Ouran High School Host Club Episode 5 Recap


OMG, this episode of Ouran High School Host Club had me making incoherent noises at my screen, with my mouth flapping open and closed like a fish out of water. It was so good I couldn’t even pick a single picture to top the post, but instead let you guys decide which of the two makes your toes curl. Tamaki hugging Haruhi in a thunderstorm, or Kyoya looming over Haruhi in bed to teach her a lesson in male-female disparity? *back to making high-pitched squeals*

If I didn’t yet love Ouran, this episode would have tipped me over. Since I already love it, this episode turned me RABID. If this drama were an angsty HanaDan, the love triangle will cut me into pieces. But alas, it’s just sweetness and light, so I shant hold out hopes for my Kyoya to get the girl in the end. It’s okay, he always has me.

Episode 5 recap:

The Ouran High School host club is spending the summer at the beach. While it looks like Tamaki is flirting with a girl, turns out a line of girls are waiting for their turn with the Prince. Haruhi grimaces at Tamaki in action, asking why she has to be subjected to this sight even at the beach.

When girls run up asking Haruhi why she doesn’t swim, Haruhi smiles and says the girls ought to take a dip since they are all wearing such cute bathing suits. Tamaki overhears and mumbles inside his own brain that Haruhi would look the cutest in a girl’s bathing suit if she deigned to wear one.

Honey pulls Haruhi to go collect shellfish on the beach, and Haruhi happily picks up lobsters and abalone strewn all over Nekozawa senpai’s private beach. When the boys crowd her to offer her more delicious future dinner items, she yells at them to leave her be!

The twins wonder why they are at Nekozawa senpai’s private beach. Kyoya explains that Haruhi doesn’t have a passport, and all of them have private beaches overseas, so this was their best option.

Nekozawa senpai pops up to scare Tamaki with his ominous warning that the Cat’s Head Peak is rumored to be cursed and anyone falling from it will not come back alive.

Suddenly a girl shrieks as she encounters a bug amongst the shellfish. Haruhi calmly picks it up and tosses it back into the sea, which makes Kyoya just laugh. God, I love it when that man smiles. When asked why she’s not scared, she shrugs and asks why she should be scared, it’s just a bug. Tamaki wonders why she doesn’t ask the guys for help, and she wonders why she should.

The twins create a new game – What is Haruhi Scared of? Tamaki initially refuses to participate until Kyoya flashes the reward prize – pictures of feminine Haruhi from her middle school years. Suddenly everyone is in on this competition.

Operation What Is Haruhi Scared Of commences. Turns out she’s not scared of the dark, of ghosts, of heights, or even of sharp pointy objects. Much to everyone’s dismay.

Suddenly some female students get harassed by some local boys and Haruhi tells them to back off. The boys corner Haruhi against the cliff thinking she’s a shrimpy boy. The host club is alerted and Tamaki in particular takes off running.

Haruhi gets pushed so close to the edge that she slips and falls over the cliff. Tamaki jumps in after her. The local boys try to get away but Mori and the rest of the host club stop them.

Haruhi is fished out of the ocean and wakes up in Tamaki’s arms, with all the boys hovering around her. She’s fine, but Tamaki chews her out for not calling for help and thinking she can handle everything. Haruhi doesn’t see anything wrong with that – a girl can take care of anything a boy can take care of.

Tamaki genuinely gets upset and tells Haruhi that he won’t speak with her until she understands what she did was wrong.

Later that night at Nekozawa manor, the storm has caused a power outage as the boys prepare for dinner. The cool angry Tamaki of earlier is gone, leaving only mopey and distressed Tamaki, whining over why his Haruhi hasn’t come to speak with him yet. He’s reminded that he was the one who announced he wasn’t speaking with her.

The lights come on just as Haruhi walks downstairs, wearing a dress for the first time in front of the boys. She explains her daddy changed her suitcase without her knowing and packed her girl clothes. Everyone thanks unknown Haruhi daddy. Nekozawa senpai had earlier bumped into Tamaki leaving the latter with a bloody nose, which everyone attributes to him being perverted and getting too excited seeing Haruhi wearing a dress.

