First Impressions / Ouran High School Host Club

「Episode 2」

Now that I’m settled in with all the actors in their respective roles, I have to say I found this second episode absolutely hilarious. None of the material being covered is new to me, but when I compare Miyano Mamoru’s over-the-top portrayal of the idiotic Tamaki in the anime to Yamamoto Yuusuke’s variation in this drama, I find myself thoroughly amused. It all starts with his growing obsession to get Haruhi to go back to her feminine appearance and his wild delusions of what it would be like. This then leads to his absolute life-shattering realization that Haruhi wouldn’t be able to stay in the host club if it’s discovered that she’s a girl during the school’s physical examination.

I got a good laugh out of Tamaki whining like a little girl when Haruhi had absolutely no interest in keeping her gender a secret, as images of the same scene in the anime quickly popped in my head. No one ever said that the craziness in anime translates normally to real-life, but if you’re familiar with the manga or anime that a drama is adapting, it’s easy to appreciate all the source material that’s faithfully included. Just loosen up and enjoy the moment, even the hard to get through ones between Kaoru and Hikaru, which weren’t any easier for me in the anime thanks to Suzumura Kenichi.

Admittedly, it took me a good while before I finally got through the anime, having put it on indefinite hold when the eccentric characters and brotherly BL aspects completely threw me off. It wasn’t until much later that I finished the series and was completely sold on it, so I can only imagine the reaction of those diving head-first into this drama. Irksome would probably be an understatement, considering that I was pretty irked myself in the early parts of the first episode. Since then, this show has quickly shaped out to be something that I’m really enjoying. The best approach is to just take everything at face value and not read too much into the intentional stupid behavior. Before long, all of it really grows on you and helps define the characters. At least initially anyway, because they later surprise you with amazingly reliable moments, which Haruhi may not always agree with, but does open up to when Tamaki does something really considerate despite being filthy rich.

Tamaki is probably one of the most bipolar male anime characters that I can think of, so it’s hilarious how that can translate so well in front of the camera. His shrieking is feminine to the point that you would question his sexual preference, but oh so amusing given the context that prompts it. The scene where he came out pretending to be Haruhi was too funny, especially after seeing the others laugh at him because he actually believed it would work. It really brought me back, much like Haruhi’s stare. Like all actors and actresses in these adaptations, I’m sure Yuusuke thoroughly studied his character both in the manga and the anime, and even borrowed some ideas from Mamoru’s interpretation. It would’ve been really interesting to see Mamoru play the lead role, given that he does have the looks to star in a drama and could’ve used the exact same voice as the anime, but I haven’t been the least bit disappointed by Yuusuke.

As for the other actors, Chiba Yuudai is really showing his boyish charm, particularly in this scene, so he is looking more and more like Honey to me. If anyone’s going to give me some difficulty, it’s going to be Haruhi’s okama (i.e. drag queen) father, who was briefly mentioned here much to the host club’s disbelief. I’m actually not sure if he’s going to make an appearance. The next episode looks like it’s going to feature Jounouchi Ayame (Nakabeppu Aoi) as a guest character, who only had a small cameo in episode 24 of the anime. That should prove interesting since I know very little about her character. For those wondering about Houshakuji Renge, she’s slated to show up in episode four and is played by Tsuchiya Tao. I can’t wait to see what the self-proclaimed manager brings.

I’ve been making a point of watching live-action dramas based on manga/anime that I enjoyed, and some of the more recent ones include Moyashimon and Honey and Clover. They were both pretty good watches in terms of entertainment value, and this Ouran variation has been right up there with them.

* The material in this episode was covered in episode three of the anime. All the key scenes were covered, including the suspicious-looking doctor Yabu, who came looking for his daughter and mistakenly wound up at Ouran High School instead of Ourin High School, and the guys using Ootoro (fatty tuna) sushi to convince Haruhi to try and keep her gender a secret.

 

Preview

40 Comments

  1. I am just…stoked about the accuracy of the real-life faces to the anime ones. I think this is worth watching after all. I’m eyeing this and Mayo Chiki! at the same time.

