Fruits Basket Episode 18 Still

Herald Anime Club

The Herald Anime Club Meeting 114: Fruits Basket Episode 18


Meeting Date: 8/4/2019

Disclaimer: The Herald Anime Club discusses shows as they’re airing. Naturally, there will be spoilers for a given episode. You have been warned!


Samantha Ferreira: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Herald Anime Club! I’m Samantha, and I’m here with Anthony Simpson and L.B. Bryant.

Anthony Simpson: Evening

L.B. Bryant: Hello!

Samantha Ferreira: Tonight, we’re talking up Fruits Basket episode 18: “Go! Go! Tiny Tiger”

Fruits Basket Episode 18 Still

L.B. Bryant: Kisa is adorbs. I will hear no argument against that.

Anthony Simpson: She is adorable.

Samantha Ferreira: She really is. And god, her story made me weep. I can totally empathize with the bullying

L.B. Bryant: As can I. I grew up bullied relentlessly in school and that still effects me as an adult so I absolutely related to her struggle.

Samantha Ferreira: Indeed.

L.B. Bryant: Her homeroom teacher who sent that note can go suck eggs as well.

Samantha Ferreira: Yeah. That’s straight-up sociopathic
I heard that and just heard “be normal, strange girl” pouring through the letter

Anthony Simpson: Her homeroom teacher she can go to hell is the nicest thing I say about her.

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Samantha Ferreira: … That is nice.
I’d say her homeroom teacher has no business teaching elementary school children with that attitude

Anthony Simpson: I could go worse.

Samantha Ferreira: I think we all can

L.B. Bryant: lol no need. I think we’re all pretty much in agreement.

Anthony Simpson: Her letter was just straight up “nope” from me.

Samantha Ferreira: Indeed.

L.B. Bryant: Kisa’s mother as well… she tried her best with Kisa, I’ll give her that much, but when they were first brought back together after she ran away… am I alone in feeling like she was victim blaming?

Samantha Ferreira: She totally was.
Let’s call it was it is: This was the episode filled with child abuse.
…And for Fruits Basket, that’s saying something

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Anthony Simpson: Kisa’s mom at first was…not in good place mentally. She was on autopilot and the autopilot choose bad choices.

L.B. Bryant: Yeah, I understand that she was trying her best and was at her wit’s end but still… it wasn’t Kisa’s fault and I hated hearing her blamed for what was happening when she was dealt an impossible emotional load.

Anthony Simpson: Considering her Homeroom teacher is a bad person and her mom victim blames here, I don’t blame her for going mute.

Samantha Ferreira: Indeed. Likewise
Tohru was the one that saved her. Big time.

L.B. Bryant: Yeah, totally. I didn’t go mute as a child but I literally skipped half of sixth grade because I just couldn’t handle being around the other people at school.

Samantha Ferreira: I didn’t go mute, but I was pretty much an outcast by sixth grade anyway, so it worked out.

L.B. Bryant: Also, agreed that Tohru was exactly what Kisa needed.

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Anthony Simpson: I was bullied in school but I was lucky that mine didn’t get to the point where I didn’t talk or be an outcast.

L.B. Bryant: Life would be so much better if when we entered school, we were all issued one standard sized personal Tohru Honda ™ to get us through the tough times.

Anthony Simpson: Exactly life would be so much better.

Samantha Ferreira: True that
I would take one Uo and Saki duo as a substitute, though

L.B. Bryant: hehe that would be acceptable as well
One thing that I’m kind of glad the series DIDN’T do was go into gross detail about what kinds of things Kisa was having to endure. They just left it as ‘she’s getting hardcore bullied’ and let the audience draw their own conclusions.

Anthony Simpson: Now having not seen the original series did they get into those details in the original?

L.B. Bryant: No they didn’t.
This episode was just a much prettier version of the original adaptation.

Fruits Basket Episode 18 Still

Anthony Simpson: Ah okay.

Samantha Ferreira: Indeed.
I mean, Fruits Basket goes dark, but this section was always left vague, thankfully
I really liked how the whole episode also proved to be a mirror into Yuki, at the same time.

L.B. Bryant: You know, I was so focused on Kisa during this episode that I almost totally forgot that yes, Yuki had a small plotline as well lol

Samantha Ferreira: It was small, but fantastic for really showing how he’s grown in just 18 short episodes

L.B. Bryant: It was definitely a “blink and you’ll miss it” story but yeah, agreed.

Samantha Ferreira: I think a lot of the episode was – Kisa just stole the scene
I mean… we got little bits about Haru’s childhood
We learned that Tohru’s little “game of chance” for dinner was anything but…
And we got to see some genuinely adorable character bonding

L.B. Bryant: I won’t go into details as to why because spoilers but next week is going to be really interesting.

Samantha Ferreira: Indeed. \o/
Any final thoughts this week?

Anthony Simpson: Nope except I want more Kisa as a tiger. So adorable.

Fruits Basket Episode 18 Still

L.B. Bryant: She’ll be back. :)

Samantha Ferreira: Hehe

L.B. Bryant: I don’t want to waste our last few minutes talking about animation quality and character designs because we’ve done that to death but Kisa walking around with her tiger ears.
So cute!

Samantha Ferreira: Oh my god, totally!
She was so adorable!

L.B. Bryant: Ok, now I’m done lol

Samantha Ferreira: Hehe. I guess that wraps up this week. Til next time, remember: when in doubt, do not pet the tiger, because they hurt.
Have a great night!

L.B. Bryant: Night!

Anthony Simpson: Good night

Fruits Basket Episode 18 Still

(After the meeting…)

Samantha Ferreira: God, this show is great

Anthony Simpson: Yes it is Sam.

L.B. Bryant: Indeed it is. This is AOTY quality.

Samantha Ferreira: Agreed.
I’m confident it’ll stick the landing, too

L.B. Bryant: I think it will too

Samantha Ferreira: Hard to believe we’re almost done with season 1 D:

L.B. Bryant: Has there been any announcements about when S2 will air?

Samantha Ferreira: None
Probably 2020

L.B. Bryant: Bastards.

Samantha Ferreira: lol

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