Anime: Ouran High Host Club
Anime Review! Good grief, it's been a while, eh?
Hoho, Ouran High. After I'd promoted the manga, and they anime it.
Basically, Haruhi is a scholarship student at this uber rich school, where she accidentally breaks a vase belonging to the school's Host Club, and thus has to work off a 8 million yen debt. Which gets bigger, and bigger and bigger. >D The series is wonderful because it's absolute CRACK and isn't taking itself seriously at all - "commoner ramen!" and "commoner coffee" et all.
First impressions of the anime? It's very, very, pink. I mean, "auuugh my eyeballs!" pink. Stays pretty true to the manga, though, content wise. Art isn't as pretty or as detail as maybe Bleach or Samurai Champloo, more of a Fruits Basket standard - a bit sad, considering how nice Hatori-sensei's work is. Character designs though, have been good - Tamaki looks and sounds EXACTLY like he does inside my head, and Honey-sempai, Mitsukuni and Kyouya made it through okay as well. Haruhi, though is not particularly Haruhi-ish: they changed her face structure and hairstyle a bit, which is a pity considering that manga!Haruhi was pretty near perfect. The twins kinda got savaged too, which makes me sadder. D=
Voice acting though - whoopie. =) Tamaki's seiyuu is wonderful - exactly the rich, smooth "I am very sexy but a complete spazball with an ego the size of France" Tama-chan tone. Haruhi's seiyuu has this fanatically long list of previous roles, including Kero (CCS)(!!), Yuki (FuruBa) and Hinoto (X). Took a bit of getting used to, but works surprisingly well. Honey-sempai's seiyuu did Momiji in Furuba, which pretty much makes it a perfect fit - I'd have prefered it a bit less nasal, but it works. Hikaru now... Hehe, ZACK. (FF:AC) And Ayumu (Spiral) and KAMUI (X), what the...? [Is frantically attempting to equate Ayumu and Zack and Kamui in her head, but is failing.] Very good seiyuu, all around.
And art direction: BWAHAHAHA. Everything, EVERYTHING is pink! (Bones is -so- trying to kill us: they're probably wanted some colour in their resume after Fullmetal Alchemist, but c'mon.) The starting is full of sparkles and rose prints and glitter and PINK. *haemorrhage* But the director is a genius. Lots of in-jokes, including a big beeping arrow on the crucial vase before Haruhi breaks it, and instead of little boxes with character names, his are big, black, pink, and lacy. *laughs* They really played up the strong point of the series: the crazy characters that form the host club. And very good use of greyscale - Tama-chan, for instance, literally goes grey when Haruhi pricks his ego. The light bulbs too, are priceless. XD
The pink clock tower though? >_<
It can be a bit overwhelming though, in episode 1, because of all the text that we poor fansub addicts have to read. Subbed by Lunar, who did Bleach, so quality is great. The music fits the series pretty well - sparkly-bubblegum-pop haters will probably go into hysterics over the opening sequence. The ending vid though, features what looks like Hatori-sensei's work.
The low down? Watch it. =) It's still hugely funny, and there are some original lines that are not in the manga. Manga or Anime, though, is still won by the manga: more detailed, and prettier. But still, yay! ♥ No I'm not a Tamaki fangirl.
Anime Nfo
Lunar fansubs
Manga Scanlations + Review
More random thoughs:
If the R was founded in 1982, how can we have the 25th anniversary in 2006?
... And darn you, college mag, what happened to K'Predorus, danggit? Z'Kardia is so 2006!
Hoho, Ouran High. After I'd promoted the manga, and they anime it.
Basically, Haruhi is a scholarship student at this uber rich school, where she accidentally breaks a vase belonging to the school's Host Club, and thus has to work off a 8 million yen debt. Which gets bigger, and bigger and bigger. >D The series is wonderful because it's absolute CRACK and isn't taking itself seriously at all - "commoner ramen!" and "commoner coffee" et all.
First impressions of the anime? It's very, very, pink. I mean, "auuugh my eyeballs!" pink. Stays pretty true to the manga, though, content wise. Art isn't as pretty or as detail as maybe Bleach or Samurai Champloo, more of a Fruits Basket standard - a bit sad, considering how nice Hatori-sensei's work is. Character designs though, have been good - Tamaki looks and sounds EXACTLY like he does inside my head, and Honey-sempai, Mitsukuni and Kyouya made it through okay as well. Haruhi, though is not particularly Haruhi-ish: they changed her face structure and hairstyle a bit, which is a pity considering that manga!Haruhi was pretty near perfect. The twins kinda got savaged too, which makes me sadder. D=
Voice acting though - whoopie. =) Tamaki's seiyuu is wonderful - exactly the rich, smooth "I am very sexy but a complete spazball with an ego the size of France" Tama-chan tone. Haruhi's seiyuu has this fanatically long list of previous roles, including Kero (CCS)(!!), Yuki (FuruBa) and Hinoto (X). Took a bit of getting used to, but works surprisingly well. Honey-sempai's seiyuu did Momiji in Furuba, which pretty much makes it a perfect fit - I'd have prefered it a bit less nasal, but it works. Hikaru now... Hehe, ZACK. (FF:AC) And Ayumu (Spiral) and KAMUI (X), what the...? [Is frantically attempting to equate Ayumu and Zack and Kamui in her head, but is failing.] Very good seiyuu, all around.
And art direction: BWAHAHAHA. Everything, EVERYTHING is pink! (Bones is -so- trying to kill us: they're probably wanted some colour in their resume after Fullmetal Alchemist, but c'mon.) The starting is full of sparkles and rose prints and glitter and PINK. *haemorrhage* But the director is a genius. Lots of in-jokes, including a big beeping arrow on the crucial vase before Haruhi breaks it, and instead of little boxes with character names, his are big, black, pink, and lacy. *laughs* They really played up the strong point of the series: the crazy characters that form the host club. And very good use of greyscale - Tama-chan, for instance, literally goes grey when Haruhi pricks his ego. The light bulbs too, are priceless. XD
The pink clock tower though? >_<
It can be a bit overwhelming though, in episode 1, because of all the text that we poor fansub addicts have to read. Subbed by Lunar, who did Bleach, so quality is great. The music fits the series pretty well - sparkly-bubblegum-pop haters will probably go into hysterics over the opening sequence. The ending vid though, features what looks like Hatori-sensei's work.
The low down? Watch it. =) It's still hugely funny, and there are some original lines that are not in the manga. Manga or Anime, though, is still won by the manga: more detailed, and prettier. But still, yay! ♥ No I'm not a Tamaki fangirl.
Anime Nfo
Lunar fansubs
Manga Scanlations + Review
More random thoughs:
If the R was founded in 1982, how can we have the 25th anniversary in 2006?
... And darn you, college mag, what happened to K'Predorus, danggit? Z'Kardia is so 2006!