As a long-time admirer of Natsuki Takaya's Fruits Basket, I was always crestfallen that the original anime adaptation ended halfway through the story. It had an ending of a sort, but it wasn't the real story and this was a shame. It remains the only anime I've ever cancelled a meeting over, as review discs arrived that morning and I just had to see how the series ended. To find out that the real ending to the story could only be found in the manga, I bought all 23 volumes of the manga, which at the time was an investment of £184 - it was worth every penny.
So in looking at this new adaptation, I can only really evaluate the differences to the original anime, which in itself was faithful to the manga while it lasted. The first thing to say is that this new version is very pretty, far more detailed in both characters and backgrounds. Even the walls and floors have nice textures to them, so production values are clearly higher than the original (though it loses none of its charm for that). In fact the sharpness of the new version better captures Takuya's delicate art style, so major points for that.
What really surprised me was how much I'd forgotten from the early story beats, including the introduction of Uo and Hana, Tohru's high-school friends. With Uo a delinquent who idolised Tohru's mother for being something of a badass in her youth, and Hana bringing the creepy witch vibes that are a comedy goldmine, it was like a reunion with old classmates. I loved these characters nearly 20 years ago when I first watched the Studio Deen version, and I hadn't realised how long it had been since I last spent time with Furuba. As such, I'm genuinely thrilled to be coming back to it now with fuzzy memories.
The first episode is well directed, with some unusual framing shots which do quite a bit to hide the TV budget, and when the need arises for some beautiful screenshots, the series obliges as you can see in the gallery below.
All this new series has to do is continue to provide a fresh lick of paint to Studio Deen's version of 2001, as well as continue to adhere to Takaya's superb narrative, in order to become a hit. This is how remakes should be done, taking the original source and ensuring justice is done to the story beats and the character interactions. From what I've seen so far, this appears to be the route they're taking. This makes for a tantalising prospect, moving beyond the ending of the original anime and bringing to life the astoundingly heartfelt ending that can only be found in the manga so far.
With MVM recently releasing the series on Blu Ray, the original anime shouldn't be undersold. It too made a wonderful job of bringing Furuba to the screen, and the original English dub is still one of my favourites of all time. It's well worth checking out, but by the looks of things this new series will be the definitive, finished take on Fruits Basket in animated form.
Whether you're new to the show or an older fan who has fond memories of the original, this is a fabulous take on Natsuki Takaya's classic tale, and comes highly recommended. I look forward to following it every week
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