Ouran High School is a private academy for the children of parasites, as well as one arguably lucky poor kid with a merit-based scholarship. Haruhi cares about family, studies, and resource management. Haruhi basically lives in a separate world from the rest of the students. Until one day Haruhi accidentally encounters the Host Club, a male escort service run by students for students, and breaks one of the club's fancy vases. The club blackmails Haruhi into becoming first a gopher and later an escort in training. Toward the end of the first episode, the president of the club discovers that androgynous Haruhi is, as Haruhi puts it, "biologically female"—though Haruhi insists that gender doesn't really matter.
Ouran High School Host Club presents comedic satire of rich kids. The superficial hosts and the vapid guests engage in nonsensical exchanges as the titular club sells moe to the school's female students. Most scenes are played for laughs, and the timing and presentation of the gags is pretty on-point. The show walks a thin line between laughing at queer stuff and embracing queer stuff, and honestly it goes all over the place. Character design and animation look like they're done on a tight budget, but done smartly on that budget, and 12 years later the series is still pretty easy to watch.
Recommend: Check it out!
Rewatch Disclaimer: I've seen all of Ouran before, and I loved it the first time around, but rewatches really didn't hold up. The genderqueer exploration inevitably gives way to cishet harem romcom, and a lot of the humor dates itself. Also, despite the near-constant criticism of excess, the show doesn't exactly have great class politics. The wealthy are never villains, they are just sometimes foolish; the poor are never victims of systemic exploitation, they are just sometimes noble. Class antagonism is passed off as culture shock, and Haruhi's rich harem maintain protagonist status throughout. I still recommend the show as a more-hit-than-miss comedy and a cultural phenomenon, but it's not really Good.
This First Glance was requested by a patron.