Reviews

There comes a time for every generation of Otaku or general anime viewer, when they are done taking their baby steps into anime i.e. when they’ve stopped/watched enough of the most popular Shōnen or Mecha show/s and they become confident enough walking on their own that they start to go off and explore what’s around that big bad internet to see what other animes are out there, that, they stumble, or rather are introduced to (like myself) their first Shōjo/Harem/Moé/Yaoi show; You know, the K-On!’s, the Ouran’s, the Clannad’s, the Chobits, the Free!’s (for all you newbies) or hell, even Sailor Moon from back in the day. A show that compared to what you have been watching up until now is the absolute sort of thing you DON’T want to watch. Something that screams, “IT’S SO GIRLY!” or in my case, “IT LOOKS TOO SILLY, I WANT SOMETHING A BIT MORE SERIOUS!”. Although issues like these are nowadays, for the most part (in Scotland), non-existent, but back in say 2004 when I was a tender 12 years old, watching these kinds of shows was a whole different story. But for those brave & bold enough to watch shows like these and for those who were able to get past the insecurities they had, whether it was about how the show would make us feel, or if the art would be a problem or we just couldn’t get into the story, were introduced (depending on the show of course) fantastical worlds (and sometimes incredibly realistic worlds) chock full of charm, humour, compassion, friendship, family, love and also heartache, loss, despair, loneliness and emptiness with the latter emotions being the reason why some of these shows are some of our all-time cherished favourites.

Now (finally) the anime I’ll be talking about today, my first Shōjo, I’m glad to say, is such a show, whose manga I just finished not two nights ago and is firmly cemented into my heart as something I will cherish for the rest of my current life. Otaku’s, Otakette’s and the young’uns – I present my written review of, Fruits Basket, CUE THE MUSIC!!!

Now to start off with, the boring history stuff:

Fruits Basket began, and ended, life as a semi-monthly manga series written and drawn by Miss Natsuki Takaya (an interesting woman who both is left-handed and loves Final Fantasy much like myself) from 1999 to 2006 spanning 136 chapters and was then adapted into a 26 episode anime series. The anime was made by Studio DEEN - also responsible for things like, Initial D Third Stage, Rave Master, Getbackers, the Beyblade movie & Fate/Stay Night, so, not too shabby - and was directed by Mr. Akitaro Daichi, who has also directed Kamisama Kiss (a show I’m real interested in watching) and a show called We Were There (which also sounds right up my street).

Story

Now, Fruits Basket’s story may end up how all the other Shōjo tales do, one male or female “main” main character is surround by many numbers of the opposite sex (Fruits Basket does have females too but the results the same) who all each get their own episode and in turn they all fall in love with said “main” main character. But how it presents this worn-out formulaic type of story-telling is far for the status quo (which I will get to soon, so remember this part okay?). So, as we begin our journey through a Basket of Fruits, we have our “main” main character, Torhu Honda, a optimistic, kind-hearted, warm, selfless, oblivious and at time ignorant, but most lovely and genuine sweetheart, girl who at the beginning of our tale is living in a tent in the woods all by herself, through her own doing, as she was staying with her grandfather after her mother and father died, but decided to move out when her poor old grandpappy also had to let his kids and their families stay in his small house to which Tohru (being Tohru) felt she was being a burden. Then one day as Tohru is on her way to school, she stumbles upon a random house, which she obviously never noticed before, and these cute-sy little figures shaped into each animal the 12 zodiacs – now be aware that Tohru favours the Cat spirit of the zodiac and has a wish to become friends with the Cat as he is shunned and left-out by the rest of the zodiac. As Tohru observes the figures we are then introduced to the Sohma relatives, Shigure Yuki and Kyo who all decide to let Torhu stay after her tent is washed away in a landslide, so she can have somewhere solid to stay and may be a little bit because their house is dirty and nobody knows how to cook.
Now remember WAAAY back when I mentioned that although this show does eventually follow traditional Shōjo but presents it to us in a way that is more acceptable?
No!? Shame on you!
Yes? Fantastic, well done!
Well, anyways, the show’s unique spin to the boring Shōjo format is that it is revealed to Torhu that Shigure, Yuki, Kyo and ten others in the Sohma family are all possessed by the spirits of the zodiac and thus such are all related and bonded (spiritually) together because of it. Also in a very strange, and very Shōjo way, the Sohma’s turn into their animal forms when hugged by a member of the opposite sex, which, (ah, I hate to admit this) was kind of funny on more than one occasion. Shigure is the dog, Yuki is the rat & Kyo is the cat coincidently, which should paint a massive red target in him labelled, “OBVIOUS LOVE INTEREST IS OBVIOUS”. But the show does a great job of leading us astray at all times, “One episode it’s Yuki, the other it’s Kyo”, sort of thing.

