Fruits Basket Review
Review:
Honda Tohru has always looked at things very differently then most people. Since she was young she had lived alone with her mother. She loved her mother dearly and the two were the best of friends. But when Tohru’s mother was involved in an accident and killed, Tohru was left all alone in the world. Fortunately, her kind Grandfather was willing to take her in, and although she did not want to be a burden, Tohru accepted his hospitality gratefully. However, when he offered to pay for Tohru’s schooling, she insisted that she pay for it herself, that she could never ask such a large favor. So she began to balance her life of school work and her part time job (working as a maid at a hotel), always swearing to herself to do her best. At least this was how things were going, that is until her Grandfather asked Tohru if she could stay with a friend for about a month so that he could get some remodeling done on his house. Despite the fact that she didn’t want to intrude on her friends Hanajima Saki or Uotani Arisa, Tohru assured her Grandfather it’s no trouble. However, due to Tohru’s extremely innocent and self-sacrificial attitude, she would rather take hardships on herself then put others out. So Honda Tohru set out and resigned herself to live in a tent in the woods until the reconstruction was done. Around a week had passed in these unusual living circumstances and Tohru was managing to get by, somehow keeping up with her job and her schoolwork while living in her tent.
However, on a seemingly normal school morning, Tohru’s life would take an unexpected and amazing turn. While walking through the woods on the way to school, she ran across a traditional house situated seemingly in the middle of nowhere. She went a little closer to get a look at the house, noticing a collection of 12 decorated rocks sitting on the porch. She noted to herself that the 12 different animals from the zodiac were all represented in this collection and that there was no cat, an animal who since the beginning, had been excluded from the Zodiac. Emerging from the house, an attractive man who appeared around 10 years older then Tohru seemed surprised to see a girl standing outside his house. The man seems quite impressed by Tohru’s knowledge of the Zodiac story and in particular of her interest in the cat. As the two spoke, the conversation was suddenly interrupted by another member of this strange household, Sohma Yuki. Yuki is a classmate of Tohru’s and the “Prince” of her high school; he is regarded by all as a very charming and elegant person. After seeing that Tohru and Yuki recognized, the other man identified himself as Sohma Shigure, Yuki’s cousin. The day went by and after an interesting day and school and a hard day at work, a tired Tohru returned to the tent. Yuki and Shigure happened to be traveling nearby and noticed Tohru entering a tent. They approach the tent, and much to Tohru’s dismay, they discovered her secret. They brought her back to their house, where she explained her circumstances to the Sohmas. Shigure and Yuki insisted that it isn’t healthy or safe for her to live in a tent. As she attempts to persuade them that she is used to it, her exhaustion catches up with her and she falls over.
As the two men are caring for her, a dog howls in the distance and Shigure suddenly comes to attention. He mentions something about a landslide near the tent and the 3 go there to investigate, only to find the tent buried in a landslide. Tohru frantically begins clawing away at the loose ground, trying to save her mother (the picture of her mother) from being trapped. The two stop her, insisting that she will make her fever worse if she continues. And so Tohru willingly returns to the Sohma house to rest and recover. Meanwhile, with a mysterious air about him, Yuki leaves the house with what appears to be an innumerable number of rats in order to locate Tohru’s things. In the morning, Tohru wakes up to find all of her things safe and sound. On top of that, Yuki invites Tohru to stay in the vacant room on the second floor until the remodeling is done at her Grandfather’s. She refuses at first, not wanting to take advantage of the Sohma’s kindness. However, when Shigure says that in return for staying, Tohru can do all of the housework, she gladly accepts the offer.
