Asian Addicts Anonymous

The show is winding down. Only one more episode left in which to resolve everything. I admit this is a good series while being completely frustrating as well with the complicated, twisty plot.

The suicidal quartet is in the hospital recovering thanks to Tokuda getting help in time. Back in the present, Tokuda tells his fellow neighbors that nothing good comes from knowing him. He then says he took away the most important person to each of them. Tokuda confesses that he tried to die that day, that he wanted to die that day, that he thought everything would be better if he did die that. He ran to the top of a building and was all set to jump, when he sees an envelope lying on the ground. As much as he wanted to die, he also wanted to help the person who lost the envelope. And so ends Tokuda’s attempted suicide.

Tokuda picks up the envelope and decides helping the person who lost it would be the last thing he did. So it didn’t stop him, just delayed him. Tokuda searches for the address on the envelope and that brings him to the Kinoshita residence. He hesitates at the door afraid that he would only bring the people more misery or trouble. He didn’t want to send the family in the house spiraling into their own private hell, but he continued out his mission. He rings the doorbell, praying that no one answers, but the door is answered. Tokuda then presents the woman with the envelope he found. The woman gets agitated and immediately calls for her husband before running inside. The woman comes back with her husband who asks where the letter was found. Tokuda says on the roof and the couple start laughing. Apparently the letter was important and he thought that he had lost it. Their happiness positively stuns Tokuda.

In a state of shock, Tokuda just takes his leave. The happy couple go out after him and call out their thanks, while still laughing. This makes Tokuda cry. He was so happy that he had actually managed to do something good for once. Tokuda could not forget the feeling. He believed thanks to that moment he could live and be able to help others. He decided from that moment on to live and only help others. So from that moment on he looked for people in trouble.

Now cut to funny scenes where Tokuda does his best to help and is always turned down. He also caused a lot more trouble as well. Tokuda believed that he was given a new purpose in life to help others. He then sets out collecting donations, cleaning up parks, and doing volunteer work. He cannot go back to the past, but cherishing the present can transform the future. He still makes mistakes and brings some trouble, but not to as horrible of an extent. That brings him to work at the insurance company where he was fired from at the beginning of the series.

Tokuda tells his neighbors that he started working at the company to help people with the insurance money. We then see scenes of the capable Tokuda working with his clients. Tokuda did his best to find the loopholes in the insurance contracts to make sure that his clients received the payments they were entitled to. He obviously opened up and came out of his shell. When people saw him, they greeted him with smiles and talked to him nicely thanks to all the good things he had done. Totally different from how horrible his life had been.

Cut back to the present and Kameda lets out a derisive noise. After Tokuda’s long speech, Tokuda got a happy ending (hardly considering the situation they are all in at the moment). Tokuda apologizes and then tells them all that he was fired by the insurance company for leaving them with a huge loss in profits. Kameda then says but at least Tokuda still has a girlfriend. This causes an awkward silence to fall as Kameda looks at Makiko (who is a dead ringer for the dead Saachan). Tokuda mentions the word girlfriend, and the indignant Kameda replies, “Yes, girlfriend. You have one don’t you?” And just when you think the flashbacks are done…we get another one.

Tokuda replies that his girlfriend was always covered in scratches and bruises because of him. We cut to a scene of him outside as a little boy watering something. A little girl rides by and crashes her bike thanks to the water. Despite her always getting hurt around him, that little girl stayed by his side no matter what – no matter how many times she got hurt. They were together from childhood to adulthood. With him, she has fallen in a manhole and even had a bookshelf fall on her when he leaned on it in the library. But no matter what, she was always there to help cheer him up. She always gave him courage.

Back to the present, Sasaski asked what happened to Tokuda’s childhood girlfriend. Tokuda broke up with her since he did not want anything bad to happen to her. Yuko couldn’t believe that Tokuda wanted to break up. After saying he didn’t want her stuck with him since bad things always happen around him, he walks away, but Yuko won’t let him go. She runs after him and just as she is about to grab him, he quickly turns to talk to her only to find her gone. What happened? She was launched down a hill by her momentum since he quickly turned away. Tokuda looks around and sees her. She gets up and asks “What bad luck?” Right. Yuko then tells him that everything that has happened to her was nothing. Yuko then says that she will wait for Tokuda. She will wait at that hill everyday until he comes back. She will wait forever if she has to. Tokuda says nothing and just walks away, trying not to cry.

