Review of Fruits Basket

Number of Episodes: 26 (20 minute each episode) Plot: A+ *After the death of her mother, a young girl named Tohru Honda decides to live in a tent so that she doesn't inconvenience her friends. Unbeknownst to her, the tent was on the property of a member of the Sohma family which has a curse upon them. This show is about how Tohru interacts with the various members of the Sohma family and how they slowly become a part of her family. It takes a Chinese tradition of the Zodiac but makes it fresh with an original idea which makes for a super fun but oftenvery sad scenario. This is an anime that will win you over quickly with it's quirkiness and its cuteness. But be warned for some super heavy moments too.

Visuals: B- *Much like Evangelion, the characters have super pointy noses and really cute designs. Since the show seems to have been targeted more for females, the characters like Yuki or Ryo are almost drawn too cute to a fault. It's never enough to ruin an episode or anything, but I do roll my eyes when it happens. As for the rest of the art, it is typically not very detailed and is very simplistic but will change pending on the mood to make for greater comedic effect or to make the many feelz moments even more heartfelt. Still, the simplistic and at times lazy style could be a turn-off for many people that detracts from an excellent story.

Voice Acting: A+ *Outside of the many anime cliche temper tantrums and the Yuki fanclub, the voices are super cute in this show and I want to place my hand over my heart and go "Awwwww!!!" every time Tohru's voice cracks. But honestly, what's even better than the voice acting is the dialogue itself. Most anime dubs (and subs especially) have some odd phrasing and a lot of cringey lines. Fruits Basket certainly is guilty of cringe, but I think it uses analogies, stories, and symbolism to form memorable dialogue better than any other anime that I've seen which leads to a lot of powerful moments.

"A rice ball doesn't belong in a fruit's basket." (When the opening theme played as the little kid called out RICE BALL at the end while Tohru was crying tears of joy while she found her new family. You best believe my heart was feeling those feelz)
*Side note, I really really wanted to eat a rice ball because of this anime and because of this discussion. I did and was not disappointed. Those are delicious!

"So if somebody is jealous of somebody else, it's probably because it's easier to see the plumb on somebody else's back than it is on your own. Yep I can see it. I can see it very clearly Kyou. You don't know it, but you've got a great big plumb on your back." (If someone said this entire speech about me, I don't even know how I'd react. But I do know I'd have the urge to hug Toru so hard. Maybe that's why Kyou ends up snapping at Toru because he wants to hug her but knows he can't. So he lets out his frustration instead of giving his gratitude at first... Boy am I glad I don't have that curse, )

When the snow melts, what does it become?... Spring (Paraphrased, but this clever exchange is what kick-started Hatori and girlfriend's relationship and what allowed Hatori and Tohru to really connect when Toru mirrored girlfriend's answer)

Film Score/Soundtrack: A+ *This anime has a lot of emotional moments and a lot of witty humor and even more emotional moments and the music reflects that. It strikes the right cords at the right time and even as a standalone listen, it makes me want to relive moments from the show again and again. That's the making of a good film score.

***My favorite track:

Memory For You (I am cheating with two because "Memory of You" needs to be added to this list because it is used the most often within the show and it never ceases to not be the one of the most beautiful melodies that I've ever heard.)

Serenade (The true GOAT of the OST. The Japanese version is the full and official song, but once again I prefer the vocals of the English one. But either way, the strings of the violin and the overall beat of the song and the chords are just so pretty and I will re-listen to this a million more times and never grow tired of it. And that's likely because it reminds me of the violins on Dream Theater's The Astonishing album.

Characters: A+ *The strength of the show. I loved getting to meet the Sohma's, learning about their eccentricities and finding out how Tohru would accidentally turn them into their Zodiac animal lol! This is a world full of lots of heart because of the charm of this cursed misfit family. Here's how I rank the characters I find most memorable.

