When I saw this announcement of an Ouran Host Club relationship simulator aimed at women, I remembered watching a documentary about Hostess Clubs in Japan.
Well, the point was that my student seemed to have a great time, and he made an appointment to come back the next week as he did every week. Japanese tax laws let him write the whole thing off as a business expense, and he seemed more content to give his money to this hostess than to paying a 50 percent corporate tax to the government on his company earnings.
So it seems that Tamaki was not just wasting his time with his little club. He was grabbing early customers and experimental data for a fledgeling company that would put a new spin on a classic idea. In this way, I don’t understand what Kyouya’s dad’s problem was, as this is totally a way to get in good with plenty of important business folk. Speaking of Kyouya:
However, to hear one hostess tell it, “Five hours of ‘chatting’ becomes very tedious. Many clubs are claustrophobic (nonsmokers be warned) with a mama-san who watches your every move to keep you ’smiling’ and gleeful at all times.”
And Tamaki is employing volunteers and an indentured servant! That is some nice savings on staff costs. But again, perhaps not so innovative:
Much more so than English schools, problems with nonpayment of salaries are not uncommon in the hostess business. Of course this is not the norm, but with so many short-term people taking up these positions, more than a few owners and managers have not paid salaries.
Seriously, I think Tamaki could have made a successful business operation out of his club. It’s not like getting older makes you any less lonely, and misery loves company. Too bad misery has to pay for it.
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I wonder just how well this sort of thing does in real life. In Ouran, they basically had every single girl paying to have Tamaki kungfu death grip their chins, but I think it’d be considerably harder outside of anime. Then again, I don’t know much about the culture or how desperate certain people are to receive that amount of attention.
Ahh, but you see, Kyouya’s dad being mad was just added in to the anime to add to the “selfishness” aspect of those stupidly dramatic final two episodes. In the manga, Kyouya-papa compliments his boy for working in the shadows while Tamaki grabs the glory.
Haha somehow that makes much more sense.