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Ouran Kouku High School Host Club, Volume 5Reviewed by Evan Nino Mapoy
Haruhi, a poor girl at a rich kids' school, is forced to repay an $80,000 debt by working for the school's swankiest, all-male-club—as a boy! There, she discovers just how wealthy the six members are and how different the rich are from everybody else... In this volume, Haruhi's grades fall and she is in Jeopardy of losing her scholarship at Ouran. Each member of the Host Club scrambles to become her tutor, but Haruhi picks a female student, Ayame, to help her. Haruhi's time is now spent with Ayame who can't stand Tamaki. Can Tamaki charm his way into Ayame's good graces so the Host Club can spend time with their favorite member? For anyone that's a fan of the anime adaption, just remember that the anime adaptation began while the manga was still in the early stages of serialization. This is common in a lot of anime's. What this usually means is that the anime will occasionally take a different route/storyline or have different or conflicting characters due to time and or censorship. These constraints aren't an issue with manga serialization. With that out of the way, Viz Media's translation and editing of Ouran High School Host Club is really good. One thing I've always been impressed with is their translation of the Bisco Hatori's notes. Occasionally the notes are left out of some translations due to either time constraint with translation, editing or the licensor felt that there was no need for them. Another thing I really enjoyed was the specific fonts they used, and the fact that they felt it was necessary to translate and edit SFX. It's a real change and I don't know if it's a difference in how men and women percieve a good edit. I find more shounen manga leave the SFX unedited because they felt it was unnecessary and the majority of male audiences still enjoyed the manga nonetheless. Volume 5 is really interesting because it tries to focus more on the Hiitachin twins relationship to Haruhi and how Haruhi affects their own personal relationship. It's really surprising and it also helps the reader differentiate between Hikaru and Kaoru more. You also get to see a relative of Haruhi's who is an Okama ( ie. Cross-Dresser. Homosexual, etc.. ). You can start to see why Haruhi thinks the way she does in regards to gender roles and I believe it's what Bisco Hatori wanted to show. One thing that really captured my attention and interest was Hikaru's date with Haruhi. It's really sweet and refreshing to see Haruhi all dressed up and Hikaru trying to just “get-by” on a date with Haruhi. As a man, you just wanted to cheer him and persevere. Another really fun chapter is when the Host Club tries to repair the relationship with Nekozawa and his younger sister. His sister is adorably cute and the fact that she say's things she's learned from Adult Shoujo Manga is equally entertaining and adds to the “Moe” factor. Nekozawa really earned points in character development and made me like him a little more in this chapter. And last but not least, there is an extra chapter at the end of Volume 5, whos show's Mori-senpai when he's tired. And the fact that when he's tired he has a complete change of character has got to be extremely funny and entertaining
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Artist(s): Bisco Hatori
Get it if you liked Volume 1-4, but be aware that there is a little more “seriousness” especially concerning the Twins and their relationship to Haruhi. But don't worry, Tamaki won't disappoint.