And THUS, my friends, we have passed the Genesis of FruBa. From here on it’s par for the course really: Tohru, episode by episode, meets each of the Sohma’s possessed by the animals, they all fall in love with her & we don’t find out until the last episode who Tohru really wants to be with and thus presents us with no real conclusion other than the, “The road is long, our journey has just begun, I hope all days are like this forever” BULLSHIT that these sort of shows can give you. And yes, it is an anime-only ending which further cements the show’s disappointing end. Which is a real crying shame to be honest because the show does have bags of charm and character and when more than one Sohma is on the screen is does create some great watching as, because there are so many Sohma’s, it seems that a single emotion/trait has been attributed to the one character and no-one else and that one emotion all the only one they confidently portray, for example, Shigure is mischievous, Yuki is charming & Kyo is short-tempered and that IS ALL these three portray, obviously they smile, frown, laugh and get upset but they do it based off these emotions/traits.

Characters

For characters, I’ll just skin over the main four, Tohru, Kyo, Yuki & Shigure as they have the most screen time between them.

Tohru Honda

As mentioned before Tohru is probably the nicest person you’ll ever meet, but she’ll also be the most oblivious one as well. But that’s great for Tohru as she has this childlike way of doing these things that no matter what, you can’t help but hug the girl. The more you learn about Tohru, the more time you spend with her, the more familiar you become with her way of life, you cannot help but fall in love with Tohru. Try as you might, it’s impossible not to, unless you have no soul of course. But behind all the goofballness (I’m coining that) and just a plain nice person, is that serious side to Tohru’s life which like most of the other characters is quite heart-breaking and lonely. You get to understand that she has been through so much and most of the time she hides it through her innocence and optimism. She’s a true gem of a character and one I personally resonate with. I consider her a good friend of mine, and if you get to know her, she’ll be yours too.

Kyo Sohma

Now for my favourite character, Kyo, the Cat. Now where there are those parts of Torhu that I mentioned that are within me, there are also those “other” parts of me, which are within Kyo, more so than with Tohru. Kyo is very easily frustrated and angered, most of the time because he is incredibly defensive or has had his words taken in the wrong context and that sometimes upsets people which is the one thing Kyo doesn’t want to do, but his frustration gets the better of him, but he does make it up to people in the best way he can – niceness. This defining thing about Kyo is why I love him to death because it’s so like me, because we’ll both get frustrated over the littlest things and then when we calm down we’ll be like, “That was pointless, why did I get so upset with (insert name), better go apologise”. Kyo likes to do things his own way, much like myself, and likes to take themselves out of the group picture is he feels it will ease things, much like myself. Although Kyo may be hot-tempered, people can still tell he has a kind heart, he just doesn’t know how to express it without getting embarrassed which them gets him frustrated which then leads to him blowing up. Which is why having Tohru around is the best thing for him as slowly but surely, he finally loosens up and learns to just go with the flow. He’s a really great character and person who just wants to be accepted and has a big heart.

