By BrightBlueInk 1 year, 8 months ago
A few days ago, shoujo magazine Lala confirmed that its September 24th issue would feature the final chapter of Bisco Hatori’s Ouran High School Host Club. In case you’re behind on your shoujo manga, Ouran HSHC is a reverse harem series about a “commoner” named Haruhi who attends an exclusive school for the ultra rich thanks to a scholarship. Through a wacky series of events, Haruhi ends up owing a debt to a self-styled “Host Club” at the school. The ditzy leader, Tamaki, doesn’t immediately realize that Haruhi is a girl due to her boyish haircut and clothes, and so decides that she should join the host club to pay off her debt. Since a host club is basically a place where good looking guys chat with girls for a fee, Haruhi has to crossdress and pretend to be a boy in order to stay in the club and continue to work off her debt. With this premise, Ouran HSHC takes a piercing look at the topic of gender identity in Japan and….oh wait, sorry, mostly it just parodies shoujo manga along with having plenty of romantic comedy hijinx. ( I guess there are a few moments that tackle gender identity, but it’s mostly typical but very good romantic comedy.) Anyway, this manga is one of the current best sellers in both Japan and the states, so the fact that it’s ending is pretty big news.
Now, I’ll be honest—I’ve read a few volumes of the manga (released in the US by Viz, by the way), but most of my familiarity of the series comes from seeing the anime that was animated by Bones and is licensed by Funimation. I wanted to give a more well-rounded perspective, a fan’s perspective, so I decided to ask my friends on plurk if they had any comments about it. The comments I got were along the lines of “Wait, it’s finally ending?? Who is Haruhi dating?” before one of my friends jumped in and spoiled who the lucky guy was. I’m sure she got her information through completely legal means.
WINK WINK, NUDGE NUDGE!!!
So yes, the big question is really “Who did Haruhi end up with?” You too can find out by picking up a copy of Lala and practicing your Japanese, or waiting until Viz releases the final volumes here in the US of A. And those are the only methods, of course! (Shh, Viz might be watching. Or the writer of Black Lagoon.) Along with the ending of the manga come some pretty cool celebrations being done by Lala. They’ve had a fanart contest, as well as an opportunity for fans to vote for their favorite lines from the manga, which are being recorded by the cast of the anime and released as a CD via a mail-away offer. The seiyuu in the anime are all stellar, so I’m really jealous of the Japanese fans. They get all the cool stuff…
If you want to find out more about this series, you can check out the Wikipedia page, check out Viz’s official site, or if you’re a total nerd like me, read all the tropes in the series at the TVTropes Wiki and then lose several hours discovering which member of the Host Club is ‘Legal Jailbait’ and other useless but fun labels.
Club, Host, Ouran
never read but ok
again. looks weird. but ok.
@zifon that is funny and a bit mean
zifon13
1 year, 4 months agoactually, it finish sterilizing on the internet in oct. you can find it on mangareader.net. i <3 host club and was sad it ended. and i know who haruhi ends up with and can hold it over my friends heads till it comes out in volumes. lots of fun!