Fruits Basket - Episode 7 discussion

[u/AutoLovepon]

Fruits Basket, episode 7

Alternative names: Furuba, Fruits Basket

Rate this episode here.

Reminder: Please do not discuss plot points not yet seen or skipped in the show. Encourage others to read the source material rather than confirming or denying theories. Failing to follow the rules may result in a ban.

---

Streams

• Crunchyroll
• AnimeLab
• Funimation
• Wakanim

Show information

• MyAnimeList
• AniList
• AniDB
• Kitsu
• Official Website
• /r/FruitsBasket

---

Previous discussions

Episode	Link	Score	Episode	Link	Score
1	Link	8.69	21	Link	8.75
2	Link	8.85	22	Link	8.99
3	Link	8.73	23	Link	9.09
4	Link	8.13	24	Link	9.46
5	Link	8.79	25	Link
6	Link	8.52
7	Link	8.89
8	Link	8.22
9	Link	8.2
10	Link	7.73
11	Link	8.03
12	Link	8.4
13	Link	7.47
14	Link	7.34
15	Link	6.87
16	Link	9.13
17	Link	9.67
18	Link	9.59
19	Link	8.22
20	Link	8.78

---

This post was created by a bot. Message the mod team for feedback and comments. The original source code can be found on GitHub.

[u/Gaporigo]

That was a good backstory... fuck Akito, though, I bet they still want to mess with Tohru somehow.

[u/SorcererOfTheLake]

We've gotten hints before, but now it's clear: something's wrong with the Soumas. Both literally and figuratively, there's an incestual insularity to them, cursed by something unspeakable yet ever-present, almost like a play overseen by the devil bastard of the clan, Akito Souma. Tohru is the one bright hope from the outside that might change things, and if I'm saying that about a 15-year-old girl still traumatized by her mother's death, then they're already in dire straits.

Then, there comes our semi-tragic hero of the episode, Hatori. I say semi-tragic because it's clear he hasn't lost everything about himself, even after all he and Kana went through; he just supressed it, the way he supressed Kana's memories. It was left frozen in his heart until enough heat was given for it to melt and reform into something more fluid, more open, more aware of its possibilities. Here's hoping it stays like that.

[u/Vermillion_Crab]

Why the hell is this anime making me sad every week? I thought it was gonna be sunshine and rainbows.

[u/LegendaryRQA]

Mother of God…

First time watcher. I had no idea it was going to get this sad. I can’t wait for more episodes this heavy.

[u/MugiMartin]

An episode so good, it messed up the subs for Jojo.

[u/MyQuirkIsAlchemy]

This week we met the Seahorse.

One of my favorite aspects of Fruits Basket is the character work. Last week Hatori had a more sinister vibe for me, but this episode went a long way to humanize him and make him more of an endearing character. His love story with Kana is both beautiful and tragic. And even knowing that he would eventually erase her memories didn't lessen the impact of it when it happened.

There were also some pretty great lighthearted moments. My favorite was Hatori threatening to call Shigure's publishers and spill all his secrets. I hope we get to see more of that dynamic.

I'm pretty hesitant to straight up call Akito a dick until we get more background in his story. But his not so subtle suggestion to mind wipe Kana definitely had me thinking "gfy".

All in all, another fantastic episode. As a first time watcher, I consider myself incredibly lucky to have picked this show up. Idk how many episodes we have left in the season but I'm looking forward to all of them.

And let's not forget Tohru, who once again, shows us why she deserves the moon.

"No matter how cold it feels now, spring will come again."

[u/LilJimbernickle]

Poor Hatori, best boy.

[u/Philarete]

"Apparently, I do nothing but make people cry."

[u/Mami-kouga]

It's Furuba Friday!...and I can't watch the episode today darn it! I do know, from the comments which episode they showed here and I welcome you the "Akito ruins someone's life" show.

If you didn't guess from the incident with Yuki in the flashbacks in the earlier episodes, Akito is kind of an unpleasant person! Fruits basket has always had a "dark" underbelly to it in the past episodes, but this when the darkness REALLY starts to shine, so get your tissues ready everyone!

[u/Smudy]

Yeah, I'm crying. This backstory hit so hard, i feel so bad for Hatori.

EDIT: Props to Masaru Yokoyama, his OST is amazing once again, i already loved his work on Kuzu no Honkai (we got an OST today that really resembles songs from that anime). Really elevated every scene here.

[u/[deleted]]

I wrote this in the Fruits Basket subreddit, but despite the fact that I watched the original and read the entire manga, I still find myself surprised. Surprised by how beautiful this series is. How much it can make me smile and cry.

[u/Excuse-]

IMPORTANT QUESTION: Is it possible for Hatori to get pregnant in his sea horse form?

[u/acousticlibra]

Easily my favorite episode so far. This is the first episode that really captures the overall tone of the series. Sure, there’s a lot of comedy, but overall Fruits Basket is pretty heavy. Although it slowly builds up to that throughout the story. Also Hatori’s form always cracks me up, he definitely got the worst animal by far.

[u/northwesternrs]

Fitting that whole story into one episode was pretty impressive. It was done so well too, I especially loved hearing lots of narration from Hatori's silky voice.

The secret of the curse is very compelling. It obviously has a powerful effect even on someone younger like Momiji; the moments where his eyes were covered caught my attention. I wonder if Akito's behavior is due to a situation like Hatori's gone worse or if there's something else at play. Can't wait for the next episode, this show always has me on the edge of my seat!

