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• Series: Ouran Host Club

Eigo kudasai (English, please): The One with the Host Club

Ouran High School Host Club Season 1 Part 1
© FUNimation

"Being a host and getting fussed over by a bunch of girls may not be that bad."
--Haruhi Fujioka

Dubbed by FUNimation Productions, Flower Mound, TX.
See the Mania Review
Running Time: 300 mins (excl. extras).
Episodes 1-13.
Directed by Caitlin Glass
Adaptation Script by Lisa Blanchard.
 
Voice Fit: A-
Delivery Flow: A
Emotional Feel: B+/A-
Script: Loose. To be discussed below.
 
Review:
 
One of the more highly anticipated shows of this Fall release quarter, we finally get the first half of Ouran High School Host Club from FUNimation Entertainment. The story centers around a first-year high school student at the prestigious and extremely wealthy Ouran Academy, Haruhi Fujioka. Except that Haruhi does not fit in with the rest of the students. While the others are spoiled rich kids, Haruhi is a scholarship student, one so poor that the school's uniform is out of the financial reach of the Fujioka family.
 
One fateful day, however, Haruhi stumbles into the seemingly abandoned Music Room #3, where the young boy (boy? Well, Haruhi looks like a boy, dresses like a boy, and acts like a boy…before you people who already know the story start up, keep in mind that this is the beginning of the review) is first introduced to the Host Club. Through an accident, Haruhi becomes indebted (literally) to the Host Club and at first becomes their dogsbody (gofer and general servant). Later, however, Haruhi is taken on as a Host apprentice, after which time it is discovered that she [yes, she] is actually a she, while the Host Club itself consists entirely of males catering to female customers. So begins the long strange journey of Haruhi as a host, trying to pay off her debt.
 
If you want a further look at the content, read the site review linked above.
 
Character Voices:
 
For the role of Haruhi Fujioka, the experienced actress Catilin Glass, who is also serving as ADR director for the series, supplies Haruhi with an entirely suitable voice, and one all the more intriguing since I have heard nothing like this from Ms. Glass before. Haruhi is voiced in a low register with a very even, largely deadpan tone.  This voice and range suits the character well since she is meant to be mistaken for a boy by the unwary and unperceptive. What is different about this voice is that Ms. Glass manages both to deliver her lines in that flat deadpan, without being strongly emotionless, in comparison to other performances of hers that have also called for restraint (Yakumo Tsukamoto, School Rumble; Nerine, SHUFFLE!). In sharp contrast to those roles, her Haruhi provides a full range of emotion, but does so while remaining in that tight, even-toned range. Much of the character's emotion is expressed in snide comments and cynical, calculated monologues and dialogues that give us great insight into her character and personality. There is a spiritedness to her performance that endows it with great energy, which helps to make the character quite likeable and interesting to the listener. You can sense Haruhi's anger, annoyance, frustration, but also her determination, stubbornness, and her playful side, all from Ms. Glass' subtle performance.
 
Turning to the Host Club members, we might as well start with the King (self-proclaimed), the princely spoiled rich boy Tamaki Suou. Veteran voice actor Vic Mignogna, know for many roles in ADV dub productions, but perhaps reaching his greatest fame as the lead role of Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist from FUNimation, provides Tamaki with an appropriately carefree and indulgent voice and performance, modeled in some ways on previous playboys he has voiced before, including Kurz Weber from Full Metal Panic. I am aware that there is a voice commentary on the first disc where Mr. Mignogna's performance and its inspirations are discussed, but I have deliberately not listened to them before writing this review in order to approach the material with no preconceptions other than my own. Given to melodramatic and grandiose displays of various sorts, Tamaki is meant to be a much larger than life figure, and Mr. Mignogna furnishes him with a voice and performance to match. From the heights of giddy playfulness, to the calm seas of assured schmoozing, from being a hyperactive man-child, to the depths of depression, Mr. Mignogna ably gives Tamaki the right intonations, the right levels of emotion, exactly what we are expecting from this character. If I had any fault to find, it would be that I do not think I am hearing anything new here. While Ms. Glass' Haruhi is a novelty, Mr. Mignogna's Tamaki is a voice and performance I have heard before. In both vocal register and delivery, it bears many similarities to his recent role as Fai, the mischievous wizard in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. There is nothing wrong with that, since the role calls for a voice and performance of this type.
 
