Fruits Basket (2019) Episode 3 – The Downfalls Of Jealousy.

Episode 3 was a bit of a tear jerker. I couldn’t watch this episode without getting chocked up a little bit….Nobody died! No! Nothing like that happened at all!…But this episode did touch upon some sensitive subjects for me…But more on that later!

This week we learned more about Yuki, that he has a secret base that is a vegetable garden (which is so cute!), that he is scared of letting other people too close (especially of the opposite gender), and the reason why he and Kyo fight like cat and mouse!…No pun intended.

Now the whole reason why Yuki cannot stand Kyo, and vice versa, is pretty complicate….There’s clearly alot of layers to their feud, but Tohru was able to boil it down to simple terms: Their animosity towards each other stems from jealousy. Kyo’s short temper does at first push people away from him, but like fire, they start being constantly drawn to him once they get to know him more, despite he’s unpredictability and the danger he poses. Yuki, who keeps people at arms length, for fear of them discovering his secret and that they will discover that he isn’t the exceptional young man that they all think he is, envies this about Kyo.

Kyo, meanwhile, has been excluded and ridiculed all his life. It is no surprise that he envies Yuki, and sees him as a fully fledged member of the zodiac, (something that Kyo wants to be apart of), and somebody that has been treated remarkable all his life. In short they both covet what the other has,  It is ironic that their admiration for one another, in regards to the qualities that they both possess, has become so warped, to the point where it now resembles hatred.

But that’s the downfall of comparing yourself to other people. Admiration for another person may propel you forwards to emulate them, but it can morph into something much darker, like envy, bitterness or a deep satisfaction of one’s own circumstances. I have been there myself, being dirt poor from being unable to work or struggling to find work and using social media like twitter as a window to the world, and just seeing all the good things happening to alot of people and being so envious of them because of that. I should have been much happier with what I did have going for me at the time but I wasn’t. In much the same way Kyo and Yuki would have been much happier dwelling, not on other people’s positives, but their own positives. It’s so unfortunate that both young men seem to not be able to see their own “Pickled Plum” on their backs, the thing that makes them so special and unique. It’s a good thing that they both have Tohru around to point it out for them!

All the Sohma’s may turn into cute adorable animals when they are hugged by the opposite gender, but setting that exciting aspect of their characters aside, they are so human and so believable. The things that they struggle with (low self esteem and jealousy) are all things that we all struggle with. Watching them wrestle to overcome these issues is a comfort and inspiring. That is something I really admire about the cast of Fruits Basket.

During this episode we see Tohru reflected on kindness,. She believes that it is not innate but something that grows alongside ourselves. Tohru also suggests that the shape of kindness varies from person to person and that Yuki’s kindness is like a candle: warm and draws people in.

I wonder what the shape of Tohru’s kindness is? If Yuki’s is like a candle then maybe hers is like the sun itself, warm, embracing and life-giving and something that drives all the darkness out of people’s hearts…

Again another great episode!! Now onto the next one!!

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