At long last, it’s time for this week’s FAnime Friday! Aren’t you happy? I know I am! And look, for once I got this edition out early in the day too. It must be because it’s Friday the 13th! Actually it’s because I wrote ahead and set the post to pre-publish for me so that 1. I would have it done onf time, and 2. I wouldn’t forget about it until late in the day. See, I’m a responsible blogger. You may stop rolling your eyes now.

This week I thought we ought to touch upon another favorite series of mine, and subsequently, two of my favorite characters from said series.

Ouran Koukou Host Club

Ouran Koukou Host Club is anime series and manga by Bisco Hatori. The manga was first serialized in LaLa in 2003 and is still ongoing. Currently there have been ten volumes released (?) in Japan. In the U.S. Viz holds the license for the manga and is currently distributing it. Ouran was adapted into a twenty-six episode anime series under the direction of Takuya Igarashi and produced by Bones. The television series aired from April 5, 2006 to September 26, 2006 in Japan there has been no official word yet on who has picked up the anime’s copyright to produce it in the US. Ouran is a shoujo series and is one of the most well known “reverse harem” series as well. Amsuingly, Ouran even pokes fun of this in a later episode of the anime where a child sees Haruhi and the rest of the club members and shouts out “reverse harem!”

Ouran revolves around a group of friends and the club that they are in – the Host Club. The majority of the series is set at the prestigious Ouran Private Academy which is an ultra-exclusive school in Japan that mostly caters to the rich. And we’re not talking your “ooh look I can so afford to spend a $1,000 at Neiman Marcus this month” either, we’re talking the “my family’s smallest yacht features a theater room with home theater seating” kind of rich.

Truth be told, when images of the school and the host club member’s “houses” were being shown I fully expected to hear that pompous voice from lifestyles of the rich and famous begin detailing the features. They’re that rich, so when the Host Club members refer to Haruhi as a “commoner” you can understand why they see such a chasm of class difference, even if it sounds horribly pompous.

Now, Ouran is a highly prestigious school and has an excellent pre-law program, which Haruhi who dreams of becoming a lawyer finds particularly appealing. The school’s fees though make it impossibly for anyone but the children of nobility, yakuzza bosses, billionaires, and tycoons to send their children too. There is however one scholarship awarded each year to a highly intelligent [read bookworm] student which is how our heroine manages to attend this school.

It all begins one day when Fujioka Haruhi, the poor student attending the prestigious Ouran Academy on a scholarship, goes wandering the campus in search of a quite place to study. She is appalled to see so many rich students cavorting around, loudly, in libraries and lounges without a care in the world and attributes this to the fact that they’re so filthy rich that they don’t bother to actually learn anything. During her wanderings she stumbles upon the Third Music room which, at first glance, appears not to be in use.

So imagine Haruhi’s surprise when she steps through the door and is greeted by six good looking guys who welcome her to the Host Club, then to top it off, they mistake Haruhi for a guy and of course the club’s eccentric leader, Sou Tamaki, applauds Haruhi for his bravery in being so open and for being poor.

As Tamaki goes on and on in excited tones over her bravery and poor status Haruhi tries to escape and in the process of avoiding Tamaki’s exuberant display knocks over an expensive vase on a stand that the club was going to be auctioning off. The vase is valued at ¥8,000,000 (which the English manga converts to $80,000) which is a staggering amount that Haruhi cannot pay off. In order to pay off her debt it is decided that Haruhi will become the club’s “dog” and run errands to pay off the debt. Welcome to the Host Club Haruhi! Of course, that doesn’t last for very long.

Ironically, despite the fact that both the twins, Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, are in her class they are unaware that Haruhi is actually a girl. The only one who in fact picks up upon it initially is Ootori Kyoya the club’s vice president and “cool type”.

The misunderstanding is understandable given Haruhi’s current hairstyle, large eyeglasses, and lack of a school uniform (girls wearing dresses and boys in slacks and all) since the uniform is horribly costly. To top it off, Haruti also has a voice that is in the middle range, meaning it can be considered a low female voice or a slightly high male voice. Haruhi also speaks with male inflections in her words which adds to the confusion. For example, instead of saying “watashi” or “atashi” when referring to herself she commonly says “boku” which is the masculine expression. As the series progresses we see that Haruhi has no problem with gender bending, due in part to her father being a cross dresser and working at an okama bar.

