Ouran High School Host Club

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Ouran High School Host Club
桜蘭高校ホスト部 (Ōran Kōkō Hosuto Kurabu)
Genre	Comedy, Drama, Romance, Shōjo
Manga
Authored by	Bisco Hatori
Publisher	Hakusensha VIZ Media Chuang Yi (English and Chinese) Génération Comics Carlsen Comics Elex Media Komputindo
Serialized in	LaLa
Original run	August 5, 2003 – Ongoing
No. of volumes	10 (ongoing)
TV anime
Directed by	Takuya Igarashi
Studio	Bones
Network	Animax, NTV
Original run	April 5, 2006 – September 26, 2006
No. of episodes	26

Ouran High School Host Club (桜蘭高校ホスト部, Ōran Kōkō Hosuto Kurabu^?) is the title of a Japanese fiction series created by Japanese author Bisco Hatori centering around a group of high school friends all in the same club - the Host Club.

The series first started as a manga serialized in LaLa magazine on August 5, 2003. Currently, the manga is unfinished with nine complete volumes already released in Japan. Since then the manga has been licensed by United States based company Viz Media with already seven volumes released in English. Later, Ouran was adapted into a 26-episode anime television series produced by Bones, which premiered on April 5, 2006 in Japan.

The North American English-language edition use the title Ouran High School Host Club, while the Singapore English-language edition excludes the word school from the title. As for the Japanese title itself, although the kanji "部" (pronounced as bu in most cases) is used, it has been stipulated that it be read as kurabu (the Japanese transliteration for "club"). However, "部" ("bu") is also a typical contraction for "部活動" ("bukatsudou") within Japanese schools. In the drama CDs and the anime adaptation, it was pronounced as "bu" by the cast.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Clubs 3.1 Host Club 3.2 Dark Magic Club 3.3 Zuka Club 3.4 Newspaper Club 3.5 American Football Club 4 Setting 4.1 Ouran Private Academy 4.2 School culture 5 Media 5.1 Manga 5.1.1 Trivia 5.2 Drama CD 5.2.1 Trivia 5.3 Anime 5.3.1 Episodes 5.3.2 Music 5.3.3 Trivia 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Plot

Ouran High School Host Club is a story involving a wide range of characters, which takes place primarily at Ouran High School, which most of them attend. The school is an exclusive institution reserved only for students from incredibly wealthy and affluent families. One exception, however, is scholarship student Haruhi Fujioka, a young girl from a lower-middle class family who appears to have a 'low threshold for gender identity'. Because of this (and the superfluous cost of the school uniform), Haruhi resorts to wearing long slacks, polo shirts and a vest that resembles the male student's uniform. Therefore, upon entering school, she was at first taken as a male student.

One day, she begins to search through the vast campus for a quiet place to study since all the libraries are filled with gossiping students. Her search takes her to the technically unused Third Music Room where she stumbles upon the Host Club - a group of six attractive male students who spend their time charming and entertaining the school's girls for profit. During their first meeting, Haruhi is shocked at their behavior which causes her to accidentally knock over a very expensive vase valued at ¥8,000,000 ($80,000 US in the English manga). This causes Haruhi to contract a massive debt with the Host Club. In order to pay off the large sum, she is employed as the club's "dog" and is constantly ordered to do menial tasks for the members, such as serving food or cleaning up.

Once the club president, Tamaki Suou, sees "him" without "his" glasses, Haruhi is promoted to be one of the hosts of the club as a way to pay off "his" huge debt. The other club members soon discover that Haruhi is a female, but since she is already accepted by the club's customers and even became one of the main attractions of the club, Haruhi is allowed (forced) to stay until she has accumulated a total of 100 (which later grows to 1,000) customers, when her debt would be considered paid in full.

[edit] Characters

Main article: Characters of Ouran High School Host Club

In the series, there are seven main characters that are all members of the Ouran Host Club. The president of the club is Tamaki Suou, who usually acts quite idiotic but also pulls to keep his Host Club "family" together at all times. He views himself as the "dad" and Haruhi as his "daughter" once he discovers her true gender. The vice-president, otherwise known as the "mom" is Kyoya Ootori, who takes care of the financial gain and any additional business opportunities related to the club. He is always calm and collected, silently running the club from the shadows. But he is really quite cunning and sly.

