Ouran High School Host Club Manga, 10/10….. Ouran HSHC Anime, 0/10

I had  a bit of an interesting conversation  re Ouran High School Host Club anime  with  another WP blogger.  Since the conversation  was on the Comment Section, I was not able to convey  my opinion clearly,  so I have decided  to post about my thoughts on this manga /anime.

Please read the synopsis on Wikipedia.

Take note…..I am more a manga reader than an anime fan….. see photo above.I’m not going to  debate on which is better, manga or anime. To me,  I prefer to watch an  action /fantasy  anime  rather than the manga original, for obvious reason.  However, I do prefer to ” read “shoujo romance manga.

Regarding OHSHC,  if I had to rate the anime  vs  manga,  I”d give  the anime  a big fat Zero  and the manga , 10/10. You may ask, why the large disparity, Ren ?  First off,  the manga  shows character development for , well, each character. It also shows how   Tamaki’s feelings   have grown, from  “love of a  father to a  daughter” to  realization that  these feelings   have been  romantic love all along.  In the anime, none of this development is  shown.  The whole anime is  just an anime of outrageous  silliness and hilarity.

So, okay, the anime is shallow, but it’s forgivable,  but what I find federal is  that the ending  has been brutally altered ! !

 

Let me explain…

 

In the anime,  Tamaki’s grandmother  orders  him to  cease all his host activities, and his ” growing ” closeness to Haruhi,  a poor scholarship student in Ouran HS, a school for the ultra rich.  Meanwhile….  Tamaki’s parents are separated. His mother is French who works as a housemaid in a noble French household . When Tamaki was 14 years old, his father brought him to Japan to live with him. Tamaki happens to be the sole heir  of the Souh  family.  The French mother is merely his father’s mistress .   His mother  often talks  about her son Tamaki to Eclair, the daughter of her employer. Éclair becomes curious  and fascinated about Tamaki , and comes to Japan and tells Tamaki  he can see his mother again  if he marries her. (  Tamaki is forbidden   to see his mother , ever. ) The grandmother is agreeable to the engagement… and a party is given for this event. All is friends are invited , including  Haruhi. The friends  assure Haruhi  Tamaki will not allow himself to get engaged , because he loves Haruhi. Wrong.  Tamaki himself announces his engagement  and  that he  will go with his fiancée to France where they will marry.  ( and to see his mother )

 

Here is my problem with this scenario. . Eclair is beautiful and rich, and during the party  she corners him in an empty room, and they make out. After some time, they emerge from the room and tamaki  announces his engagement.  And not only that,  Eclair stays overnight at his house. Now,  for shoujo romance veteran readers, when a girl  is shown taking a shower ,  and a guy is also in the room , just the two of them,  it is implied that they have already slept together.   End of  scene.

 

What  pissed me off is that the personaliy of this bunch of characters, most especially Tamaki,  is  that of fun-loving , loyal, and innocent  group of boys  with integrity.  How can Tamaki  willingly agree to marry  another girl  whom he has just met , just so he can see his mother again ? He’s 18,  no one can stop him to see his mother if he wants to. He doesn’t have to  abandon the girl he loves  to marry a girl just to see his mother. That is the ultimate shallow reason to marry.  Or is it ?  maybe he  actually liked what he saw ( Eclair ) and  what she gave him. ( sex ) After all, Eclair is beautiful , sexy and rich. Win-win. The anime ends with Haruhi following Eclair and tamaki  to the airport, and convinces him he doesn’t have to do this.  Last scene is Haruhi dancing with her friends, reminiscent of Boys Over Flowers ( Hana Yori Dango ),another manga quite similar to OHSHC.

 

In the manga,  though the grandmother  doesn’t want  Tamaki to get close to Haruhi, and wants him to stop his school activities…..  Eclair  doesn’t exist in the manga. Tamaki’s mother is in France, yes, but  she’s a piano teacher, not a housekeeper,  and though she has a rare disease, she’s  being treated with an experimental drug  that  Tamaki’s father’s company   will manufacture  , if treatment is successful.  His parents are separated  because his father’s too weak to defy the grandmother. And they are actually married.

 

There’s a bit of a rivalry with a new transfer student , who looks like Haruhi.  She starts to like tamaki because he saves her from an accident (  shoujo cliché , sheesh ) , and clings to Tamaki, but Tamaki is nice enough not to spurn her obvious  affection (  Tamaki is also dense ) and  at this point, he is trying to obey his grandmother about not getting close to Haruhi (  temporarily just to appease his grandmother ) When the girl finally confesses, Tamaki is shocked and quickly rejects her.  He cannot even imagine himself being with another girl. He is at this point, hopelessly in love and obsessed  with Haruhi  . So much has happened after this… It’s tamaki’s French mother who comes to Japan, then  Haruhi is finally accepted by Tamaki’s family,  and has been given an opportunity by Tamaki’s father to finish high school in the US, all expenses paid….. she accepts, , with Tamaki’s enthusiastic encouragement, not knowing that he will go with her , and later, finds  the whole gang also go to the US to study, and  reside  in the same apartment complex. Tamaki and Haruhi  live in one apartment.  Back in Japan,  Haruhi  studies law, and get married while still students.

Tamaki so loves Haruhi that he cries at their wedding. Look at the picture.

Husband Tamaki still acts like a child.

There’s even a scene where Tamaki is waiting to be picked up by Haruhi, at the airport café , (  from US business trip ) and he looks as if he’s reading a business newspaper, and everyone is admiring his good looks,  then Haruhi arrives, and sees  him reading a supermarket sale, then Tamaki tells her  they should stop by the supermarket  to buy soy sauce which is on sale.  d( ^_^d )

 

This is why  the ending of  the anime is an outrage .

1033 words……  if you’ve reached this part,  a big virtual hug from me. Thank you for reading.