Entries for October, 2006

Ouran High. The first thing that matters is your social status. Students are either a.) heirs/heiresses of conglomerates or zaibatsu or the old rich, b.) sons of the new rich, c.) children of some company owner, or d.) sons of the mafia or yakuzas. Of course, once or twice a scholarship may be offered to an exceptional student. We take notice of one such student, neither class A, B, C, nor D, but a plain commoner admitted into Ouran High. One Fujioka Haruhi.

Fujioka Haruhi explores the school in jeans and a sweater because the school uniform is too expensive, opens a mysterious door, and stumbles upon an 8,000,000-yen vase. Six heads turn. Haninozuka Mitsukuni, once captain of the school's karate club, eldest son of the Haninozuka Corporation, provider of the elite guards services all over Japan.

Takashi, cousin of Haninozuka, of the Morinozuka Family, sworn personal bodyguards of the Haninozuka Family.

The identical Hitachiin twins, Hikaru and Kaoru, sons of a famous fashion line specializing in clothing design.

Kyoya, of the Ohtori family, primarily involved in hospital management and the medical industry, and supplies the school's medical staff and security.

Tamaki, the only son and heir to the Suoh Group of Companies, whose influence stretches all over Japan. Tamaki is the president of the host club.

....

Host club? The type that entertains girls? Drinking tea and stuff? Two things that matter in Ouran High: social status and good looks. The host club, that is. To pay for the vase, Haruhi has to work as a host in the club, thus making her an instant member. Haruhi's natural air attracts many customers and is well accepted by the club. Tamaki finds an ID card belonging to Haruhi, and is shocked to find out Haruhi is a girl.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Review:

What's interesting to note here is that this story is somewhat a parody of shojou anime in itself. You can find the supposedly extremely stereotyped characters in a shojou story: The shota or cute little boy type "Hunny" Haninuzuka; the unpredictable, "wild" type Mori; the "boys-love" played by the Hitachiin twins; the smart and calculating but cool type Kyoya; and of course the babe-magnet adonis which is Tamaki. Well, parody in the sense that, these aren't their real personalities. Outside the host club they are just plain funny. Hunny is a karate champ for one, who wakes up in a bad mood. Mori is a very kind and affectionate guy. The twins aren't really incestuous, and are a very mischievous pair. Kyoya is a cunning person who only thinks of profit. And Tamaki is an overly sensitive idiot. That's why I like this anime because it laughs at itself. And for the shallow reasons, because the characters are really likeable, and the mushy stuff don't make you warm and fuzzy but the butterflies-in-your-stomach kind of thing.

Of course its obvious. Haruhi being the only girl in the club, there are bound to be developments. Graphics-wise, it's good. Soundtrack is also good. Of course since I have read part of the manga I must say that it's sad that it had to end in 26 episodes, and I doubt that there is more to the manga than what they put in the anime. But divorcing the anime from the manga though, I'd give it a:

Rating: /10

Ouran Koukou Host Club- original story by Hatori Bisuko

Nobody cares.

Watching the Saishuu Heiki Kanojo live movie left me... irritated. At the fact that it didn't do the story justice (refer to my anime review here). And I'm not going to enumerate every last one of them.

On a lighter note first, the actors they chose were probably okay. I guess it was just the interpretations that got wrong. They portrayed the fact that the male protagonist was never really cute, and no flaws in his character either. For the girl though, the main character Chise, yes she was cute just like in the anime. The problem was that the movie failed to show how emotionally tormented she should have been. Imagine being all cute and silly one day, the next you're killing thousands of people and you don't know why. Watching the movie though, didn't make me realize that there was a difference. Like she was used to it all along.

Apart from that, the pacing was indeed slow. Yes, the movie got the gist of the story: that the military has modified a girl's body to become a highly advanced weapon to win the war. So why stretch it to two hours? I think the problem was because they scrapped too many side stories (that weren't really side stories because they involved the main characters too much) that could have made it more gripping, and for the audience to really understand what everything was all about. This is a war we're talking about. Friends die, wives lose husbands, money is hard to come by.

I can't help but tell you guys, if you haven't watched the anime or read the manga. So Chise goes to war, the boyfriend Shuuji is left alone before they consumate their love. He is seduced by a married woman whose husband hasn't returned ever since the war started. Chise's bestfriend is brutally injured and confesses her love for Shuuji. This makes Shuuji pity her and treats her like his girlfriend for the last few minutes of her life, which makes him more guilty because he hasn't treated his real girlfriend like any of the women who came to him. Shuuji's bestfriend volunteers as a soldier and dies because of Chise's massive attack. Chise's body is beyond her control and she doesn't care if it's the enemy or not. She can't stop her body from changing and needs to keep fighting to keep herself alive. Therefore Shuuji has no choice but to surrender her to the army.

See, these things I've mentioned were never shown in the movie, and these are key plots to the emotional factor. I mean, apart from the explosions and the destroyed buildings, war was never really shown. The cinematography wasn't that great either, just... average. The music was something you wouldn't remember. Animation though was slightly beyond average, but you wouldn't be convinced it was real.

Heh, I lied. I said I wouldn't enumerate every last one of them but I did. There's just no justice for this great story. And I can't do a single thing about it but rant, I guess. I don't know from a first-timer's point of view, but for someone who's watched the anime, I'd give it a

Rating: /10