At this point, Tagawa gets up and cocks the trigger on his gun, pointing it right at Tokuda’s head. Tokuda looks up the shaking barrel and Tagawa tells him that if he can’t kill Tokuda, then Tagawa can’t go home. The others stare in shock as Tagawa starts crying and apologizing since there is nothing can he do. Tagawa then drops the picture of Tokuda that he had carried. Tokuda looks down at it and then raises his head and closes his eyes. Tagawa apologizes once more and tries to pull the trigger. We then hear Kameda’s voice telling Tagawa to please stop. The room turns to look at him an Kameda cries, saying that he has forgiven Tokuda as Tokuda is an innocent victim as well. Besides, killing Tokuda won’t bring back Kameda’s girlfriend. Tokuda starts crying as well. Makiko then speaks up and says that she can’t forgive him for dropping the 5 yen coin that killed her boyfriend. But she does say that she doesn’t think her boyfriend would want Tokuda to die. So Makiko then begs Tagawa to stop as well. Of course, Sasaski begs Tagawa on her behalf as well not to kill Tokuda. Ozaki even speaks up saying that killing Tokuda would leave a bad taste in his mouth. Sasaski then tells Tagawa that killing people is wrong.

Tagawa then collapses to the floor crying. The crying Tokuda then thanks them, but says his life is cursed. Without realizing it, Tokuda found himself only hurting others. He then bows his head, apologizes, and cries even harder. He says that he cannot take it anymore. So, basically, he’s asking to be killed. Tokuda sits up and now has Tagawa’s gun in his hand. He holds it up to his head while the others stare on in shock. He apologizes once more, but before he can pull the trigger, a knock sounds at the door. The yakuza are back!

Kameda begins freaking out. What will they do now that the yakuza have returned? Ozaki curses and pulls out a knife. Kameda tells him that they will all be killed, but Ozaki goes to the door anyways. When he gets there, someone asks for Tokuda. Everyone then looks at Tokuda. What is going on? Tokuda gets up and goes to the door. He slowly opens it and there is a man who asks if he is okay. This surprises Tokuda as he had forgotten about his bruised and bloody face. Tokuda wipes his mouth and asks what is wrong. The man then replies that he heard Tokuda had been fired. The older woman Tokuda helped earlier then pops up behind the man and says that’s right. They wondered if Tokuda was okay since everyone was worried about him. Hearing everyone shocks Tokuda. He opens the door wider and a small group of people are all there wondering after his wellbeing. Ahh. Isn’t that sweet – proof that he hasn’t only hurt people.

While Tokuda stands stunned, his former clients and friends ask if he has a place to stay and offer their own places if he needs it. They tell him not to hold back on anything since he had helped them all. The crowd then tell him not to give up, he can do it as they are all rooting for him and supporting him. Tokuda tears up once more. Except, this time it is tears of joy and gratefulness. The others then come out of the apartment – amazed at the crowd. At this moment, Tagawa’s wife comes up and scolds him for going missing. She then tells Tagawa that there is nothing to worry about anymore as Tokuda-san helped get Tagawa’s insurance money. This surprises even Tokuda. Tagawa’s wife introduces herself as Kondo and thanks Tokuda for all of his help while Sasaski can’t believe that Tagawa was Kondo after all. Tagawa then apologizes while Sasaski whines about it and the other neighbors smile.

The people then ask if something happened to Tokuda’s apartment. Tokuda is shocked by this. The one man then says that it was all messed up. Before Tokuda can attempt to explain what happened, two men come from upstairs, carrying a stretcher and asking for help. Makiko is shocked to see Yamada-sensei on it, recalling her suicide. She then sees Yamada’s mouth move. So she did not die. Makiko drops to her knees and says thank goodness. More tension is eased and the gang start to smile. Looks like all the bad things weren’t really as bad as they may have seemed at first. The crowd then asks once more of Tokuda is okay and needs help. He smiles and thanks them.

At this time, the yakuza arrive en masse, startling everyone. Asai calls for his shotgun and it is thrown to him. He points it at the crowd who immediately clear a path before the stunned neighbors. Kameda screams and goes running, soon followed by the others. Asai’s first shot hits the flower pot and Tokuda barely makes it in the apartment before the next shot is fired.

End episode.

Quite the cliffhanger. Despite the earlier positive resolutions, we still have the fact that Ozaki betrayed Asai and that Tagawa injured Asai’s men. Oops. On the bright side, the flashbacks should be completely over now.