English Dub Season Review: Fruits Basket Season 2

Overview

The story follows directly after the 1st season about the cursed zodiac Sohma family and the crazy in-fighting drama as much of it involves a cruel maniacal head of the house and his/her crazy obsessiveness over the family members and how Tohru interacts with them. Season 2 progressively becomes a really smooth transition from Season One as it further introduces characters from the Manga that reportedly weren’t even in the original Anime series from the mid-2000s and their struggles of them opening up more to Honda.

This season feels more lively and action pack than the first and the romantic tension increases where Kyo is developing to understand Honda on a personal level and Yuki is going out of his comfort zone. The rest of the season is a non-stop slew of backstories for several characters, which help explain why these characters all in different ways have a stake in this conflict against Akito and the Zodiac bullshit that’s enforced upon them. The artwork is colorful and lively with its atmosphere but does get dark depending on the mood & atmosphere of the storytelling.

If there’s anyone the show tends to bring favoritism to the most, it has to be Tohru Honda As the “Gateway” character during the course of the series. She shows complete compassion to her peers and people around her at all times. Every single character in the show feels like a real person. However, Tohru may seem perfect to some people, she definitely DOES have some flaws of her own. For starters, she is a very submissive person in the whole series up to now and I am interested in seeing how this could change down the line.

The 2nd worst thing about this season is Akito. Akito is such an unrepentant monster in every single way and is just frustrating to watch. Well-written villains can be a joy to watch, and we’re currently live in an age when we’re even giving otherwise despicable Disney villains Live-Action Origin stories that nobody remotely asked for. But in Akito’s case, there is absolutely nothing redeemable. Akito treats everyone like crap, attempts to murder one of the Zodiacs, and at once point commits public violence to another at a restaurant and no one seems to care. Also, The “Curse of the Zodiac” is still never fully fleshed out. All of the Zodiac Sohma family members are supposedly bound to Akito’s side, but it’s never explained why, or what happens if they leave. The viewer is left wondering why for the entire season and it just feels like contrived plot armor that I hope is resolved in the Final Season.

Aside from a few character & story flaws, Fruits Basket 2nd Season really topped itself even if I’m not even a fan of this particular genre. For the most part, it excelled in terms of character development whilst subtly giving us hints to the lore and of Akito as well as the stark contrast between Akito and Tohru as characters. Hopefully, with the Final Season currently ongoing at the time of this review, I remain hopeful that this story will eventually give its audience the proper conclusion it deserves.