Asian Addicts Anonymous

At long last! A good episode and yet disappointing at the same time…just because it went by so fast. I really enjoy the twins storyline in the manga series and am glad that they did decide to do it for the drama series as well. Although, I have to say this was one of the more ridiculous episodes altogether when you look at the cheesy effects and fighting.

This episode opens up with a flashback to two years ago when the twins were still in middle school. A girl had written a confession letter to Hikaru, but is told that she put it in Kaoru’s desk instead. This flusters the girl, but then Kaoru says that he has always thought she was cute and asks if he would do instead of his brother. The girl, happy to hear that he thinks she’s cute, readily says yes. The twin then turns and calls out to the real Kaoru and tells him that the girl said he’d do as well. What a cruel trick. Although, the girl wasn’t the brightest to take one twin over the other. The twins then give the girl a dressing down and she starts crying. We see someone watching them as they leave the girl.

Now we are back to the present day where the twins are introduced as the most hedonistic of the host club. I am not quite sure that is the term I would use for them or not, but whatever. During club hours, the twins play one of their frequent games, the which one is which. On a regular basis, they part their hair differently. Hikaru parts his on the right while Kaoru does on the left. They then run around in circles and ask the girls who is who. No one manages to guess accurately, but then along comes Haruhi who easily picks out which one is which. This astounds the twins as no one has ever been able to tell them apart before. [I noticed in this episode if you actually took a good look at the twins, you can tell there is differences between the two, enough to tell them apart if you tried hard enough.]

The astounded twins then approach Haruhi and ask to go over to her house, which Haruhi outright refuses. She does not want her classmates to go as she knows they will just make fun of her house. The twins reply that is exactly the reason they wish to go. Haruhi asks what they take people for and the twins smile, put their arms around each others shoulders and then say “toys.”

Hearing the word toys, Nekozawa pops up touting the Black Magic Clubs showcase. He also says that anyone who goes to their activity will get a free voodoo doll. Whosever name you carve on its back will be affected by everything you do to the doll. The twins, getting bored by Nekozawa, pull out flashlights and shine them right in Nekozawa’s face. He screams and runs away calling them murderers. They then go off back to their corner.

The girls then approach Haruhi and compliment her on her ability to tell the twins apart. They just can’t believe how she can do it. So how does Haruhi tell the twins apart? Haruhi thinks for a bit and then says that Hikaru is 10% crueler than Kaoru. Hearing this annoys Hikaru and causes Kaoru to burst out laughing and thus the argument begins. Hikaru yells that Kaoru is the worst one and then begins a back and forth between the two. One is better at math, one at languages…blah, blah. As the twins bicker back and forth, they soon draw the attention of everyone as no one has seen them fight before. When Tamaki tries to stop the twins from fighting in front of the princesses [and to keep Haruhi out of the middle], the twins toss him aside like a rag doll. and continue their fight.

The annoyed Kyoya finally gets up and goes around to Haruhi. He puts his arm around her shoulders and tells her that the twins fight had to do with her honesty. He then claps her hard on the back and walks away, leaving Haruhi surprised. How she didn’t notice her words started the fight is beyond me. She looks from Kyoya’s retreating back to the angry twins and knows that great trouble is heading her way.

The next day, Hikaru calls out to Haruhi and shows up his new blond locks. He did it to differentiate himself from Kaoru who then comes up and complains about the ugly color of his older brother’s hair. Haruhi takes this all in and asks if they still haven’t made amends yet. Nope. Not yet. The two begin fighting [with what looks like real guns, but it can’t be since it doesn’t seem to hurt them]. Poor Haruhi is caught in the middle getting blasted to all heck. I really don’t like these scenes in this episode because they are so fake and poorly done.

At lunch time, Haruhi is forced to sit between the twins in the dining room. They go to order keep ordering the same thing at exactly the same time. This annoys them and they keep changing their orders. Poor Haruhi is unhappy to be caught between them. Then other club members show up and see that the twins are still ate it. The principal then comes and asks for a quiet meal. Tamaki says they will do their best and then glances back at the twins’ table to see Haruhi there as well. He immediately bounds over.

Haruhi says she never comes to the lunch room because she brings her own bento [lunch], but she had no choice as the twins dragged her there. Seeing the bento box, Tamaki goes into another one of his fantasies about Haruhi’s homemade bento and that sends him rushing over to Kyoya, asking “oka-san” what he should do if there is a heart in it. Kyoya tells him to stop letting his fantasies go crazy.

Haruhi opens up her bento, but it is just a plan lunch, not the cutesy lunch Tamaki was imagining. Haruhi explains about what is in her lunch to the interested girls. Hikaru then asks to trade lunches since he ended up ordering a lot of food he doesn’t like to try to be different from Kaoru. Haruhi agrees and is amazed at the food Hikaru had. She happily takes a bite and the other members watch happily from afar as she enjoys it. Tamaki then comes over and says that’s great. He then says he’ll trade Hikaru his lunch for Haruhi’s bento. Hikaru immediately refuses, ko-ing Tamaki. Kaoru then gives his luch to Haruhi and grabs her bento, but Hkaru doesn’t want to share and another fight ensues.

