The story begins in the prestigious Ouran Academy, where the rich and famous send their children to get the finest of educations. Meet Haruhi (no, not Suzumiya), an honors student and so-called “commoner” who got into Ouran Academy through a scholarship. While looking for a quiet place to study, Haruhi comes across the 3rdMusic Room, where she meets the Ouran High School Host Club, a group of six very attractive boys with way too much time on their hands entertain girls who also have way too much time on their hands. Through this encounter, Haruhi accidentally knocks over an 8-million yen vase, causing Harhi to be indebted to the club. To pay off the debt, Haruhi must act as a host club member. However, there’s one problem with that situation; Haruhi’s a girl. The story pretty much starts off from there. Though, to be perfectly honest, in this type of setup you don’t have much to work with storywise, so in order to make this show work you need incredibly strong
characters. Well, I’m happy to say that this show does not disappoint in that category.
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| The Ouran High School Host Club is a club whose main purpose is to make girls happy |
I absolutely adore pretty much every character within this anime, especially the main ones. Every main character was memorable, every main character was relatable, every main character was interesting, every main character was SO likable, I never thought that this amount of me caring about any character would ever happen. This cast is better than Hetalia’s cast by about 10 miles, and I would even argue that this is one of my favorite casts of characters of all time period. The main aspect that makes the cast work would be their backstories, and how they carry on into the lives of the club members in present day. This anime nails what a lot of anime miss about backstories, and that it the ability to make the audience relate to those backstories. A lot of anime try to come up with the most tragic backstory they could think of when it comes to characters, but they forget that what makes a backstory tragic is the audience’s relationship with the character. If the audience doesn’t care about the character, no amount of tragic backstory could make up for it. Alois Trancy from Black Butler 2 is a perfect example of a despicable character that the anime tries to make up for by giving him a tragic backstory, but because he’s so unlikable, I couldn’t care less. In OHSHC, while the backstories aren’t the most tragic you’ll ever come across, you’re so invested in the characters and the backstories are so realistic that you don’t care, and you feel happy that the characters are moving on from their troubling pasts. I could see someone making the argument that the backstories are shallow because these people are rich and therefore rich people problems don’t hold a finger towards poor people problems, but I still think that the backstories work. For example, I’m sure that a lot of people vie for their parent’s attention, but are overshadowed by an older sibling or something. That’s a sympathetic backstory, and it’s one that I think the majority of the audience could relate to.
So, let’s move onto the characters themselves. First, let’s start off with Haruhi. She is probably my favorite female protagonist in all of anime. She kind of acts as the anchor for the audience due to the insanity of the rest of the club, but the creators gave her a great personality. She’s cool and collected most of the time, but it never gets to the point of where she’s cold. She’s logical and independent, but a little too independent at times, and develops into someone who learns that it’s not wrong to rely on others every once in a while. She is also a no-nonsense type of person, which is a major contrast towards the majority of the club. Speaking of which, Tamaki Suoh is one of my favorite characters of all time, not just in anime. In a nutshell, he’s obnoxious in a likable way, but at the same time you get the sense that all he really wants to do is help people. He’s kind of like an Edward Elric character, in the sense that I just can’t describe how much I like the character. Although, to be perfectly honest, beyond that, Edward and Tamaki couldn’t be more different; I just brought up the comparison because I can’t really put into words why I like Ed so much. I will say that his backstory is probably the most tragic, and you will want to punch his grandmother in the face if you get really invested into his character. Seriously. Next there’s Kyōya, who is kind of like the club’s accountant. He was my least favorite character out of the club, but I still found him likable to some degree, even if he is kind of a jerk. Again, though, the reason he turned out the way he did was because of the environment he grew up in, and he had to conceal his true desires and live like that. It’s kind of hard to explain without spoiling too much, but he’s a very understandable character. Next there are the identical twins, Hikaru and Kaoru. They have the running joke of trying to get everyone to tell them apart, with most people failing. It’s also really hard to talk about these two without spoiling too much, but again, their backstory is understandable and I think that their development, especially Hikaru’s, is fantastic, probably the best in the entire show. Finally, the last two main characters are Honey and Mori. Yeah, I know that they have longer names, but that’s pretty much how they’re referred to throughout the show. Honey loves sweets and is probably the cutest thing to ever walk this planet, and Mori is sort of like his bodyguard who’s quiet and reserved. These characters also develop rather nicely, but again, spoilers abound. As for the side characters, they’re absolutely fine. They do their jobs and are memorable in their own ways, except for a group of three characters: The Zuka Club. My god, these characters are SO ANNOYING! They barely have any purpose within the story, and the “comedy” they bring to the anime is awful. Though, to be fair, they only make two appearances throughout 26 episodes, so the other 24 are absolutely perfect character-wise.
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| From left to right: Kyoya (black hair and glasses), Hikaru and Kaoru (red hair), Mori (black, spiky hair), Honey (the boy with the bunny), Haruhi (brown hair), Tamaki (blonde hair) |
Being a slice-of-life romantic comedy whose focus is mainly on the characters, story is not the first priority of this show. Each episode focuses on a different event that the Host Club has to go through, resulting in laughs, character development, or both.
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| The story focuses on various events that the club go through, featuring laughs and character development |
Produced by Bones, the animation wasn’t the best that they’ve ever come out with. The movements are kind of clunky, but the character designs were original and the backgrounds looked pretty nice, so it’s not bad. Normally I would give it a pass because this is a show from 2006, but the original Fullmetal Alchemist came out in 2003 and had much better animation, so Bones doesn’t really have much of an excuse. As for sound, the music was not all that memorable. It fit the show, but didn’t stand out to me in any way. The opening and ending were okay, but not something that I particularly liked. Then, should you watch it in English or Japanese? English all the way! This anime has one of the best English dubs I’ve ever heard period. Every character sounds genuine, every performance sounds convincing, and it’s just perfect. Best performance goes to Vic Migona for Tamaki; you can really tell that he put in a ton of effort into this role.
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| Animation and sound are average, but the English dub is fantastic |
Even though I honestly loved this anime, it’s kind of hard to recommend to most people. It is a show that’s generally for the female audience, but I would recommend it to anyone who likes romance. If you hate romance, though, then don’t touch this show with a ten-foot pole. This is also a great show if you like comedies and fantastic characters, so if you like those types of anime, go ahead and watch it. I give Ouran High School Host Club a 4.5 out of 5, and a recommendation to watch it if you like romantic comedies and incredibly well-done characters. Well, like always, it is up to you to decide your own opinion.
ScoreCard:
For those who live in America, you can watch it on Netflix too!
Further Recommendations:
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| Clannad Romance lovers, you will probably fall in love with this anime. While I do think that this anime is slightly overrated (though I still really like it), it has some well-written characters, beautiful animation, and some moments that will probably make you cry your eyes out. If you want an anime that focuses more on the romantic aspects of a romance, check this anime out. |
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