Next, there are the Hitachiin brothers - Hikaru and Kaoru - twins that are always finding ways to have fun in the club whenever they get bored, which is quite often. They use their "brotherly love" act to pull in female customers. The fifth member is a small student by the name of Mitsukuni "Hunny" (or "Honey" in some fansubs) Haninozuka who appears to be the youngest of the members but is actually one of the oldest of the group. He has an excessively cute style which his customers go crazy over. He is also a master of martial arts, despite his small appearance and love for anything cute. He is always quite angry when he is woken up. His cousin, Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka, is the sixth member of the club whose most defining quality is that he speaks very little, and always hangs around with Hunny, usually taking him on piggyback. His family has been serving the Haninozukas for centuries. Morinozuka turns into a real lady's man when he feels tired.

The final member of the club, unlike all the others, is in fact a female student named Haruhi Fujioka who stumbled into the club one day by accident. She was initially mistaken for male and seems to have no qualms with crossdressing in order to pay off her debt to the club. Throughout the series, Haruhi learns more about the other hosts. It is shown that she has seeing eyes because she is able to look much deeper into a person and many other things, though there are times where she is humorously oblivious to a person's feelings. Since her mother died when she was very young, and her dad was always at work to support them, she had grown up to be a very independent young woman.

The remaining characters include other schoolmates such as Renge Houshakuji, the self-proclaimed manageress of the Host Club; Ritsu Kasanoda, a yakuza's son who has a crush on Haruhi; and Umehito Nekozawa, president of the nearby Dark Magic Club who loves to creep out fellow school members. Additionally, there are Haruhi's parents, though her mother Kotoko Fujioka died when Haruhi was a child and only appears in flashback scenes. Her father, Ryōji "Ranka" Fujioka, works at an okama bar dressed as a woman. There is also an anime-only character, Éclair Tonnere, who was supposed to be Tamaki's fiancée via an arranged marriage (a marriage which is stopped by Haruhi with the help of the rest of the Host Club as part of the plot of the series finalé).

[edit] Clubs

[edit] Host Club

Tamaki thought up the idea of the Ouran High School Host Club during the winter of ninth grade and started it upon entering the high school department of Ouran Academy. In there, handsome teenage boys with a lot of time, wealth, and beauty can entertain girls that have just as much time, wealth, and beauty on their hands. During the time the girls attend, Host Club members can be designated, which means a specific host is asked to entertain them. Host Club members all have different ways of entertaining their guests and at other times, greet all of their customers at once. They always manage to make the women adore them in the end, however.

Usually, the Host Club is set in a large room filled with furniture, food and drink. This is basically Ouran High School's third music room, which is not being used for music lessons and has so been assimilated by the Host Club for their own use. Host Club members sit around and talk with their customers about anything the girls bring up. Sometimes, the club room has a specific theme to heighten the experience of the customers and to make it more interesting for them; various themes include a tropical setting or a traditional picnic.

You'll notice that the twin waiters look a lot like Hisui and Kohaku from Tsukihime and Melty Blood. This is no coincidence, and this type of patterning (borrowing) is common in anime.

[edit] Dark Magic Club

The Dark Magic Club at Ouran High School is led by the third year student Umehito Nekozawa. The club members seem to spend most of their time in a dim-lit room poring over objects that would be considered a form of dark magic, such as the cat-doll Beelzenef that Nekozawa carries around with him everywhere. This doll can also take the form of a wooden doll and it is said that if you write the name of a person you dislike on the back of the doll, they'll be cursed. Nekozawa has claimed on one occasion that the Dark Magic Club is running a constant Mass. One would assume from context that this is a Black Mass where those practicing black magic would congregate and practice it together. Each member of the club wears a black coat, like the one Nekozawa wears, and is provided their own free Beelzenef doll (their choice of fabric or wood).

True to their nature, the Dark Magic Club didn't pass up the opportunity to scare the students of Haruhi's class, Class 1-A, during their class event for Halloween aptly named by Renge as the Halloween Special Test of Courage Tournament (ハロウィンスペシャルきもだめし大会, Harowin Supesharu Kimodameshi Taikai^?). Once all of the students assembled in the academy greenhouse, the club cut the lights and used the shadow of Beelzenef to scare Class 1-A half to death.

In the anime, Nekozawa is the only member shown, so it's worth questioning if he actually managed to recruit anyone into his club.

[edit] Zuka Club

The White Lily Group of St. Lobelia's Girls' Academy, otherwise known as the Zuka Club (ヅカ部, Zukabu^?) (in reference to Takarazuka, a theater group composed mainly of women) is a cultural club with a thirty-year history at St. Lobelia's. The group is a strong advocate of female superiority. The club hosts a wide range of activities at St. Lobelia’s, such as tea ceremonies and discussion groups, but its main function is theatric performances. Their formal name, 'White Lily Group', may be a double entendre as lily in Japanese is yuri, a euphemism for lesbianism. Certainly, the Zuka Club does not seem to be opposed to the concept and receives plenty of adulation from the all-girl student body of St. Lobelia's. The name of the group could be a parody of the "Mountain Lily Council" of Maria-sama ga Miteru, a series with shoujo-ai undertones.

