Author: SuperMario

Carole & Tuesday – 09 [Dancing Queen]

by SuperMario, posted in Carole & Tuesday, Currently Watching:

Episode 09 of Carole & Tuesday is essentially Brightest Mars part 2, as we spend an entire episode to the bottom half of the bracket. This is where I wish the staff spends that much attention to details to its writing, rather than music writing, because all the songs played in this episode are featured in full performances, and good ones on top of that. Angela’s performance, unfortunately, is amongst my least favorite one. It screams “Top 40” material for me. At many turns, I could see the show set itself up for some surprise payoff: like it could go the opposite way to make Cybelle the winner, for instance; or how Cybelle’s obsession can affect Tuesday in a more significant way, but they’re not the case at all. Instead, the whole thing plays out rather predictably, with Angela proves herself to be more “serious” in her music than the judges initially thought. But the issue with that is that, as we the audiences follow Angela right where she switches career, there’s little development from here to indicate that she’s actually serious about music at all. On a similar note, I was expecting the AI judge to comment about her music (as her music is monitored by the AI freak composer), but turned out he didn’t leave any comment at all. I believe he’ll be more critical later on but for now he works as comedic relief at best.

Otherwise, we have a rather fun episode of the remaining contestants showing their fangs. Hilarious and misguided in similar measure, the Mermaid plays a song consists entirely of swear words. Imagine what would have been to listen to this song with censored version: all we hear will be an uninterrupted beep. They say that this song says who they are, a gender-ambiguous state, but for me it’s more like their attitude towards the rest. But the tune is charming nonetheless. At the risk of taking these characters lightly (I do think the show is guilty of that), there’s still a fine craft to the songwriting there. The same can be said for GGK (I believe she’s based from real life FKA Twigs) and Cybelle’s songs, which have mysterious air, dreamy and exactly my kind of songs. In a perfect world, Cybelle’s performance would beat Angela’s at any time.

There are some hints towards other development Carole & Tuesday might tackle in the future. Earlier when we hear about Carole’s mother press, she mentioned the fact that the Earth has cast a shadow upon Mars (or so my sub implies). I don’t even know what she means but if it were a life-changing event, this thread might be tangled with Carole & Tuesday in the future (remember the “8 miniutes that changed Mars” bit). It’s also worth noting that Tao is noticing our girls’ talents, more as he notices the non-AI sound from our duo, which will add as a fuel for more rivalry between them and Angela. Gut and Angela’s Mama has some nice bounce off as managers from each side, but they again play more for laugh. Lastly, I like the way Cybelle controls over Tuesday, which makes a nice point that Tuesday has to voice up her own opinion, even if that’s a rejection. The factor that left me unsatisfied, however, is that this conflict is resolved way too quickly and slightly that it feels underwritten and awkward.

Sarazanmai – 09 [I Want to Connect, But I Can’t Express It]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sarazanmai

Well, I definitely didn’t see all this coming. Sarazanmai comes back in a big way, at least for me, now that every plot thread starts to go in the same direction. We have Kazuki, Toi and Leo are all losing someone dear to them and trying to get a Dish of Hope so they can revive that person. Before I get into the details, I consider both the prologue and epilogue this week as Sarazanmai’s highlights, as each segment showcases different side of this show that tell you a lot about its identity. The prologue is the most playful (read: bizarre) segment except maybe for “getting the shards out of zombie’s butt” part, where Sara slips the freeze-Kappi out to the street and he literally gets broken in pieces. It’s bizarre and it’s wonderful. The epilogue goes in opposite direction and serves as Sarazanmai’s most tender moments. Not only the sad piano tune does its job, the use of montage the constantly swifts between their memory together and their current situation pretty much brings the emotions forward.

The rest of the episode is no slouch either. While I’m one of those who lament the fact that Ikuhara’s ambition is too great for a 1-cour series, one of the strength of having only 11 episodes is that the plot is much tighter and has more purpose than his longer series. This week, for example, not only one, but three characters, are having someone close slipping away from them, although it’s hard for me to draw more parallel regarding their relationships. While Reo & Mabu and Toi & Chikai relationships go in dark places, the way Kazuki feels about Enta is in totally different light. It would make much more sense if Entai was the one saving Kazuki. By no mean, what I just said meant to be a criticism, more like an observation, given Kazuki is a MAIN main character. With Enta is in his (death)bed, it’s time for him to re-examine how much Enta meant to him and comes to learn Enta’s affection. At the same time, Keppi is revived (or more like, reanimated) and he also revives Enta (in a way) in his kappa form, although the clock is literally ticking here. Kazuki also has a chance to truly talks to his brother for the first time. Those are nice developments, albeit predictable moves to get Kazuki into the centre of conflicts.

