r/anime • u/Holofan4life • 13d ago
Rewatch [Spoilers] 25 Years of the 13 Sohmas: A Fruits Basket Rewatch -- 2019 Series Overall Series Discussion Thread Spoiler
And that is it for 2019 Fruits Basket!
Some Questions for fun!
What is your thoughts overall on the series?
How does the series compare to your expectations going in?
What was your favorite episode?
What was your favorite moment?
Who was your favorite character?
Did you like the comedy and how comedic it was? What were your thoughts on the drama?
What are your thoughts on Tohru as a main character?
What are your thoughts on Akito?
Do you ship Tohru with Yuki, or Kyo? And why?
How would you rank the Sohma Chinese Zodiac members?
Lastly, if given the chance to rewatch the series, would you do so? This should be interesting lol
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Series information
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Please do not post any untagged spoilers past the current episode or past the LNs or mangas out of respect to the first time watchers and people who have not read the LNs or mangas. If you are discussing something that is ahead of the current episode please use spoiler tags(found on the sidebar). Thank you!
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Ways to watch
Streams – Crunchyroll
Schedule
See you for the Prelude!
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u/Holofan4life 13d ago
Let's talk about this show as a whole, shall we?
The 2001 Fruits Basket series feels like a lifetime ago. I started that in March coming off unemployment before I was about to become unemployed again. And at the time, I remember really liking the series and feeling it was underrated. I said to myself "Man, if this is what the 2001 series is like, I can't wait to watch the remake".
I'm not gonna sit here and say the 2019 series made the 2001 series bad in my eyes. That by no means is true. What I will say is that I think the 2019 series has rendered the 2001 series obsolete. You can watch 2019 and not have to go out of your way to watch 2001. There have been remakes where I feel like the original is different enough to justify watching both. 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist goes in a different direction that in my opinion makes it a curiosity viewing. A couple months ago as this is being posted I finished the annual Spice and Wolf rewatch and that to me you can watch both while still being very similar. The 2001 Fruits Basket is heavily on comedy, but honestly not by much. It still maintains a lot of the same story beats as the 2019 series.
I'm glad to have watched 2001 Fruits Basket, but if you want to enjoy Fruits Basket I'd suggest sticking with the 2019 series. The episodes covered by both aren't so radically different and the changes made by the remake I'd say for the most part were an improvement.
From there, we had the 2019 series and ar first, I was admittedly worried. The first 9 episodes were so radically similar to its 2001 counterpart that I wondered if I made a mistake covering both series. My worries were soon after put to rest once I saw what a more emotionally complex character Shigure was and how more involved he was in the plot. That was my first sign this adaptation was way better.
The rest of season 1 was a combination of 2001 series episodes and new episodes we hadn't seen before. I really enjoyed the Uo two parter.
Season 2 is really when 2019 Fruits Basket started to become 2019 Fruits Basket. The introduction of the student council characters which was the start of Yuki moving on from Tohru as a love interest, the introduction of Rin and Kureno as the final two Zodiac members, the beach arc which led to Yuki discovering what Tohru means to him as well as the revelation that Akito is God, the backstory episodes of both Hana and Yuki and Mayuko, all three of which were phenomenal episodes, there was so much to like here and it just kept getting better and better. To me, season 2 in a lot of ways was the Yuki season as so much of the season was about him and his circumstances. It was this mix of him and Akito and Akito's various relationships with the Sohma family.
There was also the reoccurring plot point of Uo being in love with Kureno. And while I still don’t like them as a pairing, it was good to see Uo being given focus as well as continuing to test Akito's patience as the world around her continued to fall apart.
Oh, and there was also the Cinderella-ish episode as well as the parent teacher episode and the haunted house plot point. Season 2 continued a lot of the sillier elements of season 1 while having a harder edge about it, which I feel made season 2 feel like a natural progression from the first season.
And then came the third season.
I've already made known my thoughts on Fruits Basket Final. But needless to say, it was spectacular. Of all the seasons of anime that I've seen, I think Fruits Basket Final may be the best one cour season of an anime in the history of anime there's ever been. It doesn't get higher praise than that.
We get introduced to Ren which served to humanize Akito, we saw the bonds of the Sohma family break and everyone become free, Tohru and Kyo finally became a couple, we got closure on almost all the characters, Rin and Haru's relationship got proper resolution, everything you could ask for we got and it was glorious. Oh, so glorious.
I get maybe being disappointed at Akito not getting more a severe punishment, but fact remains this isn't that type of show. The characters are such that such a fate was never realistically on the table no matter how hard it was willed into existence.
The characters were fantastic, the writing was incredible, the story was phenomenal and never slowed down and continued to get better and better the further we went along, for a show as long as 2019 Fruits Basket the most impressive thi g is that there were truly very few flaws to be found. I have some minor gripes here and there, but it's so miniscule that it would be nitpicking.
Favorite character was Kyo, I love his emotional complexity and the various relationships he has, favorite plot point was Tohru moving on from the death of her mother and learning she doesn't have to grieve forever, favorite episode was episode 59 and how that all transpired, and I think Tohru is a top 5 anime protagonist of all time. I'll go on record and say I think Tohru is the best woman protagonist ever in an anime.
In case you can't tell, I'm giving 2019 Fruits Basket a 10 out of 10. The threshold with which this show achieved is unfathomable. Nearly 1/3rd of this show's entire library is filled with A+ episodes in my book, which I can't recall that ever being the case. Even Toradora which I hold in high regard with only its 25 episodes I'd have at five or six A+ episodes.
Which brings me to here.
Here is what my top 25 anime of all time looks like before Fruits Basket.
Toradora
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
Spice and Wolf
Cowboy Bebop
Kaguya-sama
Nichijou
Clannad/Clannad: After Story
Steins;Gate
Evangelion
Re:Zero
Odd Taxi
Eureka Seven
Spy X Family
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
Attack on Titan
Cells At Work
Bocchi The Rock
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Samurai Champloo
Lycoris Recoil
86
Fullmetal Alchemist
Panty And Stocking With Garterbelt
FLCL: Alternative
Interview with Monster Girls
And here's what my top 25 anime of all time looks like after Fruits Basket.
