Fruits Basket DVD 1
 Mar 15th, 2008
Advantages:
Fantastic characters, great and original story line .
Disadvantages:
That the anime only covers so little of the manga story .
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Did you enjoy it?
Story
Characters / Performances
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  Mayoki
About me:
Science graduate with a passion for reading, listening to music, ice skating, dancing, games and DVD...
Member since:14.03.2008
Reviews:20
Members who trust:12
Review rated by 25 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
Synopsis: Tohru Honda is the protagonist of the story, and at the beginning of the series lives with her grandfather as her parents have both passed away. Her grandfather decides to let his son's family move in with them, but the house needs to be remodelled to be big enough. During the renovations Tohru promises to stay at a friends house so as not to trouble her grandfather, but doesn't want to bother her friends either. The solution? To live on her own. In a tent. On what turns out to be privately owned property. Said land is owned by the mysterious Sohma family, a member of whom is in Tohru's class. When two of the Sohma's find a feverish Tohru in her tent late one night, they let her stay in the main house to recover. During this there's a landslide and her tent is destroyed. Tohru is offered a home with the Sohma's in return for housekeeping duties (the two Sohma's are terrible cooks and cleaners). Enter hot-headed Kyou, and Tohru finds out what makes the Sohma family so mysterious - the zodiac curse.
Characters: Tohru is a sweet heart; it's very hard not to like her, unlike many lead females. Her two best friends Uo and Hana are both likable, and the Sohma's are all fantastic. There are so many different personalities flying around, clashing and complimenting, and each character has his/her own merits and flaws and they're all given such unique backgrounds that it's hard not to feel for them all. You really get drawn to them. Animation: The animation is good, not fantastic; I must admit to finding something off about the characters and they just simply do not do the stunning manga art justice.
Voice acting: Switch to the English. Seriously; this is one of those 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 Basket started off as a manga series by Natsuki Takaya. Its 23 manga books long (not all published in English yet) and unfortunately the anime doesn't quite live up to its fantastic manga counterpart. The art isn't quite as nice, but my main gripe is that the anime stops short. There could easily be a second series (which I doubt there will be), as the manga continues on long after the end of the anime. So if you want to know what happens to Tohru, you have to switch to the manga.
All in all, very enjoyable and very good value for money.
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![Fruits Basket - Vol.1-4 [2003] [DVD]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78189419.jpg)
by (28%):
17.03.2008 19:09
Nice to see a new member writing here so welcome to ciao from me . Riss
17.03.2008 12:58
God first review. I take it you are Japanese? I love Japan and all things Japanese.
15.03.2008 23:36
Very good first review