ALARIS' REVIEWS

19th September 2009
Fruits Basket (2001)

I started writing this review several times, trying to find a balance between helpful review and hellfire rant. After reading one news article too many (see below), I came crashing down on the side of hellfire rant. So I apologise in advance to anyone who uses phrases like 'left wing nutcase'.

Rant warning: If super angry people make you uncomfortable, give this review a miss. Stop now. Just walk away slowly.

Ok, so I tried to hold back because it seems heartless to eviscerate a series that's trying so hard to be sweet and positive, and is undoubtedly beloved of its fans. Unfortunately, it was not a good week to be Fruits Basket .

Fruits Basket is a 26 episode anime series about a super sweet high school girl, Tohru, whose unconditional kindness and extravagant generosity of spirit manages to thaw the icy angst of all who cross her path. So far, so good. However, when the heroine earnestly declares that "marriage is the dream of every girl", a whole armada of warning bells went beserk for me.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with a hero who's cloyingly sweet, pathologically apologetic, and adorably klutzy. There's nothing necessarily wrong with a hero whose only talents are cooking, cleaning, praising other people, and putting themselves down. But combine all these in a cute as a button schoolgirl who spouts choice lines like the one about marriage, and what you have is something resembling a 1920s poster book for Feminine Virtue.

I know, most people won't even notice, let alone be bothered by it. However, gender stereotypes are a particular peeve of mine, and Fruits Basket is littered with generalisations about 'girls' and 'men' which set my teeth on edge.

It's a shame that the most interesting characters on Fruits Basket are Tohru's two high school friends and her mother - who don't get very much screen time at all. Instead, the story revolves almost entirely around the saccharine Tohru and her predominantly male admirers.

It's not that Fruits Basket doesn't have anything going for it. The animal character designs are very cute, and the onigiri motif is effective. There are moments when the series seems to be trying to convey important messages about being yourself and showing compassion, but these are easily swamped by the regressive gender politics, and the questionable presentation of Tohru's 'qualities'.

There's a difference between kindness and gullibility. Between giving freely of yourself and allowing yourself to be abused. Between fighting hostility with kindness, and being a doormat. Fruits Basket does not seem to have a healthy grasp of the difference.

Tohru constantly relies on others to swoop in and defend her honour, as she seems to have little sense of her own worth. She tolerates disrespect and denigration, as though she doesn't feel that she deserves respect. Moreover, the characters around her seem to find her behaviour charming and selfless, when in fact it is deeply submissive and self debasing.

Although Tohru's two high school friends are reasonably normal, their primary functions seem to be defending the hapless heroine, admiring her adorable meekness, praising her selfless domesticity, and wishing they were more like her.

I know I'm really putting the boot in Fruits Basket , but as I said, it was a particularly bad week to be glorifying submissive heroines who refuse to defend themselves.

This week in the news, I read about a 12 year old Yemeni girl who died after 3 days in labour, after having been forced into an arranged marriage. A woman in Afghanistan was sentenced to death for downloading information about women's rights. Farmers in India are selling their wives and daughters to brothels to pay off debts. Yet another Jordanian rape victim was murdered by her family for 'bringing shame upon the house'. And there's more. It's easy to imagine that in any of these situations, Tohru would have accepted her fate with a smile, glad she was able to make the perpetrators feel better about themselves.

In the face of such gross violations of women's rights, it can be particularly hard to stomach entertainment which glorifies protagonists as servile as Tohru. While her kindness is to be applauded, her inability to stand up for herself, her lack of self respect, the fact that she seems devoid of any desire other than to please others, are deeply disconcerting. Even her goal of finishing high school is motivated by a promise she made to her mother, rather than by any desire to learn, or to have a career, or to protect others.

I think the final slap is when Tohru is violently assaulted, and her response during the attack is to cry for the emotional pain of her abuser. It's one thing not to retaliate when you're being bitten by a parrot. It's a completely different thing when you're a 15 year old schoolgirl being assaulted by a fully grown man with deranged control issues. If this were Bleach (2004), heroine Rukia would so kick the attacker's sorry ass into penitent flashback mode.

You can be compassionate, and have self respect.

Compassion, kindness, tolerance, and an open heart. These are wonderful qualities. But a submissive mindset which demands no respect, possesses no sense of self worth, and has no desire to resist, to protect, or to seek justice, is a dangerous and pitiable thing.

I actually had to debrief by watching the very cool fanvid, One Girl Revolution by arefadedaway.

Verdict: An extremely domestic shoujo anime, with some unhealthy gender politics.

If you can handle phrases like the below, you might like this.
(Quotes are paraphrased).

"Getting married is every girl's dream."

"This topic must be boring for a girl."

"They should make this room more like a girl's. Like with a dressing table. "
(Note: there was already a frilly pink bed in the room. Yes. Frilly.)

"How embarrassing, being dressed like a girl."

"Tohru's a girl. She'll be afraid to be alone with a man."

"Girls have nothing to do with a man's fight."

"I should have chosen Fist Crackers or Thunder Crackers or something more masculine (instead of chocolate)."

"Your cooking is getting better. You're ready to be someone's wife."

"You're so kind. You'll make someone a good wife."

General Comments

If you're looking for a cool shoujo anime, try Vision of Escaflowne (1996) - the series, not the movie.

If you're looking for a fun shonen anime with cool female characters, try Bleach (2004).

If you're looking for a genuine story about using tolerance and kindness to combat violent hostility, while maintaining self-respect, read One Child by Torey Hayden.