DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyFruits Basket
ANIME ComedyFruits Basket: 2nd Season
MOVIE DramaFruits Basket: prelude

REVIEWS

• 

  Magenta

  96/100
  An emotionally charged ballad that realistically portrays elements of humanity that most struggle to describe.

  This review is both for the entire series and spoiler free.

  Even though we are the ones who completely embody it, human emotion and their inherent nature is a topic that is vague enough to unassuming eyes, that it may be considered impossible to understand. With there being no true concrete answer as to what comprises the deeper parts of our minds, problems with depicting that complex nature in a story will always arise. A lot of stories that strive to be more than what they are expected to try to write its characters in a way for them to feel human. What constitutes as human strays into the vague territory of the subject that it even derives from. This vague territory is the reason why it is extremely daunting to incorporate in a story. To get a true method for portraying human characters is impossible, and to get anywhere close to is a challenge many aren’t willing to take. This is why a great deal of stories primarily feature one dimensional characters that are idealizations of a certain archetype. While this approach to character can work well in certain contexts, for stories that mainly surround characters like it, the story lacks the capability to make the audience feel a far wider range of emotions. When stories actually do try to venture into the aforementioned vague territory, the results can produce some of the best stories ever created. While the true extent of the vague territory is unknown, even an understanding of a small part of it can provide a great deal of emotion and meaning.

  Enter Fruits Basket.

  

  Contrary to popular opinions that said otherwise, my initial impression of this series was one of dissatisfaction. It seemed to me in the beginning that it was a story that revolved around one dimensional characters that didn’t exactly click with me. However, Fruits Basket was pulling a trick. While some didn’t fall for it at all, I was somebody that fell head first into it. While Fruits Basket was lulling me into the notion that it wasn’t doing anything past the status quo, it was actually doing the contrary. In its entirety, Fruits Basket is an emotional ballad that, out of any piece of media I have consumed, is one of the stories that most successfully ventures the furthest into the vague and muddy territory of human emotion.

  As Fruits Basket’s approach to character writing evolves, the method as to how characters are developed gets slowly better and better, until it becomes nearly perfect by the Final Season. The general method of character development with Fruits Basket’s method doesn’t really change throughout the series, but it is so volatile and utilized so well, that it isn’t remotely repetitive in the slightest. This method starts with the initial impression. This initial impression is in a character’s introduction, where you learn about a character’s extremely base character traits. From this initial view into a character’s world, you can initially write them off as one dimensional at the start. The series does a very good job at hammering these traits in. This series very easily creates some of the most detestable images for a character that I have ever seen in a story before. Even if the hammering in seems like it is counterintuitive at first, it serves a deliberate purpose in later developments of the story. After our initial impressions of a character has set in, the show immediately asks a vital question about the character in question that will permeate throughout the rest of the series. Why?

  Answering as to why a character would act a certain way isn’t exactly a new question that stories have brought up when developing characters, but what sets Fruits Basket apart is in how meticulously it shows this development. For characters that initially started out with one base character trait, they each eventually flourish into very complex, sympathetic, and human characters. The sympathetic part is the part that is particularly impressive to me. Fruits Basket can somehow turn one of the previously mentioned destable characters into somebody that feels uniquely human in a way that no story has really ever pulled off for me. The empathetic nature of the show naturally allows it to have better character writing across the board, because it lets all of the emotional beats of the show completely hit their targets. While not every character arc in Fruits Basket is consistent in their execution, the few lesser arcs aren’t major enough to outshine some of the best character arcs that the major characters in the story have. It isn’t like the characters that are worse written are abundant either. The character arcs that hit it out of the park take up a very sizable majority in the ensemble cast, so it is very rare to see anything that I could actually call bad. With all of the elements of so many emotional aspects of humanity on display here, Fruits Basket can draw strong emotions that have been built up over the course of a character arc to a powerful emotional climax. These emotional climaxes have the ability to bring out tears in many people. However, this series has rarely been called something anywhere close to cry bait. This is because it fully earns nearly every single emotional moment that it tries to attempt, due to how well the buildup was to that moment over the course of all three seasons. Fruits Basket’s ability to make the viewer tear up is far from high on its priority list. However, it manages to do it anyway, because the audience at this point most likely deeply cares for the characters.