Its current leading body, composed of second-year student Benio Amakusa, second-year student Chizuru Maihara and first-year student Hinako Tsuwabuki, have gained idol status at St. Lobelia's; their leader Benio, especially, is the subject of extreme affection from her fellow students, requiring her own student security agents to prevent her from being mobbed. The Zuka Club is invited for a performance at Ouran for a cultural exchange meet and its leaders avail themselves of the opportunity to visit—and mock—the Host Club, which they consider inferior due to its lack of history and because of a fair amount of dislike for men, due to their opinion that women are constantly being discriminated against. Ironically, as observed by Haruhi, in their typical displays of rudeness, their inexperience with life beyond the circle of the rich and their outrageous behaviour, the Zuka Club seems like a female mirror-image of the Host Club.

During their visit, the leading body of the Zuka Club immediately recognizes Haruhi for a woman and takes offense on her behalf for her 'being forced to' crossdress and having to work for the 'lowly' Host Club, trying to tempt her into coming over to St. Lobelia's Academy. This sparks Tamaki's paranoia especially, as he believes Haruhi would do extremely well in the Zuka Club (since she seems to slightly prefer male clothing and doesn't object to listening to girls chit-chat) and because her intellect would make it easy for her to apply for the St. Lobelia scholarship. It doesn't help that the leading body takes liberties with Haruhi of a physical nature, getting quite huggy and constantly calling her otome (乙女, otome^? meaning maiden). Benio, especially, acts more affectionately than is strictly necessary or even appropriate and even tries to steal Haruhi's first kiss in an act of spite against Tamaki. All the members of the leading body fawn on Haruhi, however, often complimenting her physical appearance.

In the overall story, the Zuka Club is probably the closest thing the Host Club has to an archenemy. An amusing bit of trivia is that Benio, leader of the Zuka Club and its policy of woman superiority, frequently refers to herself with the term 'boku'. When used by a woman, this Japanese word for 'I' indicates either a tomboy or a woman who wishes to be male. Benio also wears a fake mustache for a short time during one episode, which is taken off by Chizuru Maihara, Benio is also the one wearing a tuxedo or pants the majority of the time, while the other two members wear dresses. Benio basically only wears a skirt when she's in the proper Lobelia school uniform.

[edit] Newspaper Club

The Newspaper Club at Ouran contains three members: Akira Komatsuzawa, who is also the chairman of the club, Chikage Ukyo and Tomochika Sakyo, who all strive to have their newspaper become more popular than the Host Club. However, their newspaper mostly consists of articles pertaining to romance gossip on campus or power struggles between families that are causing divisions within classes. In short, it's a gossip paper that covers these overblown rumors. In the end, since all the stories are simply fictitious, no one bothers to read them anymore. The reason they did this was because they wanted to pull in more attention for their newspaper, but it didn't work to improve their reputations or popularity within the school. Akira's attempt to find some dirt on the Host Club so he could destroy it and win ascendance for his own Newspaper Club fails miserably due to Kyouya's talent for planning ahead.

[edit] American Football Club

Exclusive to the manga series, the American Football Club consists of three members: Takeshi Kuze (九瀬 猛 Kuze Takeshi) who is captain of the club and the fiance of Kanan Matsuyama (満山 香南 Matsuyama Kanan), who is in the student council, the vice-captain Makoto Togoin, and Hayato Tarumi . The captain of the club's family controls the largest domestic share of fruit and vegetable imports, so the members are almost always eating fruits. The team is called the Ouran Orage, which means "storm" in French. It also sounds like Orange, so that's what they're called too. The Captain of the team holds a personal grudge against Kyouya as when they were in kindergarten, Kuze was boasting about the propeties of oranges, and told his friends that even the orange peel was filled with goodness, when Kyouya butted in and, smiling his "refreshingly guileless (cruel) smile", said that the skin was so tough and rough, and that he didn't know if it was a good idea to eat it raw. He even said something about pesticides being bad for the girls as they were having babies. When Kuze angrily said that his fruits didn't have pesticides, Kyouya continued, saying that it would be good to eat it in the form of marmalade, embarrassing Kuze. That is why he wanted to face-off with Kyouya in the competition for the Central Block Reception Hall. Matsuyama, in the end, was the one who tried to pull the Host Club out of the competition, as she thought Kuze would never beat Kyouya. Therefore, she would rather he spent more time with her. Also, they believe that the orange has calming propeties, so they smell it whenever they get worked up.

