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Jun 30, 2023

Fruits Basket: The Final (Anime) add

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This review covers all three seasons of Fruits Basket 2019. There are no spoilers. The anime follows the manga almost to the letter (with one exception, which I'll go into later). So the rest of this review will pretty much apply to both FB 2019 and the manga.

If you only ever watch one shojo anime for the rest of your life, make it Fruits Basket 2019. It is SO. DAMN. GOOD. There's a reason it's been the only shojo to go into the MAL top 10 (and it even hit #1), and is at the top of many "best of" lists. Most fans ... read the manga and/or watched the 2001 anime as a teen. But I discovered it in my 40s with Fruits Basket 2019, and it captivated me to the point that my family decreed I was obsessed. My teen and I discovered it together, and we both read the manga once and saw the show three times (once in Japanese and twice in English—the dub is fantastic).

STORY 10/10 -
At first it seems like a fun teen story about a clan whose members can turn into zodiac animals, and the girl who stumbles upon their secret and befriends them. But as it goes on, it barely can stay categorized as shojo and really goes into josei (adult) territory because of its extremely deep and sometimes very intense themes and events. The story hit me more deeply than most adult-targeted stories have ever done. Although somehow, the whole way through, it perfectly balances the hard parts with humor and lightness (just like real life often does). And those themes do apply to many teens' lives who experience trauma or difficult family dynamics, so in a way, they are still a (or the) main target audience. But who of us hasn't experienced these things? It gave me the impression that the mangaka must have gotten a degree in psychology, to be able to portray so many different aspects of life and the human psyche so very, very well. But she didn't – she's just extremely insightful. She herself said that the zodiac element was a "hook" to be able to delve into these things in a more engaging, unique way. And she succeeded spectacularly. Yes, you will cry, a lot. I should have bought stock in Kleenex while the show was airing. But there is also a lot of laughter. There's one episode my teen and I watched 5 times because it is so funny.

CHARACTERS 10/10 -
The characters are all interesting and unique. Even though there are a lot more of them than are usually focused on in a manga or anime series, they and their stories are each distinct enough to be remembered easily. Their personalities and actions are all very realistically shaped by their life experiences. The more central characters do, of course, have the most complex stories which get revealed bit by bit over the course of the series. (I would consider these to be Tohru, Yuki, Kyo and Akito.)

PRODUCTION 10/10 -
The art and the music is gorgeous and emotive. As soon as we put the OVA in the player tonight, the menu music evoked the same feelings in us as it had while watching the show. The OP/ED songs and visuals are all great too. The translation from manga to anime is excellent.

CRITICISMS-
1) The pacing of the anime could have been better. Season 1 (24 ep) was very slow (to the point that some people weren't interested enough to continue to where it really picks up the pace and depth). Season 2 (24 ep) was paced about the same as S1 but the story itself had gotten more complex by then. Season 3 (13 ep) was paced at the speed of a bullet train, and some parts of the story that most fans consider to be important, especially as the story neared its end, were cut out. (There is actually a video on YouTube of a viewer-only reading in shock the parts of the manga that S3 left out.) If in the first two seasons the pacing had been a bit faster and some less relevant parts had been cut out, the speed and deletions in S3 wouldn't have been necessary. The OVA covers one backstory that was left out.

2) Some characters' behavior in a few specific scenes was worse than it was in the manga, seemingly to make it more visually dramatic. So people who only watched the show could get the wrong impression of those characters due to this. For one example, a character hits another so hard that they get flung several feet into the air into a shallow pool and could quite easily have been seriously hurt, and doesn't apologize later. In the manga, the hit only pushes the other a few feet backwards, and there is an apology later.

