Shut up. I'm not crying, you're crying. ( )

Volume seventeen of Ouran has a lot riding on its shoulders, being the penultimate volume before this enormously popular fan favorite shoujo series comes to a close. Storylines have to at least show they are coming to a draw; characters have to come to major revelations that can bring their respective arcs to a smart close. And what Bisco Hatori does in this volume is all of the above and then some; her second-to-last entry in the Ouran series is a beautiful portrait of the entire cast as a whole and brings many major plots to their respective conclusions – and then ends on a note that will have shippers of a certain persuasion clawing at their bookshelves, wishing they had the last book already. This is Ouran at its finest and a good sign that this series will be bowing out on a high note very soon.

You can read the rest of my review over at Nagareboshi Reviews. Note: rest of the review contains spoilers. ( )

Tamaki: ABOUT BLOODY TIME, DUDE. Geez. And nice to see the Kanoya storyline resolved itself so nicely and without any icky things (most shoujo would have made Kanoya into a villain to make Haruhi look better but thank God Ouran is a little classier than that). The cliffhanger of this volume has me really wanting book 16! Poor Mori . . . ( )

Lots happen in this volume to start ending the series. Tamaki and his grandmother at last reach a place of peace and maybe even love. Tamaki gets to see his mother again. Kyoya yells at people, which was fun. And Haruhi confesses to Tamaki in the last panel. Good times all around. I feel that Tamaki's family problems have been handled very well and that he got some good character time and growth. I was very glad that Kyoya yelled at Tamaki's father because he was not a good father in this volume. In addition we get to know what Kyoya plans to do with his future and how he is going to become the head of the Ohtori family. Poor Haruhi has some anxious feelings about telling Tamaki how she feels about him and it a very funny and welcome plot moment. Only one more volume left.

I give this volume a Five out of Five stars. ( )

Lot of feels in this one, but still so much Host Club ridiculousness. Haruhi is cute. Yeah. ( )