Ouran High School Host Club Vol. 14

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By Bisco Hatori. Released in Japan as “Ouran Koukou Host Club” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine LaLa. Released in North America by Viz.

It’s always very difficult for me when a volume of Ouran comes out at the same time as a volume of Special A. The sheer denseness of the two heroines threatens to overwhelm my senses. Luckily they’re dense in completely different ways. And Haruhi, in this volume, finally seems to be wising up and at least starting to try to admit her feelings.

It is unfortunate that the best joke in the entire volume is on page 5. But it’s such a great joke. Yes, Hikaru, you really do have to be that explicit when confessing to Haruhi. Haruhi’s shock and terror when she finally gets it is also great (and a bit of a running gag, as we see her having similar expressions throughout, usually whenever she thinks about Tamaki and love).

The other best moment in the manga is Tamaki’s, and for once it’s not when he’s being an idiot. We’ve seen that when he’s not in complete denial Tamaki can be an incredibly sweet and sensitive person, always knowing exactly what to say. He knows exactly what’s going through her mind when she confesses her insecurities, and his advice to her is absolutely first-rate. And, in a more serious vein, he also gets (for once!) some good self-analysis in at the end, when he confesses his own self-doubts to Kyoya, and the whole ‘we’re a family!’ schtick that has been a mine of rich humor previously is inverted to show its sad roots.

Over the past couple of volumes we’ve begun to see Hatori-san starting to wrap things up. It’s taking forever (the manga is still running in Japan, and has only just announced it’s starting the ‘final arc’), but we are at least seeing some resolution, as Haruhi here answers the first of her suitors. That’s probably why the volume is so Tamaki-heavy. He has the longest way to go, having been a comedic character in denial for so long, and although he doesn’t say it out loud, we sense here that he finally really does get his true feelings for Haruhi.

This volume is not perfect, of course. Several of the plotlines here seem to be things that were meant to be longer and then aborted. The kidnapping barely lasts long enough for its victim to be rescued, and Haruhi’s lookey-likey reads as the hideous plot device that she is. I also hope, despite needing to wrap things up, that future volumes balance out the host club a little better, as this one is definitely overbalanced towards its main couple-in-denial. Oh yes, and the tora + uma pun is indeed one of the most wretched in the entire series.

Still, after many volumes of Tamaki being in lala happy playtime land in his own mind, it’s good to see him straighten up and realize what’s going on. Same with Haruhi. Unfortunately, this means that they’re both going through a bit of angst, but such is the way of love. Definitely looking forward to the next volume to see how it plays out.

Manga the week of 7/14

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Back to Wednesday shipping for us in the U.S., and a surprisingly quiet 2nd week. Probably as a lot of the Yen stuff shipped in the first week.

Dark Horse has the 5th volume in their alt-universe Evangelion, Shinji Ikari Raising Project. I dunno, I found this pretty unsatisfying. More to the point, it’s the first of a whole string of alt-universe Evangelions from Kadokawa, with another meant for teenage girls (read: heavy on the yaoi subtext) due out in North America this fall. Likewise, Haruhi Suzumiya now has 2 spinoffs and counting. Is this the hot new trend? Or more likely, has this always happened and it’s just they’re all being licensed here now?

Look, a CMX release! Wow, so it was all a dream after all… oh, it’s just Megatokyo. Scratch that. That said, this volume does collect a particularly good arc of Megatokyo, so recommended to those of us who enjoy seeing Largo and Erika interact.

Digital Manga Publishing has another in their regular non-yaoi line of books from Doki Doki with Vol. 1 of Wolf God. However, it is a title that ran in the magazine Wings, so I’d expect there’s likely some gay subtext scattered here and there throughout anyway.

And Viz has its Sunday manga. We have a new series, Hyde & Closer, which has one of the most fascinating teddy bears you’ll see in manga. And is only 7 volumes, so is not that much of an investment. (Viz’s new Sunday series all seem to be finished in Japan, possibly in an effort to avoid licensing epic but mediocre selling series that end up being 78 volumes.) Inu Yasha continues its push to the end, as it hits the Vol. 50 mark. And Inubaka is cute fanservicey fun, provided you don’t mind a lot of dog urine in your fanservice.

But really, my big rec this week is Black Lagoon 9. This catches us up with the Japanese releases, and finishes off this current Roberta revenge arc. The subtle nuances of plot and characterization that manga readers desire… are not really anywhere to be found. But no one reads Black Lagoon to see Revy and Fabiola have philosophical discussions (although they do in fact do that here). There is much gunplay and mayhem here, with more cool fighting women than you can possibly believe.

Twin Spica Volume 2

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By Kou Yaginuma. Released in Japan as “Futatsu no Spica” by Media Factory, serialized in the magazine Comic Flapper. Released in North America by Vertical.

I will admit, most of this volume is pretty much predictable. Remember that shot in Volume 1, where you saw the teacher, filled with good will, come to Asumi’s name and his face became a blank mask? Yeah, if you do, you can likely guess the rest of this volume – the main parts, at least.

Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The author is having the same struggle as his young protagonist. Having started the journey, we now discover how tough it is. After all, if it was easy to be an astronaut, everyone would do it. Luckily, our heroine is made of sturdy stuff. Her childhood jogs give her awesome stamina, and she finds the astrogation fascinating rather than dull as dirt. She’d risk being a bit too perfect were it not for her fragile self-esteem.

I’m not quite sure if the teacher is going to be one of the all-bad variety who gets replaced, or will be one who learns he has wronged everyone through the power of heart and becomes a better person. With this sort of story, it could go either way. Right now, however, he’s clearly in the giant jerk phase, and is not being too subtle about it either. Indeed, several of the other teachers are calling him on why he’s being so gung ho about getting rid of this one student.

Meanwhile, we get more set-up. Clearly Marika has issues, and she’s certainly the most interesting of the supporting cast. As has been noted by a few other reviewers, a lot of this volume reads like a standard school manga, with bullying, grumpy teachers, and overcoming hardships through true grit – just with added SPACESHIPS! However, I trust the author to take us where he’s going at his own pace.

As with Volume 1, about 1/3 of the volume is devoted to short stories with the same cast the author wrote prior to Twin Spica being picked up as a series. They’re not quite as out-of-the-park awesome as the previous volume’s, but they’re both excellent, giving us an idea of exactly how the disaster of 10 years earlier affected not just Asumi but everyone around her. I do hope we see more of Kasane in future volumes.

There’s a bit of a sophomore slump in this volume, but that’s not uncommon with longer works. Much of what we see here is setup, with one big plot gun fired at the end of Chapter 8 to serve as a cliffhanger into Volume 3. Will Asumi be able to overcome everything? Still well worth reading.