Fruits Basket Episode 2

Fruits Basket Episode 2

They’re All Animals!

Originally this review was supposed to be for tomorrow, and the Dororo episode review which is now scheduled for tomorrow was supposed to be for today. But, I got tired of waiting hours for Amazon to upload the newest Dororo episode so I think this schedule change is going to end up permanent.

Anyway, in this week’s episode of Fruits Basket Tooru learns the secret of the Souma clan, and we learn a lot of interesting bits of information as well. The first bit of information we got came at the end of the OP (which I don’t remember being included in the first episode), which states that this is season one, implying there will be future seasons.

The original anime adaptation was two cour, so my assumption is that this season is going to be a single cour, and then we’ll get another single cour season in the future to finish it up. It’s possible that there could be more than two cours total, but that doesn’t seem likely.

So, at the end of the first episode Tooru accidentally turns Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure into their respective zodiac animals by “hugging” them. I already went over why that didn’t make sense in my review of that episode, so I won’t be going over it again here.

Tooru holding Kyo, Yuki, and Shigure from the anime series Fruits Basket
Tooru holding Kyo, Yuki, and Shigure

But, this week she’s told the secret behind their transformations. As it turns out, the Souma clan is essentially cursed to be the reincarnations of each of the zodiac animals from the legend. However, I find it odd that the cat is included in this considering it’s not actually one of the zodiac animals.

However, if we’re including the cat, that means there are probably 13 members of the Souma clan in total. We’re also told that aside from being able to control their respective animals, they don’t really have any special powers. This probably sucks for the dragon though, unless dragons actually exist in this world for him to control.

We’re also told that along with hugging, being sick will turn Souma clan members into animals. And, they turn back into their human forms after random amounts of time, but are naked when they’re reverted. Tooru’s reverse harem adventure is about to begin.

Kyo Souma

At the end of the previous episode we were also briefly introduced to the cat of the zodiac, Kyo. In this episode he gets a lot more character development and is the main focus. My guess is that he’ll also be one of the two main romantic interests for Tooru during the series, the other being Yuki.

So, what’s so special about Kyo? First of all, as the zodiac cat, he’s considered an outsider by the other members of the family, especially Yuki. However, this is probably also compounded with the fact that he doesn’t appear to have actually lived on family property recently.

For now it’s unclear whether the choice to live outside of the family home was his own as a way of getting away from the family that shuns him, or if this choice was made for him by the family to get rid of him in some capacity. Either way, his relationship with the rest of the family is a strange one.

He wants to become a fully fledged member of the clan, and therefore zodiac, but he also seems to want to be distanced from them. At the same time, the family seem to push him away, but also want him close enough so that they can control and keep tabs on him.

It’s also more fully explained that Kyo is a tsundere. He might act obnoxious and aggressive, but he actually has a pure heart, which Tooru can see.

The New Kid In School

It’s then revealed that Kyo will begin living in the family home and attending the same school as Yuki and Tooru (who’s also been allowed to continue living at the Souma household as long as she keeps their secret). But, why does this change of schools for Kyo matter?

As I mentioned, the Souma clan want to be able to control Kyo as a means to protect their secret. And, in fact, it seems that the lives of all the Souma clan members are controlled to some extent by the family head, Akito.

In order to protect the family secret, Akito generally forces all the family members to attend all-boys schools so there’s as little risk of being hugged by a girl as possible. Obviously, the school that Yuki attends, and that Kyo will now be attending, is not an all-boys school, so there’s a degree of danger involved.

Tooru Honda from the anime Fruits Basket
Tooru Honda

While Yuki likes the fact that his school life isn’t being completely controlled by the Souma clan, Kyo actually wants to go to an all-boys school instead because he’s worried about his secret being revealed. He can’t comprehend why Yuki would want to be surrounded by girls who take interest in him all day.

I also feel the need to point out that Kyo was hugged by a girl at school, but didn’t turn into a cat. This mechanic is really hit or miss so far. It’s so inconsistent that I can’t find myself to accept it as a necessary part of the story.

Akito Souma

While we weren’t formally introduced to Akito yet, we were introduced to the concept of Akito. Based on the ED it appears that not all of the Souma clan are male, but to make things easier I’ll just be assuming Akito is male until we’re actually introduced to him.

As the head of the Souma clan, Akito is the one calling all the shots. And, based on the fact that Yuki tells Tooru he won’t be able to go against Akito’s wishes if he chooses to have her memory suppressed, we can assume he’s the most powerful.

Also, yes, the Souma clan, or at least Akito, has the ability to suppress the memories of anyone who finds out their secret. This seems to have been introduced as a way to raise the stakes. If Tooru ever loses favor with the clan, we now know they can suppress her memories.

Anyway, back to Akito, since he’s the head of the clan my assumption is also that he’s the dragon. I don’t actually know if the dragon is considered the leader of the zodiac, but it seems like a good guess considering it’s a dragon.

He’s also set up to be the antagonist of the series, which I guess makes sense if there’s going to be an antagonist at all. Not just because he controls the clan and has the memory suppression ability, but also because we’re introduced to him as being a schemer of sorts.

Rather than allowing Tooru to continue living in the Souma household out of the good of his heart, he seems to be plotting to use her in some way. Specifically, he says that she’ll be important to teaching Yuki, Kyo, and even himself, a valuable lesson.

The fact that he included himself in this doesn’t make any sense to me, so perhaps my next prediction is wrong, but I think this lesson is that Yuki and Kyo shouldn’t go against Akito’s orders. He’ll probably set things up so that Tooru is the reason Yuki and Kyo’s secret gets found out at school, and then use that to demonstrate why they shouldn’t have trusted anyone outside the family to begin with.

This would also further reinforce the idea that members of the Souma clan should stick to all-boys schools, but I’m not entirely sure how important that is on its own.

Conclusion

This second episode really piqued my interest in the series and the possible directions it might go in. After the first episode I wasn’t sure what the plot was really going to be about other than romance with some random fantasy thrown in.

But, the dynamic between Yuki and Kyo is likely to continue evolving over the course of the series, and I’m already invested enough to want to know who Tooru will pick in the end. Will she choose Yuki? Will she choose Kyo? Or, will we get a weak ending in which everyone’s just friends?

Also, I want to know more about Akito. I’m sure he has some reason to be wary of outsiders, and I want to know what in his past made him that way. The younger members of the clan seem to think that outsiders have the potential to accept them, but Akito doesn’t.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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