Asian Addicts Anonymous

I decided to do Ikemen desu ne first and do Ouran yesterday, but I was too tired after work and then I had stuff to do when I got home. So here is the next episode now. I have to say while I am still liking this series, I find more and more that it lacks a certain spark that the manga and anime have. I am also a little disappointed as it looks like they won’t pursue the twins and Haruhi storyline like I wanted. Oh, well. With such a drawn out manga series and such a limited time frame for the drama, a lot will be left out. So it is always interesting to see what they will include and how they will change it. I am looking forward to next week’s beach episode. It was a favorite manga plot. Although, I wonder if they will do the whole Kyoya-Haruhi bed scene. I have to say I always wondered after reading the manga and seeing the anime if there was a part of Kyoya that actually liked Haruhi. But, enough of that and on to the recap!

This episode opens with Renge [new to the series] in France playing her Uki Doki Memorial game. She is completely obsessed with the game, especially a certain male character in it. Her father comes in and says that he received pictures from his business trip to Japan. Renge says she wishes to marry the male character and her father laughingly says that she can. When Renge looks at the picture her father shows her, she asks if he meant what he said and jumps on a private jet to Japan.

Back at Ouran, Nekozawa is out walking and sees the plane. According to him, something ominous is in the air for the host club. We then enter the club room where the members are all wearing kimonos designed by the twins’ mother. Haruhi stands watching their antics and just doesn’t get it. She cannot believe the twins are still doing their forbidden love spiel and seeing Honey and Mori together, she just can’t put her finger on what their relationship is.

Haruhi then goes over to wear Kyoya is working and he tells her that she has more designations and to keep up the good work. Haruhi then asks about how the club gets funding since it doesn’t look like they charge customers for their service. Kyoya replies that he makes most of the club’s money via online auctions. He then fires up his iPad and tells Haruhi that her personal photo collection sells quite well. This both surprises Haruhi and makes her unhappy. Kyoya tells her that if she doesn’t like it, then she has to work harder and figure out a way to come up with money for the costumes and food. Daito definitely shows more of the “evil” Kyoya in this episode. He almost has the character down pat, but he’s not quite all the way there.

Tamaki then comes over and tells Haruhi that “father” has taken the liberty of doing private photos just for Haruhi. He puts his arm around her shoulders and shows her pictures that he has taken of himself especially for her. Tamaki tells Haruhi that if she puts them under her pillow, she will even sleep better. Right. Haruhi tries to get away from him and says that she doesn’t want such things when she notices a girl peeking in through the doors. This brings the others around and they all welcome Renge from France.

Tamaki goes about his spiel of grandiose actions and welcoming Renge to the host club. Renge then starts complaining about Tamaki. Whereas Haruhi has short one word criticism that slams Tamaki against a wall, Renge’s pile up of faults each slam into Tamaki until he is finally toppled over by her last utterance [first it was idiot, then narcissist, and then he was knocked down by lowest]. He then does a slow motion fall down under the weight, impressing the club members with this new technique. If Yamamoto really did the slo-mo himself, then dang the boy has talent.

Kyoya walks over to look at Tamaki and then glances over at Renge. He seems to recognize her. Renge then rushes up to him and hugs him, shocking the club and Kyoya. She calls him her one and only prince. She then lets go and says that she has decided to become the manager of the club. The host club then hear how Renge is Kyoya’s “fiancée.” She flew all the way from France to see him. The gang just cannot believe this and ask if Kyoya knows Renge. Kyoya replies that she is the daughter of one of his father’s business partners, but they have never actually met in person. While this is going on, Tamaki is rocking in the corner with a rain cloud over his head.

Renge then breaks into her spiel about the kind, softhearted Kyoya. Of course this description floors Kyoya and the club members who believe Renge has the wrong person. Renge says she isn’t wrong and then goes into Otaku mode and says that Kyoya is the perfect representation of Uchijou MIyabi in the dating simulation game Uki Doki Memorial. Kyoya finally understands that Renge has project the game character onto Kyoya who looks similar.

Tamaki who has snapped out of his funk, asks Kyoya what they should do since Renge is fantasizing that she is in love with Kyoya and wants to manage the club. Kyoya iterates that she is the daughter of an important partner to his family. Basically meaning that the club can’t annoy her or hurt her feelings to the point that it could ruin the partnership. This upsets the boys, but then the turn to look at Haruhi and dump the Renge problem onto Haruhi who wants nothing to do with it. The boys then march off.

Renge then says she wants to bake Kyoya cookies. Kyoya shows a very false “honored” expression and turns to Haruhi who definitely doesn’t want to. He asks if it’s a problem, and Haruhi responds that it isn’t, it’s just that they will need the keys to the cooking classroom. Kyoya smiles and pulls out a ring of keys saying that in case of such happenings, he has made copies of all the keys in the school. Wicked. As expected of Kyoya. Sore Renge and Haruhi go to make cookies. Renge is a disaster in the kitchen – she can’t do anything properly. While Haruhi and Renge bake, the boys sans Kyoya, watch on and comment on Haruhi’s cuteness.

