| Title: | Fruits Basket |
| Episode: | 3: All Shapes and Sizes |
| Synopsis | |
| While exhausted from his outburst, Kyo is leaning on a wall when Yuki shows up reprimanding him for his actions. Kyo annoyingly asks why Yuki even went to a public school. Yuki replies that he wanted to have some freedom from the Sohma "cage." Hearing this, Kyo declares that he will beat Yuki and become a part of the Sohma family. Tohru comes across the two and as Kyo tries starting another fight with Yuki, the girl grabs onto Kyo to stop him causing him to transform. As Tohru tries telling him that he would get in trouble for fighting, Kyo tells her to shut up and that he couldn't stand her. This stuns Tohru as she walks off thinking Kyo now hates her. Realizing too late what he said, Kyo is left alone by Yuki to think over what he did. Back inside the school building, Tohru is shocked that Kyo hates her even though she likes the Cat of the zodiac story. Hanajima and Uotani spot her and upon trying to stand up as she sees them, Tohru hits her head on a fire extinguisher storage spot. Back at Shigure's house, Kyo has skipped school and wants to leave the house after his earlier words that he said to Tohru. Shigure tells him that he has to learn to better interact with people on his own as such interaction comes with experience just as Kyo had with the martial arts. Yuki arrives back to the house telling Shigure that Tohru is now at work. Later in the evening, Tohru is walking back to the house wondering if Kyo is still mad at her. She hears a noise behind her. Mistaking the noise for a molester, a frightened Tohru whops the person behind her in the face with her schoolbag. The person behind her though is Kyo. Tohru tries explaining her actions to Kyo. Kyo tells her to stop addressing him as "san." He then arkwardly apologizes to her saying that she is free to hit him again if he does anything stupid. Tohru realizes this and says that she loves the Cat of the zodiac as she wants to be his friend. Kyo then remembers his conversation with Shigure from earlier over finding someone who would like him. While Kyo says that something like that is stupid, Tohru realizes that Kyo is capable of kindness despite being a bit rough around the edges. The next morning, Shigure is teasing Kyo about last night's events. Kyo gets angry saying that he won't do something like that for Tohru again. She has no problem with this and then asks Kyo if he likes the breakfast she made. As Kyo tries thinking of what to say, Yuki looks at him. Annoyed with this, Kyo says that he hates it not realizing what he is saying. At school, Tohru asks everyone in the class if they want to play Dai Hin Min. Kyo refuses to play. But after getting goaded by Uotani, he decides to play against her with the condition that the loser has to clean up the entire classroom by themselves. In the hallway, Yuki turns down another love confession from an admirer. After an attempt to try hugging Yuki, the girl wonders just what type of person Yuki really is if he turns down girls yet appears nice in front of others. This revelation stuns Yuki. Back in the classroom, Kyo loses a game of Dai Hin Min and now has to clean the classroom. While Kyo is cleaning, Tohru asks if Yuki would like to play the game next time. Yuki says he think about it and realizes that Kyo must have been the "poor man." This gets Kyo angry as he starts arguing with Yuki. During the argument, Tohru wonders about Kyo's words from the other day overjoyed at the thought of the Cat being in the zodiac. Kyo then tries fighting with Yuki again and as usual, gets beaten. Yuki leaves the room in disgust with Kyo. Kyo wonders if Yuki was in a more foul mood than usual. At work, Tohru wonders if Yuki is bottling up his emotions. As she is getting off of work duty, two of her workers wonder who the pretty person waiting outside is. Thinking it's Yuki, Tohru goes outside and sees him waiting for her. As Tohru tries telling Yuki that he is free to tell her what is on his mind, a drunk man walking by pushes Tohru into Yuki causing him to transform. As Yuki in rat form and Tohru walk home, Yuki tells her about his attempt to escape the Sohma "cage" by living away from the main house and going to a public school. Even with his efforts, he is still living with a Sohma and is too passive to personally interact with other people as he is afraid of being hurt by others. He then admits that if Kyo could improve his social skills, he could live a normal life away from the Sohma family. Yuki is disgusted that Kyo even wants to be accepted by the Sohmas. Yuki wonders if he is a hypocrite for not being