The Turning Seasons
Fruits Basket Episode 23
After two weeks of digging into Hanajima’s past and her relationship with Tohru it was time to get back to the main group living in Shigure’s house and episode 23 does this with a bang. We do start at school with Tohru depressed because she failed one of her tests and has to take make-overs but we end up with Kagura and Kyo going shopping before returning to meet a visitor to the house. There’s a lot going on in this episode and clearly we’re gearing up for a climax.
There’s also a lot of character reminders as Momoji gets a moment to be adorable filling in for Tohru at work, Kisa and Hatori visit Tohru when she’s sick, and Kagura turns up to… well pretty sure she just turns up to freak Kyo out sometimes.
I wonder what it is like for those who haven’t seen the original and haven’t read the manga as we see Kyo coming back into focus this episode. For me this is a moment I’ve been waiting for since the reboot started and now I’m itching for next week to come to see how this more subdued and nuanced version of Fruits Basket decides to deal with it. However, this build up was fantastic to watch.
The first part of the episode gave Kyo and Tohru so many quiet moments together and we see how close he’s become to her even though he’s tried to keep a distance. It is a distance that Kagura reflects on later in the episode as she thinks about the fact that it is Kyo who keeps others away from him rather than others choosing not to be around him (and to some extent that is both true and false).
Affiliate Link – Manga
As we turn into the second half of the episode, we notice that Kyo is being severely affected by the rain. After being basically thrown out of the house to go shopping with Kagura, Kyo wants to know what she likes about him though we don’t end up getting an answer. The relationship between those two remains pretty complicated and from a romantic point of view pretty one sided from Kagura.
However, there’s no resolution in this episode as we’re mostly building up to what is coming and it was very nicely done even if it did leave me frustrated that I now have to wait another week for the next episode.
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Karandi James
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Images from: Fruits Basket. Dir. Y Ibata. TMS Entertainment. 2019.
Yes! I’ve been waiting for this too! So will they end the first season at ep 26 then return for season 2 next year? Noooooo!
“For me this is a moment I’ve been waiting for since the reboot started and now I’m itching for next week to come to see how this more subdued and nuanced version of Fruits Basket decides to deal with it.”
I’m really not sure I’m ready for it.
What the original lacked in subtlety it made up for in raw emotional power. Knowing how adept this version has been in presenting emotional topics?
This could be something seriously cool.