Anime Ouran High School Host Club

[anime_dark]

[COLOR=Indigo][FONT=Comic Sans MS]The show juz came out recently and i find it extremely funny..First 3 episodes are already out .. Let me get to the point.. The story is about a girl who got into a high class high school (Ouran High School) because she received a scholarship. Trying to find a quiet place to study she finally went to the musical room only to find out it was a host club. A host club is where these handsome boys who have free time treat these pretty girls who also have free time.. She was mistaken as a guy and.... The rest you have to watch yourself.. Main point is that i find it very interesting.. Anyone else watched this show?[/FONT][/COLOR]

EDIT: Juz so you know you can get this at [removed by moderator].. You do know what is [removed by moderator] right?

[INDENT][COLOR=DarkRed][SIZE=1]anime_dark, the distribution of copyrighted material is not permitted at Otakuboards. This includes linking to sites and that have the copyrighted material, as well as telling others where to find them. Make sure to read the site [URL=http://www.otakuboards.com/rules.php?]rules[/URL] before continuing to post. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or any of the other moderators. -r2[/SIZE][/COLOR][/INDENT]

[Fasteriskhead]

Ouran's one of my guilty pleasures for the season, along with Princess^2 and High School Girls (and Kyou no 5 no 2, which doesn't really count since it's an OVA). The pedigree for this thing has a strong bloodline running from Utena; it's like a shoujo series that's been riced up to run on pure innuendo and adolescent sexual energy. Already three episodes in the writers seem to have found their favorites (re: ridiculously overplayed sexuality) in the incestuous yaoi twins, if that tells you anything.

Well, to sum up, basically it's all kinds of fun if you have a taste for implied (and not-so-implied) deviancy.

[dragonkeeperkid]

I love ouran high school host club it's soooooo cute! and full of funny bishi! :D it's so funny i've seen the first 4 episodes and i'm about to watch teh 5th ;)

[hey_love]

[size=1]I love this series so much.
I've read up to volume three and part of volume four.
And right now I am watching episode four.

This show is just hilarious in so many ways.
I just love it.
=][/size]

[Dagger]

I'll just join the chorus and say that I love, love, [i]love[/i] Ouran. BONES! Cross-dressing! Does it get any better than this? (No, it doesn't.)

Haruhi is such a refreshing and glomp-able female lead, and Tamaki is the stuff of which legends are made. I also love the twins and Kyouya... well, actually, I guess I just have a thing for those poor "homo side characters." :animesmil

The funny characters keep coming, from Renge (my new idol and heroine) to Nekozawa. For me, the highlight of the series so far was [spoiler]Renge's film[/spoiler] in episode 4 (which had bizarre parallels to the scenario of the first episode of Haruhi Suzumiya!). I laughed until I was almost in tears, and then I kind of just wanted to cry. It was exactly like Media Blasters' tagline for Genshiken: "It's only funny because it's true... It only hurts because it's true."

~Dagger~

[Fasteriskhead]

Agreed, Haruhi has become one of my favorite characters of the season (despite the unfortunate name-sharing, noted in your sig, with the lead of a show that's probably going to determine the course of new TV anime for the next two or three years). I'm not sure how she's able to so perfectly mix starry-eyed innocence with being a huge smart*ss, but it works. Although, for me of course the best bits involving Haruhi are where she acts as an uncultured but industrious and endearing poor person and ends up making all the school's rich girls go completely nuts for her. (her predilection for food way, way too expensive for her is also cute)

And yes, Renge is the best. "Otaku! Otaku da!!"

[Meggido]

I've only seen the first ep but loved it. I'd read about the surprise at the end of the first ep, forgot it and was damn surprised. Then I went and watched it again to work out how the guys worked it out. That's the main reason my avi and banner are the characters of the show.

