Saitama Host Club is a series about a host club situated in Saitama and the various hosts living in it. Just when the club was drowning in debt, a consultant appeared as an angel and saved it. Aramaki is the consultant we’re talking about. Apart from looks, she hasn’t got anything. Talk about her acting, she crashes and is partially good in fight scenes.
The brains behind saving the Saitama Host Club, Aramaki was hired anonymously as a consultant. She paved the path for the club and brought it back into existence with the use of various statistics and opportunities.
The dedication Aramaki showed for the Saitama Host Club became doubtful because she got her pay, and there was nothing that was stopping her from moving on in her professional career. The reason behind her stay hasn’t been fully explained and I think that the reason she overstayed her welcome was her finding the love of her life.
The series has a scope for a lot of improvement in the field of writing and acting. The casting could also have been much better as the actors playing the roles of Aramaki and Kiseki lacked expressions. While Kiseki was shown to be a timid guy, the actor was imitating a boy aged five years old. This was not looking cute instead, it looked like he was suffering from a disease. Social anxiety is shown to be a reason behind his behavior, but still, this wasn’t acceptable.
As Aramaki was a game changer for the series, it would have helped if she also portrayed a variety of emotions complemented with facial expressions. Apart from a straight face, an angry face, and a happy face there is a range of expressions that could be used. Whenever she says any words, they lack conviction, and she appears to be a control freak.
In the scenes where Aramaki was showing authority, I was amazed how the people at the Saitama Host Club didn’t react. They are shown to be dumb people despite that, if someone shows authority, it is natural to contradict. No one raised a finger and easily accepted her to be their new boss.
There are just eight episodes in the series with an average duration of twenty minutes. In terms of duration, the series is good, but I cannot help but wonder what the makers could have brought to the screen if the time-space was fully utilized. With 160 minutes, you can narrate a great storyline and the makers went with the repeated cycle of the club’s debt and rivalry.
In between these scenes, we are teased with possible romance. Just when I became happy that now there would be a love story, they pressed Ctrl+Z as if they wandered off to a place that was unthought of. Aramaki and Kiseki had chemistry from the first episode itself and when nothing happened at the end or when Kiseki “friend-zoned” her, I was not satisfied. Why tease a romance when you don’t want to show it?
The story of every character has been shown in the initial episodes that serve minorly as their introduction. The first episode was about Kiseki, and the following two episodes were about the other hosts. I wanted to know more about the man who hired Aramaki and about Mr. Kobato.
In all, Saitama Host Club is a below-average series, and spending 160 minutes on it is too much. The series has served us with a half-baked story that could potentially be replaced by a love triangle and good comedy. Some scenes like the one in which Kiseki follows Aramaki are good and the others are forgettable.
Final Score – [5/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
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Publisher at Midgard Times