Fruits Basket

shadowlurker · Post by **shadowlurker** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:42 pm

is fruits basket worthy of watching? i was going to watch it sooner or later, but gotta hear wat u guys think

madbunny · Post by **madbunny** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:38 pm

It's pretty cute, and has some fun moments to it. There is some sadness to the backstory that gives the show a bit more depth than you might expect (nothing worthy of a Nobel prize or anything mind you).
If you hate the "cute girl wins over the world with her optimism and bubbly charm" genre I'd stay away though.

My Girl is a pretty good example of what to expect.

SarahtheBoring · Post by **SarahtheBoring** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:51 pm

shadowlurker wrote:is fruits basket worthy of watching? i was going to watch it sooner or later, but gotta hear wat u guys think

...echoing madbunny. You have to tell us what your tastes are, too, because everyone has different tastes. (Your org profile doesn't have too much on it, so I can't really go by that.)

Anyway. I love the pants off it, but I am a sucker for character-driven drama. It's shoujo all over. Light, sweet fluff, a lot of Be Happy / All You Need Is Love with a dark undercurrent and a moderately dark ending. (Not an unhappy ending; it just gets angsty for a while.) It's got mild message-of-the-day-itis, but that doesn't bother me, personally.

It's a somewhat quiet show, by which I mean if you're looking for giant laughs or giant action or fanservice or obvious romance you're not going to find it. So if you're the sort who likes really exciting stuff, it may bore you. I mean, it's shoujo. So y'know. (No fanservice for straight boys, anyway.)

To recap:
- Sweet. And more sweet. And more. And so on. The protagonist is a giant optimist, and though life doesn't always go her way, the show definitely takes on that optimist slant.
- This is a show where people get hooked on particular characters rather than the plot. The plot is about how people evolve and learn about life, etc. If this bores you, that's okay, but you're gonna get bored. (I, for one, eat that up with chocolate syrup.)
- It's well-made, the animation seems nice to me (well, for its time, you whippersnappers), and as a nice little bonus the dub is quite good. Also - at least in North America - it's packaged on four DVDs instead of the usual 6-8, so it's pretty cheap.

As for previews, I'd also recommend A Song for Everyone, which is a very popular FB AMV - I saw it before I saw the series, and though it's much more entertaining after the fact, it did have an influence on my decision to get it.

End rambling.

Astria · Post by **Astria** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:32 am

Solaria735, thank you for that piece of information. That had been irritating me. That last episode just didn't work with what I'd gathered of Akito's character. I've got to read the manga sometime...

shadowlurker, I'd recommend Oreofaery's 'Affirmation' as a good FB introduction video. Check if it has spoilers, though, I can't remember off-hand.

SarahtheBoring is right about 'A Song For Everyone'. Although it is far funnier if you know the characters, it works to give you a taste of what the show's like, especially if you can watch both volumes (the second is marginally more serious).

KaneDragon · Post by **KaneDragon** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 1:19 pm

I've watched the whole anime, and now I've started on the manga... I went past where Ep 4 is, and this time around I noticed the foreshadowing for the end of the series. Very cool. Too bad I didn't pick up on it the first time, but how was I to know?

KaneDragon · Post by **KaneDragon** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 9:59 pm

And now I'm reading the manga (I'm up to Volume 13)... Many scenes in the anime are much shorter/simpler in the manga. No one accidentally transforms when Tohru's friends come to visit, for instance. The event that ends the anime is so much less climatic in the manga, as has already been discussed...

The manga has some very good parts to it, like Hatori and Mayu's meeting and Kyo and Kagura's date in volume 12. Any parts involving the new student council are REALLY annoying, though.

Akito's true identity as revealed in Volume 11 is way cooler than at the end of the anime

... but no manical laughter?

Souless Hunter · Post by **Souless Hunter** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 6:49 pm

Ummm... question? There has been a rumor going around the anime/ manga fans at my school...

Spoiler wrote:And it is that Akito is a woman...

I have no idea if this is true or not... Some one please tell me!

[paizuri: Spoiler tags added.]

Solaria735 · Post by **Solaria735** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 10:25 pm

First of all, you should really put a spoiler tag on that, because some people will view the fact that there is such a rumor to possibly hint at a certain spoiler. Gah... I hope that made sense.

But,

Spoiler wrote:Yes, Akito is really a woman.

Tainted_Eden · Post by **Tainted_Eden** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 10:42 pm

Solaria735 wrote:First of all, you should really put a spoiler tag on that, because some people will view the fact that there is such a rumor to possibly hint at a certain spoiler. Gah... I hope that made sense.

But,
Spoiler wrote:Yes, Akito is really a woman.

Speaking of which.... I was watching On Demand the other night, and they did a review on Anime Expo. They freakin' SPOILED the secret! They were all 'Who's the worst bad guy?' And they let some chick come on air and say

She said... wrote:Yeah, Akito is pretty bad ass... And Akito is actually a girl, but still. She's really evil.

Or something to that affect.

oO; WTF Anime Network? Or was it G4?

KaneDragon · Post by **KaneDragon** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 12:50 pm

Spoiler wrote:I could have sworn the manga had referred to Akito has a "he"! Now I've gone and spoiled to myself this big secret... I've only read up to volume 13 or so. Meh.

Now, I have a question about Kyo's transforming:

End of anime/Vol 12 Spoiler wrote:What conditions cause Kyo to transform into his "true self"? When Tohru finds out, it's raining, and since Kyo weakens during rainy days, I thought that if Kyo removed his bracelet while out in the rain, then he would transform, ala Ramma 1/2. But in the Vol 12 flashback, when Kagura removed his bracelet, he instantly transformed, and it was a sunny day. I'm confused with regards to why he didn't become a monster all those other times when he reverted back to human from cat form... Am I trying to analyze this too much?

But I don't want to spoil anything that happens later!