Ouran High School Host Club
Lately, I have been following at least four different anime programs. Lucky Star, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Excel Saga and Ouran High School Host Club. I’m not sure what inspired this, I usually stick to one at a time and move on once I’m finished. Today’s article is about “Ouran”.
It’s about a young girl(also named Haruhi) who’s just entered a very prestigious high school. Big, expensive marble floors, gold rims, and I’m sure there’s a harpsichord in there somewhere. The women wear fancy dresses, and the men are so dainty and delicate that you can almost feel their envy of the women for their “uniforms”. Lots of pink everywhere too. This series was definitely made in mind for a female audience. While I can remember key story points here and there, the majority of this show is a blur of shots of the men making sultry faces while surrounded by pink and red rose motifs. Not every character is like this, fortunately the star of the show is more humble and down-to-earth.
I'm starting to suspect I am not this show's target demographic...
Through a series of circumstances I will not describe, she is mistaken for a man and forced into joining the “Host Club”, a group of men who go on pseudo-dates with the girls of the school by appointment. This is barely plausible. Haruhi’s appearance occupies a grey zone that isn’t androgynous, but could convincingly look either male or female(if everyone in the cast is a moron). She has a look to her that does not scream “girl”, but rather “girlish”, which is oddly enough what quite a many women look for in their anime dudes. Although in an art-style famous for its girly-men, perhaps it’s no wonder she’s able to slip undetected into their all-male group.
Comes with a complimentary vagina! A $30 value, yours FREE!
Most of the dates involve the men talking and the women swooning. Apparently the women are charged for these sessions, which is how I imagine these young men make a living. It is debatable as to who in this situation is being taken advantage of. This also explains how Haruhi can repay the debt she owes which launched her into performing her services as a member of the club.
Haruhi’s first appointment was a scene that I liked in the japanese version, yet found myself immensely displeased with in the English dub. But it’s not that predictable culprit, the voice acting. While the majority of the cast is merely tolerable, the worst would have to be the main character’s, which is especially unfortunate. They were aiming in the right direction (not obvious in its masculinity or femininity), but they overshot the mark, to the point where the simply sort-of-androgynous Haruhi sounds like that really mopey, bass-voiced Metallica nerd we all avoided in high school.
No, the real problem here is a matter of script inconsistencies between cultures, one that effectively robs a moment of its emotional centre. Haruhi is, I guess you could say “entertaining” three women over tea or something. Before she even speaks, they seem to be enjoying her company and are quite curious to get to know her. She’s terrified, however. She doesn’t know what to say at first, but something in her awakens and she finds the words. They ask about her mother, and how chores around her house are accomplished. Haruhi responds to these questions with happy memories in the face of despair.
Every other Host offers something to the women they entertain except for honesty. They specialize in acts that fill a certain niche, but they are all acts. Haruhi’s unique addition to this team is her genuine approach, her thoughtfulness and respect for the women she entertains. This is why the girls respond so well to her. Even King, the smug and self-absorbed Host Leader is shown with a look in his eyes that says even the narcisism shielding can be pierced by her honest strength of character.
Christ, is there a single frame from this show without fucking roses everywhere?! Enough is enough!
In the dub, this heartfelt moment is replaced with something unusually conniving. Something inspires Haruhi here as well. In Japanese, I think it’s the realization that she’ll do her best as long as she isn’t trying to put on an act. That’s what she can bring that none of the other Hosts can(except maybe Honey). In the dub, she instead thinks to herself “I know just the story to tell them!”. Her use of the memory of her deceased mother as a ploy for pity was a disgusting rendition of an otherwise touching scene, no different than if I had scribbled graffiti directly over the words in a copy of Rawi Hage’s “DeNiro’s Game”.
The dub doesn’t change a lot, but what it chose to alter left a detrimental effect on my ability to enjoy this program. No longer did I sympathize with its most important character, instead seeing her as something wholly unpleasant. Funimation, usually reliable handlers of transitioning this material to an English-speaking audience made it their mission to remove everything that’s supposed to make Haruhi endearing in the first place. If the English attempt is this willing to ruin the sincerity of its characters, then I’m sticking with subtitles. Not even Vic Mignona as King can make up for that.
They also dubbed the opening theme song, which is probably the biggest faux-pas one can set out to accomplish in Anime. Did they really think anyone who watches anime would go into seizures of protest if they heard so much as one non-English vocal? Have they forgotten who their audience is?
END OF LINE
~A.H.
May 14th, 2009 at 6:52 am
I’m not sure I agree that she comes off as conniving in the dubed version. My read of the situation was that she found a memory and subject she could share without comprising her secret.
As far as translating the opening.. it’s so heavily localized it’s a different song, so you can’t really say they dubbed it. It’s a somewhat interesting choice, but I can see where they are coming from.
Maybe watching the subtitled version first left you free to focus on the flaws of the dub and how it was different, given that you knew the story. Much like watching a movie twice in a row can make any flaws stand out sharply.