Fruits Basket Episode 6: Old friends
Published on May 15, 2019
I definitely liked how this week's episode developed Tohru's friends from school. I'd been feeling weird about the fact that they were getting pushed to the side, so it's nice to see how they support Tohru. It can be hard to keep track of them amongst all of the Souma family characters. On that note, it looks like the Souma family is where the focus of the series is heading from here.
The Souma family has been a weird looming specter so far. From my perspective, they've mostly been trickling in to fill in the zodiac, so I'm kind of curious what purpose they serve to the overall story. They're a rather diverse group of characters, so I suppose there's a lot of room for interaction.
I like the idea that Tohru answers Uo honestly without thought here. There's a sense here that she's mostly been trying to misdirect her friends, rather than outright lie to them. From that, I get the impression that she cares about them to be straight with them when they're being insistent. It works well for a makeshift parent-child relationship.
I enjoyed the portrayal of Tohru's relationship with her friends in this episode. They overtly came off as doting parents, but I felt like I could sense their own frustration at being unable to help Tohru like a parent should. It's clear that they're trying to fill the void left by her mother's passing, and they're making an honest effort.
I'm less enthusiastic about the hat revelation in this episode. I understand that this series is fairly old, so it can't really be held responsible for the other shows that use this concept. But I guess I'm getting a bit jaded towards the idea of a long-lost secret relationship between the protagonist and one of their love interests.
This series sure does have a lot of cliffhangers for its mostly lighthearted tone...