History YMMV / HaruhiSuzumiya

* PresumedFlop: Many assume that the backlash towards the infamous Endless Eight arc caused the anime's second season to be a commercial flop, to the point that Endless Eight is sometimes held responsible for [[FranchiseKiller killing the franchise]]. However, the second season's DVD sales say otherwise, as while it didn't sell quite as well as the first season did, even [=DVDs=] containing the Endless Eight episodes didn't sell significantly worse than the rest of the series. The franchise's decline in popularity has more to do with other factors, such as the original light novels going through a lengthy ScheduleSlip (and thus a lack of new material to adapt).

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** The series as a whole has fallen into this, despite its explosive popularity during the late 2000s. While it initially drew in a lot of fans due to its GenreBusting of various anime genres and character archetypes, its plot and jokes have been [[FollowTheLeader copied by many other series to cash in on its success]], along with the WolverinePublicity of Haruhi herself. Nowadays, most newcomers look back on the series and are unable to understand what made it so special, especially after the sharp decline in its popularity following [[ArcFatigue how the anime handled the infamous Endless Eight Arc]].
** Main viewpoint character Kyon is also an example on his own; he essentially [[TropeCodifier codified]] the StockLightNovelEveryman and his [[DeadpanSnarker sarcastic, self-aware personality]] and [[LemonyNarrator narration]] were considered witty and refreshing when the series first became popular, but after years of very similar protagonists in other light novel series his character doesn't seem particularly groundbreaking.

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWB01IuMvzA "God Knows" music video]] is something of a sacred place for Japanese fans. Everyday, they comment "Oharuhi" (a portmanteau of Haruhi and ohayo, good morning) and "Oyasumikuru" (a portmanteau of Mikuru and oyasumi, good night) on the video.

* WinBackTheCrowd: Though planned before the [[BrokenBase base-breaking]] "Endless Eight" and character re-visualization in the anime, both producers and fans hoped the ''Disappearance'' movie would be this. Whether it succeeded or not is up to debate; while it did very well both financially and critically, it still didn't save the franchise from [[FranchiseKiller ultimately dying out]].
* TheWoobie:

** Tsuruya, aka Churuya, nyoro~n! [[labelnote:Explanation]]Tsuruya was taken by a Japanese {{Webcomic}} artist and made into a SuperDeformed Ditz named Churuya, with a line she said once in the anime made into her CatchPhrase, and an affinity for smoked cheese. Spawned countless imitations involving characters from ''Haruhi'' or other anime - and is now more emblematic of ''Haruhi'' than anything that actually appeared in the show.[[/labelnote]]

* EvilIsSexy: Haruhi, at the beginning. Evil in that she is willing to blackmail a computer club president through false incrimination. Sexy when it comes to her appearance AND her GenkiGirl personality.
%%** Ryoko Asakura and every member of the "Anti-SOS Brigade".

* AdaptationDisplacement: Thanks to the explosive popularity of the anime, most people don't know that it's based on a series of light novels. There are also some fans who, upon discovering the novels, immediately think that the books are adapted from the anime and manga material, as opposed to the other way around.

** Likewise, you'll see a lot of people [[FranchiseKiller blaming Endless Eight for the decline in popularity the franchise suffered]] in the 2010s. The truth is that people stopped talking about ''Haruhi'' because there simply wasn't anything new coming out; Kyoto Animation stopped producing the anime after the ''Disappearance'' movie as part of a pivot away from adapting outside works in favour of creating original ones in-house, while the light novels went through a nine-year SequelGap between ''Surprise'' in 2011 and ''Intuition'' in 2020. Endless Eight certainly didn't help matters, but it was far from the biggest culprit.

%%* WidgetSeries: The widgetiest.

** WA-WA-WA-Wasuremono... [[labelnote:Explanation]]Taniguchi sings this line as he walks in on a NotWhatItLooksLike moment with Kyon and Nagato. Quickly became an AscendedMeme as Taniguchi's voice actor, Creator/MinoruShiraishi, references it where ever he can, from his role in ''Anime/LuckyStar'', to even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCTBLIJwllc reenacting the scene when announcing the ''Haruhi'' live concert!]][[/labelnote]]

* BrokenBase: ''[[GroundhogDayLoop Endless Eight]]''. To summarize each side's arguments: those for "Endless Eight" argue that the episodes are distinct because each is animated from scratch, and call it an incredibly effective illustration -- if going through the loop eight times is grating on ''your'' nerves, imagine how ''[[spoiler:Yuki]]'' feels). Those against "Endless Eight" call it meaningless {{filler}} with virtually-identical scripts that wasted almost an entire season on what was a single, brief story in the novels. Another criticism leveled at it was that, although Yuki outlined the minor variations of the countless loops, we never got to ''see'' most of them, making it even more boring than the plot itself needed it to be. And then, there are those who think that it ''was'' a waste of animation, but the fan meltdown was more hilarious than anything Creator/KyoAni could have animated, so it was worth it after all.

* {{Jerkass Woobie}}: Haruhi. She does some rather vile things throughout the series and treats others like crap, due to being a {{Broken Bird}} out of touch with the world. She learned as a child that she was nothing special in the grand scheme of things, which in turn made it so that she will do almost anything for an extraordinary life.

* {{Jerkass Woobie}}: Haruhi. She does some rather vile things throughout the series and is treats others like crap, but mostly due to her being a {{Broken Bird}} out of touch with the world. She learned as a child that she was nothing special in the grand scheme of things, which in turn made it so that she will do almost anything for an extraordinary life.

** Tsuruya, aka Churuya, nyoro~n!

** WA-WA-WA-Wasuremono...
** And the GenderFlip version, which has become so popular that it has even spawned ''doujinshi'' aside of fanarts and cosplay.