Ouran High School Host Club Part 3 Episodes 9-12

Haruhi finds herself at a crossroads when an illustrious all girls academy discovers her secret and declares they can offer her a better life than that of Ouran Academy.  To what lengths will Tamaki and the others go to keep their prized protegee in their ranks?  Meanwhile, the Hosts find themselves needed on more personal matters: Reuniting a lost Manga loving girl with her older brother and making sure Honey Senpai doesn’t make a cavity worse than it already is.  And if that wasn’t enough, what happens when a bad dream finally brings Tamaki and the Hosts to a strange new world: Haruhi’s home?

There’s a lot about Ouran High School Host Club that doesn’t sit well with me and most of it has to do with the childish and darkly manipulative natures of at least 4 of the 6 main Hosts.  The upside is that A. Haruhi is doing a good job of laying down the law when their antics get too out of hand and B. when this shows humor works, it really works.  That all being said, this was probably my favorite set of episodes so far because of the humor alone.  We got a cute episode with Honey and Mori at odds for once.  The Host Club found actual rivals and we even got to finally see Haruhi’s home life…oh and a 6 year old knows what “debauchery” is thanks to Shoujo Manga…lots of laughs all around.
 
Let’s start with the Zuka Club…and get the bulk of my Tamaki bashing out of the way.  I guess Haruhi is fully committed to the Host Club for sure after passing on the invitations of the theatrically fun Zuka Club.  In spite of the promise of not needing to pretend to be a boy and being treated far more equally than she is now, Haruhi decided to stay because she came to Ouran for a reason and she got the best laugh seeing the boys dress in drag just to show her they can get in touch with their feminine sides to better understand her.  I cant imagine how hard that act was for Tamaki, who went full on homophobic when the Zuka Club got super flirty with Haruhi and revealed they were all romantically involved with one another.  Ok so you tolerate Hikaru and Kaoru’s playfully incestuous relationship but the idea of two girls locking lips is a mortal sin?  I could go to that extreme or lay into Tamaki desperate to not let Haruhi fall in love with anyone else but him…but lets face it, that’s not much better.  I’m so glad at what came next for the creep but before I get into that, I did really like the Zuka Club and I hope Renge’s prediction that they’ve become the rivals of the Host Club means we’ll see them again, they were a lot of fun.
 
Well we had to drag Haruhi’s home life into the Host Club’s view eventually.  As much as I hate Tamaki, his dream of poor Haruhi living in the worst kind of poverty did make me crack up pretty hard.  Naturally a brat who has lived in the upper echelon of wealth and pamperdness would assume Haruhi was dirt poor and living in a rundown shack somewhere.  And, of course, if he was going to look into it, everyone else did too…cause let’s face it, everything is a group activity.  Here though, we got to meet Ryouji Fujioka, Haruhi’s father, who is a Transvestite by the name of Ranka as well.  I can see why Haruhi has no problems pretending to be a boy when her father is so effortlessly right at home in women’s clothing.  We also got to see some touching moments from their past from Ryouji’s over protective nature to Haruhi wanting her Dad to take a break cause she’s worried about him in turn.  But best of all, the moment when Ryouji came home to find Tamaki had fallen over Haruhi…AND PUMMELD HIS ASS RIGHT INTO A WALL!!!!!  He’s living my dream right now, God how I’ve wanted someone to do that all this time.  Also, should I really be shocked the boys don’t know how to buy their own groceries, especially Hikaru and Kaoru.  I’m with Haruhi, “I hate rich people.”
 
I’ll admit, I wasn’t a fan of the episode where recurring creepy student Nekozawa returned.  It’s not that I don’t like him (his Cat Demon puppet reminds me of something from Slayers), it’s just that the story of his little sister being afraid of him and the Host Club’s attempts to bring them together again felt like retreaded ground on a couple of past episodes.  The best part of the episode was little Kirimi knowing what Debauchery meant because she’s read a bunch of Shoujo Manga and was able to label the Boys dead on thanks to her knowledge.  It was just too funny knowing a kid knew exactly what she was talking about and stunned everyone with her knowledge.  On the flipside, Mori and Honey got a hilarious episode to close out the set, with Honey developing a cavity from eating too many sweets and Mori’s attempts to keep it from getting worse.  I feel like these two don’t get nearly as much attention as they others because theyre not jerks.  They have a fun loving friendship and it was good to see it tested, even if Mori was being overdramatic by blaming himself for the cavity cause he didn’t get Honey to brush his teeth once or twice.  If nothing else, the episode was a highlight for the continued legend of Honey Senpai, this time with the rumor that he destroyed two battalions of Green Berets for waking him from a nap…I can relate, I am zero percent a morning person myself.
 
My back and forth on several characters still going strong, I loved this set of episodes because for the most part, I was laughing my ass off happily.  Three of the four stories were genuinely funny, especially when it came at the expense of Tamaki getting his warped world views shoved in his face (wow I am really taking glee in seeing one character get ruined almost every episode…is that ok?).  Here’s hoping the laughs continue and maybe we could get some more character growth in next time too.  We’ll find out as we continue on with Ouran High School Host Club right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.