Welcome all he’s, she’s, and them’s, to another Anime Rant! Fruits Basket season 2 is highly enjoyable so far, and episode 17 was heartwarming. Here are a few of my thoughts.

First of all, everything looks beautiful. The visuals are stunning to me, especially in this episode with so many gorgeous nature backgrounds like bamboo forests and Japanese maples. I enjoyed the presence of Arisu and Hana, as well as the character parallels between Arisu and Kyo. Tohru’s constant spaciness and flustered over-reactions sometimes get on my nerves, but most cases in this episode those moments were cute.

There were a lot of funny lines and scenes which made me a smile a little. For instance, the way Kyo keeps getting smacked for being an idiot, or the moment when Yuki said, “we’re not friends,” to Makoto. It was nice to see Yuki interacting with the student council members and having a good time despite small frustrations. I think they all respect each other a little more now.

I think we are beginning to see some increased development in the romance area of the show. I think Tohru likes Kyo but hasn’t realized it yet. That’s why she’s so easily effected by him, with the smallest slights making her heart ache, and the briefest touches and smiles making her feel at peace. We know that Kyo loves Tohru, but has decided not to pursue anything since he believes he will be confined after graduation.

But what about Yuki? It seems that he does like Tohru, but it’s as if he’s withdrawn from the running somehow. I could be wrong. It’s clear he wants to focus on having happy memories with everyone and enjoying his time with the student council. But it seems like even though he’s very fond of Tohru, he’s resigned about not being with her. That’s what I’m thinking, anyway. At any rate, Yuki did make some very good memories this episode, and I was glad to see him happy.

I also just want to quickly note that I loved Yuki’s response to Makoto after he said maybe he likes Tohru. Yuki tells him that he wouldn’t interfere, and it’s up to Tohru. However, if Makoto approaches Tohru disingenuously, Yuki will act accordingly. It’s great that he’s not possessive. The same goes for Kyo at the end of last week’s episode, where he said that he would help Tohru if she ever found a guy she liked and wanted to be with. Good job, males of Fruit Basket!

This was a great episode. My only complaint about the season so far is that things have seemed to slow down a lot after the big reveal about Akito in episode 10. Now we’re at 17 and there hasn’t been much progress in learning about the curse. I’d also love to know more about Rin and what she’s trying to do.

And that wraps it up. I really appreciate your readership. Please take care of yourselves. 🙂

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PATREON