3) The age gap relationships. This is a huge trope in shojo, and it was worse when the manga was written. The producers could have lessened the gaps to improve on that issue without fundamental change to their stories. At least since they are all "side stories" they don't take up much bandwidth in the series. There are four of them, and while the relationships are very interesting if you set the ages aside, this aspect is a detraction/distraction. Some people consider all four to be pedophilia. I actually researched the legal definitions of this to find out more about it, and my conclusion was that with two of them, it depends on what age the female was when she slept with them (which we don't know—it could have been when she was a legal adult). With the third one, the girl is 17 and the man is 26 when they meet, and they start dating when the girl is 18. With the fourth and most problematic one, the girl is 14 or 15 and the man is 22 when they meet, and they get married a year later. Nothing actually happens before their marriage, he isn't a pedophile in general (with other minors), and once married they have a respectful relationship, but this is very unlikely in real life and could mislead teen readers. (Although some fans have said that in their countries where marriages like this are more common, this outcome is not that unrealistic.) The OVA focuses on this last one, and although for some reason I was able to overlook it more when reading the manga, it was definitely uncomfortable to watch the pre-both-adults part of it.

Overall, Fruits Basket 2019 is an absolute must-watch for any anime fan, and I can't recommend it enough.

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Dec 18, 2021

Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta... X (Anime) add

Mixed Feelings

My daughter and I enjoyed Season 1 very much. It was cute, light and funny, and the characters were likeable and the progression of their relationships with the MC and why they all loved her were fairly believable within the suspension of disbelief that comes from knowing you're watching a harem anime. She actually did help them all grow and overcome some things, and they had an entire child- and teen-hood to become close to each other.

However, in Season 2 her cluelessness about their feelings for her was no longer excusable, cute or silly; it was extremely frustrating, particularly since some of them ... started getting much more forthright in their wooing. The "who are they going to fall for?" plot device cannot be stretched this thin without breaking. By episode 10 we were ready to throw things at the screen every time she said, "Huuhh??" or did not understand what a character meant even by an outright declaration or clear demonstration of romantic love. This is a person who loved otome games and romance novels so there is NO WAY she could be this clueless. And even if she was, did either of her moms not teach her ANYTHING about sex or relationships? She's 17, for goodness' sake. The excuse the writers give her is that she thinks so little of herself that she can't imagine anyone would love her that way. Oh how noble, she's so humble. Nope, it makes her look like an absolute idiot the entire season. And her reactions when someone went 'further' than she was comfortable with was not cute or funny but just weird.

I actually enjoyed the first arc because the new "love interest" she meets is the first one who is immediately up front with her about his attraction and she also expresses more open admiration for him as a person than I recall her doing with any of her other friends. And she doesn't recoil at his advances. So I actually kind of got my hopes up that maybe he was "the one" she would end up with. But nothing went anywhere with that the rest of the season and it focused on the other people, and he became just one more groupie.

There is almost zero story progression. It takes the entirety of season 2 (instead of the first few episodes as we expected) to even progress to the point where two of her suitors have finally gotten Catarina to realize they are in love with her and it's only because one of them said it loudly in her face, understandably frustrated at her complete cluelessness, and the other kept 'wooing' her with gifts and clear advances. And even AFTER they did this, she went into one of their rooms to show him her new PJs and the guy did the best thing in the entire season: exhorted her to realize they're all now adults and that people are sexually attracted to her, and not to put herself in situations she's not ready for. (If you've seen Ouran HSHC, he used the same tactic as Kyoya did.) When he asked her how she could still not realize he was in love with her after he actually outright told her, she said, "I thought it was a dream." That is the laziest possible writing right there.

And of course they ALL still love her and want her to 'choose' them, not just the two whom she finally knows do. So they're all still at square one in the relationship department. And now for Season 3 there are even MORE characters being introduced who, in her previous world, show up in the sequel game, so of course the same thing happens in the game world. And we're supposed to be excited for the harem to get new people in it? Definitely not at this point. The plot device is dead and needs to be buried and the characters need to move forward!

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Sep 17, 2021

Sennen no Yuki (Manga) add

Mixed Feelings

TL;DR: If you've got a little time to kill and really enjoy paranormal romance shojo, go ahead and read this. It's mostly cute and sweet. The first half does have some glaring story flaws, though. For more detail, keep reading!

