Ouran High School Host Club

Due to the overwhelming popularity of the manga, it’s no surprise that Ouran High School Host Club was one of the highest anticipated series to make it’s cross-over to the anime world in year 2006. Though I have never read the manga before, but the anime version didn’t disappoint me as well. Though I’m not sure how close the anime follows the manga. Must be close lah. Why would anyone want to stray from the original plot and add their own ideas to this already popular series.

 

But if you think that this whole 26 episode series is about those guys in the host club trying to hit on the ladies, well, you’re off the mark. No doubt the main purpose of a male host club is to accompany and serve the ladies to their whims and fancies, but the series is more than just that, focusing more on the interaction and relationship between the host club members as well as other zany characters that ‘touch’ (or rather disrupt or annoy) their lives.

 

The Ouran Private Academy is quite a large campus as it ranges from kindergarten to high school level and is defined something as prestige and lineage first, meaning the school caters for students whose prestigeous family backgrounds have big ‘connections and links’ with some big corporates and such, and second, affluent and wealthy students who’re born with the golden spoon in their mouths. In short, famous and rich students study here. Thus, the purpose of the host club is to provide company and entertainment to those rich girls with many free time on their hands and at the same time make a profit out of it with their good looks. Exploiting? Well, if you have the money, I guess nearly anything is possible. Yeah, cash is king.

 

However, students that do not fit within that financially well-off or having super connections can still enrol in this school if he/she is quite intelligent and is offer a scholarship to study here. That is the case for Haruhi Fujioka. A bright and intelligent student who manages to secure a place in this prestigeous academy.

 

For those of you who have read the manga or the plot before hand, you would’ve guessed that Haruhi’s a girl. Yup, it’s the convenience and the way that Japanese anme drawings are so, that a boy can look like a girl, vice versa, or even a character can ambiguously look and sound as both. Same case here for Haruhi. Her life is about to change (for the better or worse depending how you look at it) when one day she decides to find a quiet place to study. Because the library is filled with those gossiping girls, her wandering takes her to an unused Third Music Room, where she bumps into the host club members.

 

Of course, Haruhi would be surprised upon seeing 6 gorgeous and handsome guys as she tries to back out from whatever they’re gonna drag her into. Unfortunately, she accidentally broke an expensive vase in the room and incurs a massive hug debt of 8 million Yen! Wah! How is she gonna pay for all that. And that on screen arrow keeps blinking and pointing at the vase most probably so that viewers would focus their attention on it and expect it to be bumped over. Hmm… Reminds me of Izumi’s case in He Is My Master.

 

In order to start paying off her debt, Haruhi is employed as the host club’s ‘dog’ by doing menial chores such as cleaning and serving food. But one day, while the host club’s boss, Tamaki, saw Haruhi without her glasses (yeah, she’s got beautiful eyes), he was attracted to it and instantly promotes Haruhi to a host position. And as Haruhi gathers an increasing amount of customers, the host club then found out that Haruhi’s a girl! Especially much to Tamaki’s surprise and shock.

 

Why didn’t they notice it in the first place? Yeah, beside that convenient Japanese drawing I mentioned earlier, it’s because when Haruhi came into the place, her dressing was somewhat messy and unkempt, especially her hair (because some kid stick a chewing gum into it), which made her look like a geek guy. Thus, the host club members would try their best to keep Haruhi’s real gender identity from being blown. Imagine what would happen if those girl customers found out that their male host is actually a girl. They’ll freak out as they’re not playing yuri here. But it seems that Haruhi’s doing quite an impressive job as she’s the main new attraction for the host club.

 

Before we move on, a quick run down of the host club members first. The half French and half Japanese Tamaki Suoh, dubbed as the ‘King’ of the host club is the club’s leader. No doubt that he looks handsome with that blond hair with his natural romantic lines on the outside, but behind the scenes, Tamaki is actually an idiot! Yup, you heard me, a real idiot. In the eyes of his female customers, he’s like the charming prince and the most popular male host among the club. But when Haruhi arrives, we’ll see that he’s quite foolish, immature, and gets depressed easily (whenever Haruhi ignores him, that is).

