THE TERMINATOR

THE TERMINATOR

The Terminator 1984 trailer

With another Terminator movie coming out this 2019, I figured making a quickie review on the past movie series of The Terminator. The Terminator is one of my favorite movies that I got to watch. Although I have not followed any other media of the Terminator story other than the Sarah Connor Chronicles which came out as a TV series that came out in 2008 and 2009 for two seasons.

The movie first came out in 1984 directed by James Cameron and features the now famous Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as T-800 model 101 or otherwise known as the titular character The Terminator. His character was also the one that used the famous tag lines "Hasta La Vista, Baby" and "I'll Be Back". If there are some of you waiting for me to say the other tag line "You Ugly MF" that is on another movie and another review.

The movie came out with several movies but the famous movies that came out was the first batch for the trilogy. The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine (2003). These were the famous movies that came out that starred Arnold with him.

The second batch of trilogy for the movie series are Terminator Salvation (2009), Terminator Genesys (2015) and the upcoming movie Terminator Dark Fate (2019). In Terminator Salvation Arnold was a no show for the movie but a CGI of him was made for the sake of having the iconic actor making an appearance in the movie but in his younger self. In Terminator Genesys and Dark Fate, Arnold once again reprise his role as the Terminator. In the upcoming movie Dark Fate Arnold is not the only original actor to reprise their role from the original movie, Linda Hamilton also returns to reprise her role as Sarah Connor and this time they team up to protect another target that the new breed of Terminators is coming to kill.

The movie is about a time travelling humanoid machine that went back in time to kill the biggest obstacle of their master, Skynet, the human John Connor. In the first movie Skynet sent back in time one of the Terminators it had created to kill the mother of John Connor, Sarah Connor, who at that time was just an ordinary office worker who has no affiliations with any military ranks. John Connor in order to have his mother protected from Skynet he sent back one soldier named Kyle Reese, who in turn was also his father. He sent back Kyle Reese without telling him that they are father and son in order to preserve the flow of time and in order for him to be born.

1991 scene

The story was rather confusing since in the second movie Arnold or T-800 is no longer the bad guy of the story but rather the good guy sent back by also John Connor to protect his younger self from the T-1000 Terminator which this time Skynet sent back in time so that Judgment Day will go as scheduled, but it was stopped by T-800 and protected John Connor as well as preventing Judgment Day from happening, or rather postponed. Third movie Rise of the Machine is the third movie where Arnold portrayed his role as the Terminator again. Just like in the second movie T-800 is once again sent back in time to protect but not only John Connor but also Kate Brewster his future wife, in this movie it was not John Connor who sent back the new T-800 but it was his wife. John Connor according to the new T-800 was already dead and killed by his hands, caught by the resistance and reprogrammed in order to be sent back in time to protect both John Connor and Kate Brewster with the directive to send the couple to the supposed resistance base once Skynet starts its human extermination. This time around the antagonist is a female terminator T-X which seemed to be a combination of the endoskeleton of T-800 and the liquid metal properties of T-1000.

One of the iconic scenes in the movie was the time travelling scene in almost every movie (except Salvation) where characters from the future appear out of nowhere inside a ball of energy and naked. Arnold as the T-800 taking clothes that will fit him from others. In the first movie he sported what seemed to be a brown trench coat and armed with a shotgun. The trench coat later becomes what I suppose is the signature outfit of his character, an all-black outfit of leather jacket unzipped with an under shirt and black leather pants which he got from big bike riders and black shades, also the shotgun is still there which is also I think the signature side arm of T-800 in every movie.

Edward Furlong (1991)

Nick Stahl (2003)

Christian Bale (2009)

Jason Clarke (2015)

Both in movies 2 and 3 they kept the same appearance of the T-800 making it look like that it never age and got to hand it to Arnold for being the professional that he is for keeping his body fit for each movie of the Terminator that he came out to reprise his role. Except in Terminator Salvation he was given a homage where a CGI of his younger self from the first movie was used in the battle against John Connor and his companion Marcus Wright, a human experimented by Skynet by making him a human-terminator hybrid which failed and kept his humanity and fought alongside humans and later sacrificing himself to save the life of John Connor.

