Characters / Ouran High School Host Club

A list of characters from the Ouran High School Host Club manga and anime series.

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The Host Club

General

• Ambiguously Bi: Invoked as part of their duties; the female guests need to feel like they have a chance to be loved by the hosts, but the hosts also know that they get more attention through Homoerotic Subtext.
• The Beautiful Elite: Their presence, understandably, turns quite a few heads in-universe. This was the point of the club.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Tamaki and Honey (blond), Haruhi, Kyoya, and Takashi (brunette), and Hikaru and Kaoru (redhead).
• Chick Magnets: Their customers are the entire female population of Ouran.
• Costume Porn: Furthered by the fact that Hikaru and Kaoru's mom actually is a fashion designer.
• Fiction 500: With the exception of Haruhi, who's a Penny Among Diamonds, each club member is stinking rich.
• Host Club: The club itself is a PG-rated version of real host clubs, with its members providing refreshments, flattery and entertainment for the school's female students.
• Mr. Fanservice: The point of the club is for the most handsome boys at Ouran entertaining the school's female population.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: The Ouran high school boys' uniform is a rather stylish suit, and they wear other types of formal wear for special events.
• Something about a Rose: Tamaki is the most frequent, but the whole club frequently employs rose motifs.
• Spoiled Sweet: All the men in the club are extremely well off. That said, occasional instance aside, they're all pretty decent dudes considering.
• Trademark Favorite Food: All the rich members are fascinated by Instant Coffee, considering it a brilliant invention. It's to the point where Instant Coffee is the "Official Drink" of the Host Club.
• True Companions: All of them grow really tight over the series, exemplified by both the anime and manga's finales.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Tamaki and the twins in particular have this dynamic (more so one way than the other); the twins will pull no punches in teasing or down right making fun of Tamaki, but as mentioned above, are completely loyal and devoted to him at the end of the day.

Haruhi Fujioka

Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (JP), Aya Hisakawa (Drama CD), Caitlin Glass (EN)
Portrayed by: Haruna Kawaguchi (Live Action), Yuka Yamauchi (Musical)

The Protagonist of the series. A working class scholarship student who accidentally breaks a really expensive vase and winds up working for the Host Club to pay off the debt.

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• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • Even Haruhi can't help but burst out laughing at the Host Club dressing up as women in an effort to make her stay with them (when they felt threatened by the Zuka girls club).
  • Later in the manga, Tamaki gives her an ootoro ring in an attempt to make her happy, and he succeeds... because Haruhi finds the ring so stupid she can't help but laugh heartily.
  • In Episode 17, she can't help but giggle that Kyouya says "the same thing Tamaki-senpai would have said" (a confused remark about commoner's food) despite his earlier insistence that they're nothing alike.
• A-Cup Angst: The subject rarely comes up, but she doesn't seem too happy with her bust. She gets mad when a swimsuit is picked for her that hides a flat chest and after she realizes she likes Tamaki she laments her boyish face and figure. On the plus side, it does allow her to masquerade as a boy without deliberate measures like bindings.
• Allergic to Love: After she realizes she is in love with Tamaki, she acts literally lovesick. She gets better later.
• Ambiguously Bi: She states that she doesn't care about genders and blushes in the anime when she accidentally kisses Kanako, which would imply that she's open to a relationship with a girl. However, her being Oblivious to Love (at least until she realizes her own feelings for Tamaki) keeps this from being further explored.
• Animal Motifs: Often compared to a tanuki (a raccoon dog) for her cute face and homely nature.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: The club's customers consider her to be an attractive boy.
• Audience Surrogate: Whenever somebody is needed to act as the peanut gallery for the weirdness going on, Haruhi generally fills the role.
• Bad "Bad Acting":
  • In the anime, when helping the Zuka club with their play. There was no emoting involved whatsoever.
  • Averted when dealing with the club's customers, but it's made fairly clear that she doesn't think of it as playing any kind of role. When she's a host, she's mostly just being herself; the guys identify her immediately as the "natural type" who doesn't need any gimmicks or training.
• Bifauxnen: Initially mistaken for a guy by the entire Host Club, Haruhi continuously uses her boyish appearance to masquerade as one. The girls seem not to notice and don't really care once they do find out.
• Boyish Short Hair: One reason she was mistaken for a boy. Pre-story she had much longer hair in a stereotypically feminine style, but she cut it all off when a kid stuck some gum in it. In the post-story omake she starts letting it grow it out again.
• Brainy Brunette: Scholarship Student and more focused on studying than anyone else in the series, likely because without her academic scholarship she isn't rich enough to be employed at Ouran. She also has brown hair.
• Brutal Honesty: She doesn't mince her words.
• Cannot Spit It Out: After realizing her feelings for Tamaki, she can't vocalize them until Chapter 80.
• Character Tic: Has a tendency of doing a Palm-Fist Tap when she figures something out.
• Catchphrase: Something along the lines of "Damn these rich people."
• Character Development: She goes through a lot, from disliking the Host Club and not having an ounce of curiosity for anything outside her own little world, to slowly warming up to them and participating more and more in their activities. Eventually she ends up loving them and even stays with them after her debt is paid. Through this she grows more outgoing and determined, and also learns to appreciate Tamaki, seeing him for the immensely kind person he is until she falls for him. Even with this revelation she goes through quite a bit; she initially freaks out and tries her best to deny it, until she eventually calms down, but decides that she still "has so much to learn" before she can tell him, and hides her feelings for a while, returning more or less to her old self. She is more pressured to confront her feelings after sharing an Accidental Kiss with him and actively helping him reunite with his mother and she ultimately can't keep it in anymore and confesses to him.
• Children Do the Housework: Because of her mother's death and her father's long work hours, Haruhi does most of the work at home; cleaning and cooking for her father and otherwise trying to take care of him, even telling him not to overwork himself for her.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: More like Clueless Guy Magnet, initially (Until the latter part of her Character Development kicked in). She used to get confessions at least once a month, usually more. However, when people like Arai or Hikaru confess to her with the phrase "I want to go with you," she assumes they mean something like 'I want to go to Ouran as well' or 'want to go outside with me?'
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: This happens to her twice. The first time in the anime when Tamaki walks in on her while she was changing. Then Ritsu Kasanoda walks in on her and gets full confirmation that she's female, much to his relief.
• Curtains Match the Window: Brown hair and eyes.
• Cute Bookworm: Although we rarely see her read, it's often mentioned it's her favorite leisure time activity.
• Daddy's Girl: She doesn't think he's embarrassing and takes care of him.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Her dad's not the most fond of Tamaki, doesn't stop Tamaki from being her Love Interest. Subverted in that she's not dating Tamaki because her daddy hates him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Usually around Tamaki (oh, say, 95% of the time?) though it's about half snark and half Brutal Honesty.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Haruhi may not have been a full-blown Ice Queen, but she initially cared more about repaying her debt until she gradually befriended all the Host Club members and grew to love the Host Club.
• Even the Girls Want Her: As a girl, she got confessions regularly (at least once a month, during middle school). As a 'boy' she gets as many or more fangirls than anyone in the host club short of Tamaki. Well...except they don't know she's a girl.
• Fear of Thunder: One of the few things Haruhi is genuinely afraid of. Never played for laughs, surprisingly enough, and everyone in the Host Club (after eventually being made aware) tries to do what they can to help her out during storms.
• Friend to Bugs: Implied in Episode 8 when she finds a centipede on a crab and, instead of killing it, she simply picks it up and throws it aside. When asked if she could have been easier on it, she said, "It takes a lot more than that to kill a bug."
• Gender-Blender Name: Haruhi is a valid boy's name, and since she's working class, nobody knows about her family or history. Thus, she can use it to her advantage and pretend to be a guy, though it wasn't her original intention.
• Gender-Concealing Voice: Haruhi must work as a host to pay off a debt. Thanks to her androgynous looks and low voice, most characters can't realize she's a girl right away.
• Generation Xerox: Looks and acts a lot like her deceased mother. Like said mother, she becomes a lawyer and falls in love with and marries an idiotic Nice Guy.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: When the twins first remove Haruhi's glasses, revealing her large, sparkly eyes. The host club insists she wear contacts from then on, as her eyes are apparently a draw for female customers.
• Green-Eyed Epiphany: In the anime, Haruhi seems to realize Tamaki means more to her than she thought when she is implied to be bothered by Éclair moving in on him and the subsequent Arranged Marriage plot. In the manga, Haruhi gets confirmed jealous towards Kanoya, a transfer student crushing on Tamaki after he saves her from getting kicked by a horse. Though it's averted again as while she admits to herself to have been jealous, Haruhi had already figured out her feelings for Tamaki before, with her jealousy towards Kanoya only serving to reaffirm those feelings.
• Happy Holidays Dress: A bonus art picture has her wearing an old-fashioned red holiday dress with white frills, a bonnet, and a short white fur cape.
• Hates Rich People: She often expresses her hatred for rich people especially due to witnessing the host club members' antics.
  Haruhi: Damn these rich people...
• Hime Cut: Before she cut her hair short, it was long, had sidetails and even bangs. It was a inversion as she lacks every single trait normally associated with it.
• I Can't Dance: In the ball before she goes to America Haruhi ends up stepping on Tamaki's feet when they dance since it's her first time dancing the girl's part.
• I Choose to Stay: Remains with the Host Club after her debt is paid (in both anime and manga).
• Imagine Spot:
  • Subverted. That distant, unfocused look? It means she's mentally reviewing this week's store specials as she plans her grocery shopping list.
  • After she's realized her feelings for Tamaki, she unwillingly imagines the two of them with a toddler and completely freaks out.
• Inconvenient Attraction: Haruhi eventually finds out that she's in love with Tamaki, a revelation she completely freaks out at and tries her best at denying, spending a whole chapter basically running around in panic before going to bed sick. Upon finding out, she explicitly thinks "I don't want to be in love with him!!!"
