English Dub Review: Fruits Basket “I Hope it Snows Soon”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The snow falls outside the school window while Machi Kuragi (Caitlin Glass) muses angrily. She hopes that it doesn’t stick, as that would smooth out the edges of the world, making it appear “perfect”. She knocks over an entire new box of chalk before a cut to black.

Graduation is looming, and many seniors are taking the opportunity to confess to their crushes before their time at high school is up. Kimi Toudou (Cherami Leigh) humble brags about having to turn down yet another senior.

She claims it’s “cruel” to for them to ask someone “so obviously out of their league”, and asks Yuki if he’s dealing with the same issue. He simply says all he can do is “say no, and hurt them”, much to Naohito Sakuragi’s (Micah Solusod) annoyance.

A few other girls run into the classroom, gossiping about Machi breaking the chalk. They decry her stunts, and reveal the rumor that she tried to kill her younger brother. Machi hears them from the hall, and runs off.

Kakeru Manabe (Aaron Dismuke) and Yuki walk together after school. Kakeru confirms the rumor about Machi, as her older half-brother. He leads Yuki to her place for a visit (despite the latter’s protest.)

Machi’s embarrassed to have company, as her room’s a disaster. Kakeru barges in, hands Yuki a bra from the floor, then flees immediately on “trash duty”, leaving Yuki and Machi alone.

Yuki tapes up a broken window and asks Machi if she hates when things are too perfect and orderly. He says that, if it snows, they can mess it up with footprints, together.

At the next student council meeting, Kimi pushes a freshly opened box of chalk in front of Machi. Yuki breaks a piece without even taking a break in his reading, relieving Machi’s distress. She finds herself wishing for it to snow soon.

Our Take:

Tohru seems less stressed this episode, but maybe that’s because it focuses on the emotional turmoil of other characters.

Motoko Minagawa’s (Jamie Marchi) dramatic confession, along with Machi Kuragi’s storyline, give us a bit more insight to Yuki’s actual thoughts on romance.

I’ll admit I don’t remember much about Minagawa from the manga (or previous seasons, the “Prince Yuki” shenaningans are pretty much in one ear and right out the other for me.) Apparently she serves as “president” to the Prince Yuki fan club, and, since she’ll be graduating, takes this one last chance to confess her true feelings.

It’s kind of nice to get some on-screen closure for these obsessive background characters, although it doesn’t really do much to make up for their stalker-ish actions that have continued LITERALLY up until last episode (where they steal the paper flowers.)

But it lends a ray of humor to an otherwise fairly heavy episode. Sure, it’s *technically* just a rumor that Machi tried to kill her brother, but the fact that even her half-brother buys into it? Yikes.

Overall, I’ve long been a fan of this match up for Yuki, but in this particular episode we really get to see why they make a good pair. Yuki, the golden boy who can only see his own flaws, and Machi, who can’t stand to see anything too orderly. It makes way more sense than Tohru and Yuki imo (sorry rat stans!)

I will admit that Machi/Yuki could easily end up on that Siblings or Dating? Instagram account with like a thousand people arguing in the comments. Which is probably saying a lot for an anime that centers a single family (yeah, I know it’s a “clan” but still.)

Overall, this episode highlights some of the best of this series’ ability to dive into deep issues, and create meaningful on-screen relationships out of them. Tempered, of course, by lines like Kimi clarifying that what makes a man attractive is how much he’s worth. Cherami Leigh could give Ariana Grande a run for her money with that statement, and personally, I laughed while watching.

Looking forward to more perfectly imperfect story development next week!