Anime is an art medium that has no shortage of silly rom-com’s. Unfortunately, it also has no shortage of mediocre ones. This is something I had noticed when I was first getting into anime and slowly but surely converting me into being the otaku I am now. However, one anime I saw some time ago that I really loved was Ouran Highschool Host Club. From the first to last episode, the laugh-until-you’re-crying-from-laughter comedy, surprisingly mature and emotional story-lines, lovably eccentric and very well written characters and unapologetic & frequent meta humour absolutely won me over. Of all the good or mediocre romantic comedies I have ever seen in anime, this one is one of my favourites. Why exactly? Well…
*Warning, some minor spoilers ahead. There is a summary at the bottom if you care about spoilers or don’t want to read the entire review..*
When it comes to writing, there are few things harder to nail than comedy. A multitude of elements all have to work synchronously including timing, atmosphere, witty punchlines and pushing a joke far without totally breaking the audience's suspense of disbelief. Ouran somehow manages to pull it off. It is incredibly not subtle in its jokes and pushing character archetypes to their extremities. Despite that, it works because of how they use these stereotypes situationally. It also has some great running jokes.
One of the best recurring jokes is the fact that the Hosts (besides Haruhi) know very little of “commoner” goods or lifestyles. So every time that Haruhi (our heroine) brings one, it gathers a lot more attention than it deserves, making the other hosts both incredibly condescending and yet also genuinely giddish. In terms of both framing and comedy, this works so well because they have shown the characters to be unusually excited by such cheap and uninteresting goods, playing on the audience's expectations.
Ouran also has some of the best comedic timing I have ever seen and the best example of this I can think of is one of the scenes I laughed the hardest in. This scene also shows all of Ouran’s best qualities when it comes to comedy. This was when it looked like Haruhi was leaving the club for a equally hilarious and ridiculous Zuka club, who seemed to be a female parallel of the Host Club. The plan they finally decided on was for themselves to dress up as females, as they thought that appealing to her feminine side would convince her to stay in the Host Club.
Now what I think works so well here and for many of the other jokes is how they unite taking a joke to hyperbolic levels of absurdity and still having it make sense for the characters to do in the first place. We have seen a lot of scenes of the Hosts dressing up in ridiculous and expensive looking costumes, so it isn’t too outlandish or jarring to see them dress up in drag. It also works as situationally, she has been hanging out with a lot of dudes due to her debt. It wouldn’t be totally out of the question for Haruhi to want to hang out with girls either, despite the fact that she doesn’t really care about that. Lastly, there was the pure shock factor too. Since it wasn’t foreshadowed or telegraphed, there is a lot of genuine surprise when you do see them looking very ladylike (at least, more than usual).
Even though Ouran is gut-bustingly funny, what I think gets unfairly overshadowed is how good some of the more emotional scenes are written and the close bonds (sometimes a little too close) they share. As the anime moved into its second half, the narrative got considerably more serious. Ouran delved into the sadder or unfortunate circumstances that some of the Hosts were dealing with. It tackles a wide variety of common problems that adolescents deal with as they grow into adulthood, including acceptance from family, dealing with a strict family that has already decided your future or even loss of close family members.
I honestly thought that Ouran was best when it was taking the goofy characters and having them mature and grow past their problems. It was written in a way to not only make these super rich characters relatable to (mostly) anyone else watching but it also made them more than just the tropes that the comedy often confined them too. They had balanced both the more serious and dramatic moments very well with plenty of great jokes and hilarious situations.
If I really had any complaints about the writing, it would probably be the ending. Now the last few episodes were easily some of the best in the entire show. It for the most part brought some sort of conclusion to the main protagonists arcs and implied a potential romance blossoming… key word there was “implied”. Because the anime was airing while the manga wasn’t really done, there was only so much they could do about the ending. But since it is an adaption, comparisons to both the anime and manga ending are inevitable and the manga's ending was honestly far better. It provided a final resolution to the characters while resolving the romance as well and is by far my favourite part of Ouran (in either the anime or manga).
