Fruits Basket 2nd Season

Fruits Basket 2nd Season

Fruits Basket anime series cover art
Fruits Basket

Season Overview

Fruits Basket 2nd Season (フルーツバスケット 2nd season) picks up shortly after where the 1st season left off. Tooru is still living at Shigure’s house with Yuki and Kyo, and all of the drama from the previous season has begun to settle down — at least at the start of the season.

I believe that when the season began, Tooru was familiar with 11 of the 13 zodiac members. If I’m remembering correctly, she only had the horse and rooster left to meet. And, unsurprisingly, she learns the identities of both of these members within this season.

This marks one of the major changes between the 1st and 2nd seasons of Fruits Basket. Previously, one of Tooru’s goals was to meet all of the members of the zodiac. However, that’s not really something she’s concerned about in this season.

Tooru does still get excited to meet the final two zodiac members, but their meetings were unexpected. She hadn’t been seeking them out and until she ran into them, she seemed to have forgotten that there were any left she didn’t know. Previously, she almost went out of her way to meet new zodiac members.

I think this change in Tooru’s attitude is a symptom of one of the bigger changes that takes place in this season: The shift from despair to hope. But, in order to properly discuss that, I’m going to need to include spoilers for this season. If you don’t want to be spoiled, I recommend you skip to the “Comparison to 1st Season” section.

From Despair to Hope

The biggest change between the two seasons is the overall tone of the series. The 1st season was shrouded in mystery regarding the members of the zodiac and their relationship with Akito. We often saw them being abused by Akito with no way to stand up for themselves.

However, the 2nd season changes all of that, with Yuki and Kyo being at the forefront of this change. They begin to stand up against Akito’s tyranny in multiple ways. Sometimes they disobey her orders, but that’s not their most effective form of resistance.

The most effective thing they can do to fight back against Akito is to live their lives as they want and be happy with those lives. When Akito sees that she no longer has control over their emotions, she becomes enraged that her absolute power has been cast aside.

Tooru and Kyo on the beach from the anime series Fruits Basket 2nd Season
Tooru and Kyo on the beach

I guess I should also just briefly mention here that Akito is a woman and also the God of the zodiac members, for anyone who hasn’t seen it and is reading these spoilers anyway. Throughout most of the series so far, these two facts were hidden (to an extent). Akito was made out to be male, and one of the zodiac members, albeit a stronger one.

The character development throughout this season was great. I loved seeing the dichotomy between Yuuki and Kyo on one side and Akito on the other. As Yuki’s and Kyo’s lives are starting to be restored, Akito’s is falling apart.

And, this shift in dynamic from despair to hope for the zodiac members is setting up the final season of the series when Akito will undoubtedly have to be overthrown. Now that the zodiac members are beginning to regain their lives, it’s time to figure out how to break the curse that binds them to Akito.

Comparison to 1st Season

Overall, I think the 2nd season is better than the 1st season. Surprisingly, the reason I think this season is better is actually that it focuses less on one of the things I liked about the 1st season: The mystery of the zodiac members’ identities.

One of my favorite parts of the 1st season was trying to figure out what zodiac animal each character was before it was officially revealed. There’s still a small amount of this in the 2nd season, but the primary focus is instead now on the relationships between the characters.

Basically, the reason Fruits Basket 2nd Season is better than the 1st season is the same reason why Saekano‘s 2nd season was better than the first. Once all of the main cast has had their characters and background thoroughly established, they can be used to tell more complex, interpersonal stories.

Yuki Souma from the anime series Fruits Basket 2nd Season
Yuki Souma

While the mystery aspect of this series is still enjoyable, I’m far more interested in the characters now that they’ve received more development. Complex characters are one of the most important pieces of any anime, in my mind — which is part of the reason why I like drama series so much.

And, Fruits Basket has been doing a great job of not only developing the main cast but all of the side characters as well. Every member of the zodiac has received development, Tooru’s non-Souma clan friends have received development, and even some other characters, like the teacher, have received development.

Conclusion

I think a 7/10 is a good rating for this season of Fruits Basket. It was a good season, but at the same time, I don’t think it was anything exceptional. There were still slow episodes and certain parts, like the school festival, that I really wasn’t interested in. But overall, it was good.

The OPs and EDs for this season were also very good, just as they were for the 1st season. In fact, the OPs and EDs for Fruits Basket have all been so good that I’m not sure which is my favorite right now. From this season alone, I may have liked “Prism” as an OP more and “Eden” as an ED more, though.

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My review of The Final Season is available now.

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