• Informed Attractiveness: Most of the Host Club members and especially Tamaki will continuously fawn over how "cute!!!" she is, even though they're surrounded by equally, if not more, cute girls on a daily basis. The same goes for the Zuka club, and in the past, Haruhi had apparently received love confessions from guys once a month. Though it might be her boyish and "natural" look, combined with her down-to-earth nature, that makes her stand out. It's not that Haruhi isn't attractive, per se, it's just that she's no more attractive than the rest of the Cast Full of Pretty Boys.
• Innocently Insensitive: While she can be intentionally rude (and seems to take a particular perverse delight in deflating Tamaki), most of her characteristically blunt statements are said without any malice. Coupled with her emotional density and popularity you have a social disaster waiting to happen.
• Insistent Terminology: She always refers to Tamaki with the honorific of sempai, even after they've been dating for two years.
• Inter-Class Romance: With Tamaki; he's ultra rich and she's a working class girl with middle class aspirations.
• Invisible Subtle Difference: The only one (at first) who can note the subtle differences between the twins is Haruhi, though she says flat-out in the first episode that she judges people more by their inner character than surface appearance.
• The Kirk: More levelheaded than most of the club members, able to judge situations and respond accordingly. She rounds out Tamaki's passion and Kyouya's shrewdness.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Very early on, Haruhi is assumed to be male because of her very unflattering appearance.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: It's constantly lampshaded how similar Tamaki is to her father (minus the fact that her father is a bisexual professional crossdresser). They get married at the end of the final bonus chapter.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: She used to have long hair, but she cut it all off after a kid stuck some gum in it, resulting in the Boyish Short Hair she currently has. She grows her hair long again after she begins dating Tamaki.
• Love Epiphany: In Chapter 57, she realizes that she's in love with Tamaki.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Masculine Girl (Bifauxnen, stoic, etc) to Tamaki's Feminine Boy (roses, effeminate behavior, etc).
• Missing Mom: Hers has been dead for several years. A filler episode in the Anime reveals that Haruhi still misses her a lot.
• Mistaken for Gay: Before Haruhi goes to America, the Host Club arrange a ball in honor of her decision, and eventually have her show up with a wig and dress to show their customers that she's really a girl, a revelation they happily accept, admitting they knew already. However as it turns out, they thought Haruhi was a boy who was just fond of cross-dressing, and that they were supporting a "forbidden love" between "him" and Tamaki.
• Nice Girl: Snark aside at her rich friends cluelessness, she's generally friendly, and her charms and kindness make her very popular as a member of the host club.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Haruhi's indisputably the straight man of the host club and she almost always manages to keep her composure despite all of the insanity she faces on a normal day. However, she will completely lose it if any of the other host club members take her personal belongings without her permission, whether it be photos of her that she already owns or even something as small as a free mechanical pencil.
  • Haruhi becomes just as blushing, stuttering and nervous around the guy she likes as she would previously mock the Host Club customers of behaving (though she responds to the emotions in a far more horrified manner). Ultimately a zig-zagged troped as she manages to return to her old self after getting over her initial love-epiphany Freak Out, though she still becomes weak-kneed and flustered every time Tamaki flirts with her. Though for good measure, as Kyouya lets her in on, so does Tamaki if she ever flirts back.
• Obliviously Beautiful: She doesn't seem to realize how her looks gain people's attention.
• Oblivious to Love: Painfully oblivious; she isn't aware of how much Tamaki is in love with her, and in the past she completely misinterpreted her middle school friend Arai's love confession. It takes her a while to realize that she has feelings for Tamaki herself.
• Official Couple: Fell in love with Tamaki and, according to Word of God, ends up marrying him.
• Only Sane Woman: She seems like this as she is much more sensible then her clubmates, but it's more like Only Sane Commoners as the club's customers are just as silly as they are. Both live in awe of "commoner wisdom." She snarks at their antics before being dragged along.
• Opposites Attract: With Tamaki; she's a low energy snarker while he's a high energy ham.
• Out-of-Character Moment: When she goes to Karuizawa, the narration describes her Inner Monologue in a cheerful, bubbling tone with a note that it was 'freshened up' to match the atmosphere.
• Penny Among Diamonds: A commoner who manages to make it into an elite private school for the very rich.
• Precision F-Strike: Played for Laughs; she occasionally refers to herself as "ore", which isn't necessarily as bad as the F-word would be in the English language, but Tamaki treats it as such, and the word is almost always bleeped out when she uses it.
• Protectorate: When you come right down to it, don't touch Haruhi. Mess with her and the whole Host Club will be after your blood. Those boys love her, in their own weird way, and will team up to send you into next week. "Beware the Physical Exam!" is possibly the best illustration of this; when they mistakenly think she's being assaulted, they leave her would-be attacker pleading for his life.
• Scholarship Student: The only reason she can afford Ouran.
• Sexy Man, Instant Harem: She's got three of the four down and she does a pretty good job of faking the 'man' part as well.
• Sexy Santa Dress: It's in the Side-Story Bonus Art, but she still wears one◊.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Everyone in-universe agrees that she looks amazing in formal dress, it's just that cleaning up is such a drag for her because of all of the time she has to spend on housekeeping. If it were up to her, she would be going around school in her infamous wear every day.
• Shipper on Deck: In a post-ending bonus chapter, she is this for Mei and Kasanoda.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Does not show an ounce of interest in any guy or even romance in general before she falls for Tamaki.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She might find him annoying for his goofiness, but she eventually realizes she fell in love with Tamaki because of his kindness.
• Sixth Ranger: The newest member of the Host Club, long after their founding.
• Sloth: Apart from being something of a jerk occasionally, this is her main flaw. Though she's certainly not lazy at school or at home, she never wants to do anything new or even slightly troublesome. Justified in that she doesn't want anything to distract her from achieving her goals and she has to work very hard just to maintain the life she has. A chance to just do nothing for a change is her idea of the ultimate luxury.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only girl in the Host Club.
• The Snark Knight: "You rich bastards..."
• The Social Expert: Zig-zagged. She can be a little dense and insensitive at times, but her ability to see a person's true feelings and intent is one of Haruhi's defining traits, bordering on Living Lie Detector. She's the only one who can tell the twins apart based on their personalities alone, and has no problems seeing through Kyouya's cold exterior.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She looks a lot like her late mother, and even has a similar aloof, no-nonsense personality.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: While she isn't exactly cold, she is usually detached and lazy but also very caring towards her friends.
• Supporting Protagonist: She's the viewpoint character, but she's dragged along by debt into the host club activities.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Not that she cares if anyone knows she's a girl or not, but the rest of the Host Club persists in maintaining the charade in order to keep her in the club.
• Tareme Eyes: She's strong willed but she has the downward pointing eyes design, possibly because it's more a quiet sloth than a aggressive thing.
• Tomboy: Less of a 'likes traditional boy activities' than a 'does not conform to traditional girl stereotypes'.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Tomboy to Renge's Girly Girl, mostly because she acts like a boy as part of the club's ruse but also because she has no understanding of moe and doesn't like dressing up.
• Tomboyish Name: She is mistaken by most people to be male partially because "Haruhi" is an unisex name.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Haruhi is a tomboy who dresses as she pleases and doesn't care if people mistake her for a boy. She's perfectly happy wearing the Ouran boy's uniform if that's what it takes to belong to the club. She's also blunt, pragmatic, and resolutely practical, as even her everyday clothes are obviously chosen primarily for practicality. On the girly side her hobbies include cooking, cleaning and sewing, she doesn't mind dressing up in feminine clothing and wigs when the occasion calls for it, and and she has a debilitating Fear of Thunder. The anime gave her a distinctive pink dress-over-jeans weekend outfit to underline the two sides of her character.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Ootoro (fatty tuna, very expensive and fancy). It's turned into a Running Gag.
• Unwanted Harem: Tamaki, Hikaru, Kaoru (shown more so in the manga), Renge, Kasanoda, and her middle school classmate Arai all like Haruhi. She was even confessed to by her old schoolmates an average of once per month prior to transferring to Ouran. Not that Haruhi noticed any of that.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: While she's reliable and level-headed, her father is a flaming transvestite with emotional issues.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: The thing that makes Tamaki want Haruhi for the Host Club is when he takes off her glasses and sees her eyes. He gets her contact lenses at once, which make her eyes stand out even more.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Played straight with Haruhi herself, but zig-zagged with the club guests/fangirls. At first, they invoke this trope when they remark that they'd love to see how Haruhi would look dressed as a woman, and later, when they claim to have figured out Haruhi's "secret", they agree that "he" DOES look good as a woman. It's not until later that they realize that Haruhi is, in fact, female, and that the "closeted gay boy" they've been championing this whole time was not.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Haruhi acts so carefree and indifferent about everything that the Host Club spends half an episode trying to find something she's afraid of, to no avail. Tamaki then coincidentally finds out at the end when a storm roams by that she's terrified of thunder.
• Work Off the Debt: The only reason Haruhi joined the club in the first place is to pay for the Priceless Ming Vase she broke on accident.
• You Didn't Ask: Haruhi never once claims to be a boy or denies that she's a girl, she just never bothers to correct anyone's assumptions. She didn't tell the Host Club that she was a girl when they first met because it wasn't relevant to the conversation. She points out that she never said she wasn't a girl, and they'd all just assumed she was male from her hairstyle and manner of dress. Given her penchant for Brutal Honesty, Haruhi's open "secret" only goes undiscovered because no one ever bothers to ask. Given that the school administration definitely knows she's a girl, she's apparently relying on Loophole Abuse (that a girl can't wear the boy's uniform) instead of actual deception.

