Asian Addicts Anonymous

You really have to divorce this drama from the Taiwanese version as well as the actual manga. Oh, sure they are keeping some key points, but despite people talking about how accurate this adaptation is as some scenes are really following the manga to a T, it’s actually even further from the original story than the Taiwanese. They are taking this drama in a direction I did not consider, so it’s a surprise.

So, while I found Iitoyo Marie’s acting as Kira to be on the weaker side originally, she’s grown on me and her acting is much more delicate than at first thought. Kubota’s acting has been pretty spot on throughout his time in this drama and, for the most part, Fujigaya Taisuke has done really well. The odd thing is that some of his acting seems worse in the final episodes of this drama. The graveside scene where he’s hyperventilating and realizing a part of his past with Sei didn’t quite work. Neither did the part where he’s revealing his pain to Kira and he puts his hands to his mouth. Fujigaya has had strong acting in other dramas and did relatively well here, so it’s disappointing to see these parts that didn’t quite ring true with his portrayal of Rei.

So what happens in the final three episodes of this drama? Not a whole lot. Really, episode 8 wraps up the Shiori story line and episodes 9-10 are merely exposition as we are retold the entire happenings of this series through Kirishima’s viewpoint. This, of course, gets us to see Kirishima’s true personality and as people have hopefully been guessing—it’s one helluva dark one.

At the graveside, Rei realizes that what happened with Sei’s death has been repressed—it’s not that he can’t remember what happened with his twin, but it’s that he doesn’t want to. Why? Because he was the cause of Sei’s death. He then gets a call from Shiori who gives her “goodbye cruel world” spiel and hangs up. Kirishima, Rei, and Kira rush to Rei’s old school, but Shiori didn’t have the courage to jump. She apologizes to Rei for that and he holds her and tells her that it wasn’t her telling Sei to disappear that made Sei commit suicide. Rei, in fact, had said the exact same thing to his little brother.

Rei takes Shiori home, leaving Kira to Kirashima. Kira watches him walk away with the other girl and cries, quietly asking him not to leave. With Rei and Shiori’s goodbye scene, you get the sense that things have come full circle and that there is resolution between herself and Rei. No more crazy possessiveness and suicide attempts.

Rei is absent from school. Because that’s what always happens, you know. Kida prods Kira for information, but Harumi sees the other girl’s distress and pulls Kida away to buy bread telling Kira she’s always there to lend an ear. Kira thanks her and makes a decision—to go to Rei. Kirashima tries to stop her as it will only bring Kira more pain, right? Kira apologizes and runs off. When she gets to Rei’s apartment, he’s curled up sick in bed. She buys him medicine and shreds and apple for him.

Kira spends the night taking care of him. The next day Rei is back to his usual self and Kira makes him an omurice breakfast. The two talk about what happened. Kira recalls Kirashima telling her that Rei was forced to be strong to look after Sei that Rei never cries. This makes Kira sad. When Rei blames himself and talks about how everything he did for Sei was wrong (he has a violent side and used violence to comfort and protect Sei), he also yells out that he had no idea how to be gentle and how to embrace and comfort his little brother since his mother was dead since early childhood. Kira hugs him and tells him its okay to cry and that no one can blame Rei for what happened with Sei. Kira wishes they can stay together and have a radiant future, but dark clouds are rolling in.

And in the next two episodes, Kirishima’s evilness is explored. Since incidentally meeting Rei two years ago (Rei saved him from bullies by beating the crap out of the bullies), Kirishima has become convinced that Rei is essentially his soul mate – the only one who can understand his warped and twisted way of thinking. You know that debate about whether psychos are born or created? Well, they let you know that Kirishima has been twisted since birth. He looks down on everyone else as the scum of the earth, especially those who are weak and yet prey upon others, and easily considers violence and death the norm of society that is being denied in modern times.

Meet psycho puppet master.

Kirishima is happy to have met Rei once more. He’s even happier that he exists in Rei’s memory. He’s at first curious about Kira, but his curiosity soon turns to an intense hatred. While he does feel that he and Kira actually share many similarities, he feels that Kira is holding back the cruel and cunning nature of Rei that he loves so much. He cannot allow this to continue. Throughout the series, from Kurasawa’s suicide attempt to Shiori’s and to Sei’s own death, Kirashima has been acting to try to stir the beast within Rei (or in Sei’s case he wanted to remove Sei from the picture so he could take Sei’s place by Rei’s side). Unfortunately, Kira is always there to stay Rei’s hand. The only solution is to end everything and directly attack Kira (he’s tried subtle psychology on both Rei and Kira to no avail).

And that’s it. I’m not going to go into details because it’s really unnecessary since it is a recap and Kirishima’s personal thoughts. Lots and lots of exposition and seeing the flipside of how he really isn’t the good person who likes Kira that is originally portrayed. Of course if you’ve read the manga, you already know Kirishima has quite the doozy of a personality. Of course, in this drama they have changed him quite a bit in many, many ways. They’ve essentially changed some core features of this story with what they’ve done—making Sei and Rei fraternal, making Kirishima a former classmate and best friend of Sei, etc.

The movie comes out in June and will wrap up Kirishima’s warped love and Rei and Kira’s pure love. Since we’ve covered Rei’s past and his traumas, its finally time to move on to Kira’s. Truthfully, while Kira’s is important, her personal story only briefly comes up and is soon replaced with Rei’s. The core of MARS is really the love of these broken people and Rei essentially overcoming his demons the most and going towards his dream of being a racer.

Since I haven’t finished the Taiwanese version yet, no write up on a three-way comparison yet, but look for that in the future once I do.