The guys head back to the clubroom where Tamaki says that this is all part of the plan to awaken the inner teenage girl inside Haruhi. As he goes on about her finally realizing her femininity, Renge comes in and calls him not nice names again. How she never once overheard that Haruhi is female is beyond me. She then heads over to Kyoya to show her the commoner cookies Haruhi helped her make. Honey, who loves all sweets, immediately rushes over to try one, but they are very burnt. Honey’s cheek is then pinched by Renge, sending him flying to Mori for comfort. Haruhi tries her own cookies and says they turned out better. The twins, to tease Tamaki, come over and touch Haruhi and take the cookie she bit off of to try. Tamaki puts his foot down when one twin wipes the crumbs from Haruhi’s face [in the anime and manga, the licked cream off of Haruhi’s face]. Tamaki then starts jumping around and telling the twins they went too far.

Renge takes this all in and decides the whole club needs a personality makeover. Girls will soon tire of their “stale,” shadowless personalities. So Renge invents new personalities for them. Honey because a cute on the outside, but monster on the inside while Mori is the silent person who is secretly a masochist. Oh my. The twins are supposed to be bothered by their likenesses and encounter many problems on the basketball team. Haruhi is pretty much the same except she is supposed to be constantly bullied while Tamaki is beautiful and admired, but is secretly lonely. No one is happy with these roles, except for Tamaki who gets into Renge’s plan, but Kyoya just says it can be interesting and smiles. It’s never a good thing when Kyoya smiles.

The next thing you know you are thrown into the middle of a movie production. Renge has taken it upon herself to bring in a Hollywood team and film and Uki Doki live action basically with the club members portraying their new roles. Hikaru and Kaoru are on the basketball team and one gets injured and next thing you know they encounter the lonely prince Tamaki who envies their closeness. We then cut to Haruhi being chased by Honey who is bullying her. Mori tries to stop him, but cannot. Honey can’t keep it up though and goes back into his normal personality and apologizes for all he said to Haruhi as he doesn’t feel that way at all. This annoys Renge who yells cut and tells Honey to follow the script.

Renge then asks Haruhi to go with her. Haruhi follows Renge to a place where there are three students who are more like delinquents. Renge wants Haruhi to act in a scene with them. Haruhi will be cornered and bullied by them. The guys don’t like to hear this and get defensive. Haruhi tries to get Renge to stop, but Renge is oblivious to the situation. Having enough, one guy goes to push Renge, and Haruhi gets between then and gets slammed into metal bars. Tamaki hears the commotion and goes running where he spies Haruhi on the ground with her hand over her face. Enraged, Tamaki runs up and grabs the offender and asks who did it. The guys then run off. Tamaki goes to see if Haruhi is all right and sees a tear run down her face. Haruhi says it hurts and then says her contact came out. Looks like the fall didn’t hurt her at all.

Renge loves this scene and asks if her camera crew got it. They said they did. The scene, except for the contact part, played out just like Renge had hoped as she wanted a “forbidden” love to develop between the lonely prince and the bullied student. Kyoya, finally having enough, smashes the camera lens, shocking everyone. He tells Renge that he is not happy and wants the shoot to end as his members were put in harms way. Renge can’t believe this side of Kyoya. Tamaki butts in and says that the real Kyoya is nothing like the game character. Crying, Renge rushes off and Haruhi follows.

Renge is disappointed that her fantasy is not reality. She pulls out the Uki Doki picture and it gets caught by the wind and blown away. Haruhi asks what is wrong and Renge says she is being punished by losing her treasure. She then says that she knows dreams are different from reality, but are they so wrong? Haruhi smiles and says that dreams are not bad, but Renge cannot look at people one-sidedly. Renge needs to open up her eyes and look around her and see all the unexpected actions. Thus she can truly know someone and fall in love. At this point, the boys walk up and offer to help Renge get her picture back. Definitely unexpected. Kyoya also does his key bit again.

Renge writes a letter to her father saying she has learned a valuable lesson. Meanwhile, the club members learn that Kyoya had managed to get the video and is now selling it online to raise more money. Some members are unhappy about this, but it is to be expected. The video then starts and Tamaki excitedly calls Haruhi over to watch “father’s” performance. Haruhi goes over with Honey and Tamaki says he wants to try keeping the new personality. Haruhi smiles and says Tamaki is perfect the way he is which causes his heart to pop out of his chest again and he ends up falling over. The other members gather around and Haruhi turns away to finish her statement about how he’s bad enough without being moody on top of it. Gotta love it.

Overall, a good episode. My main problem is that Renge was not enough of an over the top fangirl. She didn’t really have that same burning passion and obsession than the manga character had. Also, there were parts missing from the story that I liked. For one, Renge transfers her affection over to Haruhi as she was really touched by Haruhi’s speech [and is obviously unaware of Haruhi’s sex]. Oh well. They can’t include everything.