It really is true – very few anime can give me tsuris like Fruits Basket.  I mentioned this with regards to Gegege no Kitarou, but the delta between the best and worst episodes of this series is among the largest of any anime I’ve watched.  What drives me crazy here is that the elements which are the deciding factor are so predictable and consistent.  That, and that these whipsaw fluctuations can so easily be avoided with a few rearrangements and changes in focus.  And indeed they were in quite effective fashion in the first series, at least in my opinion.

Case in point.  Why, oh why, would you choose to start a season with last week’s episode and not this one?  It’s a rhetorical question of course – it’s because that’s not the order the chapters go, and this remake is all about righting the wrongs of past adaptations.  Maybe if all you’re trying to do is reach hardcore fans it’s fine, but the season premiere was a trifle.  It was a filler episode in every sense but literal (I mean, Takaya did write that material).  This was a vital episode, a landmark episode – and a great episode.  Why wouldn’t you choose to open a season with that?

I freely admit to my bias here.  I like Kyou far better than Yuki.  Not only that, I think Tohru is much better when she’s paired off with Kyou.  His character brings out the best in her.  He needs her more than anyone else, too (though just how much all the Sohma depend on her is something we’re continually hit over the head with).  And I like serious episodes far better than comic ones, because – quite simply – I think Furuba does emotional drama a lot better than comedy (though the “that made a nice sound” bit was pretty hilarious).  Again – predictable and consistent.

The themes this week are relatively direct and simple, but that’s fine – they work.  Everyone is worried about the future, and when you’re a Sohma you have good reason to.  Especially if you’re the cat.  But Tohru, in her shoes, has good reason to worry too.  Then there’s the bond between Kazuma-san and Kyou, which is always a strong element of this series.  The pair of them and Tohru at Kazuma’s house was one of the most natural and endearing scenes of the series, because of how well these three characters fit together.  Kyou makes a good pair with both of them, and it’s wonderful to see him in a place where he allows himself an occasional smile and even a glimpse of vulnerability.  Kyou at relative ease is a rare sight in Furuba, and always a welcome one.

The drama Takaya-sensei interjects is hardly subtle, but it rarely is.  Would you expect Kyou’s father to be anything less than a monster?  That’s the irony of course, that everything he accuses his son of being is his reflection in the mirror.  Kazuma points this out in his calm but determined manner, and establishes his statement of purpose quite unmistakably.  There was something of Tywin and Tyrion Lannister in this, I have to say – a father hating a son whose ultimate crime is having been born.

Kyou’s lot in life is brutal, but that’s what drew Tohru to the Zodiac in the first place, even before she met any of the Sohma.  In a clan where one’s fate is always predetermined, what’s being tested is the power of people like Kazuma and Tohru to change it.  All of the Sohma (like Momiji) dream of what’s possible, all the while grappling with the reality that the chains of fate are too tight for them to reach for it.  If Tohru’s role in this dynamic is anything, it’s to test the strength of those chains – and with no one is that more true than Kyou.