1: Tohru- adorable personality, selfless to a fault, reminds me of myself with her mannerisms and how I overthink my every interaction with people. A very lovable protagonist and she has at least one put my hand over my heart and say "Awwww" speech per episode it seems.
2: Shigure-his always happy, friendly, and dumb personality reminds me of Mr. Peanutbutter from BoJack Horseman which is fitting since they're both dogs. He has wisecracks for everything and he can turn any situation into a good one. I love how he messes with his editor and felt so bad for her haha
3: Ayame-always extravagent, always over-the-top, and always so funny. He's only in a few episodes, but he steals the show in each one that he's in. And I love that his main goal was to win Yuki's love over but struggled to do so because his strong personality was too much for Yuki. It was a valuable lesson about friendship with people that are very different.
4: Yuki-the calmest Sohma outside of when he deals with Kyo. He's the one that is the best fit for Tohru if they did force a relationship out of the show (which I'm happy that they didn't). And he's a really good guy even though he's super popular and talented at pretty much everything. Also, his rat form is super cute!
5: Hatori-he has a cold introduction to Tohru, but once she breaks the ice after finding out his tragic backstory, (honestly that might be the best episode in the series) we find out that Hatori is the wisest of the Sohma's and is a really good guy.
6: Kyo-short-tempered, always trying to pick fights, and always finding ways to complain about something, but we grow to love him anyway. And I love how protective of Tohru he becomes. Especially when Tohru is too nice or timid to protect herself, Kyo is not afraid to be brash or rude on her behalf. And damn did he have a sad backstory.
7: Momiji-the crossdressing little boy who cries "waaaaahhh waaahh" every time someone picks on him. Minus the crossdressing, he reminds me of my cousin when he was younger which irritated me. But like my cousin, he's actually a really sweet kid once you get to know him. Plus, his backstory episode damn near made me cry and Tohru hugging him after that is a top 5 moment in the entire series. The feelz!!!!
8: Saki-electric signals girl doesn't ever have her powers explained but that's ok because we find her just as weird as everyone else and we love her because she loves Tohru. She uses her psychic abilities to help Tohru several times in the series including at a very powerful junction at the end of the series.
9: Hatsuharu-I find it funny how he can be nicer than Yuki who is normally the calmest of the Sohma's and than go black in which he's even meaner and more obnoxious than Kyo. A really fun character that I would have enjoyed seeing more of.
10: Kisa-OMG SHE IS THE CUTEST!!!! I am just like Tohru fawning over her adorableness. Besides the biting of course that was mean, but I can deal with a couple bites if I got to hug and squeeze Kisa like Tohru did.
11: Kazuma-he only shows up in the last three episodes, but boy does he make his mark when they show Ryo's backstory.
12: Arisa "Blonde Friend"-the second of Tohru's friends who is always there for her. She doesn't get as much of a focus as Saki does, but she is a really good friend and is super aggressive and weird and it was easy to see why Tohru loved her.

Cringeworthy Anime Moments: There is a lot in this series and it is what will prevent a lot of people from getting into this show like I did. For starters, this is a Shoujo which means it is designed for young females whereas a Shounen is designed for young males. That means they both have their sets of cringey quirks. Shoujo tend to have a lot of cutesy artwork whenever they focus on the male leads faces with their hair moving around in slow motion in the breeze. And much like Shonen, there is actually a lot of dumb fighting and over-the-top anime humor too. Kagura is one of those characters that's entire purpose is to get involved in scenes like that where she mercilessly beats up Kyo because she "loves" him and she is both verbally and physically abusive but because she's a girl it's meant to be seen as cute when she's really just pyschotic. Thankfully, most of the fighting is actually pretty funny or started in a reasonable way. But there are quite a few fights that you just need to roll your eyes an d accept are going to happen to get through with the rest of the super wholesome story. Oh, and you need to accept that Yuki has a fan club of super-obsessed girls in it too. Why Japanese high school anime tend to follow this annoying trope I will never understand.

Titles:

Opening: A+ *Super cute and catchy! By episode 5 I was singing along to the lyrics. One of my favorite openings to any anime.

Closing: A+ *There's also this super pretty version that plays at the end of the 26th episode which is a bit more melancholy and serious in nature while the one that plays at the end of each episode is more playful in nature. Either way, I love both versions and listened to them both more times than I can count.

Final Verdict: 8/10 *The type of humor that this anime employs is of the intentionally cutesy/cringey kind. But due to the use of percussion drums and the film score at appropriate times and good deliveries from the voice actors, the majority of the jokes land and the concept of humans turning into small animals after being hugged leads to all sorts of hilarious situations for Tohru to have to figure out how to fix. But what makes this show go from cute and quirky to memorable and heartwarming are the heavy moments that the curse on the "Sohma" family brings to the show. Even though this show was described to me by a guy friend as a "girl's anime", I think that this was more about friendship than anything else and I enjoyed every minute of this!