Diamond Head Vol. 2

Synopsis:

It was almost Christmas. A new guy, Setsu (very good looking as well), appeared in school. He turned out to be an old friend of Leica & the gang who moved away 3 years ago. A new case regarding plagiarism of an artwork was filed. Setsu was invited to join back in the judicature club but he refused.

Although the rest of the members wanted to finish the case quickly, but Leica requested that they postpone it to the next semester – not giving a clear reason for his request. Back at the art gallery, Kirihiko caught Setsu looking at the 2 similar artworks and asked if he found anything. The former replied that he wasn’t looking at all and said that it was a pain to be with the guys.

The chapter ended with Katsuma asking Nanao to go out with him and Leica again asking Setsu to join the club.

He managed to “persuade” Setsu and the gang went to investigate the plagiarism case. During the investigation, Setsu was drawn to the case and requested to be allowed to debate in the trial. It seems that he have solved the case. Both the plaintiff and the defendant were friends who lived nearby. The reason their artwork was similar was because both took their inspiration from the scenery of the road where they parted each day when walking home together. At the end of the trial, Setsu officially join the judicature club.

It was the start of the new semester when Nanao (now in 2^nd year) found out through her classmates that she is dating Katsuma. Seems like he used Nanao as an excuse to turn down the girl who confessed to him. In retaliation, the girl decided to file a claim against him for hurting her emotionally. The trial is a total hoo-haa (sorry for that phrase..hehhee) as Nanao rejected Katsuma in front of everyone. Another girl – Mizuki Miyamora – ask to be allowed to join the judicature club because she has a crush on Setsu. However, she was turned down as well.

In the following chapter, Leica was absent. Worried, the gang decided to visit him. The found him lying on the floor without his pants on! It was all a big joke when they found out that Leica was just hungry! He ran out of energy while dressing. So each one tried to cook for him but it was a failure!!!! Finally – hehehe – I won’t reveal this ending. Read the manga to find out!

Reviews:

Hahaha... This is a very nice volume. There’s plenty of laughs especially for the the last 2 chapters where the girl file a claim against Katsuma & also the one where Leica was hungry. As much as I like the seriousness of the manga when it deals with its own issues, I still love a good laugh here and there. Setsu is a good addition and nicely introduced.

One thing I realized about this manga is that even though Katsuma is a potential love interest of Nanao, he seems to be the only character that doesn’t pull my interest.

I like the scenes with Leica & Kirihiko, and even Setsu who just appeared in this volume, but I can never remember Katsuma’s name... (I have to refer back to the manga over and over again!)This is very strange considering that Katsuma received equal “screen time” as the other characters. Hmm... have to think back on this one.

A note aside: I apologize for the error made for Diamond Head Volume 1 review. It was stated that this manga was 3 volumes long, but in actual – it is 5 volumes long. Sorry for the mistake.

Labels: Diamond Head

Posted at 5:55 PM

Ouran Koukou Vol.4 & 5

Synopsis:

To continue from the previous volume, Ranka caught Tamaki & Haruhi in a very “weird” position. Naturally poor Tamaki have to suffer for the entire chapter! We learn more on why Haruhi became so independent, even as a 9 year old kid. Tamaki & Ranka did have a little Father-to-Father talk, although that didn’t last long (hehehe).

The 2^nd chapter was about Honey-senpai having a cavity (around Valentine’s day, no less!) and the entire Host Club was banned from sweets. Chapter 3 was a parody of Alice in Wonderland, whereas Chapter 4 told of how the Newspaper Club tried to sabotage the Host Club. In this chapter, Haruhi also found out about how powerful the Suou’s (Tamaki’s family) is – and that Ouran High was actually owned by Suou’s family.

The start of volume 5 details on how Haruhi’s exam ranking fell to the 3^rd. Therefore, she might be expelled (since scholarship’s students have to be a the top of their class). Kyouya invited the top female student of his year – Ayame to teach Haruhi for her make-up test. Turns out that Ayame has some kind of grades complex against Tamaki (he’s always the 2^nd in the class whereas she’s 3^rd). But she also has some sort of crush for him (so cute!!!). All ends well though, and Haruhi manage to clear the make-up test.

The next 3 chapters were set in Karuizawa where Haruhi was working for summer vacation. The Host Club followed her there. And old junior high classmate of Haruhi turned up, which made Hikaru & Kaoru extremely jealous.

In the last chapter of volume 5, a little girl – Kirimi – appeared and thought that Tamaki was her “heroic” older brother. Turns out that her brother was actually Nekozawa (remember the dark, scary guy who always wear a robe & had a cat puppet on his hand always?), the president of the black magic club. This chapter regales about how the host club tried to bring the siblings together again (Kirimi hates her brother because she can’t stand dark scary things)

Reviews:

This summary comprises of both volume 4 & 5. In both of these volumes, I notice that the drawings are extremely messy – as in there’s just too much to see.
However, the stories are interesting. We get to see how Haruhi was when she was a child. Kyouya was extremely scary when he got woken up “too early”, and other little things. Tamaki did a lot of sulking here – I can see why so many readers find him annoying, but I think him more as endearing and yes – very idiotic as well.

I find that the chapter 3 in volume 4 – the parody on Alice in Wonderland – quite a waste of space. I would rather that the mangaka continues with the story. Maybe she fresh out of ideas or something.

Looking forward to the next volume!

Labels: Ouran

Posted at 12:51 PM