[dragonkeeperkid]

ya I don't think i have a favorite character their all soooo great! I love the twins and Tamaki and honey-kun and it's always poor Haruhi. but in the 4th episode it was more of poor tamaki because of that girl. It was sooo cute how honey-kun couldn't stand being mean and hugged Haruhi! :D the show just has me saying KAWAII through out the entire thing

[hey_love]

[size=1]After watching the sixth episode, I must say this. I enjoyed reading this part of the story in the manga better than watching it. Don't get me wrong, I still laughed plenty, I'm just a bit more partial to the manga over the anime for this episode.
=]

Although, I found it very much adorable how the little kid ended up [spoiler]being a prince [/spoiler]in the end.[/size]

[INDENT][SIZE=1][COLOR=Sienna][B]hey_love[/B] I added spoiler tags to your post. Please do not assume that everyone is familiar with a paticular show. Always use spoiler tags. ~indifference[/COLOR][/SIZE][/INDENT]

[Dagger]

[QUOTE=hey_love][size=1]After watching the sixth episode, I must say this. I enjoyed reading this part of the story in the manga better than watching it. Don't get me wrong, I still laughed plenty, I'm just a bit more partial to the manga over the anime for this episode.
=]
[/size][/QUOTE]
That's interesting. I've seen conflicting reports--that is, some people liked the manga version of the episode 6 story better, and some thought the anime jazzed it up and made it much more interesting. I (having read very little of the manga) enjoyed it well enough, but on the whole I prefer stories about the host club members to the parts that focus on their clients.

Which is why I loved episode 7! The different setting made for a nice change of pace. I also appreciated the fact that it focused on Honey and Mori; I've heard that the manga-ka's favorite couple is Mori/Haruhi... not Tamaki/Haruhi, as some might expect. Episode 7 showed me why that pairing could be intriguing, and of all the ones which have been hinted at so far, I think I may actually like it the best. If you think about it, Mori seems much more compatible with Haruhi than Tamaki or even [spoiler]Hikaru.[/spoiler]

I'm looking forward to episode 8, though, because I've developed a sneaking suspicion that I'll end up supporting Kyouya/Haruhi the most. I guess that's partly my fondness for glasses-wearing characters talking, but oh well. Either way, Mori and Kyouya are ahead of Tamaki in my estimation. Which brings me to this:

[quote name='あいとゆうきのおとぎばなし][size=1']I want to read Tamaki?s role in this show so badly as like man?s fear of liberated female sexuality choosing a form of sexuality other than patriarichally-mediated heterosexuality. Tamaki, being the king (and is there any better symbol of patriarichal power?), feels like he should (and the genre conventions make it seem like he should) be entitled to Haruhi, but she constantly chooses anyone but him, whether it?s the faux gayness of the twins, the animal sexuality of Mori, the yuri-ness of other girls, and so on. I really like how there?s that gleeful threat. It?s like the exact opposite of the male harem comedy, where female bodies are like commodities. Here, not only is it inverted so that male bodies are the commodities, but the male who normally would get to participate in this practice of acquiring the female bodies/commodities not only does not get to, but is also has his impotence laughed at and humiliated. Not only that, but it feels like anyone could be paired up with anyone across age and sex boundaries.[/size][/quote]
While that's probably a textbook case of over-reading, I really want to agree (here's the [url=http://nekketsu.wordpress.com/2006/05/18/ouran-7/][u]full post[/u][/url], by the way). To be honest, even though I'd like the anime to feature an original romantic resolution, it'll probably have a non-ending. Tamaki has gotten the most focus of any of the males (so far), and he [I]is[/I] more or less the romantic lead, even if he isn't able to carry out the role. However, getting together with Haruhi would require a serious attitude adjustment on his part, to the extent that [i]he wouldn't really be "Tamaki" anymore.[/i]

Even if he were able to accept Haruhi for the way she is and realize why he's attracted to her, being forced to shed the prince part that he adopts with other girls would probably result in him feeling nervous, impotent and completely out of control. Not a recipe for happiness. That's already started to happen (note his beet-red blushing whenever Haruhi calmly compliments him--adorable though it is, he just doesn't know what to do with himself in those situations). I could be underestimating his adaptability; then again, he's a stock character type in a comedy/parody anime... should he really have any to begin with?

