Fruits Basket (2019) 10
フルーツバスケット 10
Furuba episode 10

Story Summary/Synopsis

Uo-chan and Hana-chan investigate Yuki’s shoe locker for Valentine chocolates and only find one. Hana-chan surmises what happened to the other chocolates, then she takes the one in the locker for herself. Kyo is stunned to get a Valentine chocolate, then panics because he knows Kagura will be waiting on him. Sure enough, she is. She goes to Shigure’s house with them, where she asks Kyo out on a date. She suggests a double date with Yuki and Tohru, which Shigure approves of.

The following day, they go out on their date. Meanwhile, Shigure’s editor demands he finish the latest pages of his novel. Shigure skips out and takes chocolate that Tohru made for Hatori, Momiji, and Haru to the Sohma estate. Hatori is surprised to find that Yuki and Kyo are actually doing this double date thing. He warns Shigure that about the dangers of Shigure’s plan going south. But while Hatori won’t help Shigure, he won’t stand in his way.

Shigure goes to pay Akito a visit. Meanwhile, Kyo, Yuki, Kagura, and Tohru come home from watching the movie. They find a young woman at the door, threatening to kill herself. Shigure arrives and introduces his editor to the others. She rails on him for having left and not having his pages done. She vows to stick to him to get him to finish, which he finds amusing and impossible for her to actually do.

Thoughts/Review

For Fruits Basket (2019) 10, source manga chapters 15 and 16 were used. And I think this may be my favorite episode of all of the episodes adapted to date.

An Enjoyable Romp

Although I’ve read the Fruits Basket manga more times than I can count, I have to say that Fruits Basket (2019) 10 ended up being a rather pleasant, enjoyable romp. I have to say that I really enjoyed Kagura being back. She was always a favorite character of mine in the manga, though mostly at this stage, it was for comedic purposes.

One thing that pleasantly surprised me was hearing certain things. Maybe these things were in the original anime adaptation (it has been years since I watched it last), but for example, Kagura first giving chase to Kyo and yelling “Love!” in English immediately stood out to me. When I read the manga passage, I always believed she was saying something in Japanese like “suki.”

Later, she says “Je t’aime.” In the manga, I was never sure if she actually said the French term for “I love you” or not. But she does. Likewise, Shigure tells his editor Mitchan, “que será, será.” Again, I never knew if in the manga, this Spanish phrase was used or not. But it is used in the anime, meaning it was there in the manga. I found this to be very cool.

And visually, Fruits Basket (2019) 10 really seemed better somehow. I kept noticing things that were from the manga, such as Tohru going after Kyo when he got angry with Shigure. Visually, the moments really stood out for me and I loved it.

Changes to the Manga Story

TMS really kept the changes to a minimum in Fruits Basket (2019) 10. There were lots of tiny moments here and there to fill in the time. However, these were all quite natural to me. For example, when Tohru and company come back from the double date, Kagura teases Kyo and flicks him hard in the forehead. That manga pretty much has it end there, with Kyo all angry. But the anime actually shows Kyo getting flung back from Kagura’s flick, which actually had me laugh out loud.

One major addition was the opening with Kyo’s waking up in a cold sweat, followed by the breakfast scene. It fills time, but not in an offensive way.

The only other change of significance was actually a removal. When Yuki is talking to Tohru about how Shigure is somewhat of a mystery to all of them, he is quoting someone. During this, we see an image of what appears to be Mayu (Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo’s homeroom teacher). That was changed to just show Shigure. The manga version is foreshadowing events to come while the anime version is just someone making a quote. The anime version works for what it is, but Yuki knows whom he is quoting. So leaving Mayu’s image in would have been a better choice, in my opinion.

Oranges and Mikans Are Really Carrots

Man, it is so bloody irritating that the CR subtitles continue to “localize” the word “mikan” (a Japanese orange) to “Carrots” when it comes to folks addressing Kyo. And this happened again in Fruits Basket (2019) 10, when Mayu smacked Kyo in the head and called him “Mikan.”

I really don’t get it. Whomever is making the decision, and those approving this by saying, “Yeah, lets wrongly change the fruit orange to the vegetable carrot! That’s awesome!” make me pound my head into my desk. Is it really that bloody difficult to get right? 😑

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Fruits Basket (2019) 10 was quite enjoyable to me, CR subtitle issues notwithstanding.