Because the other threads aren’t that straight-forward. I must say that even now I don’t really buy the Otter vs Kappa war and I’m glad that it isn’t really the focus of Sarazanmai. In fact, this episode gives some reasons for me to care about Mabu and Reo. Reo has been struggling with the feeling he has for  the new Mabu (love or desire), one who has similar appearances yet behaves like a stranger. But the interesting twist happens when the red-eye otter intimating himself as Reo to suck out the “desire” from Mabu. The fake-Reo inserts that he’s the “desire” inside Reo, more as an implication that Reo’s love for Mabu is all about desire and obsession. The other interesting angle is that Reo keeps rejecting the current-Mabu. What if it wasn’t Mabu but Reo’s own perspective change? In any case this thread weaves tightly the the “connection” theme and to the main overarching narrative. And speaking of that, the fact that both Otter King and Keppi have the same red eyes strike me as odd. Maybe they are more similar than you would think.

Lastly, the title of this week could apply to any character in Sazaranmai, but it fits best to Chikai. The one big lesson we learn this week about him: he’s an bad egg all the way and he’s incapable of loving someone, save maybe for Toi. It’s this dark and tormented relationship between Toi and Chikai is where Sarazanmai shines the brightest. From Chikai’s point of view, he knows that he’s using Toi, but he does it anyway. “You’re a little too good to be my little brother!” pretty much sums up their chemistry. Toi is desperately following him around and even protecting him, while it becomes clearer and clearer that Toi is walking down the dark path. Sarazanmai raises a red flag right there where Chikai shoots his subordinate to cover his track. Would he do the same to Toi, when Toi is not needed anymore? Maybe. While the flashback and his final remark “Connection is just a pain” and his cash might appear that he was intended to get out for good with Toi, his resentful delivery tells me otherwise. For Chikai, only the bad survives and my take is that with Toi’s unshaken devotion to him, it’s only a matter of time before he self-destructs and kills Toi instead. That’s all beside the point now, though. With the final Dish of Hope that served as the new MacGuffin, the last two episodes are going to be thrilling, and I would expect – unpredictable.

Fruits Basket (2019) – 09 [Yuki Was My First Love]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Fruits Basket (2019)

I think I’m not alone when saying that these last two episodes of Fruits Basket aren’t their best material. With the announcement that Fruits Basket is going to have 3 seasons, I can understand why. Episode 8 for instance is where Fruits Basket padded out its material too thin, with all the familiar narrative beats that we already experienced in episode 5 (when Tohru went back to her relative), with a much lesser effect. Episode 9 has different issues, that is in the name of the newcomer Haru. Just to be frank Haru character isn’t that interesting. While I’m not going too far to say that he’s a reverse Kaguya, he does have some similar traits. The way his affection lies towards Yuki (as the episode title clearly shows) is… obsessive just like that of Kaguya, and I don’t think I need another character who involved in constant catfight with Kyou. His most distinctive trait seems to be light/dark Haru, where light Haru is a absent-minded, oddball Haru and dark Haru (triggered by Kyou) is a crazy, hot-tempered Haru, and sadly I don’t find either of these remotely interesting.

There’s one character development that Fruits Basket nails it about his character, however, and that is his flashback towards Yuki. As the original Zodiac tale goes, Haru had always felt shame about the story of Rat using him to finish first in the race, to the point that he harbors a hatred to Yuki, even without seeing him. When he meets Yuki for the first time (and exploded all his insecurity to him), he realizes that Yuki shares the same pain he does, to a larger extend. It fits what we know about Yuki’s character, and it’s sad to see him suffers that loneliness even when he was a kid.

