Asian Addicts Anonymous

This episode follows the story of Nekozawa and his problems with his little sister. Nekozawa is a light-hating, boy who loves darkness and curses while his little sister is scared of the dark and hates Nekozawa’s beloved cats. Can the host club bring these two siblings together?

The episode opens with the school director returning as Haruhi arrives at school. He immediately calls her into his office where he displays grandiose gestures just like a certain someone that Haruhi knows. He started the scholarship in hopes of being a daddy longlegs and gifts Haruhi with a stationary set to write him letters of gratitude. Haruhi takes this all in stride as she is already used to Tamaki acting like this. Haruhi suspects that the director and Tamaki might be related, but then thinks it’s impossible.

We then cut to the clubroom where the club are all cosplaying as police officers. Tamaki is still doing his over-the-top spiel, the twins are still doing their normal twincest, Honey and Mori are still displaying their indefinable relationship, and Kyoya’s business acumen is as sharp as ever as he sells photobooks of the various club cosplays. Haruhi, like always, is mystified by it all. I have to say that Daito Shunsuke was really rocking the policeman look.

The twins then come up to Haruhi and show her a naughty policewoman outfit that they prepared especially for her. Tamaki comes and intervenes about the twins being inappropriate with his daughter. How none of the clients notice all the female references is beyond me. Tamaki then turns to Kyoya and tells on “mother” that the brothers are making Haruhi wear indecent clothing. Meanwhile,  a little girl approaches while Tamaki quickly steals the outfit from the twins. Kyoya comes over and wonders just how he ended up as the mother to three 17-year-olds? Haruhi wonders that as well and Kyoya (who looks damn fine in that police uniform) replies that it may be because Tamaki has exceptionally strong feelings about family.

While Tamaki was messing around with the twins, the little girl opens the door and Tamaki welcomes this unexpected guest. This tiny tot then uses words that no preschooler should know, like reverse harem and incest [as she characterizes all of the club members]. When she gets to Tamaki, she calls him brother and rushes to him. Tamaki hugs her and picks her up, but denies having any siblings when the other members ask. This makes the little girl sad, so Tamaki irresponsibly says that he will be her big brother. Such a bleeding heart.

Nekozawa then pops in, shocking everyone by his sudden dark appearance. As it turns out, Kirimi is Nekozawa’s baby sister and she is completely afraid of him with his dark robes, dark aura, and plain creepiness. The twins and Honey says it is because of Nekozawa’s appearance and say he should lose the cloak and cut his hair. Nekozawa calls them murders and Mori goes up to close the curtain, but when he does, this frightens Kirimi more as she is afraid of the dark. Thus enter Black Magic Club member Hanatsuki Reiko who tells the story of the tragic siblings.

Kirimi was fascinated by the princely portrait displayed of her brother, that she just can’t marry reality with fantasy. Knowing this, the servants read Kirimi every storybook that had princes in it. When they ran out of storybooks, they then started reading her shoujo manga, hence why she knows such terms that no little girl should really know. Nekozawa then says that is why he prays everyday for his baby sister to fall in love with the darkness, so she can accept him. Needless to say, Tamaki doesn’t like that idea. Nekozawa, knowing how much Kirimi can’t stand the real him, wants to leave her in Tamaki’s care, but Tamaki decides to help bring the two siblings together instead.

Thus the operation begins. The clubroom is darkened and lit by candles, Nekozawa gets a haircut and is tutored in how to be pleasing versus dark and creepy. The club members even try to get Nekozawa to withstand light of any kind. Meanwhile, Haruhi is stuck babysitting the little girl. Kirimi isn’t bad, but Haruhi does nothing but read manga after manga to her and it gets tedious after awhile.

When Tamaki scolds Nekozawa for not imagining his teddy bear is Kirimi, the twins then turn the tables by telling Tamaki to imagine a doll is Haruhi. The doll has Haruhi’s head taped to it and is wearing the naughty policewoman outfit. Tamaki has no problem imagining Haruhi in it and Haruhi comes in to find him sitting the doll in his lap. Haruhi asks Tamaki to watch Kirimi if he has time for such fantasies. She explains about how she has reached her limit and the boys agree all that manga reading was hard. Kirimi then pops in and starts crying because it is dark. Haruhi apologizes, but the kid keeps crying. Nekozawa sees how Tamaki comforts Kirimi and this drives Nekozawa to keep with the training.

The light training gets even more intense and Tamaki does his best to knock the “shadows” out of Nekozawa and get him to like light. After all of this intense training, Tamaki needs to take a break and goes out to where Kirimi-chan has just fallen asleep. Haruhi warns him to be quiet and they get into a discussion on family. Tamaki tells her how he always wanted siblings, but due to his mom’s heath that wasn’t possible. Also due to her health, he did not spend much time with other children. His mom told him once that seeing him smile and having fun was what she wanted, so he started smiling, playing the piano and singing to her. From that moment on, Tamaki wanted to do something to bring joy to people in hopes that it will be passed on and maybe make his mother better [hence why the host club was started in the first place]. Is that strange? Haruhi smiles and says it isn’t and then asks if his mom is doing better and Tamaki says that he doesn’t know since he hasn’t seen her in two years.

Before Haruhi can ask any more questions, the twins burst out of the clubroom demanding Tamaki’s presence. Nekozawa manages to withstand a flashlight for more than three minutes – the training is working! At this point the sleeping Kirimi wakes up, and wonders into the clubroom where Nekozawa turns in happiness to greet his sister. The only problem is, the room is still dark and Nekozawa still has the flashlight on under his face. That effect just creeps the little Kirimi out and she runs away. Poor Nekozawa.

This depresses Nekozawa. After all his hard work, what Kirimi wants is a princely brother like Suouh. Tamaki says that isn’t true at all. The person Kirimi is really looking for is her brother, isn’t it? Tamaki grabs Nekozawa and shakes him. He’s Kirimi’s brother, her family right? Nekozawa is by her side and there is a lot he can for Kirimi, right? During this tense moment, Kyoya looks out the window and notices Kirimi in the courtyard. The twins go over and notice Kirimi is with a cat. This freaks Nekozawa out as he knows Kirimi doesn’t like cats. Nekozawa then rushes out to save his sister.

Kirimi is crying in the courtyard, imagining the cat to be a bigger monster cat. Nekozawa rushes out, sans cloak. Kirimi, turning to see him finally sees her princely brother. He quickly picks her up and takes her away from the cat. The two siblings share a big hug while the host club watches on happily. Nekozawa does the same trick that Tamaki did, and Kirimi smiles. Honey congratulates Nekozawa and he puts his little sister down and thanks them. But it was too much for him and he passes out.

Reiko comes and says that Nekozawa has reverted back to his old self. Kirimi is worried about her brother and tries to wake him up. Tamaki then asks if she’d like to perform a magic spell to make her brother better. Tamaki then sits and starts playing the piano. Haruhi smiles at this and Nekozawa wakes up. Kyoya come and asks what is wrong and Haruhi asks about Tamaki’s family. Kyoya explains that the Suous are a big business conglomerate and even own a school. Haruhi asks which one and is floored to know that it is Ouran. No wonder the director and Tamaki seemed so familiar. Haruhi then wonders why Tamaki can’t see his mother. It seems Haruhi is really starting to understand Tamaki bit by bit – especially why he likes playing family so much.

End episode. I am excited for episode 9 as it was another favorite from the manga series.