If you were to ask for my feelings about Fruits Basket, I could only answer “it’s complicated”. If I wanted to be truthful, anyway. I’m long past the point where I can be either impartial or impassive about it – the tenterhooks are in too deep. I won’t say I learned that much about anime or manga from it, but I learned a lot about the emotional spectrum of being an anime and manga fan from it. And I don’t take that lightly – that person is a very fundamental part of who I am. The fact that Furuba was so important in literally defining me as an individual makes it a series of significant existential import for me.
In that context, my feelings about the specifics of this finale seem almost beside the point. It was everything Fruits Basket is – and isn’t. The drama is ladled on thick as country gravy. The comedy really doesn’t work most of the time. It tries to cram in too many character stories in too little time (though given the anime’s truncated final season, that was probably unavoidable). Yet it still hits – even when I’m annoyed I’m still feeling something. And in truth, I think it’s not so much the way the series ended but the fact that it ended, period. That in itself is a blockbuster event for me and many other fans, which one might reasonably have guessed would never come.
I guess I have to talk about the nuts and bolts, because they do matter. An important moment is certainly Tohru collecting Kyou’s beads and returning them to him. Important, because it’s an affirmation of the idea that the past must be embraced, even if it’s painful. It got us where we are now, scars and all. Perhaps the strongest dramatic moment of the finale is Rin declaring that she can never forgive Akito the way the others – including Haru and Momiji – seem to be. No, Rin, you’re not crazy and you’re not wrong – you’re the one who’s talking sense. The way Akito’s fate plays out is an injustice of karma in my opinion, and even if the others forgive they should never forget.
Speaking of Momiji, he kind of gets the shaft here in the end. Which, if we’re honest, is pretty much par for the course. Strictly as a narrative creation Momiji is the best thing in Fruits Basket for me, and his arc easily the most genuinely heartbreaking. He loses the love of his life (well, so does Kagura but she’s an incredibly annoying distraction), but the salt in the wound is there’s no resolution for his family situation. Momiji is the strongest, most compassionate, and most positive Sohma there is. And it’s a damn good thing, because life (and Takara) treat him pretty horribly most of the time.
Much of what happens in the finale has the feel of a checklist, resolutions for second-tier characters and second-tier dramas because they’re expected – starting with Yuki and Machi and building from there. But you knew Takara-sensei would give Yuki the last big speech of the series even where Tohru was concerned (at least it was a good one, even if the whole mother thing is kind of creepy). I give Yuki credit for asking Kyou before doing so – it wasn’t necessary, but it was the closest thing he’s ever given to an acknowledgement to Kyou. I would have liked to have seen an apology too for the way Yuki treated Kyou over the years, but it’s amply clear that the narrative position is that he has nothing to apologize for.
Kyou and Tohru leaving is genuinely sad, for the reason stated above – this past was something real and meaningful. It was full of pain for all concerned (some more than others) but it gave them new bonds to replace the ones that were fated to be broken. And as the flashback from Episode 11 showed us, bonds are not something to be taken lightly. They’re a double-edged sword and always vulnerable to abuse, but still – they give us reassurance that we aren’t alone in the universe, and it’s hard to think of anything more valuable than that.
And thus, it ends. Almost unbelievably, this twenty-year emotional roller-coaster is over (though there will be a Kyouko-Katsuya spinoff next year – as an OVA, movie, or series we don’t yet know). Even knowing what was coming it’s all somehow much more real now that it’s played out on-screen. I’m glad I stuck it out – and there are times it wasn’t easy – because the rewards Furuba offers when it’s at its best are truly exceptional. As the old saying (from To Kill a Mockingbird) goes, “you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family” – and somehow that’s how Fruits Basket feels to me. Like family, with all the conflicted emotions that implies. And even given all the times its pissed me off and driven me crazy, I can’t let go of it. It’s my past, and part of what got me where I am now – scars and all.
Chris
July 1, 2021 at 5:04 pmViewing the last 2 episodes, part of your analysis of episode 11 came to my mind: that episode 11 was the real finale. Except for tiny interesting bits (that were not even given the time and intensity they deserved), this finale feels like ticking items on a grocery list. Basically, timer in hand, I found less than 4 minutes of average to good stuff in the whole episode, and I feel like I’m being nice.