[edit] Setting

[edit] Ouran Private Academy

The bulk of the story takes place at Ouran Private Academy, which is a school encompassing all the grades from kindergarten to high school. The vast majority of students are from very rich families and have connections with family businesses going back several generations. Some of the students aren't as financially well-off as others, but are able to attend the school due to a special scholarship, though the ones who are able to obtain this rare offer must be rather intelligent. Haruhi Fujioka is one such student. It is implied that this scholarship is offered to only one student per level, as Haruhi had to take a make-up test when her ranking fell to no. 3 from the top spot. According to Kyouya, if she had done poorly in that test again, she'll be demoted to Class D, or even forced to leave Ouran.

[edit] School culture

An unofficial motto of Ouran is "Lineage comes first, wealth is second". Indeed, students whose families were wealthy but have low social status (i.e gangsters, like Kasanoda) were put in the "D" classes, which is the worst classification. Conversely, students with stellar family backgrounds (notably, the Host Club boys) were assigned to the "A" classes.

Another interesting event at Ouran is the school anniversary. This occasion, unlike the light-hearted events of Halloween or Christmas, is a serious affair for Ouran students. The students would come up with proposals for the festivities, and their parents would judge them, based on their performance and execution of their proposals. This is a test of sorts for the students, and their parents would take this opportunity to consider their successors to the family businesses/careers.

[edit] Media

Ouran High School Host Club is presented in three different types of media - first the manga, second three drama CDs released by LaLa Magazine, and then later an anime.

[edit] Manga

Main article: List of chapters in Ouran High School Host Club manga

The Ouran High School Host Club manga started its run on August 5, 2003 in Japan in LaLa. So far, the individual chapters have been collected into nine tankōbon and is still continuing in Japan. It is currently being released in North America under the license of VIZ Media and their Shojo Beat line. It is published in Singapore (in both simplified Chinese and English) by Chuang Yi. Also included in some of the volumes is the series Romantic Egoist.

[edit] Trivia

• Bisco Hatori stated in an extra section in the first volume of the manga that if the first chapter of Ouran was 40 pages instead of 50 pages, it was a possibility that she would have had to exclude Kyoya from the story.
• On the cover art for chapter 10, the Host Club members cosplay as officers of Nazi Germany. (Although the swastika was removed, the uniforms and decorations (particularly the Iron Cross) were distinctively German.)
• Hatori also mentioned in the column explaining Hunny's birthday that Tamaki's trademark "hiding in the corner" was initially meant for Hunny.
• In the first volume of the manga, Hatori mentioned in the character file that her favorite pairing probably would be Mori and Haruhi.

[edit] Drama CD

The drama CDs of the series predate the anime with the first release in 2003. There are 3 drama CD releases before the anime. Interestingly, a number of voice actors who had voiced the main characters of several Gundam series voiced characters here as well:

• Hikaru Midorikawa, the voice of Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing, provided the voice of Tamaki.
• Soichiro Hoshi, who played Kira Yamato in Gundam Seed, provided the voice of Hikaru.
• Kenichi Suzumura, the voice of Shinn Asuka from Gundam Seed Destiny, provided the voice of Kaoru. He's also the only member of the original drama CD cast (for the Host Club members) to return for the anime version, where he voiced Hikaru.
• Jun'ichi Suwabe, the voice of Sting Oakley from Gundam Seed Destiny, provided the voice of Kyoya.

[edit] Trivia

• Bisco Hatori noted in the side columns of the manga that Aya Hisakawa (the drama CD voice of Haruhi) once visited her. The voice actress brought along her dog and even did a live session for Hatori.
• After the anime was aired, audio drama CDs using the cast from the anime were also released.

[edit] Anime

Ouran High School Host Club premiered in Japan on the terrestrial Nippon Television network. It is set to air across Japan on the anime satellite television network, Animax, starting October 2006, set to be the series' first satellite broadcast. ^[1]

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Ouran High School Host Club episodes

The first episode aired on April 5, 2006, and the show has 26 episodes. The last episode aired on September 26, 2006.

[edit] Music

Opening theme

"Sakura Kiss (桜キッス, Sakura Kiss^?)" by Chieko Kawabe

Ending theme

"Shissou (疾走, Shissō^?)" by LAST ALLIANCE

Soundtracks

Main article: Ouran High School Host Club soundtracks

Other

"Sonata for Two Pianos K448" by Wolfgang Mozart is played in episode 6.