2019 Fruits Basket
Toradora
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
Spice and Wolf
Cowboy Bebop
Kaguya-sama
Nichijou
Clannad/Clannad: After Story
Steins;Gate
Evangelion
Re:Zero
Odd Taxi
Eureka Seven
Spy X Family
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
Attack on Titan
Cells At Work
Bocchi The Rock
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Samurai Champloo
Lycoris Recoil
86
Fullmetal Alchemist
Panty And Stocking With Garterbelt
FLCL: Alternative
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new favorite anime of all time.
I knew during season 2 that the show was finishing somewhere in my top 10. I knew I was watching something special which I haven't felt since I watched Evangelion last year. My fear was the highs would be so high that it would almost come at the detriment of the show itself. That's kinda what happened to me with Evangelion where the episodes were of such high quality that I almost was left feeling nothing. But not only did that not happen with 2019 Fruits Basket, the storytelling bar kept being risen in a way that made sense for the story being told. In a way, the introduction of Ren was the best thing to happen to this show as it led to a string of episodes that is probably the best four episode stretch of any show I've ever seen. The momentum with which this show kept a pace at is something that should be studied and analyzed for years to come.
I feel a bit sad Toradora is no longer my favorite anime of all time. I mean, that's been the case for me since I first watched it in 2015. I guess Toradora being dethroned as my favorite anime is the equivalent of the Sohmas being freed from Akito. I am finally free of the tsundere curse.
Of course, Kyo is also a tsundere so it's more Tohru moving on from her mom to Kyo lol
Man. I can't believe this is it.
I've been watching this franchise since March 1st. As I'm writing this, it is July 13th nearly four and a half months later. It's been a lot of procrastination and delaying the inevitable after such a hot start and coming out guns ablazing. But I'm here, and that's really all that matters.
I feel blessed having seen this show. I know I witnessed something special and I feel privileged having seen it.
Every day in my life I think about what's going to happen to me if something happens to my mom. I live with her and I don't know if I'm capable enough to take care of myself. When she dies, my life is basically over.
And that's not to mention my Autistic sister and what's going to happen to her. Just thinking about it upsets me.
I'm glad I saw this show before the inevitable occurs rather than after it. It gives me something to think about and mull over and how I too will eventually have to move on from my mother. I'm 29 years old, with my birthday next year marking 30 years of existence. I still have so much of my life ahead of me, barring of course some unforseen accident I don't see coming. If Tohru can turn her life around and make the best of a bad situation, perhaps there is hope for me after all.
Perhaps the fruits basket does have room for this rather rotund riceball.
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 13d ago
First Timers Basket (2019) Sub & Dub Discussion
No Tohru haircut until Tohru’s a granny.
u/Quiddity131 punching the air right now. Here I thought we'd get the haircut of conviction before a timeskip.
Finally! I have conquered one of the shoujos I was told I need to watch by my shoujosei elders! Next on the docket is Chihayafuru* (unless someone is hosting a rewatch of that 👀) and finishing Twelve Kingdoms (which I have learned I missed the rewatch for that)!
Now I have all these volumes to read that one of my shoujosei siblings has bestowed on me in our little “Sisterhood of the Traveling Manga” so I get to get to it soon!
I’m honestly thrilled that Furuba had the chance to be remade in 2019. And given that we have a lot of classic shoujo being brought into the 2020s—From Far Away is streaming now, and Red River is still in the middle of its broadcast—I’d love to see Yona of the Dawn and Shirayuki have continuations and Basara be re-adapted!
But onto my little thoughts on the 2019 Furuba series.
Positives
Off the bat, not just the extent of the cast but that a majority of the cast had specificity to them. This sounds debatable, but it’s easy to create characters, say “Random Bullshit, go!”, and then you have this over-bloated but superficial cast at your disposal. I think Furuba’s extensive cast, for the most part, had their own quirks, flaws, and differing dynamics with others that made them unique characters. I really enjoy when characters have their own clutches of friend groups, different relationships to different characters, diverse reactions to the same or similar situations—and Furuba, I think, for the most part, delivered.
I also love how bright it is. Granted, this is more of an anime positive. I’ve been in the live-action drama world, and I do not understand this need to suck the color out of everything and make everything depressed. So it was always lovely that this series was so visually bright and soothing.
I also really loved seeing the spectrum of abuse, the spectrum of grief, and how the Sohma Family Curse interplays with it. There are great parallels that I’m sure someone did on Tumblr and then abandoned their account, but a brave soul archived the post. Such is the way with Tumblr analyses.
Neutral
Some of the relationships I’m neutral on. I hesitated to move AkitoxShigure into a negative, but I think I’ll keep them as neutral. I’m not elated about them, but I won’t bring the hateration, holleration, to this dancery about them either. I just am indifferent to them now.
I’m also neutral in the direction Akito was in her atonement. I don’t find it immensely satisfying, nor am I ready to curse her. It just feels like there was a bit of a hurry to get to Akito and Shigure’s final scenes on screen, and that sort of compromised how we even get to that point.
I’m neutral to most of the OP/EDs. I wouldn’t anticipate any of them in those YouTube videos where they go through the years and test you on the most iconic OP/ED. And I’m not in a hurry to add them to my OP/ED playlist myself. Same to the soundtrack. Nothing had particularly tickled my ear, but nothing was “WTF is this shit?”.
I ended up being neutral about the Sohma Zodiac Curse, the backstory, and the execution of it all. Holo, I know like at the beginning of the 2019 watch, you had a question of our reception to the curse, and I was still thinking. Now, after everything, I’m neutral.
I really loved it when the physical transformations were still present. I was having a blast with the physical transformations. But then, they sort of went away. And we focused heavily on the psychological portion of the curse, from the abuse to the bonds—and I did enjoy that. But when I look at fantasy elements, I look to see, “If I removed this, would all this still happen?”. You can’t remove the Sohma Family Curse seamlessly, no. But it did start feeling wavering for me how the earlier aspects vanished.
But I don’t consider that an outright negative. I’m just neutral to it. I liked the parallels that the curse represented for different types of abuse though, which is why it’s a positive.
Negatives
Despite my earlier praise that the 2019 version of Furuba dramatically increased the cast and also gave the cast specificity, I do think some of the cast lacked that specificity and also lacked the nuance that I wish they got. For some of them, there wasn’t really much more that could be done to make them outstanding characters, I feel. There’s just something there that makes me go, “That was it?”. Kureno, for example, is a character that bothers me because I keep feeling like there was more to him.
And why he has any interest in Uo.
