It’s kind of fun watching folks make wrong assumptions about Fruits Basket, and I’ve seen plenty of them already.  The downside of course is that makes one want to correct them, but that’s a no-go.  Undeniably this is a series full of familiar tropes – some of which it invented – which naturally makes a viewer think it’s going to follow a predictable course.  But one of the things that sets Furuba apart from bog standard shoujo is the way it subverts tropes and manages to move in surprising directions.  It’s not a series that’s about blowing up genre tradition – more like putting its own twist on it.

No character represents that more transparently than Hatori, who practically exemplifies the idea that you can’t judge a book by its cover.  With some of the characters in the Sohma clan you have to look for the small clues Furuba gives you (they were there this week) to understand their perspective, but everything with Hatori everything was pretty much spelled out for us this week (thanks to Momiji).  If any Sohma has a direct and imperative reason to understand the true cost of living with the family curse, it’s Hatori.

As for Momiji, well – there was one very important (and gut-wrenching) moment with his character this week, though it would have been very easy to miss it.  Momiji’s comfort level around “Harry” from the first time he was introduced should have been the clue that there was more to the family doctor (literally) than met the eye.  Momiji already seems to be slipping into a protective role with Honda which belies his age and appearance.  Of course Kyou and Yuki also feel protective towards her, but they also act constrained in a way Momiji doesn’t.  The rabbit says when he feels and does what he wants – though you’d be a fool to think that’s all there is to him.

Speaking of those two, I think a break from Yuki and Kyou and their constant bickering was good for the story.  Considering that the whole creation myth of Fruits Basket is literally built around it obviously their feud is always going to be central to the narrative, but it’s one of the cliche elements of Furuba that does get tiring at times.  Fortunately the Sohma family is full of stories that could be series in their own right (we’ve barely scratched the surface – I mean, look at the size of that estate) so there are frequent respites where the focus shifts to other threads.  And that makes Yuki and Kyou more tolerable when it goes back to them – though for me, they’ve always been better as individual characters than as a pair.

Momiji’s explanation to Honda-san was a lot to unpack, but it lays down some important markers.  The whole concept of “inside” and “outside” is obviously crucial, as is the story is tells about Akito’s temper.  As for Hatori and Kana (Tsuda Minami), well – it acts both as a compelling narrative for this episode and a metaphorical caution about what the world of the Sohmas is really like.  Takaya lays it on a little thick with the parallels between Honda and Kana (their reaction to Harry’s true form, “spring comes”, et al) but the point is made all the same.

To say anything more at this point would probably require venturing into dangerous areas, so I’ll leave it there.  I was certainly pleased with the may the series depicted Hatori and Kana’s tale – it played out just as I remembered it – but browsing through some upcoming manga material was a reminder of how many moments I loved from the first series (like a certain insert song introduced during an onsen trip) were anime-original – and thus almost certainly doomed never to make it into this version.  That’s kind of heartbreaking, but I’ll give the 2019 version a chance to win me over even without them, something it’s doing pretty well so far.