Hiya everyone! This is Anaitic and I am here with a detailed post entry on the anime Fruits Basket Final Season. Let me start off by saying that there might not be a lot of objectivity to this review due to the fact that Fruits Basket has been a part of my life for a long time. Inevitably, Fruits Basket is riddled with nostalgia and warmth for me. I am who I am in terms of being an underground geek thanks to Fruits Basket. Years after it debuted in 1998, Fruits Basket is as relevant today as it was when I was a little girl. There are no outdated themes. There are no over the top catering to modern, anime audiences. Fruits Basket remain true to its roots and remain a long time contender for one of the best childhood obsessions of my life. Without further ado, let’s dive deeper on what is so damn great about Fruits Basket and specifically, it’s third and final season.
As I sat down to wait for my chance to practice tennis, one of my upperclassmen sat next to me and started reading a manga. I glanced over. It was Fruits Basket. Up until this point, I watched my share of anime from my childhood ranging with Pokemon, Digimon, Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh, Card Captor Sakura, and more. I had no idea that a lot of anime are actually adapted from manga or Japanese comics that are often serialized in weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly magazines before they are published individually into volumes. It did not escape my upperclassman’s attention that I kept staring at the pretty orange cat background behind an orange-haired character on her title page. She welcomed me to the world of Fruits Basket as well as the world of manga. And from there, I became a member of the Kyo fanclub and never left since then.
One of the most powerful aspects of Fruits Basket that drew me to it is its plot revolving around the members of the Zodiac. Growing up as a Vietnamese American, I celebrated Tet or Lunar New Year and was well-aware of the Zodiac animals that represented certain years. Sure, there are some differences in the animals from Fruits Basket compared to my Vietnamese roots, but overall, it still resonated with me. I was a Horse and of course, looked forward to when the Horse eventually appears in Fruits Basket. Long story short, Fruits Basket took something I was familiar with and made it easier for me to transition into its universe as well as the Japanese culture in its pages.
Aside from the Zodiac theme, another theme of Fruits Basket that resonated with me was the relationship between parents and children. Fruits Basket does not stray from this theme at all; if anything, it hits you on the head with it over and over again. As a child from a strict, Asian household, I was drawn to Tohru Honda and her relationship with her deceased mother. They loved each other very dearly. It almost made me (and probably thousands other children) felt wishful that we could have a mother like Kyoko Honda. In a way, the Honda family is the best representation of what a loving family unit looked like while in contrast, the Sohma family is the best representation of what a traumatizing family unit looked like. Both extremes do exist in the real world and the majority of us, including myself, fall somewhere in between. This is why Fruits Basket is so effective in what it does and is still one of the highest selling shoujo manga today- we universally loath the Sohma family and its practices and respect and revere the Honda family instead.
Fruits Basket brings to life how crucial parenting is. It does not matter what culture you are in and it does not matter what time period you are in. Parenting will always matter. In Fruits Basket, the examples of bad parenting are so in your face that you cannot ignore it. For example, one of the main characters Yuki Sohma is who he is because of his background, including his parenting. In Season 2 Episode 15, Yuki Sohma’s mother makes her appearance for his teacher-parent conference. Before this, the audience already knew that she sold him out to the head of the household, Akito, in order to live a luxurious, selfish life, but to watch as she marched into the meeting and decided on his future for him in front of his teacher was extremely hard to watch. She straight out said that Yuki is unable to make choices for himself and he can never do anything right. What a controlling, emotionally abusive mother! It is no wonder since the very beginning Yuki has such a hard time speaking his mind and is often more mild-mannered than his counterpart, Kyo Sohma. It also is no wonder that he is drawn to the protagonist Tohru Honda who behaves more like a loving mother to the rest of the cast. Everything Yuki is as a person… can be traced back to his non-existent relationship with his mother and brother as well as his all too unhealthy, captive relationship with Akito.
To juxtapose with Yuki Honda‘s relationship with his mother, Kyo Sohma‘s relationship with his adopted father, Kazuma Sohma, molds who he is as a person. The reason why I fell in love with Kyo Sohma as a little girl is because Kyo is hot-tempered, insensitive, and stubborn, but at the same time, extremely sweet, self-sacrificing, and easily embarrassed. Like myself, he has a tough exterior in order to hide his soft, vulnerable side due to all the pain and trauma he went through as a child due to the entire Sohma family outcasting him as well as his own father rejecting his very existence. If Kyo had never been adopted by Kazuma, Kyo might have hidden his pain and hurt deeply away and became a one-dimensional tough, reckless guy kind of character. I would not have fallen in love with him then. But thanks to all the love and attention he received from his parent figure in Kazuma, Kyo learned how to be soft and sweet and even embarrassed. Kazuma raised Kyo to be someone who though not perfect someone that Yuki and a lot of us can admire. Nothing is as underrated as the attention and love from a compassionate parent.
With Yuki and Kyo alone, there are so many layers to who they are as characters and what led them to being the characters that they are. While Yuki was “loved” and respected by the family, Kyo was loathed and thrown away. While Yuki was the “chosen one”, Kyo was the cat and a monster. While Yuki was invited to the banquet, Kyo was excluded to the same banquet. But despite the fact that Yuki is elevated and welcomed in the family, Kyo appears well-adjusted and easily more adaptable to his classmates outside of the Sohma residency. This is why Yuki is the one who wants to be more like Kyo and act more freely on his emotions while Kyo is the one who wants to be more like Yuki and become more accepted into the family. This is where Kyo could have learned to have better manners and not be as rough around the edges. Basically, in essence, Yuki and Kyo both have and lack what the other desires. More importantly, all of the difference in their characters can be traced back to how they were parented and the environment they grew up in. Can you imagine what Yuki would be like with loving parents? Can you imagine what Kyo would be like if he were accepted by his extended family?
And then there is Tohru Honda. Our compassionate, empathetic protagonist. Tohru Honda might have lost her mother and her home, but she is a powerful character who stands up above these challenges with a smile on her face from the very first episode. There is something admirable in a character who is able to sympathize with others and forgives without holding grudges, but at the same time, pushes through hardships face on, both emotionally and physically. The shining example behind Tohru being who she is is due to the extremely amazing parenting by her late mother Kyoko Honda and her extremely supportive friends in Saki Hanajima and Arisa Uotani. When a child like Tohru is surrounded by love and support her entire life and is told that she has high self-worth, there is no wonder that she grows up to become someone who is able to save multiple members of the Sohma family. It is no coincidence that the character that is able to break through years of tradition with the Sohma family is someone who is raised in the complete opposite manner of what the Sohma family stands for. In a way, Tohru Honda is the kryptonite, if we were to use the Superman comparison. You give people enough love, especially when they didn’t have much to begin with, and they begin to heal from their trauma. That is a concept that Fruits Basket present and I wished was presented more often in our society.
For the last part of my entry, I want to take a bit of time to give flowers to the last season of Fruits Basket. As someone who already read the manga and knew what was going to happen next, I felt satisfied with the last and final season of Fruits Basket. I knew it was going to be dark. I knew it was going to tear worthy. I knew it was going to bring out all sorts of positive and negative feelings. My main concern honestly was that the anime might feel rushed. That was not the case. I felt they gave enough time and care to all the characters and wrapping up all the various storylines. I absolutely loved that Tohru Honda had to learn how to be selfish in the final season. Moreover, the Momiji Sohma episode from this final season is definitely one of my favorite episodes in the entire three seasons despite me not necessarily calling myself a Momiji fan from the manga. It was just the right amount of storytelling, emotions, and character development. Very satisfying overall. My only main critique for the final season was that I felt the animation was too simple (like why watch when you can read the manga kind of way), but at the same time, maybe if the animation was more complicated or eye-opening it would take away from the incredible dialogue and development between the characters. Who knows.
Oh, I have to write one quick shoutout to the character of Shigure Sohma. He went from a pretty solid, funny character in the first season to something way more than that. Dark, manipulative, and kind of bitter. Even though I disliked him by the end of the manga, I can’t say I equally dislike him as much anymore. However, it is less the adaptation from manga to anime than just my journey into adulthood. As a high schooler, I cannot stand Shigure’s methods. As an adult, however, I have already seen too much in the real world and I can kind of accept why Shigure was necessary for everything to happen and unfold. I left everything about Shigure vague on purpose for the couple of my readers who do not want to be spoiled. Oh, but screw Akito Sohma and his/her mother. That will never change haha.
Oh by the way, for all of those who are unsure if you should watch Fruits Basket or on the fence about it, you should. There are no ifs or buts about it. It is not everyday you find an anime that is both funny, sweet, heartwarming, and also meaningful. It makes you feel. It makes you look at society. It lets you look at life a little different. And on top of that, it’s a classic. There are some anime that if you watch anime at all you should check out because they are simply classics and they never lose their value even with time. Fruits Basket is one of them and it will always have a special place in my heart, even as a jaded adult.
-Anaitic
P.S. Here is a photo of my kitten who is named “Kyo” after Kyo Sohma from Fruits Basket.
Geeky Musings with Anaitic 