  With the series having such a deep understanding of the emotions inside of us, it leverages this understanding to commentate on deeper issues ingrained into our society. As played into the supernatural elements of the Zodiac curse in the beginning, by the second season, they are nearly nonexistent. This change in direction helps the series to put greater focus on the symbolic and allegorical aspects of the implications of the curse on its victims. Even if the first showcase through the Zodiac curse is in a more lighthearted, comical, and supernatural manner, the curse comes to parallel some extremely realistic struggles that can be applied to many real life curses of its kind. With how the Zodiac curse is contextualized throughout the story, it makes every single action of the characters affected by it to feel all the more justified and real. It is yet another manner that Fruits Basket uses its knowledge of human struggle and emotion to create a realistic world of suffering in a way that can hit a real chord.

  The OST also contributes equal parts to the more emotional parts of the series. The emotional weight that nearly every song in the OST holds in my heart really shouldn’t be understated. Nearly every song manages to be soaring in a way that compliments every scene, while never being overbearing. I don’t think you could properly describe much of what makes the OST in proper words, and the only real way to actually know how good it is to actually listen to it.

  My only real problem with this series is in the visual department. While the character design is absolutely fantastic and the shot composition is pretty good, the art style itself can feel off putting to many. Compared to most shows coming out nowadays, it can look a bit dated. On top of that, the series is pretty static and there isn’t exactly much animation that is actually present. This only really nagged at me in the early stages of the first season, and I quickly got used to it. I can’t try to defend it to say that the questionable style of the series is actually intentional, but the good aspects of the visuals were good enough for me to ignore the lesser elements.

  As vague human emotion can get at times, it isn’t something that is completely aimless. It is never going to be fully understandable for as long as humanity exists, but we can still derive meaning from it. Fiction lies in a unique spot where it can more easily draw out these emotions to create experiences like no other. This capability can be utilized to create works of fiction that can be considered life changing. I can confidently say that Fruits Basket is one of these works to me. It is so potent in how it contextualizes its storytelling that it becomes something that truly changed the way I acted. I feel like I will be generally nicer to nearly every person I meet from now on, and I will try to get to know them for who they actually are instead of what I think they are. It is a trait that I felt lacking in before, but now I feel more aware of the world I live in, and I can say a full thank you to Fruits Basket for that. Even for anime and manga I have ranked higher there are very few of them that I can say have changed my life for the better. However, through its emotionally driven story, its lovable characters, show stopping score, and poignant themes, Fruits Basket fully deserves that distinction.

  _Writeups for the specific episodes of the Final Season as they came out. (Very Spoiler Heavy)_ [Episode 1](https://anilist.co/activity/200737346) [Episode 2](https://anilist.co/activity/204942544) [Episode 3](https://anilist.co/activity/209293575) [Episode 4](https://anilist.co/activity/212655431) [Episode 5](https://anilist.co/activity/216267010) [Episode 6](https://anilist.co/activity/219842073) [Episode 7](https://anilist.co/activity/223501011) [Episode 8](https://anilist.co/activity/227017651) [Episode 9](https://anilist.co/activity/230763871) [Episode 10](https://anilist.co/activity/234492263) [Episode 11](https://anilist.co/activity/237694931) [Episode 12](https://anilist.co/activity/241281031) [Episode 13](https://anilist.co/activity/244945207)

  ---

  Thank you for reading to the end of the review if you did. If you have any criticisms with how this review was made, you are free to message me to critique what I had to say.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  HanaAkari

  95/100
  Fruits basket the final is a beautiful conclusion

  Fruits basket , also known as fruba, is a manga written by Natsuki Takaya, which recieved an anime adaptation in 2001. Due to fans not liking the 2001 adaptation, fruba received a reboot

  Today morning, the last episode of fruits basket: the final aired in Japan, properly and grandly concluding this wonderful masterpiece