Yeah, Uo and Kureno are a big ole negative to me. I will not understand it.
I debated whether I want to put Katsuya’s execution as a neutral or a negative, but I’m leaning toward a negative. I think he was done a disservice. Kyouko effectively haunted the narrative, but per Tohru, Katsuya also haunted her and shaped her into the person she pretended to be to gain affection and security from those around her. I do understand why Katsuya wasn’t always brought up, as Tohru compartmentalized and villainized her deceased father to validate her actions, but I wish he had haunted the narrative from Tohru’s unreliable perspective so we, the viewers, have the misunderstanding about Katsuya, which is resolved in Tohru’s confession that her father was sincerely the person she pretended to be and tried to replace.
This also bring up a negative that Furuba did waver with story development, execution, and cohesion, though not in verisimilitude per the parameters it set up. Now that I understand the breadth of what Furuba was doing, I’m a lot more critical of the slice-of-life episodes. I think it’s necessary to have downbeats that break from the main plot because that introduces new sides of characterizations and new dynamics or new dimensions to dynamics. But I do things that Furuba lingered a bit too long on irrelevant characters and moments that, in the end, didn’t add dimensionality overall.
What would have improved my viewing experience?
Given how season 3 picked up the pacing a bit, I think in retrospect, some of the more “filler” portions of episodes—or one-shot episodes as a whole—could have been trimmed down or repurposed to give more room for characterization and dynamic development. Did we really need an entire episode about the Yuki Fan Club? Did we?
Yuki Fan Club episodes are my ATLA “Great Divide”.
Overall
I did enjoy Furuba and had a good time, had it not been for all my uni work and work-work plus exercise kicking my fucking ass to lock the fuck in. I’m glad I got to meet Tohru and forge my own understanding of her rather than listen to the back and forth of “Tohru is the greatest shoujo heroine ever and anyone who disagrees has no media literacy” and “Tohru is such a doormat, and only those without media literacy would think she’s wrong”.
Thank gods I can, like, engage independently and figure shit out myself now.
There were still some failings that I can’t overlook and things that were meant to be emotionally heavy that didn’t resonate with me as they should, but I can still say that I’m happy to have watched this and I’m glad Tohru and Kyo and (mostly) everyone else lived better lives.
Overall grade: B
TQ
I think I answered a majority of these, but:
How does the series compare to your expectations going in?
I had the 2001 version fresh in my mind to go into this. But my expectations were much higher when I saw the episode count.
Lastly, if given the chance to rewatch the series, would you do so? This should be interesting lol
HA! No. Furuba hasn’t hit me yet with the urge to rewatch. Instead, I have this urge to rewatch Magia Record. It's not a bad thing that I'm not yet feeling the urge to rewatch Furuba though. There are a lot of great shows and movies that I just don't rewatch.
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u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 13d ago
u/Quiddity131 punching the air right now. Here I thought we'd get the haircut of conviction before a timeskip.
Phew! All it took us was... haircuts for 5 other characters, lol. Second most I've ever seen in one anime (after Monogatari franchise). But I'm happy Tohru escaped that fate!
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u/Holofan4life 10d ago
I definitely enjoyed talking thid series with you ☺️
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 9d ago
I enjoyed it with you too! 🥰 🫶🏾
Still waiting on those fresh kitty pictures though. I’ma haunt you about them. Kitty pictures are serious business, Holo 😤
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u/Holofan4life 9d ago
I'm waiting on you to reply to my comment :P
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 8d ago
Which one 😭
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u/Holofan4life 8d ago
I'm waiting for you to reply to the comment in the series finale thread.
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 8d ago
Wait, because I have orange cat brain cell syndrome right now. Which comment on the series finale thread? Because I see your question comments.
You so mean to me, holding fresh kitty pictures hostage 🤧
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u/the_pint_is_the_bowl 13d ago
What is your thoughts overall on the series? One of the best anime I've seen. Also the longest, until I finally catch up with Apothecary Diaries season 3. Fruits Basket was my introduction to the shojo genre. This is my 4th or 5th re-watch., because I own the blu rays.
How does the series compare to your expectations going in? In the beginning, I was mostly curious about the zodiac story elements in Crunchyroll's blurb. The series delivered that and so much more.
What was your favorite episode? It's Cinderella-ish - episode 2.23 (episode #48)
What was your favorite moment? Momiji recounts the tale of "The Most Idiotic Traveler" from episode 1.11 (episode #11), but the most emotional quote is from Tohru in episode 3.06 (episode #56)
Who was your favorite character? I rank Momiji as the 3rd best anime character I have ever seen.
Did you like the comedy and how comedic it was? What were your thoughts on the drama? It has it all, and in almost every episode. I think comedy almost outweighs the emotional impact in my episode ranking, but there are also many moments (and some entire episodes) of happy or sad tears.
