As usual, Cosmo Kramer can sum it up more eloquently than I.
And so ends another season of Fruits basket 2019. And a bit of a snoozer at that, if I’m honest. In a normal year I’m sure I would have skipped more than the few episodes I did, but there just wasn’t much new anime to cover in spring and summer 2020. As it stands we’re looking at a third and presumably final season next year – I think two cours should be enough to get the rest of the manga in, especially if it continues to cut out as much non-Yuki material as it did this time.
It’s symbolically fitting that in the second season finale of this reboot, Kyou didn’t even appear (apart from a short flashback). The flipside of the above statement is that if TMS decides to put back all of the content they excised this season, they might have a hard time finishing in 25 or 26 episodes. And they cut out a lot, believe me – almost all of it connected to Kyou and his relationship with Tohru. It’s almost as if Takaya-sensei (who’s clearly calling the shots this time around) is taking her revenge for Akitarou Daichi’s version by marginalizing Kyou and fetishizing Yuki even more than in the manga.
We’ll see what happens. Honestly there’s a lot of stuff that never made it into this season that I would once have said was indispensable in Furuba’s conclusion, and Kyou can’t continue be ignored without significantly changing the nature of the ending. Which would sort of belie the point of why this version of the anime exists in the first place, supposedly to correct the changes from the 2001 series and tell the manga ending arc. Unless, of course, the point wasn’t to do that but instead to overcompensate for those changes and give Takara license to reimagine the story as she wishes she’d told it in the first place.
We’ll see next year, I suppose. For now the season ends with two major reveals which should have had more buildup if that hadn’t been lost for more Yuki screen-time. First (chronologically), we find out that Kureno has broken the Sohma curse. Or rather, that the curse was somehow broken without his knowledge of why. That’s obviously a pretty big deal, since as far as we’ve seen no one has been able to do this – and even more, because it shows such a thing is theoretically possible. With all the implications that carries with it…
Kureno is a stealth character. He’s barely a blip in terms of screen time – even less in the anime than the manga – yet he’s at the center of some of the series most crucial plot developments. Lots of questions are begged here, not least of which whether someone else might be able to follow his lead – and of course, who the now-unaccounted for Sohma member is. As for Kureno’s romantic link with Ao, that doesn’t register much with me. But it’s certainly rather tragic that he’s chosen willingly to tie himself to a monster like Akito. To me it’s disrespectful to the other Sohmas – he has the freedom they could only dream of, and he chooses to remain more tightly chained than anyone.
That’s the other big reveal of course. Though honestly, I really wonder how many people (besides Tohru) hadn’t yet figured out that Akito was a girl. I won’t say I was 100% sure of the truth when I found out but I certainly strongly suspected. At least manga readers don’t have to dance around it anymore, which will be a lot less work. Apart from that I don’t honestly think it makes all that much difference – whatever gender Akito is, she’s still a horrible person or God or whatever you wish to call her. Kureno is unrelentingly loyal, it’s true, but I don’t know how much credit that earns him when the subject isn’t somehow who’s earned his (or anyone else’s) willing loyalty.
As much trepidation as I have about the final season I have a fair amount of curiosity too. The manga ending never struck me as perfect by a long shot, but at the very least there’s no way the anime can do what it did this season without materially changing it in a very significant way. If the anime does choose to be loyal (and by that I mean, if Takaya chooses to) to the original conclusion, it’s got an awful lot of ground to make up after this self-indulgent season with so much wasted time.
Fruits Basket Rocks!
September 23, 2020 at 2:34 amHi Enzo. I have a question for you, curious for your thoughts.
In Fruits Basket, one common character development trajectory is that many of the characters used to be sweet and innocent in the past, but became more bitter, angry, and edgy with time. This applies to
>Kyo: An adorable, gentle, dopey little boy during his early childhood. After his mom dies, becomes an angry ball of hatred towards the world.
>Yuki: Very pure as a kid, with no anger in his heart. As a teenager is vaguely prickly and very exhausted.
>Shigure: Is a slimy manipulative mastermind as a grown man in his 20s. As a 4 year old, though, he wasn’t a manipulator at all but a perfectly nice kid.
>Isuzu: Goes from a dainty and elegant girly girl to a crazy BPD girl.
>Akito: Used to be a slightly irritable but relatively normal little girl. Deteriorates into an abusive, emotionally unstable monster.
Is this depiction of human nature, where people are generally kind during their earliest years until circumstances and trauma twist them for the worse, true to life in your opinion?
Guardian Enzo
September 23, 2020 at 7:31 amThat’s a very hard question to answer. I certainly think people develop more of a shell as they grow older and see the cruelties of the world for themselves. But obviously, like everything in FB this aspect is highly exaggerated by Takaya, who does love her drama. I suppose the explanation is that if normal people dealt with as much trauma as her characters do, they’d change just as much.
