(Initial) Final Thoughts on Fruits Basket: Sadness, Bad Parents.

The series is done. After three or so years, this legendary series has come to a close. Something that fans have been wanting for a long time, and that people like myself have heard about, but went along for the ride for the first time. A series full of ups and downs, great animation, wonderful music, and sometimes that monkey zodiac. It’s time now though, to give you my final thoughts, at least at this stage. So after the cut let’s jump into it. This is Fruits Basket.

Kureno best boy, Saki best girl.

(Very) Quick thoughts on Fruits Basket: The Final: Anthology Adventures

Well, here we are. It’s been a long ride, but we are now at the final season of this series. I’ve got a post on my initial views of the entire story coming up later this week. I want to save most of my words for that, but I wanted to get out some quick thoughts on the third and final season before that. So let’s take a quick look into Fruits Basket; The Final.

Sadness, Bad Parents III: The Final Sad

• The Final works when it does what Fruits Basket has always been good at: focusing on the secondary characters. In many ways this third season becomes the anthology series it probably always should have been.
• Because honestly? I can’t give a fuck about Tohru and Kyo or their relationship. I like the central theme of Fruits Basket being about ‘moving on’ and ‘change’, but there is very little that I could grab onto with these characters. It’s probably because for vast swaths of story, Kyo is just absent, and Tohru seems to be only there for the other characters to have a sounding board.
• Hell, I was more invested in Kureno and Arisa’s relationship than pretty much anything else. That felt like it had real sparks and chemistry.
• Still, Tohru’s confrontation with Akito is well done, and her kindness and compassion, the ‘no-strings attached’ love she shows her is pretty much in line with her character.
• Seeing Yuki step up to the plate and be a guiding force for Machi is a good way to end his character. I’ve been on record saying that Yuki takes up too much of the story, but now that his journey more or less finished by the time The Final begins, it’s nice to see how much he’s changed.
• “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened’ is pretty much THE quote you can use to sum up the entire main plot of Fruits Basket. Not everything can last forever, staying locked into one state of being is not healthy, and as much as it might hurt, moving on into the unknown is the right thing to do. There will be good days and bad, but at least you are alive.
• And yeah, those final moments of the series are damn good. Say what you will about the entire series (which I will), Fruits Basket absolutely sticks its landing where it needs to.

On my Radar for Spring 2021: The Eight episode check-in!

Spring 2020 has turned out be a solid season, filled with good shows, a few great ones, and a few that just get the job done. Now that we are in the last third, it’s time to sit down and give you my thoughts on what I’m watching. Let’s get into it after the cut!

Tune of the Week(ish): Fruits Basket’s Pleasure

Fruits Basket has always had great openings, at least the first one for each season. For it’s third and final season, it is no exception. The tune of the week is the final opening theme to the series: Pleasure by WARPs UP!

On my Radar for Spring 2021: The Three-Episode Check-in!

This has sorta snuck on me, time just flies so fast! We are about three weeks into the spring season, so it’s time to check in and see how the shows I’m watching are holding up. Now this list has changed a bit since I last did it, I put Tokyo Revengers and Shaman King on the shelf mostly because I wasn’t in the mood to watch them. Not ‘dropped’ per say, but I’ll get to them at another time. I’ve also added a show or two. Either way, let’s get into it all after the cut!

Fruits Basket 2nd Season: Second Cour: Step Forward, Step Backward

I’ll be honest here guys. My thoughts on the second cour of Fruits Basket is pretty much the exact same as the first. Everything I said in that last post hasn’t changed, like at all. So instead of just repeating myself, I highly suggest you check out what I said there, because it really does crystallize how I feel about the series right now.

That being said, there are some things I do wanna talk about, so after the image I’ll toss up my thoughts in point form. Please enjoy.

Good and Bad, like everything in life.

 

Fruits Basket 2nd Season: First Cour: Torn in Two

I have never been overtly critical in my shallow dives. While I will always call it like I see it with the shows I watch, I have always avoided being overly critical. I do think being critical is important, but too often it can overwhelm a series. Nitpicking plot points, reaching out on strange concepts, it is something I have no interest in. Shallow Dives will be critical of anime when it has to be, like in the cases of Mirai Nikki or Rascal does not Dream of a Dreaming Girl, but I won’t go out and dump on a series for reasons that it doesn’t deserve, like with Sword Art Online.

I say all this, because the series we are discussing today has challenged that mindset in some regards, a true balancing act. After cut let’s talk about the first half of the second season of Fruits Basket.

Divided Sadness

Tune of the Week(ish): Fruits Basket’s ad meliora

Fruits Basket, or as I have started calling it: Sadness, Bad Parents has had a great string of opening and ending themes that, aside from one, have been remarkingly memorable and well done. The second season is no exception. The Tune of the Week is the first ending theme of Fruits Basket 2nd Season: ad meliora by THE CHARM PARK

On My Radar for Spring 2020: The Eight Episode Check-In!

Last week most anime series aired their eighth episode! With that, it is time to revisit the anime I’m watching this spring 2020 and give you my thoughts. What’s gone up? What’s gone down? Let’s find out after the cut!

Beautiful Weather for Chaos

Don’t @ Me: Eight of Anime Opinions: Back from Break Edition

Another week has come! Welcome back to Don’t @ Me. The place where, like density of Catarina’s brain. I ignore the obvious signals to give you my thoughts and views on everything involving anime and the fandom. I took last week off from blogging, and it was great. But now I’m back, refreshed and ready to get into it. Join me after the cut as I dish out another eight opinions on pretty much anything.