Fruits Basket (2019) 20
フルーツバスケット 20
Furuba episode 20

Story Summary/Synopsis

Kisa goes to watch an anime at Shigure’s house with Tohru. Some day later when walking to work, a boy tosses a shoe in front of Tohru. He is rude to her and steals her notebook that contains a photo of her mom. He introduces himself as SOHMA Hiro before leaving. Tohru is in shock when Momiji finds her. Meanwhile, Hiro looks through Tohru’s notebook with disdain when Kyo comes upon him. He’s rude to Kyo, angering Kyo.

About that time, Tohru shows up, shortly followed by Momiji and Kisa. Kisa wants to know why Hiro is acting this way. Hiro reveals his irritation at Kisa always blathering about “Oneechan” (Tohru), leading Tohru to realize he was jealous of her. Kisa wants Hiro to apologize, but Tohru refuses. She decides to punish him by hugging him, which amuses Kisa and Momiji. Hiro transforms into a lamb.

Someday later, Hiro is with Kisa at Shigure’s house, watching the anime movie he lent Kisa. He’s still rude to Tohru, leading Kisa to ask if he hates Tohru. She tells him that she enjoys how Tohru makes her feel. After having some tea, Hiro demands Tohru take them to a movie or amusement park. Tohru doesn’t have much money, so Hiro goes along with Kisa’s idea of a stroll in the park.

While there, Tohru says she’ll buy them crepes from a vendor there. Hiro follows her, demanding to know why she could do what he couldn’t. Meanwhile, Shigure pays a visit to Hatori to find out what Akito had done to Kisa to cause Hiro to distance himself from her for a time. Back at the park, Hiro comes to understand Tohru a bit better and pays for her crepe as well as his and Kisa’s.

Thoughts/Review

Most of chapter 37 and almost all of chapter 38 were used to create Fruits Basket (2019) 20. But TMS made quite a few changes.

Chapter Skipping Changes

Some of the changes in Fruits Basket (2019) 20 are due to the anime deciding to skip around with the source material. Here is a list.

• There’s no longer a scene of Kyo entering to see Kisa. As such, the subsequent scene of Kyo and Tohru talking about the aftermath of Kyo’s story is gone.
• Kyo’s confrontation with Hiro no longer happens in the dojo. No doubt, this is because the dojo’s Shisho has not been introduced yet.
• We no longer have a scene at school prior to Tohru going to work. I kinda missed that ’cause we get a chance to see Uo-chan tease Kyo again. And this wasn’t tied to Kyo’s story, so not sure why it had to be cut.

I feel sure that Kyo’s story is being saved for the end of this season. We’ll see though.

Additional Changes

Here are some other changes Fruits Basket (2019) 20 made to the source material.

• Hiro is introduced after we see Kisa at Tohru’s house. In the manga, he was introduced first to set up the scene with Kisa and Tohru.
• The scene with Mitsuru coming to see Shigure is padded a bit. This is because the source manga, the events of chapters 37 and 38 cover multiple days. In the anime, it is a couple of days.
• Tohru’s inner monologue over Hiro is cut.
• Hiro insulting strangers and their reactions are all cut.
• The final scene where Hiro decides Tohru is a rival after all is cut. I really missed this moment.

Because the manga makes it clear that Hiro’s “journey” takes multiple days, his softening toward Tohru comes off better there. In the anime, we just have the day Hiro and Tohru meet, then a day for Hiro to hang out with Kisa and Tohru. So his growth as a character doesn’t come off so natural.

Also, because the trip to the park takes place at the same time with most of the other stuff with Hiro and Kisa, there’s no longer a reason for Kisa to sit on the bench and wait for Hiro and Tohru to bring back crepes. In the manga, she sat on a bench to guard Tohru’s school bag, since they intercepted Tohru on her way home.

FUNimation

Since I’ve read the manga so many times, it amazes me how often I challenge the subtitles I read on screen. Outside of the refusal to use “Oneechan” in the subtitles (’cause “Big Sister” is such a natural English thing to say 🙄), FUNimation didn’t have super glaring problems. However, I did notice some things at times, such as Shigure literally saying in English, “Stop! Stop, Kyo-chan!” But the subtitles came back with, “Stop. Time out, Kyo-chan.”  Really? We needed to rewrite the English word “stop” for “time out”? 🤨

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Fruits Basket (2019) 20 is a mixed bag for me. I much prefer anime adaptations that change as little as possible. As such, Hiro’s story is much better in the manga version. But there are some nice anime elements too.