Sadly, that’s the only highpoint I can give to this episode. “Repetitive” is the main issue I have here. At this point the chemistry between the lead trio is solid, but it needs to break its current status quo. There’s only so much if seeing them enjoying their everyday life with Tohru being happy of being housewife and the other two engage in a constant juvenile fights. Speaking of the former, I found the early scene where Tohru buying groceries alone while the two boys waiting outside, doing nothing extremely dated and overtly traditional, which reminds me again how old this source material is. Speaking of the latter, I grow a bit tired of Kyou and Yuki fighting nonsense. Tohru’s character doesn’t fare any better as despite she has a solid character arc, her behaviours, or more like, her humbleness and her oblivion towards others’ feelings, don’t do Fruits Basket much justice. I would love to see the show tries more than just maintaining its status quo.

Carole & Tuesday – 08 [All the Young Dudes]

by SuperMario, posted in Carole & Tuesday, Currently Watching:

A rather straightforward episode that details on the duo’s journey to American Idol Mars Brightest, this week feels like those competitive singing shows we normally watch on TV with a colorful set of oddballs. As such, this episode’s main appeal lies less in narrative strengths but more about music and the fun when these music redefy its singers’ traits. But let’s focus first on the (little) narrative this episode has. It’s obvious from day 1 that Carole & Tuesday will eventually face Angela in the final, a sort of showdown between fame vs rookie, artificial music vs genuine one. This episode makes one significant step into that direction, as Angela “acknowledges” the duo’s talent by flat-out says she dislikes their music. It’s fun to see Angela acts like a total jerk towards her new manager (subtlety about her bitchiness is out of the window but hey, it’s fun to watch) and I suppose she will have to go through a phase where she accepts this new hapless manager and deals with her “Mama” issue (who we find out in one of her pic was a man years ago). But that is for future development. For now, Angela will show her true power in the next episode.

I’m still a bit split on the way this Mars Brightest functions, as a nit-picking note. Choosing 8 talents out of thousands just based on single short performance isn’t credible, at all (there’s no way an actual musical contest work like that to begin with). What’s fun is that these 8 contestants do bring out their unique personality just based on their appearances alone. Add to that we have these songs and styles that constantly bring out different side of them, and well-composed music on top of it. Take the three performances this week, for example. Fire Brothers are old deaf twins but still manage to bring fire, quite literally, with their meTAL GROAning. The social network sensational Pyotr’s performance makes it clear that he’s serious about this contest, even if he normally brush it off. And finally, and most interestingly, OG Bulldog, appeared as ex-gangster, does a hybrid opera-rap that takes everyone, real listeners included, by surprise. The show smartly uses a typical hip-hop beat and lets it run wild before OG Bulldog sings the first verse. The weird hybrid makes it my favorite performance out of the four.

Unlike the audition stage in which the judges are too plain (Wooper pointed that out in his post), these three judges nail their assigned “roles”: a strict Catherine, a fashionable Benito and an AI judge Shakti (an interesting twist). I’m actually agree with the judge regarding Carole & Tuesday performance, that they are the plainest. And this is one of the many issues I have with the show so far. Not only the titular characters are the least development ones, they are given too much “special treatment” from the show, that their singing can win people over (it doesn’t with me. Too plain). There’s also Cybelle, one of the contestant, who has a yuri affection to Tuesday. I suppose she’s going to be some sort of the duo’s sidekick in the future. At this point, I’m pretty much loose hope that Carole & Tuesday as a ambitious show. It doesn’t have the aspiration that Shinichiro Watanabe usually brings, but taken as a popular mainstream show it’s still enjoyable week after week.

Sarazanmai – 08 [I Want to Connect, but We’ll Never Meet Again]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sarazanmai

In a way, this is an episode where Sarazanmai breaks many of its formula: it’s the first episode where it doesn’t feature any dance routine, it’s the episode when finally the cops meet our leads for the first time (with disastrous results), but for me these last two episodes is where Sarazanmai loses its steams a little. It brings many characters together for the bigger plots, with two main developments: Toi decided to part way in order to follow his brother, and Enta gets shot and presumably dead. Before going to details for each of them, I will address the details that I’m not fond of at the moment: the miçanga. Ikuhara loves to reveal the intriguing past his characters have for each other. This episode he uses the same trick as we eventually learn that Toi and Kazuki already met in the past – right where Toi decides to give up what he treasures the most at the time – soccer – in order to follow his brother. The issue I have with that is that it frames their chemistry as “fate”, and that somewhat negates the “connection’ theme Sarazanmai aims for.

