Adventures Of Mini-Goddess - Vol. 1 - The Gan Chan Files (Subtitled And Dubbed) (Animated) (DVD)

Advantages: Fantastic characters, great and original story line.
Disadvantages: That the anime only covers so little of the manga story.

...rare occasions where I preferred the English dub to the Japanese with English subtitles. Main reasons being that I disliked the Japanese cast for Yuki Sohma, and that the English cast did the series justice and didn't sound wooden at all. Music: The background music (BGM) fit the series well, and is for the most part light and pleasant. Nothing special, though, even the opening and ending theme are non spectacular. So though it fits well, Fruits Basket isn't a series I would buy the soundtrack for. Value for money: Amazing. Seriously, this disc has the first 6 half-hour episodes. It is a 26-part anime series, and fits on 4 discs total (you can also buy a special boxed set of the 4) whereas most 26-part series' can drag them out for 7 or even 8 if they're clever (a la Escaflowne). From manga to anime: As with most anime series Fruits... Read review

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Advantages: An easy to watch, compelling and uplifting series
Disadvantages: A lack of action and adventure means it's not for everyone

...Fruits Basket Vol. 1 Intro Fruits Basket is a comedy/drama/romance anime show (Japanese cartoon) aimed at teenage girls. The series is 26 episodes long, split over 3 DVDs. Volume 1, "A Great Transformation", contains episodes 1-8. The DVD features the show in the original Japanese with subtitles, or dubbed in English. Fruits Basket is based upon a manga series (Japanese comic books), also translated into English. The manga series is ongoing (currently around volume 10+ in English). The DVDs cover the first 7 or so mangas. The DVDs start from scratch and there is no need to read the manga to understand the plot. Synopsis Fruits Basket follows the life of optimistic heroine Tohru Honda, a high school girl who lost her only living parent, her mother Kyoko, to a car accident a year before the start of the anime. It... Read review

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Advantages: Curiously sophisticated story and psychologically telling examination of violence - and girls with guns, too
Disadvantages: Nothing, really.

.... And having read the book you can understand why. But I'll say no more on that. Certainly, it is a superior piece of television, regardless of origin; Yuki Kajiura's music perfectly matches the mood of the series; sometimes pulsating, often melancholy, it adds that extra element of class. My only comment: do not watch this in an English dub but subtitled. As usually, the dub is pretty average and somehow American accents just don't work for me in anime (not that English ones do either, for that matter!). Stick to the original. As for extras there's but a few. Clean opening and closing sequences (which is worth it for watching the fabulous opening credits); production sketches; Japanese promos and the obligatory trailers. There's an easter egg in there somewhere but it tells you all about that on the web somewhere. When I first... Read review

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