Fruits Basket  Recommended
Director
Akitaro Daichi
Production
NAS, Studio Deen, TV Tokyo
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
2001
Fruits Basket volume 1: A Great Transformation
By otaku_kei
26th Nov 04  The Chinese Zodiac - 12 animals all invited to a dinner party by God, who was so impressed with these animals as to elevate them onto the celestial plane. There was a 13th animal, the cat that just missed out on this due to the tricks of the cunning rat! Outcast and left alone the cat is a sad animal. Tohru Honda was told this story by her mother many years ago and since has always felt close to the cat. So when she meets the Sohma clan and their family secret is revealed to her Tohru is in for a big surprise. All of the Sohma's are cursed so that if someone of the opposite sex ever hugs them then they turn into one of the zodiac animals. Cue much hilarity as Tohru gets invited to become housekeeper at the home of three of the Sohma's! OK so that last line was a bit sarcastic, especially after how impressed I was by the end of this volume! Heart-warming is probably the best term to use in fact. The characters are well rounded in just these episodes, already we are given insight into Tohru's upbringing. The Sohma's are introduced and the central characters with their own rivalries and dynamics are formed. A lot is crammed into this volume. But then so are a lot of episodes. I can honestly say how pleasant a surprise it was to find a UK release with 6 episodes a disc! So far the characters have all been almost instantly engaging and interesting to watch develop. By the looks of things the show is going rely on the whole love triangle angle for moving the plot forward whilst also providing the majority of the humour of the series. But the way that each of the characters are played I'm sure everyone will already be picking out their own fan favourite! So as anyone can see, the character designs are standout beauty contest winners. And that goes along with the rest of the series. The prettiness and level of art and design is of a high quality throughout this release. The audio is also great with the dub being far superior to the sub audio track. Whoever casted for this English language track had a moment of pure genius when they got this cast together. The production of this show really is top-notch. Being a fan of mecha shows primarily, I came to Fruits Basket kind of as a way to broaden my anime horizons, and was happy to be shown those new horizons. This was a great show, sure it was girly but that in no way impacted on the enjoyment factor of this show. This title can happily stand alongside Serial Experiments Lain as a totem to the growing diversity of the UK anime scene, as well as a hugely enjoyable title in it's own right. 8/10
R2 DVD Notes
Features: Japanese 2.0; English 2.0; English Subtitles; Character Profiles; Textless Song; Behind The Scenes Featurette
Release information: 5th April 2004 - OUT NOW
Notes: The quality of this disc is great. Picture and audio are spot on. The extras are no more than filler really, but that can be seen as a more than accomadating loss to get 6 episodes on the disc!
-- otaku_kei 26th Nov 04
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