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Fruits Basket: Season One Part Two Review

Studio: TMS/8PAN

Directed By: Yoshihide Ibata

Audio: Japanese: English

Subtitles: English

Episodes: 14-25

Rating: 12

Format: DVD, Blu-Ray, Collector’s Limited Edition Dual Format, Digital

Licensed By: Manga Entertainment UK, Funimation

Release Date: 2nd March 2020

 

Tohru continues to meet more members of the Sohma household that are under the Zodiac curse. With her caring nature, she tends to help each one of them overcome a difficult time in their lives, with a fresh new look on life and a compassionate heart. All that is, except for the head of the Sohma clan – Akito. These episodes reveal more secrets to do with the Sohma family, how Tohru is coping 1 year on from her mothers’ death and the backstories behind Tohru’s closest friends – Hanajima and Uotani.

Obviously if you have read the manga, you know exactly what is happening at the end of Part 2! Not going to mention anymore, as it is a BIG spoiler! What I will say is that they did a great job, I still managed to cry even though I knew exactly what was coming. This second Part is full of emotions, from Tohru and her friends paying a visit to her mothers’ grave, seeing how Hanajima and Uotani met Tohru and more personal stories from the Zodiac members. Momijis’ and Kisa’s are especially heart breaking, but once again Tohru manages to give them some comfort.

The great thing about this version of Fruits Basket, is that the manga has already long since finished. They also have the opportunity to have a second season, so they can adapt the full story, as well as giving more time for the character development. Something that is very important in this series, and they have been doing well with it thus far! There are a lot of characters involved and they all seem to be getting their own good amount of screen time, as well as storylines. Obviously Tohru and the Sohmas’ get their prime time, but so does Tohrus’ best friends Hanajima and Uotani, as well as those from the Yuki Fan Club get a look in! The two that have developed the most are of course Yuki and Kyo, even looking back to the first episodes of this reboot to the seasons finale, you can just see how their interactions have changed. There is less fighting, which means less damage to the house (hooray for Shigure!), and the boys tend to put their differences aside when it comes to Tohru. So who is everyone rooting for in this love triangle?

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Now just for convenience, I watched this season on the FunimationNow app when I had some spare time in my day. So I am basing that the bonus features for the UK release, will be the same as that of the US release.

Bonus Features:

  • Fruits Basket: Interview with Cast & Crew
  • Inside the Episode
  • Episode 18 Commentary
  • Textless Songs

As you can see in the image above, not only can you buy Fruits Basket on DVD and BluRay, but also as a Limited Edition Release. It looks gorgeous, and I already have it in my wish list to buy in the near future. It comes as a BluRay release, with 3 Art Cards featuring artwork from the Japanese release and replicas of the Tiger, Rabbit, and Dragon zodiac figurines from Shigure’s home. Now if you have already bought the Limited Edition release of Part One, you will now have the majority of your own Zodiac. I am hoping they continue this figure release when Season Two comes out on BluRay.

For long standing Fruits Basket fans, you know perhaps all there is about this series and where this adaptation is going. For those of you that are now just joining the Riceball Fan Club, there is quite a bit out there for you to enjoy. Beginning with the manga series, which was originally released by TokyoPop, you can now buy the Collectors omnibus editions by Yen Press, so no need to worry about tracking down the long out of print volumes. You can also enjoy the original anime series, which was released back in 2012 by MVM Entertainment. So plenty there to enjoy before Season Two comes out later this Spring, my guess will be around April over on FunimationNow.

Once again a series that is well worth picking up and getting into. I have loved this series for years now, and managed to track down all the original TokyoPop volumes, before Yen Press announced their re-release. I am biased, but I can not recommend this franchise enough. I could honestly see a movie being announced in the future, with how much of a fanbase the show has. You can check out Part Two very soon, as it will be hitting shelves on the 2nd of March!

Overall: 9/10

 

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