In the movies Genesys reprised his role once again as T-800 but this time the timeline is being altered since this time around Kyle Reese who was supposed to come back in time to protect Sarah Connor ends up being saved by Sarah Connor who was later revealed to have been trained by the T-800 who was sent back in time to protect Sarah Connors since she was 9 years old. The Genesys serves as a reboot of the first Terminator movie altering the course of action as well. This movie has given viewers some sort of confusion as to how will the story go this time since in this new timeline Kyle Reese is alive along with Sarah Connor who has just started to become lovers and John Connor is to be conceived in this new timeline. But that remains to be seen as of yet.

In the new upcoming movie Dark Fate is said to be a direct sequel to The Terminator 2 Judgment Day movie. According to the wiki the movies Rise of the Machines, Salvation and Genesys are all alternate timelines which might explain why John Connor was no where to be seen between movie 2 and 3 as described by T-800, forcing Skynet to target other characters that will help build the resistance. T-800 said that John Connor could not be detected in any timeline after the Judgment Day incident, he was “off the grid”.

 T-1000

 T-X

 T-1000 Genesys Version

T-Rev 9 Dark Fate

It seems like in this new movie it is like a reunion of the main casts of the movie series which will I believe will be the hype of the movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong the stars of The Terminator and Terminator 2 Judgment Day are said to be reprising their roles T-800, Sarah Connor and John Connor respectively. Another rumor has been going around is that Michael Biehn was said to reprise his role as Kyle Reese but according to Biehn he will not be in the movie. So, things are still yet to be seen once the movie comes out and as well what role does the two new characters have in the new Terminator movie other than being a new target to be terminated by Skynet.

It would also seem regardless that the spin-off series Sarah Connor Chronicles follows the move Judgment Day it seems like this new movie has a timeline of its own. There are different charts as to how the Terminator timeline goes and how it follows the story from the first movie to the current one. But since this movie involves too many time travelling and some alterations in the story, the movie has created many possible timelines for itself.

Considering the age of Arnold Schwarzenegger who is always seen in tip top shape having to see Linda Hamilton back to reprise her role and seemed ripped as well for her character Sarah Connor are both very impressive. The movie also showcase Arnold’s character the T-800 to be a model that age through time ever since it was sent back in time to kill John Connor, just like in the movie Genesys, his character which mission was to protect the young Sarah Connor and to train her also age as time goes by making it look like more human except for the endoskeleton.

Another thing to take notice of in these movie series are the special effects and animatronics used for the film. Imagine since 1984 they have been using puppets and animatronics for the moving endoskeleton of the T-800 and slowly evolve to modern special effects in each film continuity. CGI or Computer Generated Images and Chromawall effects were later used for most scenes for adding more effects and explosive effects in some scenes. 

I have to wait for the movie to come out in order for me to see if Arnold’s T-800 character is the same as the T-800 in the movie Genesys who waited for the arrival of Sarah and Kyle who time travelled from 1984 to 2017, but as I have said it is something to wait for since it was said in a wiki that this T-800 is just one of the T-800 models that was sent back in time by Skynet and these models can have aging feature to make them look like more human.

Just by watching all the movies itself, a viewer will have to piece everything out to connect which continuity to follow, even though there are those who has made timeline charts, there are too many of it made by fans and movie reviewers but I want to see a timeline released by the producers, writers and directors themselves for a much more accurate chronology. This is because aside from the movies and the spin-off tv series, there is an online series that came out on YouTube and comics that came out.

