FRUITS BASKET

FRUITS BASKET

An anime adaptation of the manga released from July 1998 to November 2006 with 23 volumes. The anime was released July 2001 to March 2001 with 26 episodes. Another manga was released titled Fruits Basket Another Sept 2015 to March 2019 with 3 volumes. A new anime adaptation of the manga was recently aired April 6, 2019 and no estimation on how many episodes this new anime will be.

Fruits Baskets basically similar to the story of most Chinese Zodiac fable being told to children where god invited chosen animals for a banquet, all animals were able to attend the banquet except for the cat who was tricked by the mouse making the cat unable to become part of the 12 Zodiacs. The cat having been tricked by the mouse has been seeking revenge for tricking him. But I have no idea if that is the reason why cats and mice in real life has been at each other’s throats most of the time.

2001

2019

The main characters are Tohru Honda the female lead of the story, Kyo Soma and Yuki Soma two of the lead male characters of the story.

2001 Tohru's mother

2019 Tohru's mother

Tohru Honda a high school student who has been camping in the woods, which turned out to be part of the Soma Family property, has become an orphan after her mother died months before she stepped up to high school. Her father died when she was 3 years-old, making her stay with her grandfather for some time. Until it was decided to renovate the main house and had her force to decide to live on her own as well as having to camp out in the woods alone.

Yuki Soma who was her classmate ended up being a family member that owns the entire land including where Tohru decided to camp on. He is the main heartthrob of their entire school earning him the title of Prince.

Kyo Soma the other main male character of the story who also ended up studying in the same school, he is the opposite of Yuki.

The Soma family has a curse. Some members of or rather 13 members of the Soma family turns into the Zodiac Animals which includes the cat as well. Kyo and Yuki turns in a cat and a mouse respectively once they are hugged by the opposite sex/gender and later turns back to their human forms. Same goes with other members of the Soma Family, I just cannot recall if there was a female member of the Soma Family that turns into an animal as well which means I need to watch the series again.

2001 secret out

2019 secret out

Having to be able to compare both episode one from 2001 and 2019 versions were both almost mirrored with each other and I guess once played side by side the scenes and dialogues will be almost the same, except that 2001 starts with the intro song and the 2019 does not have an intro song and goes directly to the story, showing Tohru getting ready for school.

The series itself is basically a reverse harem series one girl and a bunch of guys surrounding her, in this case she lives in the same house (those familiar with the Nadeshiko Wallflower almost similar with the set up but the guys are the ones who crashed the house and the girl is the niece of the owner of the house). The transforming part, some will say it is the same as Ranma ½ where once the unlucky souls that fell in a certain cursed spring change forms, cold water to whatever drowned in the spring and hot water to return to their original forms.

The story of the series will also be familiar to those who knows the fable of the zodiacs where the cat was tricked by the mouse which caused the cat not being able to attend the banquet of the god who invited them and was never given a chance to become a candidate and be part of the zodiacs. This also caused the cat to be partially hated by the members of the zodiacs thinking that the cat was just jealous of something else and was just throwing his frustration on the poor mouse. The story turns out to be the curse of the members of the Soma Family, Tohru discovered the curse when she accidentally hugged Yuki, Kyo and Shigure turning them in their animal forms mouse, cat and dog respectively.

Tohru has other friends at school Arisa and Saki who has been saving Tohru whenever she needs help as well as they care for her, which makes Tohru afraid that once they find out that has been camping out all this time Arisa might go to her grandfather due to misunderstanding. Saki is somewhat a psychic but also cares so much towards Tohru.

Not much drama or mushie stuff in the story but seems to have a balanced mix of the comedy, a bit of drama as well as the romance that grows within the household. Tohru is introduced as a strong girl who wants to stand on her two feet and not trouble anyone so much making her feel indebted towards the people who wants to help her. She was later offered to stay at the Soma house in return she will be doing some housework as well. This gave her a proper roof over her head and not just the cheap tent which she bought with her savings.

Since it is anime, it did not seem to bother her much that she is basically the only female that stays at the house where mostly males live.

For now I will be watching the 2001 Fruits Basket again and return to make another review of the series and some partial review of the 2019 in some way that I can give a review on.

For now all I can is watch the Fruits Basket 2001 version it is a good anime to watch before watching the 2019 version since it just started.

credits to owners of the videos .