Warning! This review on Fruit basket final Chapter one contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, I recommend watching it and then going back to read the review.
“I will give another banquet”
Fruit basket final Chapter one starts right where the previous season ended. Kureno finally reveals the Souma family’s biggest secret: Akito is a woman. Meanwhile, Akito has a confrontation with his mother Souma Ren, the cause of his many internal conflicts. Kureno ends his conversation with Tohru and returns to Akito. Tohru feels overwhelmed by everything she has discovered, but Hanajima comes to help her. After hearing what happened to her friend, Arisa comforts her and asks her not to worry anymore because she will be fine. Tohru returns to Souma’s house with renewed energy and is ready to face what lies ahead.
The return and the future are coming
We are back with this lovable story again, but now we come to the end. There isn’t much to do, we have 50 episodes that speak for themselves. At this point, we only have the hype of reaching the true climax of this story. While the first season was a very successful portrayal of the conflicts and their characters, the second season won the awards as it managed to dive into history and lead us to key turning points. What we can expect from this third episode is the maximum climax of the story. Now that the conflict has peaked, it is time to connect the dots.
If you’ve read my reviews from past seasons you will know that I’m a staunch fan of this story, but I have to be fair to first-timers and won’t compare anime to manga. If at any point I feel it is necessary I may make some recommendations, but I will try to avoid this as much as possible. I think even though I know this story it has to be a new experience for everyone as this is the first time it’s fully animated. The events we will see from now on are all that will mark the end of this incredible story.
So far we have no official confirmation of how many episodes this season will have, but the number of blurs suggests they won’t be more than 13. If that’s the case I think it’s a good number to adjust everything that we’re missing, of course I wouldn’t complain if they were more.
Akito’s secret
Let’s go right into what we saw in this episode. This season starts after the end of the previous one, which gave us a huge cliffhanger. Kureno resumes his conversation, but instead of explaining more about his broken curse, he decides to explain Akito’s situation. More than one of them were shocked at the revelation of Akito’s real sex because while there were certain indications, there was actually nothing conclusive that led us to consider Akito as a girl. So natural is Tohru’s action that the revelation was very serious. By sharing this secret with Tohru, Kureno reveals the second greatest secret of Souma after the curse of the zodiac. All of this is not the result of some strange clan tradition, it’s not that Akito can’t be the head of the family just because he’s a woman. The reason for this situation is a twisted desire.
Over the past few seasons, we’ve seen the emotional scars Akito can inflict on the zodiac as well as the physical zodiac. And it would be extremely easy to say that Akito is crazy and that’s why he acts like that, but there is a reason for this madness. Just as Akito is the cause of much pain in others, she also has her own source of pain, her mother Souma Ren. It is the reason that Akito has to lead a life that shouldn’t be. He’s also the one who constantly blames him for his twisted relationship with the zodiac, which Akito cannot tolerate. Ren is a crooked woman who has no love or affection for her only daughter, which deeply hurt Akito. A twisted and sick relationship has developed between the two, in which each one tries to prove their own truth.
There is one other thing that weighed on the mother-daughter relationship between Akito and Ren, Akira’s love. But that’s something we’ll see later, but at least now we could see that Akira was a good father to Akito and it was he who explained his role as “God”. For his part, Ren showed us that he has a deep obsession with him and that he never wanted to share his love with anyone. Akira’s early loss is another scar on Akito as he became very vulnerable and constantly seeks affection from those who cannot deny him the zodiac. This vulnerability is one of the main reasons Akito will not tolerate their ties being challenged, no matter how inhuman they may be.
Further development is required, but the point will come when Akito will be able to recognize Kureno’s words. Because within the zodiac there are at least three people who are with them out of true affection and sympathy, and not because of their cursed attachments.
Helplessness and comfort
Now let’s go to the other side, Tohru’s reaction after such great revelations. As expected, our beloved protagonist collapsed from helplessness in the face of this situation. Her mission to get closer to Kureno has always been to bring happiness to her dear friend, but in the end she discovered more than she could handle. After listening to Kureno, there was nothing she could say to change anything, there really was nothing. She fully understood this man’s kindness and the pain he wanted to endure for someone else. The most tragic thing is that no one can be blamed because the situation surpasses these things. This is the first time Tohru has gone speechless and collapses helplessly.
It is heartbreaking to see how difficult all this is for Tohru, who is a sun and cares endlessly for her loved ones. At that moment she felt useless. Discovering that there is nothing you can do to help those you love or who you know suffer is difficult, and it is even more so with her who is so deeply empathic. Fortunately, she is not alone and both Saki and Arisa manage to get her out of the pain that has formed inside her. With sweet words, Saki lets her see that caring for others is human and natural in her, but just as she cares for others, they also care for them. Arisa confirms this by making it clear to her that her wish was never to see her suffer from her situation, that although it is sad, it is not the end of the world.
This show of friendship and warmth was what Tohru needed to regain her mood. Well, even though it is true that the situation is unfortunate and it seems that there is nothing to be done, it does not mean that it is the end. There are still things to fix and situations to deal with. Tohru has already fully embraced the idea of ββhelping the Soumas, and there is a deeper desire along the way that drives them forward. There may be no answer for now, but there will come a time when there will be no eternal nights.
Final comment
Fruit basket final Chapter One is a great way to start this final season, accurately capturing the storyline from the previous season and allowing us to experience the emotional growth of our characters. The plot becomes so serious that we feel we are really facing the true ending of this story. There’s not much more to add, it was a shocking start, there were moments of tension, emotion and warmth and we could even see how beautiful Kyo was himself with Tohru. The animation was beautiful, there were lots of dark colors that played very well for the tension presented in the chapter. The pastel shades used in the moment of memories were really special too.
Finally, I would like to express my impressions of the opening and the end of this season. Starting with the intro “Pleasure” by WARPs UP, the song is both rhythmic and fluid. It is accompanied by an image with which we can see the main actors of this ending. It is certainly optically very beautiful and the combination of animation techniques gives it a very special touch. GENIC’s outro “Haru Urara” is much more cheerful and pleasant music. Visually it is simple, but very significant, also because it is original art by Natsuki Takaya, the author of Fruit basketand the other part is that it’s the epitome of spoilers. I personally loved it.
Anyway, these were my first impressions in this chapter. Tell me, what did you think of this episode and that beginning? How do you assess his situation after listening to Kureno’s explanation? Why do you think Ren is such a bad mother? What do you imagine is the bet Ren and Akito made?