As she and Yuki work on bringing her things into the room, a strange noise starts coming from the roof. With almost no warning, a huge hole is blasted through the ceiling and through it jumps an agitated looking orange haired boy, about the same age as Yuki and Tohru. The orange haired boy immediately challenges Yuki to a fight, and he rushes at Yuki. Quite distressed and confused, Tohru tries to break up the fight. In the process, Tohru accidentally trips and falls into Kyo. There is suddenly an unexpected explosion and Kyo disappears in an orange plume smoke. When Tohru begins apologizing, she suddenly finds herself talking to an orange cat. As Shigure and Yuki try to calm her down, some debris falls from the hole in the roof and makes her lose her balance, causing her to fall into Shigure and Yuki. As the colored smoke appears again, a white rat and a black dog are left where Yuki and Shigure were moments before. Tohru will later learn the cause of this transformation and the secret of the Sohma family: whenever they are hugged by members of the opposite sex or become excited or weak, they change into a cursed spirit of the Zodiac. There are 13 members of the Sohma family that are each possessed by a different evil spirit, Yuki (the Rat), Kyo (the Cat), and Shigure (the Dog) are only 3 of them. As Tohru continues her daily life amongst these cursed individuals, what sort of experiences will she have? And will Tohru get to meet the other 10 members of the Zodiac? What trials and tribulations await her along her path? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure, Tohru’s life will never be the same again.
Music
To say that the music from Fruits Basket was uninspiring is to give it a great deal of credit… I can’t say that I ever spend my time listening to the music from Fruits Basket if I have a choice… There are perhaps one or two tracks on the OST that stand out for me, but that hardly impresses me at this point in time. The music fits into the show well I suppose, but it’s far from noteworthy in my mind.
Art/Characters
I don’t usually find a lot of middle ground with the character designs in Furuba. The main complaint that I have heard about the character is the size of their eyes. Even for anime, some of the characters (especially Tohru), have extremely large eyes. I personally think that the character designs are amazing. The eyes in the show are so expressive. Really, the character designs in Fruits Basket are among the ones that I have found myself being impressed with over and over. While I’m mentioning the characters, I’ll briefly say that the Japanese voice talent that is used in Fruits Basket is top notch. All of the voices fit the characters extremely well and I was nothing but impressed with it throughout. But back to the art, I though some of the backgrounds are a bit lacking to me at times, but for the most part, I was very impressed with the animation in the anime. The characters are truly brought to life, from their unique appearances and movements to their facial expressions and reactions. The characters in Fruits Basket are extremely memorable, even besides the main cast, characters like Kagura and Haru are completely unforgettable and are some of my favorite characters in any show. Fruits Basket undoubtedly has one of the best and most varied casts in all of anime.
Storyline
The story of Fruits Basket always impressed me. I’ll just mention up front that the show has a somewhat inconclusive ending. It’s not terrible, but it does little to tie up all the loose ends. For this reason, many fans of the show still hope for a second season. This wish may not be entirely hopeless as the ending event in the anime was a fairly early event in the manga, which is still ongoing in
Final Word
Fruits Basket is one of the more notable titles that has come around in recent years. It is a shoujo title (meaning one that was created with a target audience of young girls), but it is far from exclusive to that audience. Fans of shounen (anime made for boys), old fans, young fans, people just getting into anime, those who have been watching for years, all of these groups can find something to love in Furuba. It crosses the often strict boundaries of genres and provides a spectacular storyline, deep and interesting characters, and enough other impressive traits that I couldn’t hope to list them all. This show features almost unmatched comedy, powerful drama, and even a few short bits of decent action, it’s truly a title that shouldn’t be missed. Basically what I am trying to say is don’t let appearances or names fool you, no matter what kind of anime fan you may be, Fruits Basket has something that you will love. The 4 disc box set is available from Funimation (who actually did a pretty good job with it) for a pretty fair price. I highly recommend this show. It is not only a great show on its own merits, but can serve as a great segue into shoujo for anyone who has ever been interested in this genre.
