Asian Addicts Anonymous

I know, I’m slow with this drama, but…it’s quite complex, you know? Same with Sennyu Tantei Tokage. Complex plots make it harder to understand and require more than one watching.

I really do love this drama as you are just not sure what to believe. Shigeyuki has improved and becoming more healthy and normal while the others in his family disintegrate. Is Koya really trying to destroy their family in a sick, twisted game? Or is he dragging them through the fire and brimstone to pull them out of Hell?

We open with something new—Koya’s tutor log for Shige. We learn that Shige’s place in the class ranking skyrockets thanks to his girlfriend and wanting to impress her. The two are now attending cram school together. While Koya plans new challenges for Shige, he talks about setting the stage for the complete family breakdown. Koya talks about the distance growing between Kayoko and Kazu thanks to the affair with Asami. He also talks of Kayoko’s newfound interest in internet stocks and how her trust grows in him daily. We then get to see Shinichi breaking down more and more and have his grades keep slipping.

Shinichi meets Maki at her old house and she hands over the article about her family’s suicide. How did Koya do it? He convinced them to invest in something that failed and pushed the family into great debt. Maki then asserts that Koya’s goals are not based on greed or revenge, but on the simple sick joy of destroying families. Shinichi then recalls Koya telling him the other day that he will do whatever he can to destroy the Numata family—can they withstand it?

Koya enters Shinichi’s room and the boy quickly hides the article and tells Koya to get out because he’s studying. Koya tells him not to lie and Shinichi jumps out of his chair in anger. Whose fault is it that he can’t concentrate and focus on Todai? Koya says this is fine as being troubled is something the youth needs to experience. Koya then leaves and Shinichi thinks that he hasn’t noticed yet (at least I think that was Shinichi’s thought…could be Koya’s). The eldest Numata son then gets a text of Asami kissing Kazu and he is shocked. We then have Koya leaving the house and looking back saying that Shinichi is a monster that the Numata family created. Interesting. Does it take a monster to know a monster?

Sakura meets with Shige and tells the boy that she likes him. Shige smiles happily and says he likes her as well. She cuts him off and says she also likes Sonoda and calls the other boy out. She then says that she will choose which one to officially date based on their next mock exam scores. Shige is stunned speechless. He stutters out that there is no way he would agree to such a thing, but Sonoda says he has no problem at all with the arrangement. Sakura says she will go out with him then and Shige says he will have to fight.

He tells this to Koya who laughs. He goes to cut up and throw out Sakura’s picture, but Shige stops him. Does Koya think there is a chance of him beating Sonoda? Koya then asks how well Sonoda is ranked. About 5th in the class (Shige’s only at 78). Koya starts laughing and says it will be 100% chance of failure then. This hurts Shige and he yells out that he is serious (acting like a little boy). Koya apologizes and Shige brings up a paper with calligraphy saying “absolutely must win.” Koya chuckles and says “how dirty.” And Shige throws another tantrum saying this is where his tutor is supposed to say “Good.”

Koya goes to leave and is stopped by Kazu who is worried about Kayoko sudden change in attitude. Koya then shows him the picture of him kissing Asami and says he’s surprised Kazu didn’t know as the picture is circulating among Kayoko’s friends and such. Kazu is shocked, where could that picture have come from?

Shinichi meets with Asami and confronts her about the picture. Asami apologizes and tells how she overheard Kazu talking in a café about having hired Koya. She thus tried to enter his life and gain his trust before Koya could sink his claws in too deep. And then things just got out of hand. Shinichi is angry that she used his family for her revenge against Koya and tells the girl to never contact him again. Before he leaves she asks if he is doing this for himself or his family. Shinichi pauses, but says for his family. Liar. You know its for himself.

Kayoko sees clothes sticking outside of Shinichi’s room and enters to pick them up. She then spots a picture underneath the bureau. When she takes it out she sees the picture of Shinichi stealing. What an unpleasant surprise for Kayoko.

