Happy Hustle High, Vol. 1 (H3 School!, #1) (2024)

3,5

I've read Happy Hustle High at least twice before and I loved it. I remember having all of the feelings and totally shipping it. Rereading is a tricky thing, though, because sometimes you find new things to love and everything just gets better though. Sometimes, however, where there once was love, there now is confusion. I no longer find this series charming.

The beginning is still a lot of fun with the headstrong Hanabi, but I find her romance with Yasu tepid. She goes from being really strong to being really "girly" and relying on Yasu for everything. It's all sort of summed up by the chapter where the girls of the school get together to scare off perverts, but the resolution has the guys coming out to offer to protect them. I don't really like the message that sends.

I really didn't see whatever I saw in this series before this time around, which saddens me.

It's been a while since I've been genuinely surprised by, and able to enjoy, a high school rom-com manga. I never knew Happy Hustle High existed (how it slipped past teen me, I'll never know, she would have been all over this) until I watched a video from DynamicDylan on YouTube and he brought it up as a series he's read and enjoyed. It sounded interesting enough and the few pages of art from the manga that he shared on-screen were fun enough that the first thing I did next was check Thriftbooks and order a copy of the first book.

High school rom-com and even just high school drama titles in manga tend to be very hit-or-miss for me these days. The majority of that is probably just due to the fact that I'm older and past that stage of life, so I cannot relate as well to it. Another part of it is that I feel like a lot of these stories tend to bleed together due to an oversaturation in the genre of the same tropes getting reused over and over again. But honestly, this first volume of Happy Hustle High feels like an actual breath of fresh air that I needed. I enjoy all these characters (and outside of the sports-loving nature, teen me would have related hardcore to our MC, Hanabi Oroza,) and I do feel like this volume managed to pack a lot into just 186 pages. The storytelling is very well-balanced and fast-paced without moving at a breakneck speed, and it took me no time at all to fall in love with it.

Will I order the next volume? I hope so, because I definitely enjoyed this one enough to want to see where the rest of the story goes.

So fun! Good art, and pretty funny story. The romance is so cute and entertaining! 4 stars!

Very cute shoujo manga about a girl's school and boy's school that merge. Tomboy Hanabi, who is admired and depended on by all her peers, is looking forward to falling in love finally. Yasuaki is the vice president of the student council (student council is a big deal in Japan); he's good at everything he does, seems to dislike girls, and spends his time surfing. Their paths keep crossing and both quickly develop feelings for each other, but Yasuaki is awkward and a bit distant, and Hanabi is very naive and energetic.

With a lot of these shoujo stories, the guy is a little too aggressive and treats the girl a little too badly for me to enjoy it. Also, it usually takes too long for them to acknowledge to themselves that they like one another. Here, by the end of the volume, the two are at least getting to know one another and pal around, and each is aware that he/she has feelings for the other. So far so good, although it ends with a misunderstanding between them that could either get blown off in the next volume or really derail things for a while. Darn cliffhangers.

This volume comprises:
ch.1: The merging of the two schools is announced, Hanabi meets Yasuaki, and the girl student council asks Hanabi to join and help them deal with the male side.
ch.2: Hanabi agrees to convince the male student council to change the No Dating rule, which means she has to persuade Yasuaki. Her first kiss is involved in this one.
ch.3: Tokihisa and Hanabi face off against Yasuaki on the tennis court to determine who will be the next vice president.
ch.4: After a perm goes awry, Hanabi stays home playing video games. Yasuaki gets worried and visits.

This never ended. I mean Rie Takada failed at finishing the series, which was understandable. It was quite bad.

cute shoujo with the typical merging school plot. But, its actually worth reading because I love the female main character. She's really tough. And the guy is droolworthy

"What a spaz! ... I've never met a girl like her. 💕"

I read a complaint somewhere about Rie Takada that she draws all of her guys hot and her girls cartoony. I don't see the problem. Her female characters are brash, impulsive, upbeat, a little outrageous, and get into all kinds of embarrassing mischief which makes their "chibi forms" hilarious. I wish more of her manga was available in English translation - but I've read all that is, and she's one of my favorites.

HHH is about a girls' school that is forced to go co-ed to avoid bankruptcy. Tomboy Hanabi takes it in stride and even puts the boys in their place. That is, until she finds herself falling for an aloof surfer and doing whatever she can to impress him. She even worries if her lips were chapped when she receives CPR. Who does that? The surfing sequence made me laugh out loud, and the pacing of the artwork and character reactions are so well done!

"Aw, who cares what you think? So I'm pushy and loud and hair-impaired! I'm still a girl!"

I didn’t like a lot of this, but I liked the last few chapters a LOT.

I hated how the MC fell for any guy for like no reason??? One of them actually works out well with her because of how the story was laid out.

Funny story - I actually came across the first 32 pages in a VIZ MEDIA “Sneak Peak” that I found at a local gaming/bookshop. I thought it was definitely something and worth a shot, since I liked the MC’s personality. At the time I had been reading Sailor Moon (super fluffy) so it was a nice change.

my first managa!

it's a 4.5 rating for sure. the beginning was kinda iffy but it got better and i totally fangirled over the romantic interests in the book!

it was super cute & hanabi is a true spirit animal and i love her character and how wild she is!

i'm so angry at the cliff hanger, kinda felt random but guess i gotta pick up the second volume to understand better!! can't wait

3.5 stars. Funny series (all this mangakas series are), good story and lots of action. Liked this pretty well but finally decided to sell in Dec 2017.

