NOTE
Hey everyone, Berry here. I’ll temporarily be taking care of things from here on out for Fruits Basket as Shadow suffered a bit of an injury. We’re hoping for a speedy recovery, but it’s also super important for her to get plenty of rest so I’ll be handling her coverage of Fruits Basket for a few weeks. Thanks for understanding~
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There have been a lot of emotional episodes from this season alone, but for some reason this episode hit me the hardest. Practically all of the Soma family members have their own baggage and they suffer so much, and when I feel like we hear the worst of it like with Yuki’s awful mother last week, we keep getting more reasons to be miserable along with them. I suppose the fact that there’s so much love and yearning from all parties featured in this episode but all of it seemingly impossible and comparing it to Tohru’s heartbreak…well, broke my heart too.
So we have two plots that seamed well into each other. Tohru heads to the Soma estate in order to find Kureno for Uo’s sake, when she learns that the man she fell for was named Kureno. While mustering up the courage to head in, she bumps into Momo Soma, Momiji’s little sister. She proceeds to sneak Tohru into the estate from a hiding hole she found, and they stumbled upon Momiji playing the violin and we learn something incredibly surprising, sweet, and tragic.
I always liked Momiji but I don’t think I ever gave him much credit, but this episode changed that. We learn that Momiji had to quit his violin lessons because he had the same teacher as Momo, and it looked like Momo was starting to catch on that she had some sort of connection with Momiji when she told her mother that she and Momiji looked alike. Not wanting to undo all his hardwork in preserving their happiness, Momiji’s father asks his son to step down from the lessons. And to which I say…fuck. And while Momiji suffers on the inside and questions why things have to be this way, he carries on with a smile as usual. Momiji’s story already hurt me last time but seeing how happy he was to hear Momo’s wish from Tohru touched my heart, but knowing how difficult or impossible the wish and Momiji’s dream of holding a concert for his family is just hurts. And while Momiji did say back in season one that his father is taking the role of being both parents for him, I still can’t help but feel that Momiji is still being pushed off to the side and practically being neglected. Instead of making his son happy, the father seems much more preoccupied with his wife and daughter and putting their happiness over his son’s. Which is literally what Momiji says, as he knows his father is trying to hard to retain the happiness of his family that he had to rebuild. On one hand, I get it. Especially when the wife was suicidal, but on the other hand Momiji is getting the short end of the stick.
Momiji is so selfless though, and I can’t help but love him even more. This poor child needs all the love in the world, and I hope one day his own dream can come true, and I hope that he and Momo can be actual siblings one day. But there’s just too much in the way for them, and that also applies to the other couple this episode.
Just like Shadow, I’m not very fond of the Uo and Kureno relationship, if we can even call it that. We only saw them interact in one episode and the fact that they supposedly have feelings for each other was waaaay too quick, and strange because of the age difference. I don’t remember how old he is but I think the difference is a little big, especially since Uo’s a high schooler. But, yeah. This is a thing I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Still, I love how ballsy Tohru was this episode. Even though she’s still a bit of a ditzy mess, she had the courage to sneak into the estate and continue to sneak around and find Kureno. I wasn’t too big a fan of Tohru in the first season as I thought she was a little too perfect, and the way she acted was too boring and kind of cringey for me. However, her character has really grown in this season and I love the imperfections and weakness she’s been showing. Also, her standing up to Akito at the summer house is still pretty amazing and that she left that conversation wanting to defy him even more and help the Soma family is really badass. So Tohru’s pretty alright in my book, and it was cool to see her sneak around the estate and give her thoughts to Kureno in hopes of helping Uo.
Unlike Shadow, I haven’t really read the manga. I know I read up to a point, but I know I never made it this far and I have no clue what’s happening behind the scenes and stuff we’ll be seeing later. I don’t know what kind of relationship Kureno has with Akito and why he’s so isolated from everyone. We never got an actual reason why he can’t see Uo again, as he almost brought it up but then brushed it off, leaving Tohru to think it’s simply because he’s a zodiac spirit. But I can at least guess that it’s not that simple, and Akito is behind it all as usual. With how isolated he is, following Akito’s every command probably makes this situation the worst. Still, I was at least a little happy seeing that shot of Kureno holding the paper Tohru gave him. I’m not into the ship but I am into the Soma family members having some sort of happiness and hope. :/
This episode was emotionally draining for Tohru because she can see everyone reaching out towards each other, wanting to see each other and be with each other, but hurting because they simply can’t. Why does this especially hurt? Tohru yearns to be with her mother, as we see that the more she thinks of her mother or losing anyone close to her puts her in a panic-filled frenzy on the brink of collapse. The problem is that she can’t, no matter how much she wants to. But here she can see people that are alive and well wanting to be together, and yet they still can’t because of internal and external circumstances.
Momo and Momiji want to be together, but they can’t.
Uo and Kureno want to be together, but they can’t.
And without her realizing it, Kyo wants to be with Tohru but eventually he won’t be able to because he’s basically accepted his fate of being locked up after graduating high school. And let me say, Kyo saying he’ll genuinely be there for Tohru if she finds someone she likes was so goddamn sweet. Soft Kyo is best Kyo.
There’s so much pain in the Soma family, and I think the reason why Tohru was so affected was the same reason I was too. I can’t relate to Tohru’s pain but I can empathize with it, and I’m always sad for the Somas. I want them to be happy and be with the ones they love, and it’s so frustrating that they can’t for many reasons. It’s tragic, but the episode ended with a sense of hope as Momiji practiced his violin in the night, and Kureno kept the paper with Uo’s contact information, and Tohru continuing to wish and hope even if it may be impossible. Just a lovely and emotional episode.
One thing that stood out to me was the woman Kureno spoke to, who must be “that woman” Akito doesn’t seem to like. There’s still so many things that we don’t know, and she must be very significant if Akito hates her. Who knows if we’ll see her soon, but she continues to be part of Fruits Basket’s many mysteries.
