WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Fruits Basket: The Final Season Episode 3, "I Hope It Snows Soon," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
The school year comes to a close in Fruits Basket: The Final Season, Episode 3. The seniors are graduating, and Tohru's class only has one year of high school left. The anime spends the time leading up to this graduation ceremony focusing on two girls with romantic feelings for Yuki: Student Council Treasurer Machi Kuragi and soon-to-graduate Prince Yuki Fan Club President Motoko Minagawa.
Of the two Yuki admirers, Machi has a more intense story. The sight of a fresh box of chalk is enough to trigger her into making a mess at school. When Machi's half-brother Kakeru invites Yuki over to her place, we see her room is in complete disarray. Yuki perceptively realizes the whole concept of perfection is something that deeply upsets Machi -- the result of her parents' constant judgmental perfectionism.
Nasty rumors have spread that Machi was kicked out of her house for attempting to kill her younger brother. Yuki inquires about the rumors' origins, and the source turns out to be so ridiculous it's horrifying: Machi was simply caught adjusting her brother's blanket, but her parents had so thoroughly convinced themselves that Machi was jealous of his birthright that they automatically assumed this was attempted fratricide. On the list of Fruits Basket's worst parents, Machi's have to be up there.
The next day at school, Yuki shows how much he cares about Machi. When another untouched box of chalk sits on a desk in front of her, he snaps one of the pieces in two, rendering the box imperfect and removing her trigger. Machi wistfully thinks about how she wants Yuki to join her in making footprints in the snow someday.
Unlike Machi, Motoko never had a chance of Yuki returning her affections. While she and her club were causing chaos as recently as last week's episode, Episode 3 shows a continuation of Motoko's gradual character development. In Season 2, she matured past jealousy even as she continued to want Yuki for herself. Now, just before she graduates from high school forever, Motoko accepts that Yuki will never be hers, but thanks him for making her happy regardless.
Machi says she hopes someone might someday love her the way she loves Yuki, to which Yuki points out there already is someone like that. Until now, Machi had never realized that Naohito Sakuragi had a huge crush on her. While it's not as emotionally intense as Machi's story, Motoko's scenes in Fruits Basket: The Final Season Episode 3 offer a sweet ending for the show's silliest comic relief character.
New episodes of Fruits Basket: The Final Season premiere Mondays, subbed on Crunchyroll and dubbed on Funimation.