Tamaki Suoh (Renè Tamaki Richard de Grantaine)

Voiced by: Mamoru Miyano (JP), Hikaru Midorikawa (Drama CD), Vic Mignogna (EN)
Portrayed by: Yusuke Yamamoto (Live Action), Jun'ya Komatsu (Musical)

The founder and president of the Host Club and quite the charmer (even though he comes off as a well-meaning idiot half the time). Tamaki likes to think of himself as the "daddy" of the Host Club, and thinks of Haruhi as his "daughter", though he eventually comes to realize that his "fatherly" feelings towards Haruhi are actually romantic.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Has dirty blonde hair in the manga. In the live action drama, it's more of a pale brown (however, he does become a blonde in the movie).
• Allergic to Love: He once feels an urge to kiss Haruhi which makes him go to bed sick with a cold, wondering what's wrong with him for wanting to do that. Ironically, the same trope later goes for Haruhi; see her example.
• All-Loving Hero: This guy will help anybody, anytime. It is explicitly this which brought the host club together in the first place, and it makes the other club members highly loyal to and protective of him.
• Ambiguously Bi: In the drama, he clearly falls for Haruhi the moment he sees her cleaned up nice to play host, but at that point he still thinks she's a boy. The others don't seem to mind at all.
• Animal Motifs: A dog, for his energized, lovable and loyal personality.
• Anger Born of Worry: He scolds Haruhi for trying to take on a group of bullies by herself and nearly getting killed in the process. Once she tries to speak for herself, he refuses to talk to her until she admits she was wrong.
• Bastard Angst: Tamaki is the illegitimate son of a Japanese man and a French woman. His Evil Matriarch grandmother brought him to Japan in exchange for paying for his mother's financial troubles and forbade him from ever having contact with her again. His grandmother still treats Tamaki like crap, always reminding him that he's "filthy."
• Beware the Nice Ones: It's pretty chilling and sometimes downright scary to see him angry. He will chew out at anyone who puts Haruhi's life in danger (including the other Host Clubs members and even Haruhi herself), and in general; don't mess with any of his Host Club members or their guests. You will be sorry.
• Bishie Sparkle: He is so flamboyant a sparkly background half the time.
• But Not Too Foreign: He's half-Japanese and half-French.
• Camp Straight: He's effeminate, carries roses everywhere, volunteered to wear a pimped out dress and yet he only has eyes for Haruhi.
• Character Development: He eventually realizes his feelings for Haruhi and also learns that the Host Club bonds are so strong that they won't break apart even if he should pursue her. Later Haruhi teaches him to quit hiding his feelings (when he pretends he doesn't want to see his mother) and that it's much better for a family if he, his father, and his grandmother would just be honest with each other.
• The Charmer: He has his dad's talent at sweet-talking people.
• Chick Magnet: He's the Club's king for a reason; 70 percent of the club's customers choose him.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He's surprisingly conservative even when he tries to get with Haruhi.
• Cloudcuckoolander: The way his mind gets from idea to hypothesis to conclusion would baffle the greatest psychologist.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: When Haruhi gets kidnapped, Tamaki is the only one who realizes, based solely on the fact that she dropped a toy ring he gave her on the ground. The rest of the Host Club calls him an idiot for jumping to conclusions so quickly until Tamaki's family lawyer comes running saying that Haruhi's just been taken away in an unmarked car.
• Corner of Woe: Comes with its own mushrooms!
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Can sometimes fall into this in regards to Haruhi to the point where he even gets annoyed towards his own father just for trying to impress her. He's mostly harmless and a lovable idiot though.
  • In terms of his guests, it really bothers him when others members steal them from him, even if he won't admit it sometimes.
  Haruhi: "Oh... So, he’s upset because I took her from him?"
  Tamaki: "SHUT UP! I couldn’t care less!"
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He can shift from "simpering moronic fop" to "hot-blooded forceful leader" instantly if the situation is sufficiently serious. He's also more athletic than one would think, and he can pull off a damn good Dynamic Entry.
• Determinator: Perhaps the flakiest and flightiest character to ever earn the distinction, but Tamaki resolutely refuses to be forced to choose between any of the people he cares about. Which comes to a big shock to his father when Tamaki makes it quite clear he wants good relationships with both his mom and his Evil Matriarch grandmother, and puts him in agony when his grandmother forbids him from having any contact with Haruhi.
• Deuteragonist: Haruhi is the main character, but Tamaki shares about as much screentime and narrative focus as her (if not more) and doesn't hesitate to point this out.
• Ditzy Genius: He gets excellent grades, he's amazingly insightful when it comes to analyzing other people's feelings and motivations... and yet, still undeniably an Idiot Hero.
• Drama Queen: He zig-zags this trope as shallow or immediate issues at hand will greatly upset him, making sure everyone else sees his problems as well. When it comes to real, psychological issues regarding himself or his family however, he will keep it hidden and pretend like, or convince himself, that everything's fine.
• Dumb Blond: He acts like a ditz, and has minimal common sense compared to the other hosts, but he effortlessly gets the second best grades in the second year classes behind only Kyoya.
• Everyone Looks Sexier if French: Or in his case half-French, but he's still the Host Club's most popular member.
• First Guy Wins: He's the first Host Club member to reach out to Haruhi, while she doesn't familiarize herself with the twins until a while later.
• For Want Of A Nail: Not an in-story example, but Word of God has stated that he's the nail that prevents a lot of misery in peoples' lives. Should he not be present, and had not opened the Host Club, a lot of peoples' lives would be much worse.
• Friend to All Children: Is quickly popular with the children he meets due to his own childish, but also loving and doting personality. A panel at the very end reveals he quickly won the twins' little sister's affections (much to the twins' jealousy), and it is also implied that he and Haruhi became parents quite early on as he no doubt would love to be a (real) father.
• Generation Xerox: Played with. Ranka reluctantly admits that he sees a bit of himself in Tamaki (to the point where Tamaki says a line that Ranka said to Haruhi in their backstory, exactly the same down to the letter and gestures). That said, played straighter when Tamaki marries Haruhi (and becomes Ranka's son through marriage).
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Honest, chivalrous and not acting when he charms customers. He also has a general naivety when it comes to the world having grown up fairly sheltered.
• Heroic Bastard: He was born as the result of an affair between his dad and a French woman. His father later dissolved his first marriage and married his paramour. He has angst about this but he still takes after his father in many positive ways.
• Heroic BSoD: Has a few.
  • Most of Episode 23's plot, Tamaki's "Unwitting Depression", revolves him lamenting about Kasanoda knowing that Haruhi is a girl, and realizing that he's not Haruhi's father. Of course, it's played for laughs...to an extent.
  • In Episode 25, Éclair More Than Mind Controls him into shutting down the host club, which is aided by the notion that he and that the host club are becoming burdens to the others. His presence has diminished like a snuffed out candle.
  • Perhaps not surprisingly, he has one after realizing his feelings for Haruhi (because he's afraid what it will do to the Host Club if he pursues her). It takes some work from them to make him realize that a romantic relationship within the club won't break them apart.
  • Lastly, he has a really bad one when he learns that his father went behind his grandmother's back and had her fired, and serves in part as one of the main dilemmas before the finale.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Kyouya; they started the club together and have the closest relationship of the hosts (sans that of Hikaru and Kaoru).
• Hollywood Genetics: Inherited lilac eyes and blonde hair from his mother, when realistically he should have brown eyes and hair like his father. In the manga, however, he actually has dirty blond hair to balance this somewhat, while the anime chose to give him pure blond hair instead.
• Idiot Hero: He'll help anyone but often blunders it.
• Imagine Spot: He's had so many of these that it's been named "Tamaki's Inner Mind Theatre".
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Haruhi doesn't think he has a dark side.
• Inter-Class Romance: With Haruhi; the Suoh heir and the commoner scholarship student.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Tamaki is downright girly sometimes, and in general has the heart of an artist.
• It's All About Me: Downplayed. For all that noise Tamaki certainly makes about how awesome he is, it all drops away in an instant if anyone seems to seriously need help.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Fashionable: Tamaki constantly attempts to get Haruhi into pretty dresses.
• Keet: Super energy and cheer. He was especially hyper in middle school, much to Kyoya's annoyance.
• Ladykiller in Love: 70 percent of the school's female students swoon over him, but he only has eyes for Haruhi.
• Large Ham: All that posing and charming and loud declarations? They're not acting. That's how he really is.
• The Leader: He leads by charisma when he's not being a moron. To be specific, it's 'King'.
• Love Epiphany: He finally realizes his feelings for Haruhi in Chapter 64 (and reveals it in Chapter 68)... before this having misinterpreted his feelings in a way only he could.
• Love Martyr: Falls head over heels for Haruhi even though she 90% of the time treats him like a huge pain in her butt. Then again, he kind of asks for it.
• Manic Pixie Dream Guy: More energetic and spontaneous than Haruhi and encourages her out of her shell.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Feminine Boy (roses, effeminate behavior, etc) to Haruhi's Masculine Girl (Bifauxnen, stoic, etc).
• The McCoy: The most passionately driven member of the club, quick to let his emotions guide him and throw him into all kinds of trouble.
• Meaningful Name: In Chapter 77, he points this out to his grandmother, that his father had chosen his name which means "a circle overcoming everything" or more spesifically "ring", no doubt complimenting his personality.
• Missing Mom: Tamaki's Evil Matriarch grandmother sent her to the French countryside and forbade any kind of contact between them.
• Mistaken for Gay: His clients realize that he and Haruhi are together and are accepting of it, thinking that Haruhi is a guy and that they're having a "forbidden relationship" with each other.
• Mixed Ancestry Is Attractive: This is part of Tamaki's brand appeal in the host club as his half-Japanese, half-French heritage has given him the blonde hair and blue eyes that is seen by others as being princely and charming.
• Mood-Swinger: Part of the Cloud Cuckoolander jumps of logic and his general emotional extremes lead to quick and baffling shifts.
• Mundane Object Amazement: So, so much. For example, he's amazed by "commoner coffee".
• Nice Guy: Seriously just wants everyone to get along, the poor guy.
• Official Couple: Ends up marrying Haruhi.
• Opposites Attract: With Haruhi; she's a low energy snarker while he's a high energy ham.
• Overly Long Name: His full name while he was a kid in France (See folder label). Gets a word longer with his current surname.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: While he's undoubtedly one of the good guys, he still makes lesbophobic remarks about the Zuka Club, as well as using slurs at Haruhi's dad.
• The Pollyanna: Especially in later chapters of the manga; there is no getting his spirit down.
• Princely Young Man: The Prince Charming type with some light shades of Rebel Prince; he's a modern day (illegitimate) prince and effortlessly charms many ladies and eventually the evil matriarch grandmother that hates him.
• Proud Beauty: A rare heroic version. He knows quite well he's the most handsome man on the Ouran Academy Campus, and he revels in it, but beyond that he's also a genuinely kind and friendly person who, when it comes down to it, will like a person more for who they are than how they look.
• Purple Is Powerful: Do a CTRL+F search on this page and you'll find princely descriptions a dozen times. He's the Club King, after all, and he has royal purple eyes to add to his stature as such. The twins even nickname him "milord."
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Kyouya's blue because he is so passionate and free with his emotions.
• The Reveal: In Chapter 55 he reveals his full (French) name to be Renè Tamaki Richard de Grantaine. Though it's not treated like a big deal.
• Single-Target Sexuality: He only has eyes for Haruhi.
• Something about a Rose: Often has one, in his hand or in his screen frame as part his charming personality.
• Spoiled Sweet: For being so rich he's always sweet.
• Taking the Bullet: In a downplayed version of the trope: he saves a transfer student from getting kicked by a horse, shielding her with his body which ends with him getting kicked instead. He's not badly injured, but still has a hurting shoulder for a while afterwards.
• Tareme Eyes: Can cross with Tsurime Eyes when he's feeling particularly cocky but otherwise it's the rounded kind for his Team Mom thing.
• Team Mom: Although he claims the "Father" role, he's actually an emotional and nurturing leader figure to the Host Club.
• Tears of Joy: To no one's surprise, he cries these when he and Haruhi get married. Haruhi has to wipe them away.
• Trademark Favorite Food: He never turns down the chance to try "commoner food."
• Unknowingly in Love: Although Tamaki is typically highly perceptive of the feelings of others, he is oblivious to his feelings towards Haruhi, rationalizing his constant fawning over her as affection for a surrogate daughter. It takes multiple people questioning this logic (and other people explicitly expressing their romantic interest in Haruhi) for Tamaki to finally come to terms with his romantic feelings.
• Upper-Class Twit: He can be amazingly naive about the world. Although unlike a lot of examples of this, he's genuinely pleasant and likeable.

Kyouya Ootori

Voiced by: Masaya Matsukaze (JP), Jun'ichi Suwabe (Drama CD), J. Michael Tatum (EN), Yongwoo Shin (KOR)
Portrayed by: Shunsuke Daito (Live-Action), Masamichi Satonaka (Musical)

The vice-president of the Host Club, and one of Tamaki's closest friends. Kyouya tends to take a more responsible approach to the club's activities, and tries to make sure that Tamaki and the others don't go overboard.