Happy Hustle High is a dirty pleasure, a sweet romance with characters that are hilarious and great. Give it a chance, you won't be disappointed.

4 stars. Besides one "nope" thing done by the president, I loved it.

Ini lucu sih, female leadnya kek reog gabisa diem wkwkwk

I’ve read this series a few times and absolutely love it. It has a great and cute story will most likely read it again!

OMG I love this one.
I laugh a lot. Love those chibi pics, super cute and got me laugh a lot.

Good series, but the sexualization in certain areas I felt was a bit unnecessary

This is the first volume of the series, featuring our protagonist, Hanabi Ozora, she of the big hair and even bigger eyes. All-girls high school has merged with boys-only elite school Meibi High. Hanabi is a tomboy who in this volume is convinced to become a student council representative since she's the only girl who has the guts to deal with the male council reps already in place at Meibi.

This is a pleasant enough bit of fluff reading. If you enjoy shojo manga, this offers no real surprises, but is competently done and enjoyable. There is the predictable budding romance between Hanabi and one of her new student council colleagues. There is the usual misunderstanding getting them both off on the wrong foot, and the typical resolutions working to get this couple together. Although there isn't anything new here, it still is a fun read, easy to get through with no extra thinking needed.

That ending! I can not even describe how (pleasantly) shocked I was.
I ship Hanabi and Yasuaki.
The art work was also very nice. I have always loved Rie Takada's drawing style. However, I did like the art work more in Punch! or Gaba Kawa, but the drawing was still amazing in Happy Hustle High as well.
Unfortunately, My local library only has the first volume so it looks like I will be buying the rest of them, but I think this series will definitely be worth it.
If you have not read this then I'd definitely recommend it. It seems like an amazing romance manga, and is on the fast track of making it to my list of favorites!

I used to love this series when I was a teenager. Now I just think it falls a little flat. It's okay but nothing special.

Hanabi's all girl school is about to be combined with an all boys school. One guy doesn't say hello back to her and suddenly she is obsessed with him. But he tells her he doesn't like or talk to girls, which lasts about all of two minutes before he is letting Hanabi beat him at tennis and skipping school to play video games with her.

It ends on a bit of a twist with a prank being played on them. I want to see what happens next (I can't remember) but I'm not massively excited about it.

Happy Hustle High Vol. 01
by Takada Rie

So, after watching Princess Hours, suddenly I really want to read a shoujo manga. Then, I remembered about H3 School, one of my favorite manga in high school.

At first, I really don’t remember how Yasuaki and Hanabi end up being so close ㅋㅋㅋ And I don’t remember if Yasuaki has fallen in love with Hanabi since the first volume.

Aside from that, I really like Kuon’s charisma. No one can easily deceive him.

Okay so I know this is a manga from the same mangaka who wrote Heart, Rie Takada, which I really didn't like, but so far the first volume is pretty good. It's humorous, it's got a strong female lead whose personality is just ridiculous, and from the argument she gave against the student council, she sounds smart. So I'm willing to give this a go, I hope it works out better than Heart!

I enjoyed this story of an all girl's school going co-ed, even though the title...give me a break! Hanabi, the main teen girl character, isn't intimidated by the good looking male student council members, and so her friends appoint her to the council in order to stick up for the girls. The first thing she does is fight to change the no dating rule! Funny!

This book is a great book to read because it doesn't make you go to sleep or feel bored. It makes you read more and more of the book. The book is about a high school only of boys and the other high school is only for girls. One day their ruler changes. The school mix both of the school together. It gets interesting, funny and crazy.

So this is a shoujo story, with some unusual heroes and heroines: Hanabi has poof hair and a big attitude, Yasuaki has a fear of girls. Despite that, the two still bond and the story of their relationship forms this little manga. Full of laugh out loud moments, this is definitely a nice manga to read when you need cheering up.

This shojo story's first vol. was very fun to read. I really enjoyed it (just so you know there are very few GOOD shojo story out there- from my point of view :P ). The main character is awesome to:D And I like comedy too:D If you like shojo's and are interested in smtg. worth reading, I recommend this with great pleasure:D

HHH is a fun and crazy ride.
The opening scene at the all-girls school is brilliant and scarily real.
Hanabi is a pretty lovable character and Yasuaki is endearing.
A great beginning to the series, as it sets up the characters while still driving the story forward.
Extra points for the awesome prank at the end.

This review is for the entire manga series.

I love how the guy mc had such an exotic way of looking at the girls of the school and that Hanabi Ozora is completely different in his mind.

I love the fact that both mcs were had by a friend because they were dorks.

I loved this series. It's short and sweet and hilarious.

I came across this by chance and actually lucked out in being able to get the complete set all at once which was wonderful. It's an adorable little story, with hilarious characters and a pretty simple plot. I don't normally read manga like this but because it was so funny I got caught up in it pretty quickly and finished the series in one day.

Hanabi Ozora is a sixteen year old girl at an all-girl's school. Unfortunately the school apparently isn't doing well financially so it merges with an all-boys school. She ends up falling for a guy that doesn't seem to be interested in her and also ends up getting on the student council.

It's a pretty humorous story; no major deep-meanings or anything, just something for fun