22

Gonna guess this came out December 2005 due to the Christmas themed title image.

The club hasn't given up on trying to help Kasanada, but I think they've lost the plot at this point.

While the twins laugh at the torment they're putting Kasanada through and Tamaki tries to come up with more insane solutions, Kyoya is tracking how much business they're losing.

Where are Mori and Hunny during the planning? Wasn't Mori supposed to be Kasanada's senpai?

So Renge has been helping as well? If Tamaki is taking the lead and Renge is acting as primary council, this entire operation was doomed from the start.

And at this point, I think the twins are just in it to torment Kasanada for a laugh.

This one backfired spectacularly on them cause Kasanada agreed to wear it and demanded they dress him up. It really killed the mischievous mood.

And then Tetsuya walks in on Kasanada in a dress, profusely apologizes for barging in on Kasanada's secret hobby, and runs away crying when Kasanada shouts.

If Tetsuya was able to find Kasanada, that must mean enough students on campus are aware he's been hanging out with the Host Club lately. I'm curious what rumors are spreading about him. Maybe they're aware he's trying to soften his reputation. Or maybe they think he's into cosplay. Or maybe they think he's gay.

Anyway, Kasanada shares a brief backstory about Tetsuya. He came to Kasanada's household a year ago and is a diligent worker who likes to hang around Kasanada which results in Kasanada constantly scaring him.

Meanwhile, Tetsuya finds a few students plotting something while carrying a bucket full of eggs.

Next day, it's the same as what's been happening. Kasanada waits outside Mori's classroom and asks to carry his bag. This time, Mori lets him without any fuss.

They need to keep their hands to themselves!

Seeing Mori and Kasanada's faces roughly side-by-side helps me tell where Kasanada is struggling.

It really comes down to how Kasanada scrunches his face. His default expression looks angry and annoyed. Mori meanwhile looks more like he's bored or disinterested.

I hate saying this, but Tamaki was right about the lovely item thing too. Mori would probably come across as unapproachable normally since he doesn't appear to be interested in socializing. But having someone around who is very emotive makes Mori appear more open to social interaction.

Mori is showing off how good he is at being Hunny protector by casually noticing and intercepting every attack that is very clearly aimed at Kasanada.

Kasanada hurt his back here.

It takes him a moment to realize, but Kasanada figures out that whoever keeps attacking Mori is actually trying to hurt him and Mori just keeps stopping them. And so, Kasanada figures it's best if he just leave so no one gets caught in whatever crosshairs have been placed on him.

Next scene is Kasanada taking care of an injured sparrow. It's a cute scene and now I'm wondering what would happen if someone found him taking care of it. Would that cause students to think he's softer than he seems? And if anyone other than Haruhi spotted him, he'd probably scare them off and what would that make students think?

I think it's understandable an 8-year-old Haruhi would try to catch sparrows. She wanted to keep them as pets.

I'm not sure what it says about Kasanada or the general student body that he's noticing all these details about Haruhi's appearance and has to actively remind himself that Haruhi is (pretending to be) a guy. Is he more perceptive than most of the student body or does he believe in a strict binary about what men and women look like?

Regardless, he has a gay awakening panic when he reminds himself that Haruhi is a guy.

Anyway, Kasanada and Haruhi helping out the bird leads to him telling her that he took care of a kitten in junior high and his men secretly helped it as well behind his back. They probably understand Kasanada has a kind side but think he's ashamed of it. So while they will help him with things like taking care of an injured kitten, they aren't going to do it in a way that forces him to admit he's doing that in front of him.

Kasanada would rather be able to connect with his men and be someone they want to have lead them. His own nervous behavior keeps him from realizing they already know and accept his real nature though.

And then they get attacked and Haruhi's outfit gets covered in paint (That uniform is $3,000! Haruhi can't afford to replace it!). The club is instantly on the scene and Mori apprehends the culprits.

None of the back-and-forth chatter happening provides any hints, but I'm wondering if Haruhi deliberately let herself be bait or was completely unaware people were targeting Kasanada when she approached him. The rest of the club was clearly lying in wait to capture Kasanada's assailants. And Kyoya took the extra step of photographing them.

The miscellaneous chatter implies the attackers aren't students at Ouran. And the attackers also don't seem to know who Mori is cause they caid Kasanada hired a bodyguard.