I decided to read Ouran High School Host Club recently, and kept seeing ads for this in the back of those volumes, since it's by the same author. I'm really enjoying Ouran and the premise for this sounded interesting (I'm not "into" vampire fic, but have nothing against it) so I decided to try it. I almost stopped after the first volume, but then ... realized there are only 4 so I went ahead and read them. I'm glad I did because the last two were definitely better than the first two, and that's because the last two were done after a 10-year hiatus while the mangaka was working on the more popular Ouran and honing her skills.

Art - the art in the first couple of chapters was just okay, and the faces were actually not good. But it quickly improved over the course of the first volume. And it was very nice in the last two volumes due to the artist's increased maturity of style.

Story – One important thing to note is that this is VERY different in tone from Ouran. This is not a bad thing, just different. It has minimal comedy and is just a straight-out romantic drama. The story has a lot of rough patches mainly in the first half, which were removed or improved upon in the last half.

The problems I had with the first half of the story were as follows. [NOTE: I give examples from the story that don't affect the overall plot much and I try to keep as vague as possible, but I will put a spoiler warning before them.]

1. The MC (Chiyuki) was CONSTANTLY getting badly hurt, usually by getting her head accidentally hit. It seemed like every other page. The whole premise of this story is that she has a serious heart condition that she could die from at any time. But she manages to quickly recover from injuries that in some cases would have been fatal to anyone IRL, much less a girl with a heart condition. (Hatori even poked fun at this in a sidebar once, saying that Chiyuki must have a very thick skull, probably having realized how far-fetched these incidents were.)
[SPOILER] For example, her cousin tries to kill the vampire (Tōya) by throwing a rock larger than a bowling ball right at his head at close range. Chiyuki jumps in the way and gets hit in the head with it instead. There was no indication that the cousin slowed his momentum, and it should have killed her instantly.

2. There are some very contrived situations, some predicated on the fact that Chiyuki's parents were almost non-existent in the story--because no parents, unless they were pretty neglectful, would allow their daughter to do at least one of the things Chiyuki does. The story makes it clear that she did have parents who loved her and tried to give her the best care possible, though we don't really meet them that I can recall.
[SPOILER] Chiyuki goes on an overseas trip alone with the two male MCs (the vampire and the werewolf). All three are teens and no adults or other people go on this trip. AND they get lost in the mountains and never make it to the ski resort but end up in an old abandoned mansion. Interesting plot-wise, but halts any suspension of disbelief.

3. Some very unsavory behavior from two of the males.
[SPOILERS] First, the werewolf (Satsuki), who has a mild crush on Chiyuki, suddenly comes on to her. She tells him to stop, but he doesn't, and Tōya's bat familiar sees them and stops him. Later, a similar thing happens with Tōya but it's quickly revealed that there was an outside influence which caused it. Before this reveal, Satsuki is disgusted with Tōya for it, even though NO such explanation is ever given (or expected) for his own similar behavior. My only thought was that it perhaps is cultural, where females say 'no' when they actually mean 'yes' because 'no' is the proper thing to say. (This actually was true for a long time in Western culture, which is the reason for the woman's lines in "Baby, It's Cold Outside.") But that doesn't really make sense considering that Chiyuki has no feelings for Satsuki, and also that Satsuki was so indignant with Tōya for similar behavior. Second, Chiyuki's overprotective cousin actually ties her up to a pole in a room and leaves her alone there, to prevent her from interacting with Tōya. This is not only abusive and far-fetched but nonsensical; Tōya can fly anywhere, and also if she had a seizure and no one was there to help her, she could die. Hatori does express regret in the sidenotes of the 3rd(?) volume for having had the cousin do this.

My only other issue with the story is near the very end, which was something central to the story's finale but was hard for me to understand. I'm not sure if this is my own fault, or a translation or cultural issue, or a fault in the story itself.
[SPOILER, vague] Tōya finds out about something tragic that had happened with a much older vampire and his partner. Tōya looks more into their history, and finds out some things that better explain what happened with them. But it was hard for me to follow the explanation or the conclusions drawn from it, which is too bad because it is a catalyst for the story's finale.

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