame. At Trafalgar, Nelson led the first attack wave personally and went straight after the enemy flagship, which is exactly what Haruhi's strategy for playing the game later turns out to be. The dub changes it from Nelson to Admiral Halsey, but since Halsey's strategy for carrier-based combat was, "Find the enemy as fast as you can and hit him with everything you have," the foreshadowing of Haruhi's playing style still fits perfectly.
  • Early in the fourth novel, Kyon's narration speculates that Yuki is possibly the only reason he's alive and remembering everything as he's trying to find her. Which is more or less true, but not in the way he expects.
• For Science!: Studying Haruhi? Okay. Killing one of your classmates to see how she'll react? Ooookay...
• Forgot the Call: There are scenes that indicate that Haruhi is up against a mental block as opposed to just being totally clueless. Note how something stops her in midstream here: "I'm the brigade chief and director and ... Anyway, I won't allow you to go against me!"
• Fortune Teller: Yuki in "Live Alive". However, as Kyon points out, she doesn't understand the difference between telling somebody their fortune and predicting their future; for example, she tells someone that he'll drop his ice cream in ten point three minutes.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: All in Haruhi combined! It's... totally awesome.
• Fourth Wall Psych: In The Movie when Kyon asks a question to "the world".
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the first part of the two-episode island mystery arc, there's a shot of the sunset, and then a wave passing over the beach. Pause in the two or three frames before the wave crosses the screen, and you'll see a bizarre sketch in the sand of... something. Haruhi? A caveman? Itsuki in a bikini?
• Friendly Scheming: The murder mystery from the "Remote Island Syndrome" episode was staged.
• Frothy Mugs of Water:
  • Underage drinking is a big no-no to the Japanese (or at least depictions of it are). In the Sigh novel, Mikuru was slipped tequila; the anime changed this to amazake, which is seen as alright to give infants, which makes Mikuru seem much, much worse at holding her liquor (not that she wasn't already bad in the original). In a rare inversion, the English Dub actually changes it to sake.
  • In Boredom the ''Remote Island Syndrome" segment has the entire cast get very drunk twice (with the possible exception of Yuki). The anime adaptation cuts this out entirely and drags Kyon's little sister along just to make sure everyone stays on their (relative) best behavior.
• Funny Background Event:
  • While Haruhi is talking about how she doesn't see the point in love, there is a brief cut to a random scene outside where a male student helps out a female student with something, and it's all very flirty. Later in the episode, there's another brief cut to where the female student shoves the male student to the ground and runs away.
  • Multiple in "Live Alive":
    • Two TV personalities "Hard Gay" and Akihiro Miwa grab Kyon as he's walking through the halls.
    • When Kyon is leaving the building at the festival, there's a mom getting a balloon for her kid. The kid protests, and the mother threatens to leave the kid behind.
    • When Kyon goes into the hall so he can doze through a concert (having just been up all night editing the brigade's movie), someone else appears to have already fallen asleep a few rows in front of him.
• Fun Size:
  • Tsuruya-san's fan interpretation, Churuya-san.
  • Now Haruhi-chan as well.
  • Achakura, Ryoko's (still psychotic) but barely two-feet-tall incarnation from Haruhi-chan, is notable in that she's tiny compared to the rest of the heavily chibified cast.
• Fun with Acronyms: SOS Brigade stands for Sekai wo Ooi ni Moriageru tame no Suzumiya Haruhi no Dan, or Haruhi Suzumiya's gang whose purpose is to greatly enliven the world. To maintain the joke, the fansubbers and the official manga and light novel, gave this as Save the World By Overloading It With Fun — Haruhi Suzumiya's Brigade, while the official dub translated it as Spreading Excitement All Over the World with Haruhi Suzumiya's Brigade.
• Future Imperfect: Mikuru sometimes does this. For example, she comments on Itsuki's telescope being "not very different from Kepler's." This particular example could actually make sense, who knows how future telescopes work? In Asashina's time they might use non-optical telescopes, or more conventional telescopes built into contact lenses, or even simply direct the visual input into their minds. From this point of view, there is little difference between two cylindrical telescopes with glasses, and only half a millennium's development between them.
• Gainax Ending: The final chapter of Surprise is the most confusing one yet.

• Genki Girl: Haruhi, as well as minor character Tsuruya.
