The lake house episode of Fruits Basket was always one of my favorites. So I wasn’t sure that the remake could do anything with it that would make it stand out, but thankfully, I was wrong and everything about this episode took what made the original work and improved on them. The comedy stayed absolutely on point (Jason the ‘Bear’ will remain one of my favorite jokes till the end of days.), and it only enhanced the emotional parts of the episode. Which is something that fell a little short in the original.
The biggest improvement from the original to this episode was the character motives for Yuki and Kyo. Because the original cut so many important subplots like the hat and the apology, Yuki and Kyo’s sudden sullen attitudes come from seemingly nowhere. So having their actual motivations for being quiet and sullen after the visit to the shrine on display was a fine addition to the episode that makes their scenes seem more important. That being said, Yuki, Kyo and Tohru come across as almost a side thought in the face of the true main characters of this episode.
The mabudachi Trio!
The true motives behind Shigure whisking everyone away to the Lake house for Golden Week (aside from wanting to tease his editor) stem from the fact that Kana was recently married. He wants to keep an eye on and help Hatori, who he feared might be upset or depressed.
Whatever Shigure’s faults, and he has many of them to be sure. He’s loyal to his friends. Ayame is the same way, he shows up under the pretense of trying to be closer to Yuki but it’s clear as soon as he heard that Hatori was there with Shigure. He came to be with Hatori, he even brought along pictures of the wedding that he got from Shigure’s ex-girlfriend and Kana’s best friend, Mayuko.
Ayame to his credit, is amazing to Hatori in the way that he knows that he is bias but he thinks that all of this is unfair. That Kana can get married, move on with her life and be happy. While Hatori is sitting with the burden of his memories, he claims he wants Hatori to be two thousand times happier then he was with Kana (because one thousand isn’t enough). Bless Ayame, honestly, he manages to be a good friend and say cool things like that but when he tries to be more assertive in his relationship with Yuki. He completely messes it up.
The biggest twist of this episode is the reveal of who ‘Mayuko’ is, we’ve seen her in various scenes with the kids before. It’s Yuki, Kyo and Tohru’s teacher. You remember, the one who threatened to dye Kyo’s hair back in the valentines episode. I’ve been really excited to see her there every time she shows up, she is by far one of my favorite non-Sohma characters.
I can’t wait until we get to see more of her interactions with the cast throughout the series. In particular, after the way Ayame and Hatori describe the way she treated Shigure. We return to the Valentines episode when we go to Yuki quoting the metaphor about Shigure being like a wave.
It was Mayu that said that.
This was a nice calm episode after the emotional rollercoaster of last week and, i’m gonna say it right now. A great break before next weeks episode, in which I will be grabbing tissues before hand. Because I have never failed to cry at this bit of content coming up, it’s immensely real and emotional and I feel a lot of people might connect to it.