Ouran High School Host Club Part 4 Episodes 13-16

Time marches on and waits for no one, not even the Ouran High School Host Club.  Between summer jobs and threats from other desperate clubs, Haruhi Fujioka has come to learn that life with the most popular boys in school is certainly entertaining even when she hopes for some peace and quiet.  Lifes about to get even more bizarre when Haruhi finds herself on a surprise date with Hikaru.  Could the playful deceitful twin be developing a crush on the girl who’s turned his world upside down?  And while Haruhi is feeling more comfortable around the boys, one question still remains: Why did she choose Ouran Academy and what are her goals in life?

Todays set of Ouran High School Host Club episodes felt different from everything so far.  The humor is still there and Tamaki’s still one of the most infuriating characters in all of Anime to me.  But I felt like we were seeing some advancement in character growth and signs of a darker side to the Host Club that have been subtly teased but rarely lingered on.  We also got a very trippy but surprisingly very gorgeous episode that saw Studio Bones step up the animation quality in an already good looking show.  The end result…you know I feel like I was building up to some epic revelation but really, this set was good, just good.  I think my excitement if focused mostly on subtext and theories that might not pay off but I’ll talk about that in a bit.
 
Haruhi in Wonderland was bizarre but considering Ourans animation, aesthetic and character designs, I could see the series as a whole acting like a modern day fairytale…an occasionally messed up one but still.  So the Wonderland premise worked and watching Haruhi fall through levels and levels of craziness was animated so well.  Seriously, everything looked smoother and more fluid than anything else in the series.  It’s like the animation staff took an extra step to really bring out the whimsy and zaniness of Haruhi dreaming about Alice in Wonderland, populated by people she knows from real life (and drawing from everyone including the Hosts to one shot characters).  All of this was to hammer in a lesson for Haruhi about not taking life so seriously.  She has to live in the now and not think so much about the future (even if that’s one of the reasons she came to Ouran in the first place).  When I heard Tamaki, Honey and Mori all telling Haruhi she should be “Having a good time,” I swore they were gonna break into “Don’t Stop me Now” by Queen.  Best part of the entire dream was seeing Haruhi get the final lesson given to her by her Mother, the emotion in that scene was real and great, Gold Star Ouran High School Host Club.
 
Time to talk about those aforementioned subtexts and theories.  The middle of this set found the Host Club on the radar of the Newspaper Club and Tamaki himself in the crosshairs of the Club President who felt Tamaki had ruined his life with his money and fame (even claiming the Host Club were supposed to be his friends and not Tamakis).  The scene where the President is cornered and confronted by the rest of the Hosts was scary.  There’s always been a darkness to most of them (even Honey with his crazy martial arts skills).  But if Kyouya wanted you dead and gone and the body never found…I feel like he could order it without a problem…actually Hikaru and Kaoru would volunteer to do the evil deed.  Point is: These guys are all dangerous in their own way and they scared the President into backing down from going after Tamaki when I think it couldve gone down very differently and darkly.  Then there’s Tamaki himself, who we learned is the son of the Head of Ouran Academy and the guy who signed off on Haruhi’s scholarship.  This little revelation just sends my mind in so many directions with so many questions: Is Tamaki holding this little secret over Haruhi to get her to like him?  Is this the reason why the other Hosts tolerate his dumbassery when they should’ve ditched him ages ago?  Or…am I just overthinking and the real question is: Is Tamaki really just a spoiled idiot?  Time will tell I guess but given the glimpses we saw in this episode, I get the feeling we’ll be getting to the origins of the Ouran High School Host Club soon.
 
Regardless of questioning his true motives and character, I always have time to chide Tamaki for being a royal pain.  Of course he’d jump to conclusions again and assume the worst about Haruhi going on vacation and fly everyone there to raise a ruckus.  She can go an entire day without your perverted “I wanna be your daddy/lover” schtick you freaking stalker!!!!  Ugh, onto better things about this little Summer Vacation arc: Character growth for Hikaru and Kaoru.  Their journey to becoming more individual beings rather than a unified front has always been prevalent throughout the show but here was the big game changer: Hikaru developing feelings for Haurhi.  I kind of wish it had been someone else other than Tamaki to tell Hikaru about Haruhi’s fear of thunder and lightning cause I refuse to give Tamaki any actual praise for doing the right thing.  The moment where Hikaru flashbacked to all the obvious signs of Haruhi’s fear was great, as was his desperate search to find her.  Watching him comfort Haruhi in the church was a very nice moment and makes you kind of want to forgive Hikaru for being a jealous jerk towards Haruhi’s former Middle School crush (though the scene where Haruhi realized a full year later that Arai was confessing his feelings for her was pretty funny).  Cudos to Kaoru too for pushing his brother in the right direction to make things good with Haruhi…is it wrong of me to actually root that a character I wasn’t a fan of to hook up with Haruhi?  Eh, anyone’s better than Tamaki, just saying.
 
Whew, that was a lot…like a lot a lot.  I don’t know how many of my theories will pan out but I hope the strong advancements made by Hikaru and Kaoru stick.  And wow, an actual shipping to root for (why am I getting Toru/Kyo from Fruits Basket vibes, they aren’t done by the same Studio or Artist).  All in all, like I said, this was a good set of episodes, probably the strongest consecutive set of the show so far.  Here’s hoping the goodness can carry on next time as Ouran High School Host Club continues right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.  See ya around everyone.