While Haruhi is not going to fade into irrelevance just yet, the future of the franchise is looking rather bleak.
The much anticipated 20th anniversary of Haruhi Suzumiya franchise turned out to be a somewhat bittersweet moment. Held in a format of a livesteam — Sneaker Bunko 25th Anniversary FESTA event (Sneaker Bunko being the series publisher) brought a variety of news regarding the future of the franchise. All of them being pretty nice and welcome, but none of them being exactly what the fans were hoping for.
So, first things first, there’s not going to be any new anime series, as Sneaker Bunko clearly stated that they have absolutely zero plans for the third season of the main story or for any kind of a feature film or a spin-off. It is, of course, a rather sad news as it has been eight years since the lackluster The Disapperance of Nagato Yuki-chan, a whopping thirteen years since the masterful The Disapperance of Haruhi Suzumiya and a mind boggling seventeen years since the release of the original anime.
But thankfully Sneaker Bunko is not going to let the franchise fade into irrelevance just yet, as it had a couple of other major announcements. First of all, there will be a new light novel titled The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya, which the publisher showcased with a nice teaser visual of all the original members of the S.O.S. Brigade. As of this moment, there’s not much information available regarding the story of the upcoming novel, but the fans speculate that it is unlikely to take the overarching series’ plot in any meaningful direction and it most probably will be just some kind of a smaller scale adventure that will ultimately revert everything to the status quo.
The time window for the release of the book has also not been announced.
Another important news turned out to be a big concert event aptly named The Symphony of Haruhi Suzumiya that will be held at Kawaguchi Cultural Center's Lilia Main Hall on January 20, 2024 and with tickets being already on sale. According to Sneaker Bunko, the concert will feature a whole bunch of classical interpretations of music from the original anime with Gyouchi Yoshida serving as the Conductor during the event. The concert is also expected to be attended by Aya Hirano — the voice actress for Haruhi Suzumiya.
This news naturally left the fans (especially those not from Japan) with a rather bittersweet feeling as it’s really looking like Sneaker Bunko doesn’t have a lot to offer them. While it’s always nice to see events being held and books being announced — the fact that it is everything that publisher had in store for the franchise’s 20th anniversary does leave a sour taste in a true fan’s mouth while also raising serious questions about the franchise’s future.
While Haruhi is not going to fade into irrelevance just yet, the future of the franchise is looking rather bleak.
The much anticipated 20th anniversary of Haruhi Suzumiya franchise turned out to be a somewhat bittersweet moment. Held in a format of a livesteam — Sneaker Bunko 25th Anniversary FESTA event (Sneaker Bunko being the series publisher) brought a variety of news regarding the future of the franchise. All of them being pretty nice and welcome, but none of them being exactly what the fans were hoping for.
So, first things first, there’s not going to be any new anime series, as Sneaker Bunko clearly stated that they have absolutely zero plans for the third season of the main story or for any kind of a feature film or a spin-off. It is, of course, a rather sad news as it has been eight years since the lackluster The Disapperance of Nagato Yuki-chan, a whopping thirteen years since the masterful The Disapperance of Haruhi Suzumiya and a mind boggling seventeen years since the release of the original anime.
But thankfully Sneaker Bunko is not going to let the franchise fade into irrelevance just yet, as it had a couple of other major announcements. First of all, there will be a new light novel titled The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya, which the publisher showcased with a nice teaser visual of all the original members of the S.O.S. Brigade. As of this moment, there’s not much information available regarding the story of the upcoming novel, but the fans speculate that it is unlikely to take the overarching series’ plot in any meaningful direction and it most probably will be just some kind of a smaller scale adventure that will ultimately revert everything to the status quo.
The time window for the release of the book has also not been announced.
Another important news turned out to be a big concert event aptly named The Symphony of Haruhi Suzumiya that will be held at Kawaguchi Cultural Center's Lilia Main Hall on January 20, 2024 and with tickets being already on sale. According to Sneaker Bunko, the concert will feature a whole bunch of classical interpretations of music from the original anime with Gyouchi Yoshida serving as the Conductor during the event. The concert is also expected to be attended by Aya Hirano — the voice actress for Haruhi Suzumiya.
This news naturally left the fans (especially those not from Japan) with a rather bittersweet feeling as it’s really looking like Sneaker Bunko doesn’t have a lot to offer them. While it’s always nice to see events being held and books being announced — the fact that it is everything that publisher had in store for the franchise’s 20th anniversary does leave a sour taste in a true fan’s mouth while also raising serious questions about the franchise’s future.
