For purely selfish reasons this wasn’t the best time for another Kagura appearance, given that the last couple episode of Furuba have left me rather cold.  I remember disliking her the first time, but not so viscerally as I do now – maybe I’ve just seen too many insufferable anime characters between now and then, but Rie Kugimiya’s excruciating performance certainly isn’t helping.  Side characters don’t make or break shows for me, but it is a bit tougher with Fruits Basket given its format – side characters tend to be short-term main characters periodically.

Fortunately Kagura actually was a side character here, given that she wasn’t really the main focus of the episode.  That would be Shigure, who’s one of the more interesting members of the main cast (among the “core four” I’d rank him behind only Kyou).  It’s a little problematical from a blogging perspective, since this week was pretty much all foreshadowing and insinuation where Shigure was concerned, and not much actual fact.  So going into detail as to what all that meant is out for a manga reader like me, but it made for some pretty interesting television at least.

The whole Valentine’s Day aspect of the ep was pretty much a throwaway for me, partly but not solely due to Kagura’s involvement.  As I noted last week Fruits Basket is better when it focuses on the substantial than the whimsical, and in this rather literally by-the-books treatment it lacks the guiding hand to make such interludes really engaging.  I suppose any guy who’s been dragged to a “chick flick” could have some sympathy for Kyou and Yuki here, but that’s one good gag out of a whole B-plot that kind of drifts along.

The most interesting element of the episode is no doubt Shigure’s surgical evisceration of Kyou regarding his relationship with Yuki.  Obviously I won’t analyze Kyou’s flashback in any detail, but this exchange says as much about Shigure as it does Kyou.  His dog persona fits him well in moments like this, because you get the sense he’s gotten his teeth into something and can’t help digging in, refusing to let go.  Even Shigure later admits to Hatori that he probably went too far here, but that doesn’t nullify the act – and this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Shigure take a certain glee in jabbing the needle in deep (with Kyou his favorite target).

The past is a character in Furuba, there can be no doubt about that. Everyone has jarring memories about their youth, and everyone reacts to them in different ways.  It says something about Shigure and the steel in his spine that his reaction was ruthless determination and resolve – even if we don’t yet know what exactly he’s resolved to accomplish except that Akito is at the heart of it, and the trio of kids in his care are tools to be utililized to accomplish it.  Call him a ripple on the water, call him a jellyfish, call him whatever – what’s clear is that he wears a mask almost all the time, and it’s become so natural for him that even he seems to forget it’s there sometimes.

Looking ahead to next week brings a rather bittersweet reaction from me.  It’s one of my favorite parts of the story, and in fact in the first anime this sequence contained possibly my favorite scene in the entire series.  But it’s one that certainly won’t be included this time, as it was added by Akitarou Daichi and as we know, that’s the kiss of death in this version.  Trying to figure out the equation of how much of my love for Fruits Basket is love for the manga and how much the first anime has never been easy, but I’ve come to realize that it’s both in pretty much equal measure.  That leaves a pretty big gap this time around, but I suppose it will get easier once the 2019 moves onto material the first series never adapted.