Dark Fate Trailer

So right now, it is a waiting game for the new movie to come out to see what story it has for the fans, considering that the plot is almost all the same since the first movie. Main character is being hunted down by a time travelling humanoid robot and is being protected by a time travelling soldier or a reprogrammed Terminator T-800 from the future turned good. Whatever this new movie has in store for the fans is something to be seen specially that Edward Furlong is to reprise his 1991 character in this movie so that is another thing to wait and see how he will appear in this movie since the trailer has only shown Linda and Arnold reprising their respective roles in the new movie along with the two new characters and the new terminator enemy that also has a new feature which is to be seen.

Will be making another review for each movie on another date.

Pics from the internet

Videos credits to the owners on Youtube 

OZ WORLD

OZ WORLD

Found this while cleaning up so I figured sharing it.

The game was released in 1999 in other countries, developer is UBIport (not Ubisoft) and published by OnGamePort as a Real Life RPG.

OZ World was released by Level-Up Games in 2002 as the very first Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) here in the Philippines. So this was released a year before the release of the first Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) and later on ROSE Online and RF Online under their trademark here in the Philippines.

OZ World was more like the current Minecraft, Second Life, VR Chat (Steam) and other similar online VR World where users mostly just chat and do VR Jobs to earn their online money (well except for those games which have been said that they can exchange their online money for real world money like Second Life check google to find out who earned tons of real life cash just playing Second Life). So just to put it plainly OZ World is a VR Dating Chat back in the days.

Unlike today's VR Worlds, before I forget, this game never required VR Goggles. The game runs with the traditional monitor, keyboard and mouse to play the game and the system requirements to run the game was not that high as well.

OS: Windows XP/98/2000/Vista

Processor: Pentium 166 Mhz

RAM: 32 MB

Hard Disk Space: 50 MB (at least)

Video Card: Direct X compatible

So yeah does not require much to run this game compared for today's games.

Graphics were OK for its time and much like the game The Sims.The game also includes environment control which includes changes for day and night. Cannot remember if they have weather control in the game. The game also includes getting players to mingle with each other thru VR but just like any other online games the players can choose the gender that they wish to use, hey it is a free fantasy world where players go to just to blow some steam or entertain themselves.

I never got to experience playing this game very long since I got bored with it after hearing that the game will not be free to go online anymore and I have to purchase game time prepaid cards which costs Php. 50.00 up. So I forgot to mention the game was released as free then later on I have to buy the game time, I don’t have that much budget for playing paid games at home or at computer shops since back then I was using prepaid internet and dial up modems which Internet was only a tad faster after 12 midnight up to 4 or 5 early morning (was that a word?).  So in short I stopped playing after playing a few games after buying game cards. I don’t blame the company for making that decision they have to make money, but it took me some years before I realized that.

As for my experience in playing the game itself it was more like a chat world than playing a game, the game itself was more like just to earn the online money and ranking up for online social status to brag about with other players. Much like buying skins for today’s game which shows how long a player has been playing or for others skins show how good you are at playing the game, I don’t ever understand that logic it is just a skin and nothing more for me considering other games have online quests where getting skins will give a player points or online credits to spend online. The game also has quests to earn points and stuff as well as to level up the avatar and rank up as well.

So just making this short the OZ World was back then the talk of the town when it comes to online games for its short-lived popularity until the rise of Ragnarok Online and other games that came after it. Even so the game still got a place for other gamers which I think they still remember the game and played it for as long as they could.

Pics from the Internet

BIRDS OF PREY

With a new Birds of Prey movie coming out next year, I might as well do a quick one on this since I did watched the Birds of Prey series that came out last 2002 to 2003 which was aired here in the Philippines some years back.

An all-female superhero team under DC Comics which started since 1996 which was composed of Black Canary and Barbara Gordon who has adopted the codename Oracle for its timeline. The comic series was created y Jordan B. Gorfinkel and Chuck Dixon.

The Birds of Prey Team is mainly all female team but, in some occasion, some male characters become a member of the team. The core team is made up of Barbara Gordon also known as Batgirl or Oracle and Black Canary, and they are later joined by other superheroines teaming up with them. Not only does this team sometimes gets male members but some known supposed villains under the Batman series also gets to join the Birds of Prey, just to name some are Catwoman and Poison Ivy.

