- The Sohmas are a family cursed, a curse which has led to their isolation for generations. When any single member of the family is embraced by a person of the opposite gender, they transform into an animal from the Chinese Zodiac! The Sohma s have managed to keep this embarrassing little secret hidden for many, many years. That is, until young Tohru Honda stumbles into their life. Inspiring som
The Sohmas are a family cursed, a curse which has led to their isolation for generations. When any single member of the family is embraced by a person of the opposite gender, they transform into an animal from the Chinese Zodiac! The Sohma’s have managed to keep this embarrassing little secret hidden for many, many years…
That is, until young Tohru Honda stumbles into their life. Inspiring some and infuriating others, Tohru manages to turn life in this most unusual household upside down as Zodiac rivals clash. But above all, she must promise to keep their secret as one of her own… Or face the consequences!
Stills from Fruits Basket (Click for larger image)
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Fruits Basket (the name refers to a children’s game similar to “The Farmer in the Dell”) has all the elements of a classic shojo (girl’s) series: a sweetly domestic heroine, unconventional living arrangements, and two romantic candidates–one exquisitely gentle, the other hiding a heart of gold beneath a thorny exterior. Sixteen-year-old orphan Tohru Honda has been living in a tent when she meets the Sohma family. Handsome, intelligent Yuki is the most popular boy in school; his older cousin Shigura is a pulp novelist; Kiyo, another cousin, is a hot-tempered, red-haired martial artist. Members of the Sohma family labor under a curse: when embraced by a member of the opposite sex, they turn into animals from the Chinese zodiac: Yuki becomes a rat; Shigure, a dog; Kiyo, a cat. (According to legend, the cat failed to attend the feast held by Buddha at which the animals of the zodiac were chosen, but Tohru adores cats.) After short time, they return to human form–naked. The set-up owes a lot to Ranma 1/2, but Fruits Basket is a schmaltzy romantic comedy, not a martial-arts farce.
Tohru moves into this weird household and wins everyone’s heart by cooking, cleaning, and keeping their secret. She also functions as an in-house Dear Abby, helping all the Sohmas with their emotional problems, which grow increasingly sentimental as the series progresses. Adolescent girls are clearly the target audience for Fruits Basket. (Unrated, suitable for age 13 and older, violence, mild profanity, minor risqué humor, tobacco use) –Charles Solomon
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April 17, 2008
#1
An anime for girls with a stereo typical sweet innocent 2 dimensional heroine, who begins the series 100% perfect and ends the series with zero growth or evolution as a character.
April 17, 2008
#2
I was very excited when I finally received this series since it wasn’t the traditional samurai warrior or giant robot Sci Fi I have seen so many times before. It was going to be a breath of fresh air, or so I thought. The first few episodes were great, very mysterious. But as I reached the half way point, things got dry, really dry.
The shows became very predictable- a little bad thing would happen and Tohru saves the day. I felt like I was back in psychology class again with all the narriating of Tohru’s thoughts. After awhile, the main character began to get on my nerves with her lack of personality. She was always happy happy joy joy. There were also cross-dressing men which can be fun, but there are so many in this show, they became annoying too.
What was the biggest disappointment, though, was the lack of the director’s creativity with the Sohma’s curse. I thought there would be a huge crazy spiel with the Sohma’s changing into their zodiac animals all over the place in public. I also thought they would take advantage of their ability to change into an animal more often. At the beginning, it looked like the Sohma’s could communicate or control their zodiac animals, but it turns out the animals just follow them. Even that aspect wasn’t even taken well advantage of in the show! Unfortunately for me, I have some creativity, and the show did not come even close to its full potential of crazines.
And the ending, don’t even get me started on that.
I suggest you stay away from this series if you like shows that aren’t predictable. I was able to predict what would happen next just like in Pokemon. This show was a major letdown for me.
April 17, 2008
#3
OK, there’s no denying it, I am attached to Fruits Basket. It is a very sweet, sentimental anime that captures your heart… For a while.
The story? Tohru Honda is a cute, soft-hearted girl who lost her father to an illness (pneumonia, according to the manga) at an early age, and just one year ago, she lost her mother too in a car accident. Not wanting to burden her relatives, she decides to live in a tent in the wilderness and look after herself. But it does not go to plan when a freak landslide destroys her tent and results in her living with her enigmatic classmate Yuki Sohma and his older cousin Shigure Sohma. With the arrival of another Sohma boy, a thorny teen named Kyo; all hell breaks loose when she discovers the Sohma’s transform into members of the Chinese Zodiac whenever embraced by a member of the opposite sex!