What are your thoughts on Tohru as a main character? totally rooting for her
What are your thoughts on Akito? well-written character whom I hate
Do you ship Tohru with Yuki, or Kyo? And why? Tohru-Kyo Early in the series, Kyo had more personality and potential for chemistry with Tohru, which bore out in episode 1.23 (episode #23), when she was sick
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u/the_pint_is_the_bowl 13d ago
Episode ranking based on humor, emotion (my happy or sad crying is valued more than my anger), importance of plot elements, and something memorable
1/. 2.23 - It's Cinderella-ish - the play itself is hilarious at face value but also sprinkled with rewards for having watched the series
2/. 1.24 - [memorable]>trueform and end credits<
3/. 3.11 - [memorable]>true zodiac myth and Kyo breaks his bracelet<
4/. 2.21 - [memorable]>Yuki's full backstory and story of the hat<
5/. 2.20 - [memorable]>Yuki's chaotic day and "like a mother" - the preamble to his confession<
6/. 3.06 - [memorable]>"When that time comes, I think I'll know what I'll let go of."<
7/. 2.17 - [memorable]>shenanigans and "Don't worry - he'll say no."<
8/. 1.14 - [memorable]>Momiji backstory and cemetery scene<
9/. 2.10 - [memorable]>Akito is god<
10/. 2.12 - [memorable]>first half Haru - Student Council President showndown, second half Akito visits the school<
11/. 3.09 - [memorable]>knife-wielding Akito confronts Tohru<
12/. 3.05 - [memorable]>Momiji's Curse breaks<
13/. 1.05 - [memorable]>Yuki and Kyo retrieve Tohru and the Fruits Basket game is explained<
14/. 2.18 - [memorable]>Rin's backstory and doll<
15/. 1.18 - [memorable]>Kisa's introduction, Tohru is momming Kisa!<
16/. 1.07 - [memorable]>Hatori's backstory<
17/. 3.03 - [memorable]>"How. Much. He's. Worth." and "Do you hate it when things are [perfect]?"<
18/. 2.16 - [memorable]>Momiji and Momo - oh, Kureno is in this episode, too<
19/. 3.08 - [memorable]>Kyo tells his past relationship with Kyoko and rejects Tohru's confession<
20/. 1.23 - [memorable]>Tohru fails a test and falls ill<
21/. 2.02 - [memorable]>the kids' future plans and Kazuma with Kyo's father<
22/. 1.03 - [memorable]>"your plum" (memorably derided by some of you)<
23/. 1.11 - [memorable]>The Most Idiotic Traveler<
24/. 2.24 - [memorable]>Student Council lunch, New Year's - including Akito attacking Yuki at the banquet<
25/. 2.15 - [memorable]>parent-teacher conference<
26/. 3.04 - [memorable]>Haru confronts Akito<
27/. 3.02 - [memorable]>paper flowers and explanation of Shigure-Ren<
28/. 3.07 - [memorable]>Ren and Akito fight over the box, Akito stabs Kureno<
29/. 1.06 - [memorable]>Hanajima and Uotani inspect Tohru's living arrangement and snacks<
30/. 1.04 - [memorable]>Kagura's introduction and Tohru's "right-handed jab!" using her left hand<
31/. 2.12 - [memorable]>Mayu and Hatori's great chemistry<
32/. 2.11 - [memorable]>Kagura isn't purely comedic<
33/. 2.09 - [memorable]>Akito summons Kyo<
34/. 2.06 - [memorable]>jam-packed fun at the beach house<
35/. 2.25 - [memorable]>Kureno and Akito's story<
36/. 2.22 - [memorable]>continuation of 2.21 Yuki finishes explaining how he feels about Tohru<
37/. 2.19 - [memorable]>Rin breaks down<
38/. 2.13 - [memorable]>Nao and Kimi's introduction, the Manabe-Yuki dynamic begins<
39/. 3.01 - [memorable]>continuation of 2.25, Kureno explains Akito<
40/. 2.14 - [memorable]>Yuki-Rin and Haru near Shigure's house<
41/. 2.07 - [memorable]>Yuki-Tohru and shooting stars, Kyo-Tohru pancakes<
42/. 2.08 - [memorable]>Rin arrives at the summer beach house<
43/. 3.12 - [memorable]>final banquet<
44/. 3.10 - [memorable]>Yuki's pep talk to Kyo to visit Tohru<
45/. 3.13 - [memorable]>Yuki thanks Tohru for changing his life<
46/. 1.25 - [memorable]>season 1 wrap-up<
47/. 1.21 - [memorable]>Megumi vs the Yuki Fan Club<
48/. 2.03 - [memorable]>Yuki and Tohru at Ayame's shop<
49/. 1.10 - [memorable]>Valentine's Day and Shigure's schemes<
50/. 1.01 - first episode - in a re-watch, you can really appreciate how much is packed into this episode
51/. 2.05 - [memorable]>the haunted house and Kureno-Uotani<
52/. 1.17 - [memorable]>Uotani's backstory, including Kyoko<
53/. 1.22 - [memorable]>Hanajima's backstory<
54/. 2.01 - [memorable]>the Student Council, with Machi and Manabe's introduction<
55/. 2.04 - [memorable]>Dark Haru rampage in school<
56/. 1.15 - [memorable]>Three Musketeers at the lakehouse<
57/. 1.02 - [memorable]>"Sometimes not getting kicked hurts more."<
58/. 1.13 - [memorable]>Ayame's introduction<
59/. 1.16 - [memorable]>shopping for a swimsuit and then Uotani begins her backstory<
60/. 1.09 - [memorable]>Haru's introduction<
61/. 1.08 - [memorable]>New Year's - unfairly penalized b/c redundant with 1.05<
62/. 1.20 - [memorable]>Hiro's introduction<
63/. 1.19 - [memorable]>Ritsu's introduction<
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u/Holofan4life 10d ago
I want to own the blu rays, but now they're kinda hard to come by. You can find season 1 part 1 and season 3 easily, but the others are more rare. Ebay shows them being listed at like $200.
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u/the_pint_is_the_bowl 9d ago edited 9d ago
What the bleep is this price?! https://www.ebay.com/itm/307189331221
EDIT: this is almost as bad as Aniplex pricing (Erased, Promised Neverland, and Cells at Work - I actually shelled out for Cells at Work)
Whoa, this Season 2 https://www.ebay.com/itm/267471166196 is packaged like that Season 1 as a single product in a single disc case, not weaselly sold as separate part 1 and part 2 purchases (which, unfortunately, are what I bought).
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u/Holofan4life 9d ago
Okay, that's not really bad. And it's region A which means it's compatible with North American devices.
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u/Holofan4life 13d ago
I might as well go ahead and rank the Sohmas
Kyo > Shigure > Hatori > Haru > Yuki > Momiji > Ayame > Hiro > Rin > Kagura > Kureno > Kisa > Ritsu
So, my rankings aren't based on me disliking any of them. It’s more my personal enjoyment of them. Kyo is my favorite character in this show so he's ranked first. Shigure I feel like is the glue of the show. I really like Hatori even though he's downplayed in the later seasons. Haru is probably the one who grew the most in my eyes from the first series to the second series as the Rin stuff really humanized him in my eyes. And the others roughly stayed the same ranking wise.
The only other one who's opinion of mine changed slightly is Yuki. In the 2001 series, I feel Momiji, Ayame, and Hiro were all more interesting than Tuki was. Yuki had the Akito trauma, but that's about it. I actually feel the student council rounded out Yuki's character to make him dynamic and interesting.
I know parts of this rewatch has been spent maligning the show and certain various elements, but on the whole I'd say this adaptation got me to care about the Sohma family more than the 2001 anime. They by and large felt less like gimmicks meant to represent their specific animal.