Yuki Sohma

Now Yuki is easier to get past as for me, like Kyo, I don’t really care for Yuki too much. He’s a nice guy and all, and he treats Tohru with nothing but respect. But he’s the “prince of the school”, the most popular kid, the “best looking”, the prodigy child, he can’t do nothing wrong, does everything right and never seems to have any problems. Me & Kyo HATE “perfect” people. But then, I started to get to know Yuki, and I started to look deeper into what made Yuki, Yuki and found out, like Kyo does, that he hates being perfect, he hates being the centre of attention all the time. Yuki actually wants what Kyo has: solitude. So in learning that, Yuki (who still don’t really care that much for), becomes a whole different person to me. Someone with more admirable qualities than I care to imagine and honour made of steel.

But I still don’t care for him, stupid Rat.

Shigure Sohma

Ah, Shigure. Shigure isn’t everyone’s absolute favourite character, but he’s the close second though. He would love that though, being all mischievous and such – every little slip-up the first favourite would make, there would be Shigure, laughing, teasing, and making the first sweat. I love that about Shigure though is that he loves to tease, not because he’s evil, but because he knows he’ll get a kick out of it and it’ll be real funny. He’s LOVES embarrassing Yuki and Kyo in front of Tohru. He is a real creature of comfort (very akin to the dog funny enough) and very rarely ever wears anything other than his dressing gown. If he was a real guy, he’d be your drinking buddy, let’s put it that way.

Art

Art wise, it’s very simply drawn and animated. It does contain many many MANY Moé moments where there are super cute animals on screen or when Ayame is on the scene of when Tohru is, well, being Tohru. It never impresses, but it never disgusts either. It’s as standard as standard gets, although it is very faithful to the manga.

Sound

The soundtrack is standard fare really, nothing you haven’t heard before. The opening and closing themes are decent enough that fans will download them. The only real star, music wise, isn’t even a proper song, it’s a made up verse sung by Momiji – but it is great though. Voice acting in the dub does have some saving graces (on paper) by the way of Eric Vale (Trunks in DBZ) as Yuki, Jerry Jewell (Claire Stanfield in Baccano!) & Laura Bailey (Amber in Darker Than Black) as Tohru, with only the latter putting in an above average performance.

Enjoyment

Despite having flaws in the art and sound departments (with the problems in sound just being about enthusiasm), Fruits Basket is rife with entertainment, but only if you want to find it, as it’s till after a few episodes (or really after Momiji is introduced) that the series really shifts gear into full “HAHA” mode. It also has some tender moments when Tohru is alone with either Yuki or Kyo that are lovely to watch - the plum on the back speech in episode 7 is the best example of this. And even though the ending is piss poor, you still cheer and want Tohru to succeed, so I guess, that’s enjoyment.

So, in summary, I’ve decided that Fruits Basket (as an anime) is the most special, un-special thing you’ll ever see, which is good in a way because when I look back on the anime now and how it ends; it’s really just a stepping stone to get you to the manga. The anime hardly covers anything the manga has to offer. So while the anime is nothing special and has a terrible ending, it’s supposed to be the platform to get you ready for the manga, which you should definitely read after watching the anime first. As the anime is just but a taste of what’s to come, as the manga, especially in the later half is an acquired taste to say the least. But it does have a satisfying ending. See, when I first watched Fruits Basket, it was just a simple enjoyable pass-time that I wished there was more of; and since there was and I’ve finished the story, I now look back on this anime and smile with nostalgic glee at all the memories contained within. So although this anime is not that special, if you read the manga after it, then come back, it soon will be. It’ll become one of your favourite shows, that you’ll eventually show your kids when your older and pass it down the generations with love, which is something that the manga is big on later on in the series.

Thus ends my very first review on MAL and my review of Fruits Basket, the anime. If people like this enough, I may do a short review on the manga. I hope I kept this spoiler-free and y’all enjoy it.

Thank you very much if you read this and I certainly hope it convinces people to pick up the series.

Thanks guys, see ya later!

JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!!!!