Today, we begin Fruits Basket, which has hilarious comedy, plenty of romance, and angsty drama.
Today’s episode is: The Strangest Day.
Honda Tohru is an orphan high school girl who at the beginning of our story lives in a tent. Why does she live in a tent? Her mother only died recently. She was living with her grandfather (father’s father), but he moved in with his daughter and her family and their house is being renovated. With no place to go, Tohru decided to try living on her own. She is determined to finish high school since her mother never had the chance to.
Her best friends are a Yankee with a heart of gold named Uotani and a gothic girl with poison electro vibes named Hanajima. Tohru feels she can’t ask them for help since Uotani lives alone in a tiny apartment, and Hanajima has five people in her family.
On this fateful day, on her way to school Tohru passes by a house where she meets Shigure Sohma. His cousin Yuki Sohma lives there too, who is in Tohru’s class. Yuki is known as the prince of the high school and even has his own fan club. He offers to walk Tohru to school, much to the dismay of said fan club.
Tohru not only goes to high school, she also has a part time job. She gets home late that night, only to be found by Shigure and Yuki. They insist on taking her home. Good thing too, since Tohru has a fever and her tent ends up being caught in a mudslide. After Yuki collects Tohru’s belongings, he and Shigure offer Tohru a place in their house. When Tohru protests, Shigure says she can clean and cook for them in exchange for room and board. Good thing too since Neither can cook, and the kitchen is the sea of decay. As Yuki gets settled in, a new boy – Kyo – punches in his way through the roof and challenges Yuki to a match. Tohru tries to stop Kyo and inadvertently hugs him. Kyo ends up turning into a cat. When Yuki and Shigure save Tohru from falling over after being hit by a board, they turn into a rat and dog respectively. Needless to say, Tohru is quite confused!
They did a good job on the anime. You just can’t show the Yuki fan club cheer very effectively in manga. And the manga looking dividers between sections is rather fun too. Excellent cast too. Very fun. If you like the dark undertones of the anime, try the manga.
