Ouran High School Host Club
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This one's such a classic <3
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Total classic, gotta read it. And watch the anime too
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I watched the anime and the fact that it reverses Harem is surprising and not surprising at the same time
I just examined the cover and tf happened to the twins?
I just examined the cover and tf happened to the twins?
A word of advice to people considering whether or not to read this:
I would strongly recommend watching the anime instead.
This series is a fantastic comedy. It's hilarious, it's cute, it's a magnificent niche type comedy. The setting is unique, the cast is funny and entertaining, and the protagonist is relatable.
That said, it is a terrible, terrible romance. Being a (reverse)harem, all, and I mean ALL of the character development in any of the supporting cast revolves entirely around the main character, Haruhi. Of the six male leads, four of them are romantically interested in the main character, and it's their conflicts about her that drive the plot. This type of storytelling is not a problem, but this series fails to capture the charm that other good harem works have not only because the writing is pathetic, but also because the author pretends that the growth of the characters is not caused by the female lead. The story plays much of the development off as being internal conflict in the characters, or conflict between different members of the Host Club, but each and every conflict can be traced back to any character's interest in the female lead. This is just lazy writing.
Worse, even, most of the "character development" that happens is reversed as soon as an arc finishes. At the beginning, the personalities of the characters are pretty interesting. They are fun to read about, but have room to develop as people. Unfortunately, they don't. Each character has a distinct "personality", an archetype they portray as members of the Host Club (think acting club, but more flirting). In order to preserve the comedy of the different characters' personalities clashing, the author makes no changes to their personality at all. Ever. Of the seven characters, I can confidently say that three of them had no growth and the other four had slight personality tweaks. Once again, this is just lazy writing that is supposed to convince you that the plot is driven by character development.
The cherry on the top is that the characters are just annoying. Some shows are able to run purely on character interactions. Be it comedy, fantasy, tragedy, drama, whatever it is, many genres have works that are carried entirely by interesting characters and fun dialogue. Ouran High School Host Club is not one of them. The characters are flat and boring, and any attempt at making them more interesting characters comes from the single conflict that they have over and over again. The poor main character, Haruhi, is constantly annoyed by how rich and oblivious her classmates are. The drama queen male lead, Tamaki, has daddy issues. The serious, conniving character, Kyoya, doesn't know how to function like an emotionally stable human being. The incesty twins, Thing One and Thing Two, have self identity problems because they constantly act as a two-part twin act. The shota-but-he's-actually-18 charater, Honey, and his stioc bodyguard, Mori, had problems so insignificant that I can't remember what they even were. The author makes no attempt at writing interesting struggles for the characters, and even the finale is just Tamaki's daddy issues arc #37.
These problems with writing interesting stories and romances aren't just an Ouran thing. The author's other works are like this too. I forced myself to read them so you didn't have to. Don't do it. They're painfully bad. I honestly don't know how they have ratings above a 3.
The anime, on the other hand, focuses mostly on comedy. Things get weird after the beach episode, but it handles the comedic episodes well and understands what makes the manga readable and not utter garbage. The writers understood what made the characters funny (wOW), and they made the effort to make the character conflicts funny and interesting at the same time.
TL;DR: The manga is tedious and boring, and the anime took all of the parts worth reading and made it better. Please, go watch the anime.
I would strongly recommend watching the anime instead.
This series is a fantastic comedy. It's hilarious, it's cute, it's a magnificent niche type comedy. The setting is unique, the cast is funny and entertaining, and the protagonist is relatable.
That said, it is a terrible, terrible romance. Being a (reverse)harem, all, and I mean ALL of the character development in any of the supporting cast revolves entirely around the main character, Haruhi. Of the six male leads, four of them are romantically interested in the main character, and it's their conflicts about her that drive the plot. This type of storytelling is not a problem, but this series fails to capture the charm that other good harem works have not only because the writing is pathetic, but also because the author pretends that the growth of the characters is not caused by the female lead. The story plays much of the development off as being internal conflict in the characters, or conflict between different members of the Host Club, but each and every conflict can be traced back to any character's interest in the female lead. This is just lazy writing.
