Another Akitaro Daichi show I really need to finish watching (think I saw the first 4 eps years back). Obviously a massive success in the US, especially the manga. But the anime has done really well too. In the US it has gone through 3 different box sets, and even seen the single discs released twice (second release fueled by the manga’s popularity).
3 thoughts on “HATE FUN 2001! Fruits Basket”
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I wonder how doing well in the US compares with doing well in Japan? Fruits Basket has always been one of those few series where fans seem really desperate for a sequel, yet it still hasn’t happened.
As best I can tell it did fairly well for an early evening show in 2001. About 5.0 – 7.0 rating (which would probably get you a top 10 anime rating today). About what Rave Master and the Kirby anime at the time. But in terms of comparable genres, Ask Dr Rin was doing better in the ratings.
It has no sequel because the manga-ka refuses to let it happen. She hated the first anime season so now she doesn’t want a second one and won’t give the rights for it. Rightfully so seeing as her manga wipes the floor with that horrid anime. The anime fans in Japan folded 1,000 cranes and sent them to the anime studio asking for a second season but you can’t deny the original author’s wishes. But the main problem is that the first anime changed the plot so much and the state of those characters and that world, and left out all the important details that become the plot later on in the manga, that’d it’d be about impossible to have a second season. They could do a complete reboot but Fruits Basket doesn’t need it. It just needs itself, the manga, and that’s all.