Is ouran highschool host club gay

Really, the only problem with the series in terms of Haruhi’s portrayal is the insistence from the club, the Lobelia Girls, and Ranka that she has to be feminine or act like a girl “because she is one.” Even then, I wouldn’t necessarily exclude all of these moments. There is still a lot of good in it, and anything can be painted as “bad” when closely inspected.

So while Ouran was an eye-opening piece of media for me as a queer person, and while it may have been trying to bring some positive representation into a space that lacked it, it should certainly not be exempt from criticism, and its failures of representation should be noted. While being gay was no longer criminalized at the time, it was still seen as a taboo within the culture.

It doesn’t mock the queer community but features one of its central themes of how no person is meant to live their lives with the label given to them.

All while using amusing behaviors and actions that piqued the interest of the audience, leaving a lasting impression and changing how we perceive the queer community.

The modern age of anime would cancel Ouran High School Host Club

Japan is a very orthodox society, where tradition is deeply rooted, allowing them to represent a patriarchal society and even “queer fetishization” via Anime Herald, where being homosexual was seen as a taboo in the early 2000s.

Thus, the show used hyperbole and overexaggerated the actions that majorly highlighted the abnormality.

The show paved the way for queer representation. This meant that most of the queer representation was over-exaggerated, presented as a fetish or as a taboo, and wasn’t presented as something accepted.

Just like all groups of people, there are terrible lesbians, but the terrible few should not be the standard of representation for all.

Now, before I get into the main cast, I’d like to mention a character/subplot that is too often forgotten. From Haruhi Fujioka’s gender apathy to her father’s “gender-bending” ways, to the Zuka Club and beyond, Ouran showed me queer people simply living and having a good time.

Since watching Ouran High School Host Club for the first time in middle school, I’ve been hooked. You could say that maybe the hosts should remain but the clients should be men and women (and people who don’t identify as either). This leads him to be around the club, and Haruhi, quite often over the course of two episodes.

To be honest, I could write for pages upon pages about the boy’s possible identities, citing very specific moments from the anime and the manga to justify my reasoning. Even though Misuzu’s outfit and life choices are, like Ranka’s, never questioned or negatively portrayed, it still seems odd to me, as if the series is saying that Misuzu could never be more than a man in a dress.

Really, there are many different routes of positive representation that the series could take with Misuzu if only an identity were explicitly given to him.

Speaking of drag, the Lobelia Girls of the Zuka Club also participate in a form of drag. On one hand, this transcends anime from being a niche to a mainstream form of entertainment, watched by some Hollywood greats.

In Episode 3, Tamaki dubs the rest of them the “homosexual supporting cast.” They dress in drag, they play up relationships with each other, Tamaki calls Kyoya “mommy,” Kyoya calls Tamaki “daddy,” and more. A seemingly-tough guy and heir to a yakuza family (or syndicate), Kasanoda comes to the host club to be Mori’s apprentice.

The show could have Haruhi push back against this, creating a growth arc for the other characters in which they learn to accept Haruhi’s identity and learn about non-binary identities in general.

I also believe that Haruhi is both pan and demi-romantic and could be a good representation for people who identify as such. Additionally, in the original Japanese, the series uses the word “okama” for Ranka, which is a slur used towards effeminate gay men.

While they do consistently act as if they are sexually and romantically attracted to each other, it's unclear whether Hikaru or Kaoru is actually attracted to or interested in the same sex.