Ouran High School Host Club

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About

Ouran High School Host Club (Japanese: 桜蘭高校ホスト部) is a shoujo comedy manga created by Bisco Hatori, and later adapted into an anime series by studio BONES. The series has grown a notable online following since the show's creation, most notably around the anime adaptation, spawning a number of fan works and parodies.

Premise

Ouran High School Host Club follows the story of Haruhi Fujioka, a scholarship student at the private school of Ouran Academy. While looking for a place to study in private, she stumbles across the 3rd music room, home to the Ouran Host Club, a group of 6 boys who look to help entertain their female clients. Mistaking Haruhi for a boy, they force her to join the club in order to help her pay off her debt for breaking one of their expensive vases. However, when they eventually find out Haruhi is a girl, they are forced to hide her gender while performing their services.

History

Ouran started out as a manga series created by Bisco Hatori in 2002, and circulated in Hakusensha's LaLa magazine between September 2002 and November 2010, spanning a total of 18 volumes. An anime adaptation, produced by studio BONES, also aired between April 4 and September 26, 2006, running for a total of 26 episodes. The anime series has also been licensed and dubbed by FUNimation in the west. A Japanese live-action drama based on the series also ran from July 22 to September 30, 2011, running for a total of 11 episodes. A movie based on the drama was also released on March 17, 2012.

Online Relevance

In North America, Ouran High School Host Club is licensed by Funimation, and is available for streaming on their website. The show has gained a large online following on many sites, including on Tumblr^[1], 4chan's /a/ (Anime and Manga) board^[2], Fanpop^[3], My Anime List^[4], and DeviantART^[5]. There are numerous sites that provide episodic information about the series, such as the Ouran High School Host Club wiki^[6], TV Tropes^[7] and Anime News Network^[8]. In addition, the Ouran High School Host Club Facebook page also has over 34,000 likes^[9].

Fandom

The Ouran High School Host Club series has spawned a significant online fanbase since it’s creation, which has created much fanart and fanfiction. On the Japanese fanart site Pixiv, there are over 900 images tagged under “桜蘭高校ホスト部"^[10], as well as over 700 videos on the video sharing website Nico Nico Douga^[11]. On DeviantART, there are also over 61,000 images tagged related to the series^[12], as well as over 6000 stories on Fanfiction.net^[13].

Sakura Kiss/Ouran Highschool Host Club Opening Parodies

Ouran High School Host Club Opening Parodies refers to a series of Opening Parodies revolving around the opening to the anime adaptation of the series, "Sakura Kiss". The parodies grew in popularity on sites such as Nico Nico Douga and YouTube, spawning many derivatives.

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