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u/cheesechimp https://myanimelist.net/profile/cheesechimp 13d ago
I know parts of this rewatch has been spent maligning the show and certain various elements, but on the whole I'd say this adaptation got me to care
Since I skipped this side of the rewatch, that's kind of sad for me to read. I didn't participate because I had watched in for the first time back in the first couple months of the year and I really loved it. I don't know what elements drew criticism, but it didn't have much that I would complain about.
Glad to see you coming around on Yuki! Going back to my rankings at the end of the 2001 part, I guess I put him second? That makes sense, he's the secondary romantic lead and gets a lot of attention. I love that sad, polite little guy. I do quite like what the story does with him in the final season of this adaptation. I don't fully buy that he didn't have romantic feelings for Tohru early in the story, but I do like the romance that actually works out for him and if he needs to tell himself he never felt that way about Tohru to move on that's fine with me.
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u/Holofan4life 12d ago
It seemed like the everything was cause for criticism.
It's weird because I and a lot of people find the show to be a masterpiece. That's not an unpopular opinion.
I think the more Yuki was removed from what was going on with Akito, the more relatable he became. Rin ended up becoming the trauma Max character and that was good for Haru's development who became more relatable as a result. I think the author as the story went on figured that Akito would be a good catalyst for Tohru to save Yuki but after that he needed to begin his own self discovery.
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u/Nickthenuker https://anilist.co/user/Nickthenuker 13d ago
Questions:
A decent show, I can definitely understand why some people liked it so much. 8/10.
Rewatcher so I knew what to expect going I'm.
That ending was great.
The end where it showed the far future of Tohru and Kyo.
Rin.
It works some times I guess. The drama was a lot better.
She definitely works as the main character.
Ok...
She definitely works with Kyo. Yuki's got his own happy ending anyways.
Rin -> Kyo -> Yuki -> Haru -> that's about it lol.
Well, I already am here and now, so why not maybe again.
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u/MishouMai 13d ago
> What are your thoughts overall on the series?
I haven't watched/read a lot of shoujo(u) like this (Most shoujo I've watched/read are aimed at a younger audience and a lot tamer.) so I don't know if it's just ignorance but I get why Fruits Basket is a classic. While I'm not big on the resolution and have my problems with it, I enjoyed it! I probably won't watch Prelude (At least right now.), but I enjoyed following along with you guys. I wouldn't consider it a favorite and I probably wouldn't just rewatch it just to rewatch it but I enjoyed it well enough.
Fruits Basket Another adaptation when?
> How does the series compare to your expectations going in?
I didn't really have expectations going in. I knew I liked Ayame since I watched Season 1 when it aired back in 2019 and I knew there was a romance and that Akito was the main antagonist but I forgot a lot about my first time watching Season 1 and didn't really have any expectations for it or anything past it.
> What was your favorite episode?
The Hanajima backstory and Prince Yuki Fanclub trip to Hanajima's house immediately come to mind but the episodes focusing on Uo's backstory are pretty solid as well. I think Season 2 is better overall but this 4 episodes from Season1 are the ones that immediately come to mind.
> What was your favorite moment?
For me it's gotta be either Tohru accepting Kyo and hugging/embracing him at the end of Season 1 or Momiji standing up for Tohru and getting punched/slapped for his efforts during the best beach house arc of Season 2. I'd say I lean slightly more towards the former than the latter. Mostly because I'm biased towards Kyo x Tohru but it's also just one of the best moments of the show (That probably is meant to foreshadow Tohru reaching out to Akito in Final Episode 9 but, well, we all know how I feel about Akito's redemption.).
> Who was your favorite character?
I loved Ayame when I first watched Season 1 and that hasn't changed. Seeing my man is always a joy. Hanajima and Uo (They go hand in hand.) are probably a close second.
> Did you like the comedy and how comedic it was?
> What are your thoughts on the drama?
I don't laugh easily but I didn't mind the comedy here. It's not too intrusive for the most part and it doesn't really take away from the show or anything. Likewise when the drama hits, it hits. I've no complaints about the tone of the show for the most part.
> What are your thoughts on Tohru as a Maui character?
I like Tohru! While her design isn't the most original I think it works. Tohru is a good girl and while you could maybe argue she's a bit generic at first I was never really bothered by it. There's also a bit more depth to her than you'd expect, though it does take awhile to come to the surface. Not that she necessarily needs it. Static characters can work, even as main characters, as can characters who you know all about at first glance. That's not Tohru, obviously, but I can't say I'd have minded it if she remained as just the good, kindhearted if not slightly dumb girl she appears to be.
> What are your thoughts on Akito?
Fuck Akito. While the show obviously wants us to sympathize with her, I can't deny that the stuff with Ren makes me far more sympathetic to her (Ren) than her (Akito). Like Ren's obviously a shitty parent and not the nicest person, but knowing what I do know about her I can't help but feel sorry for her. The show obviously wants me to feel sorry for Akito but her actions are so awful that, while I can understand Kureno feeling sorry for her when their bond broke and I can understand her grieving her father, I find it hard to feel any sympathy for her. The show also clearly wants me to accept that she's turned over a new leaf but her change of heart was sloppy (People complained about Tohru fixing the Zodiacs and solving their problems back in Season 1 but I was never bothered by that and I think this is far worse.) and her scratching and hitting Shigure even after that makes that hard for me to buy into.
> Do you ship Tohru with Yuki or Kyo and why?
For me, it's gotta be Kyo. While I'd have liked to see more development on Tohru's side of things, they feel more like friends than Yuki x Tohru and there's just a lot more chemistry between them. I also just like Kyo more as a character so he ends up working out better as a love interest for me.
> How would you rank the Zodiac members?
I'm not going to rank them all but all you need to know is that Ayame, Kagura, Rin, Kyo, and Momiji are probably Top 5 for me (but not necessarily in that order.). Ayame is for sure my favorite member of the Zodiac though. He was #1 when all I had was Season 1 all those years ago and even after watching the second and third seasons he hadn't been dethroned.
Skipping the last question since I already answered it.
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u/Holofan4life 10d ago
If I remember correctly, there were a couple season 2 episodes you were a very big fan of. I believe at the time you said they were your favorite.
You know me, this is now my favorite anime of all time and will always hold a special place in my heart. I will be hard pressed to find an anime that is better than this one.