• Genre-Busting: This comedy show steals aspects from high school slice of life shows, fantasy, and sci-fi settings by having several of its core cast members be supernatural entities attending a high school.
• Genre Savvy: Haruhi insists on seeing Genre Tropes 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.
• Girlish Pigtails: One of Haruhi's haircuts. Also, Mikuru in her waitress outfit.
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: Ryoko Asakura.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Sometimes played straight but also used to reference Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Or just outright parody Phoenix Wright, down to the dramatic speed lines.
• A Glass of Chianti: The Computer Club President during the Deep-Immersion Gaming. Also Haruhi in the manga, when describing the importance of moe. A glass of grape juice, that is.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: Yuki Nagato, of course.
• The Glomp: Mikuru does this to Kyon after the Melancholy finale. She then immediately lets go because she doesn't want it to happen again..
• God: Or something similar...
• A God Am I: Subverted and/or reversed: the character with godlike powers, Haruhi, has no idea she has them. Her delusions of grandeur are just that.
• Godly Sidestep: Kyon asks Yuki, after treating with beings that are effectively ghosts of alien lifeforms, what happens after humans die. Her answer? Classified information.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Nakagawa in "Love at First Sight", who senses the Integrated Data Sentient Entity through Yuki; the sensory overload causes him mental illness and obsession with Yuki.
• Good All Along: Sasaki.
• Good Versus Good: It is stated that the Organization, Itsuki's faction, and the time travelers, Mikuru's faction, are fiercely against each other. However, both sides are out to maintain the status quo, and protect the titular character. Meanwhile, Yuki's faction are formless data entities, with their own inner power struggles and wars. On the whole, they prefer to maintain the status quo by not interfering except to maintain the masquerade, while trying to learn how Haruhi's powers work. As for the three agents, they have stated that should their factions go to war, they will stand by the SOS Brigade, breaking ties if they have to.
• Gratuitous English:
  • This trope is mostly invoked by Itsuki. Probably the most ridiculous is his line in "Endless Eight": "Perhaps grab her from behind, and whisper 'AI LAAV YOU' into her ear."
  • Kyon tends to speak English a lot too, mostly in "Endless Eight" - highlights are exclaiming "Excellent!" upon seeing Mikuru in a yukata, and his hilarious outburst of "Three days!?" when Haruhi tells him how long it took her to finish her summer homework.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: "Endless Eight", in which the SOS Brigade gets stuck repeating the same two weeks of summer vacation 15,532 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.
• Groundhog Peggy Sue: See above. An interesting variation in that only one character is aware of the situation, and she is unable to take action herself.
• Hands-Off Parenting: 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 agents has something to do with their surprising amount of free time. Even Ordinary High-School Student Kyon is at home with his sister, but his parents are never seen. Both Kyon and Haruhi's parents are present (Kyon's sister often acts a a go-between for him and his mother-fetching him for meals, waking him up, etc-and is once even heard complaining to her one time when he kicks her out of his room), they're just unseen. Haruhi's mother is mentioned very briefly in the beginning of Surprise, where she's explained to be a Lethal Chef.
• Have We Met?: Haruhi casually asks Kyon this in their first conversation. She has in fact met him before, but Kyon hasn't; he will meet her three years ago a couple of months later. So it's really a case of Have We Met Yet?. There's a similar time-travel paradox in the first meetings of Kyon and Mikuru: Kyon and (future) Mikuru, as the latter tells the former something she thought he already knew. Hilarity ensues.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Kyon launches into a paragraph-long example in Disturbance to dispel some of the Ho Yay that had been accumulating.
• Head Desk: Kyon can be seen doing this in the opening theme song, Bouken Desho Desho, cementing his Only Sane Man role in the SOS Brigade.

• Heel–Face Return: Ryoko in the tenth novel.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • In the tenth novel, Ryoko, who comes to defend Kyon from Kuyo rather than kill him. At least, she's definitely more willing to listen to her superiors.
  • In the following novel, Kyouko also has one, being the only member of the "Anti-Brigade" to turn good (Sasaki, who was Good All Along, not withstanding.)
  • Haruhi has one in Sigh after Kyon makes her realize that what she had done to Mikuru is a potential Moral Event Horizon on her part. Said MEH thus becomes either a subversion or an inversion.
