Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 1

I had little idea what to expect when an anime-obsessed and manga-preoccupied friend of mine said I absolutely had to put away my preconceptions and read Ouran High School Host Club. As I was between contracts and I had some spare time (and I thought it'd shut him up for once), I relented and picked up the first volume. Only a few pages in, I was enchanted. Two more and I was enthralled. And a few more after that I was utterly in love with the entire concept, art, and wit expressed by Ms Hatori. In Japan, host and hostess clubs are becoming more and more popular. These are venues where single women and men can go to experience exceedingly high quality of service, charming smiles, and romantic banter. Sexuality is rarely involved; instead, a male patron will find the fawning pouring of tea by a female hostess utterly exhilarating, just as a female patron will fall into the spell of being genuinely treated as a princess by her male host. It's a Japanese thing; I'm not expecting to see host/hostess clubs in my home town in America any time soon. In Ouran High School Host Club, an exclusive private school admits a poor young student, Haruhi Fujioka, on scholarship. While stumbling about to find a quiet secluded place to study, she intrudes on the school's own Host Club, breaking a priceless vase. The hosts mistakenly take her for a boy, and recruit her as a host as well. She's to pay off her debt by providing excellent service. Then they discover she's a girl and the crazy fun begins. The stories that unfold are each delightful. Set against this backdrop of a rich private school and the host club members' own bizarre or tragic histories, they are charming tales of romance and family, of discovering "commoner's" wisdom and finding bonds in friendship. And all the while, tongue is firmly planted in cheek. I look forward to the rest of the volumes!

becuase it's not a cross dressing girl story. the truth of it is that Ouran High School: Host Club is a boyish girl story and, despite how it sounds completely cliched, is original and very funny. The art is refreshing, and the humor is young enough to snag a T for Teen rating (unlike Hana-kimi, which it is most often compared to). All of the boys in the host club are the typical (cliched) "average rich guys"--snobby, insensitive (well...tamaki cries a lot)and obnoxious, but they have some qualities that the average rich guy doesn't have--heart, and lots of it. From "king" Tamaki to pintsized Hunny, all of the boys are likeable in their own special way, and every one of them is very "human" and trying to figure out what the life of the common-folk is like. Haruhi (Haru to Hunny) is what most people should be-- she worries about others, not herself. She doesn't care how she looks, and she is very down to earth, which is refreshing after listening to girls whine about nothing but their looks in "Doubt!" This manga is very funny(ramen and instant coffee scenarios in the first chapters), and the dialogue is original. I know I have said it before, but this manga is very refreshing.

Haruhi Fujoika is a scholarship winning student fresh at the private Ouran Institute. The institution is generally very selective about who they take on, ranking wealth and lineage above all else. It is this particular reason that Haruhi is approached by Tamaki Suoh, a second year student and president of an elite club, a host club, to be precise. What is the host club? Haruhi finds out that it is basically an club formed by handsome young men to entertain the wealthy and privileged young women at the school with nothing better to do, sort of like the geishas of old but more contemporary. On their first encounter Haruhi has the misfortune of breaking an $80,000 vase. To repay the debt Tamaki proclaims that she will work as one of the hosts... but the crux of the matter is that she must entertain the young ladies of the school and, until later in the first volume of the manga, no one quite realizes that Haruhi is NOT a handsome young man. While her androgynous looks do confuse most of the Host club members, they still believe that her natural charm is an asset to the club. Tamaki decides that she must acquire at least 100 requests to stave of her debt, a number which he later changes to 1000...Tamaki is quite flighty like that, but things become even more interesting when Tamaki finds himself drawn to the boyish charms of the newest host club member, and she is quite repulsed by his narcissistic, pompous attitudes. One thing's for sure, the school is in for a shock if the truth of Haruhi's sex ever gets out. Chock full of beautiful boys (or bois, if you want to talk about Haruhi) this shojo manga is sure to have mass appeal. Between the twins Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, adorable child-like Mitsukuni Haninozuka (Hunny), Hunny's near mute best friend Takashi Morinozuka, and the demure Vice President Kyoya Ohtori, there's bound to be someone to fulfill everyone's tastes... as evidenced by the number of requests for each of the men by young ladies in the manga. The art is also very well drawn, the dialogue flows well and does not seem to have any sketchiness that tends to surface with translated manga, and the storyline is just superb. I am already enthralled by the dynamics between Haruhi and Tamaki and I have only read one volume thus far. This is definitely worth keeping up with in the future, or starting...for any of you out there who have not read this yet, do. You won't be sorry.

I've read alot of shoujo...and this is in a class of its own, tongue in cheek all the way, the author pokes fun at everything from gender roles to boy love, and is oddly obsessed with twins. The female lead Haruhi is refreshing,she shows a complete lack of angst... She is so straight forward that she never even lies about being a boy, it's all other's assumptions. And for once we really have no clue if she's attracted to the male lead (if you can call him that) or for that matter if she's attracted to any boy at all, it's about relationships, but not about the drama...just good clean fun, almost like a love child between the Wallflower(minus the goth overtones and protagonist's rampant insecurity) and Boys over flowers(minus the obtuse angsty protagonist), except that there are no supporting characters. which is to say all of the boys(all six of them) have unique personalities and play important roles in the story line...as apposed to certain other mangas where supporting characters are pigeon holed and are usually only there for comic relief well to sum up, it's laugh out loud funny and I'd recommend it to anyone

Ouran High School Host Club is about a girl named Haruhi Fujioka who turns out to be the only middle/lower class student actually attending Ouran High! She doesn't exactly look like a "high class" person with her spectacled face, sloppy clothes, and messy hair. It turns out that she was actually trying to find a quiet place to study when suddenly she goes into a room where the six most "beautiful" and rich boys in the school just happened to be. The leader Tamaki is always looking for new recruits for the "host club" or an "organization" of boys who entertain girls in the boring hours after school. Unfortunatly they don't know that Haruhi is a girl and accuse her of being a "boy liker" (DUH). All Haruhi wants to do is to get out of the room when she backs into a 80,000 dollar vase that is about to be auctioned off. Obviously just taking one glance at Haruhi tells everyone that he (she) can't possibly pay back the cost of the vase, so they make him work for them in exchange. Tamaki makes a deal that if Haruhi can get 100 customer requests then they will consider just shrugging off the vase cost. The girls who come in can request who they want to talk too, so Haruhi is going to try her best to get 100 requests for her company. It's just that she is so naturally honest and trusting that she's an instant hit with the girls (who DON'T know she's a girl herself). The story is just so funny and heartwarming to see the relations with everyone build up. Tamaki also grows very fond of Haruhi and so he doesn't want her to just pay her debt and go. For minor offences he adds requests and to keep pulling her by the nose he says things like "if you participate in the christmas dance your debt will be reduced by half" It's really weird that the oldest memeber of the club looks just like a little kid with a teddy bear! Also, since all the members of the club are the richest guys they've never even heard of instant coffee or ramen noodles! It's so funny seeing them struggle with "the way poor people live." This is a really good manga! ^_^