English Dub Review: Fruits Basket “Here You Are/I’m Different Now”

Overview

“Here You Are”

Another New Year’s means another banquet for the zodiac members at the Soma estate for better or worse…


“I’m Different Now”

A winter chill lingers in the air as memories revealing some of Kureno’s mysterious past and present emerge, along with some revealing backstory into Akito’s past…


Our Take

For the former episode, Machi’s backstory is revealed. And like most of the Sohma kids, (minus the curse) she was another kid broken by family. And it’s clear that Yuki and Machi fit each other in terms of chemistry Individually and together. If things had been fine between Yuki and Kyo then maybe we would have seen them interacting like this. Last year during New Year Eve, Kyo and Yuki came running back to Tohru to keep her company. This year Kyo is with Tohru and Yuki finally got the strength to stand up to Akito which, to put it mildly, was not without consequences…

In speaking of Akito, episode 25 on the season ends the series on a strong note by delving into the backstory of this despicable person, but like most villain origin stories, this actually puts Akito into both a tragic and sympathetic light and changes everything we know about Akito and yet part of me feels a hint of pity as well. Fear of abandonment is an awful, powerful feeling. Hell, I’ve seen myself change in ways I don’t like scared or confronting particular people… Nobody deserves to grow up in that isolation. But regardless of how screwed up Akito’s upbringing was, the real enemy is the entire curse itself, in the form of generational cycles of abuse and the suffocating focus on family hierarchy. We’ve often had stories of “Nature vs Nurture” but here it’s “Change Vs Tradition”.

Overall, while the last two episodes bring Season 2 to a close, they also remind the audience that the show is far from over since Akito still wants to rule the Sohma’s lives with a vengeance.