Anime: Ouran Koukou Host Club

Story

It's literally taken me months to watch even just this much of the series. It just doesn't grip me. I suppose that could be because it's absolutely full of yaoi-style fan service and I'm not really a fan of yaoi to begin with... but there is more to the anime than that. It would be unfair of me to say otherwise.

The story is okay I guess... nothing new at all really. An androgynous girl breaks a vase and ends up cross-dressing and becoming part of a host club in order to pay for it. This host club is essentially an escort service for girls, with "a type to suit everyone" - in this case the strong silent type, the 'prince charming' type, the child-like 'loli' type, and the twins (lots of implications of incest).

It's a comedy based around the everyday workings of this host club and it can sometimes be funny, but it just didn't fit in with my sense of humour.

Sound and Animation

I hate to rate it badly, because I really think that maybe it's just not my genre. So I'll give it an overall 6.5 since the animation is lovely, the voice-overs are good and it's got some nice character designs.

The opening theme annoyed the heck out of me, but again it's very suitable for the anime and is a good example of its genre. Upbeat and very poppy. If you like the anime you'll probably love this theme.

Characters

Honey, the loli 'kid', always causes the girls to go insane with shrieks of "OOOO KAWAIIIIIIII" and general fangirl behaviour, which gets very irritating after a while. It's reminiscent of watching people go absolutely bonkers over a kitten that just tried to meow, or something like that. Not the kind of thing you'd expect to see on a date.

The twins set up situations in which one of them is in trouble - e.g. a bucket of water falling towards him out of a window - so the other can swoop in and heroically rescue him and they can have a 'tender moment' (usually stroking each others' faces and nearly kissing but not quite.) Purely done to get the girls to squee, creepy in my personal opinion.

You have your typical 'prince' character, and then there's Haruhi. Pretty shy, nice person, always wants to please other people. Feels terrible about breaking a vase and allows herself to basically become a temporary boy in order to make up for it.

If you like this kind of thing it's a really good example of its genre, but I found it hard to stick with - it bored me if I'm going to be completely honest. I'm not really interested in the characters, the relationships between them or the way the story is going (there IS a certain level of story by the way - it's not just some mindless yaoi fest or anything).

TL;DR

I recognise that this is a really weird review: basically, I personally don't like Ouran Host Club at all but that's purely to do with my irrational dislike of a lot of the themes and my impatience towards shows with too much cuteness and not enough plot. If you like reverse harem and romantic comedy, you'll like Ouran. If not, steer clear.

Reccs

*Chobits (cutesy romance)

*Ah! My Goddess (harem and cutesy romance)

*Fruits Basket (reverse harem)

- Animated by studio BONES, which means the production values will be great but the story will be messy… What? It doesn’t have much of a story? Well, in that case it is a great show!
- Directed by Igarashi Takuya, who also took up Sailor Moon Stars, Soul Eater, and Star Driver. I can’t say I love all his works but he is definitely versitile.

Ouran is a fine example of how a seemingly tired formula can be presented in an interesting way. Make no mistakes about what the premise is; it’s still the same old stereotypical shoujo where a frail dumb girl is surrounded by a bunch of hunks. What makes it so special is how it made use of ALL the clichés, then made fun of then in a sort of parody of the genre, and after than DEVELOPED the characters past their mold. So in a way it is three things at the same time (a good reverse harem, a parody of reverse harem, and a developed reverse harem). Depending on which one of these elements you choose to focus on, chances are you will like the show no matter what your preferences are. Yet it is only by seeing it as a whole where the beauty of the whole thing surfaces.

Let me make it clear that I am not a fan of reverse harems. Not by a longshot. I find them all retarded idealistic romances for prepubescent dumb girls who are still waiting for the prince from the fairy tales to appear and have a dreamy time together. So I didn’t fancy the (standard) reverse harem aspect of the show yet I must admit that it’s pulling the shoujo strings perfectly. We have the “Poor-good-hearted-dumb-chickTM”, in an elite school of super perfect rich bishonen stereotypes, having to cross-dress in order to pass as a boy, while fending off the romances from other chicks and having to deal with the constant erotic teasing of the hunks. The premise is so damn ideal to the point it works fine for its genre. Plus, the production values further make it cooler than it already is by making everything look dashingly splendid. The school is brimming with luxury, vivid colours, and snobbism, to the point you get to love it for what it is.

Then there is of course the parody of the whole thing, where they take every single stereotype and create puns and misunderstandings based on common belief. This is a nice extra if you just got fed up with the genre and want to make fun of. Most of the jokes are ok, although they do feel like they repeat after awhile. Not that I minded it that much; it is after all a parody of clichés and did the best it had with the material it was offered.

The best part of the whole show is of course how it eventually builds up on the premise and fleshes out its characters. Most such shows barely try to present their cast as anything other than a collection of statues, permanently frozen in a boring predictable and simplistic mentality. In this case though, they actually provide far more juice to each character by offering backdrop stories that excuse their attitude. So although the show begins with a group of snob bishin caricatures (and a token dumbass girl in the middle) along the way a line of flashbacks and dialogues provide revelations of how each one of them is more than he appears to be. Which is cool.

