Fruits Basket (Episode 26) – Hello Again

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It’s almost the start of summer and Shigure is lamenting the young! Tohru is getting ready for a lot of homework while Yuki is preparing to become the new student president. Change is coming!

What happened?

Motoko, the head of the Yuki Fan Club is leaving for college after the summer and wants to find out who is going to be one Yuki’s team when he takes over as student president. More specifically, she’s worried about there being a girl that might corrupt him in her absence. Of course, the current president is not about to entertain such folie and brushes them off. That just makes Motoko more determined. Meanwhile, Yuki meets with the new vice president and treasurer. Manabe is quite the talker and manages to ruffle Yuki’s feathers, not least because he reminds him of Ayame. The treasurer, Machi is quieter and a little disorganised. They both appear to have ulterior motives for being there. Motoko manages to get a brief moment with Yuki, but it doesn’t go quite as she’d imagined.

Fruits Basket Episode 26 Tohru Yuki and Kyo

What did you think?

This was a pretty seamless reintroduction to the world of Fruits Basket. It raised some interesting things to look at going forward and brought in some new characters that will no doubt upset the dynamic. The thing that most impressed me, however, was how this episode made me feel for Motoko. Up until now, she’d been cast as a villain, pretty much determined to stop Tohru from getting close to Yuki. That hasn’t really changed, but we saw a little more of what’s going on behind the curtain. Not only did she realise that Yuki had changed for the better, but she knew why.

The standout moment of the episode was when Yuki confided in her that he struggled to remain cool. It was something she could relate to and it seemed to bring them closer. At that moment, I found myself questioning why these two couldn’t end up together. Crazy, I know, but that was the strength of that interaction.

Fruits Basket Episode 26 Yuki and Motoko

What have you learnt?

I’ll be the first to admit that Slice of Life is not one of my preferred genres. At first, Fruits Basket having a supernatural element gave me the comfort to keep watching, but as the series progressed, I realised that the true strength of this series is the characters and the interactions between them. Often, it’s not between the characters you were expecting too, which is great. It’s one thing to show us a character that is an obstacle for the protagonist and then make us care enough about what they are going through to want them to succeed. If only there were a way that everyone could be happy. Who knows, maybe there will be?

Fruits Basket Episode 26 Shigure and Kyo

Other reviews in the series

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2 Comments

  1. I like that they managed to neatly thread the needle between “recap/introduction” and “actual content”. All too often new seasons lean too hard towards the former (*glares at BNHA*) while returning fans want the latter.

    • For sure, it would have been a waste of an episode to just do a complete recap. I’d like to think that people watching season two (or four) of a season will be able to remember what happened without too much fuss.

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