Fruits Basket is one of those animes which was revived almost after two decades with better visuals and a storyline which closely followed the bestseller shoujo manga unlike its predecessor. This proved to be huge success with the fans and Fruits Basket ended up getting a season two in the Spring.

The first episode of the second season, titled “Hello again,” takes us back to the familiar settings of Shigure Sohma’s house and the school with new relationships and characters adding an interesting dynamic to the second season.

Fruits Basket Season 2 Episode 1 Review:

The episode starts off with a glimpse into Mokoto’s obsessive love for Yuki and her jealousy towards Tohru Honda for getting close to him. This sets the tone for the rest of the episode, as the Yuki fangirl, who is in her last year of highschool tries to grab the attention of the person she loves the most. Tohru also gives a brief glimpse of what has happened until now as she has not been living with the Sohma family for almost an year.

Back at the Shigure house, things are the same between the ever quarrelling Kyo and Yuki Sohma. With the summer vacations just around the corner, Shigure is particularly excited to see how things will work out between Kyo, Yuki and Tohru. After their ritualistic morning fight, Yuki heads to the school where he has some Student Council work while Kyo stays back wondering the meaning of what Shigure said to him and Tohru. 

At the school, Yuki finds the meeting room in a mess and is introduced to the two new council members Kakeru Manabe and Machi Kuragi. Unlike the other people he has encountered in the past, Yuki seems to take a slight interest in Machi. However, his feelings for Kakeru is the exact opposite as Yuki gauges from his initial encounter that Manabe, who is supposed to be the new Vice President, will be a pain in the ass from him. His opinion about Kakeru is very evident as Yuki compares him to his elder brother, whom he despises in a peculiar way.

While Kakeru passes on as a plain doofus for now, Machi seems to be quite an intriguing character from the get go. The girls we have seen in the series so far have somehow held a soft spot for Yuki’s looks and most of them end up falling for it. However, Machi seems unfazed by it and has a cold demeanor (she jumps away while he tries to help her) while dealing with “the prince”. We later notice that she isn’t particularly good with her work too from the way she had stacked up the files on the shelf. 

We are keen to see how these two characters affect the dynamics of the relations between everyone.

While Yuki deals with the new members, Mokoto, out of her insecurity, tries to get some information on the girls who will be a part of the student council. This is a particularly fun part as the Prince Yuki Fanclub member uses a number of ways to get information but is faced with dead ends everywhere. In the end, when she runs into Yuki and gets a chance to talk to him properly, she realises that Yuki has changed and is not the same as before. This flares up her insecurities even and gives her arc an emotional turnaround, something we weren’t expecting.

Throughout the last season Yuki has tried to shed his inhibitions and act more mature by tackling his insecurities, which was mostly because of the interactions he had with Tohru Honda. This is quite evident from the way he reacts to Kakeru’s comments. Yuki is angered when Kakeru tells he has a girly face, and quite easily moved when he later says that Yuki is an interesting person.

However, for Mokoto the change comes as a surprise and she can’t come to accept it easily. She feels bitter due to a combined feeling of not knowing anything about the person she loves and also because of her insecurities. 

The episode however ends on a beautiful note as Mokoto has an open chat with Yuki and she then decides to not give up on her dream. 

Nothing seems to have changed in the animation and the visuals are top notch. The opening ending sequences though decent are not of the same level as that of Fruits Basket Season one. However, the slice of life and drama quotient are pretty high in the anime as expected and we can safely assume that it will be a heartwarming and wholesome journey for our characters, as they tackle their issues in their second season.