• Heel Realization:
  • Arguably Haruhi in Sigh when Kyon calls her on her treatment of Mikuru. After that incident, she is much more consistent in her Pet the Dog moments and less consistent in her Kick the Dog moments.
  • Kyon has one in Disappearance where he realizes that his inaction and over-reliance on Yuki is part of what led to her hijacking Haruhi's powers and re-writing the world.
  • Kyouko also has one accomponied by a brief Villainous BSoD.
• Heroic BSoD: Kyon is positively distraught in Disappearance when he finds no one remembers Haruhi or the SOS Club, to the point of shouting at and shaking people visibly frightened by his outburst.
• Heroic RRoD: The beginning of Book 10 reveals that Yuki's "flu" is a result of the Data Overmind using her in an attempt to contact/understand the utterly alien Canopy Domain. This weakens Yuki so much that she can barely communicate. More than usual, that is.
• High-School Hustler: Haruhi has gotten away with hijacking the literature clubroom, blackmailing the Computer Club President into giving a computer away for free by having him grope Mikuru, dressing as bunnies, submitting her film to the culture festival with the applications already closed...
• Hijacking Cthulhu: There was a story arc where someone stole Haruhi's powers.
• Homage: One scene plays out as a blatant Shout-Out to the Ace Attorney series, complete with all the epic finger pointing, speed lines, and character sprite animations. This video demonstrates.(WARNING: SPOILERS)
• Hostile Show Takeover: The entire plot of Disappearance. 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 Put on a Bus and Mikuru gets shipped with Tsuruya so Kyon can't get close. Got its own spin-off manga! Of course, once Kyon finds Haruhi and gets her going, she immediately sets out taking the show back for herself. Even in the official Alternate Universe manga, she seems poised to steal the spotlight...
• How We Got Here:
  • The written Remote Island Sydrome opens discovering Keichi's body, then flashes back to explain how events transpired.
  • The movie.
• Human Aliens: The Interfaces...whatever they actually are.
• Humanoid Abomination: All the Data Interfaces except Yuki, according to Kyon. Haruhi herself might be this...
• Humans Are Special: Humans apparently are the only organic lifeform that can actively seek knowledge and continuously advance themselves.
• He's Back!: In Disappearance, after telling Haruhi about the club, she gathers them back in the club room to start the club again.
• I Am Who?: Haruhi Suzumiya. Kyon also occasionally discusses or invokes this trope when thinking about his own role.
• I Choose to Stay: In The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyon is given the opportunity to leave the SOS Brigade and Haruhi's fantastic world of aliens, time travelers, and espers, both of which he's complained about for the entirety of the series up to this point, behind him, and start a new life. The offer comes complete with new friends to make and even a potential love interest, but in one of the most moving inner monologues in the series, he decides that he can't leave that world behind, even going so far as to say he'd have to be an idiot to walk away from it all.
• Identical Grandson: In the manga, Kyon looks just like his grandfather.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every book, video game, and full-length album is entitled "Suzumiya Haruhi no ___", or "The ___ of Haruhi Suzumiya".
• Idiot Hair: Taniguchi.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Disappearance!Asakura to Kyon regarding Yuki. See the extra note under This Is Unforgivable.
• I Just Want to Be Normal/I Just Want to Be Special: The series plays with these tropes in a pretty elaborate manner.
  • Kyon spent his childhood dreaming about having supernatural powers or hanging out with people who did, but he says that he got over it and now he just wants to be normal. This is subverted in Disappearance: when push comes to shove, Kyon decides against an ordinary life, and admits that he is excited to hang out with an alien, time traveler, esper and Haruhi. So Kyon is really I Just Want to be Special posing as I Just Want to be Normal.
  • Haruhi lived a happy childhood until she discovered that her life was ordinary, and then decided that she would become an extraordinary person]], or find extraordinary beings like aliens, time travelers, espers or sliders. She creates the SOS Brigade with that latter purpose. Subverted, however, because it turns out that what she most enjoys is hanging out with her fellow brigade members and doing ordinary high school activities together, like playing baseball, doing summer activities or helping them do their summer homework. So Haruhi is really I Just Want to be Normal posing as I Just Want to be Special.
  • Kyon and Haruhi are foils to each other when it comes to these tropes. But the remarkable thing is that they show subverts the direction of the foil; Kyon's actually the one with I Just Want to be Special, and Haruhi the one with I Just Want to be Normal.
