Fruits Basket (2019) – 18

「大切なのは……」 (Taisetsuna no Wa…)
“What’s Important Is…”

I think what I might love most about Fruits Basket is how everyone can take away something different while still coming to a shared understanding behind what an episode meant.

General Impressions

Before we talk about Kisa and Yuki’s journey to become better versions of themselves, I have to talk about the moment in this week’s episode that really got to me. Building on the past two episodes revolving around Arisa and her relationship with Kyoko and Tohru, can you blame me for being hyperaware of anything involving parent-child relationships? Anyways, the moment I wanted to touch on was when Kisa’s mom’s eyes went from being completely lost in the darkness aka just too tired with dealing with the harsh realities of life to being filled with love and realizing that she was dealing with the most precious thing she has on the planet.

The reason I wanted to touch on this moment was the whole notion that even if you’re the parent of a child that transforms into an animal the moment you embrace them, at the end of the day they’re still your child filled with the very things that make literally a part of you. Looking at Kisa’s mom and short moments we had with her this week, I loved watching her both at her lowest point as well as her clawing her way out of it. Using Tohru’s words as a rope to escape her disappointment at both Kisa and herself, I literally burst out into tears when the realization that the love between mother and child was the actual thing creating a rift between the two. A moment that, without words, was displayed simply with a mother opening her eyes as she remembered why she was filled with all those negative emotions. A realization that had everyone (us included) remember that we only feel disappointment for those who we deeply care about and only want the best for.

God, what a moment. With that out of the way though, we can quickly touch on the growth of Yuki (and Kisa). As one of our main characters who seems like a perfect person from the outside, it’s nice to know that the story isn’t just glossing over his dark past with Akito. I can tell that the story is going out of its way to highlight the importance of it all but compared to before it’s nice to see Yuki actually doing something about it. That and his advancements toward Tohru have been getting bolder recently and I’m interested to see what actually comes out of it.

Anyways, another fantastic episode that also introduced one of the cuter members of the Soma household. Anyways, I’ll catch you guys next week — see you then!

Preview