I agree with your two highlights, i.e. the beads and Rin. And it’s striking that both bits relate to how the past, present and future are intertwined and how they should be treated. Oddly enough, neither of these bits are given the importance they deserve IMO. How a promise made centuries ago became a curse and defined the lives of so many people is the background to the story. We see characters struggling for 60-odd episodes. Yet, now that the curse is broken, it’s almost like this past doesn’t exist anymore, or should no longer be taken into account. Yes, Rin is the only one talking sense: it’s quite normal that you’d have a hard time “moving on” and forgiving when you’ve been through what they all have been through, even more so when the person who has put you through hell does not even apologize. Yet, it is all brushed away by a hug and a “they will all be OK”. Nope, life is not that easy. As for the beads part, it feels butchered and reduced to its minimum, which is sad; it hardly shows Kyô’s conflicted feelings and how collecting the beads also ties to all the previous Cats and the memory of their sacrifices and suffering.
So many things got on my nerves during this episode! How Kyô is treated yet again (can’t he be given a break? Noooo, let’s annoy and tease him till the end, why care for him or his feelings?); yes, just say he is selfish when he actually is the only one who bothered to ask Tohru what she really wanted and was ready to leave alone in the (unlikely) event she had not been prepared to follow him. Obviously ruining Tohru’s first date, or wanting to keep her around regardless of what she wants is better…
All in all, I can’t help feeling that some weird decisions were made regarding this final season. The pacing of the last few episodes looks like different animation teams were given different jobs, then the various bits they did were edited and pasted one after the other, but there was no time (or money, or whatever) to work on the context, background and links between said bits. When you look at the airing time given to subplots and side stories in previous seasons, just for the relevant characters’ arcs to be resolved in 20 seconds or less, it’s quite mind-boggling. Now, if the main story had been treated perfectly, it wouldn’t be that bad, but that’s not the case. A final season should end with a bang, on a really high note. Even more so when the series contains real gems. But it didn’t. I get that it follows the way the source material ends… well it goes to show that when your ending could probably have been told better on paper, it will look even worse on screen if you stick to it.
Guardian Enzo
July 1, 2021 at 8:37 pmThis series has more endings than Return of the King.
Kyou getting the short end of the stick is just part of the deal, like Momiji getting screwed. It plays as if Takaya resented Kyou for being more popular than Yuki and did as much as she felt she could get away with to tear him down.
Chris
July 2, 2021 at 2:03 amAgreed. Still, the best way to make a character popular is to flesh him/her out well. I get that it can be frustrating to an author when your favorite character turns out not to be the readers’ favorite. However, when you can create Kyô, Momiji, or even Rin or Hatori for that matter, with their powerful backstories, how can you really expect Mr. self-centered, self-pitying, winner of the me-myself-and I whining olympics, I’m better than you Yuki, to outshine them?
I mean, he could have been such an awesome character. He does have an interesting backstory too, and his past struggles are powerful and relatable. I guess giving him adoring fan clubs (Prince Yuki, students committee, Hatsuharu…) and a sweet but tepid love story do him a massive disservice as a character. That, and not having one single character ever contradict, oppose or disagree with him (well, except for Akito, but she’s something else altogether). It pretty much kills all that was potentially relatable in him, making it hard to swallow that he would still have any self esteem issues.
LiA lurker
July 1, 2021 at 10:49 pmUotani and Saki tagging along on Tohru’s first date is something they always promised to do.
Personally, I thought it was nice to see them leaving Tohru in Kyo’s hands, because they said what Kyoko would have wanted to say (“Please take care of her”/protect her). It was like they were giving her away in place of her dead parents.
Chris
July 2, 2021 at 2:20 amI’m not saying it is not sweet or understandable (though, who would want this to happen to them?). Actually, it mirrors what Uo and Saki said when they invited themselves at Shigure’s back in season 1. Just don’t say Kyô is selfish when you’re being selfish too and, in the case of Uo, when you’re planning on leaving town too (i.e. doing exactly what Tohru does).
Olsen
February 6, 2022 at 2:44 pmI came here to say I hated the ending of fruits basket. Loved the anime for the most part, but the ending with Thoru being with Kyo and Akito being with shinre or whatever is his name was shitty.