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u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 13d ago edited 13d ago
Rewatcher, Subbed
This rewatch confirms for me that Fruits Basket deserves to go down as one of my personal favorite anime of all time. It does probably as good a job as any anime I've ever seen at focusing on its characters and getting you to feel sympathy for and love them. As I've mentioned earlier in the rewatch, it is effectively the anime version of LOST (or perhaps the other way around as the Furuba manga came first), a story providing considerable focus on the characters, to the point that even though there is a central mystery and plot to the storyline, I can forgive any slowness or progression at times and whatever happens with the plot comes second to the characters. At its center of course is Tohru, one of the most lovable characters in all of anime. So lovable that I know there's some out there that criticize that she's too much so. Despite that practically always happy exterior for Tohru though is her sad background and circumstances, and her issues with being too considerate of others (the "foolish traveler") and well, we saw that this nearly got her killed! Around her are two strong male leads in Yuki and Kyo. Both had really good storylines and while things could get frustrating at times (Kyo's self hatred in particular) I think the show did a really good job showing how their trauma impacted them and presented us with a more realistic portrayal of such characters.
Beyond simply our three main characters though the show had such a tremendous amount of great characters surrounding them. The show had a really large cast of characters to juggle, and really only with one obvious exception (Ritsu) I felt it did a really good job giving them appropriate development, and cycling them into and out of the story as needed. A great example of how the show handled characters was Hatori. He gets introduced in episode 6 and is portrayed as a very serious character and also somewhat of a scary one since he can hypnotize people to lose their memories and we worry if he's going to do that to Tohru, especially when he asks her to come see him. By the end of the next episode I'm shedding tears over his story and wanting someone to give him a hug! While I can' t say he was the most likable, Shigure was quite an interesting character, trying to figure out exactly what he was scheming. Momiji was such a lovable character from the beginning and despite his rather goofy demeanor also did such a good job dealing with things and being mature about it. Haru's character design gives you initial impressions about him being a tough guy asshole but he was also such a great and kind character, even outside his ship with characters like Yuki and Kisa. We had to wait forever to get Rin but she was also up there among my favorite characters with arguably the most tragic backstory of them all and being more proactive about breaking the curse than the rest of them. And I can't talk about the characters without mentioning Hanajima. My favorite character in the show, she put a smile on my face every time I saw her (ok, outside of her sad backstory) and is responsible for nearly all of the funniest moments in the show. I also love the goth/waves girl aesthetic and she'd have easily been the best character design in most anime but they topped even her with Rin.
Can't talk about the characters without mentioning Akito. Akito is one of the best written villains in anime. If I was to come up with a list of the top 10 most heinous anime villains, Akito would absolutely be on that list. The "Fuck Akito!" thought one could type about her come up often. At the same time the story does a great job fleshing out exactly why Akito became the way she has. For me in a way that doesn't forgive her transgressions but at least enables you to realize why it happened. I also appreciate the fact that the writer (and character) know enough to avoid Akito simply stating "I'm sorry" to the others as that would have no value and had her provide the apology through her actions instead, by releasing everyone from the curse.
The experience is obviously different as a rewatcher, but I also want to say that when I went through this the first time I was astounded at just how often the show delivered for me exactly what I wanted, or addressed concerns that I had. I'd think "I hope they're giving us a Hanajima episode", and we got two. Or "Kagura was absent from the summer arc, I hope she gets some focus soon" and does immediately afterwards. Or "This Ritsu character is so over the top annoying, I'm going to be so frustrated if he's doing this all the time" and he barely appeared after that, lol. I questioned why they had this storyline about Yuki being the student council president, and clearly that served a big purpose with him "leaving the cage" in his own way, especially in a way without Tohru and of course that leading to his romance with Machi. "Hiro is so mean to Tohru, I hate him!" and I eventually grew to like even him a lot. Speaking of the romance, the show had a lot of good ships in it, and while shoujo/romance is totally not my usual genre, I was rooting hard for many of the ships here! On a thematic level the show does an amazing job. Yes, there's a zodiac curse that transforms 13 of our characters into cute animals. But that was in reality a metaphor for the traumatic relationships these characters were in and their inability to get away from their abuser or their issues. Also reflecting the difficulty of being able to let go of the bonds you have and getting out of your comfort zone.
In terms of criticisms or changes, there's very little I would change about the show. The only thing that leaves me a bad taste in my mouth as the show concludes is the Shigure - Akito ship for reasons I've mentioned in prior threads. Everywhere else that the characters ended up I'm totally happy with. And even then I think the place that ship ended up made sense for the story the author was telling. Kyo's self-hatred of himself got really over the top at times, especially in the final season, but I also accept that its the story not pulling any punches and being realistic about how characters with such a mentality can be. The show took a while to introduce its entire cast and we hit a point late season 1 where it felt that the show was following a formula over and over again even if I was happy with pretty much all the individual storylines there and I'll admit there probably isn't much that can be done to change that. There also was times where I was frustrated in season 2 that a particular episode didn't move along the story enough, but in hindsight looking back there's very little there that I felt was useless (the lodge visit in season 1 and the haunted house visit in season 2 being things that absolutely could have gone though). The way I feel about this trope, I absolutely would have done away with all of the haircuts in the show; Rin's was particularly painful since she's one of the most beautiful characters in anime. Although I can't deny that part of the storyline was well written (versus say, Ritsu's which was just horrendously bad and I think I'd be all the more upset about if Ritsu wasn't such a useless character).
On an aesthetic level I was happy with the show throughout. The character designs were really good and an improvement over the original manga's. The show did a really good job in non-serious moments and we got so many hilarious Tohru faces that there's too many to count. One could arguably say that the best thing about Fruits Basket is the soundtrack, which is in the conversation for me as best anime soundtrack of all time. I easily put together a top 15 musical track list below (even excluding the OP/EDs/Insert Songs) and could do even more. I'm actually going back through the entire show to track where all the musical tracks are used. We've also got an amazing vocal cast here with so many big names including some of my favorite seiyuus in the industry (Maaya Sakamoto, Rie Kugimiya, Megumi Han, Takahiro Sakurai, Akira Ishida, etc...). You know its good when an actor of the caliber of Hiroshi Kamiya is relegated to a very small role (God). Maaya Sakamoto (Akito) and Takahiro Sakurai (Ayame) in particular I think did great jobs voicing characters that are totally not the type of characters they tend to voice.