The vice-president of the Club, the one who plays "Mommy" to Tamaki's weirdly childish and self-indulgent "Daddy," is Kyoya Ohtori, played by J. Michael Tatum. Mr. Tatum has recently come to notice of those following FUNimation dubs for several roles, including most recently his turn as Shizuka Domeki in xxxHOLiC, which has just seen the first season completely released here in the North American market (a second season has already aired in Japan, and it is expected by many that FUNimation will bring it over in the future). Mr. Tatum, who excels at playing the "cool" type, with a low, steady voice and demeanor to match, does exactly that with this role. Kyoya is the cold, calculating thinker, the real brains behind the Host Club, and Mr. Tatum gets those personality traits across in a voice that always maintains a measure tone. A tone of control. In many ways, very similar to the abovementioned role in xxxHOLiC, but in other ways a step beyond that performance. While Domeki is more sardonic, Kyouya is a touch more the sly trickster, the ringmaster watching his puppets play in front of him for his own amusement.
 
Fellow classmates of Haruhi's, and mischievous troublemakers inside of the Host Club, the twins Kaoru and Hikaru Hitachiin are played by Greg Ayres and Todd Haberkorn, respectively. Often speaking in unison, but also finishing each other's sentences, as twins are wont to do, at least in popular entertainment much of the time, the two actors had to develop a rhythm that would allow their voices to mesh together well, even though they were recording separately, at different times. They succeed quite well, even though their voices do not sound particularly alike, unlike identical twins in the real world, who would have the exact same voice. Both performances are filled with a trickster's spirit. They are two naughty boys, seeing how far they can get away with their pranks before the parental types come along to stop them. Mr. Ayres manages to chip off the slightly whiny edge that his voice at this register (his usual teen voice pitch, which long time dub fans have heard in any number of similarly aged roles he has played before) often has, as that would have been off target for this role. It almost seems as if Mr. Haberkorn takes two of his recent performances, as Watanuki Kimihiro in xxxHOLiC and Itsuki Midoriba in SHUFFLE!, and blends them together. We have a range somewhat closer to Watanuki, but we hear the smoothed out intonations and slightly smarmy delivery of Itsuki. Together, the two form a pretty well matched pair.
 
In a sense, the male members of the Host Club (excluding Haruhi) can be spoken of in pairs: Tamaki and Kyoya; the Twins; and the final pair is formed by the polar opposites Mitsukuni "Honey" Haninozuka (Luci Christian) and Takashi Morinozuka (Travis Willingham), who are referred to most commonly as Honey and Mori. Being closely bound together (Mori's family married into Honey's family, but even before then, the Morinozukas had been family retainers to the Haninozuka family), they share a usual relationship: Honey is the adorably cute, little (he is short, even if he is a third year student) one; Mori is the tall and strong protector, being the strong and silent type.
 
Ms. Christian is well known for her breadth and depth of roles, having run the gamut from young girls and boys to sexy mature women. For Honey, we get as expected a very cute voice, one that is slightly disconcertingly reminiscent of Duck from Princess Tutu. Disconcerting, since, well, Honey is a high school senior, even if an incredibly young looking one. That is not to say that the voice is inappropriate. The performance is well executed, but as I have noted about Mr. Mignogna's role above, it does not represent anything new. It presents little challenge to Ms. Christian, though if you are not interested in novelty, but merely want a voice that matches a role, you should be pleased enough here. From a performance standpoint, Ms. Christian does an able job as Honey, playing up his cute side, while changing gears as required by events with remarkable dexterity. She is not a 6-time ADR Award winner for nothing.
 
As for Mr. Willingham, Mori is a man of few words. Frankly, so few, that I cannot expend more than a few words to describe his performance. It seems fine. The monotone, heavy feel that you would expect from such a figure is there. It is everything you might expect. And it does what it has to do.
 
Of course, there is one more character from the Host Club who needs mention before we move on, and that is their self-appointed manager, a sadly deluded, wealthy young woman who has acquired most of her notions about the world we live in from dating simulations and the like: Renge Houshakuji. Voiced by Monica Rial, already a well-known name among dub fans, Renge, a character full of energy, perhaps too much for her own good, is brought to boisterous life by Ms. Rial. There is a giddy playfulness in her voice that can be infectious, brining a smile to the listener's face as her voice comes out at you. The only criticism I might have, again, is that this is not a role that presents any challenge for Ms. Rial, and the voice and performance we have here, while great for the role, is hardly unique, being one I have heard before.
 
