Fruits Basket – Episode 22

True to my thoughts of what they were going to do, the anime moved Saki Hanajima’s backstory forward in the story. The same as they did with Uotani’s backstory.

Odd to say, but Saki’s backstory hit me a lot harder then I thought it would. Saki as a character is at a weird place in this series, as she’s the only non-Sohma in the series to have something supernatural about them. Most everyone, not related to the Sohma family is a regular human. Then you have Saki Hanajima with her psychic powers. It’s a little odd to stay it sort of makes her stick out as a little strange (and that’s in a series with talking animals). It’s not easy for someone to connect with the struggles of having voices in your head, or having the power to accidently hurt people. It is however, easy to connect with being bullied and the fear of what you can do in your own anger.

When those boys force her to eat a newt, I honestly can’t blame her for how she was thinking. The idea that you want your tormentors to go away, no matter the cost is basically normal.
Saki’s reaction to realizing that she could of killed that boy, is also fairly natural. The most wonderful thing about Saki though and it’s so nice to see it in a series with a lot of parenting and family issues, is that Saki’s family loves her unconditionally. Not just her brother, but her mother, father and grandmother as well.
They all do their best for her and never treat her or her powers like a burden.
Of course, even with a loving family. Saki is lonely, it comes up when she’s speaking to Kyoko later in the episode but that’s also completely normal and understandable. We at nature, are social creatures. It’s not unusual to want to seek positive relationships outside of your own flesh and blood.
It’s honestly such a blessing to see when she switches schools and meets with Tohru and Arisa.

It’s only a shame it look an incident like girls pinning down her arm and burning it in an attempt to get her to use her power on them to get there. It’s a shame that it took the students blaming a completely unrelated injury on her because the kids thought that she was a ‘witch’. I suppose, the thing that hurts me the most in watching Saki’s backstory is knowing that things like this happen. Bullying is one of the many real subjects touched upon in Fruits Basket and it’s one that I think a majority of people can connect with on some level.
It’s also, immensely realistic when the rumors from her old school reach her new one. If you don’t move really far away, there is always a chance that someone has heard about you. There is always a chance that someone you knew could transfer in as well and start poisoning your new environment.
Thank goodness that Tohru and Arisa are just genuinely good people. I couldn’t help but smile when Saki first called them odd and they just smiled and went “Yeah, we get that a lot.” it brought me so much happiness. To see their friendship bloom, to see Saki happy and to see the prayer that Megumi made for Saki to find people who accepted the real her to come and be by Saki’s side.

This was a beautiful episode, I can’t say why it resonated with me much more animated then it did in the manga. It did though and it was immensely special, i’m really glad we managed it into the first season. Speaking of the first season, it seems that we’ll be entering our final arc of the show with the same content that we wrapped up the last anime with, the content from volume 6 of the manga. If you’re a Kyo fan, be ready for some feels. That’s all I have to say about what we’re in for.