Fruits Basket Season Two Part Two includes two Blu-rays and two DVDs that include Episodes 14-25 of the second season of the Fruits Basket reboot anime. The set includes both an English dub and the original Japanese audio with English subtitles.

Fruits Basket Season Two Part Two
English Publisher: FUNimation Entertainment
Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Release Date: March 23, 2021

The episodes in this set see the drama and tension increase for the characters and the overarching story. In Episode 14, Kyo is trying to sort out of his feelings after meeting up with Kagura and having her essentially walk away from the obsession she’s had for him over the years. The turmoil doesn’t last long, and by the end of the episode Kyo figures out how he truly feels about Tohru… but doesn’t say anything to her about it. There’s also a focus on the relationship between Haru and Rin, and it’s pretty intense. And finally getting to see what Akito did to cause Rin to go to the hospital was eye opening.

Yuki goes through a lot of development during these episodes as well. He realizes he hasn’t made as much progress as he thought he had. But over the course of this set, Yuki figures out how to deal with the relationship with his parents… with a little unexpected and comedic help from Ayame during the parent-teacher conference. Also, during a talk with Kakeru, Yuki admits that what he’s been longing for and has found in Tohru is a mother figure. It’s also becoming clearer that Machi seems to be interested in Yuki, but he’s too dense to realize it quite yet.

Speaking of the parent-teacher conferences, we get an entire episode devoted to them. Most of the conferences are light-hearted and amusing, which gives the audience a nice break from the drama and tension. Yuki’s is the last conference shown, and of course, this one is much more serious. Not that it didn’t have its comedic moments thanks to Ayame’s appearance, though.

The season reaches its peak with the school’s cultural festival. Tohru’s class decides to put on a performance of Cinderella, but most of the roles are seriously miscast. Tohru’s attempts to be an evil stepsister are amusing, and Hanajima as Cinderella is a hoot. When I read the original manga years ago, I wished I could have seen the play in an animated form, because I knew it would work so well. And I wasn’t disappointed when I saw the result.

During the performance, Uotani gives a speech to Kyo (who is playing the prince), and she’s obviously referring to wanting to see Kureno again. Momiji, who filmed the performance, burns a copy of the recording onto a DVD and gives it to Kureno. When Kureno sees the performance, we can tell that he cares about Uotani, but still feels a sense of obligation to Akito. The season ends with Kureno meeting up with Tohru and revealing some truths to her… including the fact that Akito is really a girl. I thought this was a great way to end the season.

I watched this release just as the third and final season of the Fruits Basket anime had started streaming as a simulcast. Between the ending credits and some flashbacks that appeared in these episodes, I realized that flowers that are referenced in the second episode of the final season appear in the second season as well. By having the luck of re-watching these episodes as the third season is going, I picked up on the fact that this symbolism had actually been hinted at earlier than I had realized.

I really appreciated how the second half of Season Two continued to advance character development, as well as provide important progression for the overarching story. And now that I’m starting to watch the final season, I can also say that these episodes were successful is setting the foundation for what’s taking place in Season Three.

The Blu-ray video is 1080p High Definition 16:9 (HD Native). The audio on the Blu-ray had Dolby TrueHD: English 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD: Japanese 2.0, while the DVD had English 5.1 Surround and Japanese Stereo. I had no complaints about either the audio or the video quality of this release.

The main bonus feature included on this release is “Fruits Basket” At Home with the Voice Actors.” This was an online presentation that included Caitlin Glass (the director and English voice for Machi), Justin Cook (English voice of Hatsuharu), John Burgmeier (English voice of Shigure), Ian Sinclair (English voice of Kureno), Brina Palencia (English voice of Rin), and Tia Ballard (English voice of Kagura). The feature runs a little under a hour, and the panelists answer questions that Caitlin Glass (who is moderating the panel) asks. Overall, this was an enjoyable enough feature. However, as someone who watches the original Japanese audio and not the English dub, I was a little annoyed by the mispronunciation of some of the characters’ names (Kureno, Shigure, and Rin). When you listen to the Japanese audio, you know that the English pronunciations for those names are wrong. Honestly, I find that these incorrect pronunciations are actually harder to say than the correct Japanese pronunciations. That’s just a personal nitpick, though. Like I said, outside of the mispronunciations, I did enjoy the content of this feature. I appreciate getting to see the people behind the voices and learning more about them. The set also includes a textless version of the opening and ending song.

If you’re a fan of the Fruits Basket franchise, and you already own the first three releases of this reboot on home video, then this release of Fruits Basket Season Two Part Two is worth picking up and adding to your home anime video library.