The “perfect” Shinichi is beginning to break apart and show his twisted personality to others. When he fails to gain first place at track practice, his friend Takatsu tells him to not worry as it’s just from lack of practice (boy has been skipping remember). Shinichi snaps at him and then at his girlfriend who wonders why the sudden change in attitude. The boy replies he’s always been likes this, it’s just that nobody has ever noticed. But he hid his true nature before, he’s not now.

Kazu tries to talk to Kayoko about the kiss, but she won’t listen. Instead she calls up a friend and has Kazu tell her. Kazu lies about the picture being fabricated by someone at work and how he tried to send the picture to his wife as a joke, but sent it to others instead. When he hangs up, Kayoko compliments his lying. Enter Shinichi. Kazu asks about cram school and Shinichi says he’s resting (no wonder his rank keeps falling). Is he sick? Shinichi snarkily tells his father to continue his excuse and goes upstairs. That boy. Kayoko tries to go upstairs to talk to him about the photo, but can’t bring herself to do it.

We get a nice speech from Koya about how parenting today leads to bad children. With parents not investing their time or emotions with their children, that is why we get the problems with education and society. Not everyone is created equal as they cannot choose their parents (too true). Thus, those with good parents have a better chance of a good outcome than those with bad parents. Koya then says that such parents are what give birth to monsters like Shinichi. I mean…it’s true. Forget economical circumstances, your parents help shape you. True, some kids end up as great adults DESPITE their parents while some kids can’t get above the levels their parents raise them. It’s rather sad. You never know what you will get. How much is ingrained nature and how much is environmental nurture? I studied this topic WAY too much in college. If I could have done something with the degree, I was planning on minoring or majoring in sociology. Although…I’m sure English is just as useless. 😛

During Koya’s speech we get snapshots of Kayoko and Kazu and their daily lives not doing what they should do. We also get Shinichi encourage bullies of Takatsu to shave his “friend’s” head with a exacto knife thingy. Ah, box cutter. That’s what its called. He says he is joking and goes out trying to hide his evil glee. He then slashes another bike tire. This kid is a freaking sociopath. Actually…what’s the line separating psychos from socios? There is a difference.

In the restroom at school, Sonoda and Shige talk. They both will not give up on the exams as they both want Mano. Leaving the bathroom, they overhear Mano tell her friend that she only did that as a joke to entertain herself while studying. This breaks both boys’ hearts although Sonoda was worried that something like that was afoot. Sonoda makes Shige promise not to tell the other guys about the whole incident.

Kazu leaves work and tries to put off going home by asking a coworker out for drinks. The man refuses and tells Kazu that he would get a younger woman instead of Kayoko. Dang. What an arse. This makes Kazu really contemplate calling up Asami. He gets home to find the house in full swing with Kayoko and her friends happily laughing and enjoying themselves while Shige looks depressed and Shinichi sits back and looks all broody. The girls leave and Shinichi says this is a consolation party for the heartbroken Shige. With tension in the air, Koya tries to get the parents to confront their problems. Kazu says speaking out is no good and you can only live each day out. Wow. What a crappy outlook on life. However, the speech from Koya about confronting things makes the boy spring up. He asks Koya to tutor him the next night instead and rushes out of the house.

Shige goes to Sonoda’s house and says he will take the exam despite knowing about the trick. He then says that if he wins, then he will dump Mano in revenge for what she did. This brightens Sonoda up and he agrees to Shige’s plan and promises to do the same. Awww. It looks like Shige is finally making a real friend. Well…Sonoda, even though he acted with the bullies, always seemed genuinely concerned for Shige deep down.

On Koya’s advice, Kayoko buys 4000 shares of some electronics stock. She goes to discuss Shinichi’s stealing with Koya, but the boy comes home and asks what is going on. Kayoko shows him her bankbook with the money earned from playing internet stocks. Asami/Maki’s words come back to Shinichi and the boy starts flipping out. He yells at Koya to leave and stop messing with his family as he is making things bad. Kayoko actually snaps and says that Shinichi is the one causing the mess. The boy then runs out of the house. Koya wonders what she meant, but Kayoko keeps silent and walks away. Koya’s expression darkens and he looks suspicious.