  ---

  FOR PEOPLE LOOKING TO GET INTO FRUITS BASKET-

  Fruits basket has 3 seasons, the third season being the final one

  2 seasons aired as two cour, while the final aired for 13 episodes. But this in no way is a rushed adaptation. It's an excellently done conclusion

  Fruba's genres are drama , slice of life, comedy and romance, but it's main focus is the drama and character development. So if you solely started watching it for romance, you won't find much. However, their are many couples besides our main couple. Almost every character get their happy ending

  If someone has told you, "fruits basket is incest"

  That's complete bullshit. The characters aren't related by blood. The Sohma family is a large clan than a family, so don't hesitate. It isn't incest

  ---

  MY OPINION OF THE FINAL SEASON

  NOW, SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE FINAL SEASON

  The final season was fantastic. It develops and explores the characters further. Backstories of characters like Kyo and Tohru were revealed. But it mainly focuses on the antogonist of the series, Akito.

  Who we thought was a merciless killer turned out to be a girl who has had a hard life, and still suffers.

  Some people have been angry at Akito's redemption, but I disagree. This season did a good job showing Akito's fear of abandonment, amd how much the "bond" she desperately holds on to had been killing her on the inside. She, too, shares a past similar to that of Tohru's.

  Being her dad, whom she loved dearly had died before her, leaving Akito with her mother who's not really the best and also is jealous of her. Yes, Akito's own mother is jealous of her. So the zodiac members were all she had. She thought if she was tough on them they'll at least get close to her because of fear. Akito couldn't be more wrong. It drew the zodiac away from her. The bond they shared soon became a burden, and further developed into a curse

  So do I like Akito?

  The answer is no. But I don't hate her either. I do get angry thinking of the horrible things she did, but I don't dislike her as a whole. She's very complex and one of the best antogonists in anime

  ---

  THE CURSE

  "When did it become a burden? When did a became a "curse"? Where did it go wrong?"

  This was probably my favourite quote from this season, said by the first ever god of the zodiac spirits.

  Beautiful bonds, when streched long enough can become a burden.

  And the true story of why the cat was neglected by the god and other members is even more heartbreaking. Yes, there is a true story of how it all began

  "So how and why did it break?"

  As Shigure said, the curse had been weakening generation after generation. It was bound to break. After all, nothing is forever

  I think it has to do with the acceptance of the cat and Akito finally accepting and letting go.

  Tohru and Akito are mostly the reason for the curse breaking. Shigure has a part too, this guy took in Tohru, set her up with Yuki and Kyo , wanted Akito to meet Tohru, everything so that the curse would break

  ---

  THE CHARACTERS AND DEVELOPMENT IN THR FINAL SEASON

  Yuki got his development in the last season. Now it's Kyo and Tohru's turn

  This season divides into 3 arcs- Akito and the curse arc, Kyo's development and Tohru's development
  Kyo's development being the last arc. I have already stated my opinions about the curse and Akito redemption.

  ---

  Tohru has always annoyed me. She behaved like a kid, her reactions were over the top and she was too nice and selfless. At first, I hated her. Then while watched season 2 it occured to me

  "If Tohru wasn't the way she was the zodiacs would have never been able to move forward"

  While watching the 3rd season , it became harder and harder to hate her

  Like I told before, Tohru and Akito fear abandonment.
  In Tohru's case the reason being that her dad died , leaving her mother and her behind. Her mother was depressed and suicidal. Tohru, being only 3 at the time, she didn't want to loose her mother too. So she tried copying her dad's way of speech and personality. She became a replacement for her dad so her mother would never leave her
  

  The reason she was able to sympathize with Akito and the zodiac members, was because she knew how pain felt like. that's why Tohru helped each member move forward, and she wasn't even aware of the fact that she's helping them

  In this season Tohru finally learns to be selfish and wants Kyo for herself. In the 2nd season episode 23 or so, we can see Tohru realising her love for Kyo but she desperately denies it. She and Kyo both have trouble accepting their feelings for valid for reasons which I will cover later

  I liked Tohru's development. She learns to stand up for herself and accepts Kyo Is the most precious person to her, more than her mother

  ---

  KYO'S DEVELOPMENT

  Kyo too, has a terrible past. Even more so than most zodiac members

  As we know already, his mother killed herself and his dad disowned him. Kazuma then took Kyo in and began raising him as if he was Kazuma's own child

  This season has an episode where Kyo opens up to Tohru, finally telling about himself to someone else. One whole episode is devoted for Kyo's backstory and how Tohru has a part to play in it too.
  I am too lazy to tell it now, so watch it for yourself.

