Have you read/watched Ouran High School Host Club? If so what do you think of Haruhi? To me she's super interesting and someone everyone should aspire to be like. Surrounded by idiots, but manages to handle it. Has her own goals and works towards them. Needs to crossdress? Sure why not, it's just clothes, who cares? She's a bit emotionally dense with her own feelings, but what teenager isn't? No one mentions her when talking about strong female main characters.
Oh, anon. I love, love, love LOVE, LOVE Ouran. It’s definitely in my top favorite anime/manga series and Haruhi is indeed so very excellent. Yes, she’s what I think of when “strong female characters” pop up, not a “Oh hey I know how to kill a man twenty different ways with just a paperclip and a string. That makes me strong, right?” In fact, let me chuck out just SOME of the things I adore about this story:
Takes what could have been a rather uncomfortable concept—a group of hot guys working to entertain rich girls—and made it clear that everyone wants to/is happy to do this, it’s all in fun, it’s rather ridiculous at times and yeah we’re gonna fully embrace that.
Similar to that, taking messed up anime tropes (loli types, twin incest, etc.) and either undermining assumptions about them or straight up satirizing it.
Initially using Haruhi’s poor status as the fodder for jokes (that notably are designed to make the rich kids look stupid, not Haruhi herself—“I will drink this commoner’s coffee!”) before treating it as a serious theme deserving of respect and acknowledgement of Haruhi’s specific situation.
It’s also made clear by like the second episode that status and wealth will not be used as an excuse for shitty behavior.
Cliched book nerd actually has a complex personality. As you lay out, anon, Haruhi is actually… a person. Wild.
Same with the entire cast. No one stays true to their archetypes for very long.
Exploration of sexuality like how Haruhi legit enjoys hosting for all these women, accidentally gets her first kiss with another women, the entirety of the Lobelia Girls’ Academy, etc.
Classic makeover scenes with practical purposes (i.e. “We need you to look like a girl for this plan to work” vs. “But you’d look so much BETTER like this!”) and they never last. After any event Haruhi is able to go straight back to short hair and boy’s clothes and it’s not an issue.
Though when someone (Tamaki) does complain about wanting Haruhi in dresses more, or to re-grow her hair, or not use “dirty language,” the narrative is careful to portray him as in the wrong and none of the other host members support his theatrics. Challenging these obsessions with how a girl is “supposed” to look is a major part of his character growth.
Cross dressing/different gender presentation is shown as normal and healthy. Not just for Haruhi but for her dad as well.
The hug in the finale which I love for many of the same reasons I love the hug in Pacific Rim.
The fact that even though the English dub uses she/her pronouns for Haruhi (and she’s fine with that) it’s clear that she doesn’t identify as cis gender:
“Biologically speaking, yeah. Listen, senpai, I don’t really care whether you guys recognize me as a boy or a girl. In my opinion, it’s more important for a person to be recognized for who they are rather than what sex they are.”
In conclusion: please watch Ouran High School Host Club
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