I'll Hold Another Banquet

is the first episode of the third season of the Fruits Basket 2019 Anime.

Summary
Tohru struggles to digest all the new information she's learned from Kureno.

Plot
Tohru is shocked to learn Akito is a woman after all their previous encounters where she acted like and was treated as a man. Kureno reveals that Akito's mother Ren, the woman who almost caught Tohru at the estate, demanded Akito be raised as a man. He says that Ren is very sickly and hardly leaves her room, but that Akito and Ren hate one another.

Meanwhile, at the Sohma estate, Akito berates Ren for speaking with Hatori, accusing her of leering at all the Sohma men. Ren warns Akito that if she is not nicer to the zodiac members, they will resent her since their bonds are fake. Akito lashes out, tackling Ren through the walls and pinning her to the ground outside. As Hatori pries Akito off her mother, Akito screams at that Ren doesn't know what real bonds are since she, like other parents of zodiacs, abandoned her child. Ren says she had a real bond with Akira while Akito continues to scream that she'll kill her.

Kureno tells Tohru that Ren doesn't believe Akito's bonds with the zodiac members is real, despite how much Akito clings to them. He explains the morning Ren conceived Akito, he, Shigure, Ayame and Haotri all woke up crying. Akito came to them in a dream and said she would see them soon. The four boys ran to Ren and touch her stomach saying that they had been waiting. Kureno recalls another version of himself, the zodiac spirit, awakening that day. Since his curse is broken, he has realized that Ren is right about the bond being unnatural. Despite this, he sees Akito as a crying girl whom he cannot bring himself to leave when she needs him. Tohru is unable to respond and finds herself frozen. Kureno apologizes and, but says it's the path he chose. Rin watches them in the distance.

Kureno returns to the estate and apologizes to Akito for leaving. Akito slaps him while tears run down her face.

Later that night, Saki and Megumi find Tohru still frozen in shock. She calls Yuki to let him know Tohru will be spending the night with her. Shigure muses that Tohru must have been very shocked and hopes Saki doesn't get mad at him. Yuki interrupts his thoughts by offering to make dinner, which Shigure discourages out of fear.

Saki's mother asks if Tohru would like dinner and Megumi suggests she make tea. Saki brings Tohru the tea and Tohru asks what brought her to the park. Saki explains she sensed Tohru crying and asks if something sad happened. Tohru confides that she went to see Kureno for Arisa, but that he told her he can't because of someone he needs to stay with. She says Kureno is so kind for putting others over his own desire and laments that she couldn't say anything to help. Saki says she worries because Tohru does the same thing by putting others before herself and she worries that it will crush her. Arisa barges in saying if that happened it would be the end of the world. She apologizes for making Tohru cry and tells her she's not useless. Arisa embraces Tohru, says she loves her, and not to worry anymore.

Ren catches Rin sneaking around and says she knows what Rin is doing and would like to help. After Arisa and Tohru fall asleep, Saki says she thinks the exchange helped Arisa. Megumi asks if Saki thinks there's a chance it could work, which Saki is unsure of and they agree romance is complicated.

Tohru returns home full of hope. She finds her scarf inside and wonders how it got there. Kyo says he found it in the street and washed it for her but would buy a new one if she wasn't satisfied. Despite it still being wet, she puts it on and hits him with the pom, thanking him and promising not to drop it again. Yuki smiles at the sight of them. Shigure joins the group, complaining about Yuki's cooking, as Kyo chokes at the memory of his terrible food. The episode ends with Tohru joining her friends for school, cheerfully determined to work out the meaning of what Kureno told her.

Trivia

 * The episode title is taken from one of Tohru Honda's lines.
 * Ren and Isuzu's encounter was shown in a flashback later in Chapter 106.

Anime and Manga Differences

 * The opening scene with Tohru's narration over God's promise to the animals from the legend of the Chinese zodiac and the older Sohma shown younger was added for the anime.
 * Additional dialogue was added to Tohru's reaction to learning about Akito's gender from Kureno.
 * The anime made Akito and Ren's fight quite more violent than in the manga, adding in extra bits like Akito running while strangling Ren and pushing her through some Japanese paper panels and a traditional door before leaping in the air and then pining Ren to the garden stone floor.
 * The anime removed a small bit of Kureno's narration where he briefly paused in his story before explaining Akito's conception from Ren and Akira.
 * A bit showing the four older Sohma in their animal forms upon sensing Akito's conception was added for the anime.
 * While sobbing, Tohru's recollection of Kureno, Arisa, and Akito considering Kureno's present situation was removed from the anime.
 * When Shigure tried to keep Yuki from trying to cook in the manga after learning Tohru was spending the night at Saki’s, one part of this was depicted in stick-figure form.
 * Kyo recalling Tohru showing off her muffler to him was a little longer in the manga.
 * The anime added in spoken dialogue from Kyo and Tohru as Yuki observed their conversation with each other.
 * Shigure recollecting Yuki's badly-cooked dinner to Tohru actually took place after Tohru got home from school at the very end of Chapter 99 in the manga.

Episodio 51 (2019) Organisons un nouveau banquet エピソード51（2019）