Name: Fruits Basket (50.00% in 3 votes)
Type: ANIME
Platform: Video
Company: Unknown
Release date: 2001
Reviewed by: Bata-kun
I was scared of watching and grading Fruits Basket/Furuba and I still am. Why? Sure, I saw the reviews and they were good for the most part. Sure, I liked how the story seemed to interest me. So, why was I scared in the first place?
Funimation, the same company who, to put it lightly, killed the top two shounen series of the early 1990's (Dragonball Z as well as Dragonball and Yuu Yuu Hakusho), picked up rights to Furuba. I said "lightly" now, didn't I? Believe me. That statement could have been worse.
Now, I haven't heard its dub yet and yes, I'm scared to do so. Most reviews have said that the dub was bad, while I have rarely ran into people who thought that the dub is actually Funi's best dub as of now. Okay. That does mean something, but I'm sure that I will get annoyed.
To prevent myself from missing out on a great series, if it turns out to be great in the end, I got a fan sub of the first episode. Yes, I know that it's not good to grade a series after one episode. The reason I'm still putting a review up is because I want to get the warnings across, which in this case, I did. That's it.
Oh! Story! Right!
Based on a manga by Takaya Natsuki, Furuba is a 2001 Studio Deen shoujo, comedy, drama, and ren'ai series that uses the Chinese Zodiac. Honda Touru may seem like a cheerful girl at first, but what lies behind that smile of hers is a dark past. Her mom was killed in a car accident and before that her dad was gone too. She places the blame on herself for not telling her mom to be arrive back safely on one particular day. To make matters worse, she stayed with her grandfather, but on one particular day, he decided to move in a place of one of his daughters.
What now? She decides to live in a tent now in some forest. What she doesn't know is that one of her friends, Souma Yuki, lives in a place of the forest. The forest is actually property of the Souma family. Touru was about to think that she would have to go elsewhere, but then Yuki said that it was okay and that she could stay in his place. A normal and happy start to the series, right?
Nope. Touru finds out about the Souma secret. That secret is a curse. The Souma curse is that if a member of the opposite sex hugs a member of the Souma family, that family member turns into an animal of the Chinese zodiac. In this case, as Touru hugged Yuki and his cousins, Shigure and Kyou, those three turned into three animals of the Chinese zodiac and then Touru starts to panic like crazy.
Furuba is one of the few series that made me laugh out a bit and made me touched at the same time in its first episode. You'll laugh. You'll cry, unless you can hold those tears back. You'll have to give the series a chance.
Why is the series called Fruits Basket? I don't know. I'm sure that as I watch more of this series, I will know the answer. Oh and there's a rumored second season.
Art - 9
Art...art...the art is fine for the most part. I don't know why, but I can't give the art a perfect. Maybe it's just me. Never the less, you have very good art.
Story - 8
For now, I'll give an 8 here. It does seem interesting, but I have a feeling I will be experiencing a rocky road.
Audio - 7
Seiyuu - you should recognize some of them. If you haven't seen the series yet, a few noteworthy ones are Horie Yui as Touru, Hisakawa Aya-sama as Yuki, Okiayu Ryoutarou-san as Shigure and Seki Tomokazu-san as Kyou. Those are the ones at the top of my head right now.
Dub - I don't know. Will I give it a try? If I have the opportunity, yeah. That's only if I have the opportunity.
Yeah, I like the music. I heard that for once, Funi actually uses the original music in the original and dub. Why bother changing it if it sounds good? You got me.
Fun - 7
Now, yeah, the presentation looks good on paper. The general flaws are not that big of a worry like too many characters to keep track of early on being one of them. The reason why it only gets a 7 though is because of my doubts in this series.
Life - 6
Once my doubts are gone, then I can bump up the score, if all goes well.
Overall - 7
It's rare that I would give a Funi series a decent score early on (if you want to call it that). I gave Furuba a shot. The question now is "Will you?"
+
A nice blend of comedy and drama as well as the use of the Chinese Zodiac, that sums it up.
-
Beyond that Funi issue, for the most part, the rest of the flaws are minor.
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