This is an early upload of our full discussion of Ouran with the fully completed episode to be uploaded to the main feed within the next two weeks.
The time to start is now! And we can show you how! Because we’re reopening the doors to music room 3 to revisit the Host Club we remember so fondly!
That’s right, we’re finally discussing the classic parodic shojo romcom that we all kiss, kiss fell in love with back in the mid-2000s - Ouran High School Host Club! And we’re hosting our own club of Ouran fans to help us entertain all our lovely ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary listeners with their unique personalities and perspectives - music and animation academic Dr. Rose Bridges, author of a book on Yoko Kano’s Cowboy Bebop soundtrack and a contributor to ANN, animation and pop culture youtuber and cover artist Offbeat Kiki, and shojo anime and manga youtuber Shay Taree!
Together, we discuss what originally attracted us to the series when we first discovered it, what it means to us, and how our relationship with it has changed over the years and upon revisiting it. We explore how the host club serves as a place in which gender, class, and sexuality is commodified and performed, as well as a sanctuary that allows its characters to express themselves creatively and authentically. We talk about how we related to Haruhi as representation for gender non-conforming and non-binary people and how that changes over the series, as well as how well the series’ queer representation and queer-coding holds up to a modern lens. Of course, we also gush about all of the sweet juicy romance and relationships, including how Haruhi and Tamaki bond over their absent mothers, how the twins support each other, the challenge of navigating relationships within friend groups, and being afraid to lose a relationship with someone by changing it. Finally, we compare the manga with the anime and discuss what was lost or cut in translation, and why we think Ouran still resonates and is beloved by so many people to this day.
Tomorrow’s far away, so place your hope in today and listen to us discuss why we’ll always fall in love, again, with Ouran High School Host Club!
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