One of the most recurring arguments of conversation with your friends is typically "what is the time when you cried the most after watching an anime?", and to be honest, I've never cried about an anime so much in my whole life. After two seasons full of interesting characters, protagonists of their main unique and dramatic stories, which manages their deep start to a bigger develop as a being, the third one brings all the relations to the culmination that has been created, pairing it to create real and genuine relationships.
There are many traits of the anime that I would like to analyze, but let's start from the strong point: the narration. What excels in this story is, in fact, the storytelling itself, as almost all the characters that could interest the plot are introduced with a vibe of mystery to let them shine with their deep development through the series, which has made me shed some tears almost every time. The best part of this is that all is packed in an immense family full of characters of any kind, and together with the interesting relationships that are created between them. That being said, let's move to another topic: Kyo and Tohru. After the episode twenty-five of the first season, in which Tohru sees Kyo's true form for the first time, their relationship became something immensely deep, which made me smile like a stupid every single time that I saw them in the screen. When their moment finally arrived, the scene got filled by a myriad of words uttered by Kyo in a really painful way and Tohru with his head down, I couldn't help to think at how complex was what was being created in that moment in the series. Kyo loves Tohru, but wants her to stay away from him because he doesn't he deserves forgiveness, while Tohru loves him so much that she is even capable to let go his mother's hand, which he has held for so long, to start her new journey with Kyo. Then, Kyo runs away, and Tohru is caught by the suddenappearance of a character that I really hated within the depth of my heart, Akito Sohma, but that I couldn't help to recognize when his redemption moment finally arrived. The charisma that always has been present in Tohru's expressive dialogues and conversations with other people, strikes again with a morally childish and manipulative to desperate levels that Akito Sohma's character was in that moment. After a sharp dialogue filled of painful strong words, Akito finally recognizes that her life wasn't decided by her past, neither by the culmination of her being as a god, and that she could start over again as the human "Akito Sohma" and reaches out his hand to take Tohru's, the flood instantly breaks the moment by crumbling and bringing her away, hands up for the plot twist. She couldn't be dead. It couldn't have finished like this. So, in desperation, Akito reunites with Shigure for help Tohru, and so, THIS happens.
Flaws? There are flaws, but they are not relevant for my final vote. Some relationships seemed a bit forced at the end, it seemed that they wanted to put everything in the right spot before finishing the story. One perfect example? Kureno and Arisa's relationship. Now, I don't want to throw hate to the "first sight love", but everything didn't seem real to me, I didn't feel like the chracters were suit for eachother. Even Akito and Shigure's one seemed forced to me, I mean, I never really wanted to see Akito and Shigure in a romantic relationship, much less Shigure. They are cold characters who should have friendly relationships. Another thing that I didn't appreciate was Momiji's sudden change. I've always seen him as a character who didn't really cared about love and all of those stuff, and I don't see how her physical growth should affect her feelings towards Tohru. Is it possible that he loved her since the beginning and only when he grew up would have faced his feelings? I don't really know, but the whole relationship, like this, seems like... hypocrisy. And I don't want to think at it.
As for the grading parameters that are usually given by others, the animations were very good, I didn't see any particular flaw and I liked how they adapted manga's shoujo style. The ost fit in with the scenes and entertained me by enticing me to follow the scene more and more. The dub was amazing, I found them suited for the characters and conveyed to me many emotions.
In postremus, Fruits Basket: The Final is an embark into the final of an immense and wonderful rollercoaster of emotions, and if you look beyond the small flaws it presents, you will find this journey splendid and rewarding. I will never say that Fruits Basket is overrated, I will never complain about how high rated it is, and I think it deserves all the praise it is getting for Natsuki Takaya's masterpiece level writing.
