10 Best Twins In Anime
Andrew Patterson From the Hitachiin brothers in Ouran High School Host Club to Vash and Knives in Trigun, anime portrays twins in many different ways.
Twins and their special connection are an object of fascination in media, and anime is no exception. Whether they are the mischievous comic relief that take full advantage of being identical, or in a tragic tale of siblings forced to fight to the death, their stories will always be unique.
Identical or not, all sets of twins are very different. Some are extremely close with one another and work perfectly in tandem, like Sakon and Ukon in Naruto. Others want nothing more than to be rid of their twin, like Vash the Stampede in Trigun.
Sakon and Ukon (Naruto)
These two are not only one of the most unique sets of twins out there, but they utilize a fighting style that no other shinobi could ever imitate. Their kekkei genkai allows them to inhabit the same body, with Ukon lying dormant in his younger twin's body until it's time to fight, when he bursts out with four extra limbs with which to pummel opponents.
Part of the personal guard of one of the most evil villains in Naruto, Sakon and Ukon show up in the Sasuke Retrieval Arc to waylay the Leaf Village team, and give Kiba Inuzuka his toughest fight yet. In the end, he isn't able to beat them on his own: the brothers' fusion technique allows them to fuse with their opponents as well, in order to fatally degrade their body. He is only saved by Kankuro's intervention.
Takumi and Isami Aldini (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma)
Cooking and restaurant management are often family businesses, as seen with several characters in Food Wars! But no one is doing it quite like Takumi and Isami, twin heirs to the Italian Trattoria Aldini's. Like Soma, the brothers have a lifetime of experience serving the public their family's food.
While Takumi often takes the spotlight, he is also the first to remind everyone that he and Isami are two of a kind. In competition or at work, they cook in perfect sync. Their Mezzaluna knife and several of their dishes, such as Takumi's Doppio Mezzaluna Pizza, one of the wildest dishes ever cooked on Food Wars!, are symbolic of their bond as twins.
Atsumu and Osamu Miya (Haikyuu!!)
The Miya twins are standout players on the Inarizaki volleyball team, and one of the best setter and spiker pairs in Haikyuu!! Though they might bicker even on the court, setter Atsumu and wing spiker Osamu are a powerhouse pair, able to copy and perfectly execute Hinata and Kageyama's famous quick attack after only seeing it once in the episode "Rhythm."
Being identical, they each dyed their hair a different color to distinguish themselves, but their opposite personalities would make that easy anyway. Atsumu is hot-blooded, brash, and often rude, while Osamu is quiet, even-tempered, and generally only inclined to make fun of his brother.
Vash the Stampede and Knives Millions (Trigun)
They may be twins, but Vash and Knives couldn't be more different. Vash is a determined pacifist who travels planet Gunsmoke proclaiming love and peace, helping and befriending humans. Knives is a sadistic monster who places no value on anyone's life but his own and is eager to exterminate humanity.
While Vash would love nothing more than to avoid his brother, Knives has his minions pursue Vash relentlessly, bent on punishing Vash for leaving him. One of the best sibling rivalries in anime sees Vash fiercely defending his ideals and autonomy as well as humanity's right to exist, and Knives brutally trying to assert authority over Vash and superiority over humans.
Kasumi and Shizuku Ishiki (King of Thorn)
The movie King of Thorn sees the world devastated by the Medusa virus, which reduces its victims to a stonelike state. 160 people are chosen to be put into indefinite cryogenic sleep, to give humanity hope to survive while a cure is found. Kasumi was chosen, while her twin Shizuku was not, and she did not take the idea of their separation well.
The viewer is led to believe that the twin the film follows is Kasumi, but it's revealed that Kasumi actually died in a failed murder-suicide, falling from a cliff while trying to take Shizuku down with her. Shizuku, granted supernatural powers by Medusa infection, created a duplicate of Kasumi out of horror and guilt: despite ostensibly being the better adjusted sister, she couldn't handle being without her twin either.
Para and Dox (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
These twins are some of the most unique duelists in Yu-Gi-Oh! They lay in wait in the labyrinth beneath Duelist Kingdom, and force any duelists who run into them into a tag-team duel. Yugi and Joey took them on in the original series, and Jaden and Syrus had to duel them in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, showing that their teamwork won them a decades-long career.
The brothers do everything as one. They dress the same, move in sync, finish each other's sentences, and their names in both English and Japanese form a word: "paradox" and "meikyuu" (labyrinth), respectively.
Johan Liebert and Nina Fortner (Monster)
In one of the best single-season anime, Monster, are the twins Johan and Nina whose relationship has always been characterized by fear and violence. Because they are identical, their mother dressed them the same as young children in order to hide that there were two of them. But when she was forced to give one of them up, this made it ambiguous as to which twin she wanted to give away and why.
In their adulthood, Johan still believes that they are two halves of one person, acting as if traumas that Nina went through actually happened to him. To keep Nina for himself, he is willing to kill everyone else in her life, including every foster family that ever took them in. Nina is understandably terrified of her brother, and resolves to kill him in order to free herself from him.
Mairu and Kururi Orihara (Durarara!!)
Growing up with one of the most underrated anime villains of all time as an older brother can't be easy. As children, Izaya told them that if they were just going to be two identical people, one of them might as well be dead. They concluded that the solution was to assign themselves differing character traits and stick to them.
Now teenagers, the twins don't think of themselves as separate people. Kururi is quiet and withdrawn, while Mairu is energetic and chatty. They are deeply protective of each other, with Mairu once flip-kicking a grown man in the face because he harassed Kururi. While their brother, Izaya, prefers shadowy manipulation, the twins will attack directly and physically.
Rin and Yukio Okumura (Blue Exorcist)
Shockingly, the fact that Rin and Yukio are twins was the least unique thing about their birth. As the sons of Satan, their potential for terrifying demonic power is limitless; just because Rin got the lion's share of that power doesn't mean Yukio can be counted out. Though the twins care for each other, their relationship is colored by resentment.
The demonic attributes that Rin inherited make him powerful, but he struggles socially because of it, and is jealous of Yukio for being effortlessly perfect, and for being told about their heritage while he was kept in the dark. Yukio is well-respected and highly skilled, but their adoptive father trained him in Exorcism so he could protect Rin, leading Yukio to feel that Rin was the only one loved by their father.
Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin (Ouran High School Host Club)
Hikaru and Kaoru have a complicated relationship with their twinship. They base their entire identity around being twins but also subconsciously crave individuality, leading them to shut out anyone who isn't them and distrust anyone who can't tell them apart. They constantly test people with their "Which one is Hikaru?" game, which most fail, to see who has really been treating them as separate people.
Learning to lead separate lives is a major part of their character arc. They come to adore Haruhi because she is the only person who is always able to tell which twin is which, and how they deal with both falling in love with her brings their differing personalities to the surface.