"Little Wing" by Chieko Kawabe is played in episode 19 where in, Haruhi is required to 'sing'.

[edit] Trivia

• Hikaru's ringtone for Tamaki is Shissou, the ending for the anime.

• Some items and phrases in the Ouran anime make some allusions to other anime series (most of them also from Bones) such as in episode eleven, when Renge said that "Even Edward dealt with a cross with willpower and guts", probably talking about Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, and the burden he carried since the day he and his brother Alphonse failed to resurrect their mother using alchemy, when he lost an arm and leg and Al had his soul attached to a suit of armor.

Episode 2

Hunny, while sitting on Mori's shoulders says that "Tohru is a nice person!" This is probably in reference to a line from Fruits Basket that Momiji Sohma says regarding Tohru Honda; seeing how the voice actress for Hunny, Ayaka Saito, also voices the role of Momiji. Hunny and Momiji share other similar characteristics -- both look way younger than their real age (to the point of being indistinguishable from grade school children), behave childishly, cry easily, and have a sweet tooth. Coincidentally, Hunny carries a stuffed toy bunny around with him, while Momiji's Chinese Zodiac sign in Fruits Basket is a rabbit.

Episode 4

Kyouya tells that the director had filmed the blockbuster Sennen no Yuki, a vampire movie. Sennen no yuki is the name of another manga made by Bisco Hatori.

Episode 7

Renge wears a bikini to show off the tattoo of Quon Kisaragi from RahXephon. Coincidentally, Reika Mishima, a character from RahXephon is also voiced by Maaya Sakamoto (the voice actress for Haruhi).

Episode 9

Renge cosplays Yomiko Readman from Read or Die. Haruhi's mechanical pencil that was sold by the Host Club without her permission had the Bones logo on it.

Episode 11

When Renge is "reprogramming" Nekozawa, she has Mori write down a list of things Nekozawa's not allowed to say. Some of the words and phrases included are "cursed video" and "Tohru-chan."

Episode 12

Hunny's response to being woken up early (according to Tamaki and the twins) is apparently a Bunny version of Eureka Seven's Seven Swell phenomenon.

Episode 14

Tamaki, at one point during a game, kicks a football, making it travel at amazingly high speeds and causing it to hit the newspaper club's chairman on the head. This is probably in reference to Detective Conan (known as Case Closed in English), an anime in which the main character, Conan Edogawa (a pseudonym for Shin'ichi Kudo, who is known as Jimmy Kudo in the English-language versions) often uses high tech shoes to kick kettles or soccerballs into the faces of his enemies to knock them out.

Episode 16

Another Fullmetal Alchemist reference occurs when Hikaru shows a ball surprising Haruhi, which resembles Ed's head with his sharp-looking eyes and his characteristic "hair antenna".

Episode 21

Being set on Halloween, some of the characters dressed up as famous fictional characters from horror movies, such as Mori dressing up as Frankenstein's monster and Tamaki as Yamamura Sadako from Ringu.

Episode 22

The wall Tetsuya sits in front of has the Bones logo on it.

The theme of the day in the Host Club has them dressing up like samurai from the Bakumatsu period. Tamaki is actually cosplaying Sakamoto Ryōma, Mori is said to resemble Shimada Kai or Yamazaki Susumu (though the spear would indicate Sanosuke Harada) and Haruhi is said to look like Okita Sōji. Giant Robo appears in this episode.

Episode 23

In the pyramid of cans that Kasanoda's underlings have set up, a Coca-Cola can and a Sprite can were among some of the brand names.

Pop culture

There are plenty of pop culture references in the anime as well. For example, Kyouya's laptop is silver and has a pineapple logo on the back of the monitor, alluding to Apple Computers. Renge plays the game Ukidoki Memorial, a play on Tokimeki Memorial, with a controller featuring the distinct (and now abandoned) PS3 boomerang design. The twins are seen playing a GBA SP in flashbacks, and play a Nintendo DS in the present timeline. In episode 19, Haruhi's father drags the Host Club into his apartment by rolling them all through the door, imitating the Playstation 2 game Katamari Damacy's gameplay. The instant coffee that the club loves to drink, Hescafé, is a reference to Nescafé.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• NTV's Ouran High School Host Club official website (Japanese)
• Animax's official website for Ouran High School Host Club (Japanese)
• Shojo Beat's Ouran High School Host Club official website
• For Richer or Poorer - Fansite
• Ouran High School Host Club (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Ouran's AniDB Page
• Midori & Sudô - Website about Yuu Watase, Ai Yazawa, Bisco Hatori, Mihona Fujii...