Today’s review is once again written by Guest Reviewer and Yuri fan extraordinaire, Sean Gaffney.

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I’ve been enjoying a manga from Viz, Ouran High School Host Club. The basic premise is that a high school girl is mistaken for a man by the school’s Host Club, a group of bishounen parodies that walk the earth. They induct her into the club, and then resolve to keep her secret after it’s revealed (she wasn’t really hiding it, she just dresses in men’s clothing). The club itself seems designed to part high school girls from their money by pandering to their fantasies.

The manga is filled with yaoi parodies. The two twins are Fred and George from Harry Potter in Japanese clothing, and Hunny and Takashi are a cross between Momiji and Hatori from Fruits Basket and the couple from CLAMP’s Suki. Everyone at some point plays gay for the girls, who all go “SQUEEEEEEEEEE!” just like American yaoi fangirls do. :)

In any case, in Volume 3, Haruhi (our heroine) is accosted by 3 members of the nearby Saint Roberia Women’s Institute White Lily Club (also known as the Zuka Club). They’re the female counterparts to our heroes, and Zuka is short for Takarazuka. The club is known for their dramatic productions. Naturally, the Host Club immediately thinks one thing about these girls: “L-L-Lesbians!?” (Something which, for once, isn’t denied by the girls, at least not in this volume).

They insist they will get Haruhi to join their club instead, and the Host Club are worried, as they’ve wondered before, what with Haruhi wearing male clothing and enjoying the attention of the women who go to the Club, if she’s a lesbian.

This is only one chapter of the volume, but the chapter ends declaring that the Lily Club is a ‘new rival!’, so I presume we’ll see them again. The manga is quite funny, being a broad parody of yaoi and bishounen cliches, with this chapter also parodying yuri. The back says it’s for Hana-Kimi fans, but it reminded me more of Greenwood.

–SG
Viz’s footnote: Lily = YURI!

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Erica here again: I noted some interesting things about this manga when I read it. Notably, the girls of the Zuka Club appear in regular school girl uniforms, but they are imagined by Haruhi and the guys in full-blown Takarazuka outfits. ^_^

And it’s kind of amusing that fans of Hana-Kimi, in which a girl dresses like a boy to gain access to an exclusive boy’s school in order to be with the guy she likes, are assumed to want to read a story about another girl who dresses like a boy and goes to a boy’s school. Now…what kind of person might like that kind of story, in which the major feature is a girl in a suit? I wonder…. Maybe I ought to have someone do a story like that for Yuri Monogatari. ^_^

Again, my thanks to Sean for his guest review!