Fruits Basket Episode 3 Review: Let's Play Rich Man-Poor Man!

The third episode of Fruits Basked aired on 20 April 2019. This is the first episode that I didn’t see at the premiere screening and at the same time the episode that marks the appearance of my favorite character, so I couldn’t be more excited!

Japanese Title: 大貧民をやりましょう (Dai hinmin o yarimashou)

Episode 3: Let’s Play Rick Man-Poor Man!

The culture festival of Tohru’s school is getting closer and her class plans to sell onigiri. They bicker about what they will do and won’t do. In the end Tohru, Kyo and the others play cards while Yuki distances himself. Once again Kyo and Yuki only see what things they envy the other for. Tohru tries to understand their feelings and talks to them, which works very well with Yuki and works barely okay with Kyo. There is also Tohru’s strange encounter with a foreigner who suddenly kisses her cheek and then a shy girl knocking on the door of the Soma household, looking for Kyo!

Highlights

Cats

I am very, very fond of cats and the fact that Kyo has all these cats appear next to him, clinging to him no matter how much he hates it, was just adorable.

Hana-chan & Uo-chan

I love Tohru’s friends anyway, but their dynamic this episode was top again. Hana-chan calls Kyo’s waves strange and Uo-chan dryly comments that Hana shouldn’t worry, as she will forever be stranger than Kyo.

MOMIJI

Momiji, my little, cute ball of joy and cuteness is here! His German was so adorable!! Of course it was strange and did not sound very native, but the pronunciation was good and who cares if such an adorable Momiji is saying it. Can I have Momiji all for myself, please?

Kindness is handmade

The best part in this episode for me was Tohru talking about kindness with Yuki. Scenes like that can easily get cheesy or cringe-y, but I love Tohru’s (or rather Tohru’s mother’s) explanation of kindness. It is really something you raise within yourself and everybody’s kindness is different. Everybody is born with desire, so everybody understands what it means to desire something. But kindness is individual and handmade, original to every person. Sometimes I feel like kindness is getting the short end of the stick in our time and I dislike it highly, so hearing important and accurate words like these in an anime makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Since Tohru is the one saying them even more so, because she really is the embodiment of kindness.

We’re a rice ball

The second meaningful episode was with Kyo, where she talked about him not being able to see his own good traits because they are at his back; and who can see their own back, right? I liked the animation but the talk about kindness was slightly more touching for me. But that doesn’t make it any less true. We all need to remember that we can’t see all of ourselves but instead see everything of other people. But we can’t give in to the envy or think badly of ourselves. Everybody has their good sides.

Tohru daydreaming

Tohru imagines how Kyo and Yuki overcome their differences and become BFFs. I had a hard time not running my fist into the wall from second hand embarrassment and was glad that Tohru agreed that her fantasy was just… not attractive. I did laugh a lot in that scene.

Kagura

Our precious Kagura appeared! Next episode will be chaos, I promise. I can’t wait for it!

Comments and Trivia

Nothing much this week! Just that the typhoon was really strange. Usually everybody is already tense hours before a typhoon approaches Japan and the news are warning people to either stay at home or at least prepare for the upcoming storm. Sometimes we get to leave earlier from work because the chance of trains stopping is too high… Having a storm creep up surprisingly like that is highly unlikely but I get that it was a good element for the story to develop!

Dokidoki Barometer

What do I do… Kyo is really cute. He is. But Yuki… This episode as well, for me the winner was Yuki. When he sat with her at his secret base and they just talked… And he blushed. He turned around just as the sun came out. Smiled. I don’t know how Tohru hasn’t already fallen for him.

Also, I would love to give it to Momiji, but I know there will be other times when he will take the crown and this time his appearance was just too short.

COMING NEXT: What Year is She?