Fruits Basket 2nd Season

Quick Thoughts:
There was quite a bit of focus on character development/backstory this season. The balance between these stories and more lighthearted, SoL content was heavily skewed. It ended up feeling like a 20+ episode pity party.

Story:
The first several episodes establish what I think will be the central conflict the rest of the anime. The rest of season is non-stop slew of backstories for several characters, which help explain why these characters are so emotionally invested in this conflict. These got kind of repetitve/redundant after a while; I feel like the point could've been made in less than 20 episodes.

Characters:
One benefit of the large ... amount of exposition this season is that the side characters are more fleshed out than usual. Several characters are introduced this season, and we're given a good look at their interests and motives. It makes it easier to understand any actions they take that would normally be questionable. There's also a pretty complex web of relationships that's much easier to follow after this season.

Enjoyment:
This season a bit of a downer, but I did get some enjoyment out of it. I'm still a fan of the art style, the 2nd OP was really good, and I did enjoy how the main cast (Yuki and Kyou specifically) developed.

This show is way too highly rated. The first season was honestly very good, it brought up a good story and developed an interesting main cast. But the second season fell apart in my opinion. From my understanding the manga came before the first release of the anime at the turn of the century, but that doesn't help the fact that the cast of characters in S2 is just too big. There is no reason a show so driven on emotional attachment to the characters should try to stretch itself so thin. When I watched S1, I fell in love with all the main cast, ... and the team did such a good job of attaching us to them. But as you enter S2 and every main and side character has episodes solely for flashback and setup just to see Tohru cry... that is not emotional attachment. That is just using our beloved main to try to trick us into caring about these side Soumas that honestly we have no reason to care about. Furthermore, I think that the development of the main cast was... well, close to nonexistent. S1 brought us heart-wrenching episodes about the mains and their interactions, but S2 didn't develop much of anything for them.... Bringing the lens further in, I think the finale is super underwhelming... a good reveal, but I want to see what that does for us, not just an empty promise of living.

TL;DR:
The show tries too hard to get you deeply attached to too many characters, and I miss the smaller main cast (and development of said cast) from S1.

What a disappointing second season to this anime. Following on from the first season nothing really changes with the story or the characters. There's very little character development apart from Yuki who grows a decent amount. We're introduced to the remaining Zodiac animals throughout the season with a few short arcs that don't really matter.

By far the worst part of this season is Akito. Akito is such an unlikeable character in every single way and is just frustrating to watch. Well-written villains can be a joy to watch, but in Akito's case there is absolutely nothing redeemable. Akito treats everyone like crap, and no ... one seems to care. Akito attempts to murder one of the Zodiacs, and no one seems to care.

The "curse of the Zodiac" is never explained. All of the Zodiacs 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 weak plot armour.

Overall it's fine. It's not bad and it's not good, and it's a shame the story didn't progress at all from the first season.

Fruits Basket - Season 2


A story that I initially thought was a simple tearjerker with no grounding proves to be a quality tearjerker that knows exactly what it's going for.

Despite its appearance, Fruit Basket is a series for a slightly older audience, since it appeals to a lot of adults and has more somber themes. And also revolves greatly around the sex lives of some of the characters.

Anyway, the second season picks up where the first left off. There are new everyday episodes, and new small events and you see more and more interference from Akito. What impresses me the most here again ... are the character's backgrounds and their problems. Very rarely does an anime/manga manage to address these stories properly without making it seem like melodramatic theater, and yet they've done it here. In fact, I'm almost thrilled with the backgrounds and characters.

Of course, this anime does have its serious drawbacks. For example, the pacing is mediocre, there are often unnecessary flashbacks that fortunately don't last long. Many scenes lack creativity and variety. And especially disappointing are the dialogues. I so often get the feeling that the author doesn't know exactly what he's letting the characters say, as soon as there's no topic about Akito or their backgrounds. They stand around, always looking at each other in shock, acting like goofballs. The comedy moments make up for this to some extent, but when a normal non-story dialogue takes place, you know it's going to be torture. If you don't know what the characters are supposed to say, it's better to replace it completely with another scene. These awkward silences and copy-paste interactions don't help at all.

[Story 4]

The story contributes practically nothing new, except that you see more of the character's backgrounds. Also light information regarding Akito and the Soma family.

