Japanese: フルーツバスケット The Final
Episodes: 13
Aired: Apr 6, 2021 to Jun 29, 2021
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Genre: Drama, Slice of Life, Supernatural, Romance, Shoujo
Duration: 23 min. per ep.
Rating: PG-13 – Teens 13 or older
Add to list on MAL
MY RATING: 10 out of 10
Hundreds of years ago, the Chinese Zodiac spirits and their god swore to stay together eternally. United by this promise, the possessed members of the Souma family shall always return to each other under any circumstances. Yet, when these bonds shackle them from freedom, it becomes an undesirable burden—a curse. As head of the clan, Akito is convinced that he shares a special connection with the other Soumas. While he desperately clings to this fantasy, the rest of the family remains isolated and suppressed by the fear of punishment.
Tooru Honda, who has grown attached to the Soumas, is determined to break the chains that bind them. Her companionship with the family and her friends encourages her to move forward with lifting the curse. However, due to confounding revelations, she struggles to find the tenacity to continue her endeavors. With time slowly withering away, Tooru contends with an uncertain future in hopes of reaching the tranquility that may lie beyond all this commotion.
via MAL
I wasn’t expecting that I will be giving an anime series with a 10 out of 10 rating this year! I am very particular with my 10 star rating and I don’t give it up easily even to my favorite series or artist. If I’m not mistaken, I think I’ve only given my 10 star rating to 4 series (including this series) since I started watching anime a very long time ago.
Fruits Basket has been very consistent since its first season and as for its final season, they definitely provided us everything. Waaahh, just thinking about it makes me want to cry and smile at the same time. It was just sooo beautiful.
Opening & Ending Theme + Song
Unlike the previous season, the opening of this one is giving off the feeling that it’s really the end. Normally, I would be really sad about the finality of it, but I love the song, hahaha. And the theme is giving me that serious vibe probably because the characters look really serious and no one is giving me a smile, like nada! When I first saw it, I was like “heck, don’t tell me this series will make me cry every single episode?”, and I will be lying if I say that I wasn’t nervous for my eyes, wahahaha.
The ending on the other hand is giving me a hopeful feeling. It’s not just because of the song but also with the theme. It’s definitely a very happy one. And when I decided to search the english translation of the song, uwaaaahh, this is like the zodiac member’s song for Tohru (most especially Yuki to Tohru).
The Final Season
Fruits Basket: The Final continues what ended in the previous season. And you know what I felt while watching the first episode? I feel so sad for Tohru and pure hatred for Akito. I have hated Akito since season 1, but after seeing what her wickedness has done to everyone, and on what extent she would do just to get what she wanted, that’s it, I’m done with her. I’m so angry that I want to erase her total existence in this series.
Sorry I started with that, hahaha, Akito is just so frustrating. In this final season, I thought the pacing of the story would be done quickly since it only has a lesser number of episodes compared to the previous 2 seasons. But nope, everything has been properly shown and all the details about the characters struggles especially about their past has been finally revealed.
I’ve been crying and fuming in anger interchangeably while watching this season. Considering that this is only 13 episodes long, a lot has happened. I know I said in my previous review that I don’t think that I’ll ever stop hating Akito, but after learning more about her life, I can now sympathise a little. I guess you could say that she has been a victim of her upbringing. But then again, that’s still not an excuse for her to do all of those horrible things to other people regardless of how she felt or experienced in life. In the end she finally realized all of her faults (thanks to Tohru), but I feel like it wasn’t enough to atone for her sins. Oh well, I don’t want to dwell more about the negative thing anymore.
As for Tohru, we finally got to see what’s truly inside her heart. She’s always been a kind soul in both season 1 and 2, and sometimes I ask myself whether she’s a human or a saint. She’s just too kind and that’s not normal, but if you look at her, it just feels just normal – that just comes naturally for her. Learning about her selfish desire makes her character more relatable now, more human, and I really love how she fights for her love. Uwaaahhh, just thinking about it makes me cry and then smile like an idiot. I just love those scenes <3
For Kyou, his relationship with Tohru’s mother is finally revealed and I feel so sorry for him, huhuhu. I just can’t imagine the guilt he must have been carrying all this time. He feels like he’s a bad person and doesn’t deserve to be loved. Then eventually Yuki stepped in to help him realise, but surprisingly, both of them finally realised things about each other. Kyou eventually faced his fears and Yuki finally expressed his true feelings.
They finally remembered the original promise and all curses are now broken. I was really crying all throughout those scenes, uwaaaah, I’m just so happy for all of them <3
And lastly, I really love how they didn’t just give us 1 episode for the happy ending, but it was more! Everyone has their own HEA and even though it was the end, this series left me with a smile on my face after that rewarding and wonderful ending.
And that my friend is how you should end a series. Highly recommended!
Previous seasons:
LOL, sounds like a good love to hate character in Akita. 🙂 I’m so glad this series ended on a high note for you b/c you’ve been into it all along. Always good when the season is full of so much and closes out strong.
True wahahaha, that Akito is such a character. I’m just so happy this series is just so good from start to finish <3