zodiac

Where To Next?

Fruits Basket Episode 25

Reboots are odd creatures that are a bit hit and miss as to whether they add anything to the original experience or not, yet Fruits Basket 2019 has made a firm case for its existence as it gives us the story that the original anime just couldn’t deliver because it didn’t know where it was going and it never got a second season. Instead of wrapping things up with Tohru helping Kyo we see this as another step in the journey and each of the characters Tohru has met are firmly looking to the future and what they want to do, what they need to overcome, and more importantly, there’s a sense of something big coming to the family soon.

Normally this kind of ending to a season would be more frustrating but knowing the intention was to animate the whole manga and the fact that season two is set for next year, I’m actually pretty happy about this as it gives us the promise that it will explore the ideas the original anime left hanging. Given how the original anime left things, it explains why Fruits Basket was so high up on my list of anime I wanted to see rebooted.

Affiliate Link – Manga

That said, this episode found more or less the perfect balance between finishing off current character arcs and bringing us to that nice place to leave for now, while providing enough signs and hints of what may come next to make us interested in watching more. That’s a difficult line to walk as leaving things hanging for a season two usually takes away a sense of resolve or finality yet here I can see this season being watchable on its own even if nothing were to come after as immediate concerns are brought to a close.

I’ll get to a full review of this series soon but honestly it has been a very sweet viewing experience with just enough bitterness to give it some depth. Tohru is still a fantastic character. While she falls into the cliche of being the sweet girl who wants to help everyone, she’s never dull. I absolutely love her ability to find the right words at the right time to help those in need and her smile is truly magical. Definitely a worth while watch these last two seasons.

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Karandi James

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Images from: Fruits Basket. Dir. Y Ibata. TMS Entertainment. 2019.

Tears and Smiles

Fruits Basket Episode 24

This episode did not disappoint as it hit some pretty strong emotional notes as we learned about Kyo’s past and Tohru had to face his true spirit form. The moments between these two as Kyo rejects her and she rejects his rejection before the sun literally comes out is exactly the reason why people watch this anime in the first place. It just works beautifully.

Affiliate Link – Manga

Then again, this episode once again reminded me that there’s something really messed up about this whole family and their situation. Forget the random adults blaming kids for their parent’s deaths or for the action of mythical creatures that may or may not have existed, just the sheer insanity of deciding after one day that you’ll test a relationship in a sink or swim format that might literally destroy Kyo’s ability to trust anyone ever again kind of makes you wonder just what is going on with these people. That Shigure, Kagura and Yuki all just kind of shrug and accept that this is going to happen also makes you want to ask just what have these people been through that this is okay.

One more episode of this season of Fruits Basket and this reboot has most definitely delivered in a way that has felt incredibly rewarding. Seeing this story play out with a lot of the same notes but just that little bit more polished and focused has been a great experience.

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Karandi James

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Images from: Fruits Basket. Dir. Y Ibata. TMS Entertainment. 2019.

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.

More Hanajima

Fruits Basket Episode 22

I wanted more Hanajima and so Fruits Basket delivered. I wonder if I said I wanted more Hatsuharu if that would happen next week? Anyway, this episode was beautiful, gorgeous, emotional, and just go watch it.

Everything we love about Fruits Basket is here on display. We have Hana’s past experiences at school and yet the loving support of her family (and who else wants to nominate Hana’s parents for anime parents of the year after this episode) and then we have Hana moving schools and encountering Arisa and Tohru before we get to that beautiful shining moment where the three become friends for life. It is lovely.

It seems weird for an episode with zero Sohma presence to be one of the best the second cour of Fruits Basket has offered, and yet there’s almost nothing to fault in this episode, except perhaps it being a little too blunt at times in the portrayal of both the negative side of Hana’s life and the positive. While the imagery and use of light is lovely, it really isn’t subtle in the slightest.

Affiliate Link – Manga

I will say, this episode made me wonder once again just how rampant very violent assaults are in Japanese schools? They portray these as acts of bullying but Hana’s arm was burned by a match. This isn’t school bullying, it is criminal and yet it seems the situation wasn’t dealt with adequately by anyone except Hana’s parents who decided enough was enough. Maybe it is just an anime thing and maybe it is exaggerated, or maybe there’s a really, really huge problem that needs addressing here.

Anyway, as with every dark situation in Fruits Basket, take one dose of Tohru and feel happiness melt your icy heart.

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Karandi James

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Images from: Fruits Basket. Dir. Y Ibata. TMS Entertainment. 2019.

Waves and Jealousy

Fruits Basket Episode 21

I have to admit, I was nervous about how this episode would go. Despite the exaggeration and over the top humour in the original anime series, Hanajima’s episode dealing with the fan club was one of my very favourites. Probably because Hana is just such an awesome character so an episode focused on her handling things her own way was just delightful. Yet here we are and Fruits Basket 2019 has once again proven it has a good handle on this story and these characters. While this version isn’t quite as over the top as the older anime made it, the humour is still there and the characterisation is far more realistic in tone.

Episodes that focus on Tohru and her two friends, Arisa and Hana, always have a way of hitting you hard emotionally. These three girls all draw strength from one another and their friendship is one that is truly beautiful. Previously, Arisa had a couple of episodes of back story and while we still haven’t got Hana’s history, seeing how she deals with those who would threaten her friends in this episode is fantastic.

However, what elevated this version of the episode is the way the club members were handled. In the original anime these characters were exaggerated to the point of being caricatures and it made it difficult to feel anything for them as they were so far removed from reality. Here, they are still exaggerated in their pettiness in regards to keeping Tohru away from Yuki, but they come across as very real people who might be acting silly but they can be understood.

