Quoted By:
(1/5)
“I’m Haruhi Suzumiya, from East Junior High. First off, I’m not interested in ordinary people. But, if any of you are aliens, time-travelers, or espers, please come see me. That is all!”
Neon Genesis Evangelion is said to have captured the hearts of a generation of Japanese, but Japanese generations are different from American generations. The American millennials pondered over Evangelion, but the real message that spoke to them was that of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Why is Haruhi’s story so “melancholy?” Haruhi sees the world as a broken promise to her. Those who told her that life for its own sake is valuable were lying to her: she is just a single, meaningless body among the thousands cheering at the baseball stadium. The protagonist, her male friend Kyon, sees this with jaded eyes: “You can’t do anything about what doesn’t exist. In the end humans settle for what’s in front of them.” But Haruhi finds that answer unacceptable. That rejection, much more than Haruhi’s actual supernatural abilities, seems to electrify the protagonist. What is this thing that moves her? What does she know and what is she going to do about it?
This is the key to the lifeworld of American millennials. It is not that they were born into a time when life was especially difficult — although, as a simple fact of human existence, life is always difficult. It is that they reject as unacceptable the disenchanted society of “ordinary people” that was offered to them. Myths and legends whisper to them that life can be more interesting, more exciting, more lifelike than what the Establishment and System demand. There is something strange within us that demands change.
“I’m Haruhi Suzumiya, from East Junior High. First off, I’m not interested in ordinary people. But, if any of you are aliens, time-travelers, or espers, please come see me. That is all!”
Neon Genesis Evangelion is said to have captured the hearts of a generation of Japanese, but Japanese generations are different from American generations. The American millennials pondered over Evangelion, but the real message that spoke to them was that of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Why is Haruhi’s story so “melancholy?” Haruhi sees the world as a broken promise to her. Those who told her that life for its own sake is valuable were lying to her: she is just a single, meaningless body among the thousands cheering at the baseball stadium. The protagonist, her male friend Kyon, sees this with jaded eyes: “You can’t do anything about what doesn’t exist. In the end humans settle for what’s in front of them.” But Haruhi finds that answer unacceptable. That rejection, much more than Haruhi’s actual supernatural abilities, seems to electrify the protagonist. What is this thing that moves her? What does she know and what is she going to do about it?
This is the key to the lifeworld of American millennials. It is not that they were born into a time when life was especially difficult — although, as a simple fact of human existence, life is always difficult. It is that they reject as unacceptable the disenchanted society of “ordinary people” that was offered to them. Myths and legends whisper to them that life can be more interesting, more exciting, more lifelike than what the Establishment and System demand. There is something strange within us that demands change.