  Kyo's development throughout the 3 seasons is totally evident. He has changed a great deal. From the rough kid who was once afraid of letting people inside to the soft guy who isn't afraid to open up and cares for people he knows

  ---

  THE COUPLES-

  This is the final topic I am going to cover in this review

  1,KYO AND TOHRU

  I have loads to say about the main couple. So much that it feels like my head would burst

  Kyo and Tohru are not only suited for each other, they also make up for things each lack. That's what I like most about them as a couple

  Kyo always puts what Tohru wants before what he wants and vice versa. They have mutual understanding and respect. Thoru is always looking for things that Kyo enjoys most, and Kyo does the same

  They also share many things, especially their past

  Kyo has trouble accepting his feelings for Tohru because he thinks he killed her mother.
  Tohru has trouble accepting her feelings for Kyo because of the promise she made to herself - To always remember and put her mother first

  It's like they're totally meant to be but their tangled pasts are stopping them from getting their happy ending

  Even so, they made an effort and both overcame it together. Tohru, Kyo , and Yuki are finally able to move forward

  THE COUPLES IN THE ENDING--

  The ending shoes various couples moving towards their happy ending

  Kisa and Hiro are shown to have finally got together

  Ayame and Minne are shown to have a fun time sending farewell gifts (lol, love Ayame's expressions)

  Arisa and Kureno 's side is unclear, but they have become close enough to exchange numbers and talk about things

  Yuki and Machi have gotten together too, but they have to be apart for Yuki to persue what he wants. But Yuki gives Machi his new house key so she would visit him from time to time

  Ritsu and Mitsuru are shown to be married soon. Ritsu had cut his hair, probably an attempt at getting rid of his cross - dressing hobby

  Shigure and Akito are shown to be on a date

  And finally, Mayuko is shown to have made some progress with Hattori. He still hasn't fallen for Mayu, but has gotten comfortable enough to travel various places with her

  ---

  THE ENDING -

  The ending scene shows Kyo and Tohru having grandchildren.
  They are shown to be on a date , peacefully walking hand in hand with each other

  This finale was simply beautiful. It really moved me. While I am happy the characters got their happy ending, I am sad that it has ended. No more waiting for each episode. No more screaming with joy while seeing Kyo x Tohru moments. All in all, it was a beautiful experience

  ---

  CONCLUSION-

  I am sorry for troubling you with my long review. This is the longest review I have written and it literally took me a hour and a half to complete writing it. That's because I had a lot to say about this anime. It will always remain my favourite

  ---

  Fellow Fans, I hope you liked my review

  New watchers, I hope I inspired you to start fruits basket

  Overall -

  95/100

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• 

  bruhcarX

  99/100
  Fruits Basket goes beyond The Final and transcends its genre as one the greatest conclusions ever to an anime trilogy.

  [THIS REVIEW CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES]

  "It's Not Always Easy To See The Good In People. [...] But If You Can Somehow, Find A Way To Believe, Sometimes That's All It Takes To Help Someone."

  Introduction

  The complexity of human emotion is impossible to comprehend. Why do people act the way they do? Why do people feel the way they do? This is one of the hardest jobs a piece of media can take on. Most that do fail in some capacity—and yet. Fruits Basket: The Final not only showcases just this but also does it for so many characters that it’s an absolute wonder and accomplishment in writing. Fruits Basket seems to take the concept of “quality over quantity” and poses the question “what if we had quantity and quality?” Even with the challenge of fleshing out nearly all of the main members of the Sohma family, somehow Natsuki Takaya manages to make some side characters even more interesting and complex than the main Sohma family. In its own right, Fruits Basket: The Final absolutely excels as a brilliant season, but it also excels as the climax to one of anime’s greatest triumphs in romance. On its own, the final season accomplishes two things incredibly well: the pacing and themes of this season are near perfect for the final season of Fruits Basket. Taken in the context of the entire series, the final season also manages to be a stunning finale in how it resolves literally every character arc is presented in its runtime over the years.

