Ouran High School Yaoi club – First Impressions

Today I thought I’d post my feelings on Ouran High School Yaoi *ahem* I mean host club. Now, this show would definitely have passed me by this season if it weren’t for reading lots of blogs about it (and somehow missing the main spoiler for the first episode, rather masterfully, I’d say).

Now usually I’m not a big fan of yaoi, even when it appears with yuri. Take Loveless, for instance, which is a passable anime, but since the yaoi heavily overpowered the plotline, I couldn’t really watch it without yelling “Boy! Boyrape! Boyrape with Cat Ears!”, well, at least in my head. However, non-serious yaoi I can deal with, especially with a yuri twist, which is exactly what Ouran is all about.

Spoilers for the first few episodes follow.

Rather messy androgynous looking character with the same name as a certain kami-sama in the most popular anime this season accidentally wanders into rich high school’s bishounen club full of pseudo-gay pretty boys who rent themselves out for conversation to rich girls with nothing else to do. Androgynous person breaks expensive vase (a la Kore wa watashi no goshujinsama) and is forced to work for said club. Androgynous person turns out to be girl. Interesting gender bending hijinks ensue.

My girlfriend pointed out to me while we were watching this the other day that I only like this for the gender-bending-ness of it. Which is partly true. I love these sorts of gender-based comedy shows (the only other one I can think of that I enjoyed was I! My! Me! Strawberry eggs - the most insanesly titled anime beside Bobobo-bo Bobobo) that are only possible in anime. I mean, a storyline where a teacher dresses as a woman to get a job and then goes on to teach lots of teenage girls would probably not make it past the censors in the West…

However, while Ouran does have its share of genderbending yuri escapades, I think it is a lot more than that. Granted it is fluffy, but there’s always room for fluff in my schedule (wait a minute, do I actually watch any serious anime at all???). The characters are under developed at the moment, but since I’m only really up to episode 3 I can’t really comment. The OP and ED are fantastic! If it weren’t for the other Haruhi and Bouken desho deshou/Hare Hare yukai, I think Ouran’s OP/ED would win hands down. Also, the yaoi is actually funny; I actually laughed at Kaoru/Hikaru’s gay twincest act. (I certainly hope that in the real world girls aren’t turned on by gay incestual twins though…that would be an eye opener)

| For our viewing pleasure, of course, Tamaki-sama…
This might be the first male based fluff anime that i actually like a lot…granted, if Haruhi hadn’t turned out to be a girl, that would have made the anime a lot less interesting. But anyway, if you haven’t watched it already, tune in to The Other Haruhi (a.k.a. The Melancholy of Haruhi Fujioka a.k.a. Ouran High School Host Club) for yuri moments that will make you look twice.

| “She kissed her! Yay!…But she was dressed as a boy…hmm…is this really yuri?? I want my money back!”

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