Hopefully Ghostlightning will forgive me for parroting his column in my title here, but I think it’s relevant. I finally got around to finishing Ouran High School Host Club, a show well worth the time I very nearly didn’t invest in it. You may have noticed a distinct lack of Twitter activity from my corner on the matter, and that’s because I spared you all what would have been a flood of unprecedented proportions. But I figure summation and general idea-jotting is what this blog is for, and I haven’t posted here in quite some time, so here you go.
The unordered list approach has worked just fine for the last few posts, so I’ll go with that again. Hopefully it makes reading a little easier; you can skim over bullets you aren’t that interested in (and so can I, if I consult this later).
- I’ve already noted OHSHC’s use of character tropes regarding Tamaki, and it seems to work the same way all around. In one of the podcasts (of which there will be another someday, I swear!), Cuchlann and The Kitty Meister made some comments on OHSHC’s minimizing the importance of gender roles — that is, at no point does gender practically matter all that much, and we can take that as a statement about gender roles, if we want to. The show seems to handle character stereotypes similarly, setting up familiar scaffolding around its characters and building within it people we actually come to care about, sometimes in surprising ways. It’s as if the creators threw a bunch of stereotypes in a room, then challenged themselves to turn them into characters so compelling that the audience would forget about the stereotypes that begot them, sometimes for entire episodes at a time. Renge, the resident fujoshi (well, since all the girls who frequent the host club have those tendencies, the resident uber-fujoshi), might be an exception, but then she may not count, as she’s the most vocal meta/fandom character, a significant role in its own right.
- The creators really had an eye for visual cues. The animation gags are varied and funny; the metaphors, while generally not especially subtle, hit me in all the right ways. Episode 24 really outdoes itself in this regard.
And this example is only the most obvious in the episode. I wonder if I’d appreciate the show more if I knew more about visual art (not to mention music) — no, I’m positive I would.
- In the end, we come to an idea that seems to turn up often in shows I particularly enjoy: those who get the most out of life are those who love what they do, regardless of what it is they do, exactly. To put it into an analogy, Tamaki:Hosting::Akari:Gondoliering. Both channel their raw enjoyment into helping others, whether intentionally or not. I can see the benefits of the love-what-you-do angle, which actually worries me a little, as I’m naturally a do-what-you-love type, and while those sorts can do great things if they apply themselves, they often hurt themselves and others along the way with their single-mindedness (see: James Joyce). But I don’t think these shows suggest that everyone must love what they do before they do what they love; that both types exist in the world results in a sort of balance.
- This is more personal than anything, but I thought the later episodes were stronger than the earlier; I started enjoying the show more around the halfway point, which, don’t get me wrong, isn’t to say that the beginning is bad. In the absence of perfect consistency (which is rare anyway), I prefer it this way, as later episodes generally have more of an impact on me, and few things annoy me more than a story that starts out strong and gets weaker toward its latter parts.
At one point I would’ve made some comment here about OHSHC possibly turning you gay, if you’re male, but being worth it anyway, but that’d subvert the show itself, which suggests that perhaps our gender terminology — and, hell, several other of our taxonomies — might be a little outdated. So watch it, and maybe, like me, you’ll be glad you finally listened to all those people who have been telling you to.
You could write a post for that column if you wish. Consider this an open invitation, claim it at your leisure.
Minimizing gender roles… I’ve wondered if in the name of diversity we are actually flattening variety, making things un-interesting. Just a passing thought, not really reflected on.
Yeah, I’ve been thinking of asking you about writing a character post, as soon as I’m positive I can do a character justice.
Alternately, I think we can look at the minimizing of the importance of gender roles as acknowledgment that the “usual” way of thinking/talking about gender is too broad, which is to say that, when we get specific, gender roles are so numerous that they may appear to meld into one flat thing when we zoom out, but are really separate under the sort of scrutiny they don’t often get. Perhaps it’s less minimization of gender roles, and more breaking them apart into many more distinctions. I can at least say that, in my estimation, the characters of OHSHC don’t lack variety.
Great series! Tamaki thrills me as a character; his charismatic, capable persona is nice, and his quirks add some extra enjoyment when building the chemistry between him and Haruhi. Haruhi is lovely. I think the grand thing about Ouran is that at some point, perhaps very early on (like the first episode), the viewer likely loses this distinction of gender (Haruhi, the inverse-trap). We usually see Haruhi in-dress as a male, but nonetheless, she still emits something to be attracted to. Do we care about the boyishness?
lol, I know for a fact I’ve left more comments about Ouran, than what I’ve written onBlog. 3 years later it’s still accumulating XD
Good times ^^ Also, twitter spamming… I use http://melative.com/RyanA/stream/anime with firefox extension simply because it fits the job and has the built-in context/topic handling [and I don't have to worry about typing in names or fitting messages -_-]
I’m with you re: Tamaki and Haruhi. The former is the sort of character I could easily have despised, but the show did a masterful job of fleshing him out; the latter is just fantastic. Actually, though, Tamaki’s capabilities don’t draw me to him as much as his incapabilities (which may not be a word, so bear with me). He’s surprisingly, refreshingly human; all the host club guys are, really.
Do we care about the boyishness? No, not I. But then, I think reverse traps are…interesting. Let’s, uh, delve into that some other time.
Thanks for bringing that Twitter tool to my attention; I’ll take a look at it.
Human. Indeed he is. I never actually pondered that perspective. Perhaps he has some of that Chiaki from Nodame Cantabile, who realizes much of what he lacks resides within Nodame. No, that’s actually quite different. Ugu, now I sort of wish to rewatch this series.
Ah, it’s not a really twitter tool. Twitter doesn’t realize context outside of the message. It’s a little richer in abilities for the specific use.
[...] Kotaro, too) isn’t especially concerned with it; the society of magi, like the society of the Host Club, is perhaps more silent role model than outspoken commentator (or the former renders it the [...]