During dinner, Tamaki and Haruhi continue their stubborn battle of wills. When Haruhi offers Tamaki a crab leg, he happily accepts only to discover it’s just an empty shell.

Tamaki and Haruhi shoot each other supremely disgruntled looks. Tamaki stands up and announces he’s retiring to his room for the night, and tells Kyoya to show him to the room.

The remaining boys quietly tell Haruhi that they were all so scared when she was in danger, and the only reason Tamaki is so mad at her is because he’s so worried about her. Haruhi decides she ought to apologize and walks upstairs. Too bad she ate too much seafood during dinner and has to quickly run into a room and use it’s bathroom.

She walks out after she’s done, wondering which room she happened to be in. She sees a topless Kyoya standing next to his bed. He nonchalantly asks her if she’s done in there? Haruhi decides she ought to apologize to Kyoya while she’s here, but he tells here there is nothing to apologize for. He’ll just send the guests some flowers from the host club as apology for what happened.

Kyoya then asks Haruhi what they ought to do now? She’s confused, so he explains that since it’s just the two of them alone in here, they ought to do what a man and a woman do alone. He dims the lights and walks over to Haruhi, telling her that if he wanted to have his way with her, she can’t fight him.

He pushes her onto the bed and looms over her, grasping her wrist tightly and pinning her down. He calmly tells her that her belief that a woman can do the same things as a guy isn’t always correct. Like right now, she can’t break free from his grasp. Haruhi realizes she is weaker than Kyoya simply because she’s a woman.

Having understood the lesson, Haruhi delivers a zinger of her own, telling Kyoya that she’s in no danger of being violated by him. He would never do anything that didn’t benefit himself, and taking advantage of her has no benefit to him. Kyoya smiles and pretty much says touché to her perceptive abilities. He sits up and gets off the bed.

Haruhi sits up as well and remarks that Kyoya is actually quite a considerate guy. The reason he just taught her a lesson by playing the bad guy was purely for Tamaki’s benefit. Which is when Tamaki walks in asking to borrow lotion from Kyoya. He sees the tableau (topless Kyoya standing next to a bed where Haruhi is sitting on) and rushes forward, drawing the wrong conclusion.

Kyoya quickly shoves a bottle of lotion in Tamaki’s face and walks out of the room in one swift gesture, telling Tamaki to take it from here. After Kyoya walks out, he puts on his shirt and takes out his glasses, which are broken. He murmurs that Haruhi sure is an odd girl.

We flash back to what happened earlier. Kyoya actually was right behind Tamaki as the guys raced to help Haruhi. During the sprint, Kyoya’s glasses fell and cracked on the rocks but he didn’t even stop to retrieve it. Tamaki may have dived in after Haruhi first, but Kyoya followed right behind him. And when Haruhi was fished out, it was Kyoya shaking her in agitation, telling her to wake up. Kyoya wonders if perhaps she’s not odd, but it is he who has become strange recently?

Before Tamaki and Haruhi can discuss anything, a blast of thunder and lightning rocks the room and Haruhi immediately gets scared. She ends up hiding inside the armoire in fear, leaving Tamaki outside trying to coax her out.

He understands now that she’s scared of thunder and lightning, because when she was small and a storm hit, her dad was working so she had to endure it all alone in the house. And because she’s grown up being left alone so often, she’s accustomed to never relying on anyone.

Another clap of thunder and lightning sends Haruhi straight into Tamaki’s arms. He embraces her as she cringes from the one thing the normally unflappable and fearless her is scared of. Tamaki sighs and concedes that he won’t push her to change and ask for help. He’ll just watch over her more carefully so she never gets into trouble.

The host club boys walk into the room sometime later to find Tamaki wrapping a cloth around Haruhi’s eyes, and then putting an ear phone around her ears. She’s allowing him to do this since it will mitigate her fears in stormy weather if she can’t hear or see the thunder and lightning. The boys ooh and ahh at Tamaki’s now not-so-secret penchant for S&M. Mwahahaha, that is so perfect an assumption to make in Ouran land.

