Ouran High School Host Club

Ouran High School Host Club is a manga series that became a 26-episode anime television series. This television series aired between April 5 and September 26, 2005 on Japan's Nippon Television network. The series follows Haruhi Fujioka, a scholarship student at Ouran High School, and the other members of the Host Club. In the beginning of the series Haruhi stumbles upon the Third Music Room, a place where the Ouran Academy Host Club, a group of six male students, gathers to entertain female "clients". During their first encounter Haruhi accidently knocks over and breaks an antique vase valued at 8,000,000 yen. In order to repay her debt she is enlisted into the Host Club by the other members. Haruhi's short hair, slouching attire and gender-ambiguous body cause her to be mistaken by the hosts for a male student. The hosts eventually figure out her gender but agree to keep the secret because she would make a great host. Haruhi ultimately joins the Host Club and dresses as a male in order to pay of the cost of the vase.

Other than Haruhi, the other members of the club consist of the president Tamaki Suou, a student who treats Haruhi like she is his own daughter and extremely jealous of anyone else who approaches her; Kyoya Otori, the bespectacled calculating vice-president who serves as the brains to the club; Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, the pair of mischievous identical twins who like playing tricks on the other club members and playing up the homoerotic angle on their relationship; Mitsukuni "Honey" Haninozuka, a small cute boy who has a great passion for stuffed animals and eating cakes; and Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka a tall quiet boy who is protective of Honey. Below is a picture of who is who.

When looking at this text through the lens of queer theory this series rejects sexual binaries and embraces more fluid categories of sexual orientation. Though all of the members are heterosexual, there are relationships between the host members that hint at being comfortable with homosexuality or bisexuality. Examples from the show are Hikaru and Kaoru's homoerotic angle of their relationship, Tamaki and Kyoya being the "King and Queen" of the Host Club, and finally the deep love and loyalty between Honey and Mori. Then there is Haruhi who dresses as a male to entertain and get the attention of the girls/clients. This series ultimately attacks the stereotype of naturalness of gender and heterosexuality. 

Although not all texts are perfect and Ouran High School Host Club sometimes plays into the hetero/homosexual binary. The series falls short because all the members are male and therefore they expect to get the attention of women, which is the only type of "clients" that ever come to be entertained. However, Tamaki does resist this when he first meets Haruhi (when he thinks she is a boy) by asking what type of man she prefers and being open to letting boys be "clients". 

If anyone is interested in trying the series the Pilot is included below. I have to warn those who are not familiar with anime this cartoon might seem odd. It's my favorite anime series because it is a comedy and the situations they get in are hilarious. Especially after looking at the Japanese holographic singer, Hatsune Miku, I could not help myself from talking about Ouran High School Host Club.