I think this is basically Toheu’s role in the story – to be the catcher in the rye, if you will. She’s there to maintain her idealism and to try and prevent the Sohmas from giving in to despair.
Princess Usagi
September 23, 2020 at 10:52 amI have never read the manga, but I feel like I’m missing out, from what you said about all the Kyo and Tohru content that was cut. The Kyo and Tohru moments were always my favourite in the anime. That’s really annoying they did that; it deprives the people who haven’t read it (and irritates the people who have). Now I have to go and read the manga!
Jordan
September 23, 2020 at 2:13 pmThey didn’t cut any important moments really. Season 3 is gonna dive in those two a lot.
Kim
September 24, 2020 at 3:18 amAlso I agree with Jordan that nothing that major was cut. There will be plenty of Kyo and Tohru in the final season. I also don’t see how the story is changing it looks to be heading to the same ending as the manga to me. *Shrugs*
Princess Usagi
September 26, 2020 at 3:21 amThat’s a relief! I can’t wait for the next season
Guardian Enzo
September 26, 2020 at 10:03 amDon’t count your chickens. They did cut quite a bit and pad out other stuff quite a lot – I don’t think it’s safe to assume anything.
Guardian Enzo
September 23, 2020 at 2:41 pmYou are missing out, but the third season is going to have to return to some of that unless it means to significantly alter the final third. In other words they’re going to have to put back some of what they took out for more Yuki adoration if they want a faithful ending.
Kim
September 24, 2020 at 3:15 amI think there is a deeper and darker reason Takaya disliked Daichi’s adaption of Fruits Basket. There have been stories that he is not a nice person and one of the careers he affected was a Seiyuu who played Tohru in the drama CD who Takaya very well may have known
He was one of my favorite directors but I wouldn’t be so defensive about him after what I read about him.
Guardian Enzo
September 24, 2020 at 6:23 amThere have been some disturbing things suggested about Akitarou in the last few years, no doubt. But I’ve never heard it argued that they had anything to do with Takaya’s hatred of the first adaptation – that’s a big leap.
Kim
September 24, 2020 at 8:45 pmI honestly don’t think it is at all. The woman who accused him played Tohru in the drama CD and the accusations were around the same time as the original Fruits Basket was being made.
Thonda
September 25, 2020 at 10:35 amThis post is a little strange to me. They didn’t really cut any significant Kyo scenes. They cut some little things, but they cut some little Yuki scenes too. While it can be frustrating, those things are bound to happen in an adaptation. If you’re thinking of the Kyoko stuff, that wasn’t cut. It’s just being moved to Season 3 because it makes more narrative sense to do that. I don’t know why you feel this season wasted time. It didn’t add anything that wasn’t in the manga. It just moved some stuff around. I have my problems with the anime, but it’s been a pretty faithful adaptation and I’m overall very happy with it after being a Fruits Basket fan for over 10 years.
aldeayeah
September 29, 2020 at 8:02 pmThese reviews are pretty biased but that’s what makes them interesting IMO.
I’m pretty much the opposite of Enzo. I relate to Yuki; he reminds me of myself around his age. I identify with his struggle to shake off others’ expectations and his own eagerness to please, and grow into a more genuine person. On the other hand, I find Kyou way too impulsive and short-fused to relate, although I wouldn’t say I hate him.
Then again, like Enzo, I much preferred the first anime’s high-energy, fast rhythm to this new adaptation which reminds me of a 90s shoujo show. Also, we both love Momiji, but who doesnt?
Guardian Enzo
September 29, 2020 at 8:11 pmMomoji should have been the protag, really, ROFL…
I must say that while I know it’s a small thing and there was never any reason to think it would have been included, not getting “Teru, Teru Momiji” was a real blow. The atmospherics of that sequence this time were nowhere close to what they were in the first version.
Riv
October 4, 2020 at 1:25 pmAs someone who never saw the first anime and has never read the manga, I’ve found it interesting to read about how much people loved the story based on one or both of those first incarnations. I’ve found this anime version to be–I guess “mildly engaging” would be the best descriptor. I’m interested enough in what’s going to happen to keep watching, but I do skip some episodes and I’m never rushing to watch an episode when it comes out. The characters that intrigue me the most are some of the older ones–Shigure, Ayame, and Hatori. Among the younger set, I don’t mind Yuki, and I like Kyou, but Tohru has never really clicked with me either. One of the biggest disappointments for me is that having the Somas turn into their zodiac animals has such great potential for comedic/dramatic/and just plain cute moments and yet is so rarely used.
Guardian Enzo
October 4, 2020 at 1:28 pmWatch the first anime and you may be surprised how much more engaging you find it.