Ouran High School Host Club

Our heroine, Haruhi (henceforth referred to as “commoner”), was accepted in Ouran -a high school for the richest kid in Japan- on a scholarship. The poor commoner enters Ouran wearing her dad's old uniform and a short boyish haircut and quickly gets lost in the ridiculously huge Ouran campus. A chance encounter with 6 of the most rich and handsome boys of Ouran, leads her to join the Host club and work in entertaining the rich, bored girls of the school. Of course this was made possible because everyone passed commoner for a boy. Commoner's adventures in the host club and the antics of the 6boys are hilarious and entertaining... for a good while. After the first quarter of chapters more than a few problems appear. The manga-ka creates a beautiful setting with interesting characters but fails to develop any aspect of that setting at all. Half of the boys get little to no development and everything that happens with the other 3 and the commoner feels rushed and pointless. The aforementioned beautiful setting comes full with interesting side-characters as well, but again they do not develop at all. This lack of development results in a lot of fat in the story. The manga-ka takes far fetched ideas about character traits and stretches them so much that they lose their initial charm. After literally the 20th time Tamaki says that he is the commoner's father and wonders what are those non-fatherly feelings are, I cannot take seriously the subsequent story arc where he “deals” with it. Unfortunately there are more examples like that. This trend keeps up until a disappointing build-up to a predictable and weak ending. The best backer of my aforementioned opinions is how good the anime adaptation is. The recipe was simple: They removed the fat and they let the side-main-characters stand a little bit more on the spotlight. So, if you liked the anime there is nothing more for you here. If you like shoujo romcoms, watch the anime -it's my favorite of the genre. If you are a die-hard shoujo manga reader, well, I guess you could do worse than this. 6/10 because the first quarter of chapters is excellent.

If you loved the anime, you are probably going to fall in love with the manga. It has all the crazy antics of the host club with never a dull moment but then it adds onto it with a much deeper story line. Though it loses its comedic value to an extent, the serious nature gives the characters so much more depth. This is one manga that I can say; you need to read it all even if you watched the manga because there is so much more to the stories that were shown on TV. There are a couple people who change very drastically inthe manga by just how serious the manga becomes. Haruhi is pretty much the down to earth girl of the anime and manga but even in the manga, she has times when she makes large leaps in her personality and I fell in love with her more in the manga then in the anime. She just seems to have a lot more character with her emotions then the rather bland character they tried to portray her as in the anime. During times, you do find out that she really is a girl, with real girly feelings and every once in a while, she does tend to think about romance or looking cute. She at times feels a little similar to Tamaki in how stupid she can be (maybe the right words would be dunce to feelings actually) but her heart is in the right place. The twins are the next ones I want to talk about but I really can’t without spoiling so much! The characters change so drastically that you would not be able to even imagine how different they are from start to finish but you have to read it or I will spoil it. That or you would not understand any of it at all. Tamaki changes a lot too, and again, sadly the only thing I can say is that he ‘grows up’ and I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I love him even more for the changes that happen. I could just not let go the idea that Tamaki grew up at all, and it pains me not being able to talk about it do to spoilers. Seriously, read the manga! In fact, I think the only ones that don’t leap that far are Honey, Mori, and Kyouya. Honey and Mori seem to act much more like someone the characters can turn to in their time of need where as sadly, Kyouya seems to be left out at times. I know there are a few times he grows in the story but its not enough and makes me feel that he will never grow from what he is now. He feels like a static character where as Tamaki and the twins seem to jump from one thing to another very quickly. I wanted to see a little more of Kyouya but I didn’t get that. The story was so deep at times that I had a hard time not crying and I actually did in the middle. Almost all of the drama that is in normal family life was there, from problems between siblings, to problems in the family, social status, and relationships. Some of these things were made a bit extreme for the fact it was about rich people but when you break the main point down, its stuff that we all have to go through at some point. I felt they did a rather wonderful job building up on these things and not giving us too much detail where the idea would be lost. Near the end of the books, they also had special chapters to show what happened after the story finished, and talked about what would happen in the future for the group. This helped close some of the questions that were left and also gave us just a bit more fun as the kids grew up. I love when stories tell us what happen after because we get to see the characters we have grown to love grow even more. I look forward to if Hatori-san makes a sequel or even just a side story book about their life growing up in collage even though I don’t think she will. The artwork is pretty much what you would think of a Shojo style manga with beautiful men and even more beautiful hearts, flowers, and clothing designs. Sometimes we get something that is a little off for comedic affect but other then that, it’s a very well put together manga with the art style getting better and better as the volumes progress. As the story gets deeper, you actually get that feeling in the artwork and, just over all, it works.

I REALLY like this manga. Not only is the story developed incredibly well and naturally, but the characters grow alongside it, helping each other improve and become better people. The romance is an special highlight, being incredibly heartwarming, healthy and based on feelings of admiration and respect, which is fascinating for the time. Everything, from Tamaki's family to Haruhi's character arc is given a fantastic resolution, and I can't recommend reading this enough for those who liked the anime. EVERY character gets developed and given a strong conclusion, which is very nice. yeah, this manga has one of the best couples of all time andI love IIIIIT.

Ah, where can i start! This manga is what introduced me to shojo manga and i'm so glad i read it! Hatori sensei's art really amazes me, if you look at volume 1 then at volume 18 you would see how her art changes with time. i loved this manga for so many reasons, one of which is the character growth! the twins, kyoya, haruhi, honey, tamaki, and mori (in some ways ). i cant really go into detail about how their characters grew without spoiling some things. if you only watched the anime PLEASE read the manga!! The heroine (haruhi ) is notlike other shojo mangas ! I love her because she is so unique and such an amazing character! At first its a comedy, with some serious parts. in volume 14-17 it gets more romantic and serious and vol 18 after a bit of drama its really light hearted! I loved the ending! the ending was (kinda spoiler idk) so amazing! it ended with the words (not exact) "the host club had no intention of becoming memories" which gives the ending a hopeful feeling, instead of a nostalgic feeling. although time has passed and it feels nostalgic now, at the time it really wasn't nostalgic, this series made me so happy and i enjoyed reading it! the ending is truly happy ! please read this manga