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	Romantic Comedy
Manga
Written by	Bisco Hatori
Publisher	Hakusensha
Original run	August 5, 2003 – ongoing
Volumes	13 (ongoing)
Anime
Directed by	Takuya Igarashi
Animation by	{{{animator}}}
Music by	{{{composer}}}
Script by	{{{writer}}}
Studio	Bones
Network	Animax, NTV FUNimation Channel Tooniverse
Original run	{{{first_aired}}} – {{{last_aired}}}
No. of episodes	26

Ouran High School Host Club|桜蘭高校ホスト部|Ōran Kōkō Hosuto Kurabu}} is a romantic comedy manga series by Bisco Hatori, serialized in Hakusensha's "LaLa" magazine since August 5, 2003. The series revolves around Haruhi Fujioka, a scholarship student at Ouran High School, and the other members of the host club. The manga has been adapted into a series of audio dramas, an animated television series directed by Takuya Igarashi and produced by Bones, and a visual novel by Idea Factory.

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Plot

Haruhi Fujioka is a scholarship student attendign Ouran High School, a fictional school located in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Because of the cost of the school uniform, Haruhi resorts to wearing long slacks, polo shirts and vests instead. Combined with her large glasses and short hair, Haruhi is often mistaken for a boy.

While looking for a quiet place to study, Haruhi stumbles upon the Third Music Room, the working place of the Ouran Host Club. The club consitst of a group of six extremely attractive male students (Takashi Morinozuka, called "Mori"; Mitsukuni Haninozuka, called "Honey"; twins Kaoru and Hikaru Hitachiin; Tamaki Souh, and Kyouya Ootori) who spend their time charming and entertaining the school's girls for profit. During the first meeting, Haruhi accidentally knocks over and breaks a vase valued at ¥8,000,000, estimated to be US$80,000. In order to pay off the debt, Haruhi is employed as the club's "dog", constantly ordered to do tasks such as serving food or cleaning up. The club president, Tamaki Souh, soon promotes Haruhi to a "host" without knowing her true gender as a girl. Even after the truth comes out, Haruhi continues working as a host and is allowed to pay off the rest of her debt. To accomplish this, Haruhi conceals her true gender/identity from the customers and the rest of the school. }} |}

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Major Characters

Haruhi Fujioka: Haruhi is the main herione of the story and the Natural type in the Host Club. She comes from a lower-class familly, but is very intelligent, so she is a scholarshitp student at Ouran. Her mother died when she was five years old and her cross-dressing father raises her on his own. The members of the Host Club all have a sort of weakness for her and either openly or secretly adore her. Haruhi appears as if she doesn't care about the host club member's feelings; however, she actually studies each and every one of them individually and cares for them all very much. The twins begin to realize that Haruhi appears to care more about Tamaki than she seems to demonstrate, which has caused some conflict. Haruhi later realizes that she has feelings for Tamaki when Tamaki declares at the end that he has to marry his fiancee that as arranged by her grandmother.

Tamaki Suoh: Tamaki is the president of the Host Club and the Prince type. . He is extremely passionate and kind, always ready to help people, and has an interest in many things. He is the most attractive of the hosts, very intelligent (2nd in his class behind Kyoya), and a gifted piano player. He is very sincere in what he says, and takes his role to please girls very seriously, which stems from his deep love of his mother. However, the other club members recognize him as an idiot most of the time because he is very dense about his own situations (though perceptive about others), very silly and melodramatic at times, and somewhat selfish and narcissistic. He also has an odd obsession for the "commoner's lifestyle" and loves ramen and instant coffee (considered "commoner food"). He considers the Host Club to be a family and named himself father and Kyoya as the mother. His father is the superintendent of Ouran High School and his family is one of the wealthiest in Japan. His mother was forced to leave him so he would hopefully one day be recognized as the heir of the Suoh family by his grandmother, who does not like him. Tamaki is half-French and half-Japanese. He later discovers he possesses feelings for Haruhi that he is unable to decipher, still thinking them as family. Later on, he comes to realize that he is in love with Haruhi, not as a 'father' but as a man.

Kyouya Ootori: The vice president of the Host club and the Cool type. He is often nicknamed "Mother" by Tamaki and "Shadow King" by the rest of the club due to his devilish personality and obsession over money. He is behind most of the Host CLub schemes and the other club members tend go along with what Kyouya says, sometimes even favoring his leadership over Tamaki's. Despite their opposite personalities, Kyoya and Tamaki have been best friends since their last year of middle school, when Tamaki transferred to Ouran. He is a third son and has spent his whole life honoring his family name and yielding his true abilities so as to not overshadow his brothers; however, it is clear that Kyoya has more ambition, drive, and talent than both of them. Throughout the series Kyoya refers to the fact that as he is a third son he won't inheirit his father business and seems bitter about this towards his father. He also manages most of the finances with the club and has a habit of not revealing important information to the other hosts until the problem at hand is already over.

Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin: Identical twins who used to reject others and are the Little Devil types. Only recently after they joined the Host Club did they start to open up and allow other people into their world. They are the same age as Haruhi and are in her class, and so have a special bond with her; Haruhi is the first and only person who is able to tell the twins apart, something that both had secretly longed for. They enjoy playing "games" and tricks on classmates, especially Tamaki. Kaoru is nicer, more sensitive, and more mature than Hikaru. Hikaru, on the other hand, is very immature and somewhat mean, but mostly because he has trouble expressing his feelings. The twins later on discover that they too harbor feelings for Haruhi. Kaoru doesn't love Haruhi enough to want her only for himself (because he values his relationship with his brother more), so he ends up letting Hikaru be the twin who loves her romantically. After this development, the twins begin to attempt embracing their differences, even going as far as changing Hikaru's hair color so that others can tell them apart.

Mitsukuni Haninozuka: Also known as "Honey" and the Loli-Shota type. He looks like an elementary school child rather than the 17-year-old third-year student he actually is. Honey is obsessed with sweets and anything cute, much like his youthful appearance would dictate. Honey carries a plush bunny (called "Usa-chan") around with him as well as a bunny blanket. Despite his childish looks, he is deceptively strong and highly skilled in martial arts. He is usually found with Mori, his cousin by marriage. Honey comes from a family that owns a nationally-renown dojo and are known for their martial arts abilities. In one episode it was said if his full combat abilities were unleashed, he would be considered a threat to national security. Though it appears to be a facade, his cute side and serious side are both very real. After Tamaki explains to him that being himself is "true strength," he resolves never to change.

Takashi Morinozuka: Also known as "Mori" and the Wild type. He is the tall, stoic character. Mori dedicates his life to Honey by protecting him and only gets angry when Honey is injured or harmed. However, he is also very close with the other club members and many classmates look up to him because of his quiet but gentle nature. He usually only speaks when he deems it necessary, and responds to questions mostly with monosyllabic answers. He loves small animals and he owns a baby chick named Piyo and a Racoon named Pome, who seem to be fans of Mori as well. Mori's family has served Honey's family for years, until a marriage two generations ago made them cousins. Even though the servant-master bond was technically broken, Mori still serves faithfully as Honey's guardian and best friend.

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