Every heads back to school and Music Room #3. The boys, minus Tamaki, sit down around the table and discuss, what else, Tamaki. When the aforementioned one walks in, everyone turns in unison to stare some more, before whipping out the S&M gear. I…..I can’t even write it. Suffice to say, it’s all in good fun, but poor Tamaki cannot dispel the misunderstanding without explaining the real reason he wrapped an eye cloth and put ear phones on Haruhi. But since he agreed to keep her secret, he’s stuck between a rock named Haruhi and a S&M place.

Tamaki picks keeping Haruhi’s secret, announcing proudly that there is nothing whatsoever wrong with liking S&M. Which is when Haruhi walks in and gives him a dirty look. Poor Tamaki can only wail in anguish. Kyoya declares that it’s clear what Haruhi’s only fear is – she’s afraid of Tamaki! Everyone concurs, but afterwards Haruhi’s sweet smile and sideways glance at Tamaki shows us she does know exactly what he did for her.

Thoughts of Mine:

WOW. Uhm, this episode flipped the emotional switch for me. Before I just loved how funny this drama was, but now I actually connect with the three main characters – Tamaki, Haruhi, and Kyoya. Y’all know I’m crushing on Kyoya like mad, the actor just makes what is already a Koala-nip character even more irresistible to me. I love nerdy bad boys with a personal agenda. What’s clear in this episode is that Haruhi affects Kyoya, without touching upon his typical requirement that he only cares when something adds value for him.

What’s thrilling to watch is that as much as Haruhi does something to Kyoya (makes him a human boy, perhaps), he always appears to put Tamaki first. Which is why I know my ship is bound to sink, because Tamaki’s immediate and instant affection for Haruhi marks her as his and Kyoya wouldn’t ever dream of encroaching. I really love the bromances in this drama, as all the little teasing and jokes only solidify the affection the host club boys have for each other. And now Haruhi is their personal princess, and they will protect her to the ends of the world.

I definitely can see why Tamaki and Haruhi are the OTP, because he’s also the only one that gets under her skin. His crazy antics pull her out of her calm and unflappable shell, letting her enjoy life more and stop being so stolid and earnest. And she appears to be the only person he would lose his temper around when normally he’s like a cartoon character of happiness and joy. It’s clear that Haruhi is truly aware of how the boys adore her, and she is slowly letting down her reserve and opening herself up to needing and being needed. If only there was another Haruhi for my Kyoya, then the Ouran world would be complete for me.


Comments

Ouran High School Host Club Episode 5 Recap — 43 Comments

  1. OOOOOOOOOHHH Yesss!!! I’ve been waiting for your recap for an entire week. I also made all kind of sounds and noises while watching this episode… I made me giggles. Thanks Koala, for your great work.

  2. I was ridiculously excited when I realized that this episode was coming up (it’s one of my favorites from the anime). It really does highlight the growing OTP and shows more of Kyouya’s human side. He tugs at the heartstrings a bit, doesn’t he (just wait!)? His bromance with Tamaki is one of the best parts of Ouran.

    …and yeah, I definitely screamed during the Kyouya bed scene. It played out marvelously well in live action. *dreamy smile*

    • I was screaming. Literally screaming when he dimmed the lights and walked over and just grabbed her. I normally hate manhandling in dramas, but this coming from Kyoya left me speechless. I knew what he was up to, but damn was it insanely hot to watch.

      • Wheee, glad I wasn’t the only one! I kept replaying it, too. *blush* Manhandling is never okay, but at least Kyouya’s had a purpose. He wasn’t saying, “Me man, heed me!” Caveman definitely isn’t his style.

  3. STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE

    Koala, you have GREAT taste in screencaps. Just saying.

    (Dang, I should’ve asked for Kyoya last time we talked)

  4. Wwwaaaaahhhhh!!!! Kyoya is so hhhooottt!!! and ssseeexxxyyy!!!! why can’t ther be 1 more Kyoya!!! Koala already owns him….

