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Absolute Duo was my second-favorite anime this winter. However, I recognize its flaws.

Story: 3
The story and characters were the shallowest I'd seen since Sword Art Online, but the series had some redeeming qualities. The story was simply too generic: A school dedicated to magic ended up being attacked for some reason. Worse, the characters were too idiotic to even question the term "Absolute Duo" mentioned by the headmaster, and then their cup sizes ranging from "A" to "F" were used as fanservice devices for the entirety of episode 8. As if that weren't enough, the series was a harem for five whole episodes. The good ... in the story, however, is that after it is ruined by the fanservice, it redeems itself by creating an interesting villain similar to the protagonist in one way, and then finishing it off with good action scenes. What it needed most was an explanation of the protagonist's backstory. At least its open ending made room for a potential second season.

Characters: 3
Each character had potential, but none developed. Worse was the fact that they were "harem" archetypes. Luckily, they were put in a good setting for their characteristics. To see harem characters in a magical school is like sticking a piece of chocolate in curry.
Tor - bland main character, but a nice guy.
Julie - really quiet and kinda cold, but a great partner.
Lilith - my favorite alongside their teacher; badass and assertive.
Miyabi - large-breasted harem crush, but brave enough to confess it.
Tachibana - shallow, but a great friend.
Tora - extremely shallow.
Tatsu - shallowest character I've ever seen in an anime.
Tsukimi-sensei - The most interesting of the bunch, but really just boobs and a split personality.

Art: 8
In several scenes, the CG was well-placed, and in the entire series, the art was good, but the animation and characters could have been more interesting, as they seemed just as generic as their personalities.
The opening and ending animations are vibrant and colorful, though!

Sound: 9 for sub, 7 for dub
Both versions had a really good opening and three endings that are worth buying off of a music store. The opening was catchy and upbeat like Sora Iro Days from Gurren Lagann, and the endings were respectively beautiful, happy, and... awesome. The voice acting and cast were great choices, considering their roles, but in the English version, they weren't as great. Imari sounded too old, and Tora (a student) was the teacher from Baka & Test.
It was a great touch to put the first ending in the end of the series, to symbolize the return to the beginning plot.

Enjoyment: 6
Some people hated it, fewer loved it, and in the middle there are the ones who found it to be okay. I am in the third party, as I found it to be very good in some areas, excluding the middle five episodes. It was good, and then it was terrible, but then, it became the second-most underrated series I'd seen. If you're into watching a series with romantic subtext and able to look past shallow themes, it's gonna be okay.

Overall: 6
The series is worth watching once, but not worth a rewatch for some people. I'd personally rewatch it any day, but a third of it was terrible, so it was several gigabytes short of a hard-drive. It's still okay. I recommend the novels, or the manga instead, as the characters are a lot smarter.

The verdict:
Watch it, but you might not like it.
I recommend Soul Eater and Highschool of the Dead.

In a circle of best friends, typically, the most significant, yet least noticed friend is the one who never talks. The quiet friends just eat their two-dollar lunches, type away on their computer, or read a book while the others have fun chatting. Therefore, expecting the quiet friend to destroy the world and create a new one would be similar to questioning the possibility of an alien’s existence in one’s neighborhood. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is about a quiet friend.

North High student Kyon’s world changed abruptly a week before Christmas. He woke up early, walked up the hill to school, and met his classmate, ... Ryoko in homeroom. Later, he discovered that the leader of his club, Haruhi, was absent, along with his fellow club member, Itsuki. Mikuru, his crush, even forgot his name, and in bewilderment, punched his face. Furthermore, his best friend, Yuki, has started to wear glasses again. To a normal student, it’s only a bad day that coincidentally involves the whole of the SOS Brigade, but to him, it’s a global scale dilemma. As quoted from one of the prequel novels, “Freud would have a field day with this.”

Ryoko was supposed to be dead by Yuki’s hands. Itsuki was an esper. Yuki was an alien who lost her glasses while killing Ryoko (who was trying to provoke Haruhi by killing Kyon). Mikuru was a time-traveller. Each of them were supposed to keep Haruhi Suzumiya from destroying the world.

Why watch The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya? Yes, the story is a 10, the characters are a 10... everything's a 10. However, none of these alone make Disappearance memorable. The moral is the most important part.: the loudest scream is the scream of silence.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is quite possibly the best movie I have ever watched. The characters, ranging from sarcastic Kyon to dangerous Haruhi, are lovable on various degrees. It is well worth the one-hundred sixty-three minutes of time, and the time that the next movie, The Disappearance of Yuki-chan Nagato, will take up. No matter how much the viewer knows about Haruhi, he or she will have their heart touched by this melancholic tale of a boy and his strange friends.

10/10 for everything, and deserves to be mentioned alongside even Miyazaki movies.

(Note: This is written all by me. It looks like the one written on LoidNerdy101's DeviantART, because I am him. Ask him for proof, and you'll see that it's me.)