EP. 242: Ouran High School Host Club

The time to start is now! And we can show you how! Because we’re reopening the doors to music room 3 to revisit the Host Club we remember so fondly!

That’s right, we’re finally discussing the classic parodic shojo romcom that we all kiss, kiss fell in love with back in the mid-2000s - Ouran High School Host Club! And we’re hosting our own club of Ouran fans to help us entertain all our lovely ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary listeners with their unique personalities and perspectives - music and animation academic Dr. Rose Bridges, author of a book on Yoko Kano’s Cowboy Bebop soundtrack and a contributor to ANN, animation and pop culture youtuber and cover artist Offbeat Kiki, and shojo anime and manga youtuber Shay Taree!

Together, we discuss what originally attracted us to the series when we first discovered it, what it means to us, and how our relationship with it has changed over the years and upon revisiting it. We explore how the host club serves as a place in which gender, class, and sexuality is commodified and performed, as well as a sanctuary that allows its characters to express themselves creatively and authentically. We talk about how we related to Haruhi as representation for gender non-conforming and non-binary people and how that changes over the series, as well as how well the series’ queer representation and queer-coding holds up to a modern lens. Of course, we also gush about all of the sweet juicy romance and relationships, including how Haruhi and Tamaki bond over their absent mothers, how the twins support each other, the challenge of navigating relationships within friend groups, and being afraid to lose a relationship with someone by changing it. Finally, we compare the manga with the anime and discuss what was lost or cut in translation, and why we think Ouran still resonates and is beloved by so many people to this day.

Tomorrow’s far away, so place your hope in today and listen to us discuss why we’ll always fall in love, again, with Ouran High School Host Club!

PODCAST BREAKDOWN:

00:00 - Intro

04:14 - Ouran Discussion

2:51:58 - Wrap-up

Enjoy the show, and follow us on Twitter at @manga_mavericks, on Bluesky at @mangamavericks.bsky.social, on tumblr at mangamavericks.tumblr.com and on Youtube! You can also follow the hosts on Twitter at @sniperking323 and @lumranmayasha. If you’d like to help support the show financially you can pledge to our Patreon and receive some awesome rewards like our Patreon-exclusive Bonus pods! Don’t forget to also like and subscribe to us on Youtube and Apple Podcasts and leave us reviews to help us curate the show and create better content!

LINKS:

• Find us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!
• Support us on Patreon!
• Ouran High School Host Club available both physically and digitally from Viz Media!
• Follow Kiki on Twitter and Youtube! 
• Watch Kiki’s Video on Ouran! 
• Follow Shay on BluSky and Youtube! 
• Watch Shay’s videos on Ouran! 
• Follow Rose on BluSky! 
• Listen to Rose’s Shojo & Tell episodes on Ouran! 
• Read Rose’s article on Ouran as a “fujoshi comedy” for ANN! 
• Follow Tyler on Twitter or BluSky for updates on Gotta Recap ‘Em All!