The way this season is going, I’ll take my small victories anywhere I can find them.

With the passengers from this car crash that is Summer 2019 anime strewn all over the side of the road, this was a pretty important week for Fruits Basket 2019 as far as I was concerned.  It’s been a one-way trip the past few episodes, and not in a good direction – certainly my engagement level with the series had never been lower.  But there are unusual circumstances surrounding Furuba in many different respects, and this episode was always going to be a bit of an acid test to see whether the breaking point had been passed.

I suppose it’s a bit of a “good news, bad news” scenario, but after having dropped 4 shows in a week I’ll take that.  The worst case scenario here for me was clear-cut – an episode that was one of my absolute favorites from the 2001 version didn’t work for me this time , and that was irrefutable proof it was over.  That didn’t happen – it did work.  It didn’t do so without a few reminders of why this is a problematic series, but it worked and I’ll take that at this point.

So what’s the bad news?  It just comes down to Fruits Basket’s essential nature I suppose – this is only a show that’s going to click for me when it deals with the characters I care about.  There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground this time – that’s where Akitarou Daichi’s miraculous patch job is really missed.  And truthfully, while there are quite a few of those characters and the series does trim some of the extraneous stuff as it goes deeper, there’s a lot of chaff along with the wheat.  Which means there are going to be a lot of weeks where it’s just not happening.

So what about Sohma Hiro (Taichi You) himself?  A divisive character to be sure, even among manga and 2001 fans, and I expect that to be no different among new viewers.  I wasn’t necessarily aware of it the first time around, but I think the reason Hiro works is because unlike too many in this cast, there’s a genuine complexity to his nature.  Kisa is basically one dimension – cute, innocent, “please protect me”.  She’s adorable of course but her story is immediately obvious within the first three minutes she’s on screen.  Hiro is quite different – not just that he has a defensive wall he erects around himself, but that he’s actually willing to admit it.

It’s no coincidence that of the Sohma family we’ve met so far the above description applies most aptly to Momiji and Hiro (well, and Kyou too – somewhat – but he’s part of the core and it’s a bit different), and they’re my two favorite Sohmas.  Hiro is in many respects a typical smart 12 year-old boy – sarcastic, selfish, a lot to take.  What makes him unusual is his self-awareness.  Yes he is all those things, but he’s able to perceive them as the character flaws they are – and not only that, to be irritated that he can’t rise above them (yet).  He knows how he wants to interact with the world and can’t yet, so he behaves the way he does as a response.  A coping mechanism, if you like.

As for Hiro’s relationship with Kisa- well, it’s a revealing one in many ways.  Certainly revealing of just what a monster Akito really is – and just how deeply Shigure quietly seethes over that.  Hiro tried to take responsibility for his feelings because he thought it was the adult thing to do, and disaster befell Kisa as a result.  He cut off Kisa to try and save her because he thought it was the adult thing to do, and made things worse.  Over and over he tries to be mature and ends up screwing things up with and for the one person he most loves in the world.  It’s really no surprise that Hiro would be envious of Tohru (who, for all her own immaturity is literally a lot closer to adulthood than he), who was able to make things better for Kisa on the first go when all he could do was make them worse.

The really galling thing is that Takaya Natsuki truly has the gift of emotional insight and shows it in cases like this, but so often instead wallows in emotional manipulation and pandering.  Being a mature kid (believe me I know, I was one) can be a mortifying experience – perceptive enough to understand your own limitations, but not mature enough to be able to do anything about them.  I like that element which Hiro brings to the mix in Furuba, and his relationship with Kisa is a case of the whole being more than the sum of its parts.