Soon after she begins working as the errand-dog for the club the members one by one begin to all realize that Haruhi is really a girl, Tamaki of course is clueless to their dawning realizations so when he sees some of Haruhi’s natural charm he immediately decides that the new way for her to pay off her debt is by becoming a host as well. They clean Haruhi up a bit, provide her with a boy’s uniform, and dub her the “natural type”. It’s not long after that Tamaki is clued in to what everyone else already knew, but in the interest of paying off her debt Haruhi continues to masquerade as a guy. When not around only the club members. This annoys Tamaki but in the end the club goes to great [and hysterical] lengths to protect her secret.

Now the appeal of this club is that there is a type of guy for every girl. They can come in and reserve a guy who appeals to them and he will then entertain her and or a group of girls and essentially make them feel good about themselves. There is nothing overtly sexual about this really. Here are the club member’s and their types:

• Suou Tamaki – Club president and founder, type: “Prince” is referred to as “milord” and “king” by the twins since on their first meeting with him they thought he was the king of idiots. Tamaki is half-Japanese and half-French which causes him some difficulty at times. (I will not give spoilers! I promise!)
• Ootori Kyouya – Clubs vice-president type: “Cool”, even though Tamaki is the president it is revealed that Kyouya is very good at manipulating situations and subsequently Tamaki to suit his needs. The first indication of this is his confession to having left out a magazine highlight tropical vacations where Tamaki would see it when he wanted to do a particular theme for the host club on one event. Because of this he is given the nickname of “Shadow King” due to his attempts [keyword being attempts] to appear uncaring of Tamaki and the other members he is sometimes called “Devil” as well as “Mother” by Tamaki who likes to think of himself as Haruhi’s club “father”.
• Morinozuka Takashi – Referred to as “Mori” type: “Wild” Mori is the tallest and most quiet member of the club and rarely smiles, which is a drastic contrast to his constant companion who is the shortest and most hyper. Mori cares deeply for his friend Hunny and is very protective of him, he even goes so far as to blame himself for Hunny’s cavity since he forgot to remind Hunny to brush his teeth before a nap!
• Haninozuka Mitsukuni – like Mori he is a senior at Ouran. He is the club’s “Loli-shota” type. He is mostly called by his nickname of “Hunny” and always carries a stuffed pink rabbit named “Usa-chan”. Hunny loves sweets, and all things cute. But don’t let this dimunative cutie fool you, he is a master martial artist whose family specializes in security.

And last, but certainly not least, are the Hitachiin twins, Hikaru and Kaoru! Now these two are definately my favorite characters, aside from Haruhi, in the entire series. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the other Club members but these two are just golden.

Hikaru and Kaoru are the club’s “Devil” types, their patrons enjoy their “brotherly love” act and are treated to sweet and tender moments of brotherly affection between the two that usually border on, but are not quite, incestuous. Unlike Tamaki, these two freely admit that they don’t think much of their patrons and just give them what they want to see.

Hikaru is the oldest of the two by one minute. The twins actually carry their mother’s last name, Hitachiin, and are from a noble family line. Their mother is a fashion designer and both twins have pretty much inherited her abilities and her interests. This is shown whenever the two take it upon themselves to doll Haruhi up and make her look more like a girl. For the longest time these two viewed the world as “us” and “everyone else”. Because no one could tell them apart let alone truly bother to see them as individuals rather than interchangeable characters they developed a rather callous look towards others and generally only socialized with each other. Tamaki started to change this by inviting them to join his club and Haruhi throws their world for a loop when she can easily discern them apart and mocks those who can not see the glaring differences between the two.

Oh boy, this entry turned out much longer than anticipated I’m afraid so I’ll have to cut it off here this week. Have no fear, you can definately expect to see future Ouran related articles featured here, especially a more in-depth look at Hikaru, Kaoru, and Haruhi and their relationship.

Media Treat:
These files will be up and available for you to download for a limited time only. Please do not direct link to them!
Sakura Kiss (Opening Theme Song)
Shissou (Closing Theme Song)

Last 5 issues of FAnime Friday:

• Issue #5, July 6, 2007: Original Soundtracks
• Issue #4, June 29, 2007: It’s Angelic Layer!!
• Issue #3, June 15, 2007: Toushirou Hitsugaya
• Issue #2, June 8, 2007: Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
• Issue #1, June 1, 2007: Introducing FAnime Fridays!

Read the rest of the FAnime Friday issues on the FAnime Friday page! ^_^