Anime Best in Show

Review: Fruits Basket Episode 02 – Best in Show

Quick Summary

In Fruits Basket episode 2, “They’re All Animals!“, Tooru Honda is completely freaked out that her mere touch turned Shigure Souma into a dog, Yuki Souma into a rat, and Kyou Souma into a cat! She almost despairs when the delivery man doesn’t believe her. He just accepts the dog’s stamp as enough to prove delivery! She’s only marginally relieved when they turn back into humans, because they’re naked. Shigure in particular seems pretty relaxed about it. Now that she knows the family secret, will they let her go free without altering her memories? Is that what the head of the family intends to do? And why is Shigure so intent on getting Kyou back into their home?

Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious. 

Adversity? Kyou knew had to deal with that. Anger and fighting, too. But Tooru’s unabashed torrent of affection? He has no idea where to even start! Capture from the Crunchyroll stream

Best Moment in the Show

Tooru’s walking home late after work, and she’s fretting. Earlier that day at school, she’d found Kyou and Yuki, and they were about to come to blows. Terrified at the thought of them fighting, she did the only thing she could think of: she threw herself on Kyou, which turned him into a cat. Kyou interrupted her attempt to explain herself with an angry tirade that ended with, “Get out of my sight” (16:50). She left, mortified, and she didn’t see that he immediately regretted his words. Do you remember Tooru’s reaction to her mom’s story of how the cat was excluded from the zodiac banquet? Tooru remembers! She so sympathized with the cat that she wanted to change her birth year! So as she’s walking home, she racks her brain to come up with ideas to get back in Kyou’s good graces. Despite his harsh words, she is absolutely determined not to give up. But even as she makes that vow, she hears someone coming up behind her. Terrified it might be one of the perverts she’s heard too much about, she swings her book bag with all her might — and nails Kyou right up side the head (19:30). She’s horrified — but instead of being angry, he tells her to drop the “-san” and just use his name. Her gentle kindness is an irresistible force; his inner rage is an immovable object. In that moment, Tooru solved the paradox by moving Kyou, if even a little. I think that qualifies as a best moment!

Other Posts about This Series

Other Anime Sites

This Site (Crow's World of Anime!)

tcrow
Copyright 2022 Terrance A. Crow. All rights reserved.
https://www.crowsworldofanime.com

4 thoughts on “Review: Fruits Basket Episode 02 – Best in Show

  1. She seemed to earnest, too! As earnest as the delivery man was dense! Even if he was only busy, he should have been more suspicious when the dog used a stamp to acknowledge receipt!

    1. Actually, the lack of suspicion is exactly what I liked about the scene. You’re a deliveryman. It’s a job where you see a lot of people for a very short time, and some of them are going to be weirdos. You see a lot over the year, but you never get any sort of explanation, so at some point you’ll just want to get your job done. It’s more a habit than being dense. Maybe he really didn’t catch up on Tooru’s distress, not even subconsciously. Or maybe his response is a trained deflection: whatever your problem is, it’s not mine. This can be conscious, half-conscious, or unconscious. We know nothing about him as a person, and probably never will. There’s a good chance he’s going to remember her as the “crazy cat lady” type of character: the weirdo who trains her pets to stamp the receipt, for example. People don’t transform into animals, so there’s no reason to suspect anything beyond that. Something’s up, maybe, but even so, it’s none of his business: he’s got a job to do.

      Scenes like these are reminders that the events of this show are really unusual. This is a parallel, secret world, and only people who have a foot in it can really become suspicious (like, for example, Saki).

      1. The problem with being a writer is that I try to notice everything, and sometimes I forget how unusual that is. Good reminder!

  2. Good pick for favourite moment.

    I quite liked the comedy moment that started off the episode, where she carries all the boys to the delivery man and says in her confusion, “They’re all animals.” Seeing that scene from the deliveryman’s point of view makes it so strange. It’s quite standard humour, but I’m a sucker for such point-of-view reversals.

Please let me know what you think!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.