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• Ambiguously Bi: The author has stated that if Kyouya were to marry a woman, it would mostly be for his family's benefit and not necessarily out of romantic interest and even J. Michael Tatum has thrown in his lot with Kyouya being bi and interested in both Tamaki and Haruhi. It helps explain the depths of his frankly bizarre friendship with Tamaki as well as the lengths he goes to in order to protect and help his friend. And while in the anime, Mori and Honey also don't express overt interest in women, Kyouya's relationship with Haruhi (particularly in the infamous Merit Scene and the last two episodes) has enough vibes to suggest a genuine attraction and affection.
• The Chessmaster: This is why he is the "Shadow King"; he controls everything behind the scenes with discrete and cunning moves.
• Chessmaster Sidekick: He's more than content to let Tamaki run the host club and serve as the group's "front man."
• The Dreaded: His manipulative and cunning nature, coupled with the fact that he's rich enough that he could potentially buy and sell you for crossing him, makes him this. Even Haruhi is scared of him sometimes. Given the cold, "evil businessman" front he likes to put up, it appears that he likes to exploit this, be it for personal gain or just for fun.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: During the crossdressing escapade, he's the only one who even remotely resembles an actual woman◊. Though that might have been because his face wasn't splattered with make up like those of the other boys.
• Enraged by Idiocy: While normally the worst he'll get in terms of anger is Tranquil Fury, if pushed far enough by something he sees as stupid, Kyoya ends up getting visibly pissed, enough to terrify Haruhi more than his normal demeanor. Case in point, the others, namely Tamaki, dragging him out of bed to a department store and forgetting about him, and then Tamaki reporting him as a "lost child" over the loudspeaker while a crowd of people stare at him in confusion. It pisses him off to the point he declares he'll kill Tamaki for this.
• Fetishized Abuser: He isn't one, but he certainly plays the image of one to the hilt as part of his host club duties. Apparently, some of his customers like to fantasize about having a mean boyfriend.
• Fiction 500: He's independently wealthy, being able to buy his family's failing company in the Anime.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Since he's the one monitoring Haruhi's debt, his glasses add to this image; "He's like some evil tax collector!" Though this lessens as time goes on.
• Guile Hero: Cunning, devious; the chancellor to Tamaki's charismatic king.
• Harem Nanny: It's up to him to herd the host club, though he did have a day in the limelight with Haruhi.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Tamaki who is his only friend instead of 'business associate'' (at first).
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Yes, he's stingy, sneaky, and puts up the air of a heartless know-it-all, but his loyalty to Tamaki and the host club is unwavering and he'd risk his own reputation to help them.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: To Tamaki. He's the one making the host club practical while Tamaki plans the outrageous ideas and themes.
• In-Series Nickname: "Shadow King".
• I Take Offense to That Last One: In the medical exam episode, Tamaki dismisses the rest of the host club as "the homosexual supporting cast" compared to his and Haruhi's Official Couple status (in his mind). Later, Kyouya tricks Tamaki into disguising himself as a male Haruhi when they didn't need to bother with any deception because Kyouya disliked being considered just supporting cast, "homosexual or otherwise".
• The Lancer: The cold tactician to Tamaki's Idiot Hero.
• Miser Advisor: Of a more proactive variety; he's the only reason the club still has money.
• Not a Morning Person: It's very hard to wake him up. In one of his day-in-the-limelight episodes, Tamaki and the rest of the Host Club descend upon Kyouya in the morning, stuff him into his clothes, and drag him all the way out to a shopping mall before he finally comes around into consciousness.
• Not So Stoic: Episode 24 of the anime; in the manga, his blow up at Tamaki's father.
• Number Two: If Tamaki is the King then he is the Prime Minister, or Evil Chancellor.
• Odd Friendship: With Kaoru, of all people, in later manga chapters. Who would predict the Shadow King and a prankster getting along so well?
• Princely Young Man: The Ice King type to further contrast with Tamaki's Prince Charming.
• The Proud Elite: He is the brain behind the Host Club. He acts as though he cares only about the bottom line and what will benefit himself, as he feels befits the third son of the Ootori family, but he has been shown to have a well-hidden altruistic streak.
• Psycho Sidekick: A relatively mild example given the idealistic tone of the series, but definitely in effect between Kyouya and Tamaki. Tamaki, All-Loving Hero, wants to help everyone and seems oblivious to any signs that anyone might have it out for him; Kyouya is entirely okay with going behind Tamaki's back to protect his interests and make it very clear that anyone who messes with him will be made to regret it. The newspaper club episode provides a particularly vivid example.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: The visual and his demeanor make him a colder beauty for customers than Tamaki's golden charm.
• The Reliable One: Keeps the Host Club running smoothly.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Tamaki's red because of his cold and calculating demeanor.
• Sarcastic Devotee: Regardless of his disdain for Tamaki's fobbery, he goes along with it.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Complete with their own scary backdrops!
• The Smart Guy: He does the club's finances.
• The Snark Knight: Not to the same extent as Haruhi (because he joins the activities she snarks at) but he has his moments.
• The Social Expert: He's good at identifying people's desires and handles. Tamaki frustrated the hell out of him until Kyouya finally realized he desired nothing more than his friendship.
• Soulless Bedroom: Played with in "And So Kyoya Met Him". Middle school Kyoya is depicted with a pristine room, his clothing so well-compartmentalized that if anyone else tries to go through his drawers they cannot put anything back. This ends up being symbolic for Kyoya's emotions — though neatly compartmentalized so he doesn't ruminate on his lowly position as the third son of the Ootori family, once Tamaki enters his life, it becomes harder and harder]] for Kyoya to keep his clothing or his emotions neatly tucked away.
• The Spock: Cold, calculating but not always.
• Stoic Spectacles: Once again, his glasses add to the contrast with Tamaki.
• Team Dad: Although Tamaki calls him the "Mommy" figure (as counterpart to his own self-identification as "Dad"), Kyouya is the stern disciplinarian leader figure opposite Tamaki's Team Mom.
• Token Evil Teammate: Kyouya is considered by everyone in the club to be more or less evil, especially compared to everyone else. Even the twins are afraid of him, but he's still mostly a good guy.
• Tsurime Eyes: Another visual contrast with Tamaki; there's nothing soft about him.
• Undying Loyalty: Despite what he may claim to the contrary, it's clear that Kyoya is loyal to Tamaki through and through.
• Unkempt Beauty: As shown in Episode 17, Kyouya still looks good even when he's literally dragged out of bed in frumpy clothes and bed hair.
• You Didn't Ask: Due to his background checks on everyone in the school, he knows almost everything about everyone, including Haruhi being a girl, Kasugazaki's arranged marriage, and the fact that Princess Michelle isn't actually rich and pampered. Why doesn't he reveal any of this information when it would be immediately relevant? Well...
• "Well Done, Son" Guy:
  • As the third son to his family's line of work, he's pressured himself to surpass his older brothers' considerable achievements in order to have any chance of impressing his father and earning the right to inherit leadership of their company. It's when Tamaki enters his life that he starts to loosen up and care for other people for something other than business benefits.
  • In the anime this ultimately leads to a moment in which he buys his dad's company (or at least the majority stock) from a competitor who was blackmailing his dad with it. Then he gives the whole thing right back to his dad like it's nothing at all.

Hikaru & Kaoru Hitachiin

Kaoru (right) and Hikaru (left). There's really only one way to tell them apart. I'll show you later...

Hikaru voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (JP), Soichiro Hoshi (Drama CD), Todd Haberkorn (EN), Um Sang-hyun (KOR)
Kaoru voiced by: Yoshinori Fujita (JP), Kenichi Suzumura (Drama CD), Greg Ayres (EN)
Hikaru portrayed by: Shinpei Takagi (Live Action), Yu Futaba (Musical)
Kaoru portrayed by: Manpei Takagi (Live Action), Kaname Futaba (Musical)

A set of cunning and mischievous twins in the same class as Haruhi. Joining the Host Club helped them open up to others, as they previously believed that they could only depend on one another.