Again, Kasanada's issue is he always scrunches up his face. He's perpetually nervous and his nervous expression looks angry. He looks far more approachable in this moment where the host club assures him that he's a friend of theirs and they understand who he is. This is his face when he feels calm and safe.

Then Tetsuya appears to both provide closure to Kasanada's personal journey and clear up what's been going on. Turns out he is the second son of a rival yakuza family called the Sendos. He despised how the Sendo family operates, demonstrated by how the two Sendo members the club captured operated, and is drawn to Kasanada's caring side.

All of Kasanada's men know about the kind things he does for them and they admire him for it, but they keep quiet because they know he's trying to put on an act. Also, just because they know he's kind, that doesn't stop them from being scared by his default expression.

Y'know, we haven't seen or heard anything about Kasanada's father this entire arc. As far as I can say, he's completely out of the picture and Kasanada is the acting head of the family.

Regardless, he's had his father's lessons drilled into his head from a young age and it's a humongous reason he's the way he is. He probably struggles to recognize when others are kind and was taught to push down any emotions and never openly show kindness.

Learning that his men appreciate his kind gestures and accepting the kind gesture Tetsuya does for him in this moment is an important stepping stone for him. His face is still scrunched up, but it doesn't look scary.

And after thanking Tetsuya, Kasanada realizes he should apologize to Haruhi, who left to change out of her paint-covered uniform.

The club sees off Kasanada, happy that he's finally managing to break through his issues. And then Kyoya points out that maybe they shouldn't have done that.

Well, at least she had a more normal reaction to Kasanada barging in while she was undressing than when Dr Yabu did.

- Mammon is the only one that would wear piercings aside from Asmo.

- Leviathan is the skinniest and ill looking on account of being a big shut in. Also when I think ab the demon theme of Leviathan as a sea snake I think him having a skinny frame suits him.

- Belphagor has distinct moles bc of his cow theme.

- Lucifer and Satan have the same face shape with a slight difference in structure. Lucifer has a bit more visible wrinkles and is just sliiightly tanner than Satan.

- Satan looks like a younger Lucifer if you stare at him long enough (lets lookalike and not tell papa)

- Beel and Belph have the same face shape because they’re twins, but they both look drastically different because of the lifestyle they operate.

The introduction to this episode's character victim establishes he's an intimidating figure.

He's a yakuza child and his glare terrifies his subordinates. He will glare at you for pleasantly welcoming him home, and he has some business with Mori.

Sadly, I don't think he's one of the class 1-D students Renge dragged into her movie back in episode 3. The long-haired one has some superficial similarities, but they ultimately look too different. Plus, no one ever brings up the movie either.

The episode's opening uses the default format of introducing the club in cosplay. This time they're dressed as samurai.

The customers are eating up their cosplay and speculating which historical figures everyone is most similar to. Most of the names mentioned were part of the Shinsengumi.

Now, I'm not knowledgeable about the Tokugawa era, but I've heard of the Shinsengumi and I'm certain they were some secret police force and I doubt any of the bushido stuff was true at all. I would assume they were a bunch of violent thugs and decades later, they were portrayed as these noble and honorable warriors used to represent some idealized Japan that never existed and which the most isolationist nationals said they need to bring Japan back to.

Anyway, the fun is interrupted with the premise of this arc starting. The student from the beginning, Ritsu Kasanada, appears. And to everyone's surprise, he wants to become Mori's apprentice.

Kasanada's formal introduction is given by Kyoya rather than an omniscient narrator. Kyoya has a whole file on Kasanada which both Kasanada and I are surprised over.

I'm pretty sure it was mentioned that the Host Club vets their customers so they would have dossiers on various students. Kyoya having one on Kasanada means he either has a profile on every student in the school, or Kasanada is a paying customer who Kyoya has since vetted.

I had read Ouran back when it was originally released but don't remember a lot of things. Kasanada is one of the characters I vaguely remembered. I remembered he was this scary guy who is actually really sweet on the inside so I was excited when I saw this was his intro episode. I hope he's a somewhat recurring character like Renge.

The reason Kasanada's interested in Mori is because he's trying to show more of his softer side but his default expression plus the way he was raised to inherit a yakuza family causes people to be scared of him. And he figures Mori would be the perfect mentor since Mori is a fairly beloved figure despite being scary and intimidating.

All of Kasanada's descriptors for Mori strike him in the heart. I think Mori is aiming more for the stoic, protective type which he's fostered over time being Hunny's confidante. Being told he's scary and intimidating really hurts because he wants to be approachable to anyone in need.

