Ouran High School Host Club Volume 1: Written and illustrated by Bisco Hatori
Hatori, B. (2005). Ouran High School Host Club (v. 1). VIZ Media. ISBN 9781591169154
Ouran High School Host Club follows Haruhi, a young scholarship girl, at an elite school for the rich. One day Haruhi breaks an $80,000 vase that belongs to the "Host Club" and is forced to work off her debt as a boy after being mistaken for one. We follow Haruhi as she works off her debt to the six very rich and very handsome boys who run the club.
Ouran is the first manga book I have ever read. I knew coming into it that you read the book from right to left, but I was still very grateful that Bisco Hatori included a guide on reading the pages! It is very impressive that Hatori has written and illustrated such a widely-known manga series by herself. The art world in the manga is very detailed, and despite having many main characters, Hatori has the ability to make every one of her characters unique and identifucable.
I personally found the manga to be a bit overwhelming. You are introduced to many characters at once, and at times, there are too many textboxes, making it a bit difficult to read. The pacing of the book was also very fast. As soon as one plot line was introduced, something else followed not too soon after. The manga was humorous at times, though. There is a scene where Haruhi introduces some of her "common food," as the rich boys refer to it, and in this case, it was instant ramen. The boys were mindblown over the fact that it was instant and demanded she shows them more of her "common food." One nice feature that I enjoyed was that at the end of the manga, Bisco Hatori has a page for the main characters where she drew them and listed fun facts about them such as their height, astrological sign, favorite foods, favorite subjects, etc. I might have enjoyed this book more if I had read those pages first. Overall, the book was a bit faced paced for me, but it did have some good points.
While Ouran was not my favorite, that does not mean it can't be for you! While I could not find professional reviews, I found multiple blog websites that raved positively about Ouran, such as the one at Manga Librarian! If you enjoyed Ouran, then you will most definitely enjoy seeing the anime show. Mangas similar to Ouran include the series Fruit Baskets or School Rumble.
Sources:
https://mangalibrarian.com/2019/03/12/review-ouran-high-school-host-club/
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