Fruits Basket (2019) – Episode 9

How many more times can I say a series is perfect before I sound like a broken record?

There is nothing that really goes off beat from the original episode ten. The plot plays out the same way for the most part. Yuki comes down with a cold, Hatsuharu gets lost for three days in an attempt to find Shigure’s house and start a fight with Kyo, and Kyo is bad at figuring out what his emotions are and understanding people. Standard fare really, the things that made this episode shine though were the small details and honestly for me? The dubbing. I’ll make no secret of the fact that since the English dub is airing immediately at the same time as the Japanese, i’ve been watching it dubbed and I am really glad for it.
15 years in dubbing has brought us a long way.

Let’s comb down a few moments of interest to me.

1. When Hatsuharu trips Kyo, he turns to the audience and makes an address about how dangerous the stunt he just pulled was and not to try it at home. This was in the original episode, and upon a closer review of the manga. It’s part of the content there as well, i have to say i’ve always been a fan of this kind of fourth wall breaking.

2. When Yuki is talking to Tohru during Yuki and Hatsuharu’s fight about if he really enjoyed training in martial arts, he has a flashback of looking on at Kyo and Haru in their training and from behind him come a pair of hands, Akito’s hands to cover his eyes. This is a panel in the manga and nothing could prepare me for how absolutely chilling it was to see it animated, i shuddered and reeled back. It was not something I remembered and even if I had of, the manga’s depiction of it is nowhere as chilling as this.

1. The last scene with Tohru and Yuki. I’ve always enjoyed the concept behind this scene, the thing that bugged me though was how awful this moment was translated in the original. That’s why, i’ve been so glad to hear Tohru calling Yuki “Sohma” even in the English dialogue. So when Haru whispers to her to call Yuki by his given name, she can just call him Yuki and have it work. Without having to change it to ‘nickname’ or have her call him ‘Prince Yuki’ which is something he despises.

As per usual, the animation in this episode is amazing. The fight scenes maybe of been a bit over the top, the sheer amount of air that Kyo and Hatsuharu were getting off of one another as they locked in combat was almost comedic coming from an anime that isn’t traditionally a shounen battle manga.
I mentioned it way back in the beginning of this show but I have to bring it up more as we see things like Kyo’s cat ears and the emotion indicators. I love how the production company isn’t afraid to use things like that, depression lines, anger marks. Things that are key to older anime and manga, but you don’t see often anymore.

Next episode is Valentines day and we’ll be seeing a whole plotline open up that was ignored in the original with any luck. I’m very excited!

Also! OMG LITTLE MONKEY ON HATSUHARU’S BACK IN THE ENDING THEME. IT LOOKS SO CUTE!! I HOPE THAT MEANS ‘Season 1’ WILL BE COVERING UP AT LEAST TO VOLUME 7 OR 8!