REVIEWS 101

#3-Ouran Highschool Host Club

*The Basics

Originally a Manga by Bisco Hatori. It was created into an Anime which I will be focusing on. The show was aired from April 4 2006- September 26 2006. The show was also converted into an English dub by Funimation. There is also a Japanese live-action version of the TV series. The Anime stars Caitlin Glass (Haurhi Fujioka), Vic Mignonga (Tamaki Suoh), Travis Willingham (Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka), J. Michael Tatum (Kyoya Ootori), Luci Christian (Mitsukuni "Honey" Haninozuka), Greg Ayares (Kaoru Hitachiin) and Todd Haberkorn (Hikaru Hitachiin) as the Host Club.

*Plot Summary

Haurhi Fujioka is a 15 year old honor student who has been accepted to Ouran Academy, an elite school that is usually only has the rich attending. Haurhi dresses in a very boyish fashion and has an extremely short haircut so she is assumed to be a Male. One day Haurhi accidently comes across Music Room #3 which is the home to the Ouran Host Club. The host club is described as "The Ouran host Club is where the school's handsomest boys with too much time on their hands entertain young ladies who also have way too much time on their hands. Just think of it as Ouran academy's elegant playground for the super-rich and beautiful." After accidently knocking over a vase that costs $80,000 USD. In order to pay them back she becomes the Host Dog and eventually upgrading to an actual Host. Throughout the first episode each member discovers she is a girl and they keep her secret. The Host club consists of Tamaki Suoh, a blonde 16 year old who is the Prince Type of the Club and formed it when he first arrived. He is a very flamboyant and charming person but it also known to have fits of depression. Tamaki refers to himself as Haurhi's father and cares a lot for her. Next is Kyoya Ootori, the brains of the operation and the Cool type. Kyoya is very serious but he is shown to be close with Tamaki. The Hitachiin Twins, Hikaru and Kaoru, are 15 and used to be very closed off to everyone except each other but slowly came out of their shells. They are pranksters and refer to Tamaki as Boss. Mitsukini "Honey" Haninozuka is a 17 year old who is very childish. He acts as though he is an elementary student, carrying around his stuffed bunny Usa-Chan and has an intense obsession with cake. Honey is also extremely short adding to his Child-like appearance. The last member is Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka who is Honey's cousin and is very protective of Honey. Mori tends to be very quiet and slightly threatening but his relationship with his cousin makes him more approachable.

The Host Club goes through a lot together dealing with different situations and helping out other students. Though Haurhi jokes that she hates working for The Hosts, she is shown to love them and helps them open up more.

*Claim to Fame

Ouran is a type of Anime that is directed towards the female audience. If you can look over some of the girly details and some of the "Homosexual Tendencies" of the twins, you can enjoy it. I personally haven't come across a male (unless you count my friend's 10 year old brother) who watches it as of yet but I can't blame them. The show is EXTREMELY well written and has some great jokes and gags. But despite its Comedic nature, the show can be very emotionally. It depicts that even though you seem to have everything in the world, you can have nothing. The first 13 episodes are available on YouTube in the DUB and all of the subs are available as well. Also on Netflix!

**********SPOILER ZONE BELOW! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! ********

*Personal Favorites

My favorite Episodes are "Mori-senpai has an Apprentice Candidate" and "This is Our Ouran Fair!” Mori's episode revolves around a character named Kasanoda (*deep voice* Chris Sabat) trying to fit in as he is very scary looking and doesn't know how to interact normally with his classmates. I personally love Kasanoda and it also has my favourite Commentary :). Ouran Fair is the finale and just makes you feel so ASDFGHJKL. The basic idea is that Tamaki has to leave to go to France and is disbanding the Host club but The Hosts go after him. It has some very sweet scenes and I enjoyed it.

My favourite Host is probably the Mori-Honey team. I love their relationship and they are just great. Travis (Mori's voice actor) is completely hilarious and has a strange obsession with cute things (including Honey's actress).  I love each of them in every way though but they are holding first position.

My favourite characters other than the Hosts are Chika and Renge. Chika is Honey's little brother and he is so funny. He has this huge theory that his brother is an alien because of the amount of cake he eats. And he is also the amazing Aaron Dismuke, who starred in Full Metal Alchemist as Alphonse with Vic Mignonga (Tamaki) as his older brother Edward. Renge is crazy. Done. She is essentially the everyday Fan girl and she is the manager of the Club. She also has a raising platform that rises up from the ground even when the Hosts are off-campus.

*What you need to know!

As the series progresses you get to learn backstory about each host:

Haurhi- Her mother passed away when she was a little girl so she became very self-reliant. Her father is actually a professional Cross-Dresser and is over-dramatic. She has severe Brontophobia (Fear of thunder and lightning) and becomes immobile during storms. In the Manga, she and Tamaki eventually end up in a romantic relationship and get married in the end.

Tamaki- Tamaki's father was forced to marry a woman of his mother's choice and ended up having an affair with a French woman named Marie-Anne and falling in love with her. Tamaki is the result of this affair and his father is forbidden to marry Marie-Anne. When he was fourteen, he moved to Japan because his family needed an Heir and his grandmother paid his mother. She was very sick and Tamaki realized his mother needed the money so he went and was forbidden to ever contact his mom. Tamaki's Grandmother hates him and refers to him as "Filthy Child” Despite his hard child-hood he is very optimistic and charming like his dad. Tamaki and Kyoya become friends in Middle School and he comes up for the idea of The Host Club. He is in love with Haruhi but tries to place it as fatherly love.

Kyoya- The Ootori family is one that is very successful. Due to the fact that Kyoya is the youngest of three brothers, he seems to never be able to run the business. This causes him to work twice as hard to try to make an impression on his father. The Host Club is a result of mostly Kyoya's managing skills and is best friends with Tamaki. Despite the pair being opposite in personality, they bring out the best in each other and Kyoya has hope to become the head of his family. In the end of the series, he manages to get enough money from his host activities to actually buy up his Father's company when threatened. Kyoya then turns all of the management rights back to his father and basically takes the company and throw's it back in his dad's face.

Karou and Hikaru- Karou and Hikaru share a very similar hardship as they are twins and have been together all of their lives. All of their lives they have never had anyone tell them apart. This spiral started when they were young and they had a maid who they liked. She didn't try to butter them up like the other staff as she was planning on stealing from the Hitachiin family. When she tells them that it is possible that no one will be able to tell who is who, they shut out everyone else out of fear. Hikaru in particular doesn't know how to assert his emotions and becomes very jealous when Haurhi is friends with others. Karou is very insightful into this and intercepts what happens around everyone else in the club easily. He understands his friends and is able to predict a lot about their actions.

Honey- Honey comes from a family of martial arts masters and train with the best. He is such a skilled fighter that he is not even allowed to fight at his full potential (Due to international security, yeah that's right). Honey also had a period of time where he attempted to be more manly and locked away all of his stuffed toys and cute things. He even stopped eating cake. But he hated it so he decided to join the host club and stop being in the Karate club where he was once captain. For this reason Honey's little brother, Chika, doesn't like his brother. He is tired of always being compared to him and has a theory that he is an alien because of the huge amounts of cake he consumes. Admittedly it is pretty abnormal.

And Mori, well.... he's just awesome.