Read my review of Ouran High School Host Club, Part One!

The fiesty twins, Kaoru and Hikaru, try to steal away the heart of Tamki’s “baby”, the cute and out of place Haruhi, in the second half of Ouran High School Host Club!

Plot Summary

Haruhi can’t catch a break from the duties and attentions of the Host Club. The twins continually vie for her attention, much to the chagrin of the club’s “king”, Tamaki, and said clueless leader won’t let Haruhi out of his sight. She’s also become a popular Host that the Club’s unsuspecting female guests can’t get enough of.

But Haruhi senses something amiss when the beautiful facade of the fantasy world the Club has built begins to crumble. Will the King set aside his crown and let his kingdom fall, or will he hold fast and continue to dote on his eager guests?

Review

Ouran High School Host Club has my vote as the best anime comedy I’ve viewed to date. The laughs were smart and timed with exquisite precision. Freshness and originality abounded, and the pacing was perfect.

The anime didn’t rely on overdone gags and lowbrow humor. It didn’t ride a schtick into the ground or use the same line over, and over and over.  Ouran’s a series which really understood its genre (romantic comedy) and audience (shoujo lovers), and knew to take the high road in making a romantic comedy. Its take on harem anime and shoujo romance was a polite parody/ homage to a played out genre, not a mean-spirited roast.

Ouran’s main characters were in on the parody, and the self-awareness of the anime enabled it to poke fun, not only at shoujo stereotypes, but at itself. Ouran doesn’t take itself seriously at all in the first half of the anime, and only slightly towards the end of the second. The one-liners throughout the series are absolutely quotable, and the characters delivering them are complex enough to relate to, but ridiculous enough to laugh with and at.

I mean, a good-hearted, abundantly handsome but slightly moronic, self-styled, reverse harem king who sees an accidental-cross dressing, poor scholarship student as his little baby? How can that not be funny? It might not have worked if it were too saccharine, serious or overdone, but it was brilliant in the Ouran High anime.

Character Development

In Part Two of Ouran High, the characters we’ve been laughing at for thirteen episodes are given their unique personalities, the true ones which differ greatly from their Host Club faces. The cast was more developed and human in the second half of the series- they became interesting as well as funny.

Tamaki’s past is revealed, and while it could have come across as pitiful, it added strength to his personality instead of weakening it. He was still clueless, and an idiot, but he had a wealth of heart and good intentions.

The twins got the flashback treatment as well, and their motives for their twisted games are based in their childhood. I really liked the twins. They’re evil and duplicitous, but in a good, funny way. They’re bad, but not evil. Their quasi-twincest, which is all in the name of pleasing the fangirls, is refreshingly ironic.

Haruhi stays pretty much the same through the second half. She’s a real trooper in dealing with the host club, and is one of only two grounding personalities in the group, the first being the money-minded Kyoya.

Kyoya and Honey have some background work done too, but the stoic Mori gets a minor glossing over.

The flashbacks and character development aren’t obtrusive, nor do they get in the way of the comedy. But they do add something which makes this anime more than a run-of-the-mill shoujo comedy.

Ouran has a memorable supporting cast to match the lead cast. The best of the secondary characters is the enigmatic president of the Black Magic Club, Nekozawa. Nekozawa, with his evil hand puppet, Beelzenef, stood out as the oddest character at Ouran, though Renge, the obsessive otaku fangirl deluxe, was in close second. Although the secondary cast wasn’t given the development the Host Club was, they gave a lot to the series.

Character Design

In keeping with the comedy of “romantic comedy”, the anime used its visuals to exaggerate points (super details for when the boys are being sparkling hosts), to emphasize emotions (giant sweat drops for stress, teary waterfalls for sadness) or to drive home its shoujo inspiration (flower petals in the air when romance is in the offing).  It was pure anime.

The clothing was also atypical anime- school uniforms were standard suits for guys and dresses for girls, but the girls’ dresses were something out of a Victorian romance rather than the usual sailor suits. Outside of school, the main characters have different clothing for every appearance.  It’s a plus when the studio tries to make the characters feel real by giving them an actual wardrobe.

Animation

The animation for Ouran was as strong as the series. It had detailed shots in the right places without skimping on the quality elsewhere. Shots when the boys are at their bishi-tastic are gorgeously detailed. Every twinkle and dimple can be seen. Action shots are high quality as well.

The backdrops were given a lot of attention, the music room of the Host Club being a good example, with its abundance of detailing and color work. Bones animated Ouran High School Host Club. They did as good a job showing the story as the anime did of telling it.

Music

After listening to the opening and ending themes (Sakura Kiss, by Chieco Kawabe and Shissou, by LAST ALLIANCE) for twenty six episodes, the songs have begun to grow on me- slightly. They were both fantastic fits for the subject matter, both being sugary and pop rockish, but as stand alone songs, they were too “young”.

The opening theme is the more tween of the two, but it’ll get stuck in your head, like a wet lollipop to a cashmere sweater.

It was interesting that the songs were in both English and Japanese. The Japanese tracks weren’t as cloyingly teen as the English were, probably because “kiss kiss, fall in love” sounds better in Japanese than in English.

Voice Acting

While there is the option of switching to the Japanese voice cast, don’t. Just, don’t. The English voice cast outstrips the Japanese and is waaaay funnier. Humor is not a universal language, and some things just don’t translate well. Some of the translations in the Japanese/ subtitle option fall flat, while in the English they’re worded in language that flows easily and is more topical:

English:

Hikaru: Why was your cell phone…

Kaoru: …turned off?

Haruhi: I just don’t think about it really.

Tamaki: Did you say you have a cell phone?

Hikaru: We convinced her she should borrow one of ours so we can keep in touch.
Kaoru: It’s a part of a special “Friends and Family” plan.
Hikaru: Yeah, we’re in each other’s “Top Five”.

Tamaki: “Top Five”! “Friends and family”? But wait, I’m you’re daddy and buddy…so I’m part of the plan too, right?

VERSUS

Japanese:

Hikaru: You turned your cell phone off didn’t you?
Kaoru: You can’t do that!

Haruhi: But it’s such a pain!

Tamaki: Cell? You’ve got a cell did you say?

Hikaru: Yeah, but I should say it’s one that we’ve lent to Haruhi.
Kaoru: By the way, it’s one only for friends. Sir, you’re our “sempai” and all.

Tamaki: “Friends!?” That must be nice, huh? Then, I’m also in the “friends” category which includes daddies.

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The English vocal work wasn’t just worded better, it was delivered better as well.

Greg Ayres really did a great job of  voicing Kaoru. He always sells his characters’ mischievous personalities, and he gave an extra note of diabolic boyishness to the twins.

Tamaki’s breathy bishi and clueless king personas were nailed by Vic Mignogna. Tamaki and Kaoru were my favorite characters and their voice work partly influenced my opinion.

Conclusion

Ouran High School Host Club is an almost too-good-to-be-true anime. It has great story, fantastic laughs, stellar characters, strong development, great animation, fast pacing and a top-notch ending. Unlike most things in life that fall under the “too good to be true” category, this series really is that good and it really is true. Go on, watch Ouran High- get spoiled!

Rating

Ouran High School Host Club, Part Two gets 5 outta 5 Hammies!

Retail Info

• Publisher:Funimation
• Release Date: January 6, 2009
• Retail Price: $59.98
• Number of discs:2
• Episodes:14-26
• Run Time: 300 minutes
• Rating: TV 14
• Language: English, Japanese
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled