Ouran High Host Club

Satsuki

Yes, this is another of the new anime debuting this season. This one is based off an (apparently) popular shoujo manga, although I'd never heard of it.

When I first heard about this I wasn't jumping with joy. Host clubs never really interested me and it sounded like it would be more dumb, convoluted shoujo crap. Then I read some good reviews, and then watched the first episode on YouTube.

This. Is. A. Fine. Piece. Of. CRACK.

Seriously, this show is awesome in every respect. While it does fall into the silly boy harem category, it kind of makes fun of itself and has some damn fine humor that had me rolling. Despite what it looked like, this is some damn good shoujo comedy. It doesn't hurt that the female lead isn't annoying at all.

Basic rundown: poor scholarship student Haruhi goes to the prestigious Ouran High, basically trying to study and not get in the way of the rich and clueless. One day while trying to find a quiet place to study, Haruhi comes upon the school Host Club, run by a menagerie of cute boys. The rundown goes:

Tamaki: president and reigning Host King Bishounen. Obnoxious and self-absorbed.
Kyouya: The "cool type" and the club intellectual.
Haninozukua (aka Honey): the shouta-bait type. (shouta being the loli-girl counterpart)
Morinozuka (aka Mori): the strong, silent type who usually looks after Honey.
Hikaru and Kaoru: the shounen-ai twins

When Haruhi accidentally breaks an expensive vase, Tamaki decides to make Haruhi the club "dog". But later on the gang realizes that under the frump Haruhi is quite cute, so they turn said frump into a bishounen and make Haruhi work off the debt as a host. The catch? Haruhi is actually a girl.

Yes, it sounds like the set-up for something really awful, but this is a ridiculously funny show, mostly fueled by Tamaki and his over-the-top host antics. But the rest of the boys are plenty funny in their own right, and Haruhi works well as an anchor to Tamaki's ego.

But one of the best parts about this series is some fantastic animation direction by Studio BONES (FMA and Wolf's Rain). If it weren't for the clever and beautiful animation this series might not be as funny as it is. Some really good vocal performances also help.

Try it for yourself, the first fansubbed episode is on youtube split into 3 parts:

igalsfy

episode 1 was amazing, one of the series i'll follow for this new season.

Majek

I'm still thinking about seeing this.

e1n

oh dear god. ocean got me into reading the manga, and now i've read up to v5 (and owned v3-5 in english).

satsuki said it very very well:

This. Is. A. Fine. Piece. Of. CRACK.

all the jokes never (and i repeat, NEVER) failed to crack me up.

in fact, i will go re-read them again right now, since i'm bored.

I only read the manga and I was kinda disappointed. Yeah, it's funny but it's silly, too. It didn't hook me up. I think there are better series around….

oceanizer

This was my first ever scanlation project I picked, was a project leader, and the very first and fastest title which got licensed. I'm so proud of the series.

A fansubber contacted the scanlation group to help them with fansubbing, but due to our past bad experience, we denied… But I guess somebody already fansubbed it?

Sakamoto Maaya is voicing Haruhi. I gotta watch it. Thanks for Youtube link.

Majek

Yeah Lunar subbed it. Watched it , laughed a lot … guess I WILL be watching this :biglaugh:

Thanks a lot Satsuki. I just watched episode 1 and I am already hooked to it. Watched it and I enjoyed so much.

A very fine and good anime comedy.

Bloodfoot

I started reading this about six months ago, and am so very very happy with how the anime is shaping up!

taboo

That was awsome, I totally wasn't expecting

! 'him' to be a her. xD Thanks for sharing! This is definetally a series I'll be looking into!

oceanizer

Maybe spoiler tag it?

taboo

^^; Sorry~ I thought it may have been far enough down the page…

Satsuki

@e1n:

oh dear god. ocean got me into reading the manga, and now i've read up to v5 (and owned v3-5 in english).

satsuki said it very very well:

all the jokes never (and i repeat, NEVER) failed to crack me up.

in fact, i will go re-read them again right now, since i'm bored.

From what I've been hearing from those who already read the manga, they're liking the anime better because all the jokes translate so well into moving animation. And if the color art that's used in the ending theme is any indication, I'll like it better too since the manga seems to use the shoujo style of artwork that annoys me; namely the kind where the lips look like they've been freshly stuffed with collagen.

I am calling this my ultimate guilty pleasure of the season. So far the show isn't particuarly deep, but man is it entertaining! I am downloading this the minute I get home.

Tamiki or w.e his name is reminds me of Sanji.

