Tamaki Suou
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| Tamaki Suou | |
|---|---|
| Ouran High School Host Club character | |
 Anime version of Tamaki Suou |
|
| First appearance | Ouran High School Host Club anime episode 1 Ouran High School Host Club manga chapter 1 |
| Created by | Bisco Hatori |
| Voiced by | Mamoru Miyano (anime and later drama CDs)[1] Hikaru Midorikawa (early drama CDs)[2] |
| Profile | |
| Nicknames | King Father Tama-chan Senpai Tono (Japanese: My Lord) Milord (English version) Golden Prince |
| Aliases | René Tamaki Richard Grantaine (french name) Tamaki Suoh (alternative romanization) |
| Age | 17[3] |
| Date of birth | 8 April |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Class | 2-A (grade 11) |
| Occupation | Student |
| Known relatives | Yuzuru Suou (father) Anne Sophie Grantaine (mother) |
| Affiliation | Host Club |
| Host type | Prince |
| Ethnicity | Japanese/French |
| Exam ranking (Year 2) | 2nd |
Tamaki Suou (須王 環 Suō Tamaki)?) is a fictional character from the manga/anime series Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori. Tamaki is the primary male protagonist of the series and president of the host club.
- The name is romanized by VIZ Media as Tamaki Suoh
- The name is romanized by Nippon Television's Japanese-language website and Chuang Yi English translate version as Tamaki Suou
Tamaki shares a strong resemblance with the character Satsuki from Bisco Hatori's other work, Millennium Snow; both in appearance and personality. The action of Tamaki jumping off the bridge with Haruhi at the end of the Ouran anime is also close to a jump from Millennium Snow, but that took place between the characters Toya and Chiyuki, not Satsuki and Chiyuki.
[edit] Character Description
Tamaki is a half-Japanese, half-French Ouran High School second-year student and the president of the Host Club, the founding of which was his idea. He is sometimes referred to as the "King" of the Host Club and is by far the most popular host, with a 70% request rate. The usual instigator of all of the Host Club's antics, Tamaki is prone to dramatics and often acts without thinking or overreacts to trivial things; the other members of the club, particularly Hikaru and Kaoru, often take amusement at his expense. At the same time, they almost always follow his lead, and staunchly support him when it's needed. He is the heart and soul of the Host Club -- he is the one responsible for its creation and formation, and without him, it would fall apart. He also has an attachment to his teddy bear "beary" as shown in the anime.
Despite his foolish and often childish behaviour, Tamaki is kind and generous, and is easily moved by the distress of others, even strangers. Once aware of others peoples' problems, he will do all he can to help them and "ascertain justice". He often makes elaborate plans or "strategies" to help them, and will drag the rest of the Host Club into his altruistic schemes despite their protests or indifference. Despite their different personalities and behaviours, Tamaki and Haruhi pretty much share a distinctly strong, somehow utopistic sense of justice that sets them apart from the others. Tamaki is curious and genuinely smitten by the habits and lifestyles of "commoners", or people not as well-off as he and his classmates at Ouran, and goes about experiencing them with enthusiasm (sometimes for Haruhi's benefit, and sometimes for his own).
His family is involved mostly with the business market, but also handles the school administration. In fact, Tamaki is the son of the superintendent so in effect his family is financially supporting Haruhi as a scholarship student.
Tamaki's grandmother, the true head and decision-maker of the Suou family, bears a grudge against him over the fact that his father had an affair with Tamaki's mother and divorced his legal wife when Tamaki was born. Because there is no other heir to the Suou family, his grandmother acknowledges Tamaki as a Suou, but refuses to allow him to live in the family's main residence and forbids him any contact with his mother in France. Tamaki was particularly close to his mother, whose sickly conditions worried him so much that when he was little he didn't go out and make friends like any normal child, instead choosing to stay with her and play the piano so she would feel better. His mother, in turn, felt shame that she had given up her son in exchange for money, and disappeared. (In the anime, she is shown to be working for Éclair Tonnerre's family. In the manga, his mother ran away from home after his return to Japan, although Kyoya commented that given his father's influence, he (the father) should know where she is.) Also in the manga and anime, he has a pet dog named Antoinette, which he found in a "Commoner's Market" pet shop (only in the anime). In the manga Antoinette is a sibling of Tamaki's Mother's dog, Hachibee.