 

But being an idiot, he has his good points too. Yup, he can’t stand seeing anyone in trouble so he’ll do all he can to help them. Besides doing quite well in his studies and being an excellent piano player, Tamaki seems to take a liking for Haruhi as the series progress and sometimes calls her ‘his daughter’ whenever making statements. But Haruhi isn’t too fond of it all and just ignores whatever idiocracy Tamaki says or does. Tamaki’s family business has long been rooted within the banking, finance, property and school sector. Thus, later in the series, you’ll find out that it’s Tamaki’s family that sponsors and allowed Haruhi to study in this school.

 

The real puppet master and ‘Shadow King’ of the host club is Kyoya Outori, who’s also the vice president of the club. Yup, in reality, Kyoya is the one doing all the controlling, planning and scheming, so it looks like Tamaki’s just a stage puppet. He’s quite cool, calculative and money minded (uh-huh he claims he will not do anything which doesn’t bring any profit to him). You could always see him writing and jotting down things for his data and for whatever reasons.

 

No doubt that the bespectacled Kyoya may look like the ‘mean’ and the cold kind, he’s actually quite aware of his surroundings, though sometimes I feel that he show his caring and thoughtfulness in that cold kind of manner. Coming from a very wealthy and influential family with ties and links in the security and medical industry (they probably own the whole hospital and police staff), Kyoya’s dad is quite strict and because of his 2 elder brother’s success, there is a burden on Kyoya that he is to do better and maintain that success and keep it all up.

 

Then there’s that Hitachiin twins, Hikaru and Kaoru. Those 2 devilish twins also provide for some of the comic relief and add to Tamaki’s idiocracy. The reason being is that they’re bored and thus decides to join in whatever plans or schemes Tamaki cooks up whenever it involves Haruhi. A year younger than Tamaki and in the same year and class as Haruhi, many of the twins’ female customers seem to love them for their yaoi and forbidden boy’s love. I dunno, desparate or just naive those girls. They get all excited whenever seeing them getting into one of their lovey-dovey brotherly acts. While it’s quite funny to watch them do so, but to me, such a thing would send shivers down my spine.

 

Also, I can never seem to identify which one is Kaoru and which one is Hikaru. They both look so alike. Even with the hint of donno which one’s hair part to the left is this twin and parting to the right is that twin, I can never seem to remember. But even when the twins play that ‘guess which is Hikaru’ trick game (the answer by the ‘victim’ is always the wrong one, not sure whether done on purpose or not by the twins), only Haruhi seems to be able to confidently tell the difference between the 2. Much to their dismay at first. As the series progresses, we see that Hikaru seems to be falling for Haruhi just like Tamaki but doesn’t realize it while Kaoru also does but doesn’t want to hurt him.

 

Then there’s that petite third year student, Mitsukuni Haninozuka AKA Honey. Don’t let his size and cute lolita complex fool you. He’s quite a good and skillful karate martial artist and can take out anyone twice his size. Well okay, maybe for his age he still acts like a small kid and mostly his female customers are those who like cute childish little boys with lolita complex. Also, Honey likes to eat sweet stuffs such as chocolate and cakes and can’t resist them whenever he gets a chance to eat them.

 

Besides his yellow hair, petite size and little genki personality, the other fact which reminds Honey of Momiji of Fruits Basket is his stuffed rabbit, Usa-chan. Yup, his rabbit. No, Honey doesn’t transform into a rabbit like Momiji when being hugged by an opposite gender, but because of this rabbit factor, I was thinking that Honey’s character is based upon Momiji’s. But that’s just a high speculation from me, nothing else. In addition, when Honey sleeps, it’s better to let sleeping dogs (or rabbit) sleep, That’s because Honey will turn into an aggressive and violent (where has all the cuteness gone to?) when he is abruptly awakened from his beauty sleep.

 

And there’s this tall lanky Takashi Morinozuka AKA Mori. Which gang would be complete without that taciturn character. As the most silent, rarely smiles and probably stoic character among the members, Mori seems to hang around Honey most of the time. It’s like those 2 are like inseparable friends (more like odd pair) for life even though their personality are way too contrasting. That’s because the 2 are somewhat related (cousins, that is) and they’re both the same age.

