First of all, it’s almost surreal that we’re at the endgame, something that somehow felt like it would never happen. Fruits Basket has been a part of my consciousness for so long that I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have an awareness of it. I certainly didn’t think about it much for a good many years, but the return of the anime brought it all flooding back. Seeing these events play out on screen really brings it home – the dicking around is pretty much over, and the final act is playing out.
The reveals are coming fast and furious now, and the Zodiac curse is fraying at every knot. Shigure cheerfully informs Tohru (and Rin) that the curse will likely be ending for everybody. Not soon enough for Kyou of course, which he seems totally unconcerned about. But Kureno’s experience and speculation rings true with him – this is the first time all the Zodiacs have been around at the same time, and the reason is that this is the final banquet. Shigure revealing his true nature at this point can’t be too much of a shock, I wouldn’t think – I certainly never found his smiling facade all that convincing. But his cold bluntness here may have ended up having a positive effect.
A thing for monsters to look down on and feel better about themselves – that’s the sad fate of the Cat as Shigure describes it. The genuinely decent members of the Sohmas – and they don’t come any more decent than Kazuma – worry that Tohru’s feelings for Kyou are not love, but pity. And the irony is, what drew her to the story in the first place was the pity she felt for the cat, being left out and tricked by the others. Maybe that’s what drew her to Kyou too, at first, but it certainly seems to have grown into something more than that.
The issue I have with all this (aside from the fact that any Kagura appearance is a curse in and of itself) is that Tohru’s story is actually the weakest of all the main cast in Furuba. Yeah, she’s had it tough – but compared to what the Zodiacs and their loved ones have had to go through, Tohru angsting over falling in love because it means Kyoko no longer being in first place is kind of weak, really. I don’t doubt the legitimacy of her feelings but part of me just wants to tell her to get over it. It’s not as though Kyoko would have wanted her to be miserable and lonely.
Even with Shigeru and Kagura’s obnoxious and anything but gentle pushes, Tohru still can’t bring herself to tell Kyou how she really feels because of her guilt. And then there’s the cap (Yuki screwing Kyou as usual, even when he’s not trying to), which Kyou sees when he visits Tohru’s room after an interesting conversation with her grandfather at the cemetery. There are elements to Kyou’s flashback that definitely beg more explanation – we knew he had some sort of relationship with Kyoko that Tohru didn’t know about, but nothing that would explain what we saw here.
Rasu
May 13, 2021 at 12:40 amMemory is a bit weird since I remembered Tohru’s past to be longer than that, maybe because a part of that is played in her parent’s arc, yet I’m starting to doubt that they’re going to display such past (their parent’s one) before the finale, so I guess they’re going to release it as an extra in the BD’s or something.
Well, I was wondering how people would react when they discovered that Tohru indeed played dumb and was a bit selfish and hypocrital sometimes in order to avoid loneliness while being partially “good”, but the way it was handled, it seems that Tohru will remain to be seem as inmaculate pure and naive forever. Of course, I didn’t want anybody to hate her, but to me, that was what made more human and less “saint/saviour”, yet again, as I said before, memory can be a bit tricky.
Guardian Enzo
May 13, 2021 at 6:53 amI agree this seems to be moving a bit faster in that department – some background that would normally have been included has definitely been deferred or skipped.
Mi-chan
May 13, 2021 at 8:01 amI don’t know about that but Tohru story for me hit really deep and I cried rivers. The feeling that you don’t want to lose someone so you keep playing at things that would make them feel better so they will stay with you and you will not be left behind really was hurtful. The way she sat in that room trying her best, the way she talked to her grandmother or waited for her mother to return home. Urhghgjfjf all that hurts to watch. I feel like there are still missing strings.
Shigure was my childhood crush when I was much younger and I can’t hate him at all and for me, him pushing everyone around, is for his own benefit above everyone, but he also helped drive the chemicals that made them move forward.
Is it just me or the monkey is not in the opening at all? Wth, it fes weird to leave a zodiac member out even though I dislike his charecter.
I kinda like to overthink, but what if Kyoku gave Kyo the hat and Yuki took Kyos hat, and Tohru came to have it, then Kyoku tried to give it back, somewhere in previous episodes they show her holding it.. onr thing is clear though, I HATE CLIFFHANGERS THE MOST.
Thanks for your review Enzo!
M
Guardian Enzo
May 13, 2021 at 11:06 amI don’t know if you watched the old anime, but Shigure’s menacing side has been much more obvious from the beginning in this one (which is more faithful to the way he’s played in the manga).
Mi-chan
May 14, 2021 at 6:10 pmyeah I have and honestly I like how through the story in the 2019 version, if someone spent the hours, to take clips of Shigure from every episode, you can get one full episode about him I guess. Because so far, Shigure’s menacing has been done in tiny interactions over many stories in the issue. Honestly it is like he had everyone on strings, though he may care about them, but his ultimate goal stands. Though I don’t get it, Akito rn is the worst version of herself,,
Kim
May 13, 2021 at 9:14 amThey have definitely been skipping things. Looks like the series will end this cour. And thinking about it I am not sure I agree with everything that skipped vs kept. But overall it’s been a solid adaption.
But I don’t know I am not really ready for it to end, especially since I expected the final season to be two cour like all the rest.
aldeayeah
May 25, 2021 at 5:03 amNot being able to mourn/grieve properly can f*ck you up real bad. Someone dear to me experienced something similar, so I can’t be too hard on Tohru.
I mean, this is the girl that was risking her life to dig her mom’s photo out in the very first episode. Who, in the New Year episode, is shown to be about to cry herself to sleep, which may be a regular occurrence.
Rather than the stoic maturity of a Momiji, this is closer to what I’d expect a normal teenager in her situation to suffer.