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Escapism. What is escapism? Escapism is the feeling of avoiding an unpleasant life and thinking of a more habitual diversion of the mind to endless dreams. This definition seems to be inaccurate for Kyoko Honda. Nevertheless, this feels more of symbolic imagery of juxtaposing the change from adolescence to adulthood. Feeling distraught and lonely inside these tender souls, we never feel to escape this spiral of unhealthy habits and complicated feelings in ourselves. In life, we change as human beings. Bonding with a person with that trust becomes mutual and retrains this continuity of the spiral filled with solitude and aggravation. We learn the beauty ... of how precious life is and explore different aspects that we haven't experienced before. Walking endless days and nights, unexpected events occur naturally and end up feeling in this spiral of darkness and crude melancholy again, not able to enjoy the precious moments from before. Powerless and nothing to hold credit, falling, and falling and trapped to find the person we owe for what they've changed within us. We can't feel anything but burdened with impeccable grief. Hearing a single flick of a word can change as it reminds us what we need to do in life and be there for the sake of young livelihood in the next generation. In a spiral, time continues but we learn, smile and feel a wide range of emotions by the purity of one word that expresses impact.

This is the Story of Kyoko and Katsuya.

(This review contains spoilers)

Before diving in, I would like to mention that the film begins with a 32-minute recap that shows the development of Kyo and Tohru's relationship from all three seasons narrated by Kyo, surprisingly. Personally, this recap is relatively useful as this refreshes your mind and some of the scenes + dialogue are important to bind with Kyoko's storyline later on. If you want to skip it to save time, go ahead.

After 32 minutes of the recap, this is where the real story begins.

Fruits Basket: Prelude, might as well call it Prelude, ables to capture raw human emotion that remains subtle and sentimental for us, viewers, to feel connected to these characters. Most people know this couple is controversial due to the age gap, but the Director, Ibata Yoshihide, creates warmth around Kyoko and Katsuya's dynamic not making it feel intentionally creepy or easily get struck by lightning. Using the basic element, communication, the emotional narrative makes you wonder what their stories intertwine with their relationship. Simply enough, understanding each other is what makes us value others for what they are. The romantic pairing is lovely and purely tragic + gives us time to experience what love is. In the film, when the characters confessed a focused bloomed dandelion appeared. Which represents the healing of emotional pain and wishes fulfilled. The pacing is not as insanely fast and abridged as S3, but keeps it steady and emotionally heavy. The OST is the same as before but adds some of the scenes so melodic and depressing as hell.

Kyoko Honda to me represents a broken fragile human being, recovering from pain and loneliness. Her Seiyuu, Miyuki Sawashiro did a spectacular job of voicing Kyoko. Developing from a very "Delinquent" persona to a kind, gentle, mother. The emotions she portrayed in the film were pure and realistic depending on what situation Kyoko is in. If I watched this dubbed I would probably feel the same way as to how much the sub is portrayed. This might take time for Funimation to record every line and I can wait for that.

Besides that, Katsuya does not feel like a typical boring character to explore. He's a particular character trope that is there to help you and guide you to become a better human being. Katsuya feels like a compelling character that gives off his ideals about life from his own experiences. For a lovely addition, Tohru's grandfather foils most of Katsuya's background. Katsuya never wanted anyone else to know what he feels inside and not to be selfish about it.

Behind the studio, TMS creates a realistic undertone atmosphere with vivid but moody colour pallets to make the overall production flawed. I particularly want to discuss a moment about halfway through the film. The art director displays a very unstable crimson, hell-like, scenery demonstrating Kyoko's mental state. Viewing from the cities to the beach and the dying dandelion. This seems interesting to see that the dying dandelion represents loss and the end of youthful joy. Kyoko here looks drenched and is dying from life, feeling tight and immersed with so many complicated feelings. The scenes after that look depressing as heck and present depression somewhat better than the main series.

