Ouran HighSchool Host Club's Seven Deadly Sins and Heavenly Vitrues

Earlier this month, one of my co-workers started watching Ouran Highschool Host Club, reminding me of my love for one of the very first shoujo anime I tried watching, one of the rare old-school shoujo anime that I still absolutely adore (and, yes, I know it's only about eleven years old) . This is because Ouran has always been more than just a reverse-harem anime to me, with surprisingly complex characters and heart-warming stories in almost each episode, even though it does have a lot of fanservice (though that is a big part of the humor, and I commend it for that, as it is extremely self-aware).

And I know that there are people out there that have already done the "Ouran's Seven Deadly Sins" thing before, but I tend to notice that no one really gives that much reasoning, and I believe that all of the seven host club members represent a Heavenly Virtue, as well.

So, here's my take on Ouran Highschool Host Club's seven deadly sins and heavenly virtues.

Oh, and BTW, there will be spoilers.

Haruhi Fujioka
Sin: Sloth
Virtue: Kindness
I've found that man people thought Haruhi's sin to be hard figure out, but I actually thought that it was the easiest, aside from Honey-Senpai's and Hikaru's.
Haruhi represents sloth because she's so practical, and thus doesn't have much of a desire to do much of anything unless it's needed. She's a fervent studier only because she needs to keep up her scholarship to stay in Ouran; in most other situations, she prefers to abstain from extraneous situations like club activities. As it was stated in the episode "Haruhi in Wonderland," she doesn't know how to have fun.

Haruhi, on the other hand, also undoubtedly exudes kindness in every way possible. She may also be able to be interpreted as being chastity, she's also always more than willing to lend an ear to someone that needs it and doesn't want to ask for help from anyone, even her own father, because she doesn't want to be a bother to anyone. She's accepting of everyone, and she just has such a selfless nature that it's no wonder so many women and men fall for her, even when they are under the impression that she's a guy.

Tamaki Suoh
Sin: Lust
Virtue: Diligence
 I at first thought pride must have been Tamaki's sin before realizing that he fits the description of lust much better. He has a lot of oddly sexual fantasies throughout the series, particularly concerning Haruhi, and he has this really weird daddy kink that all the other host club members love to make fun of him for because, well, it's just weird.
He was even caught embracing a swim-suit clad mannequin with a Haruhi wig on it, which understandably creeped Haruhi out when she walked in on him.

 That being said, however, Tamaki also represents diligence, as he puts an amazing amount of effort into everything he does. He doesn't know when to quit something, which, while slightly annoying, is also a fantastic quality of his, as it has helped him win over a countless number of friends in the host club and helped quite a few people that really needed that kind of relentless, dedicated help.

Kyoya Ootori
Sin: Greed
Virtue: Temperance
Kyoya is greed, through and through. He has no qualms with stating that he only helps others when he has something to gain from it. Now, that may or may not be just a guise to make him seem like less of a nice guy, but Kyoya does have a lot of ambition. He wants to surpass his two older brothers in order to become the heir to his family's company. In order to do this, he works tirelessly as the host club's vice president, which means he basically does all the work. And he's pretty stingy about the club's profit, too.

Kyoya, however, also exemplifies temperence. He is very refined in his behavior and refrains from anything that could taint his reputation. We really start to see that in "Kyoya's Reluctant Day Out," where he shows his true nature for a day, and let me tell you that this man has an amazing amount of self-restraint, what with the amount of rude remarks he makes when he's had a bad morning.

Kaoru Hitachiin
Sin: Pride
Virtue: Patience
Kaoru's sin is pride because, while he is definitely the nicer twin, Kaoru also has the higher sense of self-worth. You see, Hikaru's envy comes from his insecurities of not being able to function without his twin, while Kaoru is prideful enough to be able to stand on his own and not freak out when separated from Hikaru. And he's the one that makes the first few moves to be a completely distinct entity from his brother. I do, however, think that the traditional roles of pride and patience as a sin a virtue have been uniquely reversed for once, since...

... As you can see, Kaoru's patience is his own downfall. He spends all of his time trying to encourage and help Hikaru that he neglects himself a bit by trying to push for his brother's relationship with Haruhi while ingnoring his own feelings for her. His ability to forgive and resolve issues without argument on his own is very good, but he also fails to put himself in the grand picture.


Mitsukuni "Honey" Haninozuka
Sin: Gluttony
Virtue: Chasity
Honey's sin is definitely the most obvious, even to people who have only watched the first couple episodes: he's a glutton. His love for cake and sweets is notably disturbing: the withdraws from three days without sugar resulted in awful withdraws and dirty tactics to get the cake ban lifted, and his own little brother thinks him to be an alien due to the sheer amount of cake he cake eat without gaining weight. In the end, even Honey's love for his brother, Chika, is heavily out-weighed by his love for cake.

Honey is also the least sexualized character in the anime, which is good, because it would be extremely creepy if he was sexualized due his looking like a child, even if he and Mori are the oldest of the group. Thankfully, for now, Honey is perfectly fine with cake being the only love in his life, leaving his heavenly virtue as chastity.





Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka
Sin: Wrath
Virtue: Humility
Mori-Senpai's wrath is a little more subtle than some of these other sins, but it is just as intense. His love for Honey is a big part of what drives it, as well. Remember when I was talking about the three-day ban on sweets? Part of the reason is was so awful for Honey was because of Mori and how he treated the kid. He wasn't mean, necessarily, but he was jjst straight savage, giving him sheets with pictures of cake on it to "satisfy" his hunger. All in all, when Honey and his well-fare is at risk, Mori is absolutely ruthless.

Now, Mori's wrath also stems from his deep sense of humility. He's a very modest and well-disciplined individual, and as you see in the same episode I was just talking about, he was only so harsh on Honey due to a deep feeling of guilt and the need to punish himself by making Honey hate him. He's a good guy, overall, and would never act so rashly without what he sees to be a good reason.




Hikaru Hitachiin

Sin: Envy
Virtue: ?
 Hikaru could never be anything other than jealousy, what the the way he reacts whenever Haruhi starts to hang around people outside of the club. "Operation: Haruhi and Hikaru's First Date" is a prime example of what an absolute child Hikaru is when it comes to dealing with his nasty jealousy. It all stems from his and Kaoru's isolationism from other kids while they grew up, and he has an extremely hard time letting the few people that enter his circle out of it.



Now you may have noticed that I left Hikaru as last, when it would have made sense to put him just before Kaoru, but there's a reason I didn't.
By process of elimination, but virtue very well should have been charity, but since he hates sharing his things (i.e.: Haruhi), I simply can't see that suiting him. So, all in all, I'm unsure as to what Hikaru's heavenly virtue is. No matter what I pair him with, I just can't see it. Am I missing something? Is there something from the manga I need to see in order to make it work? Everything else just fits so perfectly that it'd be a crime for him to not represent a virtue!

So, please, if you can figure out a better arrangement of sins and virtues, or if something from the manga does end up giving Hikaru the virtue of charity, then let me know! I love to see discussion, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on these very fun and interesting characters!

I'm going now, though, so you have a great day!