Fruits Basket rating: )))).gif)
(This review/pictures made by Throughhim413)
Fruits Basket Review
Fruits Basket Review
Story:
Honda Tohru is an ordinary high school girl living in an extraordinary situation. Since her mother died, she’s been living with her grandfather until the house they lived under had to be renovated. Although she said that she’d stay at a friend’s house during the time, because of her good nature, she ends up staying in a tent in the woods. After about a week of managing to live in these conditions, she comes upon a small house in the woods where she learns that one of her classmates and one of her school’s most popular boys, Sohma Yuki, lives with his cousin Shigure. Later that night, a rockslide destroys her tent and Tohru collapses from exhaustion while trying to get her things. Yuki and Shigure take her back to their house, and when Tohru wakes up the next morning, she discovers all of her things in the room that she had slept in. Yuki and Shigure say that she can live with them in exchange for doing housework and Tohru accepts the offer. Suddenly an orange haired boy, Kyo Sohma, breaks through the roof and begins to fight with Yuki. Tohru tries to break up the fight, but trips and falls on Kyo, and he is instantly in a puff of smoke, turned into an orange cat. Tohru panics and fall again, this time onto Yuki and Shigure, and they suddenly turn into a rat and a dog. They then explain to her that the Sohma family is cursed and when certain members are hugged by a member of the opposite sex, they transform into an animal from the zodiac. This will change Tohru’s life in many ways as she begins to live with the Sohma family. Will she be able to keep the family curse a secret? What adventures await her on her journey though high school, and what’s with those crazy Yuki fangirls anyway?
Plot:
The plot for most of Fruits Basket is pretty simple and a single story usually never lasts more than two episodes. This is hardly a bad thing, and the content itself is great. Usually every few episodes a new member of the Sohma family with the curse is introduced and somehow manages to end up transformed one way or another, whether it be because they happen to hug or get hugged, fallen on, etc. by Tohru or any other number of ways, it’s usually pretty funny, or in one or two cases, serious. Overall, the plot is very good one and I really liked the ending, despite the fact that it still leaves a lot to happen.
Characters:
The show’s characters are what make it so great in my opinion. Tohru is by far one of my favorite characters of all time. I love everything about her, her looks, her personality and her way of dealing with problems. She also has a great voice that I felt fit her personality perfectly. Of course, part of the greatness in the shows characters comes from the Sohma family. They have some of the most ranged personalities in a show that I’ve seen in a while. Calm, aggressive, shy, split personality, etc. you name it and there’s a good chance someone in the show, if not a member of the Sohma family, someone will be like that, like Tohru’s friend Hanajima, who has the ability to sense vibes and to uses these powers to help protect Tohru on occasions, mostly from the crazy Yuki fangirls. As for the character designs themselves, I’m quite a fan of the larger than usual eyes seen in Fruits Basket. If anything, I think it serves to make some of the characters cuter (mainly Tohru, Kagura and Kisa). The Zodiac forms of the Sohma family are also well done and because of how they’re designed, the emotions of the characters come through in their zodiac forms as well.
Music:
The music in Fruits Basket is pretty good overall. The BGM fits the series well, but unfortunately, I really didn’t notice it at all very much. On the other hand, I really liked the opening and ending themes, For Fruits Basket and A Small Prayer, plus Serenade. These three songs are what really stand out for me.
Final Thoughts:
Fruits Basket is a great series and one I enjoyed watching greatly. The characters are probably my favorite part of the show and it’s reason enough to watch it. The character development is greatly done throughout the series, especially in Tohru’s and the Sohma’s development. Fruits Basket is a great shoujo title (Even though I haven’t much shoujo yet) and should appeal to a wide audience range, even to those who don’t normally watch shoujo. The whole series is available in a box set at a very reasonable price considering the content and I would recommend this show to everyone. And while I have yet to read it (soon to change), anyone who enjoys the anime should chack out the manga, as the anime ends around volume 8 of the manga (which is currently available up to volume 11 in the US and still going in Japan). Once again, thanks to Throughhim for recommending this to me, another great series (Every anime recommended to me by him as gotten either a 8 or a 9, and a 10 and a 7 in one case).
Final Score – )).gif)
(Review written by Kiryu-Sushi-X) (Pictures made by Throughhim413)