shanimebib

Review: Ouran High School

Old Review by Shanimebib

A piece of advice: Don’t read if you don’t want to, But watch even if you don’t want to.

Synopsis: Ouran High School in Japan is defined by one prestigious families and two wealth. A super-rich school for those who are blessed with everything this world has to offer, that is wealth of course. All elevated families send their future possessors from Japan as well as from the rest of the world to this school. But there are special cases as well. Like most of the other schools, Ouran High School does have scholarship program.

Fujioka Haruhi, a commoner, having what-extra-is-needed-for-outperforming-regulars, got into with the special scholarship. Entering the school would have been difficult, as Ouran takes only one special student each year, but what Haruhi didn’t know that getting along with these super-rich students will give so much trouble, as they say its hard to blend yourself in a new school but its harder to get along with affluent classmates especially when you are not one of them! To make matters worse, Haruhi couldn’t even manage to purchase the expensive school uniform.

Trying to find a quieter place to study, Haruhi wanders through the large corridors and huge door-ways of Ouran and wonders how rich people spend their time doing nothing and finally gets to a room seemingly the Third Music Room. But as soon as Haruhi opens the door, finds a group of handsome boys welcoming as to be the member of a Host Club! Introducing themselves and their activities in the Host Club, incidentally they made some obnoxious comments on commoners, leading Haruhi to get to the end of his tolerance. Soon Haruhi finds that he is being cornered by these bizarre boys and tries to make a leave, unfortunately enough hell unleashes for Haruhi as he accidentally breaks a vase. The vase was worth of 8,000,000 Yen (80,000 US$) and was to be in the school auction from the host club. The boys get the worst out of him and the sky cracks for poor Haruhi as the leader of the host club Tamaki claims Haruhi to work as a dog of the Host Club for the rest of his graduation days as a pay off.

The host club as defined by Tamaki is a special club run by a handsome group of men who have their time, dedicating it for the pleasure of the fair ladies, who also have their time and profit off from it. Trapped in an embarrassing situation, Haruhi gets himself forced to do all the chores of the host club.

Well things would have been as pitiful as ever for Haruhi, until the members of the host club discover that under his thick framed glasses, he hides beautiful wide eyes, cute enough to lure more ladies in the host club, leading Tamaki to promote Haruhi from host-club-dog to a genuine-host.

What Tamaki and the others (apart from vice-president of the host club Kyouya) do not know is the real secret of Haruhi.

This real secret of Haruhi which leads to the story developing from here onwards, is something that will make you wondering, why in the world did I get to read this boring synopsis yet deciding to watch this anime just because of the ratings and ending up experiencing a once in a life-time entertainment.

Anime Review:

Character Design: The character design had been absolutely superb. Thanks to Kumiko Takahashi (Original Character Design: Cardcaptor Sakura, DNA2) this anime got the perfect set of characters based on the original manga by Bisco Hatori. I have read the manga and the character setup has been of the top quality, the characters are profound, readily understandable however seem full of uncertainty, the characters are cute and adorable and will give you the insanity to learn more about them as you progress through each and every episode. Main Characters: Fujioka Haruhi, Suou Tamaki, Kyouya Ootori, Morinozuka Takashi, Haninozuka Mitsukuni and Hitachiin Twins (Kaoru and Hikaru).

Voice Talents: The Japanese voice talents are just absolutely worth hearing. Well you will be depending upon the subs for sure, but check out the way they gave their voices, the characters seem so original and the expressions are just so adorable. Well I like anime with subs more than dubs, I had always been biased about this a little bit ever since I started watching anime with subtitles, but I can assure you once you get to watch anime with subs you will start realizing the difference.

Overall Animations: Here is another thumbs-up for Ms. Kumiko (Animation Director: Fullmetal Alchemist: Movie, Eureka 7), the animation seems pretty ordinary and not much of CGI effects to make it the best, but the continuation of screens and character movements and expressions will give you an eye-catching entertainment.

Background Pictures: This is where the anime gets 10 out of 10 for sure; detailed background stages and screens (especially the hall-ways, corridors and classrooms) will give you a mind-soothing environment and will surely make you question how neatly an animation can be shaped with so minimal amount of color-range and line-usage.

Background Music: Its certainly one of the key points to judge an anime. Although it doesn’t appear to be of really much of importance, but you will certainly get the idea once you get to hear the backstage compositions. For instance, last month I just saw this “Curious Play OVA II” a.k.a. “Fushigi Yuugi OVA II” on Animax and I was just about to kick my head off; what’s wrong with this OVA, the background music was just terrible and it didn’t took time for me to loose my appetite. Amazingly enough Ouran hits high points here too. Usually it’s really easy to set background tunes for any comedy series, like the hell suits it, but Ouran surely proved its point to tempt its audience with splendid compositions suiting every single second. All credit goes to Yoshihisa Hirano (Music: Midori Days, Death Note, Strawberry Panic).

Story Development: I think this is something I would not share for the viewers’ sake. Check the anime out and you will uncover the hidden talisman just at the corner of the synopsis I wrote and the story developments from there onwards as you make your way to the Host Club. Just for your information 17 top level storyboard writers and episode directors worked under Takuya Igarashi (Storyboard and Episode Director: Mushishi, another anime-masterwork of 2005) to make this anime-masterpiece a hit of 2006.

Enjoyment: Well this is a point where I must make sure that I provided enough information so that I don’t end up being behind bars. So please read the following lines carefully and don’t blame if you get the ticket of your life hereafter. Strictly speaking, there is a huge possibility of someone getting killed. Warning: Contains excessive amount of laughing-dose as deadly as any medicine (you know what happens when someone is overly over-dosed) that may take you down with uncontrollable stomach-ache originated from unstoppable laughter!

Value: The anime is worth purchasing, because it’s worth watching a hundred times over. I really loved the show and looking forward to a well deserved second season, I am already missing it a lot.

So…

The Title: Ouran High School Host Club
Adaptation: Ouran High School Host Club (Manga) by Bisco Hatori
Other Title: Ouran Koukou Host Club (Japanese)
Official Site: www.ntv.co.jp/host (Japanese)
Fan site: ouran.krysyuy.net (English, For Richer or Poorer)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, School Life, Romance, Slice of Life, Shoujo
Age Rating: 13 and above
Number of Episodes: 26
Anime News Network Ratings: 9/10 (Excellent)
One of the top 5 Anime of 2006
Production: Bones (Other titles under Bones: Fullmetal Alchemist, Wolf’s Rain, RahXephon)
Opening Theme: Sakura Kiss by Chieko Kawabe
Ending Theme: Shissou by Last Alliance
Vintage: 4th April’06 to 26th September’06

My current location (when I was writing this review): * The Third Music Room, Ouran High School *

- Shanimebib