Monday, March 24, 2008
It seems like that either I’ve received an unbreakable curse or been bond by an invincible force;, but I’m helplessly addicted to the anime and manga series Ouran High School Host Club for a week now. And this is how my birthday was spent, reading the latest chapter scanlation and watching the downloaded anime episodes. Not only it got me all obsessed again, it also made me addicted to a Chinese song, for some reason it always makes me think of the series whenever I hear it… And I went as far as making a special page for it (the series), titled “A Song for Ouran”, but it’s still under construction and I don’t plan to finish it all in a day or two…I have finished all 59 chapters of the manga series and scan the latest raw scans of Chapter 60. I admit, this is one of the best series I’ve ever read. It felt like the time I was reading Pride & Prejudice, I’ve helplessly fell for every moment of it. Just like how Jane Austen used words to capture me, Ouran did the same thing, but not only with words but also with the illustration. I guess I’m a person who actually consider a fiction or manga series seriously and feel the every emotion the characters felt, which sucks in a way, cause it makes me so depressed sometimes… And unlike other series, I get to fall off my chair at the same time I would want to cry because of the emotional scenes. Bisco Hatori-sempai most certainly had done a most awesome job, especially the plot. (I’m so fond of it =))
And which is my favorite character? I was making my decision since the moment I picked up volume 1 from the shelf, but I found it hard to make a decision. And I still don’t have one; I love every main character of the story. And that’s what a great job Hatori-sempai had done with the characterization. Of course I’ve fell for Tamaki, the host club King, at the very beginning of the series, and he is my number one favorite. His optimistic personality and that tragic hidden past were vividly yet purposefully presented by Hatori-sempai at the perfect timing that everyone who read the series can hardly hate him. And like any typical main guy of a series, his tragic past does make us hate the “evil” grandma and love him more. What makes me like him the most is his ability to understand other people’s feelings no matter how deep they bury them (the feelings), girls and guys, and his optimistic on look of life even though his life is definitely not a happy one. And lastly as I’m bluntly stating, he is the hottest looking guy of the club, at least to my personal preference. (I guess I do prefer the “prince” after all, I really thought I was more the “cool” type…)
The twins are probably the next on my list, mainly because I’m similar with them in many ways. (Their loneliness mainly…) And who doesn’t like the comic relief in a story, =) but it did get serious for them during chapter 55-57 or so. Personally, I think Hatori-sempai did a good job on the events that made them grew up. Now that I look at it, the twins from chapter 1 and their later chapter selves are really different, and it really was the purpose of Hatori-sempai. I’m pretty sure that it was part of her agenda to have the twins change dramatically throughout the series, but it was still fun to see their goofy personality once a while. What happened to their role of the comic relief, they are the “little devil” type after all. However, as I’m looking at the raw scans of Chapter 60, there are no comic relives in the chapter at all. Guess this series is getting serious.
As for Kyouya, his coolness and seriousness is definitely his selling point, and he reminded me of Taiki Kou from Sailor Moon Sailor Stars so much. After all, they are both Scorpios. Just by his physical looks, he is definitely the most serious and even to some point, “evil” looking. And after all, he wouldn’t do anything unless there’s profit, but I don’t think that really is the case of him, especially the chapter when he “defended” Haruhi at the commoner’s market. However, I understand him perfectly. After all, he did first become friends with Tamaki because that he is a Suou, and the pressure of being a third son is pretty understandable reason for his personality. He did proven that he is a trustworthy friend though, *reading the Parris school trip arc* and it was pretty touching for what he did on that trip. I felt sorry for him that he had low blood pressure just for looking for Tamaki’s mother. And his scary looking face when he first woke up is one of the best comic relieves. =)
Next comes Mistukuni (Huni) and Takashi (Mori), I decided to put them together since they are so related to each other and they are cousins after all. I guess Huni and Mori’s relationship are pretty special, somehow even beyond the point of the reason Hatori-sempai gave that the Mori’s family had served Huni’s family for generations. (In the beginning I really did think that it was yaoi or something like that…) What I liked about them the most is that beyond that childish mask of Huni and the silent wall of Mori, those two are the most understanding characters of the series. After all, they are the third years; they were able to look through the second and first years’ feelings for each other. (Minus Kyouya, I don’t think he has any romantic feelings for Haruhi…though the Nekozawa private beach arc could contradict my theory…) They both have a mature heart despite what physical appearance they decide to put on, esp. for Huni. And I think Tamaki is right; there is no need for Huni to hind his true feelings deep down if he already has a matured heart.
