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.
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.
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.
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.
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