Having discussed the members of the Host Club, I would like to mention a few of the notable recurring characters and memorable cameos in brief. Playing a rather strange, light-deprived (deliberately so) neighbor to the Host Club is Patrick Seitz as Umehito Nekozawa. Seitz, perhaps better known for playing the heavy on occasion in such roles as Raul Creed in Ergo Proxy, as Nekozawa, Mr. Seitz gives a slightly breathy, very strange voice to this rather strange young man. Very well done. Haruhi's father, Ryuji Fujioka, is memorably portrayed by Mike McFarland, a master of a thousand voices, including the rather special one he has brought out for this role, which I will not say too much about in order not to ruin the surprise. Let us just say that the voice is rather soft and very believable for the role. Finally, there is a nice turn by Jamie Marchi, Brittany Karbowski, and Callie McHalen as the members of the rival Zuka Club from the St. Lobelia Girl's Academy, whose spirited entry and exit in one episode leave a lasting impression.
 
There are many others who are worth mentioning, but with thirteen episodes to cover, any review that attempted to include them all would run forever, defeating the purpose of a review. 
 
Performance dynamics:
 
As I mentioned above, much of the activity within the Host Club group involves pairings. Much of the interplay between characters also exists in pairs, occasionally trios. I will highlight a few of them.
 
The key relationship, as I see it, is clearly between Haruhi and Tamaki. He was the most clueless member of the Host Club, the one who did not realize that Haruhi was a girl until it was made absolutely clear to anyone who had not already figured it out. After the revelation, Tamaki becomes, in a way, the member who is the most intrigued with Haruhi (this is not to discount the interest shown in her by the Twins, and by Kyoya, at various points). His interest in Haruhi, however, is complex and to a certain degree, rather strange. On the one hand, he takes Haruhi under his wing and even considers himself something of a father figure to the young girl. In scenes where this role is highlighted, Mr. Mignogna's voice takes on a perceptibly fatherly air, which he does well. There, you can sense a feeling of care and concern in his delivery. Yet the character's feelings for Haruhi are complicated, since it becomes clear that Tamaki is also falling in love with Haruhi, something which both Kyoya and the Twins pick up on rather early, with the latter teasing Tamaki ruthlessly about it over the course of many episodes.  His sputtering denials whenever the Twins hint at his feelings are given just the right amount of flustered emphasis, revealing the inner feelings of the character well.
 
Another important pair is the interplay between Tamaki and Kyoya, who, as has been mentioned before, sometimes become the "Daddy" and "Mommy" of the Host Club. In the exchanges between Tamaki and Kyoya which play up to these nicknames, there is a wonderfully playful feel in the childish imploring of the overgrown child Tamaki and the wise, steady, "mothering" Kyoya, whose calm tones and air of reassurance set Tamaki back to sorts.
 
Tamaki's relationship with the Twins also provides a window into the interplay between the hosts. Rivals, in a strange way, for Haruhi's interest (dare we say affections at this point?), there is a continual contest between the two (I say two since the Twins operate largely as a single unit) to see who can best annoy the other side over their feelings for Haruhi. For the Twins, this takes the form of pranks played upon poor, simple Tamaki. In hatching their plots and trying to get Tamaki wound up over their plans to get in with Haruhi  (such as trying to get invited over to her house, as they are her classmates), the Twins deliver their combined dialogue to Tamaki with such evident glee and cheerful deviousness, you can audibly hear the knife being twisted into Tamaki's back by Mr. Ayres and Mr. Haberkorn. The anguished cries of Tamaki in response are given the right sense of pained grief by Mr. Mignogna in return. At other times, of course, Mr. Mignogna is in the driver's seat, as he is the Twins' "boss." On these occasions, his voice has the proper levels of authority, respect, and command that one would expect from a leader. 
 
Honey: "Please don't take away my cake!"
Mori: "No more cake."
 