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• Alleged Lookalikes: A version of this. While their appearances are certainly identical, both the Japanese and English dubs of the anime gave them very different voices, which for some reason nobody notices when trying to tell them apart (when they talk in unison it really is impossible to tell, but hearing them talk separately should be a dead giveaway).
• Alliterative Name: Hikaru Hitachiin.
• Ambiguously Bi: Bisco Hatori has referred to Kaoru as both a "handsome homosexual" and a "beautiful gay", but since she added in Kaoru's interest in Haruhi (much less so than Hikaru, but still there) it's a reasonable assumption to make that Kaoru would be neither gay nor straight (bi/pan/etc). However, this could be an example of If It's You, It's Okay, where Haruhi would be his exception to his homosexuality. There's also a notable scene where Hikaru asks why Renge's script portrays Kaoru as a "pitcher," or a top in gay sex, and Kaoru simply agrees that the classification is inaccurate.
• Animal Motifs: Often compared to cats for their mischievous or at times indifferent nature.
• Bros Before Hoes: Kaoru gives up on his own feelings for Haruhi, "because Hikaru is more important to me", and he also wants Hikaru to develop further as a person.
• Character Development: Both of them go through quite a bit.
• Cheshire Cat Grins: Their default expressions. Heck, in the Alice in Wonderland parody they were the ones who played the Cheshire Cat!
• Creepy Twins: Lampshaded with a Shout-Out to The Shining.
• Defrosting Ice Kings: After meeting Tamaki they gained friends beyond each other; after befriending Haruhi they experienced romantic love.
• The Determinator: Hikaru becomes this when he ends up competing with Tamaki for Haruhi's affection. Even after asking her out and getting rejected, and suspecting she has feelings for Tamaki, he refuses to give up until she actually states out loud that she does. It's not until Chapter 78 that Haruhi admits to him that she indeed loves Tamaki, that Hikaru finally and gracefully backs out. It's implied at least part of this is to force Tamaki into a Green-Eyed Epiphany, though it doesn't quite work until he gets really heavy-handed with it.
• Divergent Character Evolution: They start off acting like Single-Minded Twins, though Haruhi is still able to tell them apart in personality since Hikaru tends to be meaner. The differences in their personalities begin to become more apparent as time goes on and they get more time apart, with Hikaru being more brusque and impulsive and Kaoru being calmer and more mature. In the Japanese dub, this is even apparent with their voices from the beginning, where Kaoru has a more soft and gentle voice while Hikaru's voice is more "sharp" and crisp.
• Dye Hard: In-Universe. Episode 5. In the manga, Hikaru dyes his hair permanently dark in Chapter 53 as a result of their Divergent Character Evolution.
• Fake Defector: After Kaoru's made both of their feelings for Haruhi clear, he yells at Hikaru for still being too naive and he'll never let him have Haruhi if he'd really be okay with sharing her. The following days he then proceeds to flirt with Haruhi in front of Hikaru, telling Haruhi not to bother with him, asking her on a date and so forth. It then turns out he was intentionally trying to make Hikaru hate him so that Hikaru would "break free" from him, feeling he was in the way for his happiness for the way they were so codependent on each other. Luckily however, Hikaru sees through this and eventually convinces Kaoru he's wrong, and they will still always be together even if they start embracing their differences more, and for the sake of being distinguished, simply dying their hair will be enough.
• Fiery Redhead: Hikaru is, but Kaoru is better at keeping his feelings in control. Defied later on when Hikaru dyes his hair a darker shade.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Invoked to play up their twinness; customers love it.
• The Gadfly: Pointing out harsh spots is a joy.
• The Glomp: The twins have their own version of it, which consists of sandwiching Haruhi in a four-armed hug which Haruhi simply puts up with, despute the High-Pressure Emotion it gives her.
• Green-Eyed Epiphany:
  • Hikaru had been developing feelings for Haruhi for quite some time but kept mum about them. However, when an old school mate who was in love with Haruhi, Arai shows up and spends some time with her, Hikaru immediately becomes very possessive of Haruhi, making his feelings much more conspicuous.
  • In the manga, Haruhi at some point talks very fondly of Tamaki to the point Hikaru becomes jealous and walks away, followed by Kaoru. Still being oblivious to why he feels like that however, Kaoru tells him that it's because he's in love with Haruhi.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Hikaru parts his bangs to his left while Kaoru parts his bangs to his right. Even then, they can still be difficult to tell apart and can very easily pull a Twin Switch by covering their hair with hats or parting their bangs in the opposite direction. In the manga, Hikaru eventually dyes his hair, making it much easier to tell him apart from Kaoru as well as to signify the twins' Divergent Character Evolution.
• It Amused Me: They often explain their actions with "we were bored". Their actions were much harsher before joining the Host Club. In the main story they're merely mischievous.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Deconstructed: their bond was so close they couldn't form relationships with anyone else. Then they joined the host club. The "Heterosexual" part is in question, too.
• Hopeless Suitor: Sadly, Hikaru is this for Haruhi. Him realizing his feelings for her comes not long before she realizes her feelings for Tamaki.
• I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: These kids really like their "Commoner" coffee.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Invoked. Haruhi is the only one who isn't phased by their antics and who they can't seem to fool by a Twin Switch. This is what piqued their interest in the first place and the more Haruhi can tell them apart and shrugs off their pranks, the more they want her to themselves. Being in the same class only increases the effect in the matter.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Both twins towards Haruhi — though in Kaoru's case, it was more towards Hikaru.
• Ineffectual Loners: Up until they joined the Host Club they scorned the company of others.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: They can be downright harsh at times, particularly in the flashbacks, stemming from their past self-isolation and condescending outlook on other people who couldn't tell them apart (which is why Haruhi interests them so much). However, they've had plenty of Pet the Dog moments to counter this, especially Hikaru.
• Nom de Mom: "Hitachiin" is their mother Yuzuha's maiden name; she didn't bother to change it after she married their father, since her name carries much higher prestige than her husband's does.
• Oblivious to Love: Hikaru didn’t realize he was in love with Haruhi until Kaoru called him out on it.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Hikaru starts a lot of trouble and is impulsive if separated from Kaoru, while Kaoru is the colder brother and is usually more calm and collected if separated from Hikaru.
• Romantic Runner-Up: Both of them towards Haruhi.
• Seme: Hikaru plays the role of the "dominant" in their host club acts, though it's probably a joke for the customers. This trope as well as uke are even mentioned by name when they complain about Renge's movie switching their usual roles.
• Shared Family Quirks: Their love of playing with people's minds (as well as a taste in fashion and make-up) comes from their mother and maternal grandmother. Their little sister in the bonus chapters is exactly the same as them when they were her age.
• Shipper on Deck: After he realises his feelings weren't as strong, Kaoru becomes this for Hikaru and Haruhi.
• Sibling Triangle: Hikaru and Kaoru both develop feelings for Haruhi. Kaoru gives up on Haruhi because he cares about Hikaru more than his feelings for Haruhi and steps down, instead rooting for Hikaru to win Haruhi. However, after realizing Haruhi's and Tamaki's growing feelings for each other, Hikaru eventually decides to step down as well.
• Significant Birth Date: They were born on June 9 (6/9), showing that they're alike, but different. It's even more significant when you realize people born on that day are Gemini.
• Single-Minded Twins: They're introduced like this, as they seem to share the same mischievous personality, are rarely seen apart, frequently Speak in Unison, and generally view the world as divided between "them" and "everyone else" while only trusting each other. However, Haruhi says that she can tell them apart because Hikaru is "one level meaner". Eventually this is subverted as they develop differing personalities as the series goes on, and by the end of the series most of the Host Club (or at the very least both Tamaki and Haruhi) can pretty reliably tell them apart even with their hair dyed back the same color.
• Slasher Smiles: When not Cheshire Cat Grins, their smiles usually turn into a borderline example of this.
• Sleeps in the Nude: Hikaru is implied to do this, but oddly enough, Kaoru does not.
• A Threesome Is Hot: Exploited. This is what they use to elicit desire in their female guests. The Twin Threesome Fantasy makes it even better.
• Trickster Twins: Fond of pranks and Twin Switch. Their 'which one is Hikaru game' was a harsh way to force people to realize that they treated the twins as interchangable, and they once staged a fairly brutal fight just to get Haruhi to let them come to her house.
• Tsundere: Hikaru is a male example towards Haruhi. He's a rather brusque and proud but when he's alone with Haruhi, he's usually much more considerate, even tender sometimes.
• Tsurime Eyes: Clues in on their devious, witty, and (mostly in Hikaru's case) prideful nature.
• Twincest: The boys play up their "brotherly affection" for their clients. It's ambiguous as to how much of it is an act.
• Twin Switch: Haruhi is the only person who can tell who is who, even when they are extra cunning. It was later revealed that their mother had long since developed the ability to differentiate them, but pretended to be clueless for the fun of it. In the later parts of the series, Tamaki also reveals he's been able to tell them apart "for a while," even without their Identical Twin ID Tag.
• What Is This Feeling?: Hikaru starts getting upset and jealous regarding Haruhi without knowing why as the story goes on. It's not until Kaoru points out the obvious that he realizes he loves her.

Mitsukuni "Hani (Honey)" Haninozuka

Voiced by: Ayaka Saitou (JP), Ikue Otani (Drama CD), Luci Christian (EN)
Portrayed by: Yudai Chiba (Live Action), Eito Konishi (Musical)

Honey is the youngest-looking member of the Host Club, yet actually the oldest one. He's a cousin to Mori, and his family owns a prestigious martial arts dojo.

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• Artistic License – Biology: His body ages slowly due to being born on Leap Day, something that doesn't affect aging in real life.
• Badass Adorable: He's a black belt, not to mention he took down a squad of armed soldiers once, and he's so gosh darn cute, even when he's slinging a staff.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't, under ANY circumstances, wake him up too early.
  • Never get between him and his sweets and never damage his stuffed rabbit Usa-Chan.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's tiny and huggable, but he can wipe out elite bodyguards.
• Be Yourself: What Tamaki taught him during Hani's time of self-denial before joining the Host Club.
• Big Brother Instinct: He loves his little brother dearly, but the feeling isn't mutual. He cares deeply about and will fight to protect his fellow Host Club members.
• Big Brother Mentor: In the manga, he gives Chika some pointers about how to improve his fighting skills, even though their relationship is a little wacky. In later chapters, he occasionally plays this role for Kaoru.
• Big Eater: He eats three whole multi-tiered cakes every night for dessert. Chika confirms that this isn't an exaggeration.
• Bunnies for Cuteness: Hani has a rabbit motiff to help establish him as the cute character of the Host Club. He carries around a pink stuffed bunny with him almost all the time. He can also make bunny shuriken, has a martial arts move called a "bunny kick", and in the manga a bunny-patterned background is sometimes used for panels featuring him.
• Cheerful Child: He has the form of a child and his very cheerful, though he is actually 17.
• Child-Like Voice: Honey is 17 years old and has seniority over most of the host club, yet has the voice, appearance, and personality of a small child. This is handwaved by him having a Leap Day birthday, and appeals to many of the host club's clients.
• Creepy Child: How his brother thought of him; it was like Nekozawa.
• Cute Bruiser: He looks like a teddy bear and looks can be so, so deceiving.
• Cuteness Proximity: Invoked Trope. Due to his overall childish nature, characters near Honey, particularly girls, experience Cuteness Overload and can't help but gush over his adorableness.
• Cutesy Dwarf: Likely the cause of his appeal. In an extra one-shot, Kyouya is shown giving him vitamins in order to stunt his growth, as they already had a "Dumb blond character" (Tamaki) and didn't need another one. Once he stopped getting the vitamins he grew 32 centimeters in two months. It's a dream Haruhi had, but still. Was also the cause of his self-restriction prior to the series; people worried that, at 4'11", he wouldn't be taken seriously as the head of the martial arts focused Haninozuka family, so he overcompensated by trying to be incredibly manly and serious.
• Deliberately Cute Child: He plays his child-like appearance to the hilt.
• The Dreaded: Not so much him as his fighting abilities, though. Most of the time, people find him adorable, but once he gets angry or his friends are in danger...
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Tamaki's Evil Matriarch grandmother, Shizue Suoh, is apparently so blatantly unpleasant and cold that Honey Haninozuka, an ultra-friendly Keet and ball of cheer, immediately marks his hatred of her the moment she's introduced.
• Expy: He's frequently compared to Fruits Basket's Momiji Sohma, the "rabbit" of the zodiac (they also have the same seiyuu).
• First-Name Basis: He's the only one outside of family that ever calls Mori by his first name, Takashi. In the same vein, Mori is the only one who refers to him as Mitsukuni.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to Chika's responsible.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: As proven by Renge, he has no 'angst side'. He really is that cute and sweet; inside and out. When told to bully Haruhi for a movie, he can't keep up the act and breaks down crying and apologizing.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Mori; they're always together and on First Name Basis.
• I Know Karate: He will kick your ass if you mess with his friends or his bunny.
• In-Series Nickname: Honey, from the "Hani" in Haninozuka.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Despite being a boy, he's defined by his love of sweets and cute things like his stuffed rabbit. Before he met Tamaki, he was pressured by his father to act more masculine, but then he joined the club after Tamaki convinced him that it was better to be true to himself. His father said he'd only allow him to go back to his cutesy ways if he beat him in a duel. Honey sent him to the hospital, covered in casts and bandages.
• I Want to Be a Real Man: You can tell how that worked out for him; 'ore' and acting tough was too much of a contrast with his cutesy look. Tamaki convinced him of this.
• Keet: Like Tamaki he is full of cheer.
• Lost Food Grievance: The duel with his younger brother was over cake.
• Manchild: Keeps up with his cutesy personality even into university. It took a duel for Mori to convince him to restrain his childish behavior.
• The Nicknamer: Gives almost all the club members nicknames that are shortened versions of their first names attached with the affectionate "-chan." He has a tendency to do this even to people he's just met, leading to a very bad first impression with the much less friendly Haruhi. The only exception is Mori, whom he simply calls by his first name, Takashi.
• Not a Morning Person: "I'M. STILL. SLEEPY!"
• Older Than He Looks: Despite having the appearance of a young boy (due to his Leap Day birthday), he's really the second oldest Host Club member.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Tamaki's grandmother is introduced, Haruhi is shocked to hear Honey of all people say he "hates" that woman. It's soon revealed why.
• Opposites Attract: Perky little Hani-senpai is later Happily Married to Perky Goth Reiko in the manga.
• Person of Mass Destruction:
  • The bunny shaped mushroom cloud of explosion!
  • His father forbade him from ever fighting at full strength. If he did, other countries might think that Japan was making a WMD.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Shortest and strongest.
• Punny Name: His family name is Haninozuka; the "Hani" part of his name is pronounced a lot like the English word "honey", hence why he's nicknamed Honey.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Mori's blue because of his high energy cuteness, and cake.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With his younger brother Chika, who is much more serious and lacks a Sweet Tooth (though he has his weaknesses as well).
• Significant Birth Date: He was born on February 29; the joke being that he ages one year every four years.
• Spoiled Sweet: Also like Tamaki he is extremely rich and extremely friendly.
• Sweet Tooth: Both his first and last name make reference to this. In one episode he gets a toothache from eating too much cake, when he's banned from having any sweets, he gets crabby.
• Tareme Eyes: For the cuteness!
• Token Mini-Moe: He is the youngest looking of all the Host Club members, and looks and acts like a cute elementary school student. In fact, he is the oldest of the group.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Cake. He values it above his relationship with his brother.
• Tragic Keepsake: Usa-Chan was made by his late grandmother, which is why he's so protective of it.
• Tranquil Fury: He goes into this when he finds out someone spilled tea on Usa-Chan.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He seems to be claustrophobic.

Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka

Voiced by: Daisuki Kirii (JP), Kenjiro Tsuda (Drama CD), Travis Willingham (EN)
Portrayed by: Masaya Nakamura (Live Action), Sho Kato (Musical)

Mori is tall and intimidating, but very soft-spoken. As his family is sworn to protect the Haninozuka family, Mori shares a very special kinship with Honey and his friends.

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• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Looks after Honey, who ironically is his older cousin.
  • To Haruhi, from the very first time they meet - in the first episode of the anime, she calls out to him for help and he runs to her aid without a second thought.
  • This could easily go with Mori's real little brother.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Honey again. While normally very supportive, he's the one to tell Honey when he can't do something, and is the only one who can really stop him. In the manga, he occasionally acts as one to Hikaru as well.
• The Big Guy: Biggest, strongest, etc. in the Host Club.
• The Comically Serious: More stoic than Kyouya and still funny.
• First-Name Basis: Mori calls Honey by his first name, and vice versa (they're the only ones who do this).
• Friend to All Living Things: In the manga he has a habit of befriending animals, including a tanuki, a chick, and two guard dog dobermans.
• Gentle Giant: Tamaki explains that this is his biggest charm: he looks intimidating, but cute, adoring Platonic Life Partner Honey is a visual cue that he's friendly, patient, and gentle. It's also explained that Mori's fans among the host club's patrons tend to be shy, quiet girls who find his quiet, steady stoicism reassuring.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Honey; they're on a first name basis.
• Hunk: Compared to the other Host Club members, he's incredibly tall and muscular, making him the most distinctly masculine of the group. To the point that when the hosts dress in drag to combat the Lobelia girls, Mori is just wearing a guy's band uniform. He's simply too hunky to pull off drag so they didn't bother. This is also his main appeal to Misuzu; she has him doing things like chopping firewood in the middle of summer just to see him do it.
• Legacy of Service: Mori comes from a family with a long line of serving the Haninozuka clan. The master-servant bond was dispelled when the families were joined by marriage, but Mori still watches over and protects Honey like a big brother would.
• Manly Man: He's really tall, really strong, great at martial arts and has a deep booming voice (in the rare events that he talks). To drive the point home, he was the only member of the Host Club who didn't crossdress during the whole Zuka Club fiasco.
• Master Swordsman: Though never seen, he is a kendo champion, and on occasion swings a sword around.
• Not So Above It All: Despite his hardened exterior, when Kasanoda lists all of his unattractive traits (as an example why Mori gets liked despite those traits), he gets offended but doesn't know how to vocalize it and turns to Tamaki for help.
• The Quiet One: Mori does occasionally speak, but it's usually in short sentences. When he is very tired he becomes flirtatious and chatty. Weird.
• The Unfavorite: The least popular member of the Host Club, pulling in the smallest amount of fawning girls. He doesn't even realize it until it's pointed out.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue for Honey because he is so quiet and reserved, especially in comparison to Honey.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With his younger, more outspoken brother Satoshi.
• The Stoic: As high as Hani's energy is, his is the opposite. When he's really tired, his personality does a complete 180.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Cold and silent but caring.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: His attraction for customers.
• Tsurime Eyes: Again, they're sharp to contrast Honey.
• Undying Loyalty: To Honey, though in a more brotherly manner. It's even reflected in his image song (which is entitled "Always By Your Side", for those not well versed in Japanese).
• Unkempt Beauty: He's called the "Wild Type" for a reason, you know.

Suoh Family

Yuzuru Suoh

Voiced by: Kazuhiko Inoue (JP), John Swasey (EN)
Portrayed by: Takeshi Masu

Tamaki's father, the Chairman of the School Board over Ouran Academy as well as the head in charge for the Suoh company. He had Tamaki through an affair with a French woman while on a business trip, a woman he later tried to marry. However, his mother refused, and had them separated.

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• Beware the Nice Ones: He's caring, polite and charming and has an incredibly touching love for his son. At the same time he can also be a very serious, even cold business man. At one point he fires his mother behind her back after months, possibly even years, of careful planning towards that opportunity.
• Bumbling Dad: He becomes a silly and soft guy when in a good mood, which is usually whenever he's around Tamaki.
• The Chessmaster: Turns out his and Kyouya's father's companies had worked together on finding a cure for Anne-Sophie's illness without anyone knowing, to which he meanwhile had pretended to abide by his mother's rules and not making any effort for Tamaki to see his mother even though he seemingly should have had the power to. Once a cure is apparently successfully made, he gathers his companies' directors and has Shizue fired, while attempting to tell Tamaki the "good news". Tamaki is everything but pleased.
• Didn't Think This Through: Has Shizue fired behind her back and thinks Tamaki will be happy about it, because he can now bring Anne-Sophie to Japan and the three of them can live together as a family. Yuzuru didn't consider that Tamaki's an All-Loving Hero who wants his grandmother to be part of the family, and is promptly chewed out by Tamaki followed by him even refusing to speak to him.
• Doting Parent: For being a business man of high social standards, he has no issues openly fawning over Tamaki through hugs, hair ruffling and affectionate words. What's funny is this makes Tamaki about as embarrassed or annoyed as he usually makes Haruhi.
• Honest Corporate Executive: He can be cold and cunning but he's ultimately on the level. Like the Host Club, the Suoh Company has a benevolent king.
• Like Father, Like Son: Tamaki's flirtatious habits as well as the Corner of Woe apparently all came from him.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He goes through this when wondering if Tamaki hates him for what he did against his grandmother, and acknowledges that he went too far, when he ponders to initially only have wanted to prove himself for her, who had always controlled and been at the top of everything. After Tamaki's reunited with his mother, the two are also shown reconciling, deciding to have a talk "not as president and subordinate, but as mother and son".
• Not So Stoic: His apparent aloof personality drops in a instant when he suddenly flirts with Haruhi out of nowhere, sporting a goofy grin and asking her to call him "uncle". In the manga, his introduction is through scolding Tamaki, until it turns out he was joking, and pokes at Tamaki's embarrassed face while commenting how "cute and stupid" his son is.
  Haruhi: He's Tamaki-senpai's father alright...
• Starcrossed Lovers: With Anne-Sophie because of a wealth gap and the fact that he was engaged at the time. It's averted at the end.
• The Stoic: He's essentially introduced as this in both anime and manga, and even Haruhi thinks how he doesn't remind her of Tamaki at all. Then he reveals that he was joking.

Anne-Sophie de Grantaine

Portrayed by: Naomi Zaizen

Tamaki's mother, whom he lived with in France until he was 14. After letting Tamaki go to Japan and being forbidden from ever seeing her son again, she was rumored to have gone into hiding.

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• Absurdly Youthful Mother: She's got a 17 year old son, yet only looks like she's in her 30s.
• Anime Accent Absence: Speaks fluent Japanese despite being French, though unlike Tamaki, she does add some French words or sentences into her vocabulary.
• Delicate and Sickly: Her fragile, ill body as well as her family's financial issues is what kept her from coming to Japan, and it's what Suoh Shizue took advantage of in order to blackmail her into exchanging her son for money.
• The Faceless: In the anime, as well as for a while in the manga. Pictures and flashbacks of her are shown, but her face is always covered. It's not until Kyouya finds her that the readers finally gets to see what she looks like.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Just like Tamaki, she seems to bear no ill thoughts or feelings whatsoever, not even against Shizue.
• Missing Mom: Quite literally throughout a good portion of the manga: until she is introduced it's simply stated that no one knows where she is.
• The Mistress: She and Yuzuru fell in love when he was married to someone else. It's why Tamaki's position in the Souh family is precarious.
• The Pollyanna: When Kyouya finds her, he's shocked to see how good spirits she's in, as well as not looking particularly ill (apparently it's a come-and-go illness). Although, it turns out it's genuine happiness as she still loves Yuzuru and knows Tamaki is leading a happy life (as Kyouya discovers, she receives photographs of him from even recent events).
• Shared Family Quirks: Tamakis' blonde hair and beauty as well as love for Japanese culture (especially kotatsu!) and fast recoveries from distressed emotions apparently all came from her.
• Starcrossed Lovers: With Yuzuru because of class differences and his evil mother. Averted at the end.
• Tears of Joy: Naturally cries these when she's reunited with Tamaki.
• Uncatty Resemblance: Apparently Tamaki's dog is a sibling of Anne-Sophie's own Golden Retriever, "Hachibee", who also seems to compliment her personality.

Shizue Suoh

Voiced by: Hisako Kyoda (JP), Judy Keith (EN)
Portrayed by: Kyoko Enami

Tamaki's Evil Matriarch grandmother who offered to pay for his mother's financial issues in return for letting him come to Japan and being forbidden from ever seeing her again. Despite this trade, she doesn't accept Tamaki as an heir and refers to him as "filthy" for being the child of a mistress.

