Episode 30: Harem May Part 4
Disclaimer: The following consists of material owned by Bisco Hattori, Funimation entertainment, and Studio Bones this review is my property and is used for satirical purposes only.
Airnaruto45 once again sat at his desk with a look of relief on his face. "Hello I'm the Classic Critic; I remember it so you're not required too and welcome to the final day of Harem May!" He said as once again the familiar title screen of him getting pummeled by a bunch of people ending with him holding up a sign that read Harem May appeared before cutting back to him.
"If you're wondering what's with the extra chairs well they have to do with my guests this week in fact they should be here in 3, 2, and 1." Airnaruto said as he heard a crash through his roof and a pillar of flame popped up on one side of him to reveal a teenage British boy with a hollow face and a young Satanist who was trapped in a straight jacket. (A/N: Isn't Satanism basically what Jashinism is more or less?) "Here they are folks X prodigy and his little brother Advent101." Airnaruto said introducing them to the crowd.
"Thanks for having us over Airnaruto." X said.
"Yeah what big bro said may I sacrifice some of your audience to lord Jashin Air please?" Advent pleaded.
"No Advent you can not sacrifice anyone to Satan, don't make me use this on you Advent." Air replied pulling out a silver cross with holy powers causing Advent to recoil in fear and agony.
"Anyway let's get this over with the final anime we'll be looking at for the month, Ouran High School Host Club." X said as the Japanese version of the opening theme played in the background.
"Oruan High School Host Club is a High school romantic reverse harem comedy satire anime based on the manga of the same name by Bisco Hattori put together by studio Bones back in 2006." Advent said as he, his brother, and Airnaruto got to the main plot.
Plot:
"The plot revolves around Haruhi Fujiyoka, the new student on campus at Ouran academy, however unlike the rest of the students there; she's among the lesser middle-class financially and only got in off of an honors scholarship, anyway while looking for a quiet place to study she enters one of the old music rooms only to find a group of six boys that call themselves the host club, their job is to entertain young and rich girls who like the guys also have too much time and money on their hands, however while being praised as one of very few poor people to make it into the academy, Haruhi accidentally knocks over and smashes the plot device of the series; a renaissance vase worth eight million yen." Airnaruto said as the scene of Haruhi knocking over said vase causing it to break.
(CRASH!)
"Well that's 80,000 USD down the pipes." Advent said.
"Anyway since she's poor Haruhi has to work off the debt by joining the host club and satisfying as many customers as she can while trying to hide her gender at the same time which gets a little more difficult when Tamaki finally finds out that the person they thought was a he was really a she." Advent said which lead to him questioning one fact.
"Why does she look like a guy anyway?" He asked before the camera cut to Haruhi explaining her current appearance.
Haruhi: The day before school started, a kid in my neighborhood got some bubblegum in my hair. It's a real pain to get gum of long hair, so I decided to cut it all off, I didn't care if I looked like a dude you know.
Tamaki to Haruhi: A GIRL SHOULD NEVER REFER TO HERSELF AS A DUDE! (To Kyoya)MAMA! HARUHI'S USING THOSE DIRTY BOY WORDS AGAIN!
"Hold it whose momma? " X asked.
Kyoya: Based on club position I assume it's me.
"Oh thank you Kyoya and yes folks that is a recurring running gag over the course of the show and no neither Kyoya nor Tamaki are gay. Also I would like to point out that because this series is a satire of Shojo anime or more specifically reverse harem anime, you know that not only will this show be self aware of the audience, it will also have a plot that will not take itself seriously, more or less go nowhere outside of the problem of the day format, and will shatter the fourth wall at every opportunity that it gets." Airnaruto explained showing a certain scene from the show.
Tamaki: This anime is obviously a romantic school comedy. Haruhi and I are obviously the main characters so that means we are love interests.
Hikaru and Kaoru: So what are we?
Tamaki: You boys are the homosexual supporting cast, so it's important that you make sure to that you don't step across this line.
Hikaru and Kaoru: You've gotta be kidding.
"In other words folks, this show has a similar charm that anime like Desert Punk possess in the sense that this show is better at making you bust a gut as oppose to telling a serious story. Though most of the humor comes from Tamaki getting crushing blows to his ego…Granted that Desert Punk doesn't have any moments that break the fourth wall." Advent explained as we see one scene where Tamaki gets owned.
Tamaki to Haruhi: Are you saying that you hate being a host? That you hate this club?
Haruhi: To be honest I would have to say yes.
(Tamaki goes into a corner and starts sulking)
"I think now would be a good time to talk about the characters of the series." Airnaruto said as Tamaki continued to brood.
Characters:
"If you want to know what the Host Club is like; well take six of your friends from the biggest High School or college Frat house you could think of, stick them in Buckingham Palace, and turn them into sissy girls while retaining the fact that they're still marginally straight men. There's your host club in a nutshell 6 Bishonen or in this case Bishojo boys, who fit a stereotypical fetish found in most Shojo anime. First off is the president of the club Tamaki Suoh an old fashion Franco-Japanese who despite his almost aristocratic attitude, actually has a heart made of gold only desiring to make the ladies happy as oppose to treating them like sex outlets. Unfortunately his brain is full of rocks." X explained showing the tall blond haired young man in an academy standard male uniform.