  5. Kyoya is hot!!! LOL I love him too!!

    I’ve seen the anime but I didn’t really pay much attention on Kyoya. I never really liked any of the boys because all of them acts childish. But for the drama, I’m totally in love with Kyoya. XD

    Thanks for the recap Koala!! ^^

  6. Thank you for the recap. I love this drama too. I can’t wait for later episodes to delve deeper into Tamaki’s past. BTW, I shipped Haruhi and Kyoya from the start.

  7. Thank you for the recap! That was the best episode ever! I was flipping out like a mad person and now I have severe second-lead syndrome. Even though I love Yusuke to pieces, gahh Kyoya!!!!

  8. Thanks for the recap.

    What I love about this show, and so many shows with over the top characters, is that when this show is done well, the characters may be cartoons, but their feelings are genuine, and they are as capable of breaking your heart as any character on a good melo.

  9. WHY did I have to read this right before the first class of the day starts?! Crap. Now I have to wait until later before I can watch this. ~le sigh~

    Koala-unni, with all due respect I am on your ship, too. Tamaki is much too annoyingly over the top for me to really love him, while Kyoya is just my type. But don’t worry, I won’t encroach on your territory. ^_~

  10. This is the episode I’ve been waiting for this episode!! And the one of anime final episode.. Even I end up not watching the whole drama I’ll definitely watch those two and the ending 🙂
    Hope they do the manga ending and not he anime…

  11. Haha I love this recap !! I knew you’d love this ep when I watched it a couple of days ago seeing as your a kyoya fan girl !! Me and my friend watched this episode together and we were squeezing so much !! xD

  12. I never watched the anime, but I was OBSESSED with the manga. In the comic I was all about Tamaki. In real life I love cocky overly goofy guys, so Tamaki was my ~dream~ guy. But after tonight? Helllllooooooo Kyoya. Stoic guys who become human because of a girl but then can’t do anything about it because said girl is in love with stoic guy’s best friend who is also in love with girl? Yes please!

    Just had to look up Kyoya’s real age. He’s 25…?!?! What. He’s got such a baby face I thought for SURE he was 19 at best. And then I was going to feel sad, and like a creeper.

    • Stoic guys who become human because of a girl but then can’t do anything about it because said girl is in love with stoic guy’s best friend who is also in love with girl

      That’s exactly what turns my insides into butter with respect to Kyoya. He actually needs Haruhi as much as Tamaki does. Which kills me already. *wails for my Kyoya*

      Shunsuke is TOTALLY legal. Of age, legal, a man, whatever. I think he’s the same age as my Pi.

      *throws confetti and goes back to legally oogling*

  13. I’m just wondering here-but it normal for rich guys in Japan to get their eyebrows super waxed like a couple of the leads in Ouran High? I know wearing makeup for guys is a bit more common, just wondering about the eyebrows since this is the first Japanese drama I’ve ever watched.

  14. damn, what is it with 2nd gut syndrome?? Kyoya is just so hott!! He is exactly my type, I too like nerdy bad boys with an agenda, they are just to sexy!! And that bed scene, you really did his abs justice, thank you for the fan service kyoya!! XD

  15. Thanks Koala for the recap. I have been waiting for your recap mostly because i wanna read your reaction to the episodes. Its always fun to read your enjoyment for Ouran. I felt like a high school girl when i saw this episode as I was actually covering my eyes for that scene between Kyoya and Haruhi! I also found myself squealing with delight throughout the episode!

