Fruits Basket: Prelude review: the beloved anime series goes full soap-opera

[Ed. note: This review contains end spoilers for Fruits Basket season 3 and setup spoilers for Fruits Basket: Prelude.]

This is the TV adaptation for 2019 of the manga series Basket with fruitsThe story ended in 2021. There were many tears, big hugs, and a lot of joy as the Sohma clan finally got over their curse. Tohru, the protagonist and Kyo (the angsty Cat in the Sohma Family Zodiac), ended up being together. Happily ever afters were had for all characters, even those who may not have deserved them.

The story is now largely over, so the Fruits Basket film instead looks back to the past. Prequel Prelude to Fruits Basket Tohru is now focusing on her parents Kyoko & Katsuya and their love story. Some have criticized the romantic relationship between her parents, while others find it too dramatic and artificial. The emotional thread is what makes this story so compelling. Basket with fruits so memorable is present in the movie — there’s just a LotsIt was covered by questionable materials.

katsuya leaning down to cup kyoko’s face; he has dark hair and dark clothes, she has long orange hair

Prelude’s first half-hour is basically a recap of the last season of Basket with fruitsIt’s all there, both in its heartwarming glory and as it breaks my heart. Unfortunately, that’s all it really is: a straightforward recap that doesn’t add much for anyone who’s already watched the show. The recap mainly reminds viewers that Kyo was in contact with Kyoko as a child and that Kyo was always kind to him. The recap also resurfaces the fact that Kyo was a witness the day Kyoko died in a car accident, and he could’ve saved her if he hadn’t been paralyzed by fear. That was all dealt with. Basket with fruits season 3, though, which makes the length of this recap unnecessary, except for new viewers or fans wanting to relive the final season’s emotional highs and lows.

The TV series revealed small snippets about Tohru’s mom over time, though not enough to paint a concrete picture of her past. Junior high, she skipped school and joined an illegal gang. When she met Tohru’s father, Katsuya, who came from a more affluent family. Katsuya passed away unexpectedly after the couple got married. They had Tohru. Kyoko’s family had already abandoned her, since they deemed her a lost cause, and Katsuya’s family didn’t want much to do with her after his death, so she raised Tohru on her own.

Fruits Basket Prelude, then, ought to be a touching romance between Kyoko and Katsuya, continuing the anime’s themes of love and redemption. But the problem — which manga readers will be familiar with, and maybe were hoping would get retconned in this adaptation — is that when Katsuya and Kyoko met, she was a 14-year-old middle-school student and he was… a teacher. Technically, he is a student teacher. Her teacher. But he’s still a 19-year-old authority figure who falls for a 14-year-old girl and shows her the only affection she’s ever known. It’s not made any easier when Kyoko calls him out for falling for a younger girl — and he just replies it’s not HisShe was not born on time, which is her fault. It’s hard to get over that inherent squick factor, no matter how sweetly it’s painted.

katsuya and kyoko on the beach, a setting sun behind them

It’s a great show. Basket with fruitsThere are two strengths to this film: The moments where the characters reflect on the nature of love, sometimes while stunning animation plays, and the time when love (platonics, familial or romantic) is shown in small but thoughtful gestures. Basket with fruitsIt is when the film embraces extreme emotions while simultaneously using small details to support its over-exaggerated internal monologues that it hits its most memorable and evocative highs.

This is what the movie does. It is despite the inherent Hmm of Kyoko and Katsuya’s relationship, her words almost turn it into something beautiful. This is especially true in the early days of their marriage, where she waxes on about their happiness and the little personal efforts she’s planning to make him happy. As Tohru is born, these moments get even sweeter. However, this is just the beginning.Basket of Fruits, so it’s bound to get devastating.

The Sohma family isn’t a focus in Fruits Basket Prelude, so there’s no magical bond or curse to contend with. All of the tension comes from mundane life, whether it’s Kyoko’s neglectful parents or Katsuya’s familial pressure. To match the fantastical tone of the TV show, all these dramatic elements are taken to extremes: For instance, as a young teenager, Kyoko is somehow a hardened gangster, and she misses her exams because her gang’s leader beats her so severely for skipping out on gang meetings to study.

The worst offender, though, is Katsuya’s over-the-top, soap opera-worthy death. Both the cause and the result are exaggerated to a point that’s almost comical. Yet even though that plot point is the movie’s most unbelievable touch, it also allows for the film’s strongest scenes. Kyoko sinks into deep depression. Her narration helps cut through the complex plot and make Kyoko’s grief compelling. When Kyoko describes Katsuya’s cremation, it’s a brief sentence — Katsuya was burned and became white smoke. Then he was bone. — that’s still a gut punch.

It is easy to lose sight of the problematic relationships at the center.Prelude to Fruits Basket is tricky to watch — and it’s even trickier to glean what it’s trying to do. But when the focus shifts back to Tohru and Kyo, the questionable aspects of her parents’ relationship get a little easier to stomach. After all their hardships, they’ve managed to unravel the tangled web that the Sohma family and Tohru’s parents caught them both in, and their happiness is well earned. They are given a gentle epilogue in the movie, which is not covered much by the series.

Their resolution is a happy juxtaposition against Kyoko’s sad story, and it hands off the happiness she felt in the early days of her young family to the new couple that comes after her. But it’s not enough to balance out the movie’s uncomfortable relationship and exaggerated melodrama. PreludeThere are still traces of the original. Basket with fruits so compelling. But stripped of the magic — both literally and figuratively — it loses what makes it special.

Prelude to Fruits BasketOn June 25, select theatres will be showing the film. It will be available in select theaters on June 25. Basket with fruitsCrunchyroll streams series.