Nostalgic | Animated Observations

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Well, it would not be The Aniwriter if I was not a weeks late on literally everything. Also, apologies again for the lack of posts for the last week, been caught up in schoolwork. Now, since that is out of the way, lets talk about one of the more anticipated shows of the season: Fruits Basket.

For those who are unfamiliar with the franchise, Fruits Basket is a story about Tohru, a young girl who, after losing both her parents and moving in with her grandfather, decides that she does not want to be a burden and starts living in the woods. After Yuki, a classmate of hers finds this out, he invites Tohru to start living with them. However, soon afterwards Tohru finds out the Soma’s secret: That they are animals.

Ever since the airing of the original anime adaptation by Studio Deen back in 2001, Fruits Basket has been a beloved series by almost all anime fans alike. Even with it being intended as more of a shoujo romance, the show caught on with so many people that it became incredibly popular. So, does the newest adaptation of Natsuki Takaya’s manga live up to the hype of the original?

Well, its hard to say. I’ll be fully transparent and honest hear: I don’t actually remember that much of the original series. I watched it back when I was in seventh grade, a turbulent year for me personally, and during that time it provided a lot of unexpected comfort. It might seem a bit cliche, but I related a lot to both Tohru and Kyo because of their loner status.

Still, even despite largely not living up to today’s standards of good animation and quality, the show definitely still has a lot of nostalgic value.

The newest adaptation of the show does a lot to live up to the spirit of the original. I do like the way they chosen to introduce the characters, emphasizing Tohru’s social front in order to mask her troubles, only to fall down from exhaustion near the middle of the episode. Yuki and Shigure also seem to be fairly faithful to their original characters as well, with Yuki being the cool, mysterious prince and Shigure being the pervy twenty-something.

I am also aware that their was a lot of hype around the English Dub since most of the original voice actors were recast in their role, but I opted to watch the show in the Japanese, so I did not get a chance to hear it. However, I do also remember the dub quite fondly, so more points for that I guess.

How do you guys feel about the newest Fruits Basket adaptation? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you would like to support The Aniwriter or are just feeling generous, consider donating on Ko-fi, or using one of the affiliate links down below:

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

In a desperate attempt to avoid spending any time doing work, I spent the majority of last weekend sitting around watching Soul Eater. I figured, “why not sit back with something nostalgic and fitting for Halloween?” So I did. I went to the Funimation Streaming service, put on Soul Eater, and sat back and relaxed. All and All, it has probably been one of the best Weekends in recent memory.

Just in case you haven’t had the chance to watch one of the better shonen series of the last decade, Soul Eater is a 51 episode series directed by Takuya Igarashi, who also directed Ouran High School Host Club, and focuses on Maka Albarn, a weapon meister, and Soul Eater, her weapon partner. In this world, evil manifests itself in the form of Kishins, demons that seek to eat human souls, and it’s up to the weapon meisters of the DWMA to stop these Kishins.

Watching this series for the third time now, and as someone who’s about to turn 18, as opposed to 13-year-old me, there was a bit that was different. The boob jokes weren’t as funny, and I only found Blackstar even more annoying than the last time, Especially with Brittany Karbowski portrayal, where her voice can get a little more high pitched than my ears can take anymore. It’s also a lot more apparent the third time around where they would try to save on the animation budget by stretching out jokes where the characters would stand still, with some of them getting close to 10 seconds. In a 20 minute episode, it looks incredibly cheap. Speaking of jokes, Death the Kid’s need for everything to be symmetrical is a lot less funny the third time around, especially in the middle of what are supposed to be series battles.

Despite all this, though, I genuinely enjoyed rewatching this piece of my middle school experience. Halloween is one of my favorite Holidays, and it feels good being able to watch an anime that is inspired by that imagery, with monsters and demons and, essentially, demon hunters, otherwise known as meisters.

There wasn’t really much to this post other than that. I just wanted to share all of my Halloween joy and share a good show with anyone who hasn’t seen it. Hope you all enjoy your Halloween as well. To anyone not celebrating Halloween, have a good 31st anyway.

Thanks for Reading!

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