  16. I read your recap of Ep 5 and decided to do a marathon viewing…just loved it…it’s my first experience with this type…it was great fun…can’t wait for the next episode…thanks

  17. TAKE ME KYOYA … 😀

    Anyway, this ep tops all, and not just because of the tension and hotness but it feels like the groundwork is done and the story is finally getting life. Like you said, taking how dramas usually go, Kyoya will most likely end up alone (aww) but before that I expect Tamaki and Kyoya’s fist fights and what not

    also I’d like to remind them self-defense for girls is possible

  18. Yeah Kyouya actually care for Tamaki more than it seems because Tamaki is more influential in his life than Haruhi:D but he never loses his realist self cuz he is Kyouya:D LOL love him:D hope they will do the episode about the Kyouya and Tamaki’s relation background with conveying the same effect as in the anime:D

  19. OK, I never really liked Kyouya all that much in the manga or the anime to be honest, but here… <3
    Kyouya is so cool here! 😀
    And I do think they have upped his role a bit as well.

  20. finally yusuke-chan has a chance to shine as main lead! I always liked him in every role, even in atashinchi whatever and especially in Hana Kimi. His face is so charismatic. *g*
    Thanks for the recap.
    Those too are really OTP.
    And I can read your enthusiasm now, it was fun to read. ^^

  21. Ohhhhhh, this episode. I remember it inspiring a lot of interesting conversations about how the story was treating Haruhi’s agency versus the boys’, and whether or not Kyouya’s method–pretend to harass her so she gets that she’s a weak female!–was, you know, a really dick thing to do or not. (I think it was. Seriously, Kyouya, wtf, man.)

    I don’t know, I felt that the lesson that was driven home, that Haruhi is inherently weaker than the boys by virtue of her sex, and that she should not attempt to solve her problems on her own but that she should call in the boys to help her was…well, problematic. I would have been okay with it had Kyouya said, “Hey, you look like a wimpy boy. You’re obviously not strong enough to take those guys on in a fight. Maybe you should have called in back-up.” But no, the gist of what was said was, “You are weak because you are a woman and therefore require rescuing.” Weakness is not contingent upon sex; Haruhi should not have been discouraged from solving her own problems because she believes that her sex makes her weak. I must confess, though, that I don’t exactly remember what was said in the manga or the anime, so please do correct me if I’m wrong.

    Furthermore, the entire attitude that the boys espouse, that it was Haruhi’s fault for getting thrown over a ledge because she dared to stand up for herself, smacked of victim-blaming. I know there’s context and I know they boys were just worried for her, but this part in what is otherwise a very girl-positive series really rubbed me wrong.

    • Great points, noozie.

      I think Kyoya KNEW it was a dick move to pull, and he wasn’t trying to be diplomatic or PC or any of that with Haruhi. He wanted her to get the point across that she ought to ask for help when coming across situations she (as someone physically weaker than most men – be it because she’s a woman or a really wimpy guy) cannot handle.

      I think the problem is that the drama/manga/anime doesn’t try to differentiate the point you made above, because it’s probably too sophisticated to make such a distinction when the story is pretty broad strokes to begin with. I’m okay with Kyoya’s move either way, because the intended target Haruhi understand what he was trying to get across. She didn’t suddenly turn missish or buy into the women need big strong men to protect them bullshit. She simply acknowledged that her was of thinking was too rigid and accepted that going forward, there might be instances where she needs the boys help, and she’ll ask for it.

      My 2 cents. I don’t think Haruhi will ever ever believe her sex makes her weaker then a man. I think she accepted that she was overcompensating, and would be more reasonable going forward.

    • The way I saw it was that the boys all saw her as a friend and would likely immediately ask her for help. But Haruhi not asking for help when help was so close by and her insistence of doing things on her own and refusal to show any sort of vulnerability in front of them seem to indicate that she doesn’t view them the same way. They were worried abt her, but she didn’t even realize they were worried about her until much later. If she really saw them as her friends, she would have said something to the effect of “I’m sorry I worried you” – which is a line I see a lot in manga. I was watching Biscuit Teacher and Star Candy the other way, when Gong Yoo’s character went and wallopped his best friend because his friend was in a bad situation (in huge debt- may have to sell his organs? watched the bootlegs with bad subs) and didn’t ask for help even though GY’s character was rich. Omg, i cried like a baby watching that scene!

      I think the whole “but you’re a girl. you’re physically weaker” issue was brought up to teach Haruhi not to believe in her own invincibility. (it’s true that girls, by nature of their sex, tend to be slightly more vulnerable to certain things and, while they are capable of doing everything a guy can do, they should also be more careful and vigilant).