 

As the series progress you’ll find out that Mori’s family has been assigned to protect Honey’s family for many generations. Thus, there’s that inter-marriage kinda thingy which bonds the two families closer. So in a way, it’s Mori’s nature too to protect and keep a watchful eye out for Honey. Also, Mori is also quite a skilled martial artist in the kendo discipline. And with Honey as his partner, they’re like invincible.

 

And of course as mentioned, the new member to the host club, Haruhi, is generally an honest, sensible and down to earth girl. And because of some of the members (especially Tamaki’s) annoying characteristics, she tends to be sarcastic with her remarks or answers and would sometimes ignore them. As the series progresses, Haruhi learns more about the other members and in a way changes them.

 

Ever why Haruhi isn’t bothered with her gender awareness thing? That’s because her father, Ryoji "Ranka" Fujioka, is also a cross dresser himself! Like father like daughter…?! But Ranka’s case is more like he works as one and ever since Haruhi’s mom’s demise (she passed away while Haruhi’s very young and the reason why Haruhi wanted to go to Ouran High School was to follow in her footsteps to become a lawyer), he felt that he would never love any other women again. Just like Tamaki, Ranka sometimes display his idiotic attitude. Some similarity there even though Ranka doesn’t like Tamaki much and usually picks on him. Uh-huh. I guess it’s best that Haruhi just ignore them sometimes. Also, Haruhi is afraid of thunder and gets ‘paralyzed’ if it’s really a serious one.

 

I’m not really sure if Shiro Takoji is a host club member or not. Of course he doesn’t seem like a permanent one, but as a temporary one… dunno. That elementary brat decides to seek Tamaki’s help into becoming a ladies’ men. But since the club has Honey as lolita one, having another would be overlapping as they seek to have a variety of different host personalities. Yup, Shiro is somewhat classified as the ‘naughty’ one. And he’s being so true to it. The host club members realized that Shiro’s doing it because of some girl named Hina whom he likes, is going away soon. So Shiro managed to play one last piano recital with her. And when after Hina’s gone, looks like Shiro’s turned into a womanizer at the host club, much to Tamaki’s dismay. You’ve met your match Tamaki.

 

Then there’s that self-proclaimed manageress of the host club, Renge Houshakuji. Living in France for some time, her return to Japan and the host club was due to the fact that she fell in love with Kyoya, even though she has never met him. Yup, Kyoya strikes a striking resemblance to some main guy in some dating simulation game. Uh-huh, Renge’s a dating game simulation freak. Tamaki allowed her to become the club’s managaress in hopes that Renge would be be Haruhi’s female friend and inspire her to dress and act more femininely.

 

The weird and funny thing about Renge is that whenever she makes her appearance, there would always be that sound of some high powered motor being activiated. Then Renge would appear standing on top of some rotating platform with sometimes her typical trademark laugh from the floor below (whether it’s in school or outside!). Yeah, she’s some sort of like a critic and complains things that are not being done correctly or not good enough (from her point of view). Then she’ll like busybody suggesting and make changes according to what she perceived should be.

 

The series doesn’t merely focus on how Haruhi repays her enormous debt. Instead, it also manages to provide other storylines which adds to the character development of other characters such as how Tamaki gathers the other members to join the host club he formed. Plus, how Kyoya was dragged by Tamaki and left alone at a commoner’s department store only to accidentally meet Haruhi there and they both exchange views on how they view each of their lives. And an episode where we see how the twins are so isolated in their own world, that when Haruhi came into their lives, it was like an intrusion into their world of refuge but at the same time, broke them free from their ‘cage’ and opened them up to the world outside.

 

Tamaki has a cute little sister? Well, not really actually. A young girl named Kirimi wants Tamaki to be her elder brother because her real older brother, Umehito Nekozawa, is a ‘dark’ person. What do I mean, Nekozawa is actually afraid of light so much so that exposure to light will have undesirable health effects on him. Thus, Nekozawa has to even dye his blond hair black (serious case) and wears a hood anywhere he goes. As the president of the Black Magic Club, he has a devil cat named Beelzenef as his right hand puppet. Must be for company since he’s desparately trying to get people to join his club but to no avail. Anyway, Kirimi is quite the opposite as she hates the darkness. Plus, which little girl wouldn’t want such a handsome prince charming as her older brother. In the end, Kirimi came to love Nekozawa when the latter braves the light to rescue her.

