Tamaki Suoh

Tamaki Suoh (須王 環, Suō Tamaki?) (born 8 April, Buddha's birthday),[8] aged 17 at beginning of the series,[3] is a second-year student at Ouran Academy and the founder and president of the Host Club.he is The idiotic host king, who created and founded the club. He is very charismatic and charming and considers himself the "Daddy" of the group. He is also the "princely" type or "the king" in the host club. He considers his relationship with Haruhi as paternal in nature, but is often seen using it to mask his true feelings that he is in love with her. The twins use that to their advantage and harass Haruhi in front of him to anger one or both of them. He also has has a strange interest in the commoner and Japanese lifestyle from him moving to Japan from France when he was fourteen due to family issues. His reason in starting the host club was simply because he wanted to make others smile and be happy.

While he is flamboyant and narcissistic, he is dedicated to his duties as a host. He is the "Princely type" to entertain and ply customers with an upper class etiquette and shameless flattery. He is partial to classic piano music and plays exceedingly well. He has a teddy bear called Kuma-chan ("Beary" in English; kuma being Japanese for bear). He refers to his Club as his "family": Kyoya being the mother figure; Haruhi being the daughter; Hikaru and Kaoru as the brothers; Morinozuka and Haninozuka the cousins.

As Tamaki is the main comic relief character of the series, he is outspoken and naïve for his age, especially since he only views himself as an obsessive father figure to Haruhi; however, in reality he is in love with her. Mori (as well as Honey) points out his naiveté when it comes to how he truly feels about Haruhi, and the rest of the club sees this too. His naiveté applies to his overall dense approach to his own feelings, though he is very perceptive of the feelings of others, which Hikaru and Kaoru both note. He often gets jealous of other boys who get close to Haruhi and admires her natural abilities. Both characters eventually realize they have feelings for the other.

Tamaki is half Japanese and half French, and is in his father's custody. His father is the wealthy chairman of Ouran Academy. They live separately from his French mother because of a deal between Tamaki's ill mother and cold-hearted paternal grandmother. Tamaki lives at the Suoh family's second mansion while his father lives at the main mansion with Tamaki's grandmother. Despite his grandmother forbidding Tamaki from seeing his mother, Tamaki treats his grandmother kindly and persuades her to accept him as a part of the Suoh family. In volume 16, he befriended and become close with Megumi Kanoya who is a new student suffering from family troubles. Tamaki realizes that he cannot help Megumi because her family matters are similar to his own family matters. He has rejected her romantic advances twice, since his feelings towards her are more of a familial affection.

His family name is romanized by VIZ Media as Suoh[9] and by Chuang Yi, Funimation,[10] and Nippon Television's Japanese-language website as Suou.[11] His full name is revealed to be René Tamaki Richard de Grandtaine in chapter 55.[12]

At the end of chapter 64, he finally realizes that he loves Haruhi as a man and not a father. He reveals this in chapter 67 after his Club members state that while they are not his family, the bonds of their friendship will not break, even if he pursues Haruhi romantically. At chapter 68, after a fit of depression and strange behaviour, he finally accepts his feelings and returns to his former happy self. However, he still cannot find the courage to confess his love for Haruhi, as he is afraid she doesn't return his feelings.

In volume 16, after Tamaki is allowed to move into the Suoh family main residence, he tries to get on better terms with his grandmother. She demanded Tamaki to break all ties with Haruhi because of the trouble he caused her and the school by hiding her gender. Tamaki quits the club and tells Haruhi that she may quit as well. However, it was revealed that his father, in cooperation with Kyouya's father and their companies, developed a medicine that can cure Tamaki's mother's disease. They also planned to remove Tamaki's grandmother as headmaster of the Suoh business. While everyone, including Tamaki's father, is satisfied with the president being removed from her position, Tamaki cannot forgive his father for what he has done. He is heartbroken for his grandmother and hardly eats or go to school. In response to his depression, all of his friends and colleagues begin to worry. At the end of chapter 78, Yuzuru meets with Anne Sophie, Tamaki's mother, at the airport and welcomes her to Japan. In chapter 79 Tamaki refuses to meet with his mother, fearing it will hurt his grandmother, and his mother has no choice but to leave due to her illness still not allowing her to stay in another country for too long.

In chapter 80, after Haruhi persuades him, Tamaki utilizes the help of his fellow Host Club members, his classmates and the Host Club's regular customers to get to the airport in time to meet his mother for the first time in three years. He is nervous on the way to the airport, and asks Haruhi to "stay with him until the very end". They hold hands during the entire trip to the airport. Tamaki and his mother share a brief but heartfelt reunion.

Voiced by: Mamoru Miyano (anime and later drama CDs),[4][13] Hikaru Midorikawa (early drama CDs),[14] Vic Mignogna (English)[7]