October 1st, 2006
Okay, so after my latest bout of bandwidth blues and so forth I finished up a couple of shows and decided to drop another.
So long, Bokura ga Ita, I just can’t be arsed; I’ll read the infinitely superior manga instead. Sorry!
And because I’m far too lazy to put up the individual episodes now, I’ll sum up my feelings on the two shows I’ve finished off:
Honey and Clover II - what an excellent show, once again, and a perfect ending. Yes, I cried HOT BLOODED MANLY TEARS because it was far too resonant with my current post-grad life and it was too well done by far. Bravo, JC Staff; for once you made a show that was consistent in almost every way the whole way through, even if you did do it by slavishly copying the manga! One of the best shows I’ve seen in years, really.
Ouran High School Host Club - even by the end, I still can’t appreciate Ouran on much more than a technical level. Every episode is slick and beautiful, but the end product still feels soulless and not especially entertaining. Each time I watched an episode it immediately flew out of my mind and I struggle to remember anything especially interesting about it, really. I guess it wasn’t my type of show overall, despite how well done it was; despite Jyu-Oh-Sei’s dodgy ending, I think I enjoyed it quite a lot more overall, and I’d probably pick it up on DVD whereas Ouran would be a pass from me. Ah well.
Bring on the October season! Yet more anime for me to fall behind on! Admittedly, I’m not really looking forward to much this season, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
Posted in Bokura ga Ita, Honey and Clover II, Ouran High School Host Club | 8 Comments »
September 17th, 2006
Kyouya episode time, as he spends a day in a shopping centre as a sour grumpy bastard with an unsurprising soft side and an achievement complex. He also knows far too much about pottery.
Renge was back! Hurray! Otherwise, again, a bit meh. Kyouya gives the illusion of being a “deep” character, but he isn’t really; he’s just a bit manipulative and otherwise fairly archetypal, to my mind. However, we don’t yet know exactly WHY they set up the Host Club and all that (aside from Tamaki no doubt wanting to entertain the laydeez or summat) so that could prove interesting in the long run.
Posted in Ouran High School Host Club | 4 Comments »
September 17th, 2006
Hikaru goes on a “date” with Haruhi and becomes a little less selfish in the process.
Meh. I dunno, I know Ouran’s good and all but I don’t really know why I watch it sometimes. It does tend to get just a little bit samey because of its episodic nature, but that alone shouldn’t bother me; I watch endless episodes of things like House and CSI which are entirely formulaic and by the book every episode but don’t get especially bored of them, so why does Ouran get to me like this? Who knows.
I’m not sure Hikaru’s motives are quite as simplistically possessive as Kaoru thinks they are, though (although this opinion of course is completely negated by the next episode as if none of this ever happened, unsurprisingly).
Best thing about this episode was the amazingly blatant Utena homage when Hikaru enters the church to hear Haruhi crying. If only she’d been curled up in a coffin lamenting her parent’s deaths…s
Posted in Ouran High School Host Club | 3 Comments »
September 9th, 2006
Who is the most refreshing Host Club member? Well, it can’t be Honey or Mori, because they’re not allowed to have any character development beyond their one-note personalities at the moment. It can’t be Kyouya, because he’s far too interesting and the show doesn’t want to follow up on The Beach Club Molestation Incident for some reason. It can’t be Tamaki, because he’s just had an episode where he comes out on top…
So it’s Kaoru and Hikaru jointly, as ever, proving that they seem to be the most important characters in the show as far as the writers are concerned. They have depth, they have personalities, they get a lot of screentime!
Um, anyway, summer holiday hijinks, more old gay men and a potential love interest rival for Haruhi! Well, he’ll be scuppered in the next couple of episodes anyway no doubt, but it could prove vaguely interesting I suppose.
Posted in Ouran High School Host Club | 4 Comments »
August 21st, 2006
Wan!
Another well-produced but discussionless episode of Ouran; Tamaki owns the school and general wacky hijinks. ’tis all. Go somewhere else now, nothing to see here.
Posted in Ouran High School Host Club | 4 Comments »
