Ouran High School Host Club: Season 1, Part 1

A Personal Favorite
To try and explain Ouran with a basic synopsis does this anime little justice. There's always so much going on, and with a diverse cast of character's including the princely, yet sometimes idiotic, drama-king, Tamaki, or the mischievous, trouble-making Hitachiin twins, there's no end to the variety of often strange activities the club members get into at Ouran Academy, a high school for the rich and prestigious. Add to this, Haruhi, a scholarship student and "commoner" who was drafted into the Host Club after she accidentally broke an $80,000 vase. The twist is, Haruhi is actually a girl and only the club members know it. Being very plain spoken, Haruhi nicely complements the strange behaviors of her rich counterparts and is often the inspiration for many of their adventures, much to her annoyance.

Probably the biggest concern of Ouran fans about this dvd collection is the transition over from Japanese to English. As many fans will argue (myself included), the...

Life Intrudes
The second half of the animated version of Ouran is equally funny, but also adds a good dose of drama as we learn more about who the guys were before they met Haruhi and eachother.

Renge and Ranka return as supporting characters, as do the Zuka Club and Nekozawa as guest stars (the latter in the Halloween episode, of course); and the gang gets a new buddy in scary looking but gentle Yakuza (Japanese mafia) heir apparent Ritsu Kasanoda - for whom Christopher Sabat's dub job was absolutely hilarious and might turn out being my favorite performance of his - although I'm reserving judgement on that until I see what he gets to do with Kurogane if the Tsubasa OVA is licensed. The main dub cast also continues to do a bang-up job, with J. Michael Tatum's Kyoya deserving special mention for an episode in which he tells Haruhi the story of how he met Tamaki, and Todd Haberkorn and Greg Ayres getting to do some complex and delicate work as the twins.

As for the story, the...

Wonderful series and perfect subtitles
I originally bought the first copy that came out because I loved the series so much despite the warnings about the last 2 episodes and the sudden changes in names of characters and in incomprehensible subtitles and I immediately regretted it after trying to watch it. Then wonderfully this version was made. I am happy to say everything is wonderful now with the last 2 episodes. So BUY BUY BUY if you like this series. Cant wait for the movie in 2012

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