Shinichi gets a call from Takatsu who wonders if he should commit suicide. The angry Shinichi tells him that he should just go ahead and do it. He’s too much of a coward to go through with it, isn’t he? If he wanted Shinichi to talk him out of it, he’s shit out of luck. Harsh, man. Definitely not something to tell a suicidal person. Shinichi then hangs up and asks to meet with Asami. The girl says to figure out what Koya is doing, she needs to know what is happening with Shige and they can move from there.

It turns out that Shige did beat Sonoda in the mock exams. The boys show their scores to Mano who goes to choose  Shige who says he only went out for her to amuse himself while he studies. This shocks and hurts the girl. The two boys then run off and congratulate themselves on payback…only they are still depressed. But they cheer up when Sonoda gives back the idol book he stole from Shige and the two go to her new event at 5.

We then cut to see Koya giving money to Mano. Looks like he paid her to do that. Koya honestly asks her if it was for the money or for Shige. For Shige of course. By doing this, does Koya really think it will help Shige get in to that big name high school? Of course. Then…when they get to that school together, Mano will tell Shige everything. Koya smiles and tells the girl to earnestly confess her feelings first. I don’t get any bad vibes here like I’ve gotten with some of Koya’s other meddling…

Koya leaves and asks Shinichi how long he plans on following him. The boy comes out and shows a picture he took of Koya giving money to Mano. Koya takes him to the abandoned school to talk. What does Shinichi want? He’ll give Koya the picture if Koya explains how he killed the Tachibana family 3 years ago. Koya says he got them into debt and then had them commit suicide with poison. He then laughs and asks if that’s what they were hoping he’d say. He then tells Asami Maika, aka Tachibana Maki, to come out. Asami comes out with a video camera. She was hoping on getting a confession to use as evidence against Koya. She demands the truth and Koya turns it back on her.

It wasn’t he who killed her family, but rather Asami herself. What does he mean? Asami was a bad girl who was sent to study abroad because of all the trouble she caused. Surprisingly enough, once she was in the US, she turned her life around and found love and real friends and got along great with her host family. When the Tachibana family became so mired in debt that they couldn’t afford to keep their daughter abroad, they asked her to come home ASAP. Asami  refused and told them to just die so she could get the insurance money. Thus, the family killed themselves and the insurance covered the debt and made sure Asami could finish her studies. Wowza.

The poor girl gets abused by Koya. But…is he wrong? Apparently she really did say that to her family. He says he has a USB drive with her family’s last moments and she willingly hands over the camera. He then tosses her hard into a desk and stomps the drive. There is no way he had something like that. Asami wishes for the truth, but Koya insists that she knows it already. He throws her again and roughly grabs her chin. She doesn’t care about her family’s death but about how it inconvenienced her. When he gets rough with her some more, Shinichi pulls out the box cutter and demands Koya let the girl go. Koya corners the boy who keeps backing away. Looks like Shinichi isn’t a complete monster yet.

Shinichi shakes as Koya tells him to go ahead and stab him. When the boy doesn’t, Koya forces Shinichi into stabbing his arm. How does it feel? Can he see the blood? Shinichi is then thrown to the ground and Koya starts talking about how he will teach the boy fear and shame. While he gives his rather long speech about teaching the boy and how Shinichi never had to suffer, we get flashbacks of that poor boy who died getting bullied. Koya says that its people like Shinichi that make people like him exist. Koya then thrusts the box cutter right next to Shinichi’s head. He gets slowly to his feet and leaves.

Asami is pretty shaken. It was all her fault, wasn’t it? Shinichi gets to his feet and holds out his hand to her. He would have said the same thing in her situation. This is the first time he’s ever felt like this. He then gets a call from his girlfriend reporting that Takatsu was found hanging in the club room. He’s not dead, but is being rushes to the hospital. Shinichi is horrified—his last words to the boy was to just go ahead and kill himself if he had the guts.

We then close this episode with more of Koya’s tutor report. Now that Shige is stabilized with a real friend, it’s time for a new student—Shinichi. Koya is happy as things are going according to plan. Including that stock Kayoko just bought dropping.

What an episode.