English Dub Review: Fruits Basket “Eat Somen With Your Friends”

Overview(Spoilers Below)

After being told by their school teacher about fill out some forms involving their career plans to her class along with Tohru along with her circle of friends, Tohru contemplates on what she should do with her life, later she decides to tag-along with Kyo to hang out with Kyo’s martial arts master and it’s here when things take a more interesting direction when that same teacher has a meeting with the last person Kyo would ever want in his life… His father.



Our Take

Given the circumstances and consistent emotional abuse of the Sohma family, it’s tragic to see Kyo’s father look at his son in disdain. As superstition and paranoia begin to creep its way into their abusive history. (According to Japanese superstition when a mother dies from childbirth, the child is cursed.) But some times family members cannot understand you more than others. Kyo’s Martial Arts master during an intense argument is seemingly more of a fatherly figure and guardian for him. But Tohru has a really kindhearted and compassionate personality. In response to some of the other stuff that’s going on in her mind, I also like the fact that they showed Tohru being flawed in a relatable and different way with her own problems to contemplate about after high school and not fall into the trap of depicting her as a flawless “Mary Sue” which is a trope that’s recently been plaguing bad storytelling in fiction.

If there’s anything I can take from this as a lesson within this episode, change is the essential process of all existence. It’s okay to worry about the future, but it’s equally important to focus on the present before you take things one step at a time.