Around 1995, Japanese animation (anime) began pouring into North America, Europe and across the globe in video form. Most of these titles were unknown outside of Japan and never covered by animation journals. Whether a title is highly popular or very obscure, a high-quality theatrical feature or a cheap and unimaginative direct-to-video release, they all look the same on a store shelf. Therefore, Animation World Magazine will regularly review several new releases (including re-releases not previously covered) that have merit.

16-year-old Tohru Honda becomes the housekeeper to a family cursed to live as animals from the Oriental zodiac in Fruits Basket.

Fruits Basket. V.1, A Great Transformation? V.2, What Becomes of Snow? V.3, Puddles of Memories. V.4, The Clearing Sky.
TV series (26 episodes), 2001. Director: Akitaro Daichi. V.1-2, six episodes/123 minutes; v.3-4, seven episodes/143 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.98. Distributor: FUNimation Productions, Ltd.

In one of the informative DVD extras, Director Daichi discusses the problems of crafting an anime adaptation of an extremely popular prize-winning current girls’ romantic fantasy (by Natsuki Takaya). The TV serialization must have a satisfactory conclusion that does not contradict or conflict with the still ongoing manga story. The Fruits Basket anime got high marks from the manga’s fans for succeeding at this.

Tohru Honda, 16, is entering high school under traumatic circumstances. Her widowed mother has just been killed in an accident. Through freakish circumstances, Tohru becomes the live-in housekeeper of young novelist Shigure Sohma and his two teen cousins Yuki and Kyo who are classmates of hers. The Sohmas are a wealthy but reclusive family. Shigure, Yuki and Kyo are the only three who live outside the clan’s walled estate and associate with the public. Tohru learns that the Sohmas are victims of a bizarre curse — when one of them is embraced by someone of the opposite gender, they transform into an animal of the Oriental zodiac. Shigure is a dog and Yuki is a rat.

Kyo is a cat, which is not a member of the zodiac because when it was established by Buddha, the rat tricked the cat into disqualifying itself. As a result, the hot-tempered Kyo is in constant rivalry with Yuki, who accuses Kyo of using an ancient legend to excuse himself of responsibility for his own failings. As the series progresses, Tohru meets other Sohma family members and sees how their animal personas have affected their personalities.

This fantasy element seems like a humorous gloss to catch the attention of anime and manga fans. The underlying plot is the more serious romance melodrama of the innocent heroine who becomes involved with an ancient family with a mysterious secret. Tohru gradually realizes that Kyo’s explosive temper and Yuki’s sometimes-haughty manners both hide the insecurity of teens attempting to live like normal people while hiding their embarrassingly freakish abnormalities (among other things, they lose their clothing when they transform). Early episodes are full of humorous accidents in which Tohru must frantically help the boys hide from their classmates until they can return to human form and get dressed, despite the social danger to herself of being found associating with nude boys.

The transformations gradually fade from the story, to be replaced by more normal high school social elements. Tohru’s warm, caring personality helps Yuki and Kyo develop self-confidence. This encourages other young members of the Sohma clan to abandon their traditional seclusion, which Tohru feels is a positive step. But it causes her to be regarded as a dangerous rival by the old-fashioned family head, who is used to enforcing his authority with dangerous violence. Most of the episodes are light-hearted enough that the three-episode finale is a grim shocker (but there is a happy ending, to blend back in with Takaya’s continuing comic-book serial).