The team Birds of Prey has made their appearance in some animated series like Justice League Unlimited where the team was composed of Batgirl, Huntress and Black Canary and two male members acting as their dates while doing their undercover mission. Another appearance of the team was in Batman: The Brave and The Bold series and this time the members are Huntress, Black Canary and Catwoman. So the members or team composition depends on what characters exists in the series leaving only the core members to recruit additional members, just like in The Brave and The Bold, Black Canary is the recurring core member since Barbara Gordon exists in the series only as Batgirl.

Birds of Prey was represented by Black Canary in the Injustice 2 game.

The comic book series also received a live action series titled Birds of Prey starring Dina Meyer as Oracle and Ashley Scott as Huntress and is later joined by Dinah as the third member. Barbara here is paralyzed and is often seen in their headquarters on her wheelchair and Huntress introduced here as the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. The series aired from 2002 to 2003 the series only had 13 episodes with the trio facing off with Harley Quinn as the main villain in the series.

I was not able to watch all 13 episodes of the series as far as I can remember, but the series for me during that time was something that I would wait for each week, and since I rarely had internet connection back then nor did I cared how many episodes does one series has during that time I just watch it until they do a rerun or a new series takes over its timeslot. I am not a total DC or Marvel geek but knowing that a series is a supposed part Batman I think that was a reason why I got glued in the series specially when Huntress was said to be the daughter of Batman and Catwoman that peeked by interest to watch it. The series by the way was a so-so rating for my taste, I just watched the series thinking Batman will later appear later in some episodes.

Now jumping to 2019 a trailer for the a new Birds of Prey series came out where this time the main character is Harley Quinn as she teams up with Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya to protect a young girl named Cassandra Cain (who also later goes by the name Batgirl in later stories). The new Birds of Prey is out to protect Cassandra Cain from Black Mask, the supposed main villain for the new Birds of Prey.

His new Birds of Prey is a film that will take place after the Suicide Squad storyline where Harley Quinn is seemingly left Joker and has teamed up with Birds of Prey members Huntress (Helena Bertinelli), Black Canary and Renne Montoya.

I have not seen Suicide Squad yet so since this movie will be out by next year I still have a chance to go and find me a copy of the Suicide Squad movie since Birds or Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is said to be events to take place after the story of the other movie.

Other than the regular team up of the various members of the Birds of Prey, for me I sometimes consider the random all girl team up in DC may they be pure superheroines or some female villains joining their ranks, I consider them as the Birds of Prey. So yeah I know some will disagree on that but that is just my own opinion on their random team ups that later ends up fighting against the same opponent. Since Birds of Prey is often composed of women from both sides teaming up you can expect some of them will be fighting or performing in a rather not so conventional ways or how others are used to seeing them fight their opponents. Rather also Birds of Prey is most of the time out of the box mix of heroes and villains teaming up against one opponent.

Pictures from the internet credits to the owners of the pictures

Youtube channel The Rap Sheet for the video of 2002 Birds of Prey

Youtube  channel KinoCheck International for the Birds of Prey 2020 trailer

check their channels

BEAKMAN'S WORLD

BEAKMAN'S WORLD

Beakman's World an Educational TV series aired in 1992 up to 1998 with 91 episodes.

The series was mainly for educational purposes where the host Paul Zaloom portrays Beakman an eccentric scientist who performs comical experiments and demonstrations crafted for viewer mails. The series mainly takes on scientific approaches on experiments made in the show.

I remember watching this series every weekend, so other than watching cartoons back then in the 90's I also watch these live action learning series as well.

He has other hosts in the series a giant rat and a girl who helps him in his experiments.

The series is a bit crazy and a bit out of control at times but that is part of them being comical so that younger audience will not get bored watching the show since it is mainly experimenting and younger audience, if not entertained by the show would choose not to watch and do something else of change the channel.