honest with himself and others. As it starts raining, Yuki transforms back into a person and says that he has a problem. Both he and Tohru rush into the forest where they come upon a vegetable garden. Yuki tells Tohru that this is his 'secret base.' The two cover up the garden with a tarp to protect it from the heavy weather. Yuki tells her that she is kind. Tohru gets flustered by his comment and goes on to say that it is better to trust people than doubt them. Despite having selfish desires, people have to learn to develop kindness in their own hearts. This is why kindness can come in different ways for different people. Tohru reflects on her mother's words saying that she likes seeing such differences from people. She is glad that Yuki opened up to her thinking it proves how close they are as friends. After the storm clears, Yuki decides to take leeks back to Shigure's house and tells Tohru that he would like to play Dai Hin Min with her next time and to become a more active individual one step at a time. The next day, Kyo becomes angry over Tohru making leeks for breakfast as he hates them. While Tohru offers to make something else for him, Yuki takes a piece of leek and shoves it into Kyo's mouth to shut him up. After seeing this, Tohru has a weird dream imagining Kyo and Yuki being friendly with each other. | |
| Comments | |
| This episode's main storyline is getting some depth into Yuki and Kyo's characters as each half of this episode is devoted to Tohru trying to better understand the two boys. Both the boys have opposite personalities and desires. Yuki is polite, yet passive, with a desire to live a normal life away from the Sohmas. Kyo, however, is socially arkward and open with his emotions trying to get acceptance from the Sohma clan. Both of them have their own personal struggles. However, it is clear at this point that Tohru's presence in their lives has become quite important. This importance will come across in later episodes, especially when new Sohma family members start coming along. This episode was based on events from manga chapters 3 and 4. This episode seemed to follow the manga more closely than the previous two episodes as there weren't any scenes switched around and there were not very many noticeable changes in this episode. There were only a couple minor scenes that were lost in the transition to manga and anime. First, there was a brief scene of Tohru talking to Kyo after he was beaten by Yuki in their fight. The other one featured Yuki and Tohru arriving back at Shigure's house during the storm before arriving to the 'secret base.' In terms of the English dub, it was still as decent as it has been with the two previous episodes. I did notice an improvement in Jerry Jewell's voice actting as Kyo during scenes where he showed his soft side during his conversation with Shigure and walking home with Tohru. Jerry did a better job at portraying Kyo's arkwardness in showing vulnerability towards others. I did still notice some significant changes in the dialogue during a couple scenes of this episode that change the meaning of conversation between characters. The first scene this came into play was during Kyo and Tohru's encounter after Tohru mistaked Kyo for a stalker. During this scene in the original version, Tohru was trying to be formal as usual with Kyo addressing him as "san," a formal honorific uses towards people you have a distant relationship with. Kyo told her not to address him in that way as she could be more casual when around him. It is at this point that Tohru starts addressing him with "kun," a more casual honorific used to address boys you have a close relationship with. With the loss of the honorific suffixes in the English dub, the conversation's meaning gets changed as Tohru tries making up an excuse to prevent making Kyo angry. However, Kyo tells her that she can be honest with him. The loss of the honorifics will change the meaning of some scenes later in the series, especially in regards to the relationships between characters. The second scene was when Yuki opened up to Tohru on their way home from work. In the original version, Yuki explains to Tohru about his feelings of inferiority and passiveness thinking Kyo has a better shot at making friends than he does. But in the English dub, the explanation is changed as Yuki just rambles about feeling he will always be a part of the Sohmas and that Kyo has a better opportunity of getting freedom from the clan. With this dialogue change, the original version does a better job of providing depth into Yuki's character as he openly admits his struggles of fitting in with normal people. | |
