Rolling Review – Fruits Basket 2019 – S2 (11)

Episode Synopsis:

After Tohru returns from the Soma beach house (along with everyone else), she schedules a private appointment with Kazuma to discuss what he knows about how Akito relates to the other zodiac spirits. She gains some insight from this meeting, and resolves to do what she can to break what ties bind the chosen Somas to their cruel master. Rin seems to also be engaged in this endeavor, and is unhappy about the prospect of help from an outsider.

Meanwhile, Kagura accosts the now-returned Kyo – until he tries to get serious with her. Sensing what he wishes to discuss, she resolves to first confess to him the results of the soul-searching that she’s done since Kazuma revealed Kyo’s true form to Tohru.

Review:

I’ve gotta say – fourteen months ago, when we first met Kagura, I was expecting her to be a much bigger player in this show.  With this episode, it feels like we’ve just about wrapped her up, and this is, what, her fourth major appearance? There was her introduction, Valentine’s day, and the two episodes leading up to the S1 finale, where she saw the writing on the wall. I’ll be honest – I had to re-watch all four of those episodes and then re-watch this one to properly appreciate it.

One thing I noticed in the process of refreshing myself on the context for Kagura’s confession is an inconsistency in the flashbacks to her first seeing Kyo’s other form: here, the rosary snaps in mid-air, but, in S1e23, it’s shown landing intact on the ground. Just… a weird thing to be different, considering how long this show may have been in development and how long it’s definitely been between that episode and this one (manga fans – let us know if anything similar happened in the books).

Speaking of weird decisions, the OP is withheld from this episode so that the theme can be played over the emotional climax. I’ll give the show the benefit of the doubt as far as whether they had any other songs more fitting to the occasion, but it does give the majority of the episode a strange, eerie feeling, like you’re at a sleepover in an unfamiliar house, trying slowly to find your way to the bathroom in the pitch dark while everyone else is asleep, and you’re pretty sure there’s a couple of stairs near to where you were sleeping, but you haven’t found them yet, so you step gingerly, just in case they’re right in front of you, but each step makes you more and more nervous that you may have misremembered the layout and might not encounter them, or that you might be going the wrong way, or that you actually did encounter them but weren’t awake enough at the time for it to properly register. I dunno, maybe it’s just me.

At any rate, I’ll be glad to not have to sit through any more of Kagura’s aggressive displays of “affection”, which I hope is one result of the discussion at the bluff. Now that she seems more self-aware, I’m actually looking forward to seeing if she’ll start playing another part in the unfolding mystery. It would be a waste at this point if she were to go the way of the monkey and disappear into the background, but, if she and Rin remain house-mates, I think there’s a good chance she’ll be back.

Summary:

An oddly-structured episode, what with the two largely-unrelated halves and the OP shift, but a good payoff for people who’ve been paying close attention to Kagura. Keep it up~

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