The series did not seemed to have aired many episodes in the Philippines at the same time I somehow remember getting a glimpse of an episode of two being dubbed in our native tongue, not really sure if it was this show or another show.

So yeah, back then when internet was still new and not yet fully available to those who has no computer, modem and phone line at home to check the internet for scientific topics at the same time Youtube does not exist yet during that time, much less online streaming. Educational TV programs were being aired for younger audiences for them to be able to learn more at home and some schools I believe have video tapes of similar educational videos for students to view at school as a study aid used by teachers and not just using books for study references.

If Beakman's World is available somewhere in the internet, hey kids search for this show and learn how we learned stuff during our days when internet was still new and online streaming is not yet a thing.

video not mine (credits to the owner of the video and pics used in this review)

HAREM ANIME

HAREM ANIME

I previously made a rush review regarding Traps and Reverse Traps so this time I willl tackle Harem.

Harem anime where one male character gets to have a flock of female characters loving him all at the same time. In other words, polygamy where a person gets multiple partners for themselves. In anime there are two types of harem genre, the regular harem where the main character is a male character and the reverse harem where the main character is a female character.

The first recognized harem genre anime series is Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki anime series which aired in 1992 up to 2017 that has 4 OVA with a total of 24 episodes and rumors has been going around in the internet that the fifth OVA is in production which will have 6 episodes and still no announcements as to when it will be aired. This harem is about an ordinary male high school student named Tenchi Masaki who suddenly found himself surrounded by a number of alien females who look so much like humans that no one could easily tell that they are aliens unless they show their real powers as well as their ages.

Tenchi Muyo Ryo Ohki

As for the reverse harem version the first anime series to be recognized is the Fuushigi Yuugi aired in 1995 where Miaka an ordinary high school girl was dragged inside a mysterious book and there she met with a prince who mentioned that she can wish her way home once she has recruited the legendary guardians of Suzaku which she is to represent. Some of the male guardians have shown feelings for Miaka which somehow also included some of the opposing team male guardians.

Fushigi Yuugi

There are many other harem and reverse harem in the anime world but among all of them that I have watched it would seem Tenchi series is the only harem series that made a mix of harem and reverse harem in one series as well mixing in a furry and goddesses in the mix as well. Forgot to mention the loli since Sasami is a loli in the current release of the series.

In my own perspective for the harem series has become one of the most popular in demand genre in anime. One of the famous harem series so far is High School DxD where the main character was resurrected and turned into a demon pawn by a high-level demon whose bloodline is in line with the Gremory Clan one of the powerful demon clans in the demon world. Issei Hyoudo the resurrected human also became a powerful pawn that gained an ancient power and now aims to be a Harem King. DXD currently has three seasons with total of 48 tv episodes and four OVA and some specials as well. Fans as of the moment are waiting for the fourth season of the series.

High School DXD

For the best harem it would seem To Love-Ru is on the number one spot where a clumsy low charisma Rito Yuuki who cannot draw out any courage to confess his feelings towards the girl that he likes ends up being surrounded by a number of alien girls and decided to live with him and marry him. (information from reeldown forums)

To Love Ru (Motto)

For the reverse harem it would seem that Ouran High School Host Club took the throne basing from the forums that I have been checking in the internet. A story about a girl who got accepted in a prestigious private co-ed school filled with the rich and spoiled kids of influential people of the society. Being mistaken for as a boy the heroine Haruhi is forced to work as a new host of the Host Club in order to repay her sudden debt of a million yen just because she bumped and broke a highly expensive vase. She was exposed as a female but was still accepted as a host and doesn’t mind crossdressing as a boy while working her way to repay her debt. Surrounded by the boys of the Host Club that seems like they have feelings towards one girl, Haruhi.