  The Final

  The pacing of the final season was a massive change. People online have argued whether this is a good or bad thing. As compared to the slower and more surgical nature of the previous two seasons. First off, I believe it is a good decision to make the pacing as “fast” as it was. It feels as if the writers had to make some tough decisions when deciding how they wanted this season to pan out. The typical affair when it comes to anime seasons is traditionally 12 or 24-25 episodes. (It’s important I point out this next point is largely conjecture) It’s very rare we get a show with an odd number. So, the writers could have either decided on either of those. There might have been budget constraints that prevented them from making a longer show; I don’t know. That being said, I think the decision to make this a shorter season, rather than dragging it out for an extra 12 episodes was the right call. By making the season shorter, it’s almost as if they were able to make the emotional moments of this season hit that much harder. Good pacing is basically defined by how well an audience is captivated and engaged with a show over the course of its run time. There are many ways to do this; the final season does this with exceptionally captivating moments in the story. [As Reddit user u/MartyMcMcFly ]((https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/7nk4py/what_is_good_pacing/)says, “Good pacing is when the film feels like a good ride. It had nice build-ups and drops that keep your attention and focus. […]” This is exactly what the final season does perfectly. This season had so many impactful and important moments though out, and yet it never was uncomfortable overwhelming. The writers of the show really knew when to take the foot off the gas and offer some comedic relief or something more light-hearted following a scene of incredible and heavy emotions. The best example I can offer to exemplify this point would be the scenes where Ayame shows up. Although he was largely absent from this season, the scenes that he was in were always welcome. This is because he provided a distraction from what was to come, or what had already transpired. Breaking up the pacing was also achieved with some more feel-good moments as well. The scene where Akito finally accepts her femininity showcases this the best. Even though I knew deep down I felt as if Akito had not paid for her crimes in full, that didn’t matter. What did matter was how heartwarming it was to see someone who had repressed their femininity for all their whole life, come out to the people she had hurt the most with such beauty and grace. The story makes you forget about how you feel and really focus on the here and now. Of course, this would mean nothing without the big emotional moments of the show. What is important is that the final season seems to strike a perfect balance between these two extremes.

  Coming to terms and accepting one’s self was what stuck out to me as being the main theme of this season. It is absolutely beautiful and wonderful to see. Although it might not be immediately evident at first, themes are monumentally important to the value of a story. [Sara Letourneau ]((https://diymfa.com/writing/theme-important)writes that “Theme helps a good story become a compelling one. It represents Katniss’ incentive to fight her way through The Hunger Games, Santiago’s desire to seek buried treasure in The Alchemist, and Frodo’s motivation to destroy the One Ring in the Lord of The Rings trilogy. Most importantly, theme allows readers to relate to the characters and their struggles – and to feel invested in the outcome.” The theme of accepting one’s self was ever-present throughout the final season but it was also carried out exceptionally well. Almost all the most important scenes of the final season had something or everything to do with this theme. In the scene where Akito comes out to all the Sohmas as a woman, Akito is coming to terms with her femininity by dressing up in traditional feminine Japanese clothing as she has never done before. She is also accepting it by showing the Sohmas, the people who she has hurt more than anyone else. In the scene where Kyo and Torhu confess their love to each other in episode 11, before he realizes his curse has been lifted. Kyo is coming to terms with and accepting himself by confessing his love to Torhu. He understands that he might be a burden and his life still might be full of difficulty, but that doesn’t matter if he can spend that time with the one he loves the most. Knowing it will be a difficult relationship because of the curse, he still decides to confess his love to Torhu anyways. I could go on, but that wouldn’t achieve much. The reason this is important is that it’s what really ties everything in this season together. Part of the reason the final season feels so complete is that there is this common theme between all the big moments and character arcs in the show. It represents the cursed Sohma members’ quest to keep on going. In a life filled with unwarranted suffering, the light at the end of this long, twisted tunnel is all of the Sohma members individually coming to terms with themselves and finally accepting who they are.