[Characters 6]

Many characters are just blunt stereotypes, but this is balanced relatively well by their various complexes, traumas, and backgrounds. This results in the characters seeming understandable and the viewer actually cares about them. Especially since there is a healthy mix between happy and unhappy characters and not everyone is traumatized by something.
And as said, the backgrounds of the characters are relatively realistic and not exaggerated in any way. Many people react to problems differently and especially here, there are a lot of broken parents who think it's okay to ruin their children's lives. And this doesn't just happen out of thin air. Predominantly, the parents themselves are just overstressed people who blame their children for their failures. But there are also some parents who simply should never have become parents.

[Music 5 / Animations 6]

The intros in the anime really make me rethink my whole life. Especially when I'm lying in bed and can't skip this bullshit. Mediocre vocals with montages of characters walking and looking in directions. It's not a disaster, but an intro should be appealing or at least reflect something.

The outros are shockingly actually good and enjoyable.

The osts are average and nothing worth mentioning.

Regarding the animations, the budget has increased slightly as you can see, and the backgrounds have also gotten better. But nothing to talk about.


[Conclusion 6]

The second season of Fruit Basket has been more convincing than the first, also making up for some shortcomings and building more momentum. If the third season keeps this quality or even gets better, I will be more than satisfied.

[Enjoyment 7]

Honestly, I don't understand the hype surrounding this series. This continues season one, showing Tohru's journey with the Sohmas as we learn more about the various Zodiacs and the family dynamics at play also known as a whole load of domestic abuse and trauma piled up on top of each other. This just wasn't really my thing - because of the nature of the abuse they all suffer being linked to the 'curse' and basically Akito and their parents, a lot of the backstories for the different zodiac characters were very similar, which made watching this feel so slow and kind of boring.
Tohru as ... well just feels kind of like a blank canvas character who is just so nice and kind, and yet also doesn't really have much of a personality - she's more there to help them through their trauma and provide a person to vent to because she doesn't know about them, and boy does it get old. Also, can we stop romanticising age gaps in romance? Her friend Uotani developing feelings (that seem to be reciprocated) for a guy much older than her in high school is not okay - yes, he is staying away from her at the minute, but that isn't because of her age and honestly it was so unnecessary.
This hits the same character beats and plot points over and over again as well, just with the focus on a different zodiac each time, which makes it really frustrating. There just wasn't much really going for this.

People will hate me for this, I'm sure, but I found the over-arcing lack of complete development of in Tohru as a protagonist so utterly frustrating that it ruined much the second half of the season. The real problem lies in this fact. There's no definite acceptance that some people just can't be changed, even after she's treated in so many abusive ways, allowing it to keep happening over and over. She's a people pleaser to boot, right until the literal end. There are fantasy parts around her that impact her emotionally all show long, but she never changes her naievte of the world. This ... season left a lot of dread in my mouth for season 3.

Fruits Basket season 2 was great. It had a lot going for it and it also had high expectations placed on it because of how good the first season was. It does manage to meet most of these expectations, and it does pretty well with handling some serious topics.

STORY: 8/10
Fruits Basket's story is pretty obvious if you're already on the second season, and I won't summarize it here because there is a description on this website. This second season focuses on a lot of characters, some new and some old. The characters begin to change, grow, and become better as a result. Other characters start ... to get shown more and explored. All these characters are shown off and their connections and relationships are starting to make more sense. Even then, though, the story does seem like it's going to random places at times. While the characters do get fleshed out more, it's at the cost of the story not really knowing what the hell it's doing.

ART: 7/10
The art is decent. It's not really anything special though, and the animation isn't like Jujutsu Kaisen or SAO Alicization War of Underworld season 2 either, to name a couple 2020 anime that looked great.

SOUND: 6/10
I don't really like season 2's OPs and EDs, but that's just personal preference. I prefer season 1's, but I don't really like those either save for Lucky Ending. Others may like it more but it's just not for me.

CHARACTER: 3/10
Fruits Basket's characters are great. They're very complex and they have so much depth to them. They might not all be good people, but most of them are great characters. A lot of these characters get some form of development, even if it isn't major. They're really endearing and you can't help but like most of them.

ENJOYMENT: 3/10
I had a lot of fun watching this show. Watching Yuki and Kyou finally expressing themselves more was great. Akito was shown off a lot more and we get to understand why Yuki's so afraid of her. New characters, such as Rin, get introduced. It was interesting to watch all these characters interact with each other and grow.

OVERALL: 6/10

pedophilia bad

if you're a grown man, high schoolers are off limits