About Twins

In a recent post conversation on the Ouran High School Host Club discussion we were talking about twins. In this case, specifically about the twins who play the Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin --- Manpei and Shinpei Takagi. You can see my question[ame="http://www.animecrazy.net/forums/showthread.php?p=9294025#post9293298"]#[/ame] and the response[ame="http://www.animecrazy.net/forums/showthread.php?p=9294025#post9293661"]#[/ame] in the forum. (Thanks, ~Minzgruen!)

I was having difficulty distinguishing them, which confused me because I don't usually have such a problem with it. Sure, I can separate them on screen, and, after watching the "Which one's Hikaru?" episode three times, I got down which was Kaoru and which was Hikaru... but it disturbed me somehow. I have had a history of being able to distinguish the younger sibling in a set. This was the only time that I remember where I couldn't quite tell. Which turns out to be because they are good actors.

I don't know when I started being able to tell the difference, and I was completely unaware of the fact until several of our former classmates were discussing the issue at a party with the younger of our fraternal male twin classmates.

Someone who had a bit to drink said, "I never could tell you two apart."

Looking confused and somewhat resigned, the twin replied, "But we aren't even identical."

It appears it was a general consensus among our classmates, though not everyone was clueless. We had all been classmates for eight years and most couldn't tell the difference between two fraternal males? That seems kind of rude to me. I never had any problems that I could remember. After this discovery was made, I thought back over the years and couldn't find any instance where I failed to identify individual twins if I cared enough to do so.

I have fraternal twin cousins were are about 10 years different from me, so I may have had a slight advantage, but they're boy and girl. Anyway, every time I had encountered twins over the years, I always knew which was the younger and was keep them separate. It seemed strange to me then, so I began experimenting along the way. Now, each time I encounter twins and have the opportunity to observe and ask, I usually pick the correct birth order.

Once there was set of twins who had the same name but in two different dialects -- Like, James and Seamus, but that isn't their name. I had interacted with them for some time before they showed up after having just come from winning a twins competition for 'most alike'. The two had worked hard at it. They put themselves into the same trim, their glasses were alike, one was balding early and the other dutifully made sure his pate was trimmed exactly the same, they had bought the same clothes, and they even adopted each others mannerisms.

My response of, "Congratulations, but, wow, the others must really look different from each other..." didn't go over well.

It was my opinion that they didn't look at that much alike even with all the prep. They were stunned. Our companions were shocked too. They had known them longer and still had difficulty in that instance. The elder put a blank no-i-am-not-annoyed look on his face while the younger just smiled faintly. I think I amused him because I hit on his brother's weak spot. They tested me to make sure I wasn't just saying it to get the elder irritated. (I was trying to irritate the elder, btw. Shhhhhh!) When they finished quizzing me, they looked at each other and back to me asking if I was actually twin.

For the record, I asked my mother and she was confused where the question came from, but told me she was absolutely certain I was not part of a set of twins.

A little more recently I got another shock.

I've known without doubt which of my fraternal twin cousins was the elder. Apparently, I never made this known to anyone. During a chat with my grandmother, our conversation wandered to the topic of The Twins. After various and sundry comments, she stated proudly that no one knows their birth order. Apparently, their mother didn't want them to know for some reason that escapes my memory. The Twins are well into adulthood now so this was actually quite a shock me. According to Gram the only non-medical people who knew their birth order were Gram and their Mother.

My response was to immediately state the birth order in a firm and confident voice, which shocked my grandmother into silence, which really is something that is hard to do. She nodded dazedly at me for a minute before turning about and trying to interrogate me. I haven't asked other family members if they knew, but I assume Gram wasn't just blowing hot air because that isn't her way. I was 1)confused that no one knew their birth order, 2)surprised to find my aunt was actually keeping it secret and 3)happy that my record was secure.

Until this pair of twin actors. Congratulations, Manpei and Shinpei. By playing your roles as Hikaru and Kaoru, you broke my streak. But now I know, though I couldn't articulate it even if you asked, how I mixed it up and why. Now when I look at a photo of them together, I am pretty certain I know which is which... the truth of that will have to be tested by the Takagi Twins fan club members.