But the miçanga thread also does one thing right: it brings Enta’s jealousy into forefront and jealousy is a “shade” I want to see more from this series. All he did last episode was out of jealousy with the amount of attention Kazuki has for Toi. Interesting, Enta spends the entirety of this episode with Toi’s brother Chikai, who doesn’t aware that Enta knows his brother. Chikai’s attitude towards Toi is unhealthy, to say the least, as he realizes Toi giving up his precious for him, yet kind of expect him to. Toi gave up his soccer path once, and now just when he makes friends, he’s forced to give them up. With Enta – Chikai scenes, we get to see more of Toi’s hidden emotions side.

But those scenes work for another purpose, in the name of Reo and Mabu and they go full-villain mode: Killing people on the street and brainwashing witnesses, which I’m not sure if I like it or not. Speaking of which, I’m not to sure how Reo’s “extracting” gun work. Why do some of them become a zombie kappa, other just die from the gunshot? That brings me to the cliffhanger where Enta was shot as he saves Kazuki. There’s subtle hint in the ED where we only see 2 shadows that could imply that Enta stays dead. I would definitely prefer it that way, although I won’t be surprised if it’s just a cop out. Fake death is something anime medium isn’t shy of, sadly. Speaking of positive, I quite like how Kazuki goes through some sort of a mood-swing regarding Entai. At this very stage he doesn’t really know how to feel about his friend’s betrayal, and hopefully he will learn a thing or two about Entai’s affection after this turn of event.

Sarazanmai – 05-07

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sarazanmai

Well, I’m back. After 2 weeks of summer breeze and rain like crazy in Cannes, along with films frenzy (I managed to watch 37 movies while I was there), now I’m back in the Down under with severed cold (and rain), jetlag and lots of anime to catch up. But enough of my vacation dairy, let’s get back to where Sarazanmai left off. While previous weeks I said that I felt Kazuki’s characteristic to be inconsistent, episode 5 does a magnificent job on exploring the complex chemistry he has towards his little brother Haruka. The tricky part of it is that it’s not merely one dominant feeling he has for his brother, but a whirlwind of conflicting emotions that tear him apart and that he still tries to make sense. First off, despite claiming at the end of episode 4 that he hates Haruka, the well runs much deeper than that. It starts with a realization that he isn’t blood-related to any member of his current family, thus lead to him feeling “the odd one out”. In Sarazanmai, the underlying theme is the thrive to connect to one another, and placing him as the “perfect stranger” makes sense.

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Fruits Basket (2019) – 05 [I’ve Been Fooling Myself]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Fruits Basket (2019)

For me, watching Fruits Basket is like watching a classic play. It’s the show where despite its familiar story beats, it still pulls out a satisfying emotional core because its heart is in the right place. This episode is a prime example of that. I know this will eventually happen, Tohru moving to Souma’s house has always been a temporary plan and it’s only a matter of time before she has to choose between this new family and her own. I didn’t expect it to happen so soon, however, as it does just right after the introduction phase. Like a good old play, the plot is fairy predictable, but the lines are there where they needed to be, and the characters deliver those lines with so much weight. Take the scene-stealing character of this week, Grandpa, for example. He serves as a comedic relief; he mostly stays out of his family’s affair but when he decides to jump in, he more than delivers the blow. What makes his speech so great is that not only he points out the assholeness of his family (damn, they’re true bitch), but he allows Tohru to pick the one she feels like home. He might mistake her name to her mother’s, but he sure knows about her more than the rest of the family does.

This is the first time that the titular “Fruits Basket” comes into play, and it further engraves the core theme of the show nicely. The very theme of Fruits Baskets is the feeling of belonging, and the sadness of feeling left out. When Tohru plays the game as a child, she was labeled something that isn’t even a fruit, and thus waiting forever to get called out by her friends. It parallels to her current status where she doesn’t really have anything to belong (up until she knows about Souma’s family). To that extend both Yuki and Ryou suffer from the same sense of alienation. Ryou for not being an original zodiac and desperately try his best to be included, and Yuki for the exact opposite reason, him as a member of the Zodiac that is too “weird” and “exclusive” to even have friends. These main characters more often or not are too aware of their loneliness, and momentarily accepts that as their fate. Tohru has learn a big way to step out of that mindset, and “being selfish” for once. Because, being selfish means she does care about her relationship to both Kyou and Yuki.

