Funny and charming, this third volume delivers the entertainment and offers a little more insight into its quirky characters.  On her first day of high school, Haruhi Suzumiya makes quite an impression when she introduces herself with the proclamation that she isn't interested in associating with "ordinary humans."  Only aliens, time travelers, and espers (folks with varying forms of ESP; I had to look it up) need bother to engage her.  Enter Kyon, a regular high school freshman, who happens to sit behind Haruhi in homeroom.  Presented from his point of view, the story begins when he jokingly suggests to Haruhi that she start a club.  Taken with the idea, an excited Haruhi drags the hapless Kyon into her nefarious plot, and he ends up the charter member of the SOS Brigade.  Seemingly a harmless club dedicated to spreading fun and good cheer, Haruhi's main objective is actually to seek out what interests her--aliens, time travelers, and espers.  Oh my!

Soon, the club grows from two to five, the number of people required by the school to make an organization official.  Haruhi commandeers the room housing the Literary Club, which only has one member, as the SOS Brigade's headquarters.  The single Literary Club member, Nagato, a quiet girl who's always buried in a book, just gets absorbed into the Brigade.  Next comes Asahina, a naive, sweet, well-endowed junior, who becomes the victim of Haruhi's near sexual harassment.  Ever the saleswoman, Haruhi proclaims Asahina the club's mascot, and as such dresses her as a bunny or a maid--whatever might attract new members.  Finally, a mysterious transfer student, Koizumi, arrives at the school.  Haruhi had already told Kyon they needed a mysterious transfer student, and lo! Koizumi arrives just in time to round out their small club.

What Haruhi wants, Haruhi gets.  Kyon begins to wonder about the coincidences that surround the somewhat egocentric and haughty Haruhi, but brushes them off in favor of being at turns both annoyed and amused by her antics.  That is, until he is approached separately by the other three members of the club, revealing secrets of their own.  Nagato is an alien in the form of a girl, Asahina has come from the future, and Koizumi is--you guessed it!--an esper.  All three of them are at the school to keep an eye on Haruhi, who has the power to change the weave of the universe.  The only thing is that she has no idea she possesses this power, and everyone involved wants to keep it that way.  Now Kyon knows, and slowly comes to believe it's true, but doesn't know what to do about it.  He is, after all, the only ordinary person involved in the club.  Unbeknownst to Haruhi, the other members of the club shift its focus to keeping her happy and occupied.  It's only when Haruhi is dissatisfied and lonely that her need for acceptance and contentment threatens to unravel the universe's very existence. 

As a sort of participant observer, Kyon comments on Haruhi and the other club members in his narration.  By this third volume, one of his growing questions is why is he, an ordinary guy, involved with Haruhi and these extraordinary people?  Since Haruhi is responsible for bringing them all together, there must be a good reason, but what?  Kyon has demonstrated surprising open-mindedness, in an amusing, "I can't believe I'm doing this," manner.  He's also shown a willingness to help the other three club members, even though he points out that he can't do anything special.  But is that really true?  As the narrator, he likely wouldn't recognize his own specialness.  He's the only one who can talk any kind of sense to Haruhi when she flies off on some fancy.  She rarely listens, but he does give her pause.  He puts up with her antics and supports her anyway, even as he rolls his eyes and pleads with the heavens to make her stop.  Of the four club members, Kyon is the one most likely to keep Haruhi content and satisfied, just by being her friend.  The others can figure out what to do about her unique power and the troublesome gaps in space her distress tends to cause.

I had gotten spoiled by the four-episode counts on the other two volumes, so when volume three only had three episodes, I was a little disappointed.  In spite of the short run-time, the standalone episode and two-parter included on the disc don't really move the plot forward, but do continue the series' humor, add a bit of mystery, and offer some insight into the characters. 

In the opening episode, Kyon has been hanging flyers around the school advertising the SOS Brigade as a place for students to bring their troubles.  This bid to drum up membership results in a student coming to them looking for help with her missing boyfriend, the president of the computer club.  Haruhi jumps on this opportunity like a duck on a junebug, and gleefully begins the search for the missing boy.  Of course, there's more to the case than meets the eye when Koizumi notices and "odd feeling" about the boy's apartment.  Yes, Haruhi resorts to breaking-and-entering when it suits her needs.  Their snooping leads to a much larger problem, and the club members must figure a way to keep Haruhi from learning the truth.

Later, the club members find themselves embroiled in a murder-mystery on a short vacation to a desert island owned by one of Koizumi's relatives.  Haruhi has declared herself a super-sleuth, insisting that an isolated island automatically requires death and mayhem.  When she encounters an actual death, she is forced to rethink her beliefs, and admits to Kyon that she didn't really mean what she had said.  This pair of episodes, "Remote Island Syndrome (Parts 1 & 2)" demonstrates the lengths to which the club members, Haruhi's friends, will go to keep her happy.  It also builds on the relationship between Haruhi and Kyon.  Their strange friendship is really brought to light, and is shown to be more than just Haruhi using Kyon to further her agenda.  Mostly.

With bright colors and clean lines, the series continues to look good.  One of the most striking features about the characters are their luminous eyes.  I don't know how it was done, but they're very pretty.  Some of the more outlandish action sequences, like fighting a giant camel cricket, are a little weird, but they're so spread out that it doesn't matter too much, and doesn't take away from the story.  In general, the everyday action--Haruhi dragging Kyon through the school's halls--is fluid and well-animated.

On this dvd, I watched the dub, which was well-acted with the talents of the ubiquitous Crispin Freeman, as well as Wendee Lee and Johnny Yong Bosch.  The dub is a nice translation, with a few changes, but nothing huge, and nothing that overly affects the meaning.

This disc has a lot of extras.  How entertaining they are probably depends on how late at night it is...  Two Neko-Man galleries (don't ask), Two making-of clips, and previews for episodes 9, 10, and 11.  There are also mini-clips, The Adventures of the ASOS Brigade Ep. 009.0 involving hand puppets and blogger interviews, and Ep. 004.1 and 004.2 with other random clips.  But wait, there's more!  The US Launch Event Video, some trailers, and credits round out the eclectic mix.

This disc was fun to watch, and begs the question, To what lengths will the SOS Brigade go to keep Haruhi happy?  She may not know it, but the universe hangs in the balance, to be shifted by a whim on her part.  What will happen if she ever finds out what she can do?  If they make it through high school, who will look out for her then?  I'll definitely continue watching to find out, or at least have a good laugh, even those questions aren't answered!

Details: The dvd has a runtime of 1:15 and contains episodes 9-11.