Ouran High School Host Club

Genre: Comedy
Score: Good
Length: 24 episodes

Ouran is the richest school around, at which all the students are heirs to empires and global industries. The school’s Host Club is a group of pretty boys who entertain the young ladies of the campus, by playing off their wooing stereotypes: the prince, the incestuous twins, the shota boy, the taciturn bad boy, etc. And the host club’s new toy is Haruhi, the scholarship kid (or “commoner”) who doesn’t belong – they turn Haruhi into the latest host, replace his glasses with contacts, his scruffy sweater with a smart jacket, and teach him how to make the ladies swoon; but as some work out quicker than others, Haruhi is actually a girl. That she can charm like the best of them is more than they expected.

People have been hailing this as the new Fruits Basket, but so far I’ve not seen anything to justify that. It’s fun, the characters are likable and they even grow a little, but it doesn’t have the edge that makes a great series. When you come down to it, art is about suffering – and the self-indulgent suffering of the fabulously wealthy isn’t very convincing.

That said, it is quite funny.