“Fruits Basket: Prelude” Compilation Film to Open in Japan in February 2022

The hugely popular Fruits Basket anime franchise will return in 2022 in the form of a compilation film. The official website announced earlier today that Fruits Basket: Prelude will open in theaters in Japan on February 18 with a simultaneous theatrical limited edition Blu-ray release.

Fruits Basket: Prelude, in addition to recapping the important moments from the reboot anime’s three seasons, will also include the previously announced Kyо̄ko to Katsuya no Monogatari, which tells the story of Tohru’s parents’ (Kyoko and Katsuya) relationship. At the time of the announcement, there was no mention of the format or the length of the anime, so many suspected that it would be produced as an OVA. It stands to reason, though, that it is only intended for the compilation film.

Regardless of how it will be distributed, fans were excited by this news. Kyoko and Katsuya’s backstory is told near the end of the manga but was not adapted for the anime, much to the dismay of many fans, who felt that learning about Tohru’s parents was very important for understanding her character.

The anime’s main staff at TMS Entertainment will return for the film, as will at least some of the main cast, as Fruits Basket: Prelude will also include brand new scenes written exclusively for the film by Fruits Basket creator Natsuki Takaya. These scenes will be a sort of epilogue for the anime and depict events that occur after the main story of the anime concluded.

Presumably, these epilogue scenes will take place before the epilogue at the end of “See You Again Soon”, the anime’s final episode, which showed Tohru and Kyo as an elderly couple still very much in love with each other and briefly introduced their children and grandchildren. As much as I love Tohru and Kyo, I can only hope that the new scenes in Fruits Basket: Prelude will show where all of the characters ended up, and not just the two of them. (Please, please show me some new Hatori content.)

For those in Japan, advance tickets for the film will be sold at the Fruits Basket World Exhibition in Tokyo, which opens on November 11.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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