Ouran High School Host Club
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
I was hyped on these back in January/February. Apparently I was so hyped that I completely forgot about blogging about it (other than the fact that I almost forgot this site even existed).
Ouran is one of the greatest Animes I've ever watched. A 26 episode long series that was running back in 2006 that was basically a comedy surrounding six super-beautiful rich boys and one beautiful middle-class girl who can look like a boy when she tried (a reverse trap, basically) and her story trying to live school life in a super-rich school with these weirdos in a club that is completely based around the entertainment of other girls. The funniest part about this show is that it basically plays off of shojo-anime tropes that always occur (ex. the cool/calm/genius guy, the pretty/naive guy, the strong/silent type, the two uncontrollable twins, the one cute, small, and innocent yet incredibly strong type). I was laughing hysterically as my mouth was gaping when I watched the first couple of episodes and amazed at how true they are. One character, Renge, is basically an otaku girl who looks at each character and basically characterizes them and stereotypes each of them just by how they look, which is wrong, but the farther she keeps going with it, the more true and true what she says becomes (in the end, of course, she realizes that not all people are what they seem). They most amazing thing about this show is that the series slowly goes from comedy to seriousness as it starts to explain each of the characters back story. One of the characters has an pretty mellow back story that you just couldn't expect from that kind of character, but it all makes sense (unbelievably!). The show also has a LOT of fanservice, but the show is very structured. There is some romance, but no mushy mush kind of stuff. Every episode is an entertaining one, but you CANNOT watch the last two episodes without watching the whole series, or else most of it wouldn't make sense (and I know you people out there who do that kind of stuff....). It is one of my most highly recommended shows out there, and for anyone who still has not seen it (it's been four years, and I was able to go through 4 years without seeing a single episode), PLEASE watch it!
Interestingly enough, I've always saw fanmade videos of the show on YouTube AGES ago, but I always ignored them and I thought that the show the videos were based off of looked really stupid and ridiculous (I saw this one Honey fanmade video a long time ago, and I thought that it may have been one of the stupidest shows I would never see). Lesson learned: Don't judge a book by it's fanbase!
If you still haven't seen it, I will give you a headstart into it right now! Funimation hosts all the episodes subbed (which I strongly prefer, even though the English dub is not half-bad), but I would strongly suggest watching the Lunar subs. They have a great amount of work put into them, and I like them more than any other subs I've seen of the show. A user on YouTube named mashara5 has all of the episodes subbed by Lunar up to episode 13, then YouTube starts cracking down and many parts of each episode are missing. After that, I suggest you go find another place to watch the show (or, go my way and download all of them).
I know this isn't enough to apologize for not talking about this sooner, but this is the best I have time to do. I RABU OURAN!
Last but not least about Ouran is the ending theme. It is THE BEST ending theme to an anime I've ever heard. I really don't like any other one better.
The song is 「疾走」(Shissou) by LAST ALLIANCE and if you look at my iTunes library, it is the most "listened to" song there. Here are the translated and Romanized versions of the lyrics. (Here is another translation. Possibly more accurate)
And if you need the real Japanese (which, if you do, impressive!), right here as well!
I should also probably allow you to watch the first part of the English dub of the first episode. I warn you, though. I think that the opening in the English dub is GOD AWFUL!
What I DON'T think is god awful about the English version that I WISH they did for the final English dubs was use Vic Mignogna's voice as the singer for the English version of the Shissou, which you can see here. Ya know, Vic Mignogna? Edward Elric in Full Metal Alchemist and TAMAKI SUOH in OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB? Yeah, I probably should've mentioned that earlier. Sadly, they use another person's voice as the singer, and personally, I don't think is as good as the Vic version.
Tomorrow, I'm going to go over to my next anime addiction, Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu!
P.S. I hope you enjoy the service I give in this post specifically. If I'm going to bring this blog back to life, I might as well try, right? I'm also going to return POLLS back to the blog as I remember that was one of the most used parts of the blog a long time ago. Simple and easy to use, how could you not want to vote? It might also help me out as well, so PLEASE VOTE! NEW POLL UP RIGHT AFTER THIS POST GOES UP!
