Ouran High School Host Club: Vol. 1 by Bisco Hatori

Book Jacket

In this screwball comedy, a poor girl at a rich kids' school ends up working for the school's swankiest club--and gets mistaken for a boy!

One day, Haruhi, a scholarship student at exclusive Ouran High School, breaks an $80,000 vase that belongs to the "Host Club," a mysterious campus group consisting of six super-rich (and gorgeous) guys.  To pay back the damages, she is forced to work for the club, and it's there that she discovers just how wealthy the members are and how different the rich are from everybody else...

Review

I have already seen the entire season of Ouran High School Host Club already, so reading the manga is just a feel good return to a crazy and hilarious story.  (You can watch the anime on hulu for free.)

This series cracks me up.  A girl has to pretend to be a boy and work for the rich school's host club, where girls pay to spend time with gorgeous guys.  It's kind of a reverse harem, but this never becomes creepy, because the boys have a strange sense of honor.  They genuinely want to make girls happy by allowing them into their awesome presence.  They might be nice, but they definitely aren't humble.

The best part of this series is how satirical it is.  Each guy in the Host Club pretends to be a "type" that girls fangirl over, whether that is the Strong and Silent Mori or the mischieviously funny twins Kaoru and Hikaru.  It kind of makes me facepalm, because these are exactly the heroes who dominate girl's media.

But Hatori doesn't stop with satire.  Throughout the series, each of the boys slowly reveal their true personalities.  They aren't manic dream boys, though that is the front they present to their customers.  They all have insecurities and flaws.  Haruhi is the one who sees past their acts and helps them become something more than just a commodity for other people's enjoyment.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it.  Mostly this is just a really fun and hilarious manga.  In volume one we are introduced to all the characters.  There is a Christmas party, the collision of rich with poor, and two unrequited loves made...requited.

Four out of five instant coffees.

Release Date:  July 2005
Reading Level:  Grade 6+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection:  Not currently part of Dunlap Library's collection.


Don't believe me?  Check out these reviews of Ouran High School Host Club: Vol. 1:

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