Fruits Basket: A Solitary New Year

Fruits Basket: A Solitary New Year
TV Tokyo
January 20, 2003
Anime, Fantasy
DVD
B

It appears that Tohru will have the holiday of this episode's title when Shigure, Kyo, and Yuki are headed for New Year's celebrations at the main Sohma house.  However, Hana guilt-trips them because this is Tohru's first New Year without her mother.  The ending is sweet, and there's humor earlier with Hana and Uo helping Tohru and the Sohmas clean the house, and Shigure teasing his stressed-out editor about finishing his manuscript.

This is the 700th of my shows to receive a B and as good a place as any to note that one reason why this series is generally solid is the use of music, not only the lovely opening and closing themes, sometimes used within the episode, as here, but also the background music that sets a wide range of moods, with some characters, like Momiji, having their own themes.

Fruits Basket: Don't Cry, for the Snow Will Surely Melt

Fruits Basket: Don't Cry, for the Snow Will Surely Melt
TV Tokyo
January 20, 2003
Anime, Fantasy
DVD
B

This is a darker episode, delving into Hatori's backstory, his romance that Akito broke up, by not only forbidding the match but "accidentally" injuring Hatori's eye and deliberately making Hatori erase his girlfriend's memory.  Yet there's hope among the darkness, symbolized by snow melting and becoming spring.

Fruits Basket: A Plum on the Back

Fruits Basket: A Plum on the Back
TV Tokyo
January 20, 2003
Anime, Fantasy
DVD
B

For the school's cultural festival, Class D (which Tohru and her friends are in) plans to sell rice balls, a less ambitious project than the kids on His and Her Circumstances would've come up with.  (But then Furuba doesn't draw this plot out for six episodes and still not conclude it.)  This episode's title refers to Tohru's analogy of people being oblivious to their own best qualities, like a rice ball that can't see the plum on its back.  We get fodder for both Tohru/Kyo and Tohru/Yuki ships, as she tells Kyo the plum analogy and they awkwardly compliment each other, while later Tohru and Yuki think the other does or would look cute in the dress Yuki is wearing.  Meanwhile, two more members of the Zodiac arrive, bunny Momiji (voiced by a woman, in this case Kimberly Grant, as he is in all countries, to make him sound younger), and the not-yet-animal-identified Hatori (played by Kent Williams), who is doctor to the Sohmas.

Fruits Basket: Invincible Friendship

Fruits Basket: Invincible Friendship
TV Tokyo
October 29, 2002
Anime, Fantasy
DVD
B-

After Tohru finally tells her best friends about her living arrangements, Hana and Uo invite themselves over to check the housemates out, and for snacks.  The accidental transformations are a bit overdone here, but I do like that Tohru feels lucky to have so many good people in her life.  And, no, her friends don't find about the Sohma curse, despite the close calls.

Fruits Basket: A Rice Ball in a Fruits Basket

Fruits Basket: A Rice Ball in a Fruits Basket
TV Tokyo
October 29, 2002
Anime, Fantasy
DVD
B

With the repairs on her grandfather's house done, Tohru moves back in, and out of Shigure's house.  She doesn't want to go, and no one wants her to go, but no one speaks up.  She finds that while her grandfather is as kind as ever, her paternal aunt and cousins are cold-hearted and insulting.  Her grandfather stands up for her, and Yuki and Kyo come for her, after some nudging from Shigure, who's pretty funny about how and why he misses her.  The episode title refers to an experience Tohru had as a small child, playing the game Fruits Basket and never being called because she was a "rice ball" rather than a fruit.  In the end, Tohru (re)finds the place she belongs.

This is the 2700th TV show I've reviewed.  Yes, we'll hit 2800, but probably not 3000.

Fruits Basket: Here Comes Kagura!

Fruits Basket: Here Comes Kagura!
TV Tokyo
October 29, 2002
Anime, Fantasy
DVD
C

Meredith McCoy does the voice of Kagura Sohma, a girl who transforms into a boar when she hugs a male, except for her male cousins.  Her voice-acting is fine but I do have issues with this character and how she's presented, here and in the manga.  Since childhood, she's been obsessively "in love" with Kyo, which she demonstrates by speaking of how they'll be married someday, and by bullying him, sometimes simultaneously.  Everyone, except the furious and scared Kyo, acts as if this is at worst annoying and at best, as in Tohru's case, sweet and touching.  It's played for laughs but it is abuse.  Still, I won't go lower on the grade because there are some nice character moments, between Tohru and Kyo, and even Tohru and Kagura.

Fruits Basket: All Shapes and Sizes

Fruits Basket: All Shapes and Sizes
TV Tokyo
October 29, 2002
Anime, Fantasy
DVD
B

Tohru gets to know both Yuki and Kyo better, how Kyo longs to be accepted into the Sohma family and how Yuki envies Kyo's ability to blend in with ordinary people.  She's definitely friends with Yuki now, as proved by his taking her to his "secret base," a vegetable garden.  And, with Shigure's nudging, Kyo is considering the possibility of accepting Tohru's friendship.  We also get to see a little of how to play the card game "Rich Man, Poor Man."  The title, by the way, refers to all shapes and sizes of kindness.

Fruits Basket: The Sohma Curse

Fruits Basket: The Sohma Curse
TV Tokyo
October 29, 2002
Anime, Fantasy
DVD
B

As the title suggests, Tohru finds out about the curse of the Sohma family: they turn into animals of the Chinese zodiac (plus the Cat) whenever they're under stress or hugged by a member of the opposite sex.  They transform back to themselves after a few minutes and are then naked (discreetly suggested here and on other episodes).  Tohru is understandably surprised but agrees to keep their secret.  She's even willing to have her memory erased if the head of the family, Akito (voiced by Chad Cline), decides that's necessary.  He's going to trust her for now, but he does want Kyo to live with Shigure and Yuki, and attend the local high school.  Both Kyo and Yuki, who hate each other, are understandably angry about that.

Fruits Basket: The Strangest Day

Fruits Basket: The Strangest Day
TV Tokyo
October 29, 2002
Anime, Fantasy
DVD
B

Housekeeping:

• This covers a lot of genres, including comedy, drama, and romance, but I went with fantasy because of the basic premise, which I'll get to;
• I will sometimes use the popular abbreviation "Furuba" for convenience's sake;
• I've put the original network but the American airdate;
• It premiered in Japan in 2001, so there's not a huge difference;
• I usually listen to the American actors with anime anyway, but they are particularly well-cast in this series, so I want to recognize that.

The American voice cast (which will expand, but these will remain the core members):

• Laura Bailey as Tohru Honda
• John Burgmeier (who also wrote the English translation of the script) as Shigure Sohma
• Parisa Fakhri as Arisa Uotani
• Daphne Gere as Saki Hanijima
• Jerry Jewell as Kyo Sohma
• Eric Vale as Yuki Sohma

The premise: Tohru is an orphaned high school student who is temporarily living in the woods.  She meets two members of the Sohma family, one of them her classmate Yuki, "the prince of the school," who invite her into her home.  However, when cousin Kyo Sohma arrives, she accidentally embraces all three "boys"* and they transform into animals!

I reviewed the first volume of the manga by Natsuki Takaya here: http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2013/11/fruits-basket-volume-1.html.  I still believe that the anime is superior and I even thought I might give the premiere episode a B+, as I did for His and Her Circumstances.  However, while it's fine as an introduction to not just the characters but to the various genres, it does feel a bit like it's trying to provide too much information at once.  Akitarô Daichi is the Japanese director; I don't know who directed the American voice cast.

*Yuki, who's about 16, describes not only himself but the twentysomething Shigure as boys.