  Beyond the Final and Transcending a Genre

  These are what I feel to be the most important points about why the Final Season is such a good piece of media on its own. What elevates it above and beyond, is what it does with the additional context of being the finale to this 63 episode series. Fruits Basket: The Final is elevated to legendary heights in the world of anime by satisfactorily concluding every one of its major character arcs.

  Fruits Basket has an ungodly amount of main characters: 14 members under the zodiac curse, 3 student council members, 2 of Torhu’s friends, God, and 1 Honda Torhu san. There are others as well, like Kyo’s teacher and the Yuki fan club, but they are not as essential to the plot. Somehow even they had their character arcs resolved as well. As I alluded to before, the concept of “Quality over quantity” does not exist in the mind of Natsuki Takaya. The complexity behind each character in Fruits Basket is mindboggling. With one or two important exceptions each one of the characters I listed above had a fully fleshed out back story, unique struggles, huge character development, and a unique subplot dedicated to them. What the final aimed to do, was to wrap up each of them-- It succeeded. There is close to nothing left unresolved. Why was Akito so mentally unstable and why did he lash out so frequently at the Sohmas? Why is Torhu such a goody-two-shoes? Why does Shigure manipulate and take advantage of everyone? All the important questions were all answered and most things that were unanswered were left like that on purpose in order to leave the audience with something to think about.

  What is important to understand about the final season is that this is the end. There is nothing after this point, meaning that the series had to end itself properly. Fruits Basket simply isn’t an expansive universe with many extra pieces of media it can produce. The series, chronologically, ended with the final season. As such, the series had to tie everything up nicely. Given this condition, the reason why the final season was such a triumph was because of how well everything was tied together. There wasn’t much that we were left wondering. Almost every character arc was concluded, every mystery answered, every confession confessed. On top of this, they all ended in a manner where the audience is left satisfied. It wasn’t a completely happy ending, as some character arcs ended bittersweet. However, everyone (mostly) got what they deserved.

  Personal Criticisms

  Finally, this brings me to the few criticisms I will levy against the show. Although they are few, they are important enough for me to talk about. I said this previously, but it feels as if the directors for the Final Season had to strategically cut corners in order to come out with the product that they did. The aspect that suffered most because of this has to do with the characters.

  It might seem odd for me to criticize the characters of the show when I was clearly wholly praising them before. Although I appreciate how the depth that each individual brings to the table with Fruits Basket, it is clear that not all of them got the attention they deserved. I would say a good half of the Zodiac members were sidelined for the final season. This isn’t a huge problem when their arcs had already been previously resolved in previous seasons. However, I don’t think that to be the case with a few characters: Ayame and Ritsu. Honestly, this is understandable given that this was a shorter season compared to first and second. However, that doesn’t really excuse how sidelined Ritsu was by the entire story. This was to the point that he literally didn’t even have a spot in the final season OP. He received close to no attention, only getting one episode dedicated to him in the first season. This, by no means, is a huge narrative problem, however, it did leave me wanting more of Ritsu. Compared to the rest of the cast, not only did he receive little to no development but he also seemed much more shallow. Obviously, if a character doesn’t have time dedicated to them, then it’s difficult for them to develop much. That being said, Fruits Basket has proven that it can craft a really loving and touching narrative in a very small amount of screen time (like Yuki and Machi). I am very glad that they decided to acknowledge him in the final episodes, as it not only tied into the core themes of the show but it was personally really heartwarming to see. However, if this is what is what it took for them to make the show as good as it was, I would much rather take the final season we got rather than extra Ritsu screen time. This is a common thread that I share with most of my criticisms, while I do take problem with it, I am still very content with the final season. If they had to cut corners to get to where they were, then so be it. Ayame shares a similar story with Ritsu, but to a lesser extent. Obviously, we got to spend more time with Ayame in Second Season and that just made his absence in the final season even more apparent. All the Ayame moments we had in the final season were absolutely spot on. The comic relief he provided was a necessary part of the final season, but it would have benefitted more from more Ayame.

