Truth be told, there's little about this film that isn't impressive. I'm not specifically talking about the fact about how this film is the 2nd longest animated film of all time, the flawless animation (especially for how long it is), or how excellent it is overall as a film and finale to a superb television series. As giving as little information as possible, the premise revolves around the protagonist from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", Kyon, and involves him getting in a situation where he realizes Haruhi Suzumiya, whom his life practically revolves around, suddenly disappears, and in a place where everyone knows Haruhi for her eccentricity, has never heard of her. This leaves Kyon not only puzzled, but also looking for answers to hopefully get to the bottom of the situation and have everything return to normal. This isn't really a spoiler as this synopsis is also on the back cover of the DVD and Blu-Ray cases. Anyway, the story itself is fairly straightforward for viewers and fans of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" anime though if you haven't seen said anime, I would not recommend you watch this film as it's almost like "Serenity" to "Firefly" as you would need to see the series first to understand context, characters, and various choices made throughout the film. Despite clocking in at 2 hours and 43 minutes in length (which shocked me when I first found that out) there was never a dull moment, in fact I believe the length is definitely a strong point of the film. I say this because a lot of animated films won't always take time to stop and smell the roses, or something similar, where this film has the excellent pacing of a well-known live action film such as "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", "Apocalypse Now", or "Blade Runner". There was one particular element of the film towards the end where I was a bit puzzled for a particular someone and how the logic behind them being there and how they were supposed to know about the events taking place (RA). I saw the series and the film both in the Funimation English dub, and has quite superb voice acting where I cannot imagine better English voice actors from the list of actors that are involved in Funimation's dubbing productions; and I do plan on re-watching the series and film in the Japanese audio at some point down the line. At this point in mid-2018, roughly 8 and 1/2 years after this film was released, (even though we had "The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato") the chances of another season to adapt the rest of the light novels made after "The Disappearance" seems rather slim, though perhaps this fate is better than everything being produced in the "Death Note" franchise.In the end, this is a film truly like no other, not just because of the length, the animation quality, the excellent and intriguing premise/conflict, but it's because of all these things that this film is as excellent as it is, and hopefully will sometime soon be considered a modern day animated classic.

I have been reading "The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya" manga for quite some time now. I have seen too many remixes and fan tributes to count, so you simply have to call me a fan. I was sooo glad to finally be able to see the animated version for the first time in my life. I have to admit. It wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It was a million times better! This is truly one of the most wonderful and endearing films I have ever seen in my entire life. I have seen tons of movies, so that's really saying something. This also happens to be the longest animated movie I have ever seen in my entire life.I wouldn't have had it be any shorter. If nothing else, this has shown us that animated films of any kind can be epic. Honestly, I thought this was on the same level as Miyazaki films. This is probably one of the Top 5 movies I've seen in the entire past year! I have seen so many awful movies it was such a relief to see a true masterpiece like this. The first 17 minutes are basically nothing but setting up what has already been occurring in the series. In fact, I believe Kyon himself apologizes to the audience for such a long prologue! I finally found out that the character's name is pronounced "Key-On" and not literally Kyon as I always thought.That's what I get for not watching the stuff first! Now, I really do like to think that Haruhi is in fact God. Koizumi himself says she is kind of a God but it's just a theory of his. This movie seemed to disprove the idea that she was. I mean, Kyon himself is talking about the man upstairs and people praying to him and obviously doesn't mention Haruhi. Well, it's more or less stated that Haruhi created the universe (or possibly recreated it) so that's enough of a God for me! She's a being of immense power, okay? It's also great when the characters talk about Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha and Kyon doesn't know which to pray to! I am glad to be familiar with the source material because I understood all the references that were made to the show. You have to be a fan! The gorgeous animation is what makes this so wonderful, among many other things. These characters just come across as so real to me. I love how the setting is so mundane when it's really a series about magical beings changing the Universe. I am a fan now and forever. The pacing in this film is absolutely perfect. I feel not like a second of this was wasted. It's a pity this isn't mainstream enough to appear in movie guides. It should be on the IMDb top 250! It's also the longest movie I've seen based on a TV show. It's a truly epic journey in every sense of the word.The scenes in this film are amazingly intense. Kyon could just come off a stalker in this. I love how Haruhi slowly gets her old personality back. I love the idea of another character explicitly in love with her. Well, Kyon did make out with her to save the Universe. Come on, there must be something developing from that, right? It's so intense when Kyon goes nuts over hearing where Haruhi might be. I so feel for him as he argues with himself about wanting to live in a normal world. Of course he doesn't! He even admits anyone would be crazy to admit that!It's the true devotion he shows towards Haruhi and the other characters that make this so wonderful. Asakura works great as a villain too, as the series was lacking a villain for the most part. Everything is just so beautiful with wonderful details. Kyon is perfect as a narrator. As the only non superpowered being, he is the most relatable. He even says that after all that Nagato has done (won't spoil the ending) he'll confront the alien entities to stop her from being punished. This is a wonderful and unique film in every sense of the word. ****