That aside, the weird parallels between Ouran and Haruhi Suzumiya continually amaze me. First Itsuki's "Fumoffu!" and now a RahXephon reference? I tell you, it's got to be some kind of conspiracy.

~Dagger~

[Fasteriskhead]

I probably shouldn't do this, but...

[quote name='あいとゆうきのおとぎばなし][SIZE=1]I want to read Tamaki?s role in this show so badly as like man?s fear of liberated female sexuality choosing a form of sexuality other than patriarichally-mediated heterosexuality. Tamaki, being the king (and is there any better symbol of patriarichal power?), feels like he should (and the genre conventions make it seem like he should) be entitled to Haruhi, but she constantly chooses anyone but him, whether it?s the faux gayness of the twins, the animal sexuality of Mori, the yuri-ness of other girls, and so on. I really like how there?s that gleeful threat. It?s like the exact opposite of the male harem comedy, where female bodies are like commodities. Here, not only is it inverted so that male bodies are the commodities, but the male who normally would get to participate in this practice of acquiring the female bodies/commodities not only does not get to, but is also has his impotence laughed at and humiliated. Not only that, but it feels like anyone could be paired up with anyone across age and sex boundaries.[/SIZE'] [/quote]Yes on the latter (anyone pairing up w/anyone), no on the former (Tamaki's constant failure and Haruhi's not falling for him indicating some kind of revolution against patriarchy). First of all, there's the simple factual correction that Haruhi really [I]never[/I] chooses one of the characters over the others. Unless I've REALLY been miswatching the series, she doesn't seem to play favorites, and the reason for this seems to be less a sense of "fairness" than just that how she thinks is really fundamentally different from all the other characters (this may be even more true of Renge). Second, Tamaki's failings are by no means subverting the "genre conventions;" the role he plays is specifically a kind of clown king (the guy who acts noble but comes off as silly and dumb to anyone with eyes to see), and that itself is at least as old as Shakespeare. As is, I might add, girls dressing up as guys. I don't know, it just strikes me as a little bit odd to try to read Ouran like this (in a basically feminist light); I don't think there's much support for it, and I think the only reason "Ai to Yuuki..." can do so is because it misreads basic aspects of how the characters act and how the show presents them.

Now, it's true that Ouran has the sense that any member of the cast could conceivably be sleeping with any of the others (dojinshi creators, take note!). But I don't think this is anything more than a side effect of what the show's centrally trying to do, which is to push to the outer limits of shoujo. In this way it's quite a bit like Negima, as both take their genre's conventions to an absurd extreme and, as a result, end up with a glorious mess of a series that shudders, shakes, and rattles like an overloaded washing machine. But unlike Negima, which seeks to overwhelm by sheer force of quantity (zillions of girls, one prepubescent boy), Ouran mostly plays around with certain shoujo personality types. Among other things, it makes them self-aware, it gives them characteristics that make them contradict themselves (e.g. Honey, martial arts master). But [I]basically[/I] this is only a comedic radicalizing of one of shoujo's primary riffs, which is that a person who is one way "on the surface" is revealed as something completely different later on.

I'm thinking a little about this. The question to approach the show (and, by extension, much of shoujo) with may turn out not at all to be whether it has subverted this or that norm (including "patriarichally-mediated heterosexuality"), but whether in revealing a character of a certain "type" as being something else we've really only in fact made them [I]another type[/I]. And, if so, where all these "types" come to an end. The show has already addressed this to some degree - I wonder if they'll follow up on it.

[quote name='Dagger']While that's probably a textbook case of over-reading...[/quote]I resent that. Some of us make a living via over-reading. :animesmil

[dragonkeeperkid]

wow, the sixth epiosode was really good, but not as good as other epiosodes. Now when ever i wanna watch the show my sister says "sry i'm not in teh mood for a kawaii overdose" lol but she was recovering from the [spoiler] sad and stupid ending of the FMA movie [/spoiler] oh well, i can't wait to see teh 7th epiosode though it looks really good =)

[Dagger]

[quote name='Fasteriskhead']Second, Tamaki's failings are by no means subverting the "genre conventions;" the role he plays is specifically a kind of clown king (the guy who acts noble but comes off as silly and dumb to anyone with eyes to see), and that itself is at least as old as Shakespeare.[/quote]
That's fair enough, but if he does fall into that role as well, it's a consequence of his being a prince who doesn't always act like a prince should, ya know? While you talked about this a little more later on, when you mentioned types within types, I think that calling him a clown king character is wandering away from the original joke--because he is still a typical shoujo prince character, but Haruhi (and pretty much Haruhi alone; the twins are just a corollary to that) undoes him.