Worse, even, most of the "character development" that happens is reversed as soon as an arc finishes. At the beginning, the personalities of the characters are pretty interesting. They are fun to read about, but have room to develop as people. Unfortunately, they don't. Each character has a distinct "personality", an archetype they portray as members of the Host Club (think acting club, but more flirting). In order to preserve the comedy of the different characters' personalities clashing, the author makes no changes to their personality at all. Ever. Of the seven characters, I can confidently say that three of them had no growth and the other four had slight personality tweaks. Once again, this is just lazy writing that is supposed to convince you that the plot is driven by character development.
The cherry on the top is that the characters are just annoying. Some shows are able to run purely on character interactions. Be it comedy, fantasy, tragedy, drama, whatever it is, many genres have works that are carried entirely by interesting characters and fun dialogue. Ouran High School Host Club is not one of them. The characters are flat and boring, and any attempt at making them more interesting characters comes from the single conflict that they have over and over again. The poor main character, Haruhi, is constantly annoyed by how rich and oblivious her classmates are. The drama queen male lead, Tamaki, has daddy issues. The serious, conniving character, Kyoya, doesn't know how to function like an emotionally stable human being. The incesty twins, Thing One and Thing Two, have self identity problems because they constantly act as a two-part twin act. The shota-but-he's-actually-18 charater, Honey, and his stioc bodyguard, Mori, had problems so insignificant that I can't remember what they even were. The author makes no attempt at writing interesting struggles for the characters, and even the finale is just Tamaki's daddy issues arc #37.
These problems with writing interesting stories and romances aren't just an Ouran thing. The author's other works are like this too. I forced myself to read them so you didn't have to. Don't do it. They're painfully bad. I honestly don't know how they have ratings above a 3.
The anime, on the other hand, focuses mostly on comedy. Things get weird after the beach episode, but it handles the comedic episodes well and understands what makes the manga readable and not utter garbage. The writers understood what made the characters funny (wOW), and they made the effort to make the character conflicts funny and interesting at the same time.
TL;DR: The manga is tedious and boring, and the anime took all of the parts worth reading and made it better. Please, go watch the anime.
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- Oct 10, 2019
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@meowzie this technically isn't a reverse harem, since she's only stuck to one person.
And personally, I like the fact that the author doesn't make it obvious that haruhi caused tamaki, hikaru, and kaoru (largely them) to change. It instead helps to focus on the fact that they're all separate individuals that only need a little shove to initiate changes
Then again, perspectives and bias really changes one experience, so I ain't exactly right
And personally, I like the fact that the author doesn't make it obvious that haruhi caused tamaki, hikaru, and kaoru (largely them) to change. It instead helps to focus on the fact that they're all separate individuals that only need a little shove to initiate changes
Then again, perspectives and bias really changes one experience, so I ain't exactly right
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i love this manga so much,,, please read it! its literally my comfort manga and when I wanna hide from my emotions I read it because im just like that 😃
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- Nov 8, 2020
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Everyone saying that the manga sucks. well after rewatching the show for as long as i can remember times, I'll endure it so i can know what happened to the story. I don't usually read some romcom manga but im dESPERATE. I CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER FOR THE S2 ITS BEEN 14 YEARS GODDAYUMN👴🏻
*SOME SPOILERS*
*SOME SPOILERS*
I guess I’ll be the most positive comment here!
