"It's a zodiac animal transformation home comedy!" claims the show's merchandise. Awkward wording aside, that essentially sums up the plot of this series, which uses elements of cultural folktales in a modern-day setting in a story that is comedic on the surface and at the same time is, surprisingly, a sensitive, touching drama.
Honda Tohru appears to be a typical high school student - while not the most popular girl in school, she has two loyal best friends and is cheerful and good at housework (a typical shoujo manga heroine). However, she has a secret - after her mother died, leaving her without any guardians, her grandfather took her in. Complications arose and her grandfather asked her if she could temporarily stay with some friends for a while...but not wanting to be a burden, Tohru decided to live by herself. In a tent. In the wilderness.
However, her secret is soon found out, by the "Prince" of the school - Souma Yuki, whose family happens to own the land that Tohru has been squatting on. And when Yuki, and his cousin, Shigure, decide to invite her to stay in to their home, Tohru discovers that she's not the only one with secrets. The Souma family is cursed by the "vengeful spirits of the Chinese Zodiac" -- whenever they are hugged by a member of the opposite sex, they turn into the animal that they represent.
Not only has Tohru stumbled onto a secret that outsiders are not allowed to know, but her sympathetic nature clashes with the conflict that is at the center of the Chinese Zodiac myth. According to legend, the cat was initially invited to be part of the zodiac with the rest of the animals. But the rat tricked the cat, and the cat was left out...and were forever after eternal enemies. That clash has continued to today, where Yuki -- the rat -- is still at odds with the cat...the outcast of the Souma family, Souma Kyou. Incidentally, Tohru has grown up with the story close to her heart -- and it's the cat that she most adores.
That's only the very tip of the iceberg. Within this twenty-six episode series, the anime introduces more members of the Souma family - meaning, more members of the Chinese Zodiac. Tohru is an outsider but she is eager to learn to learn as much as she can about the family; she wants to be friends with all of them, as naive as that may turn out to be. While many comedic moments in the series comes from the quirky nature of all the characters, including Tohru and her best friends, this show reaches extreme depths in emotion as it touches upon the pain and suffering that they have all experienced, in living--and remembering. All of the characters have a story that explains why they are the way they are, including the seemingly perfect Yuki and the temperamental Kyou, and somehow Tohru is the one who manages to unlock these stories out of them.
What do you live for when you carry a burden as heavy as these characters do? Through the eyes of Tohru, the audience learns many different reasons, making this series a beautifully touching and unforgettable one. Full of completely entertaining and satisfying episodes, the only flaw some may point out (besides the tad stereotypical nature of Tohru), is the finale that doesn't answer all the questions. Like other long-running shoujo series such as Hana Yori Dango and Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou, the Fruits Basket manga continued on after the show, and same as the anime versions of those series, the very end of the show was created from scratch. However, this doesn't take away from the overall excellence of the series, and you may always check out the latest manga if you fall in love with the story the way I did.