Episode 8 looks at the gender issue in a moderately more serious light, and the outcome is interesting in that both Haruhi and Tamaki score points off each other, so to speak... [spoiler]Haruhi "wins" when Tamaki concedes defeat to her will or self-reliance or whatever, and Tamaki "wins" during the oh-so-shoujo hugging scene, although in another slight twist, it was more of a friendship & learning to seek help from others type of thing than outright romantic, violins and all.[/spoiler]

It would have made more sense if Tamaki chastised her for [spoiler]diving into a two-on-one fight without calling for back-up,[/spoiler] but since when has Tamaki ever been especially rational? It was almost as if they were speaking two completely different languages when he yelled at her, haha. It's a good thing Kyouya was there to bridge the gap...

Oh, by the way, how'd you like the S&M joke? :animesmil

~Dagger~

[Fasteriskhead]

[quote name='Dagger']While you talked about this a little more later on, when you mentioned types within types, I think that calling him a clown king character is wandering away from the original joke--because he is still a typical shoujo prince character, but Haruhi (and pretty much Haruhi alone; the twins are just a corollary to that) undoes him.[/quote]Certainly, I agree completely, especially the "Haruhi undoes him" part. What you're getting with Tamaki is, if I can speak a little too schematically, a kind of tripartite intersection between three "streams" that both develop into one another and, especially here in the meat of the series, occur all at the same time. First, he's simply the shallow romantic playboy prince - this is an act, as he himself seems to acknowledge. Second, he's a simpleminded and frequently childish dunce whose foolishness is only momentarily covered up by the "prince" demeanor - this is the "clown king" I named, which is probably a crappy term but I'll stick to it for now. Third, it turns out that at heart he really [I]is[/I] a romantic and a prince, and that beforehand this genuine nobility on his part was only covered over. It's especially this last stream that his relationship with Haruhi is bringing out (her "undoing" him), and which I think we'll see much more of as the series goes on. I don't think it's his "not always acting like a prince should" so much as it's his realizing that this prince role he's played for the ladies for so long really [I]is[/I] what's in him at his core, albeit in a much deeper and more heartfelt form.

I should note, though, that this schema of development is probably as old as the "clown king" itself. And furthermore, it's really an absolutely shoujo kind of thinking all the way down...

This (8) was a really good episode, extremely interesting in a lot of places - particularly in what was at stake in [spoiler]Haruhi's and Tamaki's fight,[/spoiler] and Haruhi's [spoiler]seeing right through Kyoya and beginning to understand him in terms of "merit."[/spoiler] Lots and lots of stuff going on, most of which I'm not really prepared to talk about in any depth. As for the fight, though, I don't think it can really be understood in terms of winning or losing (those are concepts mostly foreign to the genre anyways) so much as the fight itself "dropping away" because both characters have arrived at a deeper level of relation - this is mostly a nitpicking, though, and I think we basically agree.

And yeah, the SM bit was great. [I]"Nani PLAY desuka?!?"[/I]

[duoikari]

i was recomended this anime by a freidn cos it was funny, and i just love comedies. At first i thought it was a yaoi anime but then all is revealed at the end of epsiode one. And i just laughed my head off, Tamaki is so camp he's funny, but it's a kind take- the-mick anime, which i live. I love the way they stereotype all yaoi guys, but my favourite has to be honey and taki, i just love there shota and yet not shota pairing. But it is a good series but i am having troubl;e downloading, due to my internet being so slow, but i am up to epsiode 4, which i still have to watch.

