Any anime that starts out with a girl living in a tent and talking to the picture of her recently deceased mother is bound to be cheery, right? Right? Actually, Fruits Basket does have its depressing moments, but all in all it balances the light and the dark aspects of life well, and does it with an optimistic spin. Aside from the story, the art is richly drawn, the characters well developed, and the seiyuu's are excellent. And I will have to admit that Akito is my favorite character. So, if you're looking for an anime with a good mix of depression and comedy, check out Fruits Basket and see for yourself why its in the top 5 of my favorite anime of all time.

The only thing about this series that I don't like is the US DVD release. Funimation (of DragonballZ fame) did not do a very good job with this. The translations are pretty loose, and my favorite part is that there were textless openings and endings on the DVD, and Funimation hard subtitled them (no, you can't turn off the subtitles at all.) That just struck me as a brilliant move. I'd have to say that the fansubs of this were a much better quality, so its a shame to me that such a great series was put on DVD in such a poor fashion.