With what I know, I think Hunny is far more capable of teaching Kasanada how to mellow out. Hunny was also raised to be someone he really isn't because of his family name. Mori would probably be able to help Kasanada learn how to adjust his expressions to be less intimidating, but Hunny is the one who had to learn to be himself despite expectations.

But also, what he really needs is lessons on how to relax. He's been raised to never let his guard down and never show weakness (aka don't emote anything other than anger). Combine that with his naturally nervous and shy personality, and you have someone who always looks like he's ready to fight.

Look at how bad his hand was drawn here. It looks like he has two right hands.

I don't think anyone in the Host Club knows how to teach someone to be charming. Kasanada's doing the same thing Shiro did when Shiro asked to be Tamaki's apprentice. He's sitting in a chair and just watching Mori in action in the hopes he'll figure things out himself.

Kasanada is more trouble than he's worth but no one is willing to do anything and their reasons ignore how they got into this situation in the first place. Tamaki says they shouldn't do anything about Kasanada because he's Mori's apprentice and they shouldn't interfere with how Mori is helping him. This ignores the fact that Mori did not want Kasanada as an apprentice and the role was forced on him by the twins.

Maybe Tamaki's making up an excuse to not anger the scary yakuza child.

Tamaki's brain is so absorbed by media that he thinks of everything in terms of tropes. And he thinks he can help Kasanada by breaking down aspects of Mori's archetype, explaining how Hunny adds to his characterization, and attempt to replicate it for Kasanada.

He's probably compartmentalized Kasanada as the scary-looking character with a hidden heart of gold and is leaning into it. He takes this approach with everything and it's never worked. But surely it will work this time.

Let's rate the attempted new fit.

I love the dreadlocks and the bandaid gives him a nice bit of charm. Not a fan of the bandana though. And I think he'd look better with rounder glasses.

The problem though is Kasanada's eyebrows are too furrowed for that look. If he could just loosen his brow, the fit would work a little better. His biggest problem is he looks mad and now his angry-looking brow is the only thing that can be used to judge his demeanor. If he could just loosen up his face, he'd look a little more whimsical, especially while carrying Beary.

And as excited as I am to see Shiro again, he just doesn't fit as a lovely item. He's not cute enough to match the same dynamic Hunny offers to Mori. His normal demeanor is boredom and disinterest. At best, Shiro's non-expressive face makes Kasanada look like an older brother who is very annoyed he has to pick him up from school.

And the whole thing very much does not improve Kasanada's image, especially among his servants. I mean, how would you react if the guy you think is a violent thug came home with a random kid? Of course they thought he kidnapped someone.

Next day, the club continues coming up with ideas to help Kasanada. Haruhi mentally comments that the twins are the types to never admit their mistakes, but I noticed that Tamaki is also doing a bit of deflecting as well. Tamaki was the one who suggested the "lovely item" and also ordered the twins to fix Kasanada's appearance, but he blamed Shiro and the twins for why his idea failed.

I think Haruhi, Hunny, and Mori are the only ones who genuinely believe Kasanada can turn his image around while the rest of them are much more swallowed up in his appearance and reputation to believe in him or be willing to admit when they failed him.

At least, that's the first impression I got when Tamaki and the twins aggressively separated Haruhi from Kasanada when the two of them were having a friendly chat because they "sensed danger". But it could also just be that they realized Kasanada was about to connect the dots that Haruhi is actually a girl and needed to separate them before she got outed.

Kasanada asked Haruhi if she plays kick the can when he tries to be friendly to her. He's trying to offer an invitation to a hobby or group activity to form some kind of connection. Since he's never had close friends, Kasanada wouldn't have gotten to play any sports with other kids. He probably spent his free time kicking cans around the yard growing up.

And he manages to loosen up his expression while talking with Haruhi.

At the end of the episode, Hunny has caught on to what Kasanada needs and says he hopes he realizes it soon. Cut to Tetsuya, the diligent servant who is always trying to be friendly to Kasanada. While Kasanada's glare scares him, Tetsuya has attempted to treat Kasanada in a more caring and human manner than everyone else in his household.

At the same time, trouble is afoot as some unknown figures are searching for Kasanada.

Mori meanwhile bemoans that the story that originally started with him as the focus club member has completely forgotten about him.