Fruits Basket 2nd Season – 09

There’s no question that this episode delivers what amounts to a pretty big moment for Fruits Basket.  For the most part it delivers, but that’s not to say I didn’t have some issues with it.  The problem is those issues are just basically Fruits Basket being Fruits Basket – they’re the fare you pay to punch your ticket.  The adaptation of the material was fine – almost note-faithful, as usual.  It’s just what this series is.

The first thing that bugs me is this: how can Tohru understand so little as to think Kyou would be happy to be summoned by Akito?  Or that it would be a good experience?  Maybe that’s not totally fair, as the Sohmas have certainly shielded Tohru from the worst of the Akito situation as much as they can.  But she’s seen enough – including in her own meeting with Akito – to know better.  She knows how Akito feels about The Cat, and how Kyou feels about that.

I also wish Takaya would have eased off the gas a little during the meeting.  This was a big, tense, deal – full of implications for Kyou and the story as a whole.  She always pushes too hard, and in my opinion undercuts some of her own often brilliant emotional world-building.  Restraint is not a language Furuba speaks, I know that, but this Kyou-Akito encounter would have been so much more powerful if it just dialed the melodrama back a bit.  Trusted the audience more.  But that’s not how this series works.

Akito is a right bastard, of that there’s no question.  The radar is unerring, always hitting the weak points like a boxer jabbing relentlessly at the swelling right above their opponent’s eye.  This compulsion Akito has over the other zodiacs – to so relentlessly torment them with impunity- is mysterious indeed.  Kyou gets the worst of it, of course, as the ultimate outsider.  And his “bet” with Akito is just another layer of that.  But the funny thing is, neither of them seem to realize that Kyou may have already defeated Yuki in the most important contest between them…

Kitsutsuki Tanteidokoro – 08

I often joke about seasons having a “that good show nobody watches”.  And while Kitsutsuki Tanteidokoro isn’t among the very best of that category, it is rather good (and getting better) – and it’s taking the “nobody watches” part very seriously.  I seriously have no idea if literally anyone else in the English-speaking world is watching this series.  It certainly never draws any feedback anywhere I look (or write), and even the people who read these posts could all be doing it for Furuba (they’re certainly the only ones who comment).

There are some elements of Woodpecker Detective’s Office that are genuinely outstanding.  I truly love the look of this series, which displays a genuine distinctiveness and an oddly beautiful aesthetic.  The stuff like Akutagawa’s ponderous literary asides isn’t the kind of humor that makes you collapse with laughter (and it’s pretty inside the beltway) but it’s genuinely hilarious in a very smart way as you reflect on it.  And Takuboku is a legitimately fascinating character, genuinely dark and twisted.  The entire series reflects that side of him, and it isn’t afraid to indulge it.

You have to feel for Kyousuke, who’s in so far over his head.  He’s obviously in love with Ishikawa-san but will never be more than an amusing plaything for him.  Their reactions to Takuboku’s illness are so very in-character – Kindaichi pays for everything and worries incessantly, while Ishikawa grows morose and wallows in self-pity.  Seeing someone dying of tuberculosis in this day and age is not pleasant, and as big a jerk as he is Ishikawa is hardly sympathetic.  But even in this situation he manipulates and navel-gazes – he just can’t help himself.

The subplot involving Tamaki, the “Bat Man” and his younger brother, and her wicked husband is possibly the most interesting of the series’ cases so far.  Even so it’s more interesting for the personal entanglements than the mystery, as usual.  Takuboku seems genuinely smitten by Tamaki, not merely keen to use her for his own entertainment or enrichment.  She’s not impressed with either his self-absorption or his poetry – she chides him that even great poetry is “just emotion” and that he should use his talent to actually help the world.  Tamaki gets Ishikawa – sees right through him – and that fascinates him all the more.  But she’s already seen one lover to the next world, and Ishikawa is doing well enough making that journey without any help from Tamaki.