      In the end, the guys also misunderstood her too. It wasn’t simple bravado, recklessness, or some principle of equality and independence that made Haruhi go off to confront those jerks on her own. It was just the way she had grown up – all alone and having to deal with things on her own and not having to depend on anyone. I really liked this episode because it had shed a lot of light on Haruhi, the relationship between between Haruhi and the rest of the gang, and how it’s all developing.

    • I agree, mostly, with you. Kyoya knew it was a dick move, and his words did come across the screen as “you’re a woman and inherently weaker than a man” but I also feel like this was the screenwriter’s fault (I also can’t remember how this goes down in the manga). As in, I don’t think that anti-lady message was intended, but it just wasn’t polished enough before it was filmed.

      But I also wonder if anyone would bat a second eye at that anti-lady message in Japan in the first place. It’s been a few years since I’ve studied Japanese culture, but I do know there is a national survey done every couple of years and one of the questions (for men) is: “do you want to marry a woman who has a four year college degree?” The last time I saw the data was….2008?…but the response was insane. I can’t remember the exact percentage, but well more than half of men who responded said they didn’t want to marry a woman who might be smarter than them. They were even intimidated by a woman who had a two year college degree.

    • Yeah, I’ve always been bugged by this episode – both by the boys’ reactions and Kyouya’s pretend-harassment. There’s a big difference in message between “You shouldn’t have tried to take them on, because you were alone and there were three of them” and “You shouldn’t have tried to take them on, because you’re a girl and they’re men.” And the show tilts unpleasantly towards the latter. I don’t buy that it was too fine a distinction for the writer(s) to make – if Tamaki (or whoever) had said something to the effect of – ‘it was dangerous to try and take on a group like that – you could’ve come for help’ or even ‘if you’re going to insist on doing things yourself, you should probably take a self defence course,’ – that would be fair enough, and would’ve avoided the whole strong!man weak!woman thing. (Also, the way that whole situation played out, I’m not convinced that it would have even been a good idea for her to leave the scene – considering that the situation could have escalated for the girls, and it’s not at all clear how far away the rest of the host club was. It’s not like she was the only person to be concerned about here…) Furthermore, I also don’t really see why she should have to apologize for the whole “You made us so worried!” thing.
      About Kyouya – not sure I have much to add (other than to second the ‘really, dude?’) except that I think the fact that he’s kinda into Haruhi at this point in the drama version makes the whole thing seem skeevier…

      (Erg, I hope this doesn’t end up posting like three times, it keeps giving me errors…)

  22. koala ~ thanks for the recaps . . . this has been my favorite scene in the manga . . . and choosing between the two scenes that you have mentioned above – i would choose a topless Kyoya (Tamaki and Haruhi are sweet together though ^o^) . . . hmmmm, is it OK for me choosing him? . . . huh? 😉

  23. Kyoya’s so hot in this!

    The Kyoya diving after Haruhi and Tamaki wasn’t in the anime or manga! But what a great scene of Kyoya getting emotional. However, I hope they don’t end up creating a love triangle. A hint of it is enough spice! I hope they delve into the Tamaki/Kyoya bromance. Their bromantic scenes in the manga make me tear up!

  24. Actually , the two main characters indeed Tamaki and Haruhi, but the three main characters aren’t Tamaki, Haruhi, and Kyoya, whole host club is, just saying because i read the manga and it isn’t just kyoya 🙂 but he is definitely tamaki’s bestfriend

  25. Thanks for this recap! It’s totally the best episode so far.

    I really love this drama, its episodes are short, sweet, hilarious and full of heart. Perfect pick me up 😀 Thanks koala!

  26. OHSHC continues to please me, I’m glad that they aren’t trying to mask the Tamaki-Kyoya bromance since it really is a significant part of the story, they need each other just to balance each other out otherwise they would be all ridiculousness and no cute

    and I love how the actors are all nailing their characters…great job

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