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• Adaptational Villainy: Justified due to the anime overtaking the manga, but Shizue never gets her Heel–Face Turn in the anime and worse still, is also a Karma Houdini.
• Arranged Marriage:
  • In the anime, she arranges for Tamaki to be engaged to Éclair Tonnerre.
  • In both anime and manga, she arranged a marriage for Yuzuru, a marriage he left when he fell in love with a French woman while on a business trip.
• Beneath the Mask: Turns out she was never really evil, but wanted to 'keep up appearances' in order to maintain her business that her late husband left behind from people who wanted to take it, which ultimately led to her cold demeanor.
• Big Bad: In both anime and manga, she is the primary antagonist and posses the greatest threat to the Host Club. In the anime, she's the one behind Éclair's attempts to marry Tamaki and take him way to France. In the manga, she makes a demand that leads to Tamaki leaving the Host Club. She eventually defrosts.
• Break Up Demand: Upon letting Tamaki move in to the main mansion where she lives and having him study to work at her company (while she still hasn't accepted him as an heir), she demands that he cut his ties with Haruhi, pointing out what an offensive notion it is to have a student, particularly a transferred one, deceive the entire school by pretending to be a boy, and that Tamaki’s club being the reason for it puts the Suoh name in a bad light. As a result, Tamaki also quits the Host Club to further follow her ideology, however, it later turns out that while he indeed thought he had been irresponsible towards Haruhi, he also wants to find a way to show his grandmother that having relationships with people of different social statuses (his friends and servants as well as Haruhi) isn't a weakness.
• Epiphany Therapy: Tamaki gives her one as he reveals to her how his father is the one who had taught him about all the things she herself loved, when she had thought he'd never cared for them. It's what coaxes her to realize Yuzuru still loves and cares for her.
• Evil Matriarch: Starts out as this with the Break Up Demand and controlling and nastiness. She reconciles with her family at the end.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Courtesy of Tamaki playing the piano outside her room for many days, including one that has special meaning to her.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Her reaction to her son taking over her company and firing her behind her back leads to her secluding herself inside her room for days, with Tamaki the only one feeling sorry for her.
• Karma Houdini: In the anime only. In the manga she is outgambitted, fired, and made to reconcile with her family.
• Shared Family Quirks: Getting his mother and father's traits out of the way, turns out Tamaki's love for Japanese movies and dramas as well as miscellaneous soundtracks from those works came from his grandmother. It's through this (Tamaki playing the piano everyday while she's secluded herself) that she eventually comes out from her room, when he coincidentally plays a piece from a movie she and her late husband used to watch often.
• Villainous BSoD: Played with. It's initially this when she goes into depression after Tamaki's father had her fired, until Tamaki manages to reveal her hidden kindness.

Supporting Cast

Renge Houshakuji

Voiced by: Kozue Yoshizumi (JP), Monica Rial (EN)
Portrayed by: Tao Tsuchiya

An occasional visitor and self-proclaimed "adviser" to the Host Club. She used to live in France for a time before coming to Ouran at her father's behest. She has a one-sided infatuation with Kyouya, due to his resemblance to a character in one of her favorite dating sims.

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• Adaptational Dye-Job: She has black hair in the live action drama. In the original, it's a light brown.
• Affectionate Parody: Of the fandom; a Nice Girl who likes dating games/harem anime and yaoi pairings. The difference is the cranked up energy and the High-Powered-Motor.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Her film with the Host Club twists all of them (sans Haruhi) into Bastard Boyfriends...even Honey!
• Ascended Extra: In the manga, she has a full chapter dedicated to introducing her, but she ultimately becomes a minor character as her presence gradually fades and she only makes a few appearances every so often. She gets more scenes in the anime, though in the manga most of those scenes were originally Tamaki's.
• Audience Surrogate: For the fangirls, who either love her or hate her for it.
• Beware the Nice Ones: From the minute she met the Host Club, she's shown that she can be rude, bossy, and at her worst, violent when she doesn't like or approve of something, or if she's been offended. To emphasize this, she's sometimes even shown with Medusa-style hair.
• Big Damn Heroes: In the climax of the manga, she comes in to help save the club and provide transport for Tamaki to reach his mother at the airport.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Anime-only. Despite how odd she can be, she's a good manager. See Genre Savvy below.
• Combat Commentator: Plays this role in Episode 18.
• Cosplay Otaku Girl: She loves joining the host club in cosplay.
• Drop-In Character: In the Anime. Actually more of a "rise out of the floor on a pedestal" character.
• Dynamic Entry: When you see the high powered motor, brace for Incoming Ham.
• Fangirl: Ascended Fangirl. She played dating sims and now she's the manager of the host club.
• Genre Savvy: She starts out as Wrong Genre Savvy, but becomes this after joining up as the Host Club's "manager". Being a fangirl herself, she knows what fangirls want and, when Tamaki and Kyoya run out of ideas, she usually comes up with some for them. However, this largely applies to the anime, since in the manga many of her scenes were originally Tamaki's.
• Incoming Ham: If you see a close-up of the insides of a mechanical podium, particularly one with the tag "High-powered Motor", brace for hamminess!
• Large Ham: She rivals Tamaki in large presence and dramatic flair and defeated him in Ham-to-Ham Combat. This is especially the case in the anime, where almost every one of her appearances is heralded by a Noblewoman's Laugh and her rising out of the floor on a motor-powered podium.
• Loving a Shadow: Crushed on Kyouya — who is, amusingly, nicknamed "the Shadow King" — because he looked like her favorite Dating Sim guy. She eventually learns the hard way that Kyouya isn't anything like the dating sim character she's obsessed with.
• Meta Girl: Naturally points out story telling conventions in her quest for moe.
• Moe: An in-universe expert on the subject. She instructs the host club in how to be more so to please their customers, while also explaining the concept as pertaining to certain situations.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: In the anime, her appearances are announced by a loud laugh of "Ooooooh! Ho-ho-ho-ho!", fitting with her status as the daughter of a rich family and her eccentric nature.
• Otaku: Renge simply loves dating sims and cosplay. The members of the Host Club immediately identify her as one once they realize just how obsessed with dating sims she is.
• Spoiled Sweet: She's rich enough to travel to Japan and enroll in Ouran just to meet Kyouya, yet she's a Nice Girl, at least when her temper isn't triggered.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl to Haruhi Fujioka's Tomboy, mostly because she wears the girl's uniform and isn't pretending to be a boy but also because of her lectures on moe.
• Yaoi Fangirl: She approves of the common misconception of Honey and Mori's relationship and adores Kasanoda's crush on Haruhi.

Umehito Nekozawa

Voiced by: Yuji Ueda (JP), Patrick Seitz (EN)
Portrayed by: Ryo Ryusei

Nekozawa (almost always referred to by his family name) is the president of the Black Magic Club, identifiable by his black cloak and Beelzenef hand puppet. Despite his creepy demeanor, he's actually a nice (and very good-looking) guy under the hood.

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• Adaptational Dye-Job: He has blonde hair (or green with the hood on) in the manga and anime. In the live action series, it's a very dark shade of brown (same goes for his little sister Kirimi).
• Beautiful All Along: Under the black cloak, the greasy wig, the creepy smile and the deep voice, Nekozawa is MORE BISHONEN THAN TAMAKI. It's to the point that when he initially shows up looking for Kirimi without his cloak and wig, none of the hosts recognize him until his servants swiftly put them on him, and the realization as to who he is leaves them all shocked.
• Big Brother Instinct: Wants to serve this role for little sister Kirimi but she's scared of him because of the cloak and such. When Kirimi encounters a cat and starts crying though, Nekozawa boldly rushes outside and goes to save her, even jumping out of a window. However, because he's exposed to the sun and isn't wearing any black, he collapses. Fortunately for him, this leads Kirimi to accept him as her big brother and they interact a lot more.
• Black Cloak: He wears one because he's extremely sensitive to light. The manga gives him matching Speech Bubbles.
• Companion Cube: Beelzenef, his cat puppet.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Appears to be this because of his outfit and dark arts club persona. In actuality, he's blond, covers his hair with a wig and is an adoring older brother.
• Meaningful Name: Neko, meaning "cat" — his family reveres them.
• Mixed Ancestry Is Attractive: Due to his Russian heritage, Nekozawa has natural blonde hair and blue eyes, which is considered in-universe to make him look princely and attractive. However, due to his photophobia, he masks those features with a black wig and brown contacts; that in conjunction with his penchant towards the occult makes him come off as creepy and off-putting most of the time.
• Perky Goth: After patching up his relationship with his sister he becomes less sour and more happy.
• Practically Different Generations: He’s a high school senior, and his sister is in preschool.
• Running Gag: Whenever he appears, a large gothic style door will appear out of nowhere that he peeks his head through, leading someone to lampshade the sudden appearance of the door.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: He's the president of the dark arts club, wears black, hates going out in the light, and has a cat-like puppet while Kirimi hates everything related to darkness, wears bright clothing, and bursts into tears if she's within close proximity of a cat. Subverted after he jumps out a window without any of his dark clothing or wig to protect Kirimi when her ailurophobia is triggered though, Kirimi begins to grow closer to him and starts joining him in his hobbies, even occasionally donning a cloak herself while carrying a cat plush.
• Weakened by the Light: Nekozawa is very photosensitive. Direct sunlight will cause him to pass out. To compensate for this, he often dresses in an all black cloak and wears a dark wig while sticking to the shadows. Just shining a flashlight on him is enough to send him into a panic out of fear it's gonna hurt.
• When He Smiles: He usually wears a creepy Slasher Smile when he's around other people, but once he's on good terms with his little sister, he starts showing a genuine smile and it is adorable.

Ryoji "Ranka" Fujioka

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (JP), Mike McFarland (EN)
Portrayed by: Shigeyuki Totsugi

Haruhi's father, who seems to share the same relaxed views on gender as she does. He works in an okama bar, which is why he more often than not cross-dresses.

