English Dub Review: Fruits Basket: Prelude

Overview:

The heartwarming Fruits Basket shojo saga reaches its powerful conclusion with an emotional look into the cyclical nature of history. Tohru Honda and Kyo Soma have come a long way since the start of the series, yet Fruits Basket: Prelude hints at the promising future for these two lovebirds with a look into the painful past of Kyoko and Katsuya, Tohru’s parents. Fruits Basket is full of highs and lows, but Kyoko’s history is easily the darkest material that the series has ever explored. Kyoko balances on the edge of failure, but her life beautifully opens up after she’s shown humble kindness from Katsuya. With the odds against them, Kyoko and Katsuya embrace romance with everything they’ve got in this inspirational story about the power of love.

Our Take:

“Even though the world doesn’t need us, we live for those who do need us.” This is a simple message that’s relayed from Kyoko Honda to a young Kyo Soma, but it becomes the guiding force behind Fruits Basket: Prelude, an extremely satisfying and cathartic finish to one of the biggest shojo series of all time. Much of the grander Fruits Basket story gets wrapped up in the final season of the anime, which causes this movie to adopt a unique structure. The beginning operates as a recap of the best Tohru and Kyo moments before Prelude shifts to the origins of love between Kyoko and Katsuya, Tohru’s patents. 

These stories elegantly intertwine through an epilogue that follows the conclusion of the series and highlights the parallels between these burdened, star-crossed lovers. These separate stories collectively form a strong whole. There are shades of Kyoko and Katsuya’s pained romance in Tohru and Kyo’s relationship and it’s fair to say that this pattern will continue in the future. It’s a powerful, thematic way to conclude the Fruits Basket narrative that’s restrained, but also fulfilling in terms of the love story that’s carefully developed over the course of 63 episodes.

Fruits Basket: Prelude is a tale of acceptance, soulmates, and unabashedly living life to its fullest. However, in order to reach this moving message it’s first necessary for the movie to wade through some dark and depressing territory. Fruits Basket: Prelude presents an inspirational love story, but it’s also deeply interested in the sins of the parents, toxic codependency, and how children are forced to rawly navigate this trauma, which both Tohru and Kyo experience, albeit in highly different manners. 

Kyo spends most of his life paralyzed from the endless guilt that he feels over the tragedy that struck Tohru’s mom. He’s terrified that his actions will trigger something comparably horrible, perhaps even to Tohru. This unhealthy compulsion festers into the defining trait that drives him forward in life until he finally meets Tohru and his world opens up for the better. In this sense, it’s quite touching that both generations of the Tohru family have irreparable effects on Kyo. It’s completely unintentional, but this family both pulls Kyo underwater and then later brings him back up for air, as he matures into his own individual.

The largest portion of Fruits Basket: Prelude examines Kyoko’s extremely unfortunate life, which stems from an abusive and absent family. This gradually evolves into an inescapable web of bad influences as Kyoko continues to move through the world, lonely and with no one in her corner. The beginnings of her tragic tale are especially hard to endure as the whole world, even her family, collectively laugh at Kyoko. 

All of these painful catalysts make it genuinely moving once Katsuya sees Kyoko for who she is and offers her some genuine kindness for once in her life. It’s enlightening to see how different her life could have been if someone like Katsuya came around earlier and helped end this toxic cycle of violence. There’s such a natural, tender beauty as Kyoko lets her guard down and opens her heart up to Katsuya. These two, just like Kyo and Tohru, simply want to lead ordinary lives. Fruits Basket: Prelude perfectly illustrates how such a basic desire can feel utterly impossible when life oppressively attacks and there’s no stability to fall back on.

There’s effective pacing throughout Fruits Basket: Prelude, but the film’s final act is surprisingly brutal. It’s appreciated that the movie doesn’t shy away from this grim material as a way to remind audiences that life is full of tragedies that can randomly strike, but that doesn’t mean that the world is an inherently broken place where happiness is impossible. The downer final act would be such a harsh, punishing conclusion if not for the short epilogue that ties this bifurcated storytelling together, wraps up the entire Fruits Basket franchise in a satisfying package, and leaves the audience with a glimpse of hope for the future. It’s not a substantial epilogue by any means when it comes to plotting, but it’s more significant for the optimism that it injects into these characters where life is something to celebrate, not lament.

Fruits Basket: Prelude is as strong as any of the more popular standalone anime romance melodramas like Your Name, A Silent Voice, or Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish. The plot of Prelude isn’t nearly as complicated as some of those other tortured love stories, but after a series’ worth of animal transformation hijinks it’s quite sobering to get a more grounded relationship story here. Audiences may feel as if there’s an inherent barrier to break through and dismiss it accordingly since this story is connected to the larger Fruits Basket franchise. However, if the same movie was released under the vague-yet-palatable title, “The Story of Kyoko and Katsuya,” then people may be more willing to list it among the other great cinematic anime love stories.

Fruits Basket has never been an anime that strives to push the limits of animation, but Prelude still features aesthetics that are gorgeous without being too flashy. Everything just looks so crisp and polished. No frames come across as compromised or that they’re too shallow for the storytelling and emotions in that given moment. In the audio department, all of the classic Fruits Basket dub actors return and have never been stronger. However, Lydia Mackay and J. Michael Tatum truly shine as Kyoko and Katsuya. This movie never hides the fact that this is their story and both actors properly tap into the raw emotions of their characters. This dub cast has truly made these roles their own and it’s comforting that Fruits Basket: Prelude can also function as a celebration of the committed work that they’ve done in these roles for so many years.

This movie consistently navigates through heavy material and the end result is material that feels on par with the anime’s first two seasons, but is slightly lacking the perpetual emotional impact that’s achieved during the heights of Fruits Basket: The Final. This an extremely satisfying conclusion to the Fruits Basket saga that poignantly turns the clock backwards before elegantly closing the door on these characters. Any fan of the anime and manga will absolutely adore every second of Fruits Basket: Prelude, but even those with zero familiarity with the series will be able to appreciate the film as a tender, generational love story that isn’t lost in a degree of hollow fan service that makes any newcomer feel like they’re missing out on vital pieces of this puzzle. 

In fact, while Fruits Basket: Prelude is the conclusion to this moving narrative, it’s arguably just as effective as someone’s first piece of Fruits Basket media, who then proceeds to go back and watch from the beginning. Tohru’s darkest moments are a lot easier to endure after knowing where she ultimately ends up. Having the knowledge of what Kyoko had to go through in order to make Tohru’s life possible in the first place also functions as a comforting silver lining.

Fruits Basket: Prelude is a beautiful story about the importance of getting out of your own way and letting yourself experience happiness; that humans are a species that require the company of others and can’t hide away from the world, even when it feels impossible to do otherwise. There are so many highlights to this film, but if nothing else it’s just extremely cathartic to see Tohru and Kyo freely hug each other, with any shred of fear and uncertainty completely erased from their bodies, as they truly hold the other and celebrate their future together. As a team. We all need to be able to forgive ourselves and let go of the baggage that holds us back, but it’s so touching when finding the right soulmate can make this process feel natural and effortless. We must accept ourselves because in the end we can’t be anyone else. All that we can do is our best.

‘Fruits Basket: Prelude’ will air in limited theaters across North America on June 25th, 28th, and 29th