In spite of all his troubles and the less than ideal circumstances of his Japanese residence, Tamaki appears to hold no hard feelings against his grandmother, and retains an almost excessively positive outlook on life. He sincerely believes that nothing is impossible, and it is this resolve that allows him to reach even the most isolated of people.
Tamaki also proves to be a naturally excellent student, routinely placing second in his class (behind Kyoya) without making any particularly great effort towards studying. He can speak French and Japanese with ease, and lists English as one of his favorite subjects at school. He is a talented piano player, and unlike the other members of the Host Club (such as Kyoya and the Hitachiin brothers) there is surprisingly little artifice in his treatment of the club's customers. In his profile at the end of volume 1 of the manga, Hatori notes that despite his apparent glibness with the girls, he genuinely means what he says. He cannot seem to find it in him to be less than gentlemanly toward girls, even deceitful ones like Princess Ayanokoji -- who bullied Haruhi and tried to get her into trouble -- and, in the anime, Éclair Tonnerre -- who essentially blackmailed him into marriage. He will, however, get rough with anyone who shows harmful intent toward any of his friends, though not necessarily toward himself.
Haruhi, however, finds his behaviour toward the ladies more troublesome than charming -- much to Tamaki's chagrin, as he has quickly developed a romantic infatuation with her, which leads to a genuinely deeper feeling as the manga goes on. However, Tamaki himself seems completely oblivious to this, confusing it with fatherly feelings -- a fact that the other hosts can't believe. Kaoru, however, theorizes that Tamaki's obsession with family is an act of self-preservation, borne out of an unconscious fear that the substitute family he's created -- the Host Club -- will fall apart should he start thinking of Haruhi as anything but his "daughter". In the manga, Tamaki fell ill after he thought that his attempt to kiss Haruhi made him a "pervert"; he "solved" the problem by kissing the girl on her forehead. Of course, while Tamaki feels reassured after that, Haruhi is now the one in emotional turmoil, fidgeting over his proximity and over-analyzing his every move and her own feelings. She is annoyed when Tamaki claims that he can't really remember the incident due to his fever.
In chapters 54 and 55, Tamaki is shown to have a more vulnerable side as he says to Haruhi that he cannot bring himself to go to France for the school's planned trip for second years since it is too painful. When he learns that Haruhi knows about his past, Tamaki opens up to Haruhi about his own inner conflicts about his future with the Suou family. He also explains to Haruhi his real name he used in France was René Tamaki Richard Grantaine. But his mother only called him by Tamaki.
Tamaki is also naive in his own way especially around his friends. On the last episode of the anime series, it is revealed that seeing his mother again is not only the main reason why he accepted Eclair's proposal of marriage, it is also because he thinks that his selfishness gives trouble to his friends, especially after seeing Kyoya being slapped by his father in front of everyone. The Host Club pulls out all the stops to bring him back, and it is left to Haruhi to chase after him, in a carriage that she is maneuvering. In chapter 60 of the manga, the members of the host club realize that Tamaki's inability to recognize his true feelings for Haruhi is also a result of his naivety, though in a far more subconscious level. Kyoya surmises that because he so desperately wants to protect the close knit "family" (the host club) which he never got the chance to have, he would never allow himself to do anything to break that relationship apart. That would, thanks in part to discovering Hikaru's feelings for her, mean that Tamaki would never be able to affirm his true feelings for Haruhi, as it would be an unforgivable act that could lead to the "family's" dissolution.
But despite his naivete and his ability to miss the most obvious things, Tamaki is able to see through difficult people like Kyoya and the Hitachiin twins, whom he managed to convince to join his club despite their disparate personalities. He correctly identifies Kyoya's insecurities, the twins' loneliness, and Hunny's discontent, and offers his club as a way for them to escape or rail against their respective troubles. Because of this, Kaoru notes that the Host Club is basically a spell that Tamaki's woven over them for their own benefit, and knows that it can't last.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Mamoru Miyano. Anime News Network. Retrieved on 2009-05-01.
- ^ Hikaru Midorikawa. Anime News Network. Retrieved on 2009-05-01.
- ^ Hatori, Bisco (2005). "Chapter 4", Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 2. Viz Media, 7. ISBN 1-59116-990-9.It is stated that the characters will not be promoted in grade. In other words, everyone is not likely to age in the series.
