:: Tamaki Suoh ::

Tamaki Suoh (須王 環 Suō Tamaki?) (born 8 April, Buddha's birthday), aged 17 at beginning of the series, is a second-year student at Ouran High School and the founder and president of the Host Club.

While flamboyant and narcissistic (Suō means "rightfully becoming king" or "to become a king"), he is dedicated to his duties as a host. He is the Prince type to "entertain" customers, plying them with upper class etiquette and shameless flattery. He is partial to classic piano music and plays exceedingly well, one of his favorites being Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D major. He, like Honey, also has a stuffed animal: a teddy called Kuma-chan ("Beary" in English; kuma being Japanese for bear) though it is not shown very often. He refers to the Host Club as his "family" Kyoya being the Mommy, Haruhi being the daughter, the Hikaru and Kaoru as the brothers, Morinozuka and Haninozuka the neighbors.

The main comic relief character of the series, Tamaki can be viewed as outspoken and naïve for his age, especially since he only views himself as an obsessive father figure to Haruhi, when in reality he's in love with her. Mori (as well as Honey) points out his naivete when it comes to how he truly feels about Haruhi, and the rest of the club sees this too; this applies to his overall dense approach to his own feelings though he is very perceptive about other people's, which is mentioned by the twins but several other members of the Host Club as well. He often gets jealous of other boys who get close to her and admires her when she shows her natural abilities. Haruhi eventually realizes that she is in love with Tamaki, while Tamaki only realizes the depth of his true feelings further into the series.

Tamaki is half-Japanese and half-French, and is in custody of his father, the wealthy chairman of Ouran Academy. They both live separately from his French mother because of a deal between his mother and his bitterly cold paternal grandmother; Tamaki living at Suoh mansion number two and his father at the main mansion with Tamaki's grandmother. Despite his grandmother being the reason he can't see his mother, he is very gentle to her, and is constantly trying to get her to accept him as a part of the Suoh family. As of the latest manga chapters, he has befriended and become close to Megumi Kanoya, a new Ouran student, who is suffering from family troubles and who he realizes is someone he cannot help because she is even worse off than him. He has rejected her twice but his feelings toward her appear to be extending once again into a protective family-type of assurance. His family name is romanized by VIZ Media as Suoh and by Chuang Yi, Funimation, and Nippon Television's Japanese-language website as Suou. His full name is revealed, in chapter 55, to be René Tamaki Richard de Grandtaine. At the end of chapter 64, he finally realizes that he loves Haruhi. Not as a "father", but as a man (chapter 67).[citation needed]

In Chapter 72 he and Haruhi shared an accidental kiss, he reacts by going for a 'walk' which turns into a 25 lap sprint while crying.

In recent chapters Tamaki has been taken into the main residence, in which he's tried to get on good terms with his grandmother even though she still doesn't acknowledge him. She also ordered for Tamaki to break all ties with Haruhi because of the trouble he caused her and the school by hiding her gender. Tamaki agrees and quits the club, telling Haruhi that she may quit as well, as he'll take care of the rest of her debt. However, it's been recently revealed that his father, in cooperation with Kyouya's father and their companies has developed a medicine that can cure Tamaki's mother, and also allow them to order the retirement of the president, Tamaki's grandmother. While everybody, including Tamaki's father are satisfied with the president pretty much having been pushed out of her reign, Tamaki can't forgive his father for what he's done. He is heartbroken for his grandmother and hardly eats or goes to school. In response to his depression all of the friends he collected since he arrived in Japan begin to worry. (This includes his customers and all the people he helped...) At the end of chapter 78, Yuzuru meets with Anne Sophie, Tamaki's mother, at the airport, greeting her welcome to Japan. In chapter 79 he refuses to meet with his mother and she decides to leave. However his bond with his grandmother is strengthened as he discovers they share a lot in common. The host club are planning to drag him to the airport to meet with his mother.

In chapter 80 of the manga, after some persuading from Haruhi, Tamaki utilizes the help of everyone he has helped at Ouran to get to the airport in time to meet with 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.

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+ Athena updated @ 8:07 AM

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