    Razgriz
    Reply

  2. This is pure win. Love dramas that follow their anime/manga counterparts so intricately and precisely. I’m just curious about the “which of us is Hikaru/Kaoru episode – as the actors who play these brothers look clearly different from each other.

    helen
    Reply

  3. what you expect tamaki is tsurugi from kabuto yet bit both similar at least tamaki is not a “worm”.

    yet wait for ep.4 for live action renge imagine laugh in live action version?!

    super_KLAC
    Reply

    1. Look under Community on the sidebar, and go to d-addicts. If you can’t do torrents there are some places where you can download them through MU/MF (Google is your friend). I sometimes go to a place called ourhour on lj. They source both the videos and subs too for you.

      I would give you direct links but it’s not allowed. It should be pretty self-explanatory within the sites.

      Sorry if not even this comment is allowed, but since a few people have been asking even from last week…

      Saya
      Reply

      2. The only problem I have is that Divine can blog faster than translation coming out. I’m guessing either all the comment here is outdated, all of us know japanese raw or like me(commenting without watching the show). I’ll come back again when the translation done, for now I will watch 1st episode.

        lkaze
        Reply

      3. Always happy to help. C:

        @Ikaze Haha but isn’t it always like that? This happened to be the first time I watched a show RAW and was able to understand the whole way through. But since it’s Ouran I guess that it doesn’t really count.

        I just checked though and the subs for ep.2 just came out, just to let you know.

        Saya
        Reply

      4. I finally decide to watch the raw so that I could comment on this episode. I suppose it will be a good icentive to learn japanese by going in straight. Beside I watch the entire anime, read the entire manga. How hard can it be to understand them.

        P.S. Thx for your hint, but MU too slow for me. For now I only got raw.

        lkaze
        Reply

  8. I nearly died at Tamaki’s Haruhi cosplay as well, just like I did 5 years ago. Good times. It’s even more apparent in real life how stupid the idea was and how dumb tono is. I liked how they tried to capture some scenes frame by frame such as Haruhi’s glare. One scene I missed was the one where Tamaki calls the rest of the clubs homos.

    Regarding the BL tones I actually loved that in the anime, it is a bit awkward to watch in real life but since the (real life) twins tend to overact a bit anyway those kind of scenes sort of suit them lol. I’m getting used to the cast now, so some things don’t irk me as much as last week. The standout is still Yuusuke…and Mori. Funny how I favour the live-action Mori when it was pretty much the opposite in the anime/manga. And Nekozawa STILL seriously needs to go away.

    I wonder why they’re jumping so far ahead to Ayame next week…or even why they’re doing Ayame at all. She’s not all the significant imo.

    P.S Divine did you happen to watch the live-action of Arakawa? I absolutely died when I heard Oguri Shun was playing Soncho and that sister was being played by Shirota Yuu. I haven’t watched jdramas in so long so having actors I actually like in a show such as Arakawa is even better. The cast are doing a pretty good job translating into the characters too from what I’ve seen aka ep 00 and 01.

    Saya
    Reply

    2. Yeah, if you seen the anime or read the manga of Arakawa Under the Bridge, then you should check out its jdrama, since it’s hilarious and so is seeing Shun Oguri as Shocho in the Kappa getup and the every other Arakawa resident so far. And its quirkiness helps me get use to it in live action very easy, while it’s still probably going to take me another episode for Ouran…

      ShadoWanderer
      Reply

  18. I’m about to accept Honey-senpai and the show as a whole but the weird CG just takes it all away! Why do they have to do that? For me it ruins the mood and all. Especially that very awkward jump-to-Haruhi CG and Tamaki crushing to the wall.

    Anyway I love Nekozawa-senpai!

    nagi
    Reply

  20. Apparently they also have ‘Arakawa Under the Bridge’ as a J-Drama too… I never watched the anime, but if I choose to watch the drama, I might watch the anime first xD

    Shirikatsu
    Reply

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