"Next up is his best friend and we use that term extremely loosely; the vice president of the club Kyoya Otori who serves as the brains of the club preferring dough over dames." Advent explained showing a photo of a black haired, bowl cut young man with glasses and a sort of know it all kind of arrogance to him.
"Next we have Hikaru and Kaoru aka the Hitachan twins, like Haruhi they're also first year students however these guys are like mischievous little bastards who like playing practical jokes on everybody and teasing the girls that choose them with a little overboard brotherly love." X said before all three of them sighed.
"Alright you know what's coming." Airnaruto said as he and X pointed up while Advent just looked up.
SNL choir: THE AMBIGIOUSLY GAY DUO!
"Now that we have that joke out of the picture, let's move on." Advent said.
"Finally there's Mitskuni Haninozuka and Takashi Morinozuka, or for short Honey and Mori. Honey's is the cute boy type of character who likes; sweets, bunnies more specifically his stuffed bunny Usa-chan that was hand made for him by his late grandmother that he always carries around with him, and his cousin/bodyguard Mori and by like I don't mean in that way." Airnaruto said before anymore yaoi fan girls tried to break down the door. "As I was saying, Mori on the other hand is more or less strong steely-eyed silent type and for the most part doesn't really have much of a role actively or verbally, now of course they're also champion martial artists with Honey being one of Japan's best in Karate and Judo and Mori being among the best at Kendo but with Honey just be sure you don't do any of the following; A. Get his Usa-Chan dirty, B. Wake him up from an afternoon nap, or C. take away his snacks." Airnaruto said listing off some of Honey's biggest pet peeves.
"Finally our female lead Haruhi, she's blunt sarcastic, a bit cute, but other than that she doesn't have a lot of the qualities of a heroine in a reverse harem, so if you ask me there's not much I can really say about her." Airnaruto said.
"There are other characters like the host club's manager Renge but she's an otaku and we know how annoying those freaks are." X said.
Hitachan twins to Renge: Butt out otaku.
Renge: You guys are so mean that's no way to speak to your manager.
"Then there's Nekozawa a dark shadowy emo kid with a cursed cat puppet or whatever he's usually around to cause more trouble for Tamaki or something." X said as they moved on to the animation, music, and voice acting.
Technical:
"As far as the technical stuff goes you can obviously tell the OHSHC got spoiled to the core with best of everything Studio Bones has in their arsenal, with fluid A-list animation, bright color pallets, and well detailed character models even if some of them are a little over moeified but it fits the show nicely." X said.
"The music is consisted of almost entirely waltzes and ballet pieces to fit the regal atmosphere of the academy with a few other pieces for some of the comedic parts of series and some quiet more subdued tracks for the real tear jerking moments." X continued. "Bottom line the shows pedigree really shines through in terms of design, animation, and music except for the dub covers of both the ending and opening themes of the show as the singers sound bored out of their minds." X concluded.
Voice acting:
"While both dubs are good, with the Japanese dub getting the best cast of seiyu to pull out all the stops on their performances, I think the English dub does just a good a job if not better at pulling it off and making it hilarious while doing so. Catlin Glass as Haruhi sounds, independent, blunt, smart, and strong willed. Travis Willingham as Mori…well he doesn't get many lines so he's okay. Luci Christian plays Honey as sweet and sticky as his namesake, and Todd Haberkorn and Greg Ayers play the twins in perfect harmony despite sounding completely different." Advent explained.
"Finally there's Tamaki the most difficult role to play, now it's true that the dub actor plays the role differently from Mamoru Miyano but given the difference in age between the two actors he'd have to, either way Vic Mignogna…" Airnaruto said before hearing a familiar noise split his eardrums.
(Fan girls squealing)
"SHUT UP!" Airnaruto screamed. "As I was saying Vic Mignogna plays the part just as well if not better and just comes off as hilarious going all over the map with his outbursts." Airnaruto explained.
Final thoughts:
"Overall while this show is targeted more towards teenage girls, I think both genders will bust a gut at the antics this show will throw at them, with the occasional tender moments that will bring a tear to your eyes, or in some cases make you squeal." Airnaruto said.
"That's true Airnaruto but my lone complaint is that the manga is still going on and yet the anime just seems content with ending where it did and it does kind of piss me off." Advent said with a scowl on his face.
"I have to agree with my brother here Air though I do agree with you that this show is still laugh out loud funny if you can ignore some of the sexual jokes and innuendos." X said.
"Even with all that, I think it's safe to say that the three of us will give this anime a rating of 5 stars out of 5." Airnaruto said before the camera cut back to him and his buddies. "Well that concludes harem May and I would like to thank X Prodigy and Advent for joining me here today." Airnaruto said.
"You're welcome Airnaruto." Advent said.
"So until next time, I'm X prodigy…" X stated
"I'm Adventchild101..." Advent said.
"And I'm the Classic Critic…" Airnaruto said.
"We remember it so you're not required to." The three of them said in unison.
Final analysis:
Pros: Top grade animation
Great Characters
Top notch voice acting on both sides
Funny as hell
Has some tender moments
Great design
Appropriate musical score
Cons: Manga is still going
Some man service but not much
The fourth wall never remains standing
Dub covers of the opening and ending themes are boring
Final score: ***** out of 5.
A/N: Well folks there you have it Harem May is finally in the books even if I am two days too late anyway read and review folks.