Fruits Basket (2019) 21
フルーツバスケット 21
Furuba episode 21

Story Summary/Synopsis

Prince Yuki Fan Club President Motoko has a nightmare about Hana. Later at school, Uo-chan and Tohru discover Prince Yuki Fan Club members Minami and Mio talking with Hana-chan. They discover that the girls are writing a paper on Hana-chan’s denpa abilities. Tohru is worried, but can’t come over due to her job. Once Uo-chan realizes Hana is spoiling for a fight, she decides to come over. Meanwhile, Minami and Mio report their success to Motoko.

After school, Motoko, Minami, and Mio follow Hana home. Hana warns them not to speak their names. The girls are relieved to find she lives in a normal home. Further, they are relived when Hana’s room turns out to be normal, if darkly colored. They attempt to find the goods on her, only to find Hana’s little brother, Megumi. He reveals that his power is one of curses. This causes Mio to come out and fearfully ask if Hana has a weakness.

Hana points out the flaws in their thinking when it comes to their obsession with Yuki. Their jealousy over Tohru being close to Yuki and other Sohma family members is not good. Megumi backs Hana’s arguments. The trio are incensed. However, when Megumi reveals he knows all three of the girls’ names, they take off like the wind.

Hana confesses to Megumi that she has been jealous of the Sohma family, but she is going to work to be better. The doorbell rings and a worried Tohru arrives with Uo-chan. Hana is touched by this. Since all is well, Uo, Hana, and Megumi escort Tohru to work. The following day at school, Motoko, Minami, and Mio encounter Hana and Tohru. Motoko vows the fight isn’t over.

Thoughts/Review

Finally, we go back to the source material from chapter 29 of the original manga. As such, Fruits Basket (2019) 21 gives us an awesome Hana-chan vs. Prince Yuki Club story.

Changes to the Source Material

To get things started, lets see what changes Fruits Basket (2019) 21 made to the source manga material

• Motoko’s haunted house nightmare at the start of the episode is an anime-original. Likewise, her nightmare near the end of the episode is an anime-original. But, it works and helps establish a future Motoko story. 😁
• Tohru no longer cuts herself short on telling Hana-chan that she’s meeting Kisa (and for the anime, Hiro too) after work. Its a minor thing and is probably an improvement.
• The anime doesn’t try to be coy with Motoko, Minami, and Mio using their names in Hana-chan’s room. In the manga, the story was presented as if they never said their name, then we get a flashback where they did say their names. The anime still retained the flashback (which was included to fill time). However, I never liked how Takaya-sensei was trying to be coy in the manga, so this is a good improvement as far as I’m concerned.
• The anime adds some gag material about the stuff the girls find in Hana-chan’s room. This works, so no complaints there.
• A bit of padding was done before the girls confront Hana at school.

Otherwise, things were fairly faithful to the source manga.

A Good Adaptation

I haven’t been as thrilled with the last few episodes of Fruits Basket, simply because too many changes were being made, mostly to the negative. However, Fruits Basket (2019) 21 is what I want to see in an anime adaptation. Since they were only taking a single chapter as source material, I understood that TMS needed to add material to it. And for the most part, the stuff they added enhanced the story.

TMS has had several really good episodes where the source material is faithfully adapted and enhanced in a positive way. I really hope TMS doesn’t jack with more stories, but alas, I’m kinda afraid they will.

FUNimation

Once again, FUNimation has inconsistent Japanese honorific usage in the subtitles. I honestly don’t see why it is so difficult to get right. I suspect someone (either the translator or adapter) doesn’t like honorifics and just drops them at times ’cause “reasons.”

The FUNimation subtitles are also somewhat suspect at times, but that’s nothing unusual. As I believe I’ve said before, I’ve read the manga so often, I know The Twins dialog fairly well. So sometimes, I hear something and go, “OK, I got to check on that!” 😂

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, TMS returns to the good adaptation method for Fruits Basket (2019) 21. That’s what I like to see.