In the end, there is an epilogue of our couple from the main series, Kyo and Tohru, in the future. Honestly, this felt a nice wrap up to the series in general. And ofc the dynamics were cute indeed. The OST, Rainbow Kite, by Trio Oohashi is very nostalgic with the memorable piano notes and violin harmonies from the old Fruits Basket Opening by Ritsuko Okazaki. It also feels wholesome and powerful in the sense it dives into the message of "self-love".

I love Fruits Basket because it does not feel like a stereotypical shoujo romance. Natsuki Takaya establishes themes that feel not forgettable and we are on this journey of happiness and sadness. The characters are tropes we see in most shoujo works but contain a human bond that makes the experience better, not seemingly sappy.

If there are any flaws, I wished they could shorten the recap, it can be a bit restraining to see most of the scenes appear again. Also, we need more Baby Tohru (wholesome blob), I'm kidding hahaha. But the Tohru moments were funny and wholesome.

Beautiful and fragile. We go through sad and happy times. This is what makes us human. This is the end of a beloved journey.

Finding something comedic can be hard for most people. Not even going to lie, there are most comedies unable to make me laugh nowadays. There are different types of comedy. Firstly you have the observational type, which portrays the daily lives of a commonplace. Secondly, you have the witty type that portrays the intelligent side of things. And finally, you have exaggerated comedies, which can be a hit or miss depending on the execution of its ideas.

This isn't the case for Carnival Phantasm.

Carnival Phantasm is well a parodic crossover of your favourite Type-Moon works, listing up to Kara no Kyoukai (unfortunately most of ... the characters did not appear :-:), Tsukihime, the Fate Series and of course, Melty Blood. Not to mention, this was adapted from an anthology comic called Take Moon, which was written by, YOU GUESS IT, Type-Moon and Eri Takenashi, creator of Kannagi.

Now. How come this piece of artwork is such a hidden masterpiece that can hold much greater meaning, desire and most of all a representation of a Picasso Painting up to this day? If you ask me, then it's the uses of creativity the writers were able to produce most of the humour to be insanely ironic to the point the characters are breaking the fourth wall. Well, that seems a bit off-putting from me, let's go bit by bit, shall we?

The plot is basically simple but required some knowledgeable facts from the Nasuverse. So read the visual novels for Tsukihime and Fate for references or just look up on Youtube lul. The jokes are well written and effectively works on the daily lives of this chaotic cast.

The characters are loving and have a unique dynamic of one another. The best thing about these characters on how most of them stayed as their true identities from their original source of work. How did the Nasuverse come all together in the name of Jesus Christ? They were called by the lord and the saviour of the Neco Arc Gods. Now I don't wanna go through the Neco-Arc lore in this review since it's irrelevant, but they are the ones that tie the balance of comedies together.

The art is basic but very effective for a parody like this. The presentation is MuAH perfection. Even Taiga f*cks up the production values in one of the episodes, now that ladies and gentlemen is how chaotic and violent Taiga can be. The facial expressions are done right and on timing as well. There are moments where an anime character ends up flying across to mars (poor Lancer lol, he does not deserve his ass getting kicked).

Sound? What can I say over here? The OP is the definition of pure happiness and acts as an anti-depression medicine for your brain to be overloaded with serotonin. EVEN HELL YEAH I KEPT ON DANCING WITH ALL OF THE CHARACTERS ON SCREEN, this is just insane... The ED on the other hand is calming and has a constant reminder of purifying your soul after the madness of each episode.

The fun I had is immaculate and sustainable for my lungs to breathe in all of the oxygen after a moment of gags and over the top scenes. Remember folks to stay hydrate, you might end up choking.

Overall this mini-series just changed my life for the better. The goat of comedies that should be reconsidered in the Oscar Awards back in the day. I know right, ladies and gents, this is ridiculously heartbreaking this piece of art never got recognised in the outside world *sniff* *sniff*. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk on why Carnival Phantasm is a genius of comedy writing. (Don't take this review as an insult to all comedies, this is a joke I swear).

As you may know, I'm one hell of a fan of Fruits Basket. Personally, it's one of the Shoujo Series that stays in my heart throughout my life. Every single moment did not bore me, especially the reboot (which was my first exposure to it). After the reboot was done, I decided to read FB Another, which is the sequel to the original story.