  • Yuki is a pretty straightforward case of I Just Want to be Normal.
• Image Song: The amount of additional music done for the show is staggering, rivaling Negima! Magister Negi Magi. 16 character albums, 4 soundtracks, 3 drama CDs, 8 combination soundtrack and drama CDs that shipped with one of the DVD versions, a live concert, and an orchestral concert.
  • 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.
• Important Haircut:
  • Haruhi cuts her hair after meeting Kyon, about the same time she changes from being antisocial to being outgoing and happy. Before that, she changed her hair based on the day of the week, with a full-blown explanation as to why. It's implied she did this to get Kyon to comment on it.
  • Haruhi can sometimes be seen holding her hair in a ponytail after Kyon claims to have a thing for girls with ponytails in a "dream," with the most obvious example being that she has her hair in a ponytail the very next day after said "dream." In fact, at one point, when deciding on whether or not to put Mikuru's hair in a ponytail, Haruhi looks at Kyon and immediately drops the idea out of jealousy. She does it again the day after Kyon blows up at her over her mistreatment of Mikuru during the shooting of their movie.
• Improbable Age: Itsuki may or may not actually be the one in charge of his Organization.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Tsuruya says this about Mikuru in Sigh. Then they actually go to Tsuruya's house to do a scene.
• Incest Subtext: Though Kyon is most definitely not attracted to his sister, he is attracted to Mikuru, and at least six times, he pointed out how similar she is to his sister, causing an inverted example of the trope. He also sees simularities between Haruhi and his sister as detectives.
• Inconsistent Dub: An incredibly minor example, but when watching seasons 1 and 2 together in chronological order, you may notice that while the season 2 episode "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" uses the term "Tanabata", the season 1 episode "Mysterique Sign" that comes directly after makes references to the "Star Festival" instead.
• Indecisive Medium: The Anime went out of its way not to show Kyon's mouth during his monologues, to keep the uncertainity from the novels, where you could never tell if he was saying something out loud, or just thinking.
• Indirect Kiss:
  • 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. Subtextual meanings runs rampant among fans.
  • A straight example at the end of the last episode of Sigh, when they flashback to when Kyon talked to Haruhi at the cafe in May - Haruhi finishes Kyon's drink shortly before storming out.
  • A better example in book 6 (with free bonus trope). Mikuru places her finger on Kyon's lips and then her own, in order to get him to stop talking.
• 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.
  • Itsuki in particular loves these, and seems to take pleasure in cornering Kyon for a few pages' worth of exposition.
• Inner Monologue: Loves to edge on Did I Just Say That Out Loud?.
• Insignificant Little Blue Planet: In Surprise, Kyon demands that the aliens take their fights to the fringes of the galaxy. Kuyoh replies that they have.
• Instant-Win Condition: In the Computer Club's game, "Day of Sagittarius 3", victory is automatically achieved by destroying the enemy's commanding fleet: Haruhi's fleet for The SOS Empire, and the Computer Club President's for The Computer Group Federation.
• Intra-Scholastic Rivalry: There is a great deal of antipathy between the Computer Club and the SOS Brigade, particularly since Haruhi essentially stole a computer from them by falsely accusing the Computer Club President of molesting Mikuru (with staged pictures to boot). Later the Computer Club tries to retrieve their computer by challenging the SOS Brigade to a computer game. The Computer Club is cheating, and when Kyon learns this, he gives Yuki full permission to backhack them and turn the tables on them.
• Invisible Parents: There are some parental figures, like the various adults in the island episode, but none of the characters' actual parents are ever seen. Yuki, of course, has no parents (in the human sense anyway) and Mikuru's probably haven't been born yet, but Haruhi and Kyon are implied to have parents...who never show up, (Kyon's mother is never directly seen or heard, but often referenced, and his dad is mentioned once) and never seem to say or do anything that affects the plot.
• Invoked Trope: Woobie, absurdly powerful student council and a few others.
• It's a Wonderful Plot: Created by Yuki in ''Disappearance''. Subverted in that the point wasn't to teach Kyon anything, she merely acknowledged the possibility that she could be wrong. She even went so far as to give everyone who could tell him what happened the flu.
• It Amused Me: Arguably the reason Haruhi does anything.

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