Ouran High School Host Club

The series follows the new girl in school Haruhi Fujioka. She is a scholarship student in a school full of rich kids. Haruhi starts off by trying to find a place to study in the school and ends up finding a music room which has been turned into a host club by the six most popular boys in the school. After she stumbles in, she happens to break a very expensive vase and since the poor scholarship student can’t pay to replace it they make a deal that she’ll become a host and work off her debt. Because of this she pretends to be a boy, after such the comedy and fun begin.

This series is very much a typical shojo harem anime. Haruhi soon finds herself surrounded by handsome men and eventually feelings develop between more than one of them. During her time with the host club she develops bonds of friendship and finds a place at the school that she most likely wouldn’t have found if she had not become a host.



The series overall is a comedy with a little romance throughout. I won’t go into the differences between the anime and manga but both are worth taking some time to look into. The animation is decent but there is a lot of pink used in this series, such as the school itself is pink. There are some moments though in the anime that I don’t quite understand such as the twins of the host club flirting with each other and the girls loving it. The twins are interesting characters though and you get to see them develop as the series progresses. The each host offers something different so that no matter a lady’s preference the club should be able to provide. They have the “prince” type, “cool” type, “devil” type, “strong silent” type and “loli shota” type. Each character has very strong personalities and each type brings a little something different to the show.



Overall I found the series to be light hearted and funny. This is an anime that is for fans of shojo so if you can’t watch a show without blood and violence then this isn’t for you. There’s no real action, the show is simply comedy with some romance throw in. I recommend it for anyone who enjoys harem animes.

Tekken

I remember watching the trailers for this movie about a year ago and thinking to myself that we were going to have another failed movie adaptation from a popular video game franchise. While Tekken wasn't a masterpiece by any means, it was still pretty entertaining. Having played the games and understanding the general concept of the story, I had no extensive knowledge of the relationship that there characters shared so it was difficult to determine the accuracy in the writer's plot for this film.

The plot is very simple, in that it explains how and why Tekken City was formed and the mass suffering that surrounds its outer walls. Jin Kazama is the main character, who enters the King of Iron Fist Tournament to kill Heihachi Mishima, believing that he is responsible for the death of his mother. Along the way, Jin develops relationships with various fighters who are present in the game, with the ultimate goal of avenging his mother.

From the knowledge that I do have of the game series, there were some inconsistencies between the game and the movie. The first of which being the dynamic between Heihachi and Kazuya. The second being the relationship in general of all the characters. This second area is very much the same thing that the Street Fighter movies suffered from. The reality is, how do you write an accurate story about a game where all of the characters are expected to fight each other.

Overall, this movie was entertaining. I try not to focus too much on comparing these types of films with their video game counterparts, primarily because this will almost always lead me to disappointment. Taken on it's own, this is worth checking out and should provide you with plenty of fights and action, with a little reminiscence from the games.

Voices of a Distant Star

I came across this awhile back, actually back in the summer of 2004 at the AMV showing of Anime North. Whoever put together the AMV used Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting" as the music and it caught my eye immediately. I was blown by it! Still trying to find his AMV online. Then I watched Makoto Shinkai's first short - She and Her Cat, then 5 Centimeters per Second and now after 7 years, I finally get the chance to see Voices of a Distant Star. Next on my list of Makoto's work - The Place Promised in Our Early Days then eventually - Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below.

Voices of a Distant Star is a love story about two people who went to the same school but one goes off into space to battle some aliens while the other stay on Earth. The two keep in touch through text messages, which I think is Makoto's analogy to how people used to write letters. This becomes more apparent when one character goes farther off into space and it takes longer for the text to reach Earth.


What I love most about Makoto's male characters is that they don't play the traditional male role, as in the one who goes off to places where the girl waits for him. He reverses the role which is quite fitting as the gender role has somewhat switched in today's time. In Voices and 5 cm unlike your Disney films, both the guy and the girl are somewhat of the hopeless romantic,which is a more balanced portraying.

The other reason that I liked his work a lot is that as an audience you get to see his work progressively changes from this to She and Her Cat and 5 cm per second (also, all with very interesting titles). Also, Makoto captures the simplest life's moment and transform it into this piece.

This one will definitely resonates with those who are currently in love especially those who are in a long distance relationship wanting to be with the person they love but couldn't. Well, if you are not, I would still recommend this short to everyone as his work is always interesting and it is only 20 minutes. Again, this may make you tear up or emotional so Happy viewing!