It’s catch-up time! Finally, the last of my Fruits Basket catch up posts. It’s taken me longer than I had liked, but we’re finally caught up in time for the next episode. There will be some non-Fruits Basket content coming soon, I promise. I just love it so much…
Like last time, this will probably be quite the long post, so you should probably get a drink or something to help you get through this. In the last review, we only went through three episodes. This time, we have four. Despite that, like last time, we’re going to be going through each of them in chronological order, of course (the best order) so without further ado, let’s just dive straight in!
Episode 13: How have you been, my brother?
Episode 13 was definitely a great episode. In the episode, we were introduced to yet another Sohma family member – Ayame! Ayame is the snake of the zodiac and is also Yuki’s brother. The latter fact may come as a surprise to some people who aren’t familiar with the story due to Ayame being quite over dramatic and flamboyant, but he’s just as charming as Yuki with his comedic personality.
The introduction of Ayame certainly did wonders for the fangirls (and fanboys) of the Yuki and Tooru ship, though. With Ayame on the scene, we suddenly see Yuki becoming extremely overprotective of Tooru and, although it’s nothing new within the series lately, I still find it quite sweet.
What I found the most interesting about this episode, however, was the backstory of Ayame and Yuki. We get to know that, although they’re brothers, they’re not too close with one another more or less due to the large age gap between them. This isn’t the only reason, of course, but it’s definitely a major factor. I love how Ayame tries to get Yuki to be civil with him, but I also love the comedy that comes with Yuki’s brutal rejections as well. This is a combination of feelings that Fruits Basket delivers quite often and I always appreciate it.
I have to mention here that I loved the subtleness that they added to Tooru’s clumsiness during this episode. Sure, we all know she’s quite clumsy at this point, but the fact that they attempted to downplay this clumsiness during this episode in particular certainly made it more realistic than usual.
The one thing I loved the most, however, is the relationship between Ayame and Shigure. My love for Shigure isn’t exactly news by this point, but his personality alongside Ayame’s really works a treat and I absolutely love the over-the-top dynamic that the two characters have. I can’t wait to see more of these two together!
Episode 14: That’s A secret
From the beginning of Epiosde 14, I knew that I would enjoy this episode. Why? Because it features one of my all-time favorite moments. Momiji’s monlogue at the start of the episode really is one of my favorite monologues in anime. I remember watching the original anime and this quote just staying with me.
“I want to believe that memories, even sad and painful ones, should not be forgotten forever.”
Momiji Sohma, Fruits Basket
Despite, perhaps, being slightly altered for this new adaptation, the same message was very clear at the start of the episode. Just having this message repeated after so many years made me smile and I was definitely ready to dive into the world of Fruits Basket again.
That is, until, I heard the new OP. Although I was expecting to hear a new OP, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the new OP on the first listen. Although it’s a brand new song, it somehow sounds nostalgic to me and I think that’s a very special touch to the OP that makes it incredibly suitable for the second half of the series.
The thing is, although it was a slightly slower-paced episode than usual, what was there not to like? We had plenty of backstories given to us (particularly those of Momiji, Tooru’s mom and Ao, but we had hints of Kyo background too!), the foreshadowing involving the hat again and lots of quality time with both Hana and Ao as well as Kyo and Yuki!
There’s no way I can talk about this episode, however, without talking about the ED. Can we please talk about how cute the ED is? I absolutey love love love the animation style o the ED! Everything is so cute! The song is very gentle as well, making it the perfect accompanient, in my opinion. I just can’t wait to see more of these little cuties in the future!
Episode 15: I wouldn’t say that
Can I be honest here? I genuinely think that this is one of my favorite Fruits Basket episodes. I know and understand that I praise every single episode so much, but this one was – I have no words. Family vacation (or at least ‘vacation’) time is everyone’s favorite time of the year and this episode just proved it.
We were given so much in this episode, it’s hard to know where to begin. Quickly, though, despite me already praising the character dynamic between Shigure and Ayame, I also need to praise the character dynamics between not only these two but the third party of their friendship group – Hatori. Ayame’s flamboyant personality is only ever stopped by Hatori, it seems, but this responsible dragon adds such a big difference to the group that I love so much. He certainly is the most parental-like figure we’ve seen thus far.
Speaking of Hatori, however, I also need to mention that I appreciate the fact that we got a little bit more backstory about him and Kana! Not only that, but we also get an update on the dragon’s former lover – she’s now married! Although it was a little upsetting for him, it truly was a sight to see him, Ayame and Shigure having a mature conversation mixed with teenage-like banter.
Moving away from the adults for now, though, we need to discuss one of the slightly younger Sohmas for now. More specifically, I want to talk about Kyo because I loved him during this episode. We’ve seen him transform into his cat form a couple of times now, mostly due to Tooru’s clumsiness, but it’s the transformation in this episode that I’ve loved the most. I feel like this is the most feline he’s ever been. We’ve seen Yuki walking and talking as a rat before, but never really Kyo as a cat. Seeing him as a cat for such a long time for once really did make me smile – he is actually quite a cute cat and I’m saying that as a dog person myself!
Finally, another thing that I liked about this episode is how they’ve managed to somehow link everything together. I don’t want to go into too much detail just in case my observations are slightly out there, but I can already see how everything is linking together and can totally understand the adult zodiacs’ dialogue moreso now.
Episode 16: She said don’t step on them!
Now, don’t get me wrong – episode 16 is quite the important episode. It’s also got quite a lot of surprises in and I loved the emotional journey it took me on. However, I’m probably not going to be writing an awful lot about it.
Why? Because it mostly gave us backstory and I don’t wish to repeat chunks of backstory into my review. It was definitely a well-needed episode, though. I definitely feel like I know Uo a little bit better and I certainly feel like I know Tooru’s mom a little bit better too.
What I will say is that I’m quite grateful for this episode. I don’t know whether it’s just because of my memory, but I can’t remember these backstories from the original series? Feel free to correct me on this (I probably am just being forgetful) but I definitely feel like I should have remembered the key information about Tooru’s mom featured in this episode.
Well, I know it was a long one, but they’re all my thoughts for Fruits Basket episodes 13-16! Like I said previously, I realise that I’ve been talking about this series a lot recently, but I can promise that A Girl & Her Anime isn’t going to turn into a mere Fruits Basket blog any time soon. I have more seasonal content on Dr STONE and Ensemble Stars coming very soon!
If you missed my last Fruits Basket episodic review, however, you can check that out here.
You can also watch Fruits Basket (2019) on Funimation, Crunchyroll, and Wakamin, depending on your region!
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