This show makes me happy.
It is bright and funny and complex and well drawn. The animation style reminds me a bit of Revolutionary Girl Utena, one of my fave anime series. The voices are actually well chosen and dubbed in English, though of course the Japanese is even better.
I could sit and watch this show all day. Even the more dramatic episodes are highly enjoyable.
They make me happy.
There are elements that are too sweet. There are elements that are too girly. There are elements that are too loud and silly.
But they mesh together well, so that the whole is wonderfully, surprisingly, amazingly better than the individual elements.
This is one of the only anime that I prefer above the manga it is based off of. I got kinda bored reading the manga, but I have never gotten bored watching the show. Weird but true.
The story is, at its most basic level, about a scholarship student who goes to an ultra-rich school and ends up indebted to the Host Club after breaking an expensive vase. Though she is a girl and has a girl's name, they mistake her for a boy and hijinks, of course, ensue. It sounds kinda silly, and it is, but it is a good kind of silly.
Trust me. I never lie about anime.
The fact is that this show surpasses its silly premise and manages to have a rich storyline and multi-faceted characters. The mischievous and (slightly) pervy twins - Kaoru and Hikaru - especially are interesting to watch. It is a near perfect example of why I love anime so much. It doesn't pretend that just because it is animated it should be any less dramatic or involved or well written.
And all critical acclaim aside, the most important thing about it (to me anyway) is that it makes me happy. I can't think of praise greater than that.