Ouran High School Host Club

For a harem series specially when the members of the harem are mostly females, it is normal that male fans are mostly after the fanservices and sudden nude scenes which are often included in the harem genre. Crazy scenes like having sexual innuendos inserted in most parts of every episodes of a harem series. Some harem series that barely has any of these elements were most likely forgotten or never got another series if it ended up short or got 13 episodes or even less. But regardless to this there are some harem series that became popular back then without having too many of these elements and the viewers were happy to see the clumsy guy who has no charm at all gets all the hot girls that other side male characters have been dreaming to have for themselves. There are also harem anime where the girls will do everything and I mean everything up to the last straw of available option of service is rendered towards the male character.

A quick example of this is the anime Hanaukou Maid-tai where a young man suddenly inherits a huge fortune from his grandfather, his only living relative, the huge includes him inheriting a large amount of fortune, a large property with a mansion and huge number of maids that are ready to give him all the services for him and protect him. There are many types of maids in the mansion trained in various services, maids what cook, maids that will escort him, maids that will clean even his body, maids that will protect him since there are military trained maids in the mansion, maids who are also inventors, and many other types of maids. The maids were also trained to give him services which includes all the way services. The catch of this series is that the main character this time has allergy towards all females or what others may call gynophobia.

Hanaukyo Maid-Tai

To sum things up about harem anime, this is just an anime series for those who wants to see a bunch of fanservices and this does not just go with male audiences but also with female audiences and it doesn’t matter if it is harem or reverse harem due to preferences of the viewers.

But due to the content of the said genre it is not for the audiences below any legal ages of whatever country it is available.

If someone will ask me what harem anime is ok to watch I will just give them a list of titles but it is up to them what to watch since they have their own personal preferences and I am just a guy who has seen some anime under the said genre.

disclaime:
pics are from kissanime, information of top harem and reverse harem from reeldown

will be posting more reviews

DORORO 2019

DORORO  2019

The remake of the anime adaptation of the manga Dororo which aired in 1969 is coming in the homestretch of the series.

A series that I have been following since the first episode of the 2019 remake and also watched the 1969 version, a product of the legendary Osamu Tezuka.

Will be making a comparison review of both series once the 2019 version has ended. Both version for now is filled with action, blood, gore, flying limbs, mutilation and many more. Character growth and change as well as emotions filled the series as well. There were changes made in the 2019 version and I am still waiting for the series to end and will be watching it again once or maybe twice before making a comparison from both versions. For the manga I am still thinking if I will be making a review on that.

The basic layout of the series is about the young man named Hyakkimaru who was born with almost nothing and literally almost nothing. His body was almost consumed by 12 demons (42 demons in the original anime adaptation) when his father Daigo Kagemitsu traded his first born to the 12 demons in the Hall of Demons in exchange for the prosperity of his land and territory. Hyakkimaru was still unnamed during that time, he was saved by a goddess statue and he managed to survive up to the day he was adopted by an old man who makes prosthetic limbs for both the dead and the living. He was given artificial eyes and limbs as well as arming him with a pair of swords hidden within his forearms which when detached the swords are revealed. He then traveled in search of demons after learning that he can regain his lost body parts every time he manage to kill a demon linked to his lost body parts.

The next character which the series follows is Dororo, the titular character of series, a young orphan thief who survives by stealing from people and his fellow thieves and scamming them. He later meets Hyakkimaru by chance in some small town and began to follow him. From then on both of them traveled together, this changed Dororo from stealing but uses his skills of tongue to convince people that they can help exterminate demons for a price.

Both characters found out each other's secrets as they traveled, both are practically similar to each other a young orphan and the other was cast away by his father after he was traded off to a bunch of demons. Dororo was later revealed to be a girl who was brought up as a boy her parents, no reason was mentioned but by judging the atmosphere of how Dororo and her family were living back when they were all together, she was surrounded by a bunch of thieves and murderers who her father does not seem to fully trust as well and the only way to save Dororo was to bring her up as a boy to avoid some conflicts. Dororo lived a rough life not to mention having to witness many strange things as she traveled with Hyakkimaru, including witnessing many deaths of people samurais or civilians. Dororo had also witnessed things that she cannot even explain if she tells them to Hyakkimaru just like in the incident when she witnessed their female friend whom Hyakkimaru fell in love with was doing lewd business with samurais in order to earn money and survive so that she can buy rice for other orphaned children she lives with.

