THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS
Ouran Highschool Host Club is a great series, with loveable characters, a fun story, and pretty art and even prettier boys, this shojo manga succeeded my expectations, but the ending fell a little short for me.
STORY - 8/10
Ouran's story is a unique one, to say the least. it all starts when Haruhi Fujioka, a scholarship student at Ouran highschool, loses her way and stumbles into music room three, where Ouran's Host club resides. Out of shock and embarrassment at entering the wrong classroom, Haru bumps a vase - and it shatters. She is told that that vase cost 80,000 dollars, and she'll have to pay it off by being a host herself. While at first the members of the host club mistake Haru as a boy, they soon to their shock find out the truth. At first only a comedy, Ouran High School Host Club focuses on the shenanigans of this silly club, but in the last 4 volumes, focuses hard on the romantic aspect of the tag "rom-com".
CHARACTERS - 9/10
Whether you are a hardcore Kaoru or Tamaki stan or are here for Hunny and Mori, Ouran has a loveable cast of characters, even if I did get quite tired of Tamaki's narcissism towards the end of the series. Oh! and we can't forget about Haru, the main character in this wacky high school. Haru (or Haruhi) has such a loveable charm around her, and her little flaws like not being able to sing at all just make her even better. I couldn't really care for who Haru ends up with, as long as she's happy, I'm happy. Hunny and Mori all make appearances throughout the series, these third years are polar opposites, but best friends. Hunny, with his three-year-old mind and even smaller body charms all the ladies, but thankfully, I'm not a lady. I enjoyed seeing Hunny's dark side when he's tired, but other than that there were few moments that made me enjoy Hunny much. Mori, on the other hand, while having few lines, is one of my favorites in the series. Tall and quiet, Mori gets the girl charm from his constant care of Hunny. It was also really funny to see Mori talkative when he's tired, that was so fun. Another great character is Kyouya, With his capitalist mindset and head always in the game, my favorite moments with him were his heartfelt ones, though far and in between. And last but certainly not least the twins! Kaoru and Hikaru are staples of the series, and their constant tricks and nagging at Tamaki always put a smile on my face. While the romance aspect of this manga wasn't my favorite, Kaoru as a love interest for Haru was much more interesting for me than Tamaki, where I felt he lacked and there were too many blushing scenes.
ART - 9/10
The art in this series is really refreshing, even though the amount of close-up flower scenes was excessive, Hatori knew it was and used it as a joke. (sorry for the bad quality)
I can't find the "zip zip goes the lips" scene but that scene is just so good..
ENJOYMENT - 7.5/10
The first half of this series is so fun, with so many moments that made me laugh out loud. The second half, however, was still funny but focuses on the shojo of the shojo manga. Still enjoyable, but it just didn't have the same charm as the first 10 books.
OVERALL - 8.5/10
I'd recommend this to fans of rom-coms, or of shojo manga. This series is really, really good, and while the romance of it will turn some people away from it, i'd recommend everyone give it a chance. This is a special series, and i hope the anime has as much charm as the manga was able to pull off. It wasn't Tamaki and Haru together that disappointed me, but how their relationship felt rushed and left me wanting more of the good ol' days, where people weren't fighting for Haru.