It’s also nice to see Kyou and Yuki are both on edge with the departure of Tohru. Although vastly different in their personality, this week is the first time where they share the same things: not only their attraction to Tohru, but also their stubbornness to even acknowledge that they care. This is Fruits Basket as its most emotional satisfying (so far), and I can’t wait to see more of the supporting cast. I don’t know how the original anime handles the material, but this version succeeds because it honors the source material, by understand what makes the source great and faithfully transfer it on screen, even at the cost of the polishness of its production values.

Carole & Tuesday – 04 [Video Killed the Radio Star]

by SuperMario, posted in Carole & Tuesday, Currently Watching:

With the episode title as telling as “Video Killed the Radio Star”, it’s “appropriate” that Carole & Tuesday this week is entirely about the duo making their DIY music video. While many of my previous issues remain the same, this is one of the joyous week we have with the team so far. Episode 4 is also the first time where I feel it brings the aesthetic of the titular song to life, and we have some more insights to Gus’s former life. In fact, it’s the supporting characters who pretty much steal the spotlight this week, particularly the scam AI robot IDEA, Gus and his ex-wife, Marie. If there’s one thing that I appreciate this episode attempting to address, it’s that the queer baiting going rather strong this week. Not only Carole & Tuesday doesn’t shy from confirming Marie’s current lesbian relationship (thumb up!), the bartender where Gus frequents seem to have a hot for him as well. That not to mention about Ertergun’s affection to Roddy. I believe this factor works for the show’s benefits as it adds some layers to the world culture (which, in case you haven’t catched up, is in the same universe as Space Dandy as well).

So after the failed plan last week, the group has another idea: making a music video, to a disastrous result. The moral of this story: read the goddamn reviews before buying a product. It got only 1 star out of 2058 reviews. The star here is of course the self-proclaimed robot director who drinking beer, taking a shower while drinking beer and bullying other robot while taking a shower because yes, why the hell not. The trick here is to give character a personality, and it’s all the funnier when it’s a robot. All the scenes revolving around the shootings are fun, especially the gags aim at Roddy. Poor Roddy has to dance more than 120 times by himself, has his mint-edition figures destroyed, and the luxury car that he borrowed is ruined in a flash. I have a good laugh watching the intentionally-bad CG models music video that robot creates at the end. It would’ve been fine if they upload the video just based on how unashamedly dreadful it looks.

Meanwhile, in order to fulfill the unreasonable request from our director, Gus seeks out help from his ex-wife, Marie. They share a good, albeit conventional, chemistry together, but I suspect that now that she has her “happy ending”, she might not appear that often anymore. We see how she still has high regard for Gus, that he used to be a big shot in the industry, and that he still has an eye for talents. Despite the supporting cast that are fun to watch, it’s the titular characters who actually are too plain and need more development. It feels like they are blending into the background right now. As the last note,It’s neat to catch real life inspiration on the way these characters prefer their music video to bel: Carole wants Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Roddy (being a nerd) prefers something along the line with A-ha, Gus likes a Marvel’s copycat and a romantic Tuesday wants something too generic that to even tell the real inspiration, maybe this one?

Sarazanmai – 04 [I Want to Connect, but You’re So Far Away]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sarazanmai

Despite the staff mentioned in early weeks that episode was gonna be a game-changer, nothing happens out of ordinary this week (except maybe for the after-credits reveal, which has become Sarazanmai tradition now). Prior to what Kazuki said (which kinda negate what I’m about to say), I’d single out the similarities in these main characters’ relationships. It’s true that the main theme regarding the trio is their “connections” to the ones they love, but this episode makes it quite clear that they’re in for destructive relationships themselves. A good analogy is that they’re charging their heads into the thick wall. “I’ve decided I’d live by nii-san’s side for his sake, I don’t care what anyone says about me”, Toi said so in the episode. The issue with all that is, the other person doesn’t ask for it. Whether it’s Toi’s brother Chikai, Kazuki’s bedridden brother Haruka, or Haruki himself don’t really want to receive that connection, not that way anyway. For Toi, Ikuhara has planted many symbolic objects that inform his relationship to others, and they are udon, gun, lollipop. For example, the motif of this week, udon, tells us about his relationship to his family. Gun represents his leap to this dark, violent upbringing and serves as the loss of innocence for him. Finally, lollipop represents what maybe his devotion to his brother. But on that last point I’m not going into details because the imagery of Lolita messed me up.

