Ouran High School Host Club ran from 2002-2010, published serially in LaLa magazine, a low profile shojo monthly. Despite humble origins, Ouran has since become a touchstone manga for generations of readers. #ouran 1/7

The series has since sold roughly 13 million tankobon, transitioning it from a niche/cult manga into something that went mainstream. This commercial success is likewise reflected in a number of different media adaptations for the franchise. 2/7

We do, however, know that she was born in 1975 in Saitama and that her series Millenium Snow garnered early acclaim, but also that she left it to do Ouran, which has largely defined her career, despite a couple other projects. 5/7

Ouran has been singled out by comics scholars for the innate queerness of its tone and atmosphere, for its light-hearted and subversive approach to sexuality and gender performance, and for the unique groundedness of its chief protagonist, Haruhi Fujioka. 6/7

In the unit ahead, we’ll attempt to unpack this complex narrative and the array of symbols it trades upon in the interest of building an enduring and much-loved franchise that somehow transitioned from a weird cult project to international renown. 7/7

Ouran High School Host Club is known for its complex approach to gender performance. One way to explore this is through the concept of fujoshi, a subgenre of manga that articulates the disruptive potential of a “rotten girl” within otaku culture. #ouran 1/9

Haruhi’s last name (Fujioka) may be a reference to the concept of Fujoshi, a complex term. At its core, it refers to female fans of manga novels that feature romantic relationships between male characters – this includes yaoi. The term literally translates to “rotten girl.” 2/9

Interestingly, the word fujoshi is a play on the Japanese word for “respectable woman,” but by simply altering one symbol, she becomes rotten instead. It was originally a derogatory term but has since been embraced by the fandom as a point of pride. Who wants to be respectable? 3/9

The layers of irony don’t end there. Ouran is widely considered to be the first fujoshi comedy, a genre that today includes popular titles such as “Kiss Him, Not me” and “I Fell For a Fujoshi.” In this sense, Ouran is both a fujoshi and a subversion of fujoshi. 4/9

The series openly explores the erotic (and subsequent economic) opportunity created through same sex attraction. This manifests very directly in the highly successful social-sexual performance of the twins, Kaoru and Hikaru who leverage this (along with the incest-taboo) within the club. 5/9

At the same time, however, the Tamaki/Haruhi relationship, in all of its permutations, explores the innate eroticism between two male-presenting characters (perhaps especially when Tamaki is still ignorant of Haruhi’s assigned gender. 6/9

As mentioned, however, Ouran is regarded as a fujoshi comedy and the question then becomes one of sincerity vs irony. Simply put, are we meant to laugh at the fujoshi elements, or are we meant to laugh, more or less, with them? 7/9

While the performance of the twins is presented as a manipulation of fujoshi desire, the Tamaki/Haruhi relationship is a little harder to approach with regard to how it’s coded. There’s comedy there, but also genuine romantic tension. 8/9

Happily, one of the enduring strengths of Ouran is its ambivalence. Simply put, we don’t have to find concrete answers – this is a series that is far more interested in disrupting than articulating and Haruhi, as a rotten girl in a boys’ club, is a capable agent for such chaos. 9/9

Complicating Ouran High School Host Club’s portrayal of gender systems is an equally compelling portrayal of class difference that positions Haruhi as an intersectional figure whose experience of gender and sexuality is impacted by her lower-class upbringing. #ouran 1/8

Noted by scholars Tania Darlington and Sara Cooper, “All of Haruhi’s suitors, both male and female, are nonetheless clearly fascinated by Haruhi’s otherness… her ‘commoner’ heritage reveals a world of exotic attractions like fast food, instant coffee, and apartment living…” 2/8

“…Furthermore, since Haruhi’s need to cross-dress for the Host Club is a direct result of her socioeconomic status, the host’s fantasies of ‘rescuing’ her from ‘poverty’ are often intertwined with their desire to restore her femininity.” 3/8

Haruhi’s lower economic station posits her as a romantic fantasy of class mobility, a trope in world literature traceable to a wide array of different folklores and mythology and still manifest today. There’s also a very Japan-specific element in play, though: 4/8

In his article on “Poverty and Work in Contemporary Manga,” Matthew Penney writes that “Through the 2000s, under the banner of “deregulation,” poorly paid, nonrenewable, short-term contract work was established as the norm for youth employment.” 5/8

Penney suggests, that, in consequence of this, “Youth culture, particularly the manga medium, offers an alternative to the conservative imagining of poverty as nonexistent in Japan or as something that can be exclusively blamed on the young.” 6/8

Thus, Haruhi’s complex navigation of an unjust, exploitative, class system that doesn’t just indenture her but also genders her according to the needs of a market economy offers a timely and socially-grounded critique of youth, economics, gender, and sexuality, in the 2000s. 7/8

Haruhi presents as the voice of reason, of rationality, and perhaps most importantly, of heart to a community of calloused and clueless elite who, through exposure to Haruhi, move beyond their limited worldview into a richer realm of emotional fulfillment and satisfaction. 8/8

In “The Fascination of Manga: Cross-dressing and Gender Performativity in Japanese Media Performativity in Japanese Media” Sheena Marie Woods uses the concept of camp to define the irony that both complicates and empowers “Ouran High School Host Club.” #ouran 1/7

“Ouran is a camp style show. According to Susan Sontag in “Notes on Camp”, camp is the love of the exaggerated. Therefore, the idea of cross-dressing often tends to be exaggerated. As Ouran is rendered in a camp style, the characters are highly over exaggerated.” 2/7

“…it is sometimes seen as fetishizing and commodifying the ideas of cross-dressing and gender fluidity. While Ouran may seem “condescending,” it can actually be considered an understated disruption of the patriarchal and heteronormative traditions in Japan.” 3/7

“However, the characters, and their respective stereotypes, portrayed in Ouran are exaggerated… Thereby the natural characteristics, which the Host Club uses to please their customers, are exaggerated through the stereotypes of what their customers’ desire.” 4/7

“The customers… are teenage girls who would read shōjo manga, from where the stereotypes presented in Ouran originate. Where the actors in theatre are creating stylized versions of gender, the characters are employing stylized characteristics to satirize the stereotypes.” 5/7

Through this quality of camp Woods locates Ouran within a broader tradition of gender-fluidity in manga, one that she traces back to Tezuka’s “Princess Knight” and, beyond that, to the Takarazuka Review theatre troupe that inspired Tezuka. 6/7

Ouran is ultimately a highly progressive narrative that endorses and supports the concept of gender-fluidity. The comedic tone, visual style, and various other elements can complicate that reading, but the quality of camp makes it clear for Woods, where Ouran lands. 7/7