Malintex_Terek

I'm under a contract that stipulates I must bash all shoujo manga, so I cannot read/watch/imagine Host Club and must tell you that it sucks facist dogma. Sorry. :sad:

igalsfy

@Malintex_Terek:

I'm under a contract that stipulates I must bash all shoujo manga, so I cannot read/watch/imagine Host Club and must tell you that it sucks facist dogma. Sorry. :sad:

that made me laugh. :laugh:

Majek

Okay, now after seeing the 2nd ep this is definitely teh Crack for me Hope i don't get sick because of laughing too much :laugh:

Satsuki

Hahahahah. I liked episode 2 as well, although I don't think it was quite as funny as episode 1. But apparently the next chapter is going to be dun dun dun!! the school physical examination!! Will the host club keep Haruhi's secret a secret? Oh Noes!!!

Oh, and after Tamaki the twins are definitely my favorite characters. So sly!

@DougyDougyGiro!*:

Tamiki or w.e his name is reminds me of Sanji.

Eh, if anything Tamaki is even goofier than Sanji, although he seems to be better at getting girls than Sanji.

Monkey Spirit

That's good to hear, last week I noticed they have the first five tomes or so at my regular library, but I hadn't dared leaf through because I assumed it was yaoi. Ouran High, here I come!

Satsuki

Yup. There are 5 out in english, and 7 out here in Japan. But it's still going as far as I know.

I'm tempted to buy the manga now, but I kinda don't want to be spoiled for what's too come. Maybe I'll pick it up at the next con.

Monkey Spirit

Hmm, for me it's usually the other way round, I don't like animes spoiling my mangas! ^_^

Is there any other place to download the chapters apart from YouTube?

Satsuki

Have you tried www.animesuki.com ? They usually post the links to all fansubbed anime that aren't licensed.

Monkey Spirit

Thanks for the link.

It's such a shame that I've never been able to get my BitTorrent to work… I'm weird like that. ^_^

Majek

Well check the FAQ at Animesuki, it might hel you solve your problems with Bittorrent … if you try to fix them of course :laugh:

Satsuki

Don't feel too bad, I could never get IRC to work properly for me. (IRC hates Mac users)

Miss White day

I never heard of the manga and just now decided to try it. I have to admit the first episode got me hooked. It's rare for me to get interested at the first episode of a shoujo serie so I'm pretty happy. I thought for a moment that I lost my interest in shoujo manga.

Episode 3 was my favorite. I'm really growing fond of all the characters and it's nice to see a female heroine that doesn't annoy me at some point.

Honey kind of reminds me of Momiji in Fruit Basket, maybe they have the same voice actors. But the characters are a bit alike. And the way Mori and Honey are showed togheter kind of look like the Sakaki and Chiyo-chan pair up in Azumanga.
This serie reminds me a lot of other titles yet it doesn't feel like a rip off. It's good and I'm going to hunt down the manga now.

Satsuki

They definitely do not have the same voice actors, but there are definitely Fruits Basket parallels. However Ouran High seems to be going more for the batshit crazy comedy rather than heartfelt romantic dramedy like Furuba.

Hahaha, episode 3 cemented my love for the twins, Hikaru and Kaoru. Man, now it's hard to choose whom I like better, Tamaki or the twins!?

Bloodfoot

Best part about episode 3 (paraphrase): "Haruhi and I are the main characters of this love-comedy, and you guys are just the homo-homo side characters!"

oceanizer

I remember that line in Manga, lol.

Ranier

That line pretty much sums up OKHC. My fave chars have to be the twins because they're so clever at exploiting forbidden kyoudai love. It seems to be the trend now, putting a female protagonist in the colony of pretty boys. Hanakimi, anyone?

Satsuki

. . . . . dude, the shoujo harem has been a staple for years now.

Hana Yori Dango
HanaKimi
Fruits Basket
Fushigi Yuugi
Ayashi no Ceres

to name only a few. ALL feature girls who are surrounded by hot guys, of varying numbers.

Ranier

I know most of those series by name and synopsis only. ^^;

Hm, I guess I wasn't being clear on my previous post. What strikes me as different about OKHC and HanaKimi is the apparent shounen-ai element woven into their plots and thus I see that as a trend, but as I have no knowledge of the other series you mentioned (read one or two chapters then stopped), I may have been wrong.

Oh, I do remember that Fushigi Yuugi has Nuriko who crossdresses and is infatuated with Hotohori, but that's about it.

taboo

This show is so great. XD "It's an OTAKU!!!" "This is the first time I've seen one!!" Seriously~ I'm really getting into it. It makes teh inner fangirl in meh squeel. =^^= This is only my second shoujo experience, really (after Penguin Bros).

Satsuki

The great thing about Ouran High is that it kinda mocks the whole bishounen shoujo manga sub-genre. They set up all the archetypes nicely and have fun with them. It's great.

