It’s chaos on all sides for the Host Club. Tamaki awakens a dangerous beast when a
sleepy Kyouya ends up stranded in a mall with Haruhi thanks to him. Honey finds himself in the middle of a
sibling spat when his younger brother comes looking to challenge him to a
dangerous duel. Then, the Zuka Club
returns and kidnaps Haruhi, leading to a rescue mission that even Haruhi’s
father is getting in on. Through all of
these antics, questions about the formation of the Host Club begin to
arise. Just how did Tamaki assemble his
merry band of perfect gentlemen in the fist place?
As we close in on the end of the series, it was
inevitable we’d finally start getting some origin stories about the formation
of the Ouran High School Host Club.
This
set of episodes still found time to strike an even balance between backstory
and present day hijinks, along with a theatrical performance that must be seen
to be believed.
However, when it came to
the story of how Tamaki brought the boys together, I shouldn’t be surprised
that some of it would be darker than others, or rather sad, dark implies some
pretty heinous things.
Let’s start with
the fun stuff first before we delve into origin story territory.
Things kicked off with the perfect beginning of Kyouya
being roused from his sleep by an annoying Tamaki for a field trip to some kind
of exhibit at a Mall Haruhi likes to shop at.
I get the feeling that Tamaki is the only one who is a morning
person.
Kyouya finally letting his cool
demeanor shatter cause he is too tired for Tamaki’s crap was great and I loved
how irked and rude he was around just about everybody (that poor fast food
worker).
I’ve been looking forward to
more Haruhi and Kyouya’s stuff after their rather dark interaction back at the
beach.
While Kyouya might fancy himself
the most intelligent of the Host Club (honestly that bar is pretty damn low),
Haruhi is very much his equal, maybe even his superior.
While Kyouya can rationalize everything in
numbers and long term statistics, Haruhi has heart and can understand basic
human emotion.
So yeah, she knew Kyouya
wasn’t just helping some old lady who his family had done business with, he was
helping because he wanted to and could.
Haruhi claims Kyouya is just as selfless as Tamaki and he doesn’t even
realize it…fair enough, Tamaki does have his moments where he isn’t a total
idiot.
If anything, Kyouya is the
greater saint cause only a saint could put up with Tamaki’s antics so often and
still remain sane.
A major part of Kyouya’s episode was learning about his
standing in his family: third youngest son and least likely to inherit any
family business.
This kind of carried
over into Honey’s fun episode.
The
little martial arts monster also has family legacy lingering over his head and
he’s expected to be a super serious teacher of self defense…when really all
Honey wants to do is snuggle with his bunny and fill his belly with
sweets.
Lob that in with Tamaki being
the (illegitimate) son of the head of Ouran Academy and you’ve got potentially
six young men who are being groomed to be the future leaders of Japan.
I cant imagine what it’s like to live with
that weight on their shoulders so I get why the Host Club acts so chill…doesn’t
excuse Tamaki’s stupidity but I’m leaving that alone.
Back to Honey, it’s always a treat to see him
in action (with amazing commentary by Renge), this time against his brother,
Chika, who hates Honey for his penchant for eating cake super late at
night.
I laughed pretty hard at Honey’s
attempts in flashbacks to be more manly and not eat sweets and failing
miserably until Tamaki told him he didn’t need to pretend to be something he’s
not.
Although, Honey kicks the crap out
of Chika, winning a bet so he can keep eating sweets…and clearly has no qualms
about laying out his family members to keep on snacking…that kind of paints
Honey in a negative light (even Mori read his intentions in battle wrong,
assuming Honey would throw the fight so Chika could win and feel better).
Come on Ouran, 4 out of 6 of the Hosts are
jerks, Honey and Mori are the only bastion of true likability.
Ahem, sorry, guess we should talk about Hikaru and Kaoru
next.
I should not be shocked that
before they came to Ouran Academy…they were still terrible people, playing emotional
games that left them entertained and dozens of hearts and feelings broken.
I’ve always gone back and forth on Hikaru and
Kaoru’s likability.
Their twin act does
get a chuckle every once in a while but their meanspiritedness and snobbish
nature make me dislike them.
To the
shows credit, Ouran does try to explain why they are this way…and it all boils
down to the fact that no one has ever been able to tell them apart until Haruhi
came along.
I certainly sympathized when
I learned they came to realize this as little kids.
To be honest, I’m surprised the twins
accepted Tamaki’s invite to join the Host Club eventually.
Considering how closed off they made
themselves, Hikaru and Kaoru seemed like an impenetrable fortress, not wanting
to have their feelings hurt again.
I’ll
also admit, Tamaki did work his ass off to make it happen (dialing up his
annoyance factor incredibly high).
But
if I’m honest, his sell at becoming a Host and learning to be more like
individuals while still doing their incestous twin act may seem sincere…but
Haruhi did a better job of getting the twins to develop than he did.
Honestly, I’m really looking forward to
seeing how Tamaki talked Kyouya into joining cause if the twins were a
challenge, he seems damn near impossible, yet here we are.
Beyond the overly dramatic origin sections, we did get
one very fun episode featuring the long awaited return of the Zuka Club.
Not only did Ranka get to join in on the
“Rescue Mission” to save Haruhi from Lobelia Academy, but Haruhi herself was
the best part of the episode for her tone deaf, robotic delivery of the single
line “My Lord Fredrick.”
I could not
stop laughing everytime she said that line.
And even though she was lip syncing to a song (again, the moment this is
realized I laughed so damn hard), the English Dub had Haruhi’s voice actress
Caitlin Glass showing off her beautiful singing voice.
The Lobelia Girls flair for the dramatic had
not lost their touch and their leader, Benibara, got the most of the
spotlight.
We got to see her army of
fans, her intense dedication to her role in her play and, best of all…it was
all just one giant ruse so she could get revenge on the Host Club by stealing
Haruhi’s first kiss…which was already taken waayyyyyy back early on in the
series.
I’m amazed how well this show
uses its own continuity to it’s advantage.
You expect a lot of these episodes to be one and dones but they will
draw from past episodes to pull off a good joke, cudos Ouran.
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