Fruits Basket Episode 16 Review: She Said Don't Step on Them

Fruits Basket Episode 16 is the start of a two-episode feature about Uotani, her background, and how she met Tohru. She has been the strong Yankee girl so far and I can’t say I dislike the start of this beautiful story. Let’s see what was best about this episode!

Japanese Title: 踏むなっつってんだろが！ (Fumuna tsutten daroga!)

Episode 16 – She Said Don’t Step on Them

It’s summer and the trio Tohru, Uo-chan, and Hana-chan are spending some time at the school’s pool. Most of the people use their own swimsuit but when Uo-chan sees Tohru in the school’s swimsuit, she is overcome with grief because Tohru can’t afford a new swimsuit and decides that all her friends together – including Kyo and Yuki – will buy Tohru a new swimsuit. As they are at the mall to choose a swimsuit, they are being observed and followed by three yankee girls from Uo-chan’s past. They don’t notice it yet and go to eat lunch where Uo-chan starts to talk about how she met Tohru for the first time.

Highlights

Storytelling

What better way to open the episode than with a very dark and depressing scene that leads into that really bright and happy opening theme. Fruits Basket did it again this episode. There are fun moments to laugh at and moments where they have me weeping within roughly 20 minutes. Master storytelling.

Why is it so easy to be bad

It’s a true line and probably why Uotani went down that particular road. It was easy and good to run away and she just got in contact with it so easily.

Admiration

Admiration can be something life-changing. Real admiration might even be stronger than disappointment upon finding out that your hero is completely different than you thought. The Crimson Butterfly definitely has changed since she became a mom and I like that Uotani’s admiration for her was stronger than the darkness within her. Uotani said it best herself: ‘I had the nerve to make her my hero and create this image of her and be disappointed when it didn’t fit.’

As a fan of J-Pop I have to say this is one theme I could relate to strongest in this story. Idols as well are different than how we see them on stage and I sometimes have to keep reminding myself of that.

Kyoko

Kyoko is the ultimate highlight of this episode. She is dearly missed and I am thankful we get to meet her in this way in the anime instead of just through stories, like Yuki and Kyo. It’s a mama one can look up to, no matter what. She gives so much love to Tohru…

Comments

Foreigner!

There was a short little animation at the end of the episode where the three Yankee girls wanted to give someone trouble after practicing their threatening lines. When they started, little did they know that it was cute Momiji there. Look at that reaction. This (in a bit of an exaggerated style) is how some people react in Japan if they see a (non-Asian) foreigner! They are really scared and get really insecure. Oh, also: all foreigner speak English. Of course. Even after Momiji just starts babbling in the cutest German ever with them. They still talk back in English. Epic scene.

Swimwear shopping is embarrassing

The boys were really embarrassed. I can only confirm, not only in this anime based on a rather old manga series but also in real life, Japanese guys are rather embarrassed by this kind of stuff. I once tried to only look at a bra with my boyfriend once and he started pulling me ahead with red ears…

Yankee

This word would probably best be translated as ‘delinquent’ but I don’t like to call these little girls that like to be ‘bad’ delinquents. They are funny enough for me to like them and I hope they will admire Uotani as much as she admires Kyoko so that they will become better people in the end. So please bear with me while I use this word instead of delinquents.

Dokidoki Barometer

This is a tiny bit hard in this episode, because I can’t decide if Kyoko or Uotani was cooler. For this episode I want to give the win to Uotani, because she was so cute when she cried over Tohru’s swimwear and how she made the others come with them to buy it for her. How she scolded them when they didn’t want to take a look at the swimwear. She was the best person this episode.

NEXT: This is for Uo-chan