Before you start imagining that I am making it look like an amazing portrait of psychological immersion, let me make it clear that it is by no means a deep, thought-provoking personal drama. The characters grow over their initial image but they are still from super fleshed out personalities. And the overall plot is not complicating at all; in fact most of it is a storyless parody of the initial premise. It is the fact that unlike most of its genre, it moves beyond the obvious and tries to excuse everything being as such. Basically, everybody is just playing a role, imposed by his social status and the expectations of his family and fellow students. It is a direct contrast to how the heroine is forced to cross dress as means to follow certain demands, imposed by her status as a poor person in dept and making use of her natural beauty. On a basic level it is very captivating as it is showing how people are forced to play roles they never chose, while at the same time doing the best of whatever privileges they were born with, bodily or economic.

So without trying to present this show as the most amazing socio-political dramatic comedy of all times, I am just going to say that it is the best Reverse Harem ever made in anime, for the reasons stated above. Its story is by no means the best thing after sliced bread, and the characters never feel so alive that you think they can jump out of the screen or something. It’s the combination of very good production values, along with a premise that goes beyond the obvious, and a set of characters that become very sympathetic to you for excusing their ideal role to be just a façade. Marvelous!

Highly recommended if you are fans of reverse harems, school comedies, or just want to make fun of decades old clichés.

One day, i was just surfing the net searching for something to watch, when i bumped into some site with anime ratings... Looking at top10 animations i realised that i have seen each of them and had no regrets after. Each, but one. This exception was "Ouran School Host Club". Earlier, by looking at poster, i thought it was some crazy animation with some gender problems... Somewhat i was right. So i thought: "I should give it a try, maybe its worth watching!".

Then i found some time to watch a serie or two it was around 10-11 pm. But after watching first two episodes i was so absorbed that i couldn't stop pulling more and more series into my media player. When i had finally regained my consciousness, i reallised that it was 3 am... So i had to part with this anime for a night. And so i used the next two days to finish watching it.

Animation:
Atmosphere is made up trustworthy when you first look at it

Main aspect of atmosphere is "life of the rich people". And it is shown very clearly: huge halls, pink walls, everything looks very expensive and pleasing to the eyes. There are also a lot of details which make atmosphere feel completed. But after some time you get annoyed from it... Though at that time story mostly takes you to some other place which makes the
irritation go away.
7/10

Character detailisation is also on very high level, it looks even like developers spend much more time on characters then on
stage design. Emotion expression is perfect and divided in two one is for comedy, second for romance.
10/10

Sound:
Follows the animation and increases atmosphere value.

Just like animation sound&musical illustration is made to create the wealthy atmosphere. And it serves it's purpose very well.

OP/ED songs are good, but not perfect... They have got a point, but mostly just chosen for having romantical mood and words like "host"... They follow the atmosphere but do not adjust it.

Story:
Theres no story, althrough there is.

Story is kind of a unique. Each episode has it's own miniature story, which starts from OP and ends with ED songs. That is all about it if you look at it half-heartedly.

But actually each of those mini-stories are a part of a huge plan. Each next episode opens something new to us, mostly it is something about past or reasons behind joining the host club. They are put in the right order so it makes story quiet intresting. however, after watching 26 episodes each with miniature story, you'll get a bit tired of it just like in Tsubasa chronicles.
8/10

Genre is what hooks you onto this anime. Comedy-Romance... It is a hard genre with a lot of potential, it may ruin anime or make it very good depending on the hands, that are making it... And this animation was dirrected by a right pair of hands. Sense of humor displayed in it is outstanding and can make even robbed of sence of humor people laugh. On the other hand it is VERY DEEP sometimes only best romance animations can be that deep.
10/10

Character:
Unique and worth empathy

Each character is made unique, even twins are different dispite their looks. After watching half of this anime you'll be able to tell them from each other from things they do and say.
All of them are different outside and inside, however, they have the same point which makes them close to each other. That is their hearts and good intention. THis is also the point which makes watcher fall in love with them.

In addition the way story and characters interact with each other is splendid... Further you go with the story, more new things you find out about their personalities, background and reasons behind their behavior.

All that creates a perfect and friendly atmosphere of the anime.

Value:
Rewatching, why not? But not yet.

This is anime which you can rewatch multiple times, but its not that good to make you want to rewatch it right away... Maybe one day, when most of the story and jokes are forgotten, and when there is some free time, rewatching it would be an option.

Enjoyment:
Good, good, not very good, good...

When i started watching it i really enjoyed, was totally absorbed by it, but after ep 15-16 it becomes a little tiresome, however, lateron last 5-6 episodes are enjoyable again.. So there are just about 2-3 episodes you feel bored about.

