Fruits Basket

This was an exceptionally difficult choice for me, this year. I've seen some terrific animated shows ~ the first season of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Key the Metal Idol, just to name a few. On an objective scale, maybe Fruits Basket isn't the best of these, but I do have a reason for choosing it. You may even consider it a good reason... but maybe not.

In brief, if you haven't seen it, Fruits Basket is the story of a high school girl, Tohru Honda, who is left temporarily homeless and is taken in by Shigure and Yuki Sohma as a tenant/housekeeper. It doesn't take Tohru long to discover that the Sohma family has a secret ~ some members are cursed to turn into zodiac animals when they are hugged or are under stress. Tohru becomes their good friend, but she also learns that the family has other secrets connected with the curse, and some of them are grim. It's a good story, a lot of fun, but with dramatic and emotional moments as well. It's not quite as witty as Rocky and Bullwinkle, or as profound and artistic as Utena, or as coherent a story as Key the Metal Idol, but it compares well with any of these.

So... why did I really choose Fruits Basket over all those others? I might as well just admit it now, and get it over with. It's the bishies. Fruits Basket is chockfull of pretty men, a veritable cornucopia of harem material. My personal favorite is Shigure, but Kyo is sexy, and Hatori is fascinating. Heck, I could find good things to say about the attractiveness of Yuki, Momiji, Hatsuharo, and Ayame, and even Akito if I work at it. Even their animal forms are cute.

There are other reasons. I'm not a total drooler.

Tohru Honda is one of my very favorite anime heroines, a charming girl who's so full of goodness, kindness, and compassion that she brings out the best in everyone she meets, even the repressed Yuki and Kyo. Yet she's not cloying, she's just a genuinely, wonderfully nice girl. The other characters are all unique. No cookie-cutter characters here, but very different people who develop and show new sides to themselves throughout their appearances.

The scripts are good, and so is the art and animation. The voice actors, both Japanese and English, do a fine job.

It's fun, funny, heartwarming, and occasionally exciting.

Most of all, however, I love this show's underlying themes. It illustrates the value of good self-esteem without ever once using that awful term. It stresses compassion, courtesy, friendship, loyalty, and love, all without getting too goopy about it. It asks us to redefine "family". You learn to care about whether these people solve their many problems, and laugh and cry with them as they try.

But, yeah, the main reason this show topped my list this year is that it's full of lovely, interesting men who get naked every once in a while. Call me shallow.