Today's recap is on one of
the more perplexing anime I've seen. It's only been out a few
years, but it's already
being hailed as a classic. It is a parody of a genre of anime that is
alien
to me. There are men who
willingly admit to watching it, when it is clearly aimed at women.
I am talking about “Ouran
High School Host Club.”
“Ouran” is largely a
parody of the “shojo” genre, which is targeted at teenage and
young
adult women in the same
manner that “shonen” is target at teenage and young adult men.
In this particular case, it
parodies the harem subgenre. It consists of Haruhi, a young woman
who has a quasi-masculine
appearance to her being inducted into the Host Club, where
attractive young men sell themselves as playthings to the female
students. And yes, this is a
show with rich humor.
As you can very well tell,
the shojo parody aspect was lost on me as I had never seen
any shojo prior to giving
in to a friend's request to watch it. This can be chalked up to a
number
of factors. First, there is
the fact that the genre was largely irrelevant in the anime circles I
put
myself into. It wasn't
seen, it wasn't read, it wasn't talked about. “Sailor Moon” and
“Cardcaptors” do not count for me, as their adaptations were so
heavily-modified that I was not
aware they WERE shojo.
While Shonen Jump Magazine continued to sell well on newsstands
every month until it went
weekly and digital this past January; Shojo Beat was a commercial
failure in my area and
ceased publication in 2008 for Oregon. Second, there's the massive
cultural divide caused by the gap in social class. I live in a town
known for festivals celebrating
mud and country music. In
the latter case, I even have to constantly listen to heavy metal and
rap to keep from going mad. We followed the Occupy Portland movement
extensively. As you
can very well tell, the
Host Club was a representation of the 1%; which caused problems in
trying to comprehend the
jokes. Third, and most of all, the flamboyancy of the Host Club
was construed as blatant
homosexuality. I am no homophobe, and I will try to keep the gay
jokes to a minimum in this
recap. For the record, I will simply state that other animated works
I have seen were at least
more restrained in their flamboyancy. He-Man was a muscular warrior
in a furry thong, SpongeBob
tried to brighten everyone's day, and Tracks made sure we knew
about his “stunning
automobile mode.”
As such, I did not
initially enjoy the series. I dismissed the idea of any man enjoying
it;
even going out of my way to
disparage the show. My criticism of it proved controversial, as
there were dozens of fans
tearing into me like rabid dogs for making fun of the show; and I had
to quickly issue an
apology, but I was still reluctant to accept the show. Time passed,
and the
anime grew on me, with help
from Manitoug15's “Ouran The Vaguely Abridged Series”. Heck,
So, why bother recapping
an episode, then? Well, even as I grew more accepting of the show,
there were still a handful of episodes that bothered me. We will get
to them as I go along
with this blog, but first
things first. Today, I will recap the episode that truly got on my
bad side
as far as I'm concerned. To
kick off summer vacation, I will recap “The Sun, The Sea, and The
Host Club.”
As always, we start with
the theme song. I had watched the show up to episode 20,
“The Door The Twins
Opened” (which will not be recapped, as that is when the show got
really good); but I
listened to the theme song for the first time as I watched the
episode for this
recap. I'm not sure what to
make of it, to be honest. As I explained, shojo is not my field.
I like the action-oriented
stories of shonen. Whether it's martial artists, pirates, ninjas,
Soul
Reapers, or masters of
monsters, I like series that can get me pumped up while still getting
me
to care about what's going
on with the folks involved and setting up atmosphere and tone.
I have also taken a liking
to the paranormal, and even the lowbrow in anime.
The best thing I can say
about it, is that it was animated by Studio Bones, the same team
behind Soul Eater. I will
mention Mamoru Miyano a lot in this blog, as Tamaki was not my
first exposure to him. He
is fifth, behind Light Yagami, Dent, Death the Kid, and Masaomi Kida.
Apart from that, the tune
is decent.
We open on the Host Club, as
the twins, Hikaru and Kaoru are showing Haruhi possible
swimsuits to wear on their
beach trip. Honey, who is a high school senior who resembles a little
boy (don't look at me, I didn't draw him, I just watched him)
suggests a one-piece suit, but the
twins veto it in favor of a
frilly bikini. I disagree, sometimes a one-piece suit leaves a lot
more
to the imagination. Honey
then asks if his stuffed rabbit, Usa-chan, can come. Sure, why not?
I'm not one to judge, I
have the biggest Pokémon collection of all my immediate friends.
We then get our title card
out of a swarm of rose petals. I can only assume this is an homage
to “The Rose of Versailles”, a drama that I've heard of, but just
never seen. Given how
many tributes of it are
thrown around in the anime I've seen, I can only conclude that
observing
the real thing is not
necessary.
We then cut to the
beaches of Okinawa. I imagine that would be a lovely vacation spot
this time of year.
Haruhi muses why they
brought some of the guest from the host club along. Kyoya drinks a
Blue Hawaii as he takes notes on the situation. I need something a
bit stronger-
artificially-sweetened
Pepsi One should do it.
