The plot was simple and plain, mostly giving a moral a episode involving friendship, hilarious classic lines, mostly from Shigure, and emotional backstories that make you want to cuddle the poor little puppies. It's not that the story was at all bad, it just wasn't very good. But the story and writing was fluff, not just a little fluff, I mean so fluffy that it's like falling into a vat of cotton candy with rose petals. This show is that fluffy. Then again I'm a guy so I may not get the whole point since this show is the physical manifestation of GIRLINESS, the ultimate shoujo. I felt very awkward but oddly I liked it more as I watched, which I still wonder whether that is a good thing or not.
The last two episodes change the mood of the series, drastically. They were both slower than the rest of the series with long still shots. Though as a rule the series is slow, but I think it was the perfect pace for a storyline of this type. But the final episodes were the strong point of the plot of the show (even though it doesn't happen the same way in the manga). The ending was not satisfactory, but it did get me dying to read the manga, so was that their goal?
The friendship speeches could have been very annoying, but they weren't (shounens could take some lessons from this series). In fact they were well spoken and argued the fact fairly logically, but incredibly fluffy. The moral of the episode format was admittedly heartwarming and not predigested like so many other shows (especially when it comes to most things made by westerners).
Art: 6
The art was nothing spectacular, I didn't see it as particularly well done. The backgrounds were good but the animation was simplistic and not overly smoothe. Though the simplistic style helped when it came to punchlines. The character designs were good, but still didn't overly impress me.
Sound: 8
Music, not that great. Just listen to the intro. Nothing in the series popped out and I think more dynamic music could have helped. The voice acting in the dub on the otherhand was perfection. Everyone was cast wonderfully, though at times I found Kyo a bit annoying, but it was probably the personality of the character more than anything. Yuki had a soothing and calming voice, actually the majority of the cast was soothing and relaxing on the ears, save three characters, but they're meant to be that way. This is a good series to watch before bed, so you can have a night of nice voices and fluffy happy dreams.
Character: 9
The characters in this series are probably some of the best made and most memorable of all anime. They are very deep and more than meets the eye. I paricularly loved Shigure with all his exasperation and pervy comments (which he said purely for reaction and a smack on the head). Tohru may seem a bit too good to be true, but I can find her believeable since I have a sister EXACTLY like her, so much so it was creepy and I'm so glad she lives in a protective family.
The secondary cast was surprisingly good, I can't say that any of the supporting characters had any notable flaws. The villain of the series remains mysterious and intimidating and to this day I have no idea what to make of him (again I must read the manga).
Overall: 7
A bucket of fluff and warm fuzzies that gives some good life lessons. This show IS worth checking out and I highly recommend it... to GIRLS. If you feel I rated it too low maybe I would have graded this show a bit more fairly had I been a girl. But this was only my second shoujo (after Ouran which doesn't seem shoujo in the least anymore). This series could have easily run another 26 episodes, there was so much more to the storyline to cover The full Fruits Basket English dub can be viewed at www.hulu.com/fruits-basket and www4.funimation.com/video/?page=show&b=31
Parental Caution:
-There is a significant amount of swearing, though it's limited to d*** (or dang), hell, crap, and sucks.
-One character makes a brief, mildly innappropriate comment (and no I'm not talking about Shigure's frequent creepy comments, those are oddly clean, just awkward and hilarious)
-When the characters turn back into humans they are naked, though this was sensored thoroughly with puffs of clouds and convenient obsticles.
-Another character argues in defence of some school boys who went to the redlight district. However he is displayed as in the wrong.
-Same character owns a store where he makes maid, nurse, school girl and other such male fantasy outfits, however none of them are revealing and the topic is not discussed at length.
-Many characters suffered something tramatising in their past.
-There is a crossdresser, but he does resolve his issues, and it may be of interest especially to parents.
-Simple awkwardness, the whole thing with this naive girl being surrounded by all these males may have parents on guard, but nothing comes of it and it's quite innocent.
