Fruits Basket

Title: Fruits Basket

Format: DVD

Air Date: 2001; DVD Release: 2009

Review/Summary: This anime series was adapted from a serialized manga. The manga has since been turned into a series of books, often seen alongside titles like "Bleach" and "Naruto." "Fruits Basket" tells the story of Tohru Honda and the Sohma family. After her mother's death, Tohru has no place to live and--after a series of coincidences--winds up living with Yuki and Shigure Sohma. When their cousin Kyo appears, the crazy Sohma history is revealed to Tohru. Somehow, the Sohma's have been cursed. With a really really weird family curse. When hugged by members of the opposite sex, members of the Sohma family turn into animals from the Chinese Zodiac. Kyo becomes a cat, Shigure becomes a dog, and Yuki turns into the rat. Although the curse is the instigator for crazy hijinks early on, it also becomes the deeper focus of the show. The Sohmas have rarely gotten close to anyone outside the family for fear of revealing their curse, or out of belief that the curse will make them undesirable, lesser or unworthy. Tohru helps the Sohmas to see that they are amazing people who can still have friendships and even relationships. Tohru eventually makes it her mission to save the Sohmas by breaking the family curse.

I'd recommend Fruits Basket to tweens who already love anime. Some of the voice acting isn't the best, and the action tends to move super fast or super slow. It can be a little hard to keep up with sometimes. I loved Sailor Moon when I was in middle school, and I think I could have easily appreciated Fruits Basket, too. Once you get past the flaws, you find a strong female lead, interesting characters and a good message. The language is definitely not G-rated, so I'd feel more comfortable recommending it to tweens 13 and up.