Oh boy. Something about the sequel did not accept my approval at all.

Story (4/10)
IT'S THE SAME AGAIN AND AGAIN. It's the same as the original but switches the opposites around. So this becomes the Sohma's helping Mitoma, which I ... kinda find intriguing, but it instantly falls throughout the whole sequel. The story lacks originality and it is crucially mediocre. Sadly, it takes away most of its realistic undertones, to the most somewhat cheesy, generic trope. Unfortunately, I don't like it in most shoujo rom-com series. Comparing to what the original has presented, it played out its fundamentals well and extends its mysteries completely right. But in this, it felt dull and has poor build-up to the most important scenes. There were tons of loose plot holes and fails to execute. Two things I appreciate about this is the bonus chapters and including Shiki's backstory. Some of the bonus chapters displayed Yuki and Kyo’s children’s background. Let’s say Mutsuki. One thing I admired is how Yuki and Marchi were able to raise him well and uses the repeated metaphor on the snow, that they mentioned from Yuki and Marchi’s similarities of each other from the original series. Shiki’s backstory is the only backstory that I uniquely focused on. If you say that Akito had a happy ending, yeah no you’re wrong. Akito had to face many consequences within the Sohma House, whilst sacrificing her son to have a normal life. Have a read yourself for further context, I’m not going to explain more than that.

Art (6/10)
Art was fine. The character designs are simply a look like rip-offs of the original cast and it’s more clear without the messy sketches from the original.

Characters (3/10)
This protagonist couldn’t get my attention. If I had a reason for not liking her, I suppose of why she is hated? In the original series, we see why the Cursed Zodiac children received bad treatment because of how indifferent they are to the humans in this society. But again, my questions weren’t answered so that’s that. Also, I kinda find her annoying throughout the next chapters because she overreacts whenever her mother comes up, which I don’t feel sympathetic to or anything. Which got me feeling, why the fuck is her mother like that? In terms of writing, she’s probably worse than Ren. Although I hate her guts, Ren is still an intriguing but horrible mother.

Now let’s talk about the two boys, Hajime and Mutsuki. I’m not surprised that they are the lookalikes of Kyo and Yuki, but having a cheesy personality in your usual shoujo rom-com trope. To put it into words, I didn’t mind them that much as standalone characters. I appreciate their friendship though, glad the rival’s sons were able to establish a strong friendship.

The other problem with the newer cast is they mostly act as filler characters and doesn’t add any purpose to this sequel. In the original, it was able to flesh out extremely well, whilst having this rather large of a cast. It was able for me to relate to other supporting characters, not just the main, with their backgrounds. Although I liked Sora, her personality showed some purpose to Mitoma’s existence.

Enjoyment (4/10)
The sequel made me bored and not seemed interested. It’s a copy of the original and I felt like it was losing ideas to construct a new but good sequel manga. However, I did enjoy Shiki's mini arc and the bonus chapters.

Overall (4/10)
Y’know what’s better than this, an actual spin-off one shot of our original cast in the future. The newer cast was unable to express originality and uniqueness. It’s a below-average manga that could have done more adjustments and express new ideas, but simple, not provoking.

Before we start, there are some slight spoilers in this review, so read it for your own risk.

The Time Travel stuff can be mostly complicated. They're not entirely explained, so there's nothing to input on this mysterious genre. Tokyo Revengers is one of those shows fitting itself with the Time Travel aspect to change the future and prevent any menacing things from happening. Like myself as a watcher, I checked this out. From here the show was on a roll for the 1st half of the season, flowed nicely, nothing unbearable and entertaining. Nevertheless, the 2nd half became too much of a nuance and ... dismally presented.