As the story progresses, and more members of the Chinese Zodiac appear, (schizophrenic cow Haru, angsty doctor and part-time dragon Hatori, weak-hearted tiger Kisa…) Tohru discovers that the life of the Zodiac ain’t all peaches-and-cream, and this results in more than a few clashes of personality. However, Tohru’s continues to turn to her late mother’s advice, and it helps her form new bonds and make new friends, and it begins look like a rice ball really can belong in a Fruits Basket after all! (You’ll see what I mean…)
Sounds like fluff? Perhaps. But Fruits Basket really is taught and emotional, bringing out very human weaknesses in its characters. In fact, it brings out TOO MANY human weaknesses in its characters, and that, I’m sorry to say, is what beats this promising anime down.
The main character Tohru, tries to stay cheerful and happy in the face of her mother’s death, but what starts off as a grieving child soon develops into something of an obsessive mother-complex. Tohru constantly longs for her mother’s help and advice, and is always tied to her photograph. You could argue that it’s because Tohru only ever had her mother to guide her, but watching a girl who, when her friend Kyo needs her desperately, can do nothing but drag her angst-ridden body through the rain and clutch at her mother’s grave, wailing in self-pity, may make you squirm in discomfort. It’s true that Tohru eventually pulls through, but only barely. Another quibble I had with her was her unbearably sexist role in the Sohma house. She does all the cooking, cleaning and shopping, and she’s not only good at it, she ENJOYS it. And to make matters worse, the entire Sohma family love her for it, and don’t bother to help. Even with Japanese gender politics aside, there’s no excusing the fact that they let a girl who’s living in their house do all the domestic service for free, and spend her wages from another, paying job on buying chocolates for them. It carries an unpleasant undertone, one that says “go on girls, return to domestic servitude where you belong, all the guys will love you for it!” Sure, it may not be as bad as a 1950s commercial, but it’s enough to put me off the main characters.
Then we have Tohru’s prospective love-interests – not that she notices them – Kyo (the cat – yes there is a cat too) and Yuki (the rat), who are about as opposite as would be expected. Yuki is soft-spoken and gentle, but he shies away from close relationships due to abuse in his past. Kyo is foul-mouthed and violent, but people are drawn to his OTT personality and he can function as a “normal person”. They both got on my nerves. Yuki’s unnatural swinging between self-pity and self-satisfaction, along with his role as the stereotypical “perfect pupil” may make viewers unsympathetic to his apparent plight. Kyo, who really gets the spotlight at the end, has certainly received more than his fair share of suffering, but that doesn’t excuse his downright abusive behavior towards others. Rather than “accepting Kyo for who he is”, I think the writers should have focused more on getting Kyo to be a nicer person. Neither of them get together with Tohru in the end, and at the rate this anime was going, it’s unlikely the viewers will care.
The other characters all follow the same pattern. They have frustratingly difficult personalities, and most of them have suffered in their past. But once again, this doesn’t excuse their actions. They really are difficult for the sake of being difficult. Some characters are a little TOO similar, Aya (the snake) and Ritsu (the monkey) for example. Despite their opposite personalities, both are long-haired, effeminate men with some serious gender-identity issues, and they both have unbelievable levels of self-pity due to problems in their past, which, once again, do not excuse their present behavior.
Other side characters also disturbed me. Momiji’s mother and Hatori’s ex-fiancé Kana mostly. I’m sorry, but I find it hard to believe that a woman would have a mental breakdown and reject her child just because he turns into a rabbit. People in real life suffer so much more than that, yet these characters are apparently so weak hearted that they cannot handle their problems. Kana was so convinced that she caused Hatori’s injury (even though she clearly saw Akito strike him across the face with an ornament) that she too broke down into madness. It’s not only unrealistic; it’s a lame plot device to create new and inventive ways for the male cast to suffer. One of the few bearable characters was Shigure, who has no problems in his past, he is kind and he’s actually funny. Of course, in the manga, the author Natsuki Takaya found something for him to angst about as well, *sigh*…..
