A comiXologist Recommends:
Emily Forster recommends

Ouran High School Host Club

Haruhi Fujioka, a scholarship student at the Ouran school for the rich elite, only wants to study in peace. But from the moment she breaks an expensive vase and is assumed to be a boy, her life is changed. Breaking the vase is catastrophic - it’s worth thousands more than she can afford! Being seen as a guy, she really doesn’t mind. So to work off her debt, she’s got to keep up the appearance of a male student and entertain young ladies as a member of the school’s popular “host club.”

The boys of the host club are beautiful, super-rich, and, in Haruhi’s eyes, incredibly foolish. The hosts serve tea, flirt with patrons, and dabble in homoerotic displays with one another, to the swooning delight of their guests. At the center of the elaborate performance is their “Prince,” Tamaki Suoh, the others caught up in his ludicrous schemes to bring happiness to everyone.

Haruhi couldn’t be more unimpressed. She thinks it’s all totally pointless. But, okay, maybe she’s having a little fun.

Bisco Hatori’s 18 volume series is a loving parody of shojo manga tropes and stock characters, with plenty of winks at shonen-ai (boys’ love) to boot. If the words “shojo manga” mean absolutely nothing to you, never fear; Ouran makes a surprisingly good introduction, as it both exemplifies and pokes fun at just about every hallmark of the genre. If enormous glittering eyes and pages overflowing with flowers bewilder you - but you’re a bit curious as to what the appeal is - this is the book for you. By the end, you’ll be a shojo expert, and even if some of the parody elements go over your head, the slapstick madness of Ouran is sure to get you laughing one way or another. There’s real drama hiding beneath the over-the-top comedy as well - expect to be genuinely moved by the same exact cliché that was roasted for laughs only pages earlier. The result is a heartfelt story of friendship, family, and identity, spun out of pure silliness as if by magic.

For more gender-bending romantic comedy, check out Hana Kimi. And if you, like the girls who frequent the host club, become starry-eyed and faint at the idea of two cute boys in love, try Classmates, My Sempai, or Rainy Day Love.

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Emily Forster is a Digital Editor at ComiXology and a cartoonist. She likes comics about food and fights to the death.