I saved the protagonist for the last, and I guess I really could write a lot about Haruhi. She is really different from the typical shoujo main female lead I encountered. She had a simple personality instead of the optimistic, cute, and happy to level of noisy personality a typical female protagonist has. And she’s not afraid of many things, but her fear of thunder and lightning was something that greatly amused me, and I’m still amused by it. However, she does share one thing that most protagonist has, the ability to make other characters change. She was the source of the twins’ changes, and every other members of the host club were affected by her, regardless how big the influence is. She reminded me greatly of Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket, despite the different personalities the two have. In fact the entire series reminded me of Fruits Basket, but I’ll discuss that later. I guess what made like Haruhi (or the reason I don’t hate her since I usually hated a series’ female protagonist…) is really her simplicity. She doesn’t have all the big theories of life, (like Sailor Moon’s bring speech for example…), and the way she understand other characters’ feelings is very similar to Tamaki. As for the pairing, it was pretty obvious that Hatori-sempai was rooting for Haruhi x Tamaki, and that’s probably why she arranged the twins to fall for her for more drama. Personally, I’m really indifferent about this pairing. After all, there is nothing surprising about the arrangement, it was written all over the very first pages of the series. That’s also another similarity with Fruits Basket.
Since I’m done with the main characters of the story, I’ll talk about the similarity of Ouran and Fruits Basket. (Since I can’t really control myself anymore…) Both series are romance, except Ouran is more a romantic comedy. What makes them really similar is their plot. Both used an outsider, a commoner and someone who didn’t know the Sohma curse, to lead to the change of a special “race”. In the case of Fruits Basket, the Sohmas were under a curse and were rather isolated in a small world. And for the host club, they were the rich who didn’t even need to do the most essential things of living, like Anne-Sophie had said. Both plot revolved around the changes of the two special “race” by the outsider, with romance sparked between the main guy and the female outsider. (Wasn’t it obvious that Kyo and Tohru, Tamaki and Haruhi were going to be paired up?) And both authors added more drama and angst in the story by making a third person to fall for the protagonist first. (Yuki and the twins) And talk about “coincidences”, both series were long while their anime counter part both had exactly 26 episodes with an ending that somewhat counts as a real ending. Not to mention the popularity of both series are pretty “similar”… Well, that’s just how I’m looking at it though; there could be other ways of think about the two series.
My prediction of the manga ending is somewhat Fruits Basket influenced. At this point of the story, I think the story will be pretty serious for a while, after all, we did entered the stage where both main characters were confused and are just that one step away from the realizing their own true feelings. So I would say that we had almost reached the top of the mountain that leads to the climax. As for the ending of the story, it’ll pretty typical if Tamaki and Haruhi end up together all sappy after like an enormous event with the villain of the story that I strongly predict to be the grandma. (Just like Akito in Fruits Basket, see the pattern here?) But it would be fun and interesting if Haruhi didn’t end up with Tamaki but someone else from the Host Club. After all, Kyouya did say that a twist at the end make thing much more interesting. So I really won’t be really surprised either if she ended up Kyouya or one of the twins… After all, it really depends on Hatori-sempai’s taste of endings. And who knows? Maybe I’m completely off; maybe our main guy and/or villain haven’t even been introduced yet. It’s not a hundred percent that Tamaki is really the main guy (though I doubt that is really the case), and the main guy will soon be introduced. After all, we just arrived at Chapter 60…
As for the anime, though I did sign the petition for a second season today, I doubt that the animations company is going to make a second season. Even though I did mention earlier that the ending is really somewhat a real ending, but it’s acceptable. I mean, after all, the animation staff did follow the main manga plot line from Volume 1 to Volume 8 and took the juiciest plot out to make the anime. Why would they suddenly introduce an anime character only to the series, Éclair, toward the end of the series? Is it to make it more original? I think that’s hardly the case. Rather, they are making an effect to produce an ending they thought that would suit Ouran. After all, they did follow the pattern of producing an evil villain as an attempt to separate the main couple and only failed. And just as a theory, if the animation staff did discussed the anime’s ending with Hatori-sempai and she approved it, it’s kinda clear which ending I discussed earlier will come true… unless she want a big shock to all the readers… (which is kinda exciting for me if she really did it =))
I never expected this to be this long… (Guess I should revise this later and format it into a review, shouldn’t I? There are many good materials for my special page, too =)) I guess I am really making a big deal out of this, but I think it’s worth of my time. As an overall conclusion, what attracted me the most about Ouran is still its serious plot. Comic relieves are still comic relives, and when it comes to the serious emotions the characters faced, Hatori-sempai did a splendid job on all of them. I expect the ending to be fairytale like due to Ouran’s genre, but it would be even more exciting if the ending came with a surprise. (at least I would be very happy =)) But either way, it already is a very awesome series. After all, the most important thing in my theory of a good manga is the plot, and Ouran already has a great plot. So no matter what the ending really is, Ouran is definitely a manga worth reading. Of course, I don’t want it to end any time sooner. =)
And that’s my view on the series, though I did skip things such as the art style and music of the anime. I really only intended this to be a simple entry of the day… guess I outdid my job again. *sigh* This is almost the length of one of my short story… Thankfully I had the plenty of time to kill today; it is the last day of spring break after all…
Do I have room for a Screen Shot of the Day? Err...I'll squeeze it in:
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Looking from: the desktop, my laptop is getting revamped again as I’m typing this
Feeling: pretty content *sipping from the tea cup*
Listening to: 老鼠爱大米 (Mouse Loves Rice) – Twins
Word count: 2,291 (don’t expect an entry this long for the next 12 months…)
Labels: Ouran High Host Club
