Ouran High School Host Club’s titular Host Club is full of fascinating, incident-prone characters. However, among this already strange group, Mitsukuni “Honey-senpai” Haninozuka stands out as his age is often overlooked due to his childlike personality.
Ouran High School Host Club follows Haruhi Fujioka, a poor student who gets a scholarship to the prestigious Ouran Academy. A few days into her schooling, Haruhi stumbles on a host club run by several male students. In the resulting confusion, Haruhi smashes an expensive vase and is forced to work for the group to pay off her debt, leading to the show’s iconic love triangles and screwball comedy.
Honey-senpai is one of the most popular characters Haruhi meets, not to mention one of the most intriguing. But just how old is he? Here’s what Ouran fans need to know.
How old is Honey-senpai in Ouran High School Host Club?
When Haruhi first meets Honey-senpai, he demands her to tell him a story, only to cry when a confused Haruhi refuses his advances. Eventually, Honey calms down after another boy gives him a stuffed rabbit. This leads Haruhi and the audience to presume that Honey is the youngest boy in the group. Haruhi even says that she believes Honey is an elementary schooler who somehow walked into the academy.
However, this assumption is proven incorrect during the first chapter of the manga. While introducing Haruhi to the Host Club’s inner-workings, Club President Tamaki Suoh informs Haruhi that Honey is a 3rd-year student. The 12th episode of the anime then confirms that Honey is 17 years old. This means that he is older than both Haruhi and Suoh, who are 15 and 16, respectively.
It is easy to see why both the viewers and Haruhi think Honey is much younger than 17. Honey has a childish face, and he is exceptionally short. In the character profiles found in the manga, Honey is said to be a mere 4′ 10″ tall, by far the smallest member of the Host Club. This, mixed with Honey’s love of cute things and the fact he is always carrying around his toy bunny, only serves to make him seem much younger than he actually is, something that he plays up while working at the Host Club.
Despite this, Honey is shown to be very intelligent. The contrast between his childish looks and his actual intelligence is a running joke in both the manga and the anime adaptation, where Honey frequently helps the other boys get out of awkward situations and navigate their often confusing love lives.
Honey-senpai is one of Ouran High School Host Club’s most memorable characters due to how he flips from serious to childish at a moment’s notice. The frequent contrasts between these two sides of his personality lead to hilarity and drama as he and the other members navigate school and club life.