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• Absurdly Youthful Father: When Haruhi was a kid, he didn't look a day over 20. Even now he looks much younger than one would expect from someone with a teenage daughter. Since Ranka got married to Kotoko when he was 19 and was barely out of his twenties when Haruhi was a kid he's still somewhat young and he's also an expert user of beauty supplies and cosmetics.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: Averted. He seems this way due to his flamboyance, but Haruhi isn't embarrassed by him.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Even Kousaka admits that he looks prettier than her in make-up.
• But Not Too Bi: While he's never actually seen romancing another man, he did say that the only reason he let the Host Club follow him while he tailed Haruhi at the super market was because he "wants to be seen around a bunch of cute boys" and told Tamaki that he won't win him over just because he's handsome.
• A Day in the Limelight: A bonus chapter tells the story of how he and Haruhi's mother met and fell in love.
• Doting Parent: A close relationship with Haruhi.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: He proposed to Haruhi's mother on a whim after only knowing her for about two months.
• Happily Married: He was so in love with Haruhi's mother that he can't be attracted to other women.
• In-Series Nickname: His name is Ryouji, but he goes by his working name "Ranka".
• Inter-Class Romance: Haruhi's mother was a lawyer, he's a bartender who either started out in the working class or fell into it due to his proclivities.
• It's Okay If It's You: Inversion of the usual trope. He renounced his attraction to women because he could never love another woman like he did Kotoko, so basically "It's Not Okay If It's Not Her".
• Keet: So full of cheer and energy in spite of his beloved wife's death and long hours at work. It's another trait he shares in common with Tamaki.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Fashionable: Also like Tamaki, he tries to get Haruhi to wear cute clothes, and one time replaced the pajamas she packed with a pink nightgown (the twins approved).
• Likes Older Women: His wife was six years older than him.
• Mr. Fanservice and Ms. Fanservice: Manages to be both at the same time because he is a professional crossdresser.
• No Bisexuals: Runs into this problem in-universe. Ryouji would rattle off so often about guys he liked to Kotoko that she couldn't understand why he kept inviting her to have meals with him. Ryouji was a bit disgruntled to learn that the idea he was bi and actively trying to pursue a relationship with her hadn't crossed her mind.
• Over-Enthusiastic Parents: Namely, when it comes to Haruhi dressing like a girl. When the Host Club went on a vacation, he switched out her pajamas for something feminine.
• Parents as People: Loves Haruhi dearly, but overworks himself a lot for her sake, and Haruhi sometimes has to tell him to take some time off.
• Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: He walks into his apartment to find Tamaki (who slipped and fell) on top of Haruhi. Just imagine what he was thinking at that moment.
• Serious Business: Crossdressing. To him, men who dress as women without committing to a transvestite lifestyle are insulting.
• Unkempt Beauty: When visited early in the morning, Ryouji has his hair in a loose tail and has stubble because he hadn't shaved yet. He looks rather handsome in a masculine way when not done up professionally as a Drag Queen.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: While his daughter is reliable and level-headed, he is a flaming transvestite with emotional issues.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: He crossdresses for his job.

Kotoko Fujioka

Voiced by: Mika Doi (JP), Jennifer Seman (EN)
Portrayed by: Ami Suzuki

Haruhi's late mother. She was a lawyer, and it's from her Haruhi inherited most of her personality.

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• Always Someone Better: She was this to Yuko Kosaka, a lawyer student who envied her skills and also the fact that she married Ryouji, whom Yuko had a crush on.
• Characterization Marches On: Early flashbacks shows her as a mature, level headed woman who nearly always smiled and openly showed affection. In the extra, it turns out she (at least was) a bit of a Tsundere, and it took some work from Ryouji to make her smile at him.
• A Day in the Limelight: An extra with her and Ryouji; see his example.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: Towards the end of the extra she narrates how she surprised her coworkers with marrying a man she'd only known for two months, next to him being six years younger than her. Despite all that they still ended up Happily Married.
• High-Powered Career Woman: She's portrayed as a Plucky Girl version of the trope in Haruhi's few memories of her, flashing Haruhi a cheesy grin in a Power Suit as she confidently tells Haruhi she's going to win her next court case. Haruhi is quite open about her admiration of her mom's career ambitions and her own self-confidence and career goals are modeled after her mom's.
• Interclass Romance: She was a lawyer while Ryouji was a bartender.
• It Runs in the Family: Everything from being serious and analytical to falling in love with idiots seems to have passed down to Haruhi from her.
• Love at First Sight: Narrates that she had this with Ryouji, though she would never let him know that.
• Missing Mom: It's merely mentioned that she died from an illness.
• Posthumous Character: She died while Haruhi was just a child.
• Surprise Pregnancy: It's implied that her pregnancy with Haruhi wasn't planned, as she and Ryouji had a shotgun marriage upon finding out.

Ritsu Kasanoda

Voiced by: Wataru Hatano (JP), Christopher Sabat (EN)

Kasanoda is the successor to one of the most powerful yakuza groups in Japan. He is one of the first members outside of the Host Club to learn of Haruhi's secret. She calls him "Casanova", while the twins jokingly refer to him as "Bossa Nova".

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• Accidental Misnaming: A Running Gag; was it Casanova or Bossanova or... etc.
• Accidental Pervert: He walks in on Haruhi while she's changing her shirt. The host club, especially the twins and Tamaki, don't respond well to this.
• Adapted Out: He doesn't appear in the live-action drama.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He wanted to be liked, not feared. By the end, he befriends his underlings, has become liked in school, and popular with girls. Everyone thinks he's gay now, but whatever.
• Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: In the manga, he's implied to end up with Haruhi's friend Mei.
• Death Glare: He was originally known for his fearsome stare.
• Delinquents: Renowned for it in Ouran and certainly looks the part.
  • Baby Kasanoda looked a lot like Gaara.
• Face of a Thug: Born with a scary-looking face and it's why his family thought he was destined for greartness in the yakuza.
• Fiery Redhead: His temper is one of the things he wants help with.
• Gentle Giant: Despite his appearance and occasional bursts of anger, he's a Nice Guy.
• Hopeless Suitor: For Haruhi; when he confessed to her, she thought he wanted to be friends.
• Just Friends: Per Haruhi's view they are great friends, though she may not know the exact connotations of it.
• Mistaken for Gay: Because he likes Haruhi who everyone outside the club thinks is a boy.
• Secret-Keeper: He vows to keep Haruhi's true gender a secret.
• Self-Serving Memory: His version of finding out Haruhi's gender is... a tad different than reality.
• Sweet on Polly Oliver: Showed some interest before finding out Haruhi's true gender.
• When He Smiles: His Face of a Thug makes him scary and threatening. His two genuinely happy smiles in the anime soften his presence considerably.
• Yakuza: Heir to a big one who trained him to develop his Face of a Thug to intimidate others.

Éclair Tonnerre

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (JP), Colleen Clinkenbeard (EN)

An anime-only character. She's a young girl from France who is in love with Tamaki and ropes him into an Arranged Marriage with an offer he really can't refuse...

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• Arranged Marriage: With Tamaki. Unusually for the trope, she is all for it and even had a hand in it.
• Canon Foreigner: Created only for the anime.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Implied at the end where she lets Tamaki go.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Eventually for Tamaki; she lets him stay with the Host Club.
• Iconic Item: She carries her opera glasses everywhere she goes... even in the shower.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Tamaki's Missing Mom, Anne-Sophie, who in the anime is her housekeeper and caretaker.
• Love Before First Sight: She fell for Tamaki from hearing his mother talk about him.
• Meaningful Name: "Éclair" and "Tonnerre" are French for "Lightning" and "Thunder" respectively — the things Haruhi is most afraid of.
• Ojou: In the same social status league as the host club; type II.
• The Plan: Persuade Tamaki to leave the Host Club and come with her to France as her husband. It doesn't exactly qualify as Evil Plan because she's more naive and Innocently Insensitive rather than evil. Good luck telling that to the fangirls.
• Rich Bitch: At first. She is a rich girl who waltzes in and demands Tamaki. Then she shows a different side.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Éclair coerces Tamaki into marrying her, causes the dissolution of the host club, and conspires with Kyouya's Jerkass father. It's all a plan to get Tamaki back with his Missing Mom, with whom she's friends.

Mei Yasumura

A manga-only character, Mei is the daughter of Ranka's co-worker and friend Misuzu, and is one of the first non Host Club members to realize Haruhi's feelings for Tamaki. She admires the twins' mother and enjoys designing fashions. She is Haruhi's only female friend.

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• Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Is implied to end up with Kasanoda.
• Gyaru Girl: She looks to be the ganguro type - with her tanned skin and lots of makeup. She gives Haruhi a Gal magazine to help her realize that she loves Tamaki.
• Love at First Sight: Falls for Tamaki upon seeing him and asks a somewhat reluctant Haruhi for her assistance.
• Parental Abandonment: Her father's crossdressing is the reason for her parents divorce and her estrangement from him. They might be starting to get better by the end.
• Shipper on Deck: Becomes this for Haruhi and Tamaki once she realizes the former's feelings for the latter.

Benio Amakusa

Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (JP), Stephanie Young (EN)

Benio (or "Benibara", as she's known to her peers) is a student from the all-female St. Lobelia academy. She believes that all females are meant to be pure, and dislikes the flirtatious nature of the men of the Ouran host club.

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• Bifauxnen: She looks very androgynous even when wearing her school's Sailor Fuku, is very popular with many of St. Lobelia's students, and plays male roles in the Zuka Club's productions. Since the Zuka Club is clearly inspired by the Takarazuka Revue with Benio being a typical otokoyaku actress, it's not surprising.
• Distaff Counterpart: Except her Straw Feminist tendencies, she's basically Tamaki with brown hair and occasionally in a sailor fuku.
• Even the Girls Want Her: More than half of St. Lobelia is deeply in love with her and formed a fan club.
• Large Ham: Another similarly she shares with Tamaki is her fondness for dramatics.
• Nice Girl: At the end of Chapter 31, she reveals that she merely wanted to borrow Haruhi for the sole purpose of helping out with walking Zuka Club newbies through playing boys onstage, and makes up for the trouble she might've caused the Host Club in the process by inviting EVERYONE in the Host Club (Haruhi included) to the latest Zuka Club production.
• The Rival: To Tamaki, too. It's usually over Haruhi's attention.
• School Idol: She's the most popular student at St. Lobelia, with a huge number of the students being infatuated with her.
• Straw Feminist: Played more for laughs than drama; they dress up like Nazis, with the characters for "woman" in place of the swastika.

Yasuchika "Chika" Haninozuka

Voiced by: Kei Watanabe (JP), Aaron Dismuke (EN)

Chika is Honey's younger brother. Like Honey, he is an expert martial artist, and is also the captain of the judo and karate clubs. He takes his work very seriously, and is disappointed that Honey doesn't.

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• Aloof Big Brother: Inverted. Chika has very little interest in his older brother and barely interacts with him. Honey, on the other hand, is very doting on him and wants to spend more time with him.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: He is far more serious and aggressive than Honey.
• Big Brother Worship: While it may not be evident based on his treatment of Honey, Chika does admire his brother's martial art skills and is ecstatic to receive praise from him.
• Big Little Brother: He's taller than Honey who is a third-year student at Ouran. Possibly an Actor Allusion in the English dub, considering his voice actor's previous work as Alphonse Elric.
• Cuteness Proximity: Later chapters reveal that he is suppressing a weakness for cute, fluffy animals that may even exceed his brother's fondness for cake.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The responsible to Honey's foolish because of how seriously he takes martial arts and club duties.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: One more contrast with his bare eyed brother is the scary glasses.
• Shared Family Quirks: Like his older brother, he loves cute animals and is very emotional. However, he chooses to suppress this side of himself.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Aside from the darker hair color and the glasses, the similarities with his brother are uncanny.

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