I really enjoyed this manga! After rewatching the anime, I decided to read the manga to find out what happens next. And overall, I really loved the story. Characters were just as funny and amazing like in the anime. What I love the most was each character’s development and how they (especially the twins and haruhi) become a much mature version of themselves. I also really love when Kyouya broke his cold demeanor and confessed during the school’s sport festival that this competition was all about pride and he didn’t want to lose to tamaki, which was major as he doesn’t seem to care for petty things like pride and always follows his duty to support tamaki and let him shine as he is the potential heir to the Souh family. Also I really felt that Mori senpai and Hunny senpai, as the story progress, were pillars that the twins and everyone else can rely on, something in the anime we never really saw. I did felt like the story was a bit rushed at times but it wasn’t too bad. I think the ending was okay. I wasn’t really expecting Haruhi to make that decision or for the rest of the gang to follow her. But it was quite humorous and sweet to read the special chapters, so I won’t complain about the ending too much.
Overall, I am really glad I read the manga! It was great to read more of the interesting experiences the host club go through and the development of all the characters. I wish we did get a season 2 for the anime but I don’t think it’ll happen unless it pulls a Fruits Basket and remake the whole anime.
I say read the manga if you like to see more of the host club. I really enjoyed it but I know others haven’t but it’s all about preference!
*SOME SPOILERS*
I guess I’ll be the most positive comment here!
I really enjoyed this manga! After rewatching the anime, I decided to read the manga to find out what happens next. And overall, I really loved the story. Characters were just as funny and amazing like in the anime. What I love the most was each character’s development and how they (especially the twins and haruhi) become a much mature version of themselves. I also really love when Kyouya broke his cold demeanor and confessed during the school’s sport festival that this competition was all about pride and he didn’t want to lose to tamaki, which was major as he doesn’t seem to care for petty things like pride and always follows his duty to support tamaki and let him shine as he is the potential heir to the Souh family. Also I really felt that Mori senpai and Hunny senpai, as the story progress, were pillars that the twins and everyone else can rely on, something in the anime we never really saw. I did felt like the story was a bit rushed at times but it wasn’t too bad. I think the ending was okay. I wasn’t really expecting Haruhi to make that decision or for the rest of the gang to follow her. But it was quite humorous and sweet to read the special chapters, so I won’t complain about the ending too much.
Overall, I am really glad I read the manga! It was great to read more of the interesting experiences the host club go through and the development of all the characters. I wish we did get a season 2 for the anime but I don’t think it’ll happen unless it pulls a Fruits Basket and remake the whole anime.
I say read the manga if you like to see more of the host club. I really enjoyed it but I know others haven’t but it’s all about preference!
probs my favorite romcom and just saying I don't consider this a reverse harem because Honey and Mori have no interest romantically, Kyouya has some but he was never really even given a chance, the twins do have romance but it's not for very long and most of their character moments and growth aren't about romance, and Tamaki was always obviously going to be the one to get with her. but also it does kinda suck that Mori's my favorite and he's the one with no character development or background or anything 
but yeah I've seen the show three times and it's my second time reading the manga and it's a work or art and I love how it doesn't use gender stereotypes or really a lot of the worse troupes in anime like accidental pervert. (there are a few scenes with it but it's all mostly pg and hHaruhi's really chill about it)
but yeah I've seen the show three times and it's my second time reading the manga and it's a work or art and I love how it doesn't use gender stereotypes or really a lot of the worse troupes in anime like accidental pervert. (there are a few scenes with it but it's all mostly pg and hHaruhi's really chill about it)
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I can't remember whether this or the anime was my intro to the series, but in either case the manga is really good. The fact that a satire manga on the shoujo genre can still illicit the same cute and touching moments as a genuine takes-itself-seriously shoujo says all you need to know. Some readers may need time to adujst to the older shoujo style, but like with Furuba and others it just gets better as the manga proceeds. I'm biased from nostalgia btw but hey it is a good one
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And people say that guys have super obvious fantasy mangas, smh my head. (This comment is clearly a joke)
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- Jun 2, 2024
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The anime was my introduction. I finished it, it changed me. Then I read the manga. I will never be the same...
I never liked romance at all, but this one had me bawling...
I never liked romance at all, but this one had me bawling...
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