I didnt feel both relationships. First because his excuse to not try to save her mother was being afraid of people seeing what he really was. If he had any admiration for her as he said he did when he was a child, he would try it even if he turned into a cat, then runaway as a cat.
Then even after not try to save her, he didn’t help her after she was in the ground. He just ranway. And everytime when She needed him he wasn’t there, it was always Yuki. Thoru says she still wants him after knowing all that. The least in the story she shouldn’t accept that so well as she did. Then again he runs away forcing Yuki to go after him for thoru’s sake, leaving her alone in the house. Then she falls and he won’t even visit her in the hospital at least once. Ah because he thought she would reject him, she wouldn’t want to see him, so he didn’t even try just to not feel rejected.
Then after all she will stay with him loving this kind of guy. When he transformed back then she didn’t runaway even after he harm her a few times. But he couldn’t stay at her side in the hospital.
If she would be with no relationship, happy with her friends it would be a lot better than being with him. Or she could have ended up with momiji. It would have been a much better ending.
The other was this relationship between akito and shinre.
Even if it was written this way. I loved most of the anime, but really hated the endings. Thoru deserved much better.
Kim
July 2, 2021 at 7:16 amI really don’t understand where you get that Takaya resented Kyo. He literally ended up with the main heroine of the story.
Guardian Enzo
July 2, 2021 at 8:46 amShe had no choice in that AFAIC. But you could tell it killed her to write it that way.
Chris
July 2, 2021 at 8:43 pmI’m not sure there is resentment on the author’s part against Kyô. To me, it is more like she realized too late into her story that it was deeply imbalanced, and she took the worst possible route to restore the balance. Let me explain.
Regarding the consequences of the zodiac curse, there is no denying that the Cat has it worse that all the other signs. He is the outcast among outcasts and the only one to have a foul secondary animal form. That, in itself, is a powerful backstory for a character. Add to this the way his family treats him (save for Kazuma obviously), and you get a pretty hard to beat character. Pretty soon in the story, you get the idea that if there’s any chemistry, it is between Kyô and Tohru. At the very least, any idea of a love triangle is off the table the moment Tohru follows a transformed Kyô. From this point onward, it is more a question of how and when they will solve their issues and end up together, than whether it will happen. And sure enough, they do struggle. An awful lot.
On the other hand, you have Yuki. He too has issues and a sad past. Awful parents, and then torture from a total psycho. When we meet him, though, he is already in a safer place. There’s no denying he probably has PTSD issues, as is obvious when he’s facing Akito, but he has support and people like and admire him.
So basically there is (1) a hidden monster who hates and despises himself even more than others do, who is absolutely convinced that he can only hurt others, and whose future is one of lifetime seclusion; and (2) a deeply hurt guy suffering from PTSD, with trust and self-esteem issues, but who is praised, admired, loved by pretty much everyone. In terms of story dynamics, the latter is already on the path to healing, while the former is still deep down in hell. Talk about poor balance.
So, what is an author to do to tilt the scales back to an even position? The proper answer is to add depth and intensity to the part of the story that is lacking it so that it rises to the level of the other. Give Yuki a challenge, something he has not already done. Clearly, it is not what was done here. Yuki becomes head of the student council? Not so big a deal, he was already the rep in his class and the now former president kept chasing him to get the job; the seeds were there even before Tohru had any influence on Yuki. Open up to others? Ultimately that stems from his becoming head of the students council more than anything, and also from others literally forcing themselves on him. Find and build a powerful love story? Nope. Again, it is love that finds him, not the other way around. It grows slowly and mildly. Machi is nice, but their story is, well, meh. Confront Akito? Now THAT would have been a strong dynamic. But it doesn’t happen; mind you, Yuki does speak to her at the New Year feast, but it is really about himself, not about confronting Akito (which, conversely, Momiji, Rin and Hatsuharu do; mind you, even Kureno does eventually, and he’s not the bravest of all).
Basically, what we get is a very strong story and a much weaker one, but both are supposed to get the same airing time because both involve the main characters. Because the weaker story is not strengthened, all that can be done is to lengthen it (which weakens it even more). Likewise, the stronger story is weakened (by poking fun at Kyô, or simply not giving the Kyô/Tohru line the depth and development it deserves, etc…), and so are the stories of other interesting characters. Anything added to other characters further “kills” Yuki as a main focus in the story (Momiji comes to mind, obviously; but even the Akito/Shigure story deserved better that the liability-free, lovey-dovey happy ending it got). What is all boils down to is that there definitely seems to be some sort of frustration with how poorly balanced the story turned out to be, and this frustration is taken out to the best characters, which is sad.
Well, that’s my interpretation anyway. Sorry for the long post.
Chris
July 2, 2021 at 10:02 pmUltimately, it is a lose-lose situation. Powerful (or potentially powerful) characters and stories feel cheated, truncated or wasted. And at the same time, Yuki feels pretty much forced onto the reader/viewer. Honestly, I agree that Yuki has the potential to be an amazing character, and I understand why he is liked. Still, the way he is portrayed and not given his full potential makes him quite annoying, and I more than fully understand why some would rather skip the parts he appears in.
Kim
July 2, 2021 at 10:16 amI can tell no such thing lol. It’s not that Takaya loves Yuki more than Kyo. It’s that you are blinded by your hatred of Yuki. Of course Takaya likes Yuki he one of the main characters in the trio. But there is nothing to show she favors him over Kyo.
As someone who loves both Kyo and Yuki and Tohru I see that Takaya gives all 3 of these characters equal love and development.
Rasu
July 3, 2021 at 9:33 amNah. As Chris already stated, I also recall well how she invested two or more volumes in the rat’s story than in the cat’s (which only featured that sixth volume where he transforms into his another form), suddenly the development that should follow the cat&Tohru’s story is cutted or interrupted in a silly way in order to favor the rat who already gave up the heroine with his “fake mother”/Edypus syndrome which he claimed out of nowhere, which wouldn’t be so bad but, 2-3 volumes introducing new lame/annoying characters instead of focusing on the zodiac dilemma…it was plainly hell, not even the volumen focusing Tohru’s parents story was that tiring, au contraire, it was more enjoyable in comparison (mind you, Kyouko wasn’t neither as great as Uotani and Hana mentioned).
Futhermore, in this adaptation Takaya helped in deciding to cut Tohru’s arc instead of Yuki’s?! Really?! The arc that develops the MC into someone more humane, less “saint” and more complex?! The heroine’s arc which helps to, not only understand why she is apparently so “nice and forgiving”, but as to why she understood and forgave Akito despite everything?! Instead she choose to favor yet again Yuki’s time on screen and now Tohru isn’t deep anymore to the audience, she allowed for her to keep being perceived as “pure” and “saint-like” for the viewers, when that wasn’t the case at all. Tohru’s arc was more powerful than that, it didn’t have anything to envy any of the zodiac members past, not even the rat’s, yet, she was given only ten minutes in the screen against six or more episodes which the rat subplot had.
But “she doesn’t favor Yuki”. She always shows it, she said it herself, for god’s sake!, try to make an objective analysis. She draws him even more than Kyo or Thoru, she depicted more “misterious” flashbacks of the rat’s past which ended up being more dissapointing than promisefull. Precious time was wasted in such a dull and unsatisffactory answer to the rat’s issues, to the point it felt as an insult to the reader’s inteligence, really.
Heck, she even developed more the rat’s family in “Another” than the cat’s or any other of the strong characters such as Hana, Momiji, Hiro or Hatsuharu (yes, the twins indeed appear, but there’s no insight in their family, as it was, again,with Yuki’s. BTW his son is also rude for no reason, just like his father).
There’s no hate towards the coward Yuki. It was analized objectively, his character was handled in a pretty erratic way. Maybe you can buy all that nosense, but I don’t think you flirt in an almost kissing way with your mother, neither with someone you fell a motherly-like love. That’s bullshit, even Machi being written for him feels out of place.
Mi-chan
July 3, 2021 at 6:58 pmI still can’t believe they spent more time on Machi and her brother than on Shigure. He is the 4th main charecter but there is not even one episode about him just 2 mins in all episodes. He deserves credit for moving the story forward, he is the true narrator of their lives forever my childhood crush!
I liked the ending but even Minagawa-boring-yuki-lover sendai had more screen time than the broken curse or even Shigure lol oh well..