Ouran High School Host Club 14
Posted: June 28, 2010 Filed under: Ouran High School Host Club 7 Comments »Bisco Hatori – Viz – 2010 – 16+ volumes
Did you ever notice how sometimes… the Achilles’ heel of an artist is immediately apparent? I took one look at the title page and smiled a little, because as well as Tamaki and horses go together, it was immediately apparent they hadn’t appeared because she couldn’t draw them. There was a horse chapter, but I loved the essay in the back where she mentions how bad she is at drawing animals (there’s a wonky-looking tiger in the same picture), and had to have a lot of help from her assistants for the horses.
Also, I love how Hikaru has to scream “in the ‘shoujo manga plot development’ sense!” at Haruhi at one point to make sure she understands what he’s saying. That cracked me up.
Mostly though, we get the serious volume I’ve been craving. Tamaki is still maddeningly obtuse, but he wouldn’t be Tamaki if he wasn’t, and even he’s getting more and more serious about his feelings. We get a real confession out of Hikaru, what seems to be a realization from Haruhi, and a coming-around from Tamaki. Things are much more shoujo-y now, but of course there’s still the mess of Tamaki’s family and sad backstory to deal with before we get the happily ever after.
But even sad backstory is welcome for Tamaki. Even melancholy, he’s still so silly and likable that he more than carries the series through any slow spots. I got a big kick out of Hikaru and Kaoru accusing him of wetting his pants, then him admitting to being prone to “happy squirts” as a boy. It’s so embarrassing, but just so him, too.
But yes. We finally, finally, finally got a fanservice-y volume. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for all this time, even though nothing is yet official. I have a feeling that the next volume won’t have much to do with this one, and will likely be extremely depressing, but all the same, I need my happy end for this series, and I can almost taste it. There can’t be more than a few volumes left. I don’t like everything about it (too many characters, too many gags), but I like Tamaki enough that I’ve been eating new volumes up with a spoon for years and will continue to do so until the end.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
I’m looking forward to this one :)
Its just entering its final arc. Should be good!
Ughh! After the twins, especially Kaoru, my fave, dropped out of the running for Haruhi (apparently because they’d rather see Tamaki/Haruhi be the endgame than try to win her/convince her that they are viable boyfriend material themselves) I’ve emotionally disenganged from the series. It would be nice if Hatori introduced other potential love interests for the other characters–I really like Haruhi’s father’s friend’s fashion obsessed daughter (Mai?) and thought it would be nice if she showed up more often and maybe developed a relationship with one of the twins to keep the plot from being too Tamaki/Haruhi heavy, but alas, that is not to be, and the manga is dissolving into exactly the type of super-serious shojo plot that Hator revelled in parodying at the start of Ouran…
That doesn’t mean I don’t want to see how it all goes down in the end, however! ;)
Oliver: I heard about that! I’m looking forward to it!
Ahavah: That’s true, it is a little unusual that there aren’t more love interests in the story. There are recurring female characters (Renge, Mai, a couple others), but even Mai doesn’t really seem like a love interest for the other boys. The current storyline with a rival for Haruhi is interesting, but I doubt that character will stick around after that situation is resolved. If I’m not mistaken, either Hunni or Mori had a female match in a previous volume, but that girl hasn’t really appeared since, so I don’t really count her. You’re right, though, as much as I like Tamaki, some more romance for the other boys wouldn’t hurt things.
Part of me wonders if Hatori keeps it that way because the fangirls like the boy/boy pairs so much. She seems to shy away from that in any serious context in the story, but I wonder if the angry letters poured in when Mai showed up and threatened things. Which also goes back a little bit to what you said about turning it into the type of series she’s parodying, except she hasn’t quite crossed that particular line yet.
I feel bad for readers who were more interested in the other characters, but for me, Tamaki has always been my favourite, and with the last few volumes he’s just getting more and more wonderful, so seeing the story focus more seriously on him and Haruhi is all good with me (I also love the series very much for spending time on Haruhi’s growth as a character). I worry that if more girls were introduced to pair up with the other host club members, it’d have to be done reeeally carefully (and probably should’ve started a few volumes ago) in order to not look like a cheap trick. Your theory about not breaking up the boy “pairs” is interesting too. The club members are all so close to each other, it’d just feel weird to have new people jumping in at this point (which is probably why I found that Kanoya girl more irritating than I otherwise might).
i’m so glad u quoted hikaru! that opening page of this volume has to be my favorite opening page of any manga i’ve ever read just because he touched on a plot device in shojo manga that always has driven me insane. when some clearly confesses their feelings and not only does the other person not get it…it changes the situation not even a little bit. this was a great volume. made me remember how much i love this series. and there has never been another boy for her other than tamaki. and there never will be.