Rolling Review – Fruits Basket 2019 – S2 (04)

Episode Synopsis:

Haru (the cow zodiac guy) has been caring for and dating an as-yet unseen member of the zodiac, Rin.  As the episode starts, she dumps him, which results, days later, in him rampaging through his classroom in one of his patented Dark moods.  Kyo gets involved just enough to protect Tohru, but Yuki uncharacteristically goes to try and help Haru through this tough time.

Episode Review:

There’s a lot going on in this episode, but the show manages it deftly.  To start with, I’m excited to get to see a new member of the zodiac, even if we only get one solid glimpse of her.

For the most part, any real introduction of the new character takes a backseat to the drama she engenders in Haru, who (apparently) was in a relationship with her.

After his rampage, the episode focuses on Yuki and his multiple attempts to understand and cheer up Haru.

It’s a big growth moment for Yuki, who is reaching out to try and help someone else rather than protect himself and push others away.  He’s even willing to go to the Soma estate (and face some deep-seated mental trauma about what he endured there) to find Haru, which is like getting your training sword and then going to take on a dragon with it – brave, but probably more than you can handle.

On another note, I’m impressed with how the episode, despite clearly being Yuki-focused, still found time to set up an important future plotline with Kyo.  When Haru is rampaging, Kyo steps in to protect Tohru the moment Haru gets close.

Don’t worry, he only briefly acts mature and reliable before getting a little too heated himself.

It seems just like typical hot-headed Kyo behavior, with a little bit of protectiveness towards Tohru.  But later on, we see that he’s much more conflicted about stepping in.

There are only a few Kyo moments this episode, but they do a lot towards setting up future plotlines, and that’s just efficient storytelling.  Well, that and sometimes he also just says what we’re all thinking.

 

Now, everything isn’t perfect with this episode.  I can understand Haru being upset about being dumped, wanting to understand what happened, and wanting things to go back to how they were before.

But Haru’s talk about missing Rin quickly heads into warning sign territory…

…and then just conquers that territory and sets up Fort Red Flag.

There are a LOT of really uncomfortable things that exist “short of committing a crime”.  I am concerned, Haru.  I am very concerned.

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