Additional posts about Fruits Basket:

• Anime Spotlight: Fruits Basket Season 2
• Anime Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review: Fruits Basket Season One Part One
• Anime Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review: Fruits Basket Season One Part Two
• Anime Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review: Fruits Basket Season Two Part One

Roughly the first half of the episode focuses on Machi. The episode opens with her noticing that it’s snowing and hoping that it doesn’t stick and accumulate. She notices a box of new chalk that has just been opened and looks pristine, and she suddenly knocks it over.

Meanwhile, in the student council room, the student council members (minus Machi) are talking, and Nao starts lashing out at Yuki. Kimi ends up guessing correctly that Nao is in love with a girl who’s been pining for Yuki. The audience can tell she’s right by how Nao is blushing furiously. We’re going to hold this thought, though, because I’m going to be focusing on Machi for a little while in this writeup.

Two of Machi’s classmates come to the student council room and relay the chalk incident. They also share a rumor they heard that Machi was kicked out of her house because she tried to kill her baby brother. Machi overhears this and runs off. Later, Kakeru talks with Yuki and shares what he heard from his parents about the incident. But Kakeru suggests going to Machi’s place so Yuki can ask her directly. Not surprisingly, Machi is stunned to see Kakeru and Yuki appear at her front door.

But this leads to an important scene between Yuki and Machi, where we learn why Machi acts the way she does… she’s afraid of perfection because of how perfect her parents expected her to be. When her younger brother is born, her mother talks about how they have the boy they always wanted, and complains how dull and boring Machi is. When Machi tries to tell her mother that she was doing what she thought her mother expected of her, her mother accuses Machi of blaming her for the way she turned out. And when it comes to her baby brother, she thought he was cold and was just trying to put a blanket on him to keep him warm. But her parents come in right as she’s about to finish, and jump to the worst conclusion that she’s trying to suffocate him out of jealousy. By the end of this flashback, I was so angry with Machi’s parents. They are, quite frankly, horrible people… and I think she’s better off without them.

Even though it may have stirred up those kinds of emotions in me, I was happy to see how this moment brings Yuki and Machi closer together. The final scene of the Machi portion of the story made me quite happy. During the next student council meeting, a new box of chalk is brought in, and it’s placed in front of Machi because it’s her turn on chalkboard duty. You can see in Machi’s eyes that she wants to do something about it. Yuki, who is sitting next to her, suddenly reaches over and breaks one of the pieces of chalk so it no longer looks perfect. Like I said, this moment made me quite happy.

The rest of the story focuses on the seniors graduating. Motoko has a final talk with Yuki, and she actually handles this situation as well as she could have. She’s matured enough at this point to realize that there’s no chance with Yuki, and that she sincerely wishes happiness for him in his future. Yuki handled this situation very well. I thought this was the perfect way to bring Motoko’s storyline to a close. I can’t remember if this is basically the end of the Prince Yuki Fan Club in the manga, or if there’s still any hijinks from them after Motoko’s graduation. It’s just been too many years since I read these later chapters of the manga.

Now, remember when I mentioned Nao earlier in the episode? After the graduation ceremony, Motoko goes back to her classroom to take one final look before leaving. Nao approaches, and it’s then that the viewer realizes that the girl Nao had been pining for was Motoko. There’s a similar exchange between these two, although the roles are reversed (Motoko is now in Yuki’s shoes, while Nao is in Motoko’s shoes). I thought this juxtaposition was very effective. There was a flashback scene we saw earlier when Motoko was remembering encountering Yuki, and I know it’s one we’ve seen in the past. When it shows up this time, we see that Nao was actually there, too, but Motoko never even noticed he was there. With this encounter, it only reinforced my opinion that Motoko has matured a lot from the character we met at the beginning of the series.

Right after this, we see that Hiro’s little sister, Hinata, has been born. There’s a sweet scene in the hospital between Hiro, his mother, and Hinata. It was a nice, feel good moment right before the final scene of the episode.

Kagura visits with Shigure and Hattori, saying that Rin graduated while she was in the hospital. Kagura had gone to pick up Rin’s diploma. and she starts wondering aloud about Rin. While everyone’s been told that she’s in the hospital, no one seems to know which hospital she’s at. Also, Kagura has been unable to reach her. Shigure basically tells her to butt out and stop investigating. The very final shot of the episode is Akito leaving the room where Rin is being kept, and she has a pair of scissors in her hand. As Akito leaves, it looks like hair is flying out of the doorway. I’ve got to say, that was quite a dark way to end the episode after having such a feel good moment with Hiro and his family. But that feel good scene was needed to help blunt the darkness of that final moment.

Now that the seniors have graduated, our main protagonists are now going to be in their final year of high school. I’m really looking forward to watching the remaining episodes of Fruits Basket and finally seeing the entire story in animated form after all these years.

Additional posts about Fruits Basket:

• Fruits Basket The Final Season: Episode 2 – “That’s an Unwavering Truth”