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REVIEW: Ouran High School Host Club DVD Part 01

No, the show parodies standard shojo plot tricks, but there is the depth Casey was complaining the title lacked. Yes, it is mass entertainment, but as a librarian you have to know a lot of the Required Reading List were books that stood the test of time, mass entertainment that contained something that kept people reading them over the years...All the well-written words in the world mean nothing if the reader can't grasp the concept. I always loved reading plays (like Shakespeare, The Lady's Not For Burning, etc), but I tried to talk a friend in Junior High into reading a play I'd just finished & she complained she didn't like plays because she couldn't understand them. So yeah, it's best to see it in the "high art" source, but if the "Illustrated Classics" breaks it down so the reader can understand it, at least the message has gotten across.

When one scratches beneath the surface of each of these characters, there is a story, a reason for why they are who they are & we are getting into the angst of teen life coupled with pressures. Americans maybe would have a harder time comprehending because so few of us ARE expected to "carry on the family business". It seems these rich boys have it easy, but they don't because they all have duties to their families. The twins, in particular, are undergoing an identity crisis because it has been "Us/not us" for them

It was then I realized a review is just one person's opinion. A lot of critics really have little special training & many (particularly in rock music) were failures in that field (I swear at least half the critics in Cream mentioned having a band, none of which seemed to ever have made it past bar band status while too many movie critics seemed to mention having written a screenplay)

My issue was she claimed her issue was it lacked the stuff one reads shojo MANGA for, but she's not reviewing the manga.

A manga IS ususally a more pure experience because it is the author putting his/her vision down on paper influenced only by the editor & maybe fanmail (though usually not) while the anime is the product of a director hired by a studio to make a popular title people will watch.

(all that s/he said, I'm too lazy to make separate quotes)

But, was it funny and entertaining?
Sure it was shallow and chock full of one dimensional characters, but were they really trying for something more?
I thought they hit the mark they were aiming for, and expecting anything greater or deeper from this story is asking for a slight reinterpretation of a drama/comedy that has probably been done before (I assume).

I am relatively new to anime, so I missed most of the hype of this series, and took a chance on the cheap set based on the fan hype that I had come across so far.

I thought it met and exceeded expectations (I take fan hype lightly, though I do consider it).

While this did not make me laugh out loud like Dokuro-chan or Punie-chan, it did leave me amused and onboard for a rewatch at a later time.

*Wonders how this thread will turn out?*

konkonsn wrote:

(all that s/he said, I'm too lazy to make separate quotes)

Would someone tell me how is the anime "lower quality" and "less deep" than the manga? No, really.

But what I'm saying is that the anime doesn't have that depth. I didn't say that because it is mass entertainment means it doesn't have depth (hence my reference to Shakespeare, who was widely loved by the "common folk" in his day). I'm saying people love it but not because it's got good technical merit.

It's true that when you read an Illustrated Classic or a modern take on Shakespeare, the overarching theme has gotten across. But there may have been deeper messages that can only be found in the original that these simplified stories lack. It's great that people who wouldn't read the original can read a version that appeals to them more, but the person watching Disney's Treasure Planet is getting a different story than someone reading the Illustrated Classic of Treasure Island, and both are seeing something different than the person who reads the original work.

But where is this told in the anime besides in passing? Where are we explicitly made to feel for the characters on these points?

I disagree...somewhat. Yes, a review has biases like anything else. But you can't write off a review just on that. Good reviewers - any good writer - use facts or well-held truths to back up their arguments.

Casey's review would have been a write-off opinion if she said, "Ouran is terrible because I don't like reverse harem anime." But she pointed out the technical merits and failings of the show, parts that are harder to argue with because either those techniques are present or they are not.

It's easy to discount a critic by labeling it as his/her opinion, but you have to agree with the facts. Whether you hold the same positive or negative view towards those facts is an entirely different matter.

Since Osamu Tezuka's Ribon no Kishi, cross-dressing girls have had a long and storied career as series heroines.

Yet whereas in Utena these cinematic techniques are deployed to naughty, even sinister, ends, in Ouran you can forget any deeper meaning; it's just supposed to be silly. The series bursts at the seams with sustained parodies of otaku culture, and the mood is typically that of the tongue-in-cheek titter.

All of these parodies are pitch-perfect, postmodern playfulness.

The cast, as the show itself loves to point out, are just one-dimensional types, and save for the expected fact that they all seem to fall in love with the heroine, nothing about them changes.

The boys, particularly Tamaki, are furious at her for her irresponsible behavior and demand she apologize to them. This sentiment does not translate well across cultures; Westerners in general are less inclined to punish their friends for making them worry, especially ones with as much self-possession as Haruhi.

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My issue was she claimed her issue was it lacked the stuff one reads shojo MANGA for, but she's not reviewing the manga.

Actually, that's not in her review. Maybe you're mistaking something I said?

Although Bisco Hatori's breakout hit does surprisingly well in its animated adaptation, it spends far too much time on slickly styled, postmodern play and not nearly enough on the human side of the story. If the guts of a great shoujo manga is about the social and psychological complexities of adolescence, then Ouran is a pretty, bishounen-laden package that, once unwrapped, proves disturbingly hollow.

But so indeed the twins and Haruhi did not know each other before they met in the host club - which makes a lot more sense as well ... was this only changed in the anime or is it the same in the manga?

Come to think of it, guys noticed her in middle school.

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Parody doesn't necessarily mean profundity, and Ouran is lacking in basic story and character development.

This sums of my option of the show, except for the fact this show looks like the typical shojo show. Everyone looks sparkling, but the characters lack development.

Vol 2 Episode 4 middle frame about 17 pgs in.
Hikaru-

Quote:

Come to think of it, guys noticed her in middle school.

Might have been a mistake on the author's part, but it suggests the twins knew Haruhi before she walked into the club. Hunny has known the twins since kindergarten