Anime Review: Fruits Basket
Feb. 25th, 2003 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jcfialaI don't know what this anime has to do with Fruit Baskets. While watching the first two episodes, I didn't notice any fruit or any baskets, but I did notice a very enjoyable show. What follows is a partial synopsis of the first two episodes, although I skim over some of the details. It's still a partial spoiler, though.
FB is about Tohru Honda, a girl going to high school who is living in a tent she put up in the wilderness outside of town. Her parents are dead, and her grandfather's house is being fumigated. He's outside of town visiting a friend, thinking that she's staying with a friend. She's a kind, hardworking girl who spends time talking to a picture of her mother, who seems to have been quite a lady.
While walking to school one day she discovers the house of Shigure and Yuki, a pair of cousins who warm to her. After she loses her tent in an avalanche, they offer her room and board in exchange for her keeping the house clean. Yuki is the attractive one, so attractive that he's got a militant fan club at school whose members announce themselves by spelling out his name with their bodies.
There's a surprise in there too, though. The family is cursed - when they are hugged by someone of the opposite sex, they turn into animals from the Chinese Zodiac. Yuri, for instance, turns into a rat - but a very cute one. The family has had to protect it's secret by hypnotizing people to forget, but the head of the family (seen in the first two episodes only in silouette), decides that she isn't a threat, and can remember.
At base it's a sweet story. Tohru Honda is adorable - possibly too-cute-for-words in a way that several anime protaganists have become when faced with adversity. Her only real fault is curiosity, but that helps her get into this new family. Yuki (and Kyo, his self-proclaimed rival) is a possible romantic interest, but so far things are very low-key. The story on the whole is just fun to watch, really, a mixture of comedy and romance that really grabbed me.
I got these two episodes almost by accident, finding a two-dollar 'demo' dvd of the show at a local game store. Two dollars is about right - most of the disk is a faux talk show involving three of Funimation's voice artists. It's really annoying, with various clips showing just how bad a voice actor they are, and I spent most of my time fast-forwarding through it to the Fruits Basket parts. The dubbing on the show seemed good to me, although I haven't heard the Japanese to compare it with. I look forward to buying the real DVD so I can see more of the show and try it out in the original.
-john
If tin whistles are made out of tin, what do they make fog horns out of?
John.Fiala@csssoftware.com
FB is about Tohru Honda, a girl going to high school who is living in a tent she put up in the wilderness outside of town. Her parents are dead, and her grandfather's house is being fumigated. He's outside of town visiting a friend, thinking that she's staying with a friend. She's a kind, hardworking girl who spends time talking to a picture of her mother, who seems to have been quite a lady.
While walking to school one day she discovers the house of Shigure and Yuki, a pair of cousins who warm to her. After she loses her tent in an avalanche, they offer her room and board in exchange for her keeping the house clean. Yuki is the attractive one, so attractive that he's got a militant fan club at school whose members announce themselves by spelling out his name with their bodies.
There's a surprise in there too, though. The family is cursed - when they are hugged by someone of the opposite sex, they turn into animals from the Chinese Zodiac. Yuri, for instance, turns into a rat - but a very cute one. The family has had to protect it's secret by hypnotizing people to forget, but the head of the family (seen in the first two episodes only in silouette), decides that she isn't a threat, and can remember.
At base it's a sweet story. Tohru Honda is adorable - possibly too-cute-for-words in a way that several anime protaganists have become when faced with adversity. Her only real fault is curiosity, but that helps her get into this new family. Yuki (and Kyo, his self-proclaimed rival) is a possible romantic interest, but so far things are very low-key. The story on the whole is just fun to watch, really, a mixture of comedy and romance that really grabbed me.
I got these two episodes almost by accident, finding a two-dollar 'demo' dvd of the show at a local game store. Two dollars is about right - most of the disk is a faux talk show involving three of Funimation's voice artists. It's really annoying, with various clips showing just how bad a voice actor they are, and I spent most of my time fast-forwarding through it to the Fruits Basket parts. The dubbing on the show seemed good to me, although I haven't heard the Japanese to compare it with. I look forward to buying the real DVD so I can see more of the show and try it out in the original.
-john
If tin whistles are made out of tin, what do they make fog horns out of?
John.Fiala@csssoftware.com
FB!
Date: 2003-02-25 08:59 pm (UTC)I have episodes 20-26 on my computer if you want me to send them on to you. Watch the rest of the series first, though. I've heard the manga is much darker than the anime.
The Fruits Basket thing is explained later. It's a kid's game, kind of like "duck duck goose."