But no matter how good your writing is, I believe the writing is often only as good as the characters and honestly, I think the characters are Ouran’s biggest strength.
Haruhi Fujioka is easily one of the best female protagonists I’ve seen in a shojo anime. It’d be one thing for her just to be sorta tomboyish and broke as an obvious foil to the frivolous and rich Hosts. However, Haruhi is much more than just your atypical Shojo protagonist; she also is just an excellent character in her own rights. What makes her character work so well isn’t just her non judgmental personality or her keen emotional insight; its how much of a positive influence she is on her peers.
As the show heavily implies, she and the Hosts live in two different worlds. Haruhi helps both worlds see more eye to eye. She helps humble them and be kinder to others (thus being better Hosts) and they help her normally anti-social personality to open up more, teaching her to also have fun along the way. Which brings me to my personal favourite character in Ouran, Tamaki Suoh.
Tamaki’s character development in some ways is rather subtle. He starts out being overly dramatic and downright obnoxious and in many ways, that doesn’t necessarily change. At first, he just sorta plays the silly king/jester who is often the punchline to many jokes. As the tone in the show changed to focus more on character drama, we started seeing Tamaki for who he really is.
Deep down past his obnoxious and goofy facade, Tamaki is easily the most selfless, compassionate and in many ways the smartest/most insightful Host. He was often able to understand his friends emotions even better than they were able to and hardly ever seriously asks for reward or acknowledgment in return. And when Tamaki and Haruhi were together, you were really able to see each other bring out the best of the other, making for a great romantic connection between the two.
Another notable friendship is the one he has with Kyoya. Tamaki managed to identify Kyoya’s inner turbulence he was dealing with because of his family, resulting in Kyoya being honest with what he really wants and even expressing himself in the way of his choosing. Lastly, another smaller reason why he stands out as the best character was that Tamaki did all this while still dealing with a mother who is missing and a very strict, cruel and selfish grandmother.
Outside the main cast, there are two more characters I’d like to briefly touch on; they are the famous Hitachin twins, Hikaru and Kaoru. Their character arc primarily deals with their own isolation and how to interact with others. Hikaru (my favourite of the two) later on is shown to be rather emotional and immature, reinforcing his lack of consideration for others feelings. The best example of that is when Hikaru goes out on a date with Haruhi. He gets consumed by jealousy and even at one point, abandons the date in Haruhi’s time of need. Yet he still came back and was there to help her when she needed it. That was easily my favourite Hitachin bros scene as well as one of my favourite in the anime.
The music in Ouran wasn’t super noteworthy, as it’s mostly just classical music with original tracks occasionally. Despite that, there are definitely some solid tracks that I found myself returning to. My personal favourite is the piano version of Sakura Kiss (the opening theme). It played during some emotional moments of the anime and it worked very well, enhancing the scene in the anime and bringing back memories of Ouran listening to just the track itself. The opening theme is also catchy as hell and brings a smile to my face everytime I hear it.
From an art and voice acting perspective, Ouran is also very good. The animation and art direction was fantastic as usual by Bones, using lush, vivid colours while keeping true to the original artstyle of the manga. I can still remember the plethora of roses whenever the hosts are charming their guests. The voice acting was also spectacular. Caitlin Glass does a fantastic job as Haruhi, embodying all her snark and subtle compassion and fear buried inside. Vic Mignogna was amazing as Tamaki, embracing all of Tamaki’s silliness and obnoxiousness wholeheartedly in his performance. Other notable performances include Travis Willingham as Mori and Todd Haberkorn as Hikaru.
Summary:
Ouran High School Host Club is a fantastic standalone anime. While it’s last episode pales in comparison to the end of the manga (as it wasn’t finished), it still managed to balance hilarious comedy with great emotional drama. Its characters are incredibly loveable and memorable even years after watching Ouran for the first time. Honestly, I highly recommend watching this before reading the manga, as I think that it's the best way to experience Ouran for the first time. Afterwards, read or purchase the manga and read for the definitive ending, as it’s worth it for that ending alone.
“A person can change, at the moment when the person wants to change”