Overall:
The raiting site i bumped into was right after all

This anime deserves to be amongst the best. Thus of you, who didn't like it after watching, shalt throw a stone at me.(JUST DON'T AIM FOR THE HEAD) I feel it will not hurt that much after.

So i recommend watching it, i am quiet sure you'll enjoy it too dispite your genre favour.

Animation was definitely very crisp, and in that aspect, it was very well done.

However, the music and effects sounded like they'd been ripped and recycled from various shows and composition scores.

Jokes and story-wise, some were pretty funny and I actually enjoyed the second half of the series more than the first half. The first half was quite boring as the story seemed quite patchy and since I'd already encountered most of those jokes before, they didn't make me laugh. Plus, it seemed like they were trying too hard to even the story and the pacing and to write up good jokes.

Yet things got more interesting in the second half, though, as you learnt more about the different members and their quirks. Thus, the second half actually redeems the story and funny factor by more than 40%.

In terms of voice-acting, I felt like that most of them were pretty good. Tamaki, Takashi, Honey, Kaoru and Hikaru sounded fine and I actually liked their voices. It's just that I found Mori's voice a bit too deep for a teenager: he sounded like some oji-san.

For Haruhi, she sounded like she was bored: bored with life, bored with living, totally not there. Being quiet shouldn't equate to "mumbling to yourself".

Finally, I might sound a bit petty but man, the animation studios should quit throwing in offensive themes in anime already. It's mighty offensive to use Nazi salutes and for goodness' sake, a bisexual man isn't a transsexual. I know men and women do crossdress from time to time but the way Haruhi's father acted, he seemed to be a transsexual.

In that respect, such content tends to dull the shine of a series for it shows they don't do much research, do they? No, I'm not expecting a thesis but rather, some common sense and a certain amount of care in portraying stereotypes and such. Given that anime is now an international product, shouldn't they be more careful with their content, then?

Still, bad qualities aside, this series is a good watch.

Animation was pretty good. Most decent productions tend to have good animation theses day.

Sound effects were alright. However, the music was pretty much that overused CASIO keyboard sounding classical. I do agree that the kind of music was appropriate but they could have gotten much better interpretations just as they could have found some more original pieces. Voices were excellent and very fitting for the characters. I just love the voice of the voice Actor who did Gendo Ikari (Shinji's father in Neon Genesis Evangelion, know your classics! ;) ) as the of Ootori Yoshio. Such a nice guy with a beard and glasses! One last thing about sound : I hope you like those high pitched girl screams because you are going to hear lots of them.

The story pretty much sucks. From episode one, you know where it's headed. Fortunately, they didn't put the focus on it. It merely has a supporting role for the characters and the humor.

Oh yeah! Now you're talking! Characters! Typical yet with a refreshing twist. They give just enough depth and background to be able to pull out the most possible humor out of their stereotype. The anime has a flavor of character for pretty much anybody.

Not all episodes are equal. Some are merely airtime fillers and don't add any real value to the series. This could have been a 16 episodes series and it wouldn't skip anything meaningful.

Most episodes got me laughing pretty hard at one point or another. The label they pop-up on the screen are funny and reduce the need for long explanations. In the last few episode, the pieces really fit together to form an excessively phony classical romance drama. Laughs guarantied!

Overall it's a pretty good Romance/Comedy/Schoolkid series. It's isn't anything unheard of, but if you're looking for a good laugh, you're sure to find it here.

When I first read the summary of this show i wasnt too intrigued but just joined the bandwagon and see what its all about.

Animation:
What hit me first was how clear and crisp it looked compared to the majority of animes released out there. So hence i give it a 10. The only thing that i think looks better would be Ah! My Goddess S2. It stays strong the entire season.

Sound:
Never had any problems with the sound. Clear & crisp so you can hear all of the hilarious jokes and stupid (yet funny) remarks. Some sounds were annoying and repeditive but that would only be the "power motor" used roughly 8 or more times but lasted like 10 secs. So besides that it was easy on the ears and fun to listen to.

Story:
Of course the much important Story aspect of the series was greatly enjoyed. At first it may seem like an each episode story but is in fact a comedy/love story with many characters involved. They go into the backgrounds of the characters and the reason to the founding of the host club. This would have been a lower rating of 8.5 but the characters themselves bring it all together to a 9.

Characters:
This is by far the most important apsect to this series. All the main characters i just simply LOVED. Most of the time you can easily choose who is the favorite but this one makes all of them so enjoyable its hard to do. Personally i love Haruhi and everyone is in a very close second. They are all rich in their own individual character even the twins have seperate personalities. You get drawn to every single one.

Value:
By far one the best out there. Definetly top 5 of all the anime i've seen. Thats a hell of a lot. No t an exageration, it seriously is that good.

Enjoyment:
10 10 10. Even when i didnt even feel like watching it, i soon regretted my thinking and was laughing soon after. Even when you dont care for 2 men showing too much love to eachother if you know what i mean, it has no affect at all on this story. It may even make it better.

This is a must see. the 1st ep already got my hooked and i hope it will soon hook you too. Enjoy!