 

An episode where Honey gets a toothache after eating too much sweets and has to tortuously tolerate not eating sweets for a period of time until his cavity improves. And the time where Honey’s little brother, Yasuchika, decides to challenge Honey to a sparring match in hopes of learning and improving his techniques against him. Unfortunately, Honey’s love for sweet stuffs seems to surpass his love for Yasuchika.

 

Then there’s a time where Mori got a visit from some third generation yakuza head guy Ritsu Kasanoda. Funny thing is, the host club members can’t seem to remember his name well and always call him ‘Cassanova-kun’ or ‘Bossonova-kun’. Anyway, Kasanoda wants Mori to help him change his scary gangster image so that he could make friends easier. Unfortunately, Kasanoda discover Haruhi’s secret and in a way fell in love with her. So when he joins the host club as a customer and insist on Haruhi being his host, the other host club members (especially Tamaki) gets a little worried while the other girls got all excited over that misperception of that yaoi relationship. Haih…

 

Speaking of which, I feel that those high school female customers are like one of those naive, male-deprived ladies. Yup, they get all so excited whenever those male hosts gets into one of their romantic, sweet, smooth talking modes (yeah, maybe some of those lines are good for picking up girls or charm your current gal). And they all can’t get enough of it and would exclaim and go "KYAAA!!! MOE!!! MOE!!! MOEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!" Haih. But I see them so funny lah everytime they go like that. But I guess that’s the kind of service and expectation you get when you pay so much for.

 

Plus, each time a visit to the host club room, the members would put on some theme such as waitress, shinto priests or medieval costumes and the place will be lavishly renovated to suite the mood and the theme. Probably that’s where all the money of the club went. I suppose that’s what you could do with all the money you could milk from the cash cow.

 

But don’t think that these high class rich people knows everything. Why, some where in the early episodes we see how ‘ignorant’ they all are. Yeah, all those rich girls and host guys don’t even know what an instant coffee is! And they all are so amused and fascinated when Haruhi ‘the commoner’ shows them how to make instant coffee. Amazing. To them all coffee must be freshly grounded, brewed and such and I suppose that’s why they’ve never seen such an ‘invention’ before. To high up in the sky or from another world, huh? And they say money can buy anything. Even so, you need to know what you’re buying, right? "Rich bastards…". Hahaha. That’s what Haruhi would silently say to herself.

 

Other episodes sees how the other host club members interact and bond with Haruhi in one of the club’s outing, activities or adventures such as the time when the gang drags Haruhi to an artificial tropical beach. Yeah, the gang wanted some time out after those hectic attendance to their customers. That place is so bloody big that even Mori and Honey got lost and separated. And after that they went to a real beach resort in Okinawa where Tamaki discovers Haruhi fear of thunder and gets into one of those ‘compromising position’ with Haruhi, much to the dismay of the other club members when they saw and misunderstood Tamaki’s good intentions.

 

Then there’s that school physical examination episode where the club members try to prevent Haruhi’s secret from being discovered but a pervert on the loose in the school grounds may threaten all that. Fortunately, it’s just some guy who wants to see his daughter, but he got the wrong school. Also the time when the host club members decides to experience a commoner’s life by visiting Haruhi’s home. Uh-huh, Tamaki’s got that vision of Haruhi’s really really poor and pitiful condition. But it’s not that all bad, at least to Haruhi.

 

Of course, there are episodes which indicates some of the club members’ love interest in Haruhi. Like one episode where Haruhi went to work part time in some pension inn, whom that cross dresser guy Misuzu is one of Ranka’s friend. Birds of the same feather flock together. There the club members decide to compete among themselves to see who would get to stay at the pension since there’s only one room left. In the end the twins won. I guess even there those good looking host club members can still attract those swooning girls.

 

At the same time, Haruhi met an old classmate and friend of hers, Arai, who happened to be doing some grocery delivery. The rest of the club member thinks that they’re more than just friends but Hikaru seems to be jealous. Thus, Kaoru decides to set his twin brother up on a date with Haruhi. During their so called date, Hikaru seemed to be acting like an obnoxious spoiled brat, ignoring Haruhi’s feelings, and even went away himself in the middle of the date leaving her all alone. And of course and impending thunderstorm is coming. Tamaki realized what just happened and scolded Hikaru by talking some sense into him and to be more aware of other people’s feelings. But in the end, Hikaru manage to find Haruhi and she’s all right.

