"So what type do you fancy? The wild type? The loli-shota type? The little devil type? The cool type? Or how about you try me?"
-Tamaki Suou (upon introducing Haruhi to the host club types)
The moment I read a summary on Ouran High School Host Club, I immediately found the whole storyline interesting. I mean, admittedly I'm not 100% knowledgeable about Japanese culture so I never even maid cafes sorta had a type of counterpart such as butler/host clubs. I gotta admit though, Ouran High School Host Club is really something else, in fact quite interesting.
The story kicks off by introducing Haruhi Fujioka, a student on scholarship at the prestigious Ouran Academy. Looking for a quiet place to study, Haruhi stumbles upon the Third Music Room, a place where the Ouran Academy Host Club is located with it's vision to entertain female "clients" as hosts. The host club itself initially had six hosts, namely: the prince type Tamaki Suou, the cool type Kyoya Ootori, the devil-type twins Hikaru & Kaoru Hitachiin, the loli-shota type Mitsukuni "Honey" Haninozuka, and the silent type Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka. During their first meeting, Haruhi accidentally knocks over and breaks an antique vase valued at ¥8,000,000 and, in effect, is told to repay the cost in service to the club as the host club's "dog". Haruhi's short hair, slouching attire and gender-ambiguous look cause her to be mistaken by the hosts for a male student, and is however ever promoted to a "host." The host club does find out however that she is actually female but nonetheless continues to pose as a male host to pay off her debt, and the episodes continue from there.
Ouran High School Host Club's 1st Opening
"Sakura Kiss" by Chieko Kawabe
Now, I'm actually very selective when it comes to the anime that I watch, but one of the major things I always look out for is a solid storyline with a tad bit of originality. Now, Ouran High School Host Club has a few common elements that can be found in other animes, the common scenario with a poor heroine surround by hot bishies and oblivious to love proposals from other guys. Despite that, the cast itself makes this interesting that actually prevents the anime from being too cliche to it's viewers, thus being very refreshing, witty, and not to mention very addictive in a sense. Though wherein most anime shows the bishies aren't that self-aware or proud of their good looks, Ouran goes the complete opposite direction and in fact flaunts and works of how they look which adds all the more comedy to the series.
In terms of animation, the show has a very clean and simple slate, however, still having it's own artistic touches to keep it modern and in line with the show's liveliness. In fact, the way they bring up and exaggerate certain moods, ranging from Tamaki's flamboyant expressions to the twins over-the-top antics, gives quite the good laugh and are always on-point to highlight the mood of the scene.
Just a taste of just how crazy the host club twins can actually get,
and believe me, that's just the beginning of it.
Going to the cast, it's actually quite the smart designation in my opinion. The heroine, being what we'd call the average girl, is suddenly thrown into having to cope with what is foreign to her as the world of the rich, being surrounded by the craziest set of people, being her co-hosts in the club. Watching how her "normalcy" tries to keep up with the crazy antics of the host club contributes to what makes Ouran High School Host Club so darn funny and addictive.
One of the crazy scenes from Ouran High School Host Club
and yes, it does indeed get crazier than that =P
Going to the cast, it's actually quite the smart designation in my opinion. The heroine, being what we'd call the average girl, is suddenly thrown into having to cope with what is foreign to her as the world of the rich, being surrounded by the craziest set of people, being her co-hosts in the club. Watching how her "normalcy" tries to keep up with the crazy antics of the host club contributes to what makes Ouran High School Host Club so darn funny and addictive.
Finally, in terms of storyline, everything flows quite well without being too rushed. What I actually like is how they made heavy of flashback episodes of the hosts prior to the establishment of the host club to set a slightly different mood in preparation of the show's final episode. However, unlike other animes such as Naruto and Bleach, you don't have to stay tuned to every single episode in order to keep up with the storyline. All you have to watch is the first episode and you can pretty much jumble the rest of it without worrying about getting lost, kind of like how animes like Ranma 1/2 and Hayate the Combat Butler go wherein each of it's episodes have a different story not necessarily connected to it's prior and succeeding episode.
Wrapping it up, I give the show my first perfect five out of five rating. If you're the type of person that wants a light-hearted comedy with a few of it's own dramatic touches (so long as you don't cringe over themes like "bromance" and stuff like that) then Ouran High School Host Club is the best way to go. Until the next review guys, stay tuned!
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