Fruits Basket: Prelude review – heartrending anime series gets the ending no one deserves

Fruits Basket: Prelude review – heartrending anime series gets the ending no one deserves

A laboured recap and unsettling romance frustrates a potentially engrossing plot in a coda that might be offputting to newcomers and the fanbase alike

Kyo and Tohru, Fruits Basket: Prelude.

But when Fruits Basket: Prelude finally kicks off its narrative thread, which follows the life of Tohru’s mother Kyoko, who dies in a car accident, becomes serviceably engrossing. The romantic elements might raise some eyebrows – Kyoko and Tohru’s father meet as student and teacher in a junior high school – but Kyoko’s transformation from a lost delinquent to a doting mother is rather movingly done.

Still, considering that Kyoko’s story only takes up about two-thirds of the running time, the whole enterprise feels like careless fan service. The decision to split Tohru and Kyoko’s struggles into parallel lines is an odd one, and a missed opportunity. Considering the way Kyoko faces abuse and neglect from her own parents, Fruits Basket: Prelude could have probed further into how intergenerational trauma informs Tohru’s own identity now that she is building a family with Kyo. All in all, this is a film that will not only fail to convert new believers but also frustrate the existing fanbase.

 Fruits Basket: Prelude is released on 20 July in cinemas.


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