Haruhi Suzumiya and the Anime Manic Pixie Dream Girl
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a slice of life classic that has helped carve out a niche within anime for a very popular media trope – the manic pixie dream girl (MPDG). The series' titular character is an exemplary case of manic pixie dream girls in anime, and is one of the archetype's definitive characters within anime and manga.
The term «manic pixie dream girl» was coined by film critic Nathan Rabin after watching Kirsten Dunst's role in the 2005 movie Elizabethtown, and it was used to describe one-dimensional female characters whose role in a story is to spice up the life of a brooding male protagonist. They often have eccentric personalities, express traditionally feminine traits and are usually the romantic interest of the protagonist.
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The MPDG as a concept was coined in response to clichéd female characters whose only purpose in a narrative is to teach the protagonist certain lessons or provide them with some kind of profound assistance in some area of their lives. Through coming to know the MPDG, the protagonist is able to self-actualize. This becomes the MPDG character's most important contribution, and it is quite often a conscious mission of the character to breathe new life into the cynical main character. While the trope is pervasive, the use of the term «manic pixie dream girl» has deviated from its original context as a result of its amorphousness, and come to be used in the description of quirky characters with complex personalities and roles within their respective narrative.
What remains is a term denounced by the person who coined it, one often used incorrectly in misogynistic «critiques» of not only a character, but of real-life
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