Monday, March 21, 2022

Ouran High School Host Club Part 6 Episodes 21-23

Ouran Academy is abuzz with Halloween right around the corner.  When Haruhi, Hikaru and Kaoru partake in the Hallowenn Test of Courage Tournament, the other Hosts are determined to get in on the fun too.  Then, the lonely but fierce, Ritsu Kasanoda looking student comes to Mori look for help making friends in spite of his frightening appearance.  But things only get crazier when Kasanoda discovers Haruhi’s secret and develops feelings for her.  Will the young Mafia successor be the one to claim her heart…and how will Tamaki fair at the thought of his beloved Haruhi possibly leaving his group for good?

Well…it had to happen at some point.  My ever increasing pissed off meter towards Tamaki Suou finally reached its peak, exploded and I had to actually shout at the screen and I really wanna share what I said but I like to keep swearing to a minimum.  Let’s just say its been a long time since any Anime character has set me off the way Tamaki has.  From his high on his own good looks and presence mind set to his constant back and forth between obsessed and downright cringy attitude towards Haruhi, this is a guy who is supposed to be the biggest comic relief of the show.  For me, he is not.  Tamaki is a spoiled brat who is so into his own messed up fantasy he doesn’t realize how ridiculous he really is and how incredibly dull, dense and messed up he is when it comes to Haruhi.  AND I GET IT, there’s a point to this kind of behavior and Kaoru actually did a good job of touching on it several times in this penultimate set of episodes.  But just because there’s a point to Tamaki’s stupidity doesn’t mean I have to like him or sympathize with him.  Especially because when I heard him actually say these words, “Daddy’s don’t wanna marry their little girls when they grow up do they?”…I finally lost it.  This entire review could just be on the culmination of my fury for Tamaki but there’s other ground to cover and there was quite a bit in three episodes.
 
The Halloween episode was good based on the premise of the Test of Courage Tournament alone.  Sure the build up was hampered by a guy so cowardly and full of complaints that he almost became a character more annoying than Tamaki.  But once the scares got going, it was great.  MVP’s definitely go to Mori pretending to be Frankenstein (perfect with his deadpan delivery) and Honey pretening to be a Werewolf…wearing none of the makeup and just dressed up on a giant pumpkin, these two are a great pair.  The episode also provided more chances for Hikaru and Haruhi to get a little bit closer while they were running for their lives from false scares.  Kaoru’s always been the more in tune with things between him and his twin so I’m not shocked he had some good insights on his brothers feelings for Haruhi and Tamaki’s depiction of the Host Club.  He sees them as a family he wants to have all the fun in the world with but Kaoru likened this depiction to the Cinderella Pumpkin carriage.  Anytime now, the clocks gonna strike midnight and the fantasy is gonna end.  Call it the show being meta about its approaching end.  I call it a nice showing of character for Kaoru. 
 
Two thirds of this set were dedicated to one story involving a fun new character and a new shakeup for the Haruhi situation.  Admitedly, it’s extremely disappointing to finally give Mori his own centric storyline…and it quickly becomes not his.  First Mori does the dumbest thing he has ever done in his life: turn to Tamaki for help and from there Tamaki hijacked his episode because of course he would.  Then Haruhi becomes the focal point of the second part of the story.  Mori’s been the intimidating but cool bodyguard of few words and has deserved so much better from this series beyond being a packaged deal with Honey.  Oh right, the new character in question is Kasanoda-the heir of a crime syndicate with resting mean face who wants to make friends and not be seen as a scary guy.  As much as I want Mori to have his own tale, why did Kasanoda come to him?  Mori is not the scariest of the Hosts, that title goes to Kyouya without contest. 
 
Still, disappointments aside, Kasanoda was a great character to follow and I really liked his arc with Haruhi.  He grew to like her as a boy and fell harder for her once he found out the truth about her gender.  Kasanoda seemed like a very sweet guy and if I weren’t rooting for Haruhi and Hikaru to maybe end up together, this guy would be a fun match for Haruhi.  The prospect even had fun reactions from all the Hosts (yes even Tamaki when he went full on barely functioning robot).  I liked Kyouya using the Yaoi romance everyone was seeing between Haruhi and Kasanoda to draw in a bigger crowd of girls.  But…yeah, Tamaki’s freakout was the peak of my anger for him (and we haven’t even gotten to Kyouya’s backstory yet).  Why are the boys only now starting to question Tamaki’s messed up way of thinking of Haruhi like a daughter when clearly he wants to date her?  The more Tamaki spoke on the matter, the deeper the hole he dug for himself and I’m glad Kaoru was on hand to lay out the logic with Tamaki’s fantasy world and how nothing stays the same forever.  Hell, Kaoru’s kind of scared of what’s gonna happen once Hikaru accepts his feelings for Haruhi and maybe puts some distance between the brothers.  It’s like everyones grown up over the course of this show except for Tamaki…no wonder I cant stand him in the slightest.
 
Ouran High School Host Club is a good show but the continued forced interference by it’s leading male character irks me like nothing else in a while.  I don’t think I want the club to possibly ever disband…but Tamaki needs a sabbatical for sure.  I honestly don’t know how I’m gonna feel about this series once we get to the finale next time.  Do I like this show for the battle of the social classes humor? Do I hate it because Tamaki exists and has warped goals in mind for Haruhi? (DAUGHTER OR GIRLFRIEND?!! PICK A LANE IT CANNOT BE BOTH YOU F***** CREEP…whew ok backing down).  I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say regardless when we return to Ouran High School Host Club next time for the Series Finale, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner. 

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