Fruits Basket (2019) 11
フルーツバスケット 11
Furuba episode 11

Story Summary/Synopsis

With testing done, Tohru goes to work cleaning the office building. Momiji helps her. That night, Momiji goes to Shigure’s how with her. He tells Tohru that he’s taking her to the Sohma-owned onsen resort as a White Day present. He invites Yuki and Kyo as well. Yuki accepts, but Kyo doesn’t want to go with Yuki.

Shigure asks Tohru about her missing payment for the upcoming class field trip. She assures him that she’ll have the money. It is then that Shigure, Kyo, and Yuki realize that Tohru spent her money on making Valentine’s Day chocolates for all of them. Kyo doesn’t understand why she’d do something so dumb. Momiji then tells the story of the foolish traveler, who was taken advantage of throughout life. As such, Momiji wants to make Tohru happy. Kyo tells Tohru he’ll go with her as his White Day present.

The trio go to the onsen, where they are met by a very sickly looking female Okami (general manager). When Momiji teases Kyo about wanting to share a room with Tohru, she goes off on Kyo in a horrific way. Later in the bath, Okami-san joins Tohru. She says she has a son who has the monkey spirit. Though she’d been concerned about Torhu learning the zodiac secret, she feels fine now.

Kyo attempts to play ping-pong with Yuki, but is too aggressive. Tohru attempts to play with Kyo, but misses the ball. Yuki leaves, so Tohru follows. He’s laughing, not wanting Kyo to see. Yuki gives Tohru a ribbon for a White Day present. The next day as they wait for the bus, Tohru is stunned to learn that Momiji is going to be in high school. Further, Momiji and Haru will be attending her high school with Yuki and Kyo.

Thoughts/Review

For Fruits Basket (2019) 11, chapters 17 and 18 were used as source material. Man, I’m so glad that Fruits Basket (2019) continues to make me feel the way I felt when I watched the original anime adaptation. Only this time things are better because I’m pretty sure TMS is going to get things done right.

A Lovely Romp

I have to say that Fruits Basket (2019) 11 was a very, lovely romp. Yeah, the story of the idiot traveler was tough to get through (it is for me in the manga…I don’t like depressing tales), but the anime adaptation did it justice. (They appeared to turn the traveler into a woman rather than a man from the manga.)

The episode reminded me of how much the Yuki x Tohru theme came up in the early part of the story. Even though I know how everything pans out, the anime adaptation made Yuki’s scene giving Tohru her gift a lovely one.

I think what I’m loving most is how alive the onsen trip story became, thanks to the anime adaptation. Yes, all anime adaptations do this to one degree or another. After all, animated images are livelier than static images. But for Fruits Basket (2019) 11, it just really felt more vibrant and alive to me in a way that surpassed the original anime adaptation. As such, when I finished watching the episode, I was in a pretty good mood despite being pestered by offshore folks over stupid stuff.

Okami-san Still Rocks

One of the more hilarious characters in the earlier parts of Fruits Basket is Okami-san, the title of the lady who runs the Sohma onsen resort. I was very happy to see that Fruits Basket (2019) 11 made sure she remained funny. Even though I am well versed with the scenes were she does her ghostly, dark, apologetic verbal attack, I still laughed out loud whenever she did it in the episode.

So I’m happy TMS managed to get this part done right and retain the awesome humor that Okami-san provided.

Changes from the Manga

As with the previous episode, TMS has kept the changes to the source manga material used in Fruits Basket (2019) 11 to a minimum. One thing that stood out to me was some of the staging. I’ll give a couple of examples. For starters, when everyone is teasing Kyo about studying, they are at his desk in the manga, not on the other side of the classroom. It is a minor thing, but I think the impact of them being at Kyo’s desk is a better one.

Another staging moment is when Tohru and Momiji are cleaning. In the manga, they are cleaning the floor somewhere in the office building while being observed by the older cleaning women. In Fruits Basket (2019) 11, they are cleaning the breakroom, with Momiji cleaning windows and Tohru doing tables. There are no cleaning ladies. This is a very minor change and doesn’t impact the scene.

The only other significant changes I notices were clips to dialog moments. The cleaning ladies being gone removed one bit of dialog they had. At school, Tohru’s thoughts on Kyo being energetic suited him better than him studying were cut. At Shigure’s house, Tohru asking Momiji if he wanted to eat was cut. And there were other bits and pieces cut, though none of them impact the story. But, having read the manga so many times, I noticed their absence.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Fruits Basket (2019) 11 is a well done adaptation of the source manga material. The minor dialog cuts did not impact the story being told, and the staging changes mostly had no real impact as well. Well done, TMS.