What They Say:
After the loss of her mother, Tohru Honda finds herself living quietly in the woods, hoping to live as independently as possible. However things take a sudden turn when her classmate, and school idol, Yuki Soma, offers to let her stay at his home. While Tohru’s situation seems to have changed for the better, Yuki’s family has a secret: they can transform into animals based on the Chinese zodiac. Thus begins Tohru’s exciting and strange new life with the Somas.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers) So I’ve been an anime fan for something going on 15 years now and in that time I’m ashamed to say I had never seen even a single second of Fruits’ Basket. I’d known the show had been held up as a beloved classic for pretty much the entirety of my time with anime, and it was something I had always meant to get around to but never quite did. For a long time, shojo anime wasn’t really in my general wheelhouse of entertainment and combined with the fact that the art style of the series got progressively more dated with each passing year, I kept pushing it further and further into my backlog. However when it was announced that the manga would be receiving a new anime adaption, it seemed like a great opportunity to finally dig into this series, and just see how well it lives up to its reputation.
The series starts off as our heroine Tohru finds herself living out in the woods a few months after her mother’s death. She ends up having a chance encounter with her popular classmate, Yuki Soma, whose family happens to own the forest she’s camping out in, and after finding out about her living situation, he and his cousin Shigure agree to let her live in their home. This offer comes with some unexpected hazards though, as it turns out that members of the Soma family have the strange ability to turn into animals related to the Chinese zodiac whenever they get sick or hugged by a member of the opposite sex. Yuki can transform into a rat, Shigure into a dog, and their hot-blooded cousin Kyo, a cat. Having read a story about the rat and cat animals of the Chinese zodiac as a child, Tohru finds herself drawn to Yuki and Kyo, who both seem to have plenty of problems of their own.
This description seems like a pretty basic setup for a lighthearted shojo rom-com, but the series is already proving to have more dramatic undertones than its fluffy premise would suggest. While Tohru is presented as being extremely earnest and humble in a way that makes her instantly likable, her desire to avoid inconveniencing others as much as possible appears to stem that she and her mother were poor while she was growing up, and even the possibility of her going to high school seemed to be a financial strain on her mother. Because of that, Tohru feels guilty over the fact that she couldn’t give her mother a proper goodbye before she died, and while she dreams of being able to live on her own someday, she doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of self-worth. Yuki and Kyo are also pretty interesting characters in their own right so far as their apparent rivalry towards each other not only stems from the obvious joke regarding the animals they represent but in how they view their family situation. Yuki carries a lot of hatred towards the Soma family and the lengths their willing to go to in order to keep the zodiac transformations a secret, whereas Kyo seems to want the family’s approval and seems jealous of whatever standing Yuki currently has with them, causing the two of them to butt heads. Exactly where these character arcs will lead is hard to say at this point, but I’m already interested in learning more about them, and this is definitely the fastest a shojo series has grabbed me in quite a while.
It helps that the show is just as impressive on the visual front so far. Considering the dated look of the first anime series is part of what made me avoid getting to it, I’m happy to say that this new adaption has a great aesthetic going for it. While it’s not exactly bursting at the seams with impressive animation, the updates to the character designs feel like a good fit for modern audiences, and the backgrounds give the show’s atmosphere a sense of vibrancy and color that works as a great throwback to 90’s anime (even if the original anime was technically a little younger than that). I also really liked the smoke particle effects used for the animal transformations, and the fact that there’s a different color for each character gave it a little extra charm and did a lot to make that gag feel less repetitive than I thought it would be.
So now that I’ve finally gotten the opportunity to check out Fruits Basket I can safely say it has my attention. Everything from the visual presentation to the character writing feels like its out to impress, and as someone who was a little apprehensive towards shojo once upon a time, this feels like it could be a pretty easy recommendation for people who are kind of on the fence about them, and it seems like it might have a little bit of something for everyone. I’m a little worried I might get tired of the animal transformation gag after a while, but aside from that, this series looks to have a lot of potential. If you’re already a fan of the series then I’m not really sure if anything I’ve said will really affect your enthusiasm for this new adaption one way or the other, but if you’re a newcomer like me, I really recommend giving this show a shot because Fruits’ Basket is an utter delight so far, and something that’ll definitely be worth sinking your teeth into.
In Summary:
The new adaption of Fruits’ Basket is off to a strong start as it does a wonderful job of drawing you into its characters and atmosphere. All three of the leads seem endearing so far, and there’s enough potential in their respective stories that I’m extremely curious to see where the series will go with them. It also looks to be pretty strong on the visual front, and while it’s not drop-dead gorgeous, there’s clearly a lot of care that was put into it, and it captures the look of classic shojo in a way that should hopefully appeal to modern audiences. While I wasn’t too sure what to expect going in, I walked away from this premiere feeling pretty impressed, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the rest of this series is headed.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Funimation
