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Fruits Basket – The Final Episode 8 Review – Burning in the Rain

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Fruits Basket – The Final Episode 8 Review – Quick Summary

In Fruits Basket – The Final Episode 8, “I’m Disappointed in You,” Tohru Honda decided she’d waited long enough. No more hesitation, no more interruptions: She sought out Kyou Souma with the intent to tell him she had fallen in love with him. But Kyou did something unexpected: He interrupted her and asked she she really did love him. When she said yes, he said he couldn’t deal with it and left. What would cause Kyou to walk away from what should have been one of the high points of his life? Will Tohru go after him? And has anyone found what the armed and deranged Akito Souma is up to yet?

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

Favorite Quote from Fruits Basket – The Final Episode 8

Fruits Basket - The Final Episode 8: Kyouko basically adopted the young Kyou

Kyouko just said what she thought. I only met her in flashbacks, but I miss her terribly. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

In this episode, I felt the loss of Kyouko Honda like a physical weight. Maybe it’s how important she’d been to Tohru, or maybe it was the echos of her personality we’ve seen almost everywhere. Whatever it was, I take my hat off to Natsuki Takaya for creating the character, for the animators who brought her to life, and to her voice actor Miyuki Sawashiro who gave her a voice. I’ve seldom felt the loss of a character this personally.

This episode sprinkled in a few moments of levity, and one of those came to us from Kyouko herself. I would say that these moments lightened the episode, but it was more like they gave an opportunity for the emotional pain to gather momentum before it struck. Even still, one of Kyouko’s lines made me laugh.

She had just met the young version of Kyou. He’d been sitting on some random cement pipes stacked in someone’s yard. She apparently had thought he looked lonely, because she walked up to him and tried to strike up a conversation. He got all bashful and resentful and angry like he does and he tried to insult her.

“Aw, it’s so cute how totally not cute you are!” she said laughing (04:45). She had such a musical laugh, too.

Best in Show Moment for Fruits Basket – The Final Episode 8

Fruits Basket - The Final Episode 8: Tohru showed anger -- on her own behalf!

Tohru became angry… for her own sake? Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Setup: Kyou’s Self-Loathing Singularity

The problem with a gravitational singularity is that light can’t escape it. In fact, nothing can escape it (well, there’s Hawking radiation, but let’s put that aside for now). Fruits Basket has presented me with another of its firsts: An emotional singularity, from which even the Light of Tohru can’t escape. The series carefully, painstakingly, and lovingly constructed this singularity around and within Kyou.

In this episode, we saw the full scope of what Kyou had endured, and what he had internalized, and it astounds me he could even walk upright. From the time he was young, his mother said bringing into the world had been a mistake. She committed suicide, and Kyou thought it was his fault — in no small part because that’s what his father told him.

The Soumas set him up as the Cat, destined to be locked away, out of sight, an object of derision who, simply by being so wretched, could make the Soumas feel better about themselves. That’s got to weigh on a person!

Kyouko gave Kyou a mother's affection

Kyouko gave Kyou a glimpse of a world he’d not known. It’s no wonder he had wanted to be her hero. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Having fled his father to live with Kazuma Souma, the young Kyou met Kyouko (see my favorite quote, above). With almost supernatural ease, she adopted that poor stray cat and gave him a modicum of normal motherly affection. Bu before that could seep into his psyche and heal him, he tried and failed to find Tohru because Yuki Souma beat him to it. Unable to process the flood of emotion — guilt at not being able to help, disappointment because he couldn’t be Kyouko’s hero, and more — he ran off. He only saw her one more time.

Delivery: Tohru’s Anger, On Behalf of Herself

I’ll give Kyou credit: He summoned the courage and told Tohru all about his perceived role in Kyouko’s death. The crushing, intertwined tentacles of hate and loathing that others and himself had wrapped around his heart had forced him to see Kyouko’s death in only one way: as his fault. He could not and should not be loved. He believed there was no way even Tohru could love him. And if she did, it would constitute a betrayal of her love for her mother.