Story (6/10)
The story is somewhat interesting. Trying to save someone you are deeply in love with, is a compelling premise and ideally, fascinate you for what it offers. The first half was actually decent, the foundation layout of the characters, plot twists and the other aspects are what got me attached to this series. I even liked Takemitchy as well (the protagonist). Became 8/10 at first, but oh dear, 2nd half was surely underwhelming. The Vanhalla vs Toman arc displayed the repetitive stuff and delivered the build up in the most poorest way that leaves a huge mark on my face. The problem with this adaptation is the directing. Directing in some cases can present shows with perfect originality and progression. Unfortunately, Tokyo Revengers directing was abysmally produced, for an example, censorship, impactful moments including Baji's death scene. There was something about this that drags the emotion and feels, in which I could not resonate with the characters and the plot.

Art (4/10)
Oh well, this seems disappointing. I'm not hugely impressed with the character designs. This is due to the fact they have pointy lips from side profile view point, which is quite questionable??? and the off-putting eyes, which caught my attention throughout the whole show. But at least the characters do have Drip though. I can point out that. The scenery layout establishes to be realistic and pleasing, which was a feature I liked. Unsurprisingly enough, the animation was average. There were moments where a character gets kicked in the ass and fly unintentionally in the air?? Like why? I know they could have worked on the animation thoroughly more.

Characters (6/10)
I'm going to admit this but I do like some of the characters like Baji, Chifuyu Draken and Kisaki. They have intriguing backgrounds, ideals and personalities, which is pretty gud. But oh no, this series's protagonist (Takemitchy). You guessed it, a cry-baby. Which naturally fits the theme song surprisingly. He's, even more, worse than Deku from MHA, as that dude contribute something. But back to Takemitchy, I can't believe he had to be an eyewitness throughout every single gang fight, which makes the character writing unappealing, and literally CRIES. At least there are some that are understandable, but 80% of most of them are noisome. This doesn't mean all characters are displayed as horrible, I wished Takemitchy's character writing was better with greater character development.

Sound (8/10)
The OP was alright (y'all know for the famous yodelling part lmao). The first ED was groovy and reminds me of IU's Coin a lot, whilst it's playing it at the end. But, the 2nd ED escalated so much better. Its funky, rock mood sets the overall tone of the show better, which got me exceptionally pleased. Now the OSTs. The composer, Hirotaki Tsutsumi nailed the score very well. Personally, it's forgettable but the main theme was the most memorable for me. Hell yes, I get hyped whenever this track appears. The voice acting was impressive and drives each dramatic moment very well, that's all I have to say.

Enjoyment (4/10)
There are some parts that can comedic and I can appreciate them from time to time. But, as I said before, Takemitchy's baby crying moments were bothersome and couldn't help myself but to resist every time he does that. Furthermore, the staby staby moments can be overdramatic and laughable. I also want to mention, about the voice acting again, since I discover one problem. There are characters that are 12 and are voiced by 25+ year old dudes, which makes it painfully confusing and jarring.

Overall (5/10)
It's a mediocre adaption with subpar animation, pointless logic and poor execution moments. It still remains a good flow on the plot and concluded with a settled and captivating cliff-hanger. I wished the directing was much better if S2 is in the production works.

I remember watching Kaze no Stigma back when I was a younger version of myself and I thought it was really good, though considering it as a classic now. Years later, I decided to rewatch it again because it was a childhood classic for me. Unfortunately, it got me really disappointed and there were so many things that got me pissed off in the show.

Story: (3/10)
From the first episode, the plot and narration started really tight and balanced. The premise sounded really cool. I liked the first few eps, practically how a shounen does right. Nevertheless, it started became really cheesy, in a ... sense of your normal shoujo trope, in the 2nd half and 75% fillers as they really don't contribute to the main story. To be honest, the comedy and the drama was eh. I wasn't a huge fan of it despite the main female lead ruining it most of the time. The execution bit, whilst showing the plot twists is just downright pointless and poor. Wow talk about getting fooled by a promising premise.

Art: (6/10)
Art was fine. The animation was below average. I personally liked Kazuma's character design since he is depicted to be that Badass wind user character. The others weren't exceptional, lmao I couldn't care less.

Sound: (5/10)
Hm, OP and ED weren't really special in any way and forgettable. The soundtrack was alright, nothing ground-breaking or unