WARNING
1. This review has spoilers to the plot, characters and includes more or less accurate citations across all 3 seasons of the show 2. These are all my personal thoughts and things I found and took away from this anime series, everyone will have different opinion 3. I’m just writing this review for fun.

IS THIS ANOTHER OVERRATED PIECE?
For the longest time ever since I first came across Fruits Basket I wondered, is this going to be just another overhyped and overrated show? I have always tried to avoid shows like these because I believe they mostly don’t deserve the praise and are ultimately a disappointment because of the expectations which end up being too high.

SIMILARITY WITH HIGURASHI?
Fruits Basket from the very start surprised me how slice of life and not slice of life it felt. The combination of the day to day-ish like plot with the zodiacs implemented got me hooked up and curious from the start. What I also have to say was amazing to watch is the mystery it had behind it, now that I write about it, it reminds me slightly of Higurashi no naku koro ni excluding horror and setting. But if I am not talking about the plot, the main thing that got me interested and kept me invested in the story were the characters, more precisely their past traumas, childhood stories, regrets, relationships with other zodiac members, wishes and dreams for the present and future. There were a few characters which catched my eye for different or too many reasons to cover them all here.

CHARACTERS
I’m going to have to start with Akito Soumas character, the details and things that I personally took away from her were the partial self-isolation, loneliness and lack of self-acceptance which I feel the anime tried to portray. For me it was very interesting to follow and watch Akito deal… or maybe not deal for most of the time with her issues and weaknesses she had by abusing her position in the zodiac circle. Im pretty sure you would agree that she blamed these around her for her gaps and even tried to manipulate others into thinking that it really is their fault. But I personally think deep down under the surface Akito was just trying to trick herself the most (I guess I could also say that the way others treated her, especially mother, caregivers and a loss of a father all didn’t help and probably just made her feel even more lost without anyone to rely on because she is a god despite her young and inexperienced age). This whole approach of Akito “maintaining” relationship with the zodiac members was for me very interesting… and it got even more interesting when I also had Tooru Honda… a girl who almost felt like the polar opposite of Akito.

Tooru Honda much like Akito suffered a massive loss in her family circle, leaving her with a big scar without really anyone she could fully lean on… or that’s how she at least felt… compared to Akito who tried to involve others around her, Tooru mostly tried to handle this burden and traumatizing experience herself, which I think was the reason for why she was so caring, kind and patient with zodiac members, especially Kyou and Yuki Souma. Thanks to this experience she lived through, she was able to be there for other characters and emphasize with them deeply despite her age - it was clear to me that others didnt really know how to react or handle that.. it really was something I found beautiful to watch and now think about. Ultimately both Tooru and Akito with the same root of the problem dealt with it differently and started getting used to the change in their life. They had to… because the life they knew and loved so much before was set to stay in the past and never return.

Kyou Souma had an amazing character development from being hot-headed and stubborn in a way that made him harm others and himself as well to ultimately being able to fully accept those parts of him and trying to use it a steppingstone to becoming a better living being. It was also great to see how he at the end “matured” and ended up being motivated to grow up to be able to stay by Tooru Hondas side like she was for him almost all the time. There are certainly more things to take away from his character like his development of trying to be someone else or trying to fit in somewhere he wasnt meant to be, but this is what catched my attention the most.

Yuki Souma, it was interesting to follow his backstory of being isolated and abused by Akito which then was able to develop through multiple seasons, it felt like some characters had an issue which lasted just for few episodes or a season at best… here Yukis development was pernamently there under the radar more or less which was great in my opinion. I really loved how he lost himself in the dark like the anime portrays in multiple memory flashbacks and how he then is able to actually find himself… understand the relationship and feelings he has for Tooru, now writing it I think that was the best part about his character, just seeing Yuki slowly but surely understanding his feelings and then finally being able to name them was just really a treat to watch, especially when it happened, it felt like the whole journey was worth the wait. This also brings me to his struggle of finding himself and letting himself believe that he also deserves good fortune & good things. I also believe that this struggle was a key thing that enabled him to click with Machi Kuragi. Ultimately, Yuki Souma for me personally was the most interesting and entertaining character of the series despite having others like Akito, Kyo or Tooru.

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Now few mentions of thoughts the supporting characters said/gave me, and I think are worth thinking about:

Machi Kuragi and her feeling of being left out from the society: “Are they invisible or am I invisible? Am I the one unengaged with this world? Am I needed? Is my existence necessary? Am I needed in this world?”. This is one of the few things Machi said and made me think if this was something both her and Yuki were missing, someone like a father or a mother who disliked them and left them behind, if it continued I would just love to follow how their relationship would develop and grow.

Kureno Soumas development of feeling towards Arisa and moving on from his longly broken bond with Akito: “I want to see her, I want to see her, I want to see her… but. I only saw her twice… but she was the first person I feel in love with”.

Saki Hanajima and her way of caring for Tooru, I absolutely loved how she was able to phrase it in the anime, for example: “I... worry about you. If you keep taking on people’s feelings like that, and treating them carefully... and carrying them on your shoulders... I worry that one day they will crush you. I worry that if they crush you, we will never see your smile again. If that happened…”

Momiji and his ability to not act selfishly and let Tooru be happy with someone else while he himself is being hurt by watching her eventually drift away.

CONCLUSION
At the start I was sort of confused what the plot was really about, but like I said in the beginning of this review, it had this Higurashi like approach where the plot starts slow with a character who also doesn’t know anything so you can sort of connect more or less with them… to then slowly but surely picking up the pace and revealing more and more about the plot, characters and what is really at stakes for those we watched across three seasons - something I enjoyed with Higurashi so this wasnt an exception. In conclusion I really loved the whole message I personally got from it: appreciating the time that was spent with the people in the present, being able to accept personal flaws, forgiving others and ultimately moving on and letting go of the relationships which are supposed to naturally end… moving forward towards the new experiences/future and new obstacles in life with open arms. Thank you, Fruits Basket, for so many things to think and write about, I could probably just continue as I missed for example Shigure Soumas way of getting what he wants and other characters which would also be worth mentioning… but I’m sure someone else already did or will do that.

I can only recommend this series, it has it all from visuals and music to character development and plot.

Thank you for reading. If you have any suggestions or have different opinion feel free to share it <3