OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB

Gakuen Heaven meets Azumanga Daioh



Review by: Kari Izumi

Length:30 minutes, 26 episodes, subbed
Genre: Shoujo, Romance, Comedy
Watched: all, subbed

Labeling this as “shoujo” brings up all kind of images; namely, one about the beautiful girl who gets swept into a life full of hunky bishounen and falls instantly in love with the cutest of the bunch. Well, I’m happy to say that if you’re tired of that, this may be the show for you; the heroine is a girl with a 'low threshold for gender identity' and has no clear interest in romance, and the boys find her attractive, even if her build is more like a stick than an hourglass.

Plot synopsis: Haruhi, a commoner, has been granted a scholarship to attend the prestigious Ouran High School, where the students come from rich and extremely powerful families. While trying to find a quiet place to study, she enters the Third Music Room and discovers the Host Club, run by six young men who charm and entertain the girls of Ouran High for profit Being surprised at their antics, Haurhi breaks a vase that the Host Club intended to auction and is forced to act as a host to repay the debt. The catch: No one but the Host Club realizes she’s not a boy.

Artwork: Beautiful artwork that does a good job of capturing the elegance of the school. Character designs stay consistent through the whole series (thank God for computer animation!). Most of the colors are pastels, such as the uniforms, to give the show a softer feel, which really works.

Music: In an unusual deviation from standard BMG fare, it’s all entirely done by a string orchestra, which fits the aristocratic mood quite nicely, and are really pleasant to listen to by themselves. The Opening and Ending Songs are rather fun pieces to listen to, and given the plot, I find the former to be an appropriate choice for the show to open with.

Characters: Like everything else in this show, “Ouran” takes the usual stereotypes and place a refreshing spin to them; Haruhi the herione has neither the typical female beauty, nor does she fantasize about having a boyfriend, and yet the whole of the Club adores and respect her for who she is. The personality of the rest of the host club is pretty vast as well, such as Tamaki, the leader of the club who is surpassingly innocent and naïve, give his own backstory. Despite all his struggles, he genuinely holds no resentment about that; It was him who helped unite the other members of the club--which includes a pair of socially isolated and borderline incestuous twins; a small, child-sized Martial Arts master with an passion for sweet cakes and bunny dolls; His loyal cousin, who does everything he does and doesn’t say much; and the youngest son of a family of three boys who works hard to prove he’s worthy to taking over the family business from his older brothers. It also has a great set of supporting characters, including Fangirl Extraordinaire ™ Renge; self-proclaimed dark prince Nekozawa, whose own baby sister is too scared of his darkness to approach him: and the local Girl Academy Lobelia’s Zuka Club, who are on a mission to “save” Haruhi from the “horror” of the Host Club.

Plot: With few exceptions, much of the series is standalone, although the usual plot of many episode seems to be about someone needing the help of the Host Club for something and the seven of them come to the rescue. Towards the end of the series, it became a lot more character driven as more back stories were revealed. Much of the humor is derived from the characters’ interactions with each other, much of that from Tamaki and the twins’ crush on Haruhi, where the twins are always trying to get her to wear something skimpy and girly and Tamaki (who usually refers to himself and “Daddy” and Haruhi as his “daughter”) is getting ticked at their antics; However, Haruhi herself seems oblivious to their feelings towards her, although she is much more perspective than the rest of the group when it comes to everything else.

GUYS!: A wise selection here, folks! The cast is smoking hot, and while I’m not a fan of twincest, I couldn’t help but laugh at the moments where Hikaru would sweep Kaoru into his arms and say something completely suggestive for the sake of entertaining the ladies. (FTW!!!!)And there are lots of topless scenes of these bishounen, as every week has a new theme for the club, and thus new costumes for everyone.

Overall: A very funny and addictive series. Usually, it’ll take me five or six episodes before to really get into a series, but I was in love with this one out of the bat. The plots bordered on repetitiveness in the beginning, but moves well past that in the latter half of the show, and all the characters are fleshed out and avoid most of the usual stereotypes in this genre of show.

In a Nutshell:
+Great Music
+Avoids usual clichés of the genre
+Strong characters
+Very, very funny
-The stories bordered on repetitiveness
-It ended
Final Score: 10/10



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