Ouran High School Host Club

What a surprise! I've just recently gotten into anime, always trying to find new and unique dimensions to this genre; had seen a few of the classics and essentials. I assumed this would not be something for me, until I watched the first episode and there I was, a 33 year old, bearded American guy, laughing his butt off at a "teen comedy". Though I don't know much (or care much) about shoujo(?), I LOVE a good satire in any medium and this, folks, is up there, at times, with the best. The themes are familiar to Americans: the "plain-Jane", rebellious type, gets dolled up; the girl masquerades a boy for some reason; the lower-class student strives to survive or "pass" amongst snobby rich peers; the fish-out-of-water scenario. But here, they are combined in a very well conceived and, at least in our cultural context, highly subversive cocktail made from all of these generic themes.

And it is quite an intoxicating and addictive cocktail. I even find myself thinking, "dear gawd, I can't tell anyone about my taboo love-affair with this show, can I?", but then I realize it is usually 5x more intelligent, well written and poignant than anything on American TV since the Simpsons of the early/mid 1990s.