I could go on and on, but that won’t change the fact that I continue to read and watch Fruits basket, and it is by no means a bad anime. My advice? Take the cuteness, take the comedy, take the uplifting subject matter, and leave the choppy animation and liberal amounts of human angst. It’s moronic, it’s self-indulgent, and it completely ruins an otherwise good anime.
3/5. Add another star if you like exagerrated angst or are willing to overlook the sexism.
Advantages – Carries the uplifting message that kindness and empathy can heal the suffering of others
- Inventive, original character designs
- The music suits the mood of the anime
- Excellent English and Japanese voice-acting
Disadvantages – Unpleasant sexist undertones
- Main characters WILL get annoying
- Last two episodes plummet into ridiculous, cheesy melodrama
- The episodes and formulaic (People arrive, people are difficult, Tohru makes a speech to klinky music and the credits roll)
- The ANGST
- … Why don’t people just LEAVE the Sohma family!? I mean, seriously….
April 17, 2008
#4
DVD navigation is great as far as I am concerned.
There are many instances when the background music drowns the conversations that I couldn’t figure out what the characters were saying even after I tried to rewind it.
My biggest complain though is about Tohru Honda’s character. Before anything else, I just want to make it clear that I do not hate Tohru Honda. I have been an anime lover for years and I’ve never hated a villain or any female anime character. I’ve never disliked Yanagi of Flame of Recca even when all she could do is cry and say Recca’s name. I am the type who would defend Haruko of Slam Dunk with all my might because some didn’t like her just because she likes Rukawa Kaede. I do not hate Rukawa’s fangirls or Yuki’s fangirls. I look at them like humans, with desires and longings and faults and all.
However, I am very disturbed by Tohru’s character. She is so unreal. It is very obvious that she was plucked out of a girl’s fantasy of being around beautiful men and being swooned over and yet very innocent about it. Now, even Yanagi and Haruko got to be surrounded by bishonens (beautiful men). What makes Tohru so different is that she is so perfect, so perfect that it makes me cringe. At 16, she is pretty, kind, goes to school and works as a cleaner aside from being a housekeeper at the Sohma house. At the Sohma house, she cleans, cooks, do laundry, wash dishes, etc, etc that you would wonder why she still has time to have friends. She smiles all the time and knows how to say the right words at the right time. EVERYBODY LIKES HER! Are you cringing yet? Almost every character in the anime would change their outlook just because they were touched by this kind and innocent looking girl. Take note that those characters are damaged in some way and yet they found some solace in her. Talk about ego.
Rules were bent just to accommodate her. Every outsider’s memories were erased but she was spared. Why? Who knows? Even the heartless Akito was touched by her sentimentality. It is not clear if it was because she is pretty and kind. How would the Sohmas know that she won’t betray them? Because she is perfect!
I just didn’t like the portrayal of Tohru Honda’s character. What kind of anime creator would make a girl take her dead mother’s picture to the hot springs so that they could bathe together?
Not only Tohru Honda is a typical Mary Sue, she is also a typical big-eyed, short-skirted high school girl. What could be worse?
Yes, Virginia, there is more. All the Sohmas are goodlooking! I don’t even feel bad for Kyou when he transformed into a hideous beast because I know it is still him, just a different form. What made me feel for his character is because he was so left out when he was tricked by the rat in the zodiac. And I am a cat lover!
However, parents-dying-and-brothers-not-getting-along plot are so common that it fails to arouse sympathy.
On the plus side, there are a lot of lessons that we could get. How ironic is it that for all the supposedly mature characters, a younger boy would stand out? Momiji has probably one of the most painful and touching experiences. How can anyone not cry when he said that no matter how painful the memories were, he would never, ever choose to forget them? Personally, that is the highlight of this anime.
Hattori is another one who had a very painful past. How tragic must have it been to be the one to erase one’s memories from a beloved?
Shigure is probably my most liked character because he is so real. He doesn’t fail to make you laugh. He doesn’t hide his feelings. He says things as they are and he doesn’t care what people think of him. He likes teasing people and doesn’t hide his penchant for high school girls.
April 17, 2008
#5
Let me just say for a girl, I’m glad that sixteen year old orphan Tohru Honda has been living inside a tent when she meets the Sohma family, that lets you know girls can get treated like animals too but she doesn’t turn into one like the Sohma does let me explain. They turn into animals when ever being embraced by a different sex when they change back into humans they show up nude. I left off one star cause I thought the animation was a bit childish.