Saitama no hosuto

It makes absolutely no sense to me why after having literally seen 100's of movies/TV series from world over on Netflix, The Saitama Host Club is my #1 favorite to re-watch whenever I'm feeling stressed or down. It's so nutty and over the top. With it's offbeat improbable cast of characters and peculiar plotlines nothing I've ever seen resembles it. Once I realized I had ventured down a proverbial rabbit hole featuring a quasi-mad queen trying to "reform" a band of misfit "hosts" at Club Eichi, an obscure host club in Saitama Japan, I figured that I had 2 options. 1. roll my eyes and quit watching it or 2. Abandon all disbelief and enjoy the show. I picked door #2, and by episode four I was hooked. I Love all the players: bossy Ms. Yurika, diamond -in-the-rough Kiseki, Mr. Kobata, wicked Genji, punky Sen, sour Mamoru...wow I even remember all their names now. And I don't know much Japanese. Actually the simple dialogue of this show (the characters are never verbose) helped me learn a lot of Japanese words and expressions, which was a bonus. I'd love to visit Japan someday.

I've watched plenty of Japanese series with even weirder story lines, but this one in particular was probably the weirdest one. Not a moment went by without me thinking "who even thought of this!?". And maybe that was the point because I loved it.

Japanese host culture is strange enough on its own for me, and I'm glad someone decided to show it in a funny and lighthearted way (because it can be sad and kind of dark too). I guess since it's something that's happening there anyway, might as well do a comedy about it. The clothes, locations, and hairstyles were all kind of crazy, adding to the comedic element.

The story and dialogue weren't deep in any way, but they were cute and humane, with the Japanese style of respect and humbleness which I personally enjoy.

All in all, fun and weird, and I really enjoyed it!