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Tags: application
Published : 3 months ago (Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:20:38 PDT)
Searched: application
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[character history / background]:
A lot of stories that start out with a child losing a parent continue down a path that is both dramatic and somewhat angst-ridden. Neither of these hold true for Fujioka Haruhi, who lost her mother not long after being born and was raised by her father, who, claiming he could never devote himself to another woman, became a transvestite. To Haruhi, this was, as far as we can tell in all her stories and references, no big deal. It’s likely that even before her unusual upbringing, she had a predisposition to possessing a low awareness of gender differences and significances.
The way she was raised certainly did nothing to discourage that sort of low-key apathy. In school she was studious first, second, and last, and while we’re not given the impression that she was ever terribly stressed or vexed, that’s likely because she never thought about anything else. If a person makes only one thing the center of their world, after all, it’s easy to be oblivious and therefore immune to the typical tribulations of middle school such as confessions—of which Haruhi received at least once every month, and of which, we can sort of assume, she rejected them all, if not always on purpose.
Her entry into Ouran High seems to have passed uneventfully. At the beginning of the series we see her trolling around for a quiet place to study, understandable as she’s the only one at the school on merit of scholarship rather than affluence. Things spiral out of whatever vague normality we had imagined for her as soon as she opens the door to the music room in which the Host Club meets.
Like so:
1. See Haruhi
2. See Haruhi get mistaken for a boy
3. See Haruhi, the ‘boy’ get accosted by Tamaki, ‘King’ of the Host Club, as “men are valuable patrons too”
4. See Haruhi, the ‘boy’ try to avoid getting accosted by Tamaki ‘King’ of the Host Club and run into a stand with an expensive vase on it.
5. See Haruhi, the ‘boy’ get roped into being the Host Club’s ‘dog’ until she can pay back the ridiculous debt that the wrecked vase racked up for her.
6. See Haruhi take it, strangely, with a firm stance.
Skip along a bit, she gets a makeover—still with some under the impression she is a ‘he’, though others are figuring it out one by one—and gets promoted from Host Dog to simply, Host. To her, this is a far worse fate than being an errand boy, but the choice is, for all essential purposes of the story continuing, taken out of her hands. At this point, if she is able to get 100 people to designate her, her debt will be wiped.
With the school thinking she’s a boy, and the Host Club bustling all around her for one reason or another, Haruhi finds that she has entered a richer world than the one she originally considered. Whereas Ouran High is a school of affluence, she has somehow found the Host Club, which is, as they say in Oz, a horse of a different color.
Or, as they might say in some other place: it’s a trap!
[character abilities]: Ouran being a series that doesn’t involve magical sticks that make your skirts shorter, or animals that talk to you in your own language, epic battles—unless you count kicking a can around, which you shouldn’t—or the like, Haruhi has no need and therefore no possession of any supernatural abilities.
She is, however fairly perceptive concerning ‘seeing’ people, which could be written off except that, well, it’s a focal point of how her character changes the Host Club, or starts to, even a little, which is a rather big deal in the land of the rich where change is foreign and comfortable sameness has seemingly been key for a long time.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Chapter 60 of the manga
[character personality]:
Do you hear the words that are coming out of your mouth?
Haruhi is blunt, and while that specific descriptive word is not the only thing to focus on, it stems from something that is, and that would be the fact that she is almost brutally honest. This is a bit of a contradiction as nothing easy to note about her is brutal in any way, shape, or form, but that cliché really does suit much of her candor the best. As often as her default mode of ‘miss honesty’ is admirable and sweet, it can also be taken as rude and even, case-depending, insulting. Once again, this is strange as to find a purposefully insulting bone in Haruhi’s body would be like looking for a unicorn; suffice to say, it doesn’t exist.
Some people seem to chalk it up to her being too nice. And yes, it’s true that Haruhi is very kind, a very sympathetic creature who has both the capacity and interest to look further into people than maybe even they themselves are accustomed to considering. However, it’s only fair to note that part of her non-possession of intentional meanness is also the result of a low-key apathy. Not all about the kindness or the empathy, some of it comes from a generic brand of ‘why should I care?’ and ‘but how does that affect the situation’ and ‘wait, what?’ None of these undertones are ever pointedly amplified and it never is meant as an act of malice, it just has the complete potential to come off as such. And it does, sometimes.
I see what you did there!
Perceptive and noticeably calm with any of her findings on people or circumstances, Haruhi, as mentioned before, is good at reading people. Of course, in that semi-ironic way, this does not apply to how she sees herself. That would just be too easy, now, wouldn’t it? In any case though, remember that hearing is not listening, not necessarily anyway. For the world of Ouran, where so much fluff is being thrown around and silliness abounding, the only way you’re about to get a millimeter of seriousness or a degree of an inside-look is to listen and listen closely.
Some people find this very difficult and it’s often got nothing to do with academia, because listening is a people person’s skill, not a bookworm’s skill. Different members of the Host Club vary in their decency at the listening game, and usually it’s episode-specific, depending on how relevant the moment is to one character or another. Haruhi, on the other hand, applies this skill to everything she does, everyone she meets, to the extent that she has this strange knack for understanding people, not just for who they are, but ‘what’ they are, and maybe more importantly: what that means, both to them and to those around them.
=D | ._. | >.>
Other things about Haruhi? She’s very independent, which is a result of being raised by a working, single father, undoubtedly. Her independence, like many of her character traits, fits the details of a double edged sword. While it has proven her capable of doing and accomplishing many things by herself, it also has driven her into a corner where she feels the independence isn’t a choice, because it has for so long been her only option. So in instances where she might be better off seeking help or similar assistance, she might not, though enough happens and is taught to her that she begins to recognize this herself, providing for some growth that makes the independence less of a necessity and more of a natural tendency.
General exterior is not expressionless but falls under the heading of calm or laid back, never very high strung though she can spaz and become anxious as much as the others can. She just tends not to more often and they, well, they tend to do so more often, on the other hand.
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