Fruits Basket Season 2 04
フルーツバスケット S2 04
Furuba (2019) S2 episode 04

Story Summary/Synopsis

Rin breaks up with Haru at the hospital. At school, Hana-chan, Uo-chan, Tohru, Yuki, and a reluctant Kyo are planning their school trip. Momiji arrives and is envious. He then remembers to tell Kyo and Yuki that Haru has gone Black again. The pair leave to confront Haru, trailed by Momiji and Tohru. Haru has trashed the classroom. He threatens Tohru, causing Kyo to punch him. Mayu-sensei dumps water on them, causing Haru to return to White form.

When Haru returns from the teacher’s room, he apologizes Tohru. Yuki goes after him, where he learns that Rin dumped Haru. Yuki is surprised by this. Haru states they kept their relationship hidden, though he suspected Shigure (Sensei) knew. That evening, Kyo ponders things at the dojo. Elsewhere, Haru aborts his planned visit to see Rin in the hospital.

Later at school, Hana-chan, Uo-chan, Tohru, Yuki, and a reluctant Kyo are planning their school trip. Momiji again comes in, informing them that Haru has been suspended. After school, Yuki leaves Tohru to walk home alone so he can visit Haru at the main Sohma estate. Outside the main gate, Yuki gets sick, recalling his horrible experiences. He spots Rin, but he is then spotted by the head Sohma maid, who scolds him for abandoning Akito-sama.

Yuki gets to Haru’s home, where Haru decides to photograph the occasion. The two discuss Rin as well as Haru’s desire to be with her. Before Yuki leaves, Haru tells him to address her by her given name rather than “Honda-san.” Yuki leaves and Rin observes this. Meanwhile, Tohru has food ready for Yuki and Kyo’s return.

Thoughts/Review

There are a lot of differences in terms of story for Fruits Basket Season 2 04. This is mostly due to a lot of anime original material being added to the story. However, for the most part, it works.

Changes to the Source Material

In order to construct Fruits Basket Season 2 04, a moment is taken from chapter 69. Then most of chapter 44 is used, sans Ritsu’s introduction. Finally, the remaining pages from chapter 45 are used. Otherwise, there is a lot of anime original material.

• The flashback moment from chapter 69 was used as a prelude in this episode. The moment was merely hinted at in the manga, and that element was still retained during Haru’s chat with Yuki. As such, this shift isn’t a bad one for the anime narrative.
• The scene with Kyo in the dojo is an anime original.
• Likewise, the scene with Haru going to the hospital and then deciding not to see Rin was an anime original.
• The scene of Uo-chan, Hana-chan, Tohru, Yuki, and a reluctant Kyo planning their class trip was anime-original. However, it appeared to be inspired from a scene in chapter 76, where the group is on their trip and discussing their plans.
• The scene with Yuki and Tohru walking home before Yuki leaves to see Haru is anime original. Likewise, Tohru coming home alone and talking with Shigure.
• Yuki’s arrival at the main house, seeing Rin, and running into the staff are all anime original. This scene clashes with Yuki’s account in the manga that he snuck in to avoid being seen.
• Haru wasn’t suspended in the manga. He merely skipped school the next day under the pretense of being sick.
• Everything after Yuki’s visit to Haru is anime original material.

On the whole, I had no problem with the anime original materials. There was some filler for sure. However, I did have some issues. I’ll now discuss the pluses and minuses.

Thoughts on the Changes

I have not been a fan of much of the rearranging of source material that TMS is doing in the anime adaptation. However, because they’ve jacked things up somewhat, I had no problem with most of the anime original material added to Fruits Basket Season 2 04.

In the manga, Takaya-sensei was teasing Rin’s appearance for most of volume 8. She shows up for a scene at the end of the volume, and that’s with Hiro visiting her.  I get what Takaya-sensei was doing, but I understand TMS needing to not tease her appearance based on how the anime flow is going. So rather than having the story of Haru and Rin’s romance spread out like it was in the manga, we get it in a single flow.

Where I had a problem with the anime original material was Yuki’s return to the Sohma estate. I did not like the fact that the head maid saw Yuki and confronted him. In the manga, it made sense that Yuki confronted his fears and snuck onto the estate grounds to see Haru. But now that the head maid saw him, she will report Yuki to Akito, the head of the Sohma family.

To me, it won’t make sense for Akito to not react to this. I’m not sure where TMS will go for their next episode, but this change should impact Yuki’s next encounter with Akito.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Haha! I always spend WAY too much time on these Fruits Basket reviews, pouring over the source materials and such. 😅 But, I’ve got to wrap up my review of Fruits Basket Season 2 04 with some final thoughts.

• FUNimation (or whomever does the subtitles) sucks. It irritates me to no end that the word “Black” has to be changed to “Dark” ’cause “reasons.” I think I’ve stated this before, but I suspect that the reason for this is the fear of some loser who hates anime screaming “RACIST!” at FUNimation.
• Also, I still despise the “Soma” spelling instead of the long-held “Sohma” from all of the other official publications. Seriously, what smeg head doesn’t do a bit of checking on name spelling before making something up?
• Rin doesn’t look like the fearsome beauty in the anime like she does in the manga.

In the end, Fruits Basket Season 2 04 was an enjoyable episode. Most of the anime original materials were fine with me.

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