Finally, I would like to mention that while Mori is a man of little words, he makes the most of them on occasion. In one of the later episodes in this set, when Mori has to take a harsh tone with young Honey for the latter's own good, we get great examples of actors knowing how to do much with much, and much with little. Ms. Christian, the happy cheerful and talkative child, brings those traits to the fore as we see Honey shift up and down from heights of giddy cheer to lows of almost pathetic pleading, as we see in the scene I have drawn the dialogue quote from above, with a tone and performance that captures Honey's nature well. In contrast, Mr. Willingham has to do more with less, and his short, simple "No more cake," spoken in his usual deadpan, contains a wealth of meaning. He is being firm, and yet one gets the sense that he is no more happy in denying Honey his sweets than Honey is in being denied them. Even if the amount of speaking is deliberately unbalanced between these two characters, one never really gets the sense that the relationship is unbalanced, and that is a result of the skill of the actors in keeping the two on an even level, even if their speech is not. 
 
Script Issues:
 
"Isn't this crab…crab-tivating?"
--Tamaki Suou
 
This would not be a review of a FUNimation dub if we were not going to deal with script issues. By this point, it has become normal when discussing any FUNimation script to hear complaints from those who prefer more fidelity to the "original;" a desire that FUNimation dub scripts often leave unfulfilled. The dub script for Ouran will do nothing to stop such complaints. This script, credited mainly to Lisa Blanchard with Eric Vale in the supervisory position as Head Writer, is about as loose as usual, when a comparison is made between the dubbing audio and the subtitle script, the only way I am able to measure what is going on since I do not myself have knowledge of Japanese beyond what someone inevitably picks up from watching the subtitles and listening to the original Japanese performances on a semi-regular basis. It is an imperfect gauge, but better than nothing.
 
This is not to say that all change from the more literal subtitle script (sub scripts have their own compromises to make, as they are not the same thing as an entirely faithful, literal translation themselves) is wrong. For example, when Mori confronts Haruhi in the Beach Episode with a spear, we hear:
 
Haruhi to Mori: "Mori, uh you're my sempai…not a sentai."
 
But the subtitles (and the Japanese—I know enough to get the sense of this passage) read:
 
"This is a mori, right? Mori sempai?"
 
There is a helpful on screen note telling us that mori in Japanese means a "harpoon." In a case such as this, where the joke would fall utterly flat in English, adaptation is necessary. Whether the new joke works any better than the old one, is a matter of personal taste. 
 
A note on Openings and Endings:
 
The opening and ending songs have been dubbed into English (the Japanese originals are still there if you choose the Japanese audio option). Personally, I find dubbed versions of Japanese anime pop tunes to be pretty hit or miss. Some are very good (the dubbed version of For Fruits Basket, for example, is lovely). Many, however, do little for me one way or another. I am afraid that I would have to class the opening and ending songs to Ouran in this category for me. I do not dislike them, but neither do I feel the need to listen to them. It should be noted that I do not find the Japanese originals any better, so it may as well be just as much that I do not find the songs all that interesting to begin with, and thus have a neutral opinion on their dubbed renditions. 
 
Final Thoughts:
 
Ouran High School Host Club, directed by Caitlin Glass and voiced by a cast of well-known veterans and recently prominent players, clearly shows the signs of personal care and attention from the hands of the director. Ms. Glass, whose passion for this show is known by many, has done a very good job overall of matching voices to roles, though not every single one of those matches is perfect, in my opinion. She also manages to draw out very persuasive and appropriate performances from the actors, though at times one can sense varying levels of enthusiasm from them, though this is likely something that the vast majority of listeners (99.99999%) will never notice. It is an accomplished product for a first time director and on any scale should be measured a success.
 
If there is any criticism I might level, it would be that there is a touch of stereotyping in some of the casting decisions, which might leave an experienced dub watcher with the feeling that he or she has heard some of these performances before. Not Ms. Glass' own, certainly, which is very new and different, a performance where the actor's personal interest in the show translates into energetic and emotionally compelling acting. In a few other roles, however, one feels that one has heard it before.
 
For someone new to listening to dubs, however, this is not a drawback, but instead a positive asset. You will get to listen to experienced performers doing what they do well, who are assured in their deliveries and emoting, who will provide hours of audio pleasure to match the visual appeal of anime as a medium.
 
The dub to Ouran High School Host Club is a solid effort, crafted with some skill and a concern for attention. If you are looking for a good comedy with a professional, well-tuned dub, then this one will be for you.
 
Recommended.