Affiliate Link – Manga

I particularly liked it when one of them denied being jealous and said they were just mad. They then explained why they were mad and as Megumi, Hana’s brother, points out, what they describe is jealousy. Here however it feels understandable and relatable rather than comical and so when Hana says that she learned something from them you can see where she’s coming from as well and the whole message hits home very cleanly.

Still, the highlight is of course when Arisa and Tohru show up and we get one of those glowing and happy moments with the group plus Megumi. There is another encounter with the fan club at school the next day but it is almost irrelevant by that point as we’ve already gotten everything we need from this episode.

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Karandi James

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Images from: Fruits Basket. Dir. Y Ibata. TMS Entertainment. 2019.

A Battle Between Apologists

Fruits Basket Episode 19

After watching this episode, I kind of get why this story and this character were left out of the original anime. In addition to being a re-run personality type, this episode uses suicide as a punchline multiple times throughout and ends with the two most annoying characters in the show having a heart to heart seeing who could apologise more. It kind of damages the calm healing this series has going for it even when it has used over the top humour previously.

However, I should probably start at the beginning of the episode where we realise that Shigure is once again playing with his editor. It is really a cruel game but honestly his editor might as well have ‘designated victim’ tattooed on her forehead. She’s a professional and should stop falling emotionally apart every time he messes with her. Honestly, I refuse to believe that his books sell so well that the publishers are willing to put up with this kind of unprofessional behaviour in the first place.

So we were off to a rough start right from the get go and then Ritsu showed up. Now, we’d met Ritsu’s mother before at the hotsprings so we kind of expected the personality we got but when paired with the editor’s wails and dramatic suicide gestures this whole episode just kind of puttered along. It isn’t broken by any means but none of what I find appealing about Fruits Basket is really on display.

Affiliate Link – Manga

Perhaps that’s why Tohru’s ‘find a reason to live’ speech on the roof is so incredibly heavy handed. Maybe they were trying to compensate for the lack of warm and fuzzy feels that this episode would deliver. I do know that the roof scene is problematic, not just because someone was threatening suicide on it.

I’m remembering the New Year’s episode when Yuki, Kyo and Tohru all happily walked around that roof without a care, all smiles, to watch the sun rise. Now Yuki and Kyo are freaking out that Tohru is up there and naturally she slips on a loose tile and nearly falls off. I’m struggling to see why a roof that was perfectly safe when it was likely damp from snow is suddenly a death trap other than a contrived bit of tension, but even then, Tohru barely pauses her speech so there’s not exactly any drama going on here.

Anyway, that’s literally it for the episode and no, it certainly isn’t my favourite, but it isn’t as though I hated it either. It was more just kind of on the edge of annoying without delivering that happy buzz I normally get from Fruits Basket.

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Karandi James

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Images from: Fruits Basket. Dir. Y Ibata. TMS Entertainment. 2019.

Love and Courage

Fruits Basket Episode 18

After two episodes that filled in Arisa’s back-story we now get a single episode that introduces Kisa, the tiger from the zodiac, and also shows us Yuki finding the resolve to take action. In this episode of Fruits Basket we learn that many of the children of the zodiac become victims of bullying and the events surrounding Kisa’s decision to stop speaking and then to run away strike a chord with Haru and Yuki, to a lesser extent Kyo.

However, as with Yuki and even Haru, Tohru’s personality acts as a soothing balm and Kisa, while not instantly cured, starts to find the strength to stand again. As much as nothing changed about Kisa’s situation at school and with her classmates, knowing Tohru gave her the resolve she needed.

Likewise, Yuki, through watching Kisa’s struggle and knowing how Tohru’s presence made all the difference, could reflect on himself and realised that even though he wasn’t still curled up alone in a room, he wasn’t really moving forward either. Again, Tohru’s presence in his life gave him the strength he needed to make the decision to act.

While the episode doesn’t deal with the outcomes of either Kisa’s decision to return to school or Yuki’s decision to become the next student council president, the mere act of them moving forward is all the resolution this episode needs.

Affiliate Link – Manga

And if nothing else, it is worth remembering that Tohru is practically the light at the end of the tunnel for every character in this series. Her very existence makes their world brighter.

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Karandi James

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Would you like to read more about Fruits Basket’s feels?

Images from: Fruits Basket. Dir. Y Ibata. TMS Entertainment. 2019.

A Night To Remember

Fruits Basket Episode 17

Two part episodes need to pack a punch to make them worth the mileage, and the wait if you are watching weekly, and episode 17 of Fruits Basket did just that. We hear the end of Arisa’s story about how she left the gang and ended up Tohru’s friend and so attached to Kyoko and it more or less reduced me to tears by the end. I do however find it odd that we’ve learned more about Tohru’s mother from Arisa than from Tohru throughout this series.

Arisa doesn’t relate the whole story to the boys though. She cuts off midway and we have a diversion with the girl gang who were following the group challenging Arisa to a fight. At first it felt like an unwelcome intrusion and then I realise how necessary it was in order for the quieter emotional points of this story to hit home. As a result, while I didn’t all that much like those parts, the episode as whole is better because of them.

And there are a lot of those quieter emotional parts. Whether it is Tohru and Arisa falling asleep in the apartment, Tohru making Arisa a cupcake, or Kyoko carrying Arisa home, each point lingers just the right amount of time and sets off the warm and fuzzy emotions that they are aiming for.

That the girls in the gang end up very much enamoured with Arisa and the post credits show them very much becoming Arisa’s fan club, is kind of sweet in a really goofy kind of way and feels like a nice way to end that part of the episode.

Affiliate Link – Manga

Alright, that’s about it for this week in Fruits Basket. It remains at its best when it is in the process of making me cry and it did that beautifully this week. I still think the new OP doesn’t really fit with that tone however and that’s probably the only sour note to speak of when it comes to this episode.

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Karandi James

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