English Dub Review: Fruits Basket “You Cried for Me”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

This week we move away from the usual trio (Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo) to explore their Highschool Teacher Ms. Mayu’s past and her surprising history with the Sohmas, specifically a short-lived romance she had with one of them while having a chance-encounter with Shigure for a bit…

Our Take

An interesting backstory episode. Since it comes across as filler, it was sort of predictable in places. At least it was a nice change of pace compared to the previous few episodes. Surprisingly, we didn’t get any screentime at all for the usual Trio, Not that I minded though. I Could consider this one slower-paced than the past few episodes with the Beach-Arc and Tohru’s new quest to stop both the Sohma Curse and Akito’s Zodiac-god bullshit powers.

We also get some nice focus on the adults. Specifically going almost a full season back to bring back up the events with Hatori, and how we see Mayu is connected to them. I feel like aside from the very well placed plot points with the supporting characters as well as the not-so-subtle themes about just crying out once in a while-which is something Hatori clearly needs to come to terms with, The reality is that not everyone is capable of always donning their emotional body armor and pretending everything is ok on a psychological level, even when things really aren’t… 

It goes without saying that based on the observation, everyone in the Sohma clan suffered so much because of Akito’s brutal grip even long before Tohru came into their lives, and really makes you want to root for the other family members outside the usual 3 in their quest to find happiness in some way.