 

And there’s that halloween episode where Renge suggests some test of courage thingy. While Haruhi and the twins try to plan and setup between their class rep, Kazukiyo, with the vice class rep, Momoka, since the former has a crush on the latter but is too chicken to tell her, the twins got separated for the first time with Hikaru and Haruhi together. Uh-huh, some hesitating moments there. You can tell that Hikaru likes Haruhi but just that he doesn’t seems to realize it all. In the end, that whole halloween night belongs to Nekozawa. Yup, he had the last laugh and pulled of the biggest scaring prank in the school history.

 

There are other clubs which seems to ‘interfere’ with the host club. Like how the ailing newspaper club wants to do an interview with the host club because one of the host club members broke the newspaper’s club window while playing baseball. That newspaper club is going to be disbanded unless they can sell their papers. The funny thing is the only people who bought their papers are the 2 underling members. Haha. Who would want to buy some newspaper which reports on weird and exaggerated stuffs and gossips like aliens and the such. Thus, the newspaper club views this as a revival opportunity. When the newspaper club threatens to expose some information they found on Tamaki, Kyoya’s foresightedness managed to prevent it all by blackmailing them back with some tape recorder on the newspaper club’s earlier scheming conversation. No choice, though. They had to back down and drop their scheme.

 

Then there’s that theatre performance Zuka Club from St. Lobelia All Girl’s Academy. Led by the popular and famous Benio Amakusa (The Lady Of The Red Rose), or more commonly known as Benibara-sama, with her 2 underlings Chizuru (The Lady Of The Lily) and Hinako (The Lady Of The Daisy). Benibara’s so popular that the whole school has even a fanclub dedicated to her. Yeah, all that moe moe moe from those girls at St. Lobelia.

 

Anyway, Benibara noticed that Haruhi is a girl and wants to take her away from that host club and join their St. Lobelia Academy. Why? That’s because Benibara is that female chauvinist who thinks females are more superior than men and seeing Haruhi working under those conditions in the host club just pisses her off. Of course the host club wouldn’t allow it, but Benibara’s already giving Haruhi a tour of St. Lobelia, trying to persuade her to join their school. In the end, even though the host club dressed up in female costumes (except Mori) to desparately get back Haruhi, Haruhi had a good laughed and declined Benibara’s offer because she wants to continue pursuing her dream at Ouran. The reason why Haruhi’s there the first place. I know those pretty and handsome boys looked cool as guys but as girls, disgusting. Just plain disgusting, in a funny way that is.

 

But it’s not over yet as the Zuka Club plans on another revenge scheme of crushing the host club. Benibara managed to convince Haruhi to play a role in some Zuka Club commemorating play, causing the host club (especially Tamaki) and even Ranka to go into panic mode, and decides to rescue her by dressing up in St. Lobelia’s uniform… ?!. Though Haruhi’s part were simple and lines only restricted to saying "Federique-sama", Haruhi really sucks. Yeah, that unconvincing monotonous stone performance is very obvious. But in the end, that it is revealed that this was all a trap by Benibara to steal Haruhi’s first kiss!

 

But before she can do it while the play is in progress, Kyoya manages to take control of the control room and project Haruhi’s first kiss on to the big screen, shocking everyone, even Ranka. What first kiss? Haruhi already has her first kiss? More on that later. Benibara who found out about this, still decides to kiss Haruhi in front of Tamaki as her revenge towards him. So some running around here and there before some monkey who finished eating something, threw the waste on the floor, making those guys slip. Yeah, it’s so funny. Everytime when there’s a St. Lobelia episode, there’ll always be this monkey who eats something, throws its wrapping away and soon somebody will step on it and slip. And Haruhi wishes that she’d be somewhere studying quietly. Oh well, I guess she has to put up with all those blokes.

 

So about Haruhi’s first kiss. When did she received it? In a very early episode, a girl named Kanako Kasugazaki is having trouble with her fiance, Tooru. She has a reputation for changing male hosts as she’s doing this because her fiance isn’t paying her enough attention (just like having multiple sex partners. Just kidding). Yup, and normally a female customer would designate herself to just 1 male host and not go host-hopping. So the host club decides to help her out by organizing some ball whereby the girl who is crowned Queen will get a hot kiss from Tamaki as her reward. Which girl wouldn’t want that.

