Ouran High School Host Club, ep. 09-17
Fri, Nov. 24th, 2006 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterGeneral note: I'm not writing "OMG HAHAHAHAHA! I nearly fell off the sofa" for the episodes, largely because I figure it's to be assumed by now. I basically almost fall off the sofa laughing or wave my hands around hysterically or scare off the rats regularly, about every ten minutes or so. One minute if it's a really hilarious episode.
My notes on ep. 9 simply read: "Takarazuka troupe of DOOM! With music!"
I continue to be completely amused by how meta the series is, and I am so happy that the talk of what women desire and what women want to see includes Takarazuka! Usually for series that focus mainly on men with only one female character, bug me a bit, particularly when the rest of the women are delegated to the background as squeers. And yet, it doesn't bug me that much with Ouran because the point is that it's all about the female gaze to begin with, so what we're seeing and squeeing over is exactly what the girls going to the host club want to see and squee over. And sometimes this includes women dressing as men and singing! Yay!
I also love that the head of the Zuka Host Club (HEE! See: general note and multiply by ten) sounded like a male seiyuu doing a female character, and that of course, Haruhi's seiyuu sounds like a female seiyuu doing a male character in normal anime (and of course, like everyone in Takarazuka), except in this one, the character actually is a female who just sort of sounds male and sort of sounds female. Bonus extra points if the seiyuu was actually male for the Zuka character, particularly as a callout to the onnagata in kabuki.
And though sometimes the function of the host club as a fulfiller of women's desires gets obscured in the silliness, we also get episodes like the one on Nekozawa and his sister!
Nekozawa jumping out of the window on the second story to save his sister from the evil cat amidst rose petals wildly scattering killed me. HEE! I love that it's so ludicrous and over-the-top -- window! second story! menacing cat! -- and yet, it's still really touching at the same time. I only hope that I learn how to do that someday! And Renge's bishounen training camp? HEE!
My notes on the Haruhi-dad episode are basically: Haruhi's dad is just like Erika from Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen! Except, you know, hilarious. And then there's the doubling of Haruhi's dad and Tamaki, who often says he's like Haruhi's dad, and how they're pretty much identical. Tamaki's imagination of what poverty looks like totally cracked me up, as did the group's attempt to go to the "shoumin suupaa" (commoner supermarket). Actually, pretty much anytime anyone says "shoumin," you can assume that I'm cackling.
The Honey-can't-eat-sweets episode had me rolling around on the floor, particularly with the numbered lists of Honey's assorted wiles. But then.... MORI-SEMPAI! With rose petals! And a totally shoujo confession on how he deliberately tries to make Honey hate him to punish himself! Except it's over cavities! Again, I boggle at how over-the-top the show can be and still make things work, because at that moment, I totally wanted to squee over Mori-sempai, just like all the other schoolgirls were doing. And... again, this is where the part with Mori-sempai turning down a girl to be with Honey would normally bug me, except after he does that, you have troupes of girls squealing with joy and Renge leading the chanting of "Moe! Moe! Moe!"
"Haruhi in Wonderland" is totally weird, and I don't get it at all. I suppose it's better than the usual episode recap.
And then, in the next few episodes, the show actually gets sort of serious! I was wondering if they would ever really pair off Haruhi with one of the hosts; I'd basically just assumed that it'd be Tamaki if it ever happened. By this time, I mostly thought that they'd given up on anything that wasn't farcical romance, but the thing with Hikaru is rather interesting. It also makes sense, given that Haruhi's one of the only people who can actually tell the twins apart, and the repeated mentions that the twins were pretty antisocial before getting to know her. I'm curious to see if they'll continue down this road and how it'll work, given Kaoru.
Also, I wanted to kick Hikaru through most of it, but the moment he put the earphones on Haruhi and grumpily hugged her close, I was completely lost. Wow. Grumpy and reluctant moments of kindness totally sucker me every time.
The episode on Kyouya finally made me see why some people ship Tamaki and Kyouya. I'm not totally bought into it yet, just because I don't really ship anyone in the series. It's a little odd, since the entire thing is about fandom and random shippiness and moe and all that kind of stuff, but because it's so meta, I have a hard time thinking of any of the characters in a romantic situation seriously.