Doror became the anchor for Hyakkimaru for him to stay sane after all the killing he has done in order to retrieve his body. Along with the old monk who they constantly meet along their travels, a monk who has similar skills as Hyakkimaru, who guides them and teaches them what to do in certain times.

Along his travels he is reunited with his family, his father Daigo who sold him to the 12 demons, his mother Nui no Kata who tried to protect but in the end almost denying his existence as well and his younger brother Tahomaru who at first almost became friends with each other.

 

As the series is nearing the end Hyakkimaru is almost complete in regaining his body but at what cost. His remaining parts are both his arms and both his eyes. Both his arms were given by the last demon to the loyal subjects of his younger brother whom both arms were decapitated by him and both his eyes were given to his younger brother.

Both his arms have been retrieved now only his eyes remain and his brother is in possession of both his eyes being used as tools so that Tahomaru can keep up with his older brother who has gained incredible speed and strength while fighting off demons in his entire life.

Since the prosperity of the land of his father flourished because Hyakkimaru was sacrificed before he was born, what will be the price that has to be paid once he has retrieved his remaining body parts.

Dororo is scheduled for a 24 episode run and episode 23 just aired a few days ago, now we wait for the final episode coming in a few days.

Disclaimer:

I do not own the videos used in the review credits to their respective uploaders/owners

pics from the anime itself

OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB

OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB

An anime series from 2006 with 26 episodes that featured a Reverse Harem theme the opposite of the Harem theme genre where the main female character is with two or more male characters in the series.

The series is about Haruhi Fujioka who got a scholarship to study at a prestigious school called the high school known as Ouran Academy where normally students are from the rich and famous and the influenced families.

  

Haruhi Fujioka

In that school she stumbles upon a room which she thought was empty so that she can study in peace. But instead the room was turned into a place where a group of her male school mates where they entertain their female schoolmates by accommodating them and servicing them as hosts.

Haruhi got stuck with the club by accidentally bumping onto an overly expensive vase worth a million Yen which she cannot repay due to her being part of the average earning families or as the school calls them “commoners”. Haruhi in order to pay back the vase she was forced to be part of the Host Club and work until she has fully paid the worth of the vase by collecting points which she earns each time she successfully services a customer of the club. She was at first mistaken as a male student due to her appearance fashioning boyish hair style and dressing up like a boy and also flat. Her identity was later revealed as the first episode progressed where her identity was discovered one at a time by the six original members of the Ouran Host Club. Despite her being female she didn’t mind joining the club not because she has to repay the vase but also, she found the group fun to be with.

This series is just one of the reverse harems that I had watched from start to finish considering that it seems the main target audience of the series are female audience but the series appealed to my liking. The amount of comedy and antics of the characters of the series was entertaining enough as well as how the series characterized the mind sets of the rich characters of the Host club as being ignorant of the real world, spoiled and some being airheads much like how American series portrays the rich blondes being airheads.

The members of the Host Club are Tamaki Suoh the club president, Kyoya Ootori the vice-president also the brains of the group, the twins Hikaru – Kaoru Hitachiin the pranksters of the group, Mitsukuni “Honey” Haninozuka the cutest member of the group and seemed the youngest despite being same ages as the other members of the group and Takashi “Mori” Morinozuka the muscles of the group always seen together with Honey. They are the members of the Ouran Host Club with the addition of Haruhi Fujioka due to being forced to join because of her unexpected debt to repay the broken vase worth a million Yen and in order to repay it she has to continue to charade as a boy and entertain her female schoolmates who are also clueless that she is actually a girl, the group are the only ones who knows that Haruhi is actually a girl. The second female to join the group is Renge  Houshakuji who fell in love with Kyoya and pronounced herself as his wife, she ended up being the club manager after she forced herself into the group after transferring from a school abroad.