 

Some flashbacks here and there as we learn that Tooru has his heart on another girl and is going overseas soon to become a more confident person, as he tells Haruhi and the latter decides to give him some advice. Then Kanako walks in and misunderstood the situation when she saw the 2 together and got jealous and ran away. Tooru tries to chase her. Before you know it, some spotlight shone (like it was all pre-mediated) on them as the 2 decided to have their last dance together as everyone watched. Though Tooru confessed and Kanako won the title but the twins decides to twist things and add some spice to it all by telling them that Kanako should get a kiss from Haruhi, much to Tamaki’s anger. Haruhi agrees because Kyoya said it would reduce her debt by 1/3. That’s a lot.

 

And while Tamaki tries to stop them, he accidentally stepped on a banana skin and slipped, inadvertantly pushing Haruhi. Yup, Haruhi and Kanako locked lips! All the girls must be swooning with envy. KYAA!!!!! Oh, the horror for Tamaki. Well, to everyone, it’s a boy kiss girl. But to others who know of Haruhi’s gender, would it constitute to a yuri? Funny lah. But Haruhi doesn’t seem quite perturbed by that incident and was quite happy with the overall outcome.

 

Things get a little serious in the last 2 episodes. While the host club is participating in the school’s annual festival, a young and obnoxious looking lady, Eclair Tonnerre, comes into the picture and changes Tamaki’s perception on the host club. Yup, Tamaki’s mean grandma decides to engage Tamaki to Ecair. Not only that, because of this, Tamaki announced that after this festival ends, the host club will be dissolved. What the? They’ve all been like a family up till now and suddenly this. Even Haruhi has that reluctant feeling to see the club go even though she tolerates the club members one kind character.

 

It seems that Tamaki has a past on his own. His father fell in love and married some woman in France. Yup, you could say Tamaki’s born out of wedlock. Tamaki’s dad even tried to get a divorce with his current wife. And because Tamaki’s mom was sick, she’s unable to leave France to be with Tamaki. At the same time, the Suoh’s businesses around the globe was faltering, accumulating lots of debts. With no suitable heir the Suoh family lineage, Tamaki’s grandma decided that Tamaki could be the heir to their family business and she would allow him to lead an extravagant and comfortable life in Japan, on one condition that he is not allowed to see his mom again. Though Tamaki’s mom was sad and regretted that she ‘sold’ her son for money, she has since moved away and her whereabouts are unknown. Poor guy. No wonder Tamaki has been an idiot all this while most probably to forget his painful past and to move on living happily, even if it’s quite irritating and annoying in the eyes of others. So by marrying the Tonnerre family, the Suoh’s will prosper even further and Tamaki gets a chance to see his mom.

 

So you could see a reluctant Tamaki accompanying Eclair throughout the day. Tamaki doesn’t seem to be his energetic self. Besides that, we see Kyoya’s dad slapping Kyoya for doing a ‘disgraceful’ job as a male host and wonders if it’s his way of embarrassing the family. Not happy with his son’s achievements, I see. And a short clip there of Kasanoda blushing as he’s being surrounded by a bevy of beauties. Way to go for a yakuza.

 

Anywa, Kyoya mentioned to Haruhi that her debts has been cleared after serving Eclair as the latter requested. Uh-huh, some b*tchy questions Eclair asked Haruhi like is Haruhi Tamaki’s girlfriend and such. But even after that, looks like Haruhi doesn’t seem to be relieved even though she doesn’t owe anything now. Must be that Tamaki’s going away thing. Haruhi’s even got that jealous body language and look everytime things involve Eclair. I know that even if Haruhi’s not too fond of Tamaki’s idiocracy, but Tamaki’s HER idiot. Hahaha.

 

A lot of those spacing out, flashbacks and serious moments here. Soon as the festival ends, Kyoya became aware that Tamaki has already left for the airport to Paris with Eclair. And thus he informs the other host club members as they try to stop Tamaki from leaving Japan so that the host club would not be dissolved. What’s this? They’re going after Tamaki in a horse carriage while Tamaki and Eclair drives a sports car?

