The normally happy and exciting Ouran Fair finds dark
clouds hovering over it when Tamaki’s family arrives with an offer that changes
everything for the carefree Head of the Host Club. With Tamaki backed into a corner and the Club
on the verge of disillution, it’s up to Haruhi and the others to find Tamaki
and bring him to his senses. But forces
far more powerful stand in their way, determined to secure Tamaki to his fate. But this is the Ouran High School Host
Club…and they always take care of their own.
Ok so this is a tough finale to talk about for me.
I have made it pretty clear that I do not
like Tamaki Suou.
He’s clingy, dim
witted, totally unaware of how others are affected by his antics and his back
and forth between thinking he’s a father figure towards Haruhi and being
totally in love with her stopped being funny…you know what, it was never funny,
it was flat out gross.
You’d think that
being one of the two main focal points of the show, next to Haruhi, needing to
like Tamaki as a character would be a critical factor for the final story of
the series.
It forces Tamaki to see how
his antics could be a tad disruptive before exploring his own backstory and pretty
much establishing why he is the way he is.
I sympathize, I never thought I’d say that but I do.
Tamaki might be a dumbass…but I wouldn’t wish
the situation he found himself in with his family upon anyone, it’s beyond
cruel.
In short, I’m always gonna hate
Tamaki.
For the Series Finale of Ouran
High School Host Club though, I found far worse characters to hate so I pushed
my Tamaki hate to the side for once.
Cause at the end of the day, whether you like Tamaki or not, the rest of
the finale did a good job showing why this cast works and, honestly, without
Tamaki to bring it all together, it couldn’t.
So yeah, Tamaki’s backstory: he’s the product of a
forbidden romance between his father and a French woman and, naturally,
Tamaki’s Grandmother was not happy with that.
As time went by, Tamaki’s Grandmother offered Tamaki’s Mother an
ultimatum-she’ll save her from financial ruin if she sends Tamaki to stay with
her in Japan cause she needs a male heir to the family and she’s never to
contact Tamaki ever again.
Who the hell
makes blackhearted deals like that?
In
fact, once Tamaki and Kyouya’s families both stepped into the final two
episodes, the show became less of a reverse harem comedy and more like a
succession political drama.
Moving
assests, acquiring companies, this is as far from Ouran High School Host Club
as you can get…and yet it makes me see why things are always fun inspite of the
insanity at the Host Club.
Tamaki’s way
of life has always been “Do what makes you happy”.
He’s brought that mindset to everything that
he does, even if he ignores just about everything else (like in Kyouya’s
flashbacks when he wants to see all over Japan but backs out last minute after
all of Kyouya’s planning).
Tamaki isn’t
cruel…he’s just a dumbass who wants to make the world happy not for political
or social gain but because it’s what makes him happy.
And while me being driven insane by his crazy
mindset is evident, I also cant ignore how happier everyone is for slowly
adopting that way of life too.
This doesn’t
make me like Tamaki…but I can respect his general lifes wish…let’s settle with
that.
With all of Tamaki’s hidden drama pulled out, the Host
Club found itself on borrowed time as Tamaki opted to disband the Club both
because of the chance to see his Mother again if he married the beautiful
Éclair but also because he finally realized he might be causing harm to Haruhi
and the others with his overbearing nature.
Because of my newfound balance with Tamaki after learning his story,
I’ve gotta say that while this needed to happen for a long time because Tamaki
is Tamaki…this still felt unfair.
If
Tamaki needed to take some time off to go get his head on straight, ok.
But to disband the Club seemed like the kind
of overkill only outside interference like Tamaki’s family would invoke.
Kyouya’s Father wasn’t very supportive
either, believing the Host Club to be a waste of Kyouya’s time.
It was here that Haruhi proved why she was
the critical missing piece to making the Host Club (and the show as a whole)
work.
She’s proof that the Host Club can
change people for the better and the Hosts themselves have changed as well.
Haruhi standing up to Kyouya’s Dad without
hesitation was a huge move.
Haruhi IS a
Host and she wont suffer anyone talking smack about her club or her friends.
The race to save Tamaki was an exciting way to cap off
the series.
I wish we could have seen
more of Honey and Mori beating the crap out of Kyouya’s security team but that
wasn’t the point, was it? (shame though).
Again, Haruhi proved her growth by driving a freaking carriage to catch
up to Tamaki and bring him home.
I’m
certainly not ok with Tamaki’s icky “I wanna be her father” mentality when he
clearly wants to be romantic with Haruhi.
But if this is what it took to bring him back to the fold, I’m ok with
it.
This has been Haruhi’s story just as
much as his, if not more.
It was always
gonna take someone not connected to the family drama with a fresh face to be
the final revelation Tamaki needed about why the Host Club has been such a
success.
I’m kind of confused about
Éclair wanting Tamaki to stay with her since she’d been so toxic and
manipulative til that point.
I think
Éclair needed to be introduced sooner, maybe as a plant student, to build her
up to being one of the last antagonists of the series…one that Tamaki was still
nice to before he escaped.
We end Ouran High School Host Club…with a few things
unresolved actually.
What will the
fallout be from Tamaki deciding to stay at Ouran?
What about the bet between Kyouya and
Tamaki’s Fathers: to see which of their sons will win Haruhi’s heart?
Will Hikaru still have a shot at making
things work with Haruhi and will Kaoru be alright with that if it happens?
And then there’s Tamaki’s Mother, would she
risk coming to Ouran to see her son and defy his Grandmothers orders?
This feels less like a Series Finale and more
like a Season Finale in the end.
I don’t
know if there was ever a Season Two in the cards but if not, I wished this
conclusion was less open ended.
Still,
the Hosts are back together and all seems normal.
Guess in the end that’s all you can ever ask
for.
Final Thoughts: In spite of my fury of a thousand suns
hatred of Tamaki, I did like Ouran High School Host Club.
The comedy was funny when it hit the right
mark.
The clash between social classes
made me groan and chuckle.
The
characters all grew (except for Honey and Mori who were pretty much stagnant
the whole time) though they teetered back and forth between likeable anti
heroes and straight up jerks.
Haruhi was
the Queen of the Club and I always loved it when she pointed out the faults of
the others in the hopes it would make them better, or at least less mean
spirited.
Bones did a good job with
animation and many of the stories were unique and fun in their own way.
If some of the major revelations in the
finale had more build up and the ending had been tightened…and Tamaki was less
of a headache inducing moron, the show could have been better.
Still, it was good to revisit this and enjoy
some of the Host Club’s company, for better or for worse.
Hope these reviews made you laugh…I’m gonna
go relax and get ready for the 8
th Anniversary Review where were
back to more series, and hopefully consistent stuff.
7/10
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