Considering Ouran

[branchandroot]

Apropos of discussion with Dan...

You know, I'll be curious to see how Ouran handles Tamaki. Because from the shape of things so far, Haruhi's femininity isn't going to be the pivotal issue; what is getting focused on, instead, is her lack of amai. That is what looks likely to be the story's target of change.

Tamaki is resoundingly amai, in every sense of the word. Astonishingly so. Childishly so. That's what makes him the center of the group, the pure-hearted emotional center if not exactly the leader. Will this change, or will he remain as he is?

If there is to be romantic closure between him and Haruhi, it seems necessary that he change, as well as her. But I could very much see this story being open-ended, romantically speaking--making a point of that, in fact.

Comments

[marmalade-girl.livejournal.com]

In my view of this series, any changes any characters go through are fleeting and limited only to the scope of any particular episode/story arc. At the start of each new adventure, the cast has reverted back to their roles with no mention of any previous development. I suspect that, if any character will end up breaking free of this tendency to revert to type, it must be Haruhi, but even then, I think it's unlikely at best.

True, we are learning about each character's past--the twins and Tamaki have had the most significant history divulged thus far in the manga--but that information seems to have little to no bearing on how each character behaves or treats one another. Rather than this being a story of characters evolving into anything, it may be a story where the audience is encouraged to piece together everything that was already there; thus the characters may not change a whit, but our perception of them does.

With this in mind, I suspect that Ouran will be the kind of series that shows very little evolution and even less conclusion. I agree whole heartedly that this story could very well be romantically open-ended, in fact, that's the only way I can fathom it ending, just because the amount of change that would need to be expressed by both Tamaki and Haruhi would be enormous, and already six volumes into the manga, we don't see evidence of it.

I'd go as far as to say that even looking for Haruhi's personality to shift even slightly toward the sweet and sentimental might be looking for too much. In her dealings with her father, we see that she's *already* embraced a certain level of sentimentality; it's just one that she doesn't express. I suspect that Tamaki draws out the same feelings in her, but that they will remain similarly unexpressed or underexpressed.

I'm glad you're watching this series. It's fun and pretty and more people should enjoy it. ^__^

[branchandroot]

I am enjoying it, quite a bit. And I suspect you have a point about the audience's perceptions of the characters changing as we get to see what came before.

It isn't sentimentality I expect to develop in Haruhi, though. It's dependence. The inter-dependence that would be considered proper and normal for her culture. So much is made of how unnaturally isolated her precocious self-reliance makes her. The beach episode and the visit to her home both emphasize that a great deal. And here are the silly boys, dragging her off to have age-appropriate fun willy-nilly. *chuckling*