 

Unfortunately, The Ootori family has ordered the police staff to stop them from reaching Tamaki. So, Mori, Honey and Kyoya stayed back to handle those polices while Haruhi and the twins went after Tamaki. Unfortunately, during the ride, the carriage hit a bump and caused Hikaru to fall off and be injured. While Kaoru attends his wounds, looks like Haruhi has to go alone.

 

Haruhi managed to catch up with them, much to their surprise. Though Tamaki asked Haruhi to stop her dangerous doing, Haruhi told him that everyone in the host club doesn’t wants him to leave. Some emotionally charged talking before Haruhi extends her hand asking him to jump onto the carriage. Eclair manages to prevent Tamaki from doing so but the carriage Haruhi’s riding on veered off the bridge and plunges into the river below. Tamaki really wanted to save Haruhi. Eclair, upon seeing this, realized Tamaki’s true feelings and lets him go as Tamaki smiled and thanked her before he dives down into the river.

 

Tamaki manages to catch Haruhi’s hand in mid air as they both embraced before they both fell into the river. The rest of the host club members then arrived to help the 2. Eclair then just asked her driver to drive on, just thinking to herself that Tamaki’s an idiot for passing up the chance to see his mom. But I guess it’s no use having a man if his heart isn’t with you. Probably, Eclair that it’s the best for Tamaki and his host club members that he remains with them that way.

 

Back at the school at night where a dance party is being held, we see the host club members taking turns to have a dance with Haruhi. Even though Haruhi’s dressed as a lady but the theme for that dance was a Victorian themed one, thus concealing her real gender at the same time. Then back at the school office we see Tamaki and Kyoya’s dad having some chat together including how they’re praising their sons (though both families are enemies) and how Kyoya’s dad was impressed by his son’s intelligence in buying out their family’s medical equipment company before the Tonnerre family does. And in the end, both fathers agreed to be friends just like their sons. But they became loggerheads again when they said how they wanted to let Haruhi be their son’s future bride.

 

It seems that Haruhi is here to stay at the host club as we see her and the host club members welcoming the visitors (the viewers, that is) to come in and and play if they want to because everyone in the Ouran High School Host Club is sincerely waiting for them to come. Well, I suppose now Haruhi isn’t doing it for the money anymore, but more like she enjoys doing it all with her second family.

 

Overall, this is quite an excellent anime. With lots of funny and dramatical parts. It’s quite amazing how they put in all the wide variety of hillarious and zany characters and situations to come up with something this good. Yes, quite a good character development build-up. And even though I’m not a fan of bishounens, this series makes it an exception. Uh-huh, good looking guys who have a way with words to capture the hearts of girls. *Sighs*. How I wish I had that too.

 

And because of that, the anime is drawn ‘beautifully’ to cater for all those good looking rich guys and girls. Actually, it’s not that you’ll be blown away by the drawing and animation, it’s typical and appeasing to the eye if you’re one of those bishounen fans. The in-anime notes are shown as black rectangular sign boards with those fancy design as its borders, which I find amusing. Though, I can’t really read those kanji writing. Somehow it makes me feel that ‘rich’ atmosphere. Also lots of those roses surrounding the screen such as when those host club members get into their romantic talking drives or that handsome shine of aura when the female customers look at them. I also like the voice acting of the characters, which I find quite suitable and fitting to the character’s personality.

 

One thing I find about this series is the importance of family and friends. Like they say, no man is an island and people do change in time. And we see how Haruhi changes the other host club members and herself. Reminds you of Tohru Honda of Fruits Basket, isn’t it? But Haruhi isn’t as sweet as compared to Tohru and is more casual in the sense that she isn’t too fond nor take those idiotic antics of some of the host clubs members too seriously. But I like how the way the anime ended in a happy tone.

 

If I ever become a male host club member (like that will ever happen!) I wonder what ‘type’ should I be. Hmm… A-ha! How about the ‘boke’ type. Hey, you say Tamaki’s already one. But that’s just behind the scenes. Being naturally boke may seem to those girls as some guy so idiotic and silly that it may look harmlessly attractive and cute. KYAA!!! MOE! MOE! MOE!!!!!! Yeah, dream on. Just keep dreaming. Look at my face first. They’d probably vomit blood and already halfway to heaven.