Anime Review: Ouran High School Host Club
This was origionally posted and written for my University Anime group, but I'm re-posing this here becuase... well... I can.
BTW, though under an LJ cut, this review contains as few spoilers as I could feasably put in it. I don't think much is stated or spoilt here. If you think so, please say otherwise.
( Read more... )
BTW, though under an LJ cut, this review contains as few spoilers as I could feasably put in it. I don't think much is stated or spoilt here. If you think so, please say otherwise.
( Read more... )
I agree about teh repeated scenes part, but to be fair it's no worse than a lot of anime and better than some! Also, I think what you said about the Haruhi in Wonderland ep is perfectly true until, until! You consider that it's actually the recap ep.
I mean, I'm sorry but as a recap ep that is one of the best ever. Better than scene after scene just being relayed at any rate.
I agree in FB not being the best comparison. If anything I think Love Hina is a closer match but with it's popularity, similar styling and to an extent similar themes it does seem to be the series that Ouran is generally most compared to.
I agree that in terms of depth and angst Fuba wins out. And I'm not going to suggest that Fuba is in any way superior or inferior to Ouran, (in fact they rate about the same in my book). What I AM saying is that I do kind of like the fact that Ouran DIDN'T have the massive amounts of angst. I sometimes seems that, especially in romantic comedys, to offset it large amounts of angst are just slapped on any old way. Every character (or at least the main ones) has to have soul destroying amounts of misery piled on top of them and dark secrets waiting to gobble them up.
And there's nothing wrong with this. I like it.
But I also like the fact that Ouran doesn't do this. Sure, it has some angst but it retains a sense of... almost realism, by keeping the pains on a small and believable level. I LIKE the fact that not everyone is massivly fucked up, but that everyone does have a little bit of hidden depth to make them interesting. (BTW, I LOVED the way they did the Twins. I first I thought, 'oh, it's a Weasely Twin thing,' and I didn't even bother to try and keep track of which was which. The audience is encourageed tot treat them as one entity at the beginning, only to have that finally broken around the holaday pension one, when it suddenly becomes important which is which.)
I find that sort of thing tremendously refreshing in an anime, and I do love how self referential and self knowing Ouran is.
As for the Tohru thing... one thing I didn't mention in my review, because saying it would have given away spoilers (I did try to refrain from mentioning Haruhi's sex, I love that suprise in the first ep!) is not that I perefer Haruhi as a character because she's less of a doormat.
Don't get me wrong. I don't like to character bash. Tohu's fine, I see why she' like the way she is, it's all cool.
However I LIKE Haruhi more, she's more the girl I could picture myself being. I admire her independence, her common sense attitude and her inteligence. I feel a closer connection to her.
Tohu's sweet and cute and I understand her and stuff but... but... I don't really like her. I don't admire her in any way. I can't relate to her. Haruhi is a doormat and dispte the fact that I do understand why she's like that, and I respect the literary devices and such I can't help but feel a little... disgusted at it.
Which sounds dreadful but still...
AT any rate, I'm not saying that Ouran is better than Fuba, merely different. And I do think that, in some ways, it's a better crafted anime. The content of Fuba may be more exciting and more interesting, but the actual... crafting of Ouran is better.
But I'm probably skating on thin ice here so I'll shut up...
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Well, it is, but I remain unsure why anime ever decided it needed such a thing! Many series get along perfectly well without one, so why do others bore us to tears with what we already know?
I agree that Ouran didn't need huge piles of angst, and it would have been unrealistic to do it in that setting. The only way mega-angst for everyone works is in a non-ordinary-world anime where it fits the premise. School's never going to be that place, especially not for the rich and privileged!
The self-referential thing was fun, and probably the best aspect of the series - its knowledge of its predecessors and the cliches was highly entertaining.
I agree with you, I could never engage with Tohru either. She was too far from anything I could admire, yes, and I had some problems with Yuki too because of the same things (though he had enough justification for being that way, it's kind of hard to blame him!) But FB had such a large and interesting cast, with so many backstories to investigate, that my total lack of interest in Tohru didn't stop me enjoying it at all.
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FB was very cool, and I enjoyed it a lot as an anime. I'm not sure whether I prefer it to Ouran or not. I think they're about equal, though I prefer Ouran's animation style. I love the prettyness of it. Which is very shallow but, alas, true.
BTW, sent those Icons off to you. I hope you get them.
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