Fruits Basket: Is the Rumored Ri That Mother's Daughter?

Fruits Basket: Is the Rumored Ri That Mother's Daughter?
TV Tokyo
May 27, 2003
Anime, Fantasy
DVD
C-

Tohru meets Ritsu the monkey, the child of the hot springs hostess.  But Ritsu is not that mother's daughter.  He is a young man who dresses like a girl, not because he looks cuter that way, like Momiji, or for fun and fantasy, like Ayame, but to, unsuccessfully, deal with his anxieties and insecurities.  He is like his mother in that he constantly apologizes, but he's even more annoying because he says he should never have been born.  I don't mean to sound heartless about trans issues or about suicidal tendencies, but the way these issues are handled, and the way Ritsu is presented, does not at all work here.  This is the worst episode of the series, which means I've seen worse anime.