Haruhi tries to stop the twins who ask if they still can’t visit her house. Haruhi says the two matters are not related at all [how she can’t guess that they really are is beyond me]. The twins upon hearing this, then step up their antics. Tamaki tries to stop the fight and out pops Renge who is fantasizing a love quadrangle between the twins, Haruhi, and Tamaki. The twins start fighting once more and Tamaki tries to stop them once more. Silverware bounces off Tamaki’s head into the soup bowl of the man who asked for a quiet lunch. He angrily gets up and starts scolding Kaoru for being the eldest [he thinks he’s really Hikaru] and who should set an example for his younger brother. Haruhi, knowing the error, tries to say something, but is cut off. Tamaki is then yelled at for not controlling his club members and the host club is made to clean the lunch room.

After the man leaves, Kaoru turns around and states that he is Karou, not Hikaru who then bawls out his little brother for not standing up for himself and saying that he is Kaoru, not Hikaru. The twins fight once more and claim that they want nothing to do with each other. They then take off, leaving the club members to clean up the mess they made. Needless to say, the escalation of the fighting makes the club members worried.

The tired club members return to the host club room. Tamaki complains about how the twins skipped out on helping. Kyoya sits down and tries to recalculate profits if they can no longer sell the “brotherly love” package. He then puts on his devil smile and tells Haruhi not to feel bad since her words are what started the whole thing. Honey then comments about how this is the first fight between the twins. Mori seconds this. Honey then says that he’s known the twins since preschool and they had always been together in a world of their own and didn’t let other people get close to them. Tamaki then explains how he met the twins in middle school.

He apparently saw the whole confession ordeal and as the twins walked away, he rushed out to comfort the crying girl. He scolds Hikaru and Kaoru for their behavior, but the twins don’t seem to think anything is wrong. Besides, the girl couldn’t even tell them apart. No, they just need each other. Tamaki guesses which twin is which [blindly] and this annoys the twins as it is just blind guessing. Tamaki then invites them to join the host club that he was creating. The twins should be able to have fun while giving others pleasure. They will sell as a set, but will work on being themselves. The twins don’t really get this, but in the end decide to take up Tamaki’s offer.

Basically, since no one could tell the twins apart, they suffered a lot and then closed themselves off from others. They then worked on being more and more alike so that it made it even more difficult to differentiate which one is which and started playing their twisted games. Tamaki does believe that the twins are slowly opening their closed world, which makes him happy. Meanwhile, Haruhi is worried. If this is the first time the twins have fought, then they might not know when enough is enough and need someone to prod them into making amends.

A note of challenge is then found on the floor bringing everyone into panic mode. Just what are those twins thinking? Two female students rushes in to tell them that Hikaru and Kaoru are already going at it. The gang rushes outside where Hikaru and Kaoru are playing with guns again. Poor Tamaki in trying to stop the twins, manages to step on every single trap they set for each other. During this final battle, the twins accuse each other of liking Haruhi, and Tamaki can’t believe they are saying that about their “sister.”

The slower Haruhi finally arrives on the scene. Kaoru pulls out one of Nekozawa’s voodoo dolls and says that he has carved Hikaru’s name on it’s back. Then up pops Nekozawa who explains about the doll once more. We even get to see how much he dislikes Tamaki as he has a Tamaki doll that he tortures. When the doll comes out and Kaoru is about to use it against Hikaru, Haruhi has had enough. She rushes over to the twins and knocks them both on the head for being idiots. They should be ashamed of their behavior and just make up now. Haruhi then gives the ultimatum if they don’t shape up, they can’t visit her house.

And just like that, the twins reveal it was all just a lie!!! They were fighting according to script. Even the voodoo doll had fooled carved into it’s back, not Hikaru’s name. Apparently the twins did all of that just to get Haruhi to let them come over. This shocks everyone. They cannot believe they had been so thoroughly fooled. Kyoya said he noticed it was an act with the challenge letter. The twins with too much time on their hands are scary and devils.

Later as the club heads home, Tamaki complains about the twins playing that game. The twins, walking behind the rest, say that Tamaki must have forgotten that two years ago he asked the twins to play games with him. so Tamaki suffers for his unfortunate words back then. We see the scene they were talking about and then flash back to the present. You can tell that Tamaki remembers it as well as he smiles. The gang then discusses going to Haruhi’s house. They are all excited, but Haruhi doesn’t want all of them coming. In the end, it was just the twins that were supposed to be going, not all of the club. Haruhi goes on ahead while Tamaki complains to Kyoya and the twins tease him.

Things are finally back to normal at the club. The twins play their game again, but with blond and red hair, they are easily told apart, right? The girls guess and the twins say that they are right, but Haruhi says that they are really wrong. Kaoru and Hikaru switched hair colors, so Kaoru is now blonde. Haruhi smiles and says she is right and the rest of the club smiles and claps for her. This shocks Kaoru and Hikaru even more. The twins turn and discuss Haruhi. The both admit to having fallen for her, but they are twins and share everything. Haruhi is just one person. Hikaru then says they should share Haruhi. Kaoru points out that you can’t do that. So they decide to adopt her. Kyoya watches all of this with concern. What will become of these four boys who all like Haruhi?

Wah. I know the answer, which again makes me wish you could divide Haruhi up between them as she really is the perfect girl for the twins, Tamaki, and Kyoya. Sigh. And it doesn’t really help that the manga never really introduced any other girls for them so you could root for them to have their own happiness with someone else.