Kyou thought Kyouko’s last words were that she could not forgive him. So Kyou came out and said that “I can’t forgive me.” But when he told Tohru that he didn’t want her to forgive him, for the first time I can remember, Tohru did something that would have been unthinkable in the first season.

Tohru became angry — on her own behalf. She denied the false choice he gave her: to forgive him or not. She didn’t think that he needed to be forgiven. And as for what her mom said? She wasn’t having it. She couldn’t believe that her mom would have said such a thing, even as she lay broken and dying.

Fruits Basket - The Final Episode 8: Kyou could not accept Tohru's love.

Kyou could not accept what Tohru told him. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

To make it perfectly clear to Kyou how she felt about him, she said (20:30), “But if she truly did say that, then… I… I… have to rebel against Mom!”

In that moment, Tohru claimed her own identity. She loved Kyou, and she was going to love Kyou no matter what. Because that’s who she was, and that’s what she wanted to do. And I got to see it happen.

What did you think of Akito’s untimely arrival at Shigure’s home? What was your Best in Show moment? Let me know in the comments!

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9 thoughts on “Fruits Basket – The Final Episode 8 Review – Burning in the Rain

  1. Considering where this ends up going. In hindsight, it does feel like the series making drama for drama sake. But it works for what it is trying to do. Tohru, (who man, has just been sidelined forever now) going against her mom and doing what she wants is a great moment.

    1. I still want to see what they do about the curse. Even if they fumble, they’ve given us more great moments than I have any right to expect. But they still might stick the landing!

    1. The show’s really making them work for it, isn’t it?

      That’ll just make it all the more special when they succeed. I hope.

  2. I actualy can’t quite see Tohru’s mum saying anything like that, either. Doesn’t mean she hasn’t said it, but it’s far more likely Kyou misheard or misinterpreted and later misremembered the actual words on account of his bias. Thought so the first moment I saw the scene (two episodes ago?).

    Also, in last week’s comment section you asked who Akito’s off to stab now. Well, now we know, and in my answer I was wrong. But the truth was actually there in my reply; I just didn’t see it. Didn’t want to probably. But, yeah, it definitely makes sense.

    What an episode. Akito might meet a Tohru she doesn’t expect. Tohru obviously won’t die, but I wonder if she’ll be hospitalised, or if this scene will take an unexpected turn. I can’t tell. If Saki were to show up, Akito would learn that Kyou’s cat form is not the most terrible thing out there by long a shot…

    Kyou’s off in a world of his own; he’s basically already imprisoned himself, poor sod.

    1. “Akito might meet a Tohru she doesn’t expect.”

      That’s a real possibility, I think. Tohru has no experience fighting, but she’s really fired up right now. I don’t remember seeing Tohru angry before, at least not to the extent that she was in this episode.

      “Saki were to show up, Akito would learn that Kyou’s cat form is not the most terrible thing out there by long a shot…”

      The closest thing my imagination gave me is Dark Phoenix from the X-Men. Not the wimped down version from the movies — the version from the comics that attracted the attention of the major star-faring faces because she was about to destroy entire star systems.

      “he’s basically already imprisoned himself, poor sod.”

      The way Fruits Basket presented his situation made it completely heart-breaking.

      Only five episodes left!

  3. As was pointed out to me, this episode is actually called “I’m Disappointed in You”. The next episode is “What’s your name?”.

    Otherwise is was an utterly gripping episode and felt like it was over in the blink of an eye. I can’t get over the burden placed on Kyo. That kid has been through hell!

    1. Thanks for pointing that out — Crunchyroll still lists it as What’s Your Name, but Wikipedia has I’m Disappointed in You. MAL lists it as What’s Your Name!

      I changed it in the text. I wonder what’s the source of the disagreement?

      1. I noticed that the end image that tells us about the next episode had “What’s Your Name” and Kyoko did ask Kyo what his name was so that might be part of the confusion.

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