Spring 2019 First Impressions – Fruits Basket

After a family tragedy turns her life upside down, plucky high schooler Tohru Honda takes matters into her own hands and moves out into a tent. Unfortunately for her, she pitches her new home on private land belonging to the mysterious Sohma clan, and it isn’t long before the owners discover her secret. But, as Tohru quickly finds out when the family offers to take her in, the Sohmas have a secret of their own–when touched by the opposite sex, they turn into the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu, and Yahoo View

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga, as well as a previous anime adaptation.

Episode Summary: Tohru’s living situation is a bit… complicated. After her mother passed away in an accident, she went to live with her grandfather. Now her grandfather’s home is being renovated, so rather than cause problems for one of her friends by asking to live with them for a few months, Tohru has chosen to take all the burden on by herself – by living in a tent in the woods and supporting herself through her part-time job. By accident, she learns that her tent sits on the property of the Soma family, and Yuki Soma (her class’s “prince”) walks with her to school when Tohru discovers the location of their family home. This gets Tohru in trouble with Yuki’s fan club, but luckily Yuki turns out to be more down-to-earth than his social status may imply.

After completing a day’s work at her after-school cleaning job, Tohru sneaks back to her tent in the dark. Coincidentally, Yuki and his cousin Shigure are also wandering their property, and suddenly Tohru’s secret is out in the open. Conveniently, the Soma boys are slobs, and Tohru has a knack for cleaning – it seems like the perfect match for them both. She’s invited to take the empty room on the Soma home’s second floor. But when the ornery Kyo drops in to pick a fight with Yuki, the family’s odd secret is revealed. If the family members come into contact with someone of the opposite sex, they transform into the various animal members of the Chinese Zodiac!

Impressions: I told my husband earlier today that I watched the first episode of the new Fruits Basket adaptation and that I left the experience with a warm feeling in my heart and a tear in my eye. He told me the story of his first exposure to the series, which was as a 17-year-old being forced to watch part of the earlier anime adaptation by an overly-enthusiastic classmate. It soured him on the series for years – it’s one of those things that always struck me as being out-of-character for him, since he’s always been more laid-back about things he doesn’t really enjoy. For me, my interaction with the earlier series was more neutral; I watched the original Fruits Basket anime in my anime club back in about 2002, and enjoyed it. I liked it well enough to pick up the boxed set back when the local Sam Goody stores were going out of business, though even knowing that the manga version was more well-regarded, I never felt obligated to seek it out.

Still, nostalgia can be insidious and unexpected, and watching this episode transported me right back to my college days, swaying and singing along with the gentle theme song of the original (“…let’s stay together, itsumo“). I find it funny that we can easily recall so many “important” events in our own lives, but it’s sometimes the most mundane and seemingly forgettable things that connect most deeply to our emotional centers. Fruits Basket has never been an all-time favorite, but it was important to me during a certain time of my fandom life and I think it’s good to be reminded of that sometimes.

Though I like to come into first episode viewings as “untainted” by outside views and impressions as I can, in this case it’s pretty much impossible; I already know the general arc of the story, who the characters are, and what’s likely to happen in the early moments of the season. Comparisons between versions are reflexive and unavoidable. So what I will say is that I get the strong impression that the individuals handling this adaptation have a lot of reverence for it. I realize that’s difficult to quantify, but I feel like it’s the type of thing you can just sort of feel. Unlike, say, the recent Berserk anime adaptation, or the first couple seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal, it feels like Fruits Basket 2019 has been provided enough resources and the correct production team to see it through to its endpoint in a way that will be satisfying.

To be honest, the setup to the story is pretty simple and parts of it are quite silly on the surface. Tohru is truly a “shoujo manga heroine™” in that she’s as sweet and as self-sacrificing as they come – in many other contexts I’d be extremely irritated by how many hoops she jumps through in order to avoid making even the most minor amount of trouble for those around her. And yet… that might be a little bit of projection on my part. I have firsthand knowledge of how easily one can get roped-into the mindset that others’ needs are more urgent and important than one’s own. Tohru knows poverty and has had to support herself from a young age, and to lay even a fraction of that burden on another person is likely a non-starter for her. I feel like this episode does a good job of framing her situation from that perspective; even though one would suspect that her friends and possibly even other members of her family might be willing to step up and house her for a few months, it’s understandable why she wouldn’t think to ask.

I was startled a bit by how much Tohru’s memories of her mother stood out to me as poignant this time around. I’m not sure if it has to do with my own age and additional perspective, or whether it’s something that this incarnation of the story just handles better, but Tohru’s love for her mother and her regrets about the morning of her mother’s accident felt deeply heartfelt and emotional to me. Her simple yet deep-seated regrets about sleeping in and missing the opportunity to wish her mother goodbye on that fateful day are presented in a straightforward way as Tohru struggles through a fever. I think it’s because the production doesn’t attempt to drum-up emotions in overtly-manipulative ways that I found myself teary-eyed by her story. It’s small storytelling choices like that which tend to have large emotional impacts.

Of course, more obvious changes are fine, too. I think the most obvious one’s are the upgraded visuals. While the 2001 series adheres very closely to the manga’s character designs (which in itself is its own kind of positive choice that I wouldn’t typically criticize), the character designs in this incarnation have been modernized and are more detailed. I think the production staff maintained the correct balance between ensuring that the characters were recognizable and giving them a more mature and refined look, which is likely much more difficult than it may seem at first glance. Overall, the first episode is colorful, the character animation is pretty good, and I even kind of like the colorful smoke effects that appear when the characters transform. I think the staff made a lot of good choices.

I sometimes find it difficult to talk coherently about things I really like. I’ve written a lot of words here, and yet I don’t feel like I’ve done a great job of capturing how good I thought this episode was. While this new adaptation was certainly highly-anticipated, it doesn’t necessarily fit the profile of the type of anime that’s discussed at length and I’m not sure that fans who are unfamiliar with the original will know to care about it. But care they should, as this episode proves that a decent amount of resources and a staff with a good sense for simple, straightforward storytelling can mean more to an anime series’ success than flashy animation and controversy. I hope maybe my husband will find it in his heart to give this tale a second try.

Pros: Nice, updated visual style. The episode does a good job of introducing the simple, emotional story. Manages to produce some emotions without feeling overtly-manipulative.

Cons: Yuki’s fan club no longer says “L-O-V-E love me, Yuki” when they appear.

Grade: A-