Recommendations
Recommendations is tough because I can't find another anime of the same genre that I think is as good as Fruits Basket. In the wake of seeing this the first time there were several other shoujo and/or romance anime that I watched, or anime that I felt had at least some similar themes (ex. dealing with loss). Kimi ni Todoke. Clannad and Clannad After Story. Your Lie in April. All good in their own way (sans season 2 of Kimi ni Toodke which was horrendous). But not on the level of this. More lighter hearted or less serious stuff. Horimiya. My Dress Up Darling. Oregairu. Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian. The Dangers in My Heart. Saekano. All at least okay stuff but again not on Furuba's level. If we move away from traditional romance perhaps one can be somewhat more successful. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day is really good and something I'd strongly recommend as is Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms. Neither of which I'd say is a romance but the former is about dealing with loss and the latter is about motherhood and both really well done emotional anime. I'm meaning to do a Violet Evergarden rewatch at some point, perhaps that will be worth it too.
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u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 13d ago edited 13d ago
Rankings
Favorite Characters:
Hanajima
Rin
Haru
Momiji
Tohru
Favorite Ships:
Haru - Rin
Yuki - Machi
Tohru - Kyo
Eww, nooo!: Shigure - Akito
Favorite Episodes:
Episode 61 (Season 3 Episode 11)
Episode 54 (Season 3 Episode 4)
Episode 57 (Season 3 Episode 7)
Episode 43 (Season 2 Episode 18)
Episode 14
Episode 24
Episode 34 (Season 2 Episode 9)
Episode 59 (Season 3 Episode 9)
Episode 7
Episode 5
Worst Episodes:
Episode 19
Episode 15
Episode 30 (Season 2 Episode 5)
Episode 38 (Season 2 Episode 13)
I'm going to stop there, because there were very few weak episodes in this show. Hard to think of a fifth.
Funniest Moments:
Hanajima: "We're having a nightgown festival." Yuki: "You mean a pajama party?"
Hanajima purposely tanking the finals to be able to take an easier redo exam
Megumi hiding in the closet when Motoko and the fan club members infiltrate Hanajima's room
Favorite In-Episode Instrumental Musical Tracks:
Mama Said
Snow Melts Into Spring/Spring Will Come When the Snow Melts Away (two versions of the same song)
Human to Human
Folktale
I Will Become a Cat
I Will Protect You
Desires Arise as Long as We Live
Every Night Finds a Dawn
Zodiac
Memory Loss
Accept as Is
Shape of Good Conscious
My Answer Is
Be Myself
So That You're Not Lonely
Favorite OP/ED Songs
Eden (S2ED2)
Haru Urara (S3ED)
Prism (S2OP1)
One Step Closer (S1ED2)
Lucky Ending (S1ED1)
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u/Holofan4life 10d ago
I'm glad at least someone in this rewatch alongside me has this as one of their favorites. It makes me feel a little less lonely :)
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u/dontoff 13d ago
First Timer (Dub)
I’ve already given my thoughts on the events of all three seasons, so I wanted to talk more about the experience as a whole.
It was pretty much inevitable that I’d eventually watch Fruits Basket. It’s extremely highly rated, and I constantly saw people putting the final season at the top of their romance lists. There were some red flags for me, though. A lot of the people I saw praising it had tastes leaning towards shoujo and general drama slop that I’m usually not a fan of, rather than the deeper stuff I tend to enjoy.
Still, this rewatch was the perfect opportunity to finally get it out of my PTW, and I’m glad I took it.
Even now, I just don’t see how the fuck this show is rated as highly as it is. It reminds me of my experience with Vinland Saga season two. Another reminder that a MAL score means fuck all when it comes to knowing how I’ll feel about something. I do think hearing everyone call something amazing can influence how people perceive it. That happens subconsciously with plenty of things beyond media, too.
I don’t regret watching Fruits Basket. It’s solid, but it’s nowhere near what it was hyped up to be for me. I came away seeing it as a mid-tier shoujo with mediocre material and a solid adaptation for this kind of romance.
Honestly, the author was lucky as fuck to get a remake and a full continuation. I can think of dozens of other shows I’d have wanted to see get that treatment before this one. But romance slop sells, so I’m not surprised.
I’m glad I finally watched it and formed my own opinion. I just wish the show I found had come closer to the one everyone kept telling me about.
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u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 13d ago
While I totally support the show's high MAL rating, for any anime where MAL breaks it into multiple seasons there's the opportunity for a lot of bias to creep in and cause later seasons to get rated higher. Those who don't like the show have likely dropped the show before getting there so your actual voting audience is a smaller group more apt to rate it higher because they've stuck around that long and are more likely to enjoy the show as a result. I think the final season was the best season anyway, but that absolutely is a MAL flaw.
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u/Second_Cour 13d ago
Part 1-Score + Final Words in Pt2
I came into Fruits Basket with pretty hefty expectations. Given its huge score on MAL, (+pretty good scores on Japanese sites) I expected to be blown away. I expected it to emotionally destroy me. I hoped it might even make me cry, which is pretty difficult. Though, I pretty much went in blind.
Unfortunately, it became obvious that this probably isn't a show for me.
I've watched plenty of things where I'm obviously outside the intended demographic and still loved them. Here, I could feel that distance quite strongly, whether it was the style of comedy, the way some of the characters were written, the school hijinks, the romance framing, or just the delivery.
I came really close to dropping the show in S1. It was only by E8 or 9 of Season 1, when I decided to continue on. The cutoff point was E10. Giri giri ne? (Japanese expression meaning ‘barely made it’).
What saved it was the intrigue behind the Zodiac mystery. The supernatural framework was by far the most interesting part of the show to me.
People turning into Zodiac animals under certain circumstances? Great idea. There appeared to be rules. There was Akito's inexplicable control. The question of what exactly the curse was, why it existed, how bonds could break (and later why). And that damned hat.
The problem is that this element was much less important to the show than it was to me.
There were honestly quite a few episodes where, if not for the rewatch, I would have dropped the show. I wasn't particularly invested in many of the school stories, side characters or comedy episodes, so I kept waiting for the larger mystery to progress.
And when we eventually got the answers, I was pretty underwhelmed.
I like the Zodiac curse origin story. The idea of the animals promising to remain by God's side forever, and that bond becoming something unhealthy over repeated reincarnations, is a good one.
But I wanted the actual system surrounding that idea to be better developed.
I'm someone who really likes stories where the rules are clearly defined. Death Note is an obvious example: you get a specific step by step; instructions. Once you accept that premise, rules are rules. With FruBa, I never felt that level of consistency.