Tamaki has a romantic
fantasy about walking on the beach with Haruhi. The notes I
took on this episode
originally contained a tasteless joke, so instead, let the Beach Boys
Honey asks Haruhi if she
wants to go Hellfish Hunting. Does Abe Simpson need help
finding those paintings
again? Haruhi corrects him, saying he wants to go Shellfish Hunting.
Amazingly, they are
instantly swarmed with crabs. Succulent, tender, delicious crabs.
 |
| Well, looks like Haruhi has a bad case of crabs. I apologize, that joke is beneath me. |
They start gathering the
crabs, and one of them has a centipede on it. Haruhi grabs it and
throws the centipede in the
direction of one of the rocks. The twins then propose a game:
“See What Haruhi is
Afraid Of.” Or as I like to call it, “Make Haruhi Glad She Wore
Brown Shorts to the Beach.” Kyoya agrees, offering prints of
middle school pictures of Haruhi as a prize.
They take her inside a
cavern near the beach, where they try to scare her with paranormal
means. Haruhi says she doesn't believe in ghosts. Well, I dumped my
cousin's Teddy Ruxpin in
one of those caves, that
will do it.
Honey then gets a group of
Kyoya's mercenaries to lock them inside the cargo hold of
their truck, to see if
she's claustrophobic. Haruhi says dark, enclosed areas don't bother
her.
Mori, a sort of gentle giant
among the Host Club; outright threatens her with a harpoon.
Haruhi doesn't even flinch.
Tamaki then starts gathering
rat snakes, hoping that will scare her and that snakes are the most
vile creatures on this planet. I disagree. I think snakes are
awesome. The rat snakes would
even take care of our
rodent problem.
Then, a couple of drunken
punks come in and start harassing the other girls. Haruhi throws a
bucket of sea urchins at one of the hoods, and he responds by
directly confronting her.
 |
| I never graduated high school, buddy. Doesn't look like you will, either. |
Haruhi then gets thrown off
the cliff and into the water, and she cannot swim. I don't know what
the Japanese call it, but here we call that attempted murder. I
stress “attempted”
as Tamaki saves her.
Tamaki then berates Haruhi
for her actions, saying she had no martial arts knowledge like
the rest of them. It is
here that I state why I chose this particular episode to recap. In
Japan,
this scene was perceived as
Tamaki looking out for Haruhi's well-being. In America, viewers
saw Tamaki's behavior as
misogynistic.
I'm no feminist, but I do
know this: If a girl struggles in water, teach her to swim. If she
gets beaten up, teach her
to fight. If she disagrees with you, work it out, but for god's sake;
throw your misogyny in the
garbage!
It gets better. Most of
the comments on the YouTube copy of this episode took Haruhi's
side, not Tamaki's. I don't
know if Japan ever had a sexual revolution like America did, but
Ms. Magazine would not
approve of this situation.
The two decide that they
will not speak to each other for the remainder of the trip. If this
is a divorce, do they get
to divvy up what they own by half?
The crabs are cooked, and it
is time for dinner. It would make a good Red Lobster commercial.
Haruhi comes in, and she
looks mighty fine in the dress she wears to the dinner.
She quickly begins eating
the crab, shelling them and tearing into the meat while Tamaki looks
Tamaki is still convinced
Haruhi was wrong, though Haruhi admits she could use the martial
arts training.
Haruhi doesn't feel well
all of a sudden, and then we cut to a bathroom, with the implication
that she got sick after eating too much of the crab.
Kyoya confronts her about
her actions, and makes an advance on her. He tells Haruhi
the twins beat up those
hoods, and he tries to embrace her.
 |
| Since my advertisers won't let me show this scene, here's a picture of a puppy. |
Tamaki arrives, and Haruhi
goes to her room. Tamaki comes to see her, then a
storm brews with a large
bolt of lightning catching Haruhi by surprise.
 |
| Pardon me, sempai, but I believe my panties have become a bit damp. |
She jumps into a wardrobe,
as if she's going to retreat to Narnia. Tamaki comforts her.
It is here I realize I made
a mistake by watching Death Note first, because all I'm thinking
about
is him taking out his Death
Note and killing those hoods for her. Ladies and gentlemen,
this has been a Funny Aneurysm Moment.
The other boys come in,
and they mistakenly believe that Tamaki is playing a kinky game
with her. They continue to
do so even as they leave. I believe Poison can say this better than I can.
“The Sun, The Sea and The
Host Club” is not a great episode, but it was completely
ruined by our sensibilities
of gender equality as opposed to the Japanese desires of wanting
women to submit to men and
wear pretty dresses. There will be other episodes of this show;
but that's a matter for
another day.
My next recap will be done
while I visit my father in California. I am taking my computer with
me. I think I'll do another Bakugan recap. Now that I think about it,
I'm
not quite ready to do New
Vestroia yet, I have an episode of the original series that I've
been itching to do.
So, that is all for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment