Let me just note that I’ve been waiting 15 years to see people freaking out on the internet about Takaya’s final arc in Fruits Basket again. So – good times. All I can tell new viewers is, I’ve been there. Going through this this for the first time was an experience to say the least. Especially for those of us whose introduction to Furuba was the first anime, which gave us what turned out to be kind of a misleading impression about the true nature of this series. You can prefer one or prefer the other, but I don’t think anyone can deny they’re pretty different.
For the record, there’s nothing the series could have done at this stage to make me feel sympathy for Akito. It doesn’t matter how much of a psychotic and sadistic nut job they turn Ren into (and I felt like Ren having such a huge impact on the endgame after not even appearing beforehand was kind of a cheat), Akito is still Akito. Still a terrible person who abuses people both emotionally and physically and tries to give herself a pass because of the circumstances of their birth. Sorry, not buying it – try next door.
Also – Kureno is an idiot and always has been. It had to be said.
I’ve always contended that a series that can make you feel something – even rage and irritation – is on some level superior to one which elicits no emotional reaction whatsoever. And to the extent that anything redeems Fruits Basket beyond that, I think it’s ultimately that it’s the story of the blameless ones who get hurt by this curse more than the ones who hurt them. There are characters in this series worth feeling something more and better than contempt for – Kyou, Momiji, Hiro and Kisa most principally for me – and their stories have weight and pathos. Thank goodness.
More than anything, all this background with Ren and Akito just makes me wish they’d all to go away and never be heard from again. Akira may have been another victim in all this – a chronically ill Sohma whose marriage to Ren was against the family’s wishes – and maybe his love for the two of them reveals something we can’t see. Or maybe he was just too nice for his own good. For me this whole fight over an empty box just signifies how pointless and stupid both their existences have been. But to be fair, it’s not impossible that this is exactly what we’re supposed to think.
What’s interesting here is that it’s when Akito picks up Ren’s knife and is seemingly about to use it on her than the connection with Hiro breaks. Hiro’s mixed feelings are understandable – he’s never known what it felt like not to be entangled in this web. But he’s free now, like Momoiji – two kind boys who deserve that freedom from this awful family. Hopefully they use it to live a life that fulfills their promise and brings them happiness. But there are no guarantees – that’s the curse of freedom. A different sort of curse to be sure, but a curse just the same.
Ultimately of course, Furuba comes down to Kyou and Tohru, two people who were never part of Akito’s circle to begin with. But no one is more bound by it than Kyou, and the damage it – and his mother – have inflicted on him runs deep. Whatever happened with Tohru’s mother, Kyou has not come around to believing he’s better than Akito makes him out to be. And Tohru’s eternal dithering has left him adrift, his clock running out along with his will to fight what he sees as his fate. Even if Tohru acts now – and she hasn’t earned an ounce of trust that she’ll follow through on what she starts – might it not already be too late for Kyou?
Cherryberry
May 19, 2021 at 9:21 pmYou don’t have to forgive akito but just understand why she turned out this way. I for one am choosing to forgive because remember hatred breeds more hatred. What good would it do? I’m not excusing her actions whatsoever people aren’t born evil. What if akito went to jail in the end? That wouldn’t fix anything if anything it would make everything worse by having akito behavior enabled further.
Guardian Enzo
May 19, 2021 at 9:23 pmYou don’t think someone who stabs another person in cold blood or pushes a child out of a second story window should go to prison?
Mi-Chan
May 21, 2021 at 3:09 amI laughed so hard at you rquestion, im dead xD
Cloudedmind
May 21, 2021 at 2:32 pmIf it comes with a therapist and some medication then sure. If they’re just going to lock her in a cell and throw away the key, then not so much. I don’t like Akito either, I’ve said as much from the very beginning, and that hasn’t changed. However, Akito’s problems stem from a cycle of neglect and enabling, and unless you address the underlying cause, then nothing really changes, and you just end up with another “Akito” down the road. Yes, she should be held accountable for her actions, my only hope is that also comes with a large dose of therapy (same for Ren, and honestly all the Soma’s), but that’s probably way to much to ask for any anime to really delve into. What I hope we don’t see is her actions being completely swept under the rug, because that doesn’t help either.
Wangwang
May 19, 2021 at 10:24 pmFunny enough I feel pretty much indifferent toward Akito and Ren. Their story is so dramatic it’s turn into comedy. I would like it better if Akito become like she is in the present simply because of her god status to the zoldiac get too much into her head.
Jeremy Smith
May 19, 2021 at 11:39 pmI think you made a mistake in your review, Akira was the sickly former family head not the servant. Ren was the servant.
Guardian Enzo
May 20, 2021 at 6:25 amYeah, 7th post in 3 workdays slip of the pen, fixed.
Rasu
May 20, 2021 at 12:45 amThey skipped material (favouring Makoto and Hana?), it felt so sudden without the thomb’s visit. Are they planning to adapt “Another” in the last two episodes or are they going to show instead Tohru’s parents past at the end so the aidience understand what truly happened with Kyoko during those last words she gave to Kyo?
Guardian Enzo
May 20, 2021 at 6:27 amConsider all the material they’re skipping to fit everything into a cour it’s hard to imagine they plan to adapt Another. But who knows.
Mi-Chan
May 21, 2021 at 3:13 amAhhhhhhhhhhhhh you ended your review with a cliffhanger like the episode! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, what a terrible episode, what a terrible Akito, I know you always said she was unforgivable, dear god, i understand at this point that stabbing someone has taken her to another deep of shitty personality syndrome for me, I was already upset over Isuzu and this is just bleh =.=; damm, so intense, even worse, SHE RAN OFF WITH THE KNIFE, who else is she going to kill? Shigure? Tohru?
I never expected this outcome and the empty box for me symbolizes most concepts. It just also shows how desperate Ren-san, how delusional she has been, to take up a fiddle for children for herself. We are often told like someone is with u, its not uncommon to tell children such stories, it just seemed sad that Ren bought it.
I like how Shigure roasted Ren though, the “i only been with you because I wonder if Akito would look like you if you let her live as a girl” and I see what dirty hand he had in this plot!
Thanks for your review as always.
M
Guardian Enzo
May 21, 2021 at 7:26 amYou’re very welcome. Like I said, it’s fun to see people freaking out about Furuba again 15 years later.
Mi-Chan
May 22, 2021 at 7:48 pmI am one of the those people with extreme patience =,=” I am still forever waiting for Chihayafuru and I waited 15 years for Furuba too /broken xD but I dont like reading a manga if i started a series as anime but would read a manga if it came first xD or after I finish the series,
aldeayeah
May 25, 2021 at 4:50 amTo me Furuba became quite a bit more sinister in retrospect at this point, when I realized everything that happened until that point basically boiled down to Shigure playing everyone like a fiddle. All to give some bullshit tough love lesson to Akito.
I find it hard to see anything but malice in him, although Hayame and Hatori (who know him best) seem to think otherwise.