But oh Kyouya! I love you and how grumpy and penny-pinching you are, and how desperately yet coolly you try to persuade people that you're just an egoist. I mean, you are. But you also aren't.
My notes on ep. 9 simply read: "Takarazuka troupe of DOOM! With music!"
I continue to be completely amused by how meta the series is, and I am so happy that the talk of what women desire and what women want to see includes Takarazuka! Usually for series that focus mainly on men with only one female character, bug me a bit, particularly when the rest of the women are delegated to the background as squeers. And yet, it doesn't bug me that much with Ouran because the point is that it's all about the female gaze to begin with, so what we're seeing and squeeing over is exactly what the girls going to the host club want to see and squee over. And sometimes this includes women dressing as men and singing! Yay!
I also love that the head of the Zuka Host Club (HEE! See: general note and multiply by ten) sounded like a male seiyuu doing a female character, and that of course, Haruhi's seiyuu sounds like a female seiyuu doing a male character in normal anime (and of course, like everyone in Takarazuka), except in this one, the character actually is a female who just sort of sounds male and sort of sounds female. Bonus extra points if the seiyuu was actually male for the Zuka character, particularly as a callout to the onnagata in kabuki.
And though sometimes the function of the host club as a fulfiller of women's desires gets obscured in the silliness, we also get episodes like the one on Nekozawa and his sister!
Nekozawa jumping out of the window on the second story to save his sister from the evil cat amidst rose petals wildly scattering killed me. HEE! I love that it's so ludicrous and over-the-top -- window! second story! menacing cat! -- and yet, it's still really touching at the same time. I only hope that I learn how to do that someday! And Renge's bishounen training camp? HEE!
My notes on the Haruhi-dad episode are basically: Haruhi's dad is just like Erika from Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen! Except, you know, hilarious. And then there's the doubling of Haruhi's dad and Tamaki, who often says he's like Haruhi's dad, and how they're pretty much identical. Tamaki's imagination of what poverty looks like totally cracked me up, as did the group's attempt to go to the "shoumin suupaa" (commoner supermarket). Actually, pretty much anytime anyone says "shoumin," you can assume that I'm cackling.
The Honey-can't-eat-sweets episode had me rolling around on the floor, particularly with the numbered lists of Honey's assorted wiles. But then.... MORI-SEMPAI! With rose petals! And a totally shoujo confession on how he deliberately tries to make Honey hate him to punish himself! Except it's over cavities! Again, I boggle at how over-the-top the show can be and still make things work, because at that moment, I totally wanted to squee over Mori-sempai, just like all the other schoolgirls were doing. And... again, this is where the part with Mori-sempai turning down a girl to be with Honey would normally bug me, except after he does that, you have troupes of girls squealing with joy and Renge leading the chanting of "Moe! Moe! Moe!"
"Haruhi in Wonderland" is totally weird, and I don't get it at all. I suppose it's better than the usual episode recap.
And then, in the next few episodes, the show actually gets sort of serious! I was wondering if they would ever really pair off Haruhi with one of the hosts; I'd basically just assumed that it'd be Tamaki if it ever happened. By this time, I mostly thought that they'd given up on anything that wasn't farcical romance, but the thing with Hikaru is rather interesting. It also makes sense, given that Haruhi's one of the only people who can actually tell the twins apart, and the repeated mentions that the twins were pretty antisocial before getting to know her. I'm curious to see if they'll continue down this road and how it'll work, given Kaoru.
Also, I wanted to kick Hikaru through most of it, but the moment he put the earphones on Haruhi and grumpily hugged her close, I was completely lost. Wow. Grumpy and reluctant moments of kindness totally sucker me every time.
The episode on Kyouya finally made me see why some people ship Tamaki and Kyouya. I'm not totally bought into it yet, just because I don't really ship anyone in the series. It's a little odd, since the entire thing is about fandom and random shippiness and moe and all that kind of stuff, but because it's so meta, I have a hard time thinking of any of the characters in a romantic situation seriously.
But oh Kyouya! I love you and how grumpy and penny-pinching you are, and how desperately yet coolly you try to persuade people that you're just an egoist. I mean, you are. But you also aren't.
(no subject)
Sun, Nov. 26th, 2006 09:49 am (UTC)