As I watch Ouran High School Host Club this weekend, I’ll keep my notes on it here — that’s what this site is for, after all. I’ll come right out and say that, when I made this offhand comment on Twitter…
p0nt1fus I think I’ll marathon Ouran High School Host Club this weekend. How many man points do I lose for doing that?
…I didn’t expect to find anything of note after two episodes, even considering the number of people who replied and told me that my preconceptions were, shall we say, off. Actually, surprise itself may be the source of my fervent desire to jot things down so early on.
I had decided, for some reason, that Ouran would surely be your average (or, well, slightly above, given its reception) shoujo wish-fulfillment show. I mean, a man-harem? Not that I’m about to deny the ladies harems of their own when I so irrationally enjoy harem shows, but even I’ll admit that most harem shows are…shall we say, lacking in some areas? I was, thus, fully prepared to hate this flamboyant young man — surely he would be inhuman in his perfection, a shoddy mess of fanservice.
Imagine my surprise when Tamaki turned out to be sympathetic (and hilarious) because being smooth around women is the only thing he’s good at (so far, at least). It’s his dicking-around that causes the first major plot complication, after all. Now imagine my delight when he was one-true-paired with a character who can see right through his bullshit. Those of you who have recommended Ouran to me at some point or another may be thinking something along the lines of, “well yeah.” Generally my tendency to make snap judgments with the assumption that I can (and will) always revise them later is annoying but harmless, but sometimes, sometimes…
I’d like to say something here about how Ouran is meta-shoujo, but I don’t know enough about shoujo to fully process all the potential commentary, so I’ll skip that for now. I just like meta-stuff, but, barring meaningful comments thereupon, I’ll leave you with this: the unspoken implication of the host club’s taking advantage of women for fun/profit/etc. amuses me, mostly because self-righteous douchebaggery in general amuses me when performed around a character who can see it for what it is and will probably (hopefully…come on, Haruhi, make me proud) start to expose it as time goes on. Mind you, I’m not saying that the host club is founded entirely on self-righteous douchebaggery, but I feel pretty confident right now in saying that’s a part of it.
I’ve never watched Ouran (and been wanting to for the past few years but never really got to it, maybe someday), but my anime mentor told me it’s something he never wanted to be caught watching.
I’m not sure how I’ll handle Haruhi either.
From what I’ve seen (four episodes now), there are much more embarrassing shoujo shows to be caught watching. It’s no more embarrassing than, say, Karin, which I liked and don’t mind admitting to having seen. Besides, whenever I speak worryingly of my man points, it’s with the knowledge that my man points are already a negative number.
I like Haruhi so far, though that could easily change insofar as I am a flake.
Now, as they say, the ball is in Farnsworth’s court. Specifically, you’re actually posting about something I’ve watched. And oh how I’ve watched it. Ouran is one of my favorite shows of any national origin.
I’m looking forward to marathoning things again… When I’m done with thesis. Well, good thing is, I pretty much *have* to be done with that in less than a month, so, uh, marathoning sooner? Er…