At first, physical contact seemed to cause transformations. Then it became specifically hugging. Yet an arm bar can apparently count. Kissing is fine. Holding hands is fine. Apparently the curse just hates hugging haha.
I can actually see an excellent thematic idea hiding inside this. If the Zodiac members belong emotionally to God, perhaps intimate affection toward somebody else symbolically represents giving away love that is supposed to belong to God.
That would make sense to me. But then why hugging? Why are there loop holes?
Early on, getting exhausted, sick or severely stressed can trigger a transformation. That's a cool mechanic with enormous potential. Then later characters go through substantially worse physical and psychological situations and nothing happens. Rin falls from a 2nd floor balcony, yet is fine. Ayame getting cold makes him transform though…
Eventually it started feeling like the curse was a curse when convenient.
The same thing applied to Akito's control, which when explained with her being God, I loved. We're repeatedly told and shown that the bond makes it almost impossible for the Zodiac members to resist God. Yet at other points they can argue with Akito, hide things from Akito, tell Akito to piss off, or in Shigure's case seemingly spend years manoeuvring toward an outcome to unseat Akito.
Exceptions are fine. But I wanted those exceptions to teach me something about the rules. Instead, I felt like the rules moved according to what the scene needed.
That's not laziness - it just wasn’t important for the writer. However, I like precision. I think Takaya's strengths simply lie elsewhere: relationships, emotion, depression, trauma and interpersonal conflict. It’s not in creating a consistent system.
See the issue for me? The thing that intrigued me the most, is a plot device, not a feature.
Even the mystery of why the bonds were breaking ultimately got a lukewarm reaction from me closer to: "Yeah... I guess that kinda makes sense." No “holy shitballs” moment to be had.
And after three seasons of waiting for that answer, that was a major disappointment.
There are some characters I liked. Tohru is adorable. She's charming, lovable, hilariously spacey, ridiculously trusting and generally just pleasant to have around.
Shigure was my favourite character in the show. He felt 3D, interesting and surprisingly consistent. I spent a lot of time expecting his behaviour to eventually resolve into some amazing master plan where I could trace all of his previous actions backwards. That never quite happened for me either. I understood what outcome he wanted, but not really the who, what, where, when and how of this supposed plan.
The writer has said that she had the end state in mind as she wrote the story. But I think she didn’t connect all of the dots. For many here, that’s not important in this kind of show. For me, it is.
Kyo also grew on me enormously considering I absolutely hated him at first. I still disagree with plenty of his behaviour, but I appreciate that he's deeply flawed.
A big issue I had was that this show was trauma porn. Almost everybody has suffered. The Zodiac members have suffered. Tohru has suffered. Her friends have suffered. The adults have suffered. The teacher has suffered. Almost everyone’s parents are dead, abusive, neglectful, mentally broken, emotionally unavailable or some combination of the above.
Individual stories can be powerful. But when nearly everybody arrives carrying another devastating backstory, the emotional angle becomes devalued for me.
I went into this wanting something emotional. I wanted something depressing enough to potentially make me cry. But I can't feel devastated for sixty-plus episodes. Eventually my reaction became more like, "Okay, whose trauma are we unpacking today?"
There was also a repeated pattern:
Character is emotionally broken -> Tohru listens -> Tohru gives them some heartfelt advice, oft involving her mother -> emotional breakthrough -> character appears to have changed.
And then several episodes later they can feel almost exactly like they did beforehand.
Yuki is probably the clearest example. During the beach material in Season 2, I thought we had finally seen this massive breakthrough. He confronts Akito, seems to understand something fundamental about himself and looks ready to move forward. Then shortly afterwards he's seemingly worse than ever.
Kyo felt similar. His Season 1 climax should have been an enormous turning point. Instead I felt like I saw a flutter of development and then a long period where that momentum largely disappeared until the story needed to pick it back up. He went sideways.
Obviously people don't recover from their problems in a straight line. I understand that. But narratively, I wanted to feel more momentum and progress.
If one of the core ideas of the show is that kindness, understanding and finally being heard can help people heal, then I wanted to see more substantial evidence of that healing accumulating throughout the story rather than so many emotional breakthroughs feeling semi-reset afterwards.
The comedy really wasn’t for me. This was probably the biggest immediate sign that I wasn't the target audience. The slapstick, exaggerated reactions, violent comedy and deliberately ridiculous characters almost never worked for me.
The Yuki fan club. The prefects. Characters screaming. Characters flying across rooms. Most of it just made me cringe. I accept that’s very personal - comedy is the most subjective element. It just wasn’t for me.
Because FruBa also wants to be an extremely emotional melodrama, the tonal switching sometimes felt sudden. One minute we’re in trauma mode, the next minute we get exaggerated jokes. That combination never really clicked for me, and one reason behind it is the sequencing of chapters in S2, with chapters from the manga 100s of pages apart, combined.
And yes, this show is a massive melodrama. I don't mean that as an insult, but melodrama is also not a style I'm drawn to. The oddest example for me was one of the episodes I enjoyed most in the Final Season: Tohru trying to reach out to and hug the knife-wielding bloodied Akito. I know Tohru is almost supernaturally kind, I just couldn’t buy it. Then the cliff collapses…I mean…come on haha. The universe decided this scene is still too chill and personally demolished the cliff. I could only like this episode through a satirical framework, but later I realised it wasn’t meant to be seen as such.
The pacing on the core mystery was just too slow for me. I like really slow shows, probably more than anyone I know, but we didn’t get a gradual slow reveal: we went on side-quests. We spent an enormous amount of time on side stories, comedy, school material and relatively minor characters. Yet, the final season compressed an insane amount of manga chapters into each episode. How is it that we use 1-2 chapters per episode through S1 & S2, then go up to a maximum of 5 in S3?
I spent so much time on material I didn't care about, only for the material I did care about to become the most compressed part of the adaptation. The Final Season was easily my favourite. More of that, please.
The only time I actually got emotional in the show was during Kyoko’s last monologue. I think the reason is important: It was simple. It was direct. It was clear. The emotion was earned, and the context was serious. It wasn’t over-written.
A lot of the Somah characters' internal monologues had the opposite effect on me. They could become so flowery, metaphorical and elaborate that I stopped hearing the character and started hearing me trying to impress my 10th-grade English teacher with my creativity.