A Cheesecake in a Fruits Basket

Fruits Basket stands as the girliest girly anime I have ever viewed.  It came highly recommended by a close friend.  I had previously attempted to watch it in English, which was the only option available to me at the time.  The dubbing was horrible, and the content was changed dramatically.  Overall, I deemed it unwatchable in English, but I was willing to give it another try if I could find it in Japanese.

Fast forward to now, and I discovered Fruits Basket was available subtitled on Hulu Plus Hulu Minus!  I giddily signed up for a Hulu Plus Hulu Minus account, added Fruits Basket, Mushi-shi, Vandread, Black Blood Brothers, and Trigun (all, to my utter amazement, in Japanese), loaded it up on my Roku, excitedly flipped to Fruits Basket to finally watch it in Japanese and ... it started playing in English.  O_e  Vandread, Mushi-shi, and Black Blood Brothers were WEB only (as in, you have to sit in front of your computer to watch it, which negates the reason I bought a Roku to begin with!!) and Trigun and Fruits Basket, though available streaming--Only the DUBS were available streaming!!

I went back and searched EVERYWHERE on Hulu Plus Hulu Minus and NOWHERE could I find anything that said "Only viewable on web" on the website!!  With that in mind, I angrily got on Facebook and "liked" Hulu Plus' Hulu Minus' page, just so I could leave them a scathing review.  Yes, their little minion answered me with a generic answer that skirted the real issue of their shady business practices.

Since then they changed the website to make that information more forthcoming, I notice.  But it still doesn't change the fact that I can't really watch these 5 animes subtitled anywhere else. :L  But, I digress.



Fruits Basket tells the story of Tohru Honda, a naive but kindhearted high school student, whose mother died last year in a car accident.  After much family debate, it is decided that Tohru will live with her paternal grandfather.  When her Grandfather's house needs to be remodeled, Tohru tells him she's going to stay with a friend of hers.  In reality, Tohru has decided, as a way of avoiding being a burden to her friends, to sleep in a tent in the woods.  (Only in  Japan, folks.)

Tohru's secret hardship is discovered by classmate Yuki Sohma, dubbed the Prince Yuki by his ardent fan club of female admirers, and Yuki's older relative, the ever pleasant and oft gutter-minded Shigure Sohma.  Yuki, astounded that a such a happy seeming young girl was going through so much, is enchanted by the Tohru's story.  Shigure, after his initial fit of laughter, insists along with Yuki that Tohru stay at their house due to the danger of mudslides in the woods.

Tohru quickly realizes that the Sohma House is not your oridinary household when she bumps/runs/falls into (it happens 20 times an episode, hard to remember the first one) one of the Sohmas, they turn into the animals of the zodiac!  Prince Yuki is a rat (most good looking guys are), and Shigure is a dog (makes sense).

One more side note about Fruits Basket...  It made me cry my eyes out.  >.>  Yes, I know, big tough gal over here cryin over fuckin animated zodiac characters, ha ha ha, very funny indeed.  I think I managed not to cry for a whopping 4 episodes (yes, that means I cried through 22 heart-rendingly adorable, friend-loving, teen-filled dribble, puncha me in the face!).

Even through the blur, I enjoyed Fruits Basket; it was both heart-warming and tear-streaming.  I would say most men would kill themselves rather than watch this (this, according to my husband), and while I'm sure there are some out there who would enjoy it, I'm definitely inclined to label this one as 100% on the Girlymeter.