Ouran Koukou Vol.2

Synopsis:

A new volume, a new chapter. Things starts off with Tamaki wanting Haruhi to turn back into a “girl”. However, he soon realizes that she will not be able to join the host club anymore if she is not a “guy”. Furthermore, Tamaki is a 2^nd year student, whereas Haruhi & the twins are not only 1^st years, but classmates as well.

The first chapter concentrates on the physical examination that all students must undergo. It was really incredible to see the length the hosts go to just to cover up Haruhi’s real identity – Tamaki even don a brown wig to pretend as her! That part was hilarious!

Another interesting chapter is the last one in this volume where the host club decided to have a holiday at a resort under the Ootori’s (Kyouya’s family) Group Corp. which is shaped to be like a tropical island (a fake one, naturally). Of course, it turns out that the resort is still under development, and that Kyouya brought them there as guinea pigs. Through yet another series of mishaps, Hunny went missing and everybody started searching for him.

All in all, the 2^nd volume brought new revelations regarding the main characters – we see that Haruhi is now able to recognize both the twins (she’s the only one able to in the entire manga) and could even point out the differences between them both. There was also much explanation about Hunny & Mori-senpai. Turns out that they’re cousins and the the Morinozuka family have been serving the Haninozuka family for generations before they became family through marriage. Hunny is also a world-class martial artist (even better than Mori!) despite his size and Lolita image. We can also see that Kyouya is a manipulative guy who’s make use of people for his own gain – but we all still love him, don’t we?

Review:

More character development here. We were revealed to more insight to our host’s stories, especially the one with Hunny & Mori. Hatori-san is taking her time slowly to bring about the real plot behind all the sub-plots. Only a sip was given, not even a mouthful... it just makes me want to skip all the front volumes and jump straight to the important parts. However, that means I will miss all the bits & pieces which when joint together, actually makes the manga quite enjoyable and which will connect us with the characters. Unfortunately, there are parts which I get bored easily.

The drawings are still not up to par here. It was only in the later volumes (when the manga has gain a steady fan-base) that more care was taken of for the artwork. This is very similar to mangas such as Hana Yori Dango (in which the artwork of the earlier volumes are “poison” to the eyes but the back volumes are beautiful) where the mangaka is only able to afford to hire assistants after the popularity of their work increase.

Labels: Ouran

Posted at 10:04 PM