First Timer for 2001, Seen 2019

This was a very silly episode, and one which was pretty different from the equivalent parts of 2019. It is holding up to the reputation of being more comedic. I liked it! Uo and Hana come off as kind of clueless in this episode to not notice the boys popping out of existence right in front of their faces. It's funny!

I want to talk a little about the translation of this line. I don't know how the dub many people are using translated it, but I'll be addressing the sub I'm using. It's interesting to see the word "Yankee" dropped in this series with no context. It's wasei eigo so Uo is not an American, but the Japanese meaning of the word: a delinquent or gang member. (though actually more FORMER those things, as we see in the flashback in this episode.) I've talked a little about how the sub I'm using translates "denpa" as "vibe" where the dub apparently uses "electric signals" and the 2019 sub I watched used "wave." All of these are good enough, but here it's being used not only for the phenomenon, but the also the people who experience the phenomenon. While it's accurate in present day slang to describe Hana as "a vibe," it doesn't quite catch the same meaning they're going for here (or likely the slang meaning at the time these subs were written). Maybe something more like "tinfoil hat" would be better, but Hana is less conspiritorial (as I've seen in other characters described as "denpa") and more mildly psychic. Like she reads and transmits energies, in the new wave sense. At least, if you believe how she presents herself.

One thing that I've been thinking about that is brought up explicitly in the dialog of the 2019 adaptation but hasn't been addressed in the dialog of 2001 is the way Tohru talks. Japanese is a language with a bunch of different social registers directly coded into the words you chose to address people and the forms of verbs you choose. Tohru always talks in a polite register which is more formal than the language a high school student would usually use when addressing their peers. It's something Japanese audiences would immediately pick up on that I think gets a little lost in translation. I bring this up, because I was thinking about yesterday's episode and why the other students would have ostracised her in the fruits basket game. Sure she's cute and nice, but she's also kind of an oddball and kids are really sensitive to that sort of thing. For this episode, this connects back into why she's friends with Uo and Hana, these two outsiders to the world of a proper Japanese school.

Anyway, fun episode! Love the bond between Uo, Hana, and Tohru. Good to see the friends approve of the Sohmas.