Fruits Basket - Reviews

I know it seems completely random for me to review "Fruits Basket," and in a way, it is. So here's why I chose now: I was looking through my list of anime to find something to review and BAM! there was this. Now STFU because it works.

Story: Honda Tohru, a goody-goody, sweet, innocent girl lives alone because her mother and father are dead. She can't burden the rest of her family, so she sets up a tent and goes on with her daily life. That tent, though, is set up on the property of a certain rich family called the Sohma. As it turns out, two of the boys living there (well, one joins up five minutes later) go to her school. Feeling sorry for the poor girl, Shigure (the "dad" [I use the term REALLY loosely]) and Yuki (pretty boy numero uno) take her in. Thus starts up the shoujo reverse harem mega-hit.

The story is cute and all, but incomplete. The anime covers only six+parts of two more volumes of the manga, which has 23 volumes. And that's just the thing. The manga is FAR superior to the anime, but that isn't unexpected in any way.

Animation: The characters look really generic, but the fact that they have animalistic features makes sense. (Oh yeah. The Sohma family has an ancient curse--the members are cursed to be zodiac animals [plus the cat] and, when hugged by a member of the opposite sex or when weakened, they transform.) The animation is not the most fluid of any anime by a long shot, but it serves its purpose. The comedy scenes work out well enough, and is actually quite funny.

Sound: A word of warning--if you watch this thing in English (as I did), you have to sit through the opening song, which has been dubbed. But it doesn't really matter, because the OP and ED are both completely forgettable and just boring. The insert songs are good, but could have been better. The voice acting is fine in both the dub and Japanese, but nothing too fantastic. However, John Burgmeier dubs a fabulous Shigure!

Characters: THANK YOU, DAMMIT! I've been waiting for the time to finally same something nice about this! Wait... aah, most of the characters are nice and all, but no one is truly incredible due to lack of development (this is ANIME ONLY). Some of the backstories are so touching you will cry rivers, and some tender moments between characters will make you hug your best friend. Unfortunately, since this covers so little of the manga, basically no development occurs. Heck, not even every character is introduced! Many of the members of the Sohma characters are seen for one episode and then never reappear, and two of them never even show up. Plus, the fact that the School Defense Force isn't mentioned just SUCKS. I love them, so MAKE A SECOND SEASON!

Overall: Screw the anime; it's only average. Go read the manga, though. Right now. Read it. READ IT.

Ahem.

What can I say? Lame. If you like cliched shoujo anime with hints of beastiality, the go for this. The scariest thing is that I know a guy who likes this show...

Fruits Basket is one of those anime that I've seen once, but I'd watch again for one character (he's only in a few episodes).  I know a lot of people love this anime, but I honestly don't know why.  It's a little immature and I guess the majority of the audience is 14 years old or younger.

Tohru Honda is a girl who lives in a tent; her mom recently died and she was living with her grandfather, but his house is being remodeled.  She told him that she would be living with a friend, but in truth she is living in a tent by herself because she doesn't want to be a burden to anyone.  One day, she passes by a nearby house on her way to school.  She meets the Sohmas.  Yuki Sohma is the "prince" of her school.  Yuki and his cousin, Shigure, walk by her tent one night and they invite her to live with them, after a landslide hits her tent, as long as she's their house keeper.

Soon, Tohru discovers the Sohma's curse.  While keeping Yuki and Kyou, another cousin, from fighting, she accidentally hugs Kyou.  This causes him to turn into a cat!  She ends up hugging Yuki and Shigure, too.  Yuki becomes a mouse and Shigure becomes a dog.  The Sohmas are cursed by the animals of the zodiac.  Anytime a member of the opposite sex hugs them or their body is stressed, they become the animal.  Tohru promises not to tell anyone, but Shigure must tell Akito, their leader, about the discovery.  Akito decides whether she gets to keep her memory or not.  He decides to trust her for the time being.  Akito is the main antagonist.  He pretty much decides the fate of anyone and everyone in the Sohma family and also anyone who knows their secret so he causes some trouble for them.

When I first saw this anime, I thought it was ok.  It is certainly not the best in any category, but it's ok.  The characters seem very one-sided, mostly because each animal has their own personality and they never stray from that.  Tohru is very naive and can be very annoying at times.  She's constantly worrying about every little thing.  Shigure and Ayame, the snake (which is my zodiac animal, too), are my favorites.  Shigure can be a little lecturous and writes trashy romance novels under a pen name.  He and Ayame are best friends.  Ayame is Yuki's older brother and is very eccentric.  Ayame and Shigure are the only reasons why I would watch it again.

Their are too many differences in the manga and the anime.  The anime is 26 episodes while the manga is 23 volumes.  The anime is very toned down and has alot of things that aren't even in the manga.  The anime really only follows the story up until volume eight of the manga.  The voices in the anime, for me, aren't the best.  Neither the Japanese or the English voices are good.  Both for Yuki are bad choices.  Tohru's English voice is not good either.  Shigure's English and Kyou's Japanese voices are pretty spot-on, though.

While it's certainly not my favorite, some people may like it.  If you enjoy the younger romantic types of anime, you may like it.  My advice for you, if you do decide to look into it, watch the anime first.  If you don't like the anime, then you won't like the manga.

This really is a amazing anime, I just really wished they wouldnt just drop it off like that now its like if you really want to know what happens after, you have to read the manga I mean really? If your gonna create an anime based off of the manga you should atleast finish the anime and not just end it like that.

So much I love about this anime. Well when I fist found out about anime planet this was one of my first anime to watch I think it was the second. I'm in love with each characters. They are so funny. I would say Momijy <--- I think thats how you spell it. Well I think that he has one of the biggest heart and his words just get to me, he is so full of hope. I also love Tohru she is a very nice girl but sometimes she can be to nice and it can get annoying. Another of my favoret caracter is Shigure. He is so funny, he always brings a smile on my face. The whole anime overall is very funny and really good. Sometimes the sory would be kind of low pace I think but its stile a good anime.