Fruits Basket fans eagerly await the third and final season, which will be aired sometime in April 2021. Funimation, one of the streaming platforms in which the beloved shōjo will be available has confirmed the month of release in a late January tweet. But how many episodes will Fruits Basket Season 3 have?
The Fruits Basket manga and anime tell the story of Tohru Honda, a schoolgirl who has to move in with her classmates, Yuki and Kyō Shoma after a family tragedy. Befriending them, she finds out that they and other members of their family are possessed by animals of the Chinese Zodiac Circle. When they're hugged by a non-cursed member of the opposite sex, they transform into their respective animal.
Despite this whimsical premise, Fruits Basket is both sad and surprisingly wise, using fantasy as a vehicle to explore themes like found family, romantic love, isolation, and mental health as well as abuse within one's family. While a lot of the episodes/chapters are devoted to one of the many characters and their attempts to live a happy life despite their problems there is an overreaching plot.
The most sinister part of the Sohmas' curse is that it makes them subject to Akito, the cruel head of the family. Akito is extremely controlling and would rather keep them all close. When the youngest Sohmas grow more independent with Tohru's help, Akito is jealous. But nothing can destroy Tohru's resolution to break the curse - not even Akito's wrath.
Fruits Basket was first adapted in 2001 when it was still ongoing. The 2001 show got only 26 episodes and significantly differed from the original manga. The latter was serialized until 2006, meaning that the first show missed significant material and took liberties with the ending.
The new Fruits Basket series which was first broadcast in 2019 came to make amends in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood fashion. The TMS Entertainment studio was committed since day 1 to adapt Takaya Natsuki's entire story.
So far, they have done splendidly. While the style and overall aesthetic have been slightly changed to appeal to contemporary audiences, the story itself is faithful to that manga. With 25 episodes each, the first two seasons adapted a significant portion of the story.
It took a while for the total number of Fruits Basket Season 3 episodes to be confirmed but we now know that the finale will have a total of 13 episodes. This might be a bit frustrating for those who hoped for another 25-episodes season.
On the one hand, 25 episodes might seem a little much for around 40 chapters. Many have attempted to make an educated guess about the exact number of episodes for Fruits Basket Season 3 with the dub voice actor Eric Vale mentioning in a 2019 interview that the entire show was going to have 63 episodes – making Season 3 one-cour-long at 13 episodes. Since then, however, the actor took his statement back, saying it shouldn't be treated as an official confirmation. Apparently, he was right in the end.
Of course, many anime have separate entries for different cours of the same season on MyAnimeList so there might be a tiny bit of hope that Fruits Basket Season 3 will have another cour, though we think this would be unlikely.
Theoretically, either scenario could be enough to adapt the remaining material, depending on directing choices. But for such a comforting, heartfelt show, we'd have liked to go with the optimistic scenario of 25 episodes because let's be honest – you can never have too much Fruits Basket. No matter how long the series will be, it's totally worth watching, and even with 13 episodes, it will be a blast.
Fruits Basket Season 3 will start airing this April, being Simulcast on Crunchyroll and Simuldub on Funimation. Later, it will be available on Hulu.
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