Kyon
From SOS団 Wiki
Kyon (キョン, Kyon?) is one of the main characters in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu). He is the narrator for both the novel and the anime.
Voiced by Sugita Tomokazu (Japanese) and Crispin Freeman (English), Kyon is one of Haruhi's male companions. He is described as cynical and sarcastic, and is the sole voice of reason in their dynamic relationship. He is the only normal human in the SOS-dan.
The name Kyon is actually his nickname; his aunt gave him his nickname, and his sister is responsible for it being used by his schoolmates. His real name remains unknown.
Although the title of the series implies Haruhi Suzumiya is the main character, the story is actually told from Kyon's point of view. This has an interesting side effect, occasionally when he speaks his mouth is hidden, disguising this as narration and only revealed to be dialogue when somebody answers.
Contents |
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Relationships
| Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. |
[edit] Haruhi
Kyon and Haruhi seem to have met by chance. He, like the rest of his class, was curious about Haruhi when she made her introduction. But because his seat was in front of hers, he felt compelled to at least try to get to know her better. He becomes famous for being the only person able to talk to her, and (due to his own response to a complaint) the first member of the SOS Brigade when she starts it. Kyon is forced to perform most of the Brigade's administrative activities, from taking pictures, to creating a web page, to walking through the rain for a small space heater for the clubroom. He is the only "normal" human Haruhi really regards as a person. As of consequence, they both seem to share an invisible bond of great trust. Kyon doesn't notice it, but Itsuki takes much regards to point it out from time to time. He even mentions once that Kyon is probably a very important person to Haruhi; hinted (and sometimes blaringly obvious such as Asakura wanting to kill him to get a reaction out of Haruhi) throughout the series e.g. Episode 9 of anime.
It is of note that all three supernatural beings state that Kyon was chosen by Haruhi as a kind of key to her powers. Also, Kyon was the only one from the old world chosen by Haruhi to go into Haruhi's ideal world.
[edit] Mikuru
Kyon tries to protect Mikuru from Haruhi's (embarrassing) plots involving her, but he usually fails. Haruhi often begins to "help" Mikuru change into a new outfit while Kyon is still present, forcing him to retreat outside the clubroom. Mikuru was the second to share her identity - or whatever parts she could without breaking into classified information - with Kyon.
It is expected that Kyon will have a deeper relationship of some kind with her in the future, as in the episode The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi IV, the future Mikuru warns Kyon not to get too close to her, which foreshadows a potential relationship between the two of them or as some theorize, that there will be no happy ending if the two do share a relationship. Another happens to be that since Kyon has this information, there are some who wonder if he will heed it and not choose to become intimately close with Mikuru. On that topic, some believe that Mikuru's warning was because if Kyon did get close to her, who knows what Haruhi might've done to the world. Kyon learns of a star-shaped mole on Mikuru's breast from an adult Mikuru from the future, which he in turn tells the younger Mikuru about.
[edit] Yuki
Kyon first met Yuki when Haruhi declared the literary club room - Yuki being the last remaining member of that club - as the new SOS Brigade room. Aside from that, Yuki interacts with others, including Kyon, minimally, either to convey something she feels is extremely important or to cast an opinion on a situation. She opens up to Kyon, and actually has conversations with him, something she does not do with the other group members. Additionally, Kyon seems to focus some extra attention on her, as noting whenever she is doing something strange (not playing with the others on the beach), but this may simply be part of his role as the narrator. He is also the one who helps Yuki make the decision to take part in some of the Computer Society's work, giving her more emotional flexibility. She asks Kyon to come meet her late one night, at which time she leads him to her apartment and reveals her secret: she is an organic life-form created by the Data Integration Thought Entity, sent to figure out what's going on with Haruhi and the massive influx of data related to her. After Kyon notes she looks considerably cuter without her glasses after they are destroyed when Asakura made an attempt on Kyon's life but Yuki intervened and saved him, she chooses not to reconstruct them, and goes the rest of the series without them.
[edit] John Smith
John Smith (ジョン・スミス, Jon Sumisu?) is an alias that Kyon uses when asked for his name by a younger Haruhi when he visits Tanabata three years ago in the short story Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody.
The moniker is used again The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya. During the week of December 17th, Kyon realizes that the world is entirely normal, in the sense as if Haruhi had never existed in the first place. Haruhi and the entire class of 1-9, including Koizumi Itsuki have disappeared and Asakura Ryoko now sits behind him. Nagato Yuki, Asahina Mikuru, and Tsuruya have become complete strangers. After locating the whereabouts of Suzumiya Haruhi, he identifies himself as John Smith to gain her trust - everyone's memories regarding the previous year have been modified, and thus, the name that he used on a whim from three years ago turns out to be a critical factor.
As the Data Integration Thought Entity deliberates on the punishment of Nagato Yuki for her rogue actions at the end of the novel, the name comes up once more. He reminds the Entity, should anything happen to her, that he has the ability to trigger Haruhi's powers with the simple sentence "I am John Smith", and, potentially, create a universe without the Entity.
He has considered playing this card on other occasions besides the end of volume four - in Snowy Mountain Syndrome, for instance. However, due to the unpredictable nature of Haruhi's powers, he feels that this should be used as a last resort, when he has no support from anyone else, as in the events of Vanishment.
The alias could possibly hint that Kyon is American, British or Canadian. It could also be a reference to Doctor Who, in which the Doctor would say his name is John Smith in order to fit in with the humans.
| Spoilers end here. |
