Rolling Review – Fruits Basket 2019 – S2 (19)

Episode Synopsis:

After waking up in Tohru’s bed, Rin refuses to return to the hospital, and only begrudgingly consents to remain in Shigure’s house. While there, she confronts Tohru about the latter’s meeting with Kazuma, and attempts to discourage her from getting caught up in the Somas’ affairs. After their argument heats up, this attempt fails, and Rin resigns herself to accepting the help of both Tohru and medical professionals.

Review:

So the core event of this episode is the dramatic overhaul of Rin’s relationship with Tohru, from Violently Standoffish to something along the lines of Companions By Necessity. Rin’s inner monologue goes into some detail about her resistance to this development, which seemed to have stemmed from a desire to not take advantage of Tohru, who Rin had learned from Haru was probably the kind of person who would let herself be taken advantage of by someone like how Rin sees herself. I will say, though, even trying to account for how Rin’s impression of Tohru might be colored by her expectations and needs, the flashback to her first observation of Tohru (at the time, performing the somewhat matronly act of folding laundry), where Rin recounts the immediate urge to collapse into Tohru’s lap, crying, seemed a little bit much. I do appreciate the straightforward explanation that Rin gives to Tohru of what it is, exactly, that she is seeking to upset, most (all?) of which we’d already heard before, but it is nice to know that we’re on the same page as the characters (and nice that more of them are collectively on the same page). As far as Tohru herself, I don’t think I have the emotional literacy to comment on her trauma at this time.

We also get a couple of interesting Yuki moments – mostly the one at Shigure’s, where I think the implication is that he’s becoming jealous of how Kyo seems to better understand Tohru than he does. There’s something of an interstitial scene at school, too, but I continue to be disinterested in the loudmouths on the student council.

Perhaps the most interesting development of this episode, though, is Shigure’s apparent admission to Hatori (and the audience) that he does, in fact, know more than he lets on, and that Rin and Tohru’s mission will factor into whatever it is that he’s scheming…

Summary:

An episode heavy with drama, mostly serving as a reminder for me to seek out someone who knows what they’re talking about to explain everything to me after this is all over.

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