 Mori

Honey's guardian at school and the muscles of the group. Despite being protective of Honey, Mori is also protective towards Haruhi.

 Honey

The cutest boy of the group, he loves sweets and Mori all the same, he also loves being with Haruhi every time they are together.

 Kyoya

The brains of the group and the one that controls the loose cannon Tamaki every time he comes up with crazy ideas, but this guy is much crazier when it comes to taking drastic measures.

 Hikaru and Kaoru

Can't remember if there were characters in the series that can tell these two apart from one another other than Haruhi who can tell the difference between them that nobody else can see. This became the bridge that made the twins accept Haruhi as well as develop feelings towards her.

Tamaki "King"

The self proclaimed "King" of Hosts, he and Kyoya are the ones who came up of making the Host Club and recruited the others as members of the group. He is a loose cannon and after finding out Haruhi was a girl he proclaimed himself as Haruhi's "father" at school.

The story mainly revolves Haruhi and her school life trying to cope with a bunch of airhead and spoiled rich schoolmates who seemed clueless how average people go with their everyday lives. Although this is just for the series comic relief since I don’t think most well-off people are that ignorant to the real world since this is just to fill the comedy part of the story and this is not the only show that uses that kind of personification of those kinds of people.

Haruhi was introduced to be another character who had lost a parent or both which seemed to have become a norm in some anime series, in this case she lost her mother prior to the start of the story and she has been living with her father who works as a host as well but he is an Okama who had chosen to love Haruhi’s mother but still works as a hostess for their everyday expenses. It was also revealed that Kyoya took in the liberty to report to Haruhi’s father from time to time since they have taken in his daughter and it was the wise move since Haruhi is surrounded by mostly boys in most of her time at school. Feeling safe of the group after her father met them, he had come to the point of accepting the fact that one day Haruhi will someday come to a decision to either live with the one she loves or go on and live with her father.

Haruhi parents Ranka and Kotoko

Despite the showcase of personifying the rich members of the cast of Ouran they still gave them enough marbles to show that they are not all ignorant always and that they just know how the world works on how it was shown to them as they grew up. This was shown as the growth of the characters in every episode of the series as they come to a realization on how they approach Haruhi and how they cope with their feelings towards her. For Haruhi it was her growth on enjoying her student life with her friends and not just staying inside the shell that she had created after her mother died. she had taken care of most of the house duties since her father works multiple jobs so that they can keep up with their expenses and Haruhi for her share worked up to raise her grades to get scholarships for free or discounted school tuition fees.

The anime is one of the enjoyable series that watched from start to finish and this is not the only reverse harem that I had watched, there are others and I might do a review on them later on.

I would recommend the series to all those who want to watch something with comedy and high school life and this one seemed to be safe for all ages since the only fanservice that we will be getting from this one is Haruhi wearing normal girl clothes and not just her male school uniform which she wears every time she goes to school. She did on some occasion wear a girl’s school uniform which clearly shows her feminine self. She can also be considered as a reverse trap as well since she looks way more like a boy with her school uniform.

I can also say that the series is somewhat balanced as well starting off with the plot building of how Haruhi got stuck with a bunch of crazy rich kids, being friends with them regardless of their status of being rich and a commoner, how the group protected Haruhi, how Haruhi changed the way of how the rich kids look at society or of the real world, the development of each of their feelings towards each other, a bit of drama and romance as well which bloomed practically almost pass midway of the entire series run when the supposed fiancée of Tamaki was introduced.

Won’t spoil it too much anymore much better for those who have not seen the anime better check it out and I might as well read the manga for a comparison review or just a manga version review of the story. All in all the series itself did not made me feel being left hanging thinking of how the story will end for the group, it was more or less fulfilling as a stand alone if there are those who prefer watching rather than reading a manga or light novel version from which an anime was adapted from.

Disclaimer:
I do not own the videos presented in this review credits to the respective owners of the videos.
Pictures from the anime itself print screen and cropped by myself, credits to the uploader of the anime.