  While this is more of a personal gripe, the more I think about it, the more I realize how I’m not satisfied with how certain plot points in the show were resolved. To be clear, while I was watching the show, it’s not something that immediately jumped out to me until I sat down to think for a bit. Namely, the consequences that Akito and Shigure received seemed very light with respect to the actions that they carried out and the climax of the show seems a bit overly convenient. The fact that Akito literally emotionally manipulated every single cursed Sohma into depression seriously messed up a lot of their childhood development, and attempted MURDER to not directly receive any outside consequences is a bit ridiculous. Anything that Akito experienced while coming to terms with what he had done to the Sohma family was brought upon by herself. Most of the time, when crimes like that are committed, people are prosecuted under the law or the victims of said criminal punishes them in some way. However, in the end, Akito basically got away with everything she did. Granted, she does seem to learn from her mistakes and become a better person because of it and I found myself being genuinely happy for her. But I couldn’t help but feel that the punishment she got was like a slap on the wrist for some unimaginable crimes. The same thing goes for Shigure as well. Shigure manipulated nearly every Sohma member and Torhu in order to get what he wanted; this includes sleeping with Akito’s mom, Ren. He only did this to get back at Akito for something she couldn’t even fully grasp herself. He’s childish and immature to a fault, and, to be fair, that’s what people really like about him too. After doing all this, he didn’t learn a damn thing. Hatori and he had a conversation about this same subject and it boiled down to Hatori saying, “you got what you wanted in the end didn’t you?” It certainly made for an interesting narrative, and it’s entirely possible I don’t know what I’m saying. It’s possible Takaya tried an alternate ending where they received due punishment, only for it to end up not working the way she wanted or she just wasn’t satisfied. However, as I said before, this is just how I feel, and this section of the essay/review is more based on personal opinion than analysis, also hence why I am using the word “I” a bit more. Finally, one thing I’ve started to dwell upon is how convenient the climax of the entire series feels. I now know why the fandom likes to talk cliffhangers so much. Even though Torhu falling off a cliff yielded some amazing character interactions between the cast, the reasoning behind her actually falling off feels very underwhelming. The cliff just collapsed and she fell off, in other words, it was mere coincidence. The writing here just doesn’t feel up to standard with the rest of the series where everything seems to have sophisticated and well thought-out reasoning behind it. Even a simple explanation with some noticeable foreshadowing would have sufficed but in the context of the final season alone, it just feels shallow, convenient and underwhelming for me. This doesn’t mean that the scenes before or after this were bad, honestly, they were really good. Just the writing for that scene in particular struck me as poorly written, as it somewhat came out of nowhere.

  The End of Fruits Basket and a Thank You to Natsuki Takaya.

  Fruits Basket is very special to me. I watched the first season around the time I started watching anime and I was able to catch finish it by the time the second season started airing. Ever since then, I have fallen in love with each one of these characters. I personally feel like I can identify with Yuki and his struggles more than anyone in the cast, which is why his relationship with Machi makes me so happy. However, to a certain extent, I feel like every one of the characters in Fruits Basket has something about them that I can relate to. Kyo’s yearning for love, Hatsuharu’s willingness to break the rules for what he thinks is right, Kisa’s silence in the face of adversity, Akito’s world falling apart around him; all of these characters have something uniquely personal to them. The advantage of having so many well-written characters in a show is that there is something for everyone. I can confidently say there is not one person who cannot relate to at least one of the characters of Fruits Basket to some extent and I think that is truly special. While the slice of life genre may not be for everyone, Fruits Basket transcends the genre and brings so many new and wonderful things to the table. Even with all its flaws, nothing in the final season truly feels wasted. Questionable writing decisions are followed up by amazing character interactions; the characters I should dislike, I end up truly caring for. This is the power of Natsuki Takaya. The power to make you feel for characters you hate, the power to make you cry when you’re out of tears, and the power to make you feel like it’s ok to be yourself. It’s ok to truly open up and be yourself around the people you love. It’s ok to love and you are valid. There are so many things that Fruits Basket has taught me and I am so happy that I was able to see history being made in front of my eyes. Thank you so much Natsuki Takaya.

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