But ouran high school host club is a winner! ;)

[Nekova]

Wow- I'm glad I stayed with this series. The last few episodes kind of had me losing interest, but episode 8 was enough to make up for it! The show has been pretty innocent (well, leaving aside the whole [spoiler]incest[/spoiler] thing), so I was surprised to see what happened between Kyouya and Haruhi. Even the scene between her and Tamaki had a lot darker undertones than normal. I hope the show keeps it up. The humour in the anime is great, but I like a few meatier episodes once in a while as well.

[GTK]

I normally don't like anime like this, but a friend told me to watch Host Club and now I'm so hooked on it that I feel like I need to be shot XD;;; [spoiler]though in all honestly, I only checked it out cause my fiend mentioned "twins" and "acting gay" in the same sentence and I went XD[/spoiler]

It is really creepy though... because my brother looks like Mori O_o;

[bellpickle]

[SIZE=1]Just cause no one said it yet, how about that episode 9? I, personally, absolutely loved it. Though admittedly, the entire episode could have been composed of the host club members flouncing around in dresses for no reason, and I still would've loved it. :P

Also, from the looks of the preview, I can't wait to see next week's episode! [spoiler]Yay for Haruhi's impoverished-looking home![/spoiler] ^_____^[/SIZE]

[GTK]

I sorta wished there had been more of them in the floofy dresses *laughs* it was really more amusing than it should have been XD;;;;

[spoiler]Kyouya (sp?) made a surprisingly hot chick XD;[/spoiler]

I also just got a text message from a friend telling me episode ten is up now XD squeee

[Guest ritsuka-chan]

[COLOR=DarkSlateBlue][FONT=Comic Sans MS]i've read the ouran host club books and they were really funny especially haruhi's indifference to tamaki's "crush" on her. I haven't watched the anime but if there anything like the manga's i'll be happy. i was at a japanese site for hana to yume yesterday and there are 8 volumes in japan now so the series is still continuing and more will probably be added to the anime :animesmil [/FONT] ![/COLOR]

[duoikari]

i just see ten and it is very VERY funny, i was upset by no twin yaoi action but it was still a funny one and i also want to see number 11.
Let's just say a little friend of tamaki drops by to see him *giggles*

[studio_ghibli]

i have watched the series up to the end of ep 10, but i cant find 11 with english sub ><

[duoikari]

[quote name='studio_ghibli']i have watched the series up to the end of ep 10, but i cant find 11 with english sub ><[/quote]
Ouran high school host club is subbed by a fansub group called lunar anime and they normally launch the new episode on a saturday, but sometimes it has been out on a monday. I would try [[COLOR=DarkRed]illegal suggestion[/COLOR]] if you want to get it first, or i think it's on [[COLOR=DarkRed]illegal suggestion[/COLOR]].

[COLOR=DarkRed][SIZE=1][INDENT]duoikari, I removed the names of the sites you posted. Remember, distributing copyrighted material is not permitted at OB. Giving out websites that do this is also not permitted. -r2[/INDENT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Dagger]

I came to episode 9 a little late, but it was oh so great--definitely one of my favorites so far. I was won over the instant I recognized Mitsuki Saiga's voice. She's one of my favorite seiyuu, and getting to hear her play an over-the-top, gallant, bishounen in a girl's body type of character was just great. The parodies were fantastic throughout, and I died after Tamaki's [spoiler]onii-sama/onee-sama[/spoiler] line.

Onward ho! I've been a bit spoiled for [spoiler]Haruhi's father,[/spoiler] but I'm looking forward to episode 10 all the same.

~Dagger~

[Fasteriskhead]

Re: episode 10 - the imagined scene of [spoiler]the club memebers visiting a Haruhi living in abject poverty[/spoiler] is so utterly priceless that I find myself wishing that it was actually true. "In order to serve something good enough for you guys, I've been fasting for three days to save up money for the food! [holding up discounted supermarket sushi]"

I'm not about to spoil anyone about Haruhi's dad, Ryouji. He's something special, and the moment where he first appears is not to be ruined.