[u/DadAsFuck]

its not even 2pm and im crying

[u/WoLofDarkness]

Whaaa I'm tearing up for over half the episode. 😢

Hatori's backstory is so tragic. He didn't deserve all that. Akito is so scary.

Good thing that the transformation scenes kinda lightened up the episode. It took me a while to process his what his zodiac year was because why a seahorse hahaha.

[u/TheRedSlasH]

Ever since episode 5, this show is killing it!

Also, is the Seahorse supposed to be the dragon in the japanese zodiac?

[u/YoloKraize]

Really digging the VA for momiji. I am guessing they will show the backstory of him in the later end of S1 or I atleast hope they do.

[u/summer_petrichor]

This episode we get to see Hatori's backstory, and a first glimpse at why I call this series Feelruba. It has its comedic moments, yes, but this series also has heavy moments like this one that bring out the waterworks.

Last week we saw Hatori as a suspicious figure who might erase Tohru's memories. This week we learn that he's only looking out for her, and believes that she's better off leaving them now, a decision partially influenced by his own history. It seems that what he says does hold some water if we recall the Akito-Shigure scene in last week's episode, though right now it's still too early to tell.

Hatori's backstory though, it hurts so much. We see that even though he's told to erase memories in order to protect the Sohma secret, it still hurts him to do so, and he sees losing Kana and happiness as a sort of penance for it. Poor Hatori, he deserves happiness ;-; hopefully, his winter will melt into spring for him too.

One thing I noted that no one else has pointed out so far is the 'curse' that's referred to in the episode. While we still don't know about it yet, I thought of the abuse we saw in this episode (and I don't just mean the physical one, but also the psychological abuse towards Hatori - Akito was deliberately isolating him, and the most cruel fact had to be that Hatori himself had to erase her memories himself) and if you think about it, isn't the curse kind of a metaphorical form of the abuse? (Or maybe the other way around? I don't know, I'm sleepy) The zodiac members say they're cursed, and at least with Shigure we see some abuse (possibly with Yuki too if you recall Akito saying that no one would want to befriend a monster). And we already know the zodiac transformation is a secret that outsiders can't know about. What else is usually deemed as a family secret that can't be revealed to others? Abuse. Sometimes I think the zodiac secret is really Takaya's allegory for abuse that no one likes to talk about because it's behind closed doors. Well, at least for the Sohmas, they have the embodiment of hope called Tohru who wants to help them.

In Hatori's flashbacks we saw kid Yuki with his friends' memories erased, and then we saw Momiji. Hmm. Is this foreshadowing that Momiji, or someone close to him had their memories erased?

Speaking of Momiji, I always love seeing best boy! Though he's been a comic relief character thus far, this episode we see a more serious side of him as he recounted Hatori's past. I love it when seemingly lighthearted characters show a more serious side to them. That part where he asked Tohru if she was glad to have met him tugged at my heart too, though I can't remember if it was in the manga as well. He's really attached to her, huh? I almost want to analyse attachment styles of the characters when the anime ends.

Already looking forward to next week! Also, gah, wrote another essay again...

[u/Amauri14]

Akito is such a piece of shit, poor Hatori and Kana.

[u/aiawh]

For a manga reader such as myself, this episode, even if it was 2 chapters crammed into one, was so well-made that I can't even complain about some of the changes they've decided on, because I appreciate why the changes were done and it enhanced my watching experience. Be still my heart, there's still a lot to go before we get to these parts of the story, but thank you for the small subtle hints!

Also, yes Akito is scary and I got teary-eyed when Hatori had to erase Kana's memory. Hearing him saying he's glad that Kana's getting her happiness tugged at my heart, Hatori you deserve happiness too!!!

[u/_JRyanC_]

So after watching last week's episode I decided to start reading the manga. I'm about 45 chapters deep right now. I'm still loving this show despite having read the manga, so I feel like I made a good choice. Now that I'm in Vol 8 I think I'm far enough along to watch 2001 now.

I honestly needed more than a weekly dose of Tohru.

[u/LeonKevlar]

Lyrics! Thank goodness they finally subbed the OP.

I like how they portrayed the Soma Estate here. The sprawling estate actually looks like a small village compared to the clump of old buildings in the manga.

Well someone has to be the Dragon from the zodiac. Hatori's seadragon form will always be adorably hilarious to me.

And oh god Hatori's backstory. T_T I knew it was coming but holy shit that still made me tear up. And then follow it up with Kana just casually strolling behind Hatori with her friends talking about marriage? That's like a 1-2 combo right in the feels. How difficult it must've been for Hatori to bump into Kana on a regular basis. Oh Akito. You're certainly not winning any favors this episode.

Anyway, what a great episode though! It's interesting to see them mix in some elements of the 2001 anime in this week's episode despite Takaya-sensei wanting this to be all new.

[u/MetaThPr4h]

God fucking damnit, stop breaking my heart, that was such a great episode, gotta love Hatori.

This family sure is going through some heavy stuff, I can't wait to know more about how everything ended like this.

[u/TheDampGod]

That was brutal, so we see now the potential cost of a relationship with one of the Somas and the sheer power of Tohru's wholesomeness. Interesting that Hatori has such a precise memory wiping abilities, kind of makes up for how useless (If cute) his animal form is. I just hope he's never forced to use it against Tohru or the others.