Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 1

Given how popular Ouran High School Host Club is, I have a strong feeling this manga series gets better with each volume. After all, having a rocky start is not unheard of for many popular series.

But that still doesn't take away the fact that I had a difficult time getting invested in this story. From the premise alone, the plot seemed like something I'd greatly enjoy. But the way the actual story was executed on paper left more to be desired. The characters were not very fleshed out, and in hindsight felt somewhat like caricatures.

I think the layout could have also been more polished. The composition of dialogue/text and art seemed unbalanced. The text would often overpower the art in terms of how much space it took up in a panel, which made it difficult for me to digest the story through visual means. The events that take place also felt a bit all over the place, like a bunch of different plot points were jam-packed into a tiny volume. So this inevitably led to the pacing feeling off.

The story wasn't all bad, because the plot here is something I'd definitely enjoy if it were just executed more sophisticatedly. For now, I'll give the anime a shot because consuming the same story in a different format might work better for me.