Review of Fruits Basket
*Some spoilers. Also, I really, really hate Tohru, and no, I'm not particularly interested in the manga, nor am I interested in considering the plot of the anime within the wider context of the manga. I'm also assuming that you know the basics of the plot.* So, here it is. One of the most successful, popular, and enduring shojo anime series of all time... Let's start with the good first. 1. The character designs. I'm not necessarily a big fan of the huge-eyed ultra-cute style myself, but at least all the characters look distinct from one another, and are even given more than just one unique identifyingtrait. On the flip-side, nearly every male character actually looks female--while this is played for laughs throughout, it's not long before we've caught onto the fact that the primary artist here simply does not like drawing men, and probably should have just stuck with a mostly all-female cast instead of beating this dead horse. Still, on the whole, there's not much to argue with here.
2. Variety of animation style. Fruits Basket may shift through even more styles than FLCL, and that's saying something. Granted, it's got considerably more time to do so, but the team here display an accomplished sense of staging hyperactive animation sequences in such a way so as to not exhaust its audience. (The antics of two characters aside.)
3. Background art. Clean and pretty--detailed when it needs to be and pleasantly understated otherwise. No, it's not gorgeous scenery porn, but at least it's never treated like it is, so that the focus stays on the characters, instead.
As for the bad, well, most (and for the purposes of this review, pretty much all) of my complaints come down to the main character, Tohru Honda. She is the queen of doormats, of vapid moe-ism, of Mary Sues. She is so pure, lovable, innocent, idealistic, kind, caring, non-judgmental, helpful, and selfless that it's almost sickening. She's not a person. She's not even a character. She's an ideal masquerading as a character. There is no brain perched behind those wide eyes. No conflict deters her from her straight and narrow path to love everyone and make them feel better about themselves. She gets only one real moment of weakness, late in the series, but it feels so forced, and is over with so quickly, that you wonder why it was even bothered with at all. She is such a one-note character that once the 'big twist' of the series is revealed you know immediately how it's going to end, as it's far too late in the game to introduce another note now.
Perhaps this would be somewhat forgivable if she was more of an observer than an active participant in the story--but nope, everything revolves around her. She sits squarely at the middle of a complex dysfunction junction that various depressed, tragic characters meander about. She meets these characters one by one, listens to their tragedy earnestly, learns of their true nature (not infrequently due to her clumsiness), then cutely monologues about why their life is better than they think it is. Her monologues are so insipid that I could not recall even a slender portion of them by the time the closing credits of each episode rolled around--yet they have such powerful effect on the other characters that even the Big Bad succumbs to her without her even going at him in full-force--she merely threatens to play psychiatrist for him.
On the sliding scale of idealism vs. cynicism, this series obliterates said scale by just hammering relentlessly against the side of idealism. I suppose if you're looking for just consistent, pure heart-warming redemption, then this is the series for you. There is no challenge here--just slapstick comedy (admittedly occasionally funny) punctuated by saccharine, misty-eyed 'power of love and friendship' moralizing. I realize, of course, that sometimes all hurt people need is someone to love them and to listen to them. There is immense value in that. Fruits Basket, however, does not explore this need in any meaningful way. It exists on the same intellectual and emotional level that most romantic comedies do, and doesn't ultimately accomplish much more. (It arguably accomplishes less, since she doesn't even concretely wind up with anyone in the end.) I know that it's hard for people to not love something this cute and this well-intentioned, but its sweetness was too overpowering for my tastes. Not that I don't enjoy occasional fluff, but Fruits Basket fluff is so fine and loose that I could feel it clinging in my airways as I inhaled its fragrance. I'll require a powerful, burning tonic to wash it down, and therapy of a distinctly different sort than that which the smiling Tohru so readily and cheaply supplies.