Mangaka Bisco Hatori appeared at Anime Expo 2019 held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, USA. When questioned about Haruhi Fujioka, she revealed that Haruhi was originally meant to be a boy, but one of her editors suggested a gender swap. Thus, Hatori invented a female character that "doesn't need to dress up like a boy other than the fact that those are the clothing she wears and likes" without adding subtext regarding gender identity. She expressed that she isn't hung up on genre parameters or gender orientation because every person should be proud of being unique while remaining true to themselves. In summation, Hatori stressed Ouran being a story about family and friendship, without any intention of being a pioneer of "fujoshi comedy," though admits that it happened just the same.