Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 10

Ouran is always guaranteed to make me laugh out loud. I literally find myself counting the days until the next installment is released. And now finally it's getting to the good stuff...how will this love triangle play itself out? Well, maybe it's more like a love square...maybe more polygonal than that... Overall, awesome as always!

I just love all the characters in this series and Hatori is so skilled at adding a tiny quirk to someone's expression to make me laugh out loud. Kanazuki is explaining about her curse on Hunny, and the sketch of Nekozawa has those O O eyes like Tamaki's "upset lord" expression usually has...it's just so funny to see the imperturbable Nekozawa (whose eyes are rarely even seen) reacting like the crazy and emotional Tamaki. There's more, but these tiny details just reinforce for me what's the most amusing manga out there. I'd still like to see more Nekozawa and Bossa Nova and less of the obnoxious twins, but...we can't have everything, can we? I'm eagerly looking forward to volume 11 so I can find out how Kasanoda and Nekozawa do in a sports tournament!!

This volume begins with a Hunny-centric episode, as Black Magic Club member Kanzuki is convinced that Hunny "stole her soul" since she can't stop thinking about him. Since she can only relate to people in terms of curses, she decides to steal his soul back (even though her curses turn out to really just be elementary school love charms). Most of the rest of the volume involves a new character, Mei, the daughter of Misuzu (the transvestite pension owner from volume 5). Mei wears too much make-up, has a very fake tan and is a bit rough around the edges, but also brings a nice new dynamic to the manga. Misuzu enlists Haruhi to be Mei's friend and the other Host Club members of course decide to get involved as well, especially Tamaki, who decides to secretly help heal the estranged relationship between Mei and her father. The last episode sets up the Sports Festival arc that is going to play a large part in Volume 11. After a confrontation between Kyoya and Takeshi Kuze (the football club president), Tamaki decides that a sports festival is needed to resolve the issue and the host club members get divided up between the red and white teams (Kyoya, Hunni & Kaoru on white, and Mori, Hikaru, Tamaki and Haruhi on red). Every time that I think Ouran can't get any better, it does. Not only is this volume hilariously funny, but the romantic entanglements and character development continues, with Haruhi and Tamaki getting closer to figuring out they like each other (although they're still both very dense) and another host club member realizing he also has feelings for Haruhi. In terms of character development, Kaoru in particular has some nice moments, both with Haruhi and with Hikaru. There are also appearances by Nekozawa and Kasanoda (who is now my favorite minor character) and greater insight into the relationship between the twins and their parents. Also, check out Mori's love of baby chicks. It's never really mentioned, but you can see him looking (and apparently purchasing) a baby chick at the summer festival and the baby chick is sitting on Mori's head when they are eating cake at the twins' house. In the last episode, he's reading a book on how to raise a chicken. Since Mori doesn't really talk much, I think it's cute that he's getting a silent subplot.

Another great volume from Bisco Hatori! Fans of this series will love reading this volume over and over again. First, we get another more indepth look at the Black Magic Club! Plenty of fun scenes for Nekozawa fans. We meet another Black Magic Club member, Kanazuki, who is in love with Hunny. You'll enjoy every scene of 'black magic' she does in her quest for Hunny's soul. In the next episode, we meet Mei Yasumura, Misuzu's daughter. For the next few episodes, we get to see more of Haruhi outside of the Host Club as she interacts with Mei and helps Mei in her crush on Tamaki. In episode 44, we get to travel back to Misuzu's pension and meet Dark Lord #3 (#1 being Kyoya and #2 Bossa Nova). Episode 45 brings us to the Twin's mansion and we get to see a bit more into the world of them and us. Somebody also finally admits out loud that they also like Haruhi. All in all, it's a very good volume, any and every Host Club fan should jump on the chance to buy it! Contains Episode 41 through 46 and ends with a great cliffhanger. I'm already awaiting volume 11 in november!