Right now I'm just waiting for more character development and maybe a development on the romance front. Although Tamaki is currently quite a ways from making Haruhi his girlfriend.

oceanizer

I was just going through my past translations and realized that HC c1 translation was 31 pages long. o.O It was fun but also a nightmare x.x

http://www.kefi.org/hostclub/index.php

Satsuki

Have you taken a look at Viz's translation yet? Any opinions?

oceanizer

I bought v1 but never opened o.o (which happens to all my English manga, about 10 of them >.>; )

The only comparison I've ever made was Shojo Beat issue 1:
http://www.aku-tenshi.com/a.html (this was never shared with public…)
http://community.livejournal.com/shojobeat/14028.html?thread=73676#t73676

… I was planning to do the comparison for Yotsuba&! and later on, Host Club, but lost interest... >.>;

I feel bad FUNimation nabbed School Rumble instead of Ouran; Ouran is massively popular and much better, Viz will likely butcher it. Sigh.

…

Did I mention this is one of my favourite shows? ;)

lxn

looks at signature

I love this anime my friend got me into it , this series is so funny and Renge omg she is my fav I love how she laughs.lol it is true sometimes is annoying.Oh and episode 16 is my favorite.
And i didnt like eop. 18 it was really bad I think it is a filler who knows.

@lxn:

I love this anime my friend got me into it , this series is so funny and Renge omg she is my fav I love how she laughs.lol it is true sometimes is annoying.Oh and episode 16 is my favorite.
And i didnt like eop. 18 it was really bad I think it is a filler who knows.

It's not, apparently; BONES seems to be pretty consistent with manga-adapted material.

Renge was great because she was crazy, cute, and voiced by Natsuko Kuwantani, who acted as Ryoko Asakura in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. She's been pretty tame since her introduction, though; I think she's a forgotten character.

Uki Doki Memorial!

lxn

^ I said she was my favorite character did I?

I think she's a forgotten character.

yeah kind of… when she appears, she only does like for 5 minutes then she is gone.

Ruwyn

Renge is a bit lost in the shuffle, but still cracks me up in her brief appearances.

I mean…Ouran sentai?!? I wanted to see more of that. Perhaps she'll cosplay more characters from BONES shows as well. They certainly seem to like leaving little references here and there.

I want to see Haruhi charm more girls. Those scenes are always priceless! Especially with Renge; that's the best of all! Haha.

Ouran is like a blend of Hana Kimi and Hana Yori Dango with a little comedy thrown in.

Satsuki

I'm actually a little perplexed as to why Ouran High hasn't been licensed yet. I suppose it's because the manga isn't insanely popular (from what I can tell) here in the states.

That or they're biding their time. Or they can't afford it.

@Satsuki:

I'm actually a little perplexed as to why Ouran High hasn't been licensed yet. I suppose it's because the manga isn't insanely popular (from what I can tell) here in the states.

That or they're biding their time. Or they can't afford it.

I made a big riot about Ouran at ANN. The only two companies who can get it are FUNimation or Viz, and FUNimation blew its budget on School Rumble when Viz can't get School Rumble, but they can get the very lucrative and insanely popular Ouran fairly easily.

If FUNi loses Ouran to Viz, I will never, EVER endorse them again.

Takato Metallium

We just started watching Ouran at my local anime society at the end of July, and last weekend while compairing Ouran characters to One Piece characters with friends who watch both I got the idea for this facked up crossover.

Definitely love the twins X3 Hikaru and Kaoru just amuse me so much. The fact that Tamaki is such a drama queen is amusing as well.

taboo

So uh…

! DAMN, IS IT REALLY ENDING AT EPISODE 26???! You can't just get me hooked and then end it like that!! TT____TT

Malintex_Terek

Yup, quite a pity, isn't it? Unfortunately, some of the bloggers are bashing BONES for combining two storylines and forcing an "ultimate choice" onto Haruhi. The fudge? This series has been PERFECT; it might be a shoujo parody but it's still shoujo and needs its lovely drama to counterbalance the comedy.

Takato Metallium

@taboo:

So uh…

! DAMN, IS IT REALLY ENDING AT EPISODE 26???! You can't just get me hooked and then end it like that!! TT____TT

One word; manga. They've released at least seven that I know of in English…

As for me... waves Hikaru/Haruhi banner

KamenRiderNeko

most of my friends are into this series…I saw the first episode, I thought it was cute, I may want to watch more of it, since I do enjoy some shoujo to an extent.
though, this really reminds me of Utena, the rich school, the lanky characters with saucer eyes, lots of roses.... I swear some of those animators from Utena are working on Ouran... I didn't realize it was BONES that is doing the animation though....
Damn that opening gets stuck in your head and its sorta addicting XD
I did see the manga.... it looks way more girly XD still cute I guess.