I’d regard this episode a success, if not for the fact that it brings up the conflict of Kazuki asked Toi to help him kidnapping the idol girl Sara Azuma, and then completely abandons that plot thread. So did Haruka be able to meet the real Sara Azuma? The way Kazuki seems to be oblivious of a lot of things (last week’s Enta’s crush and this week Toi’s problem) start to get on my nerve. His character is very inconsistent for me so far and I don’t think I am fond of it. Not because of the cliffhanger by all mean. Actually I believe the reveal that he doesn’t cosplay for his brother’s sake make their relationship more intriguing. As for now I suppose it’s a mixture between love/hate relationship, like he might be jealous with all the attention his brother has, but we won’t know for sure until we see more of his motive. That reveal makes me wonder, then, that maybe Haruka knows about Kazuki impersonating after all?

The flashback of Toi, on the other hand, is quite solid overall. One important detail from his backstory is that he was the one who pulled the trigger, and that his brother shot the poor man down so that Toi doesn’t carry the guilt. On the visual side the flashback goes for more simple, soft art-styles, which works wonderfully for me. Sarazanmai also ties up his past with the case of this week, soba Man and his crime of stealing a freaking bathwater because he wanted it as a soba broth. Now that the trio all have their turns in the spotlight, and now that the Cops promise to be more active, it’s time for Sarazanmai to shake off this current formula and take a new direction. Well, it better be given more than one third of its length is already gone.

Sarazanmai weekly lottery: what crazy object is going to float around next week? 4 episodes and Ikuhara hasn’t disappointed once. My random 3-take for next week: lollipop (Toiiii), dress (since Kazuki crossdresses), and elephant (I don’t fucking know why but now that idea won’t leave my head)

Fruits Basket (2019) – 04 [What Year Is She?]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Fruits Basket (2019)

As a complete novice to an already beloved franchise, I have little to no prior knowledge coming to Fruits Basket. Last week, I was wondering about the direction the show would take, whether it stays focused on the core cast, or it completely shoves them aside, giving more space to the side characters. As it turns out, Fruits Basket does a little bit of both. This week, they introduces another member of the Zodiac family, Kagura, with varying degrees of success. At first, it comes rather unexpected (hence took a chuckle out of me), when it’s reveals the timid, feminine Kagura has a violent side of her. It works for one, two times before the joke gets tired, unfortunately. It works first as an introduction to her character and the extent of which she would go for her affection towards Kyou. It still works as a flashback to informs us how long this affection had been going on. It blows up on itself when Fruits Basket levels it up later in the episode, resulted in ruining the whole family’s dinner.

Granted, Kagura has so much more in her characters. Behind her “charging head first into an issue – her Zodiac’s trait”, she is determined, yet insecure; expressive, yet never deceptive. As much as she loves Kyou and wants to marriage the poor man, she’s still conscious enough to understand Tohru’s good intention. But God, I don’t know what I would feel if she kicks Kyou everytime they are on-screen. With her appearance, we learn something interesting about the Souma’s family as well. They compose of both boys and girls (we’ve seen 4 so far), and as someone mentioned there will be more girls in the mix. Like their boy counterparts, if they get touched by the opposite sex that isn’t in the Zodiac family, they’ll transform into their original form. Before the reveal, I couldn’t have guessed the animal representing Kagura. Turns out she’s a little cutie boar (note: not a piggie), and I think I’m not alone when I say that I prefer her animal form much more than her human one.

At the same time, we still have another great scene between Tohru and Kyou when they’re in the rooftop. What Fruits Basket does best is keep peeling the characters’ personality and we keep seeing different side of them, what makes them who they are, what are their insecurities. This one in particular, we learn how enthusiastic Kyou behaves when he keeps babbling about his Master and martial art in general. Serve as a total opposite to Yuki, Kyou knows what he likes and isn’t shy from expressing it. I’ve heard that the side characters are one important element of what making Fruits Basket an endurable shoujo classic, so I expect more from these Zodiac members. The cliffhanger at the end suggests that it’s time for Tohru to decides whether or not she regards this new family as her own family or not, although I feel it’s a bit too early to delve on that angle. Fruits Basket’s strucutr can be conventional at times given how we can see how the plot going moles ahead, but it’s the adept character writing that makes the cast so enjoyable to watch. As far as this new comer Kagura goes, she’s still a good, albeit my least favorite one so far, addition to the cast. Despite my initial worry, this new adaptation of Fruits Basket has been solid so far.