Fruits Basket The Final Season Episode 11

Fruits Basket The Final Season Episode 11

Together at Last

Now that Kyou and Tohru are a couple, it’s only a matter of time before Yuki and Machi become one as well. I’m guessing that’s going to happen in the next episode. It would feel a bit odd to hold off until the finale for that.

In fact, I think the next episode is going to focus heavily on Yuki. He’s the only Zodiac member who we haven’t seen have his bond broken yet. His wasn’t broken earlier, and he wasn’t shown in the montage of bond breaks in Fruits Basket The Final Season Episode 11.

But, I want to talk about Kyou and Tohru right now. There will be plenty of time to talk about Yuki in the future. When Kyou and Tohru hugged in this episode, we didn’t have any idea what would happen. I assumed he wouldn’t transform, but there was no evidence to back that assumption up.

Tohru and Kyou hugging from the anime series Fruits Basket The Final Season
Tohru and Kyou hugging

Once we saw that Kyou’s bond with Akito had apparently broken, it was pretty clear what was coming next. Since Akito’s character has already been redeemed, there was no reason to break the rest of the Zodiac bonds one by one.

However, what I found interesting was that Kyou didn’t realize his bond was broken until he didn’t transform when hugging Tohru. My guess is that Kyou and Tohru hugging is actually what broke his bond and then in response to that, Akito severed the rest of the bonds as well.

It’s a bit too convenient if Akito just so happened to sever her bonds with everyone right as Kyou and Tohru hugged. And, since we know that Zodiac members can tell when their bonds break, Kyou would have known if it happened earlier.

A Forgotten Memory

I think this episode is the first time that we’re getting a different origin story for the Zodiac. And it’s not like this is an alternate version of the story the Souma clan knows. This story is completely different and leaves out explanations for a few things.

In this story, the cat was the first Zodiac member. I feel like the earlier versions of the story put all of the members on equal footing, at least at the beginning. So already, we’re seeing that there’s a pretty big difference when you consider that the cat is now considered the outcast.

The cat was also the first Zodiac member to die, which prompted God to grant all of the Zodiac members immortality through reincarnation. But, the cat didn’t want to reincarnate and was disappointed that God forced reincarnation on it.

The original Zodiac banquet from the anime series Fruits Basket The Final Season
The original Zodiac banquet

Although the point the cat was making is that life is special simply because it’s short, God and the other Zodiac members saw it as the cat turning its back on them. For this reason, the cat was shunned by the others, which we still see today.

But now that we know why the cat was actually shunned, the original story doesn’t add up. It was said that the rat wasn’t initially a member of the Zodiac until it tricked the cat. And it was also said that the cat was shunned because it was tricked or because it tried to get revenge on the rat or something.

So now that we know the rat was always a member of the Zodiac and the cat was shunned for not wanting to become immortal, we can see that the rivalry between Kyou and Yuki was built on a lie. They hated each other because they were the cat and rat. But in reality, the cat and rat didn’t originally have a rivalry of any sort.

The Final Bonds Broken

As I pointed out earlier, we didn’t get to see Yuki’s bond break, but we can assume it happened. So, that means that none of the Zodiac members are bonded to Akito any longer. It was implied that Akito herself severed these bonds, but we still don’t really know how the previously broken bonds came undone.

Hopefully, we’ll get an answer by the end of the series. I’d rather that not be left up in the air. It seems pretty important that some Zodiac members were able to be freed from their bonds earlier than others. And I can’t really see what they had in common.

Kureno, Momiji, and Hiro are all very different. They have completely different personalities, their relationships with Akito were all completely different, and they didn’t seem to have much interaction with each other. So why was it those three?

Ayame and Mine from the anime series Fruits Basket The Final Season
Ayame and Mine

One couple (aside from the main two) that’s most affected by the Zodiac bonds being broken is Ayame and Mine. It’s been pretty clear, and maybe even explicitly stated, that Mine is in love with Ayame. However, I don’t believe Ayame ever reciprocated that sentiment.

I think in his mind, he didn’t want to tell Mine that he loved her too specifically because of his curse. It’s not that he would have been afraid of her finding out and leaving him, though. Instead, I think the opposite was probably true.

Ayame was most likely worried that Mine would still choose him and thereby stop her from ever falling in love with someone else whom she could actually be with. So for them, the breaking of the curse is a huge deal. For a couple like Haru and Rin, the broken bonds are more of a formality than anything else.

Conclusion

What do you think of Fruits Basket The Final Season Episode 11? Was it the hug that broke Kyou’s bond with Akito? Or was that just a coincidence? Do you think the new version of the Zodiac origin story goes against the old one? And which couple do you think benefits the most from the broken bonds? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 12 is available now.

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