Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Ouran High School Host Club – episode 10

June 12, 2006 on 11:29 pm | In Ouran High School Host Club | 3 Comments

“Daily life of the Fujioka Family”

Technically Yakitate!! Japan was the show that brought me back from my self imposed “holiday”, but Ouran High School Host Club opened the door to true fun that I haven’t felt for a while. Like, since the previous episode of Ouran High School Host Club.

Character spoiler within! I will spoil the best joke ever!

Tamaki has a nightmare about the living conditions of Haruhi, and so the Host Club launches a surprise attack on her lodgings.
Time reveals that Haruhi’s father works under the name of Ranka in an okama bar.

Okama, for some reason, was one of the first Japanese words that I learned. It’s normally translated to “gay” or some of the more derogatory variations of that term, but it refers explicitly to transvestites.
So, yes: Haruhi’s father wears a dress for a living! She and Saeba Ryo would be the best of friends! In retrospect it’s an incredibly obvious path and it explains so many things … but who could honestly expect your asexual classmate to have an okama father? I didn’t and as a result I was pretty much doubled over with laughter for the rest of the episode.

The humour thankfully does not start with the father jokes, as that’s the eyecatch cliffhanger. The series up until now has documented the experiences of a “commoner” in the insanely other world of the needlessly rich. Now we can see the needlessly rich experience the normal life. While Haruhi and her father do not boast a lot of money to their names, they are not strictly “poor”. They’ve got a fairly standard life, especially if one is to consider the high costs of living in Japan. Consequently, rich people in the normal world is much, much funnier.

Imagine, if you will, the fact that Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru are frequently not in their comfort zone when confronted with Haruhi. Now, stretch that imagination to them existing in a world of Haruhi. Their paralysis at the hands of “commoner” social mores is just too much to handle: this experience throws into sharper relief the existence of a “split” in the Host Club, with Kyouya, Honey and Mori running at their own pace and the “Action Three” trying desperately to take control of every situation that they find themselves in. They’re inept – Tamaki more so than the twins – and thus this is a game that they ultimately lose. This is one of the few times that the Action Three are a true team, united in their powerlessness.

After this, the true revelation is that Tamaki and Ranka have similar personalities: both of them want to fawn over Haruhi, yet she’s too independent to allow it. It raises an Oedipal question that I don’t quite want to think about, and makes Ranka realise that the days where he could have his daughter to himself are coming to an end. While the relationship between Tamaki and Ranka is turbulent, to say the least, I really appreciated that Tamaki ended up deferring to Ranka, calling him “father”. In this context, Ranka is the man who has the highest authority, a genuine “King” amongst the club.

Final wrap-up: Kyouya is such a cunning fellow! Honey wears stereotypical children’s clothing on his days off! Mori is a gentleman among gentlemen! Final cliche: Thrilling and exciting!

Ouran High School Host Club does not win an award for “most smiles per minute” from me, because it’s just one twenty-three minute long smile. If you knew me you’d know that, unless provoked, I am physically incapable of smiling.
Ouran High School Host Club, you play host to my heart.