Fruits Basket is one of the anime that aired on a local channel back when I was young. I watched it and liked it, yet I barely remember anything about it. Well, until a month ago when I couldn’t stop myself from watching the original anime adaptation because I thought that after this one, I might lose the motivation to watch it again. I’m going into this reboot with the original anime still kinda fresh in my mind, but I’ll try to keep my tendencies to compare to a minimum.
Anyway, I’m also going into this knowing full well that this one will follow the original source closely, so I know that somewhere along the way, the previous adaptation and this one will diverge in terms of the story’s direction. For now, I want to watch this without knowing about what’ll happen (though I actually know quite a few major points already since I’ve been spoiled countless times before because of Tumblr). I might change my mind (maybe after S1 ends LOL), but at least for now, I don’t want to touch the manga.
Now, I rambled a lot, so I’ll get on to my thoughts about this episode (though I may just ramble just some more to which I’m sorry in advance!). This is for Furuba‘s 1st episode entitled “I’m Going” (行ってきます, Ittekimasu).
“‘I’ll hold another banquet. I’ll hold banquet after banquet, forever unchanging. I may be lonely right now, but everyone is waiting for me on the other side of that promise.’ That was in the long-distant past. The original memory, forgotten by everyone. The original promise.”
The episode starts with this intriguing tale. A few minutes after this, we learn how there’s a story of a banquet where the animals are invited. The 12 zodiac animals are present, but the cat missed it because of the rat’s deception. Seeing this start makes me wonder what the truth is already. It says that this is the original memory and that everyone forgot it already. This means that the story that the others know now is not the whole story. It changed as time passed by. Why? Who caused it? What happened? I’m also a bit confused about the promise part. Is the promise the part of holding a banquet after banquet? What happens in the banquet? Is it just a common banquet? If not, what’s special about it?
Also, what’s the significance of the cup? Who is the person that touched it (presumably the person who sends the invitation)? He’s holding the cat, right? Why did the cat shed tears? Is it because he was left out? Is this connected to the truth about the cat’s form?
On another note, the line, “I may be lonely now, but everyone is waiting for me on the other side of the promise”, is such a… sad line. What makes that person lonely? This hits me right in the feels because of the knowledge from the 2001 anime that this story has lots of characters with different struggles emotionally (and mentally?).
Comes Tohru on the scene, then, and we follow her as she discovers the Souma house and meets Shigure and Yuki. She ends up going to school with Yuki which caused her to be cornered by a now-dark-haired Minagawa and fellow Yuki fan club people.
I was surprised by the change of color they did on her, though I don’t really particularly care since I just don’t… care about her. (So far? Let’s see in the future.) Uo and Hana, Tohru’s best friends, came to save her. Now these two I really love because of how supportive they are of Tohru. I find Hana really amusing, so I’m looking forward to watch her story.
After some short scenes on school which shows just how much protective her best friends are of Tohru, it gives a scene of Yuki and Tohru walking together. This is when she gets some of Yuki’s insight about the cat.
He says that the cat is an idiot and bad-natured, that there’s never a room for the cat in the zodiac. He thinks that it’s for the best and wonders what good is there being in the zodiac.
This makes the story about the zodiac more mysterious to me. As said, the rat is the one who deceived the cat so the cat failed to attend the banquet. That sounds like the rat is just being mean to the cat. Meanwhile, hearing Yuki, it sounds like the rat is frustrated the cat forced his way to join the zodiac. As if there’s a tiny bit of concern that got squashed because the cat ignored it? Ahh, maybe that’s why the cat’s an idiot to him? (Though the version of the story Yuki knows is most likely a corrupted story, too.) Knowing the circumstance of the Souma family, Yuki may be thinking that the cat could have not experience the same (or worse) experience as them, but because of cat’s stubbornness, cat is subjected to the same fate, too.
I don’t even know if I make sense now. Sorry.
Anyway, this is a small matter, but I can’t help but be frustrated on this part. I can’t for the life of me understand why she didn’t notice that big leaf on her bangs! It really bothered me that it frustrated me. I would have understood if that was a petal, but no. That’s a leaf. A pretty big one at that. There’s just no way she wouldn’t feel it! Even if it’s just a leaf, there’s this certain weight to it! She almost ran past him and she turned quickly, why didn’t it fall? Sighs. I guess I just prefer how the 2001 anime did it (it was just a pretty quick falling-leaf-and-picking-it-up scene).
Okay, rant over. Moving on.
Tohru works and as she was going back to her tent, Shigure and Yuki spots her and discovers her real situation. They invite her in their home where she almost faints because of a fever. Then, a landslide happens that buries her tent, leaving her no choice but to accept their offer.
While she is lying on a futon, she opens up about her situation. How she wasn’t able to say “see you when you get back” (行ってらっしゃい) to her mother on the day she got into an accident that killed her. How her grandfather took her, but had to ask her to stay on others’ place in the mean time because of the house being renovated. How she wants to graduate from high school her mother wanted to attend. Knowing that and seeing how she’s still bright and strong makes Tohru a likeable character to me. (That’s a cliché protagonist circumstance, though.)
Anyway, she dreams of her mother and I love what she says to her in the dream.
“Just be you and live at your own pace.”
I am fond of the thinking that people have their own life timelines. Some may experience a circumstance earlier in life while some does later on their life. And it’s all perfectly okay because we live our own lives differently. We can not compare our lives to others’.
By the way, this is new to me, too! Is that Tohru? Who is that boy? Is that who I think it is? Kyo?? When did this happen? What happened? Will I see that hat again?
After the dream, Tohru wakes up and Yuki gives her her things from the buried tent. He also tells her about the extra room where she eventually meets Kyo who destroys the roof to stir a fight against Yuki. Tohru stops him causing her to discover the truth.
I love how the designs are so much cuter now. And pretty. Yuki’s definitely so much more of a bishounen now than before. I was surprised that he’s not a white rat now, but he’s still cute. THAT CAT KYO IS SO ADORABLE, TOO! I’m so excited to gush about the other characters, too. (HATSUHARU ESPECIALLY~)
I enjoyed this episode so much! I’ve got to admit, though, that there were times when I felt like I was hearing the previous adaptations OST. I really loved the previous’ soundtrack so much. I really wish there’s a chance for us to hear For Fruits Basket play sometime this adaptation. Nevertheless, I still liked the current OST and theme songs.
Ahh, I have a lot of questions on this post but please know that I don’t want answers/spoilers. Thank you! I hope all of us who are watching this will enjoy this to the end!
Treasure Box 
Cute post. 🙂
LikeLike