Grab a Snicker's folks, because this is gonna be a while.I'll never forget my first time discovering the majesty of Haruhi Suzumiya. A good friend of mine sent me a link to the dance number that ends every first season episode. I laughed and discarded it as something out of a bizarre shojo anime, which isn't usually my thing. In the Related Videos section was Haruhi's performance of God Knows. I sent it to my friend who called it his favorite scene. I was surprised to learn that not only was he a huge fan, the show actually seemed pretty interesting.Later that week we watched the first few episodes of the series together and I fell in love with its quirky, avant-garde sense of humor and oddball premise. I watched and enjoyed the rest of the series during the rest of the week and enjoyed it all (minus Endless Eight, that was a big f*** you to the fans). But the finale, The Sigh of Haruhi, left a bad taste in my mouth. It felt so anti-climactic. Not the way a series this fantastic should've ended.Lo and behold last week when I discovered that there was a film to go along with the series. The trailer sure made it look interesting. Kyon wakes up one cold morning to discover that Haruhi is gone and no one remembers her existing. Not only that but Mikuru doesn't remember him and Nagato is a human with emotions. Koizumi is nowhere to be found. Kyon decides to go on a mission to uncover the source of this disturbance and correct it. Like I said, it sounded interesting. One thing my time in the anime fandom has taught me, anime films usually aren't nearly as great as the series that spawned them. So I went into this a tad bit skeptical. I was pleasantly surprised by the film's run time; nearly 3 hours. I love long movies, but only when done right, and this movie is most definitely done right. The plot is gripping and the pacing is perfect. I was just as confused as Kyon when the film started and really felt for him every step of the way. The animation looks just like the regular episodes of the show, but in much higher quality. It was breathtaking to see the characters I love in 1080p. Admittedly, I didn't really pay that much attention to the music. I was too engrossed in what was going on to notice.The movies ends just the way the series should have. I'm not really sure if this film can be considered a finale, but it is to me. I feel like we finally have closure while still leaving things very open ended. So all in all, I loved this film. It's not very welcoming to people who are new to show, but if you already love the show, this will take it to the next level. It did for me. 10/10

As a fan of the franchise, this was a wonderful treat for me. My expectations were very high ever since the Endless Eight fiasco in Season 2 but the film did much more than just fulfill those expectations.What I really loved about this film was that it took its time, it did not rush into the situation but lovingly and subtly guide us through it. Never overblown, patient and mild, hauntingly realistic in some cases and plenty of time to express proper emotions rather than make the characters throw in goofy faces and tones.Though predictable, the story was interesting and rather amusing. The movie was based less on Kyon's Journey, but rather him finding his true thoughts and beliefs at the end of it. These sorts of movies are quite rare, many exaggerate the adventure and its moral message does not reach the audience in the right atmosphere. So bravo to this movie.Unfortunately, this movie will prove alien to anyone who is not familiar to the franchise, so any casual movie goer will find this film very difficult to follow and hollow in information and detail. Be warned. The movie does not stand alone.The movie is a masterpiece to someone if they are a fan of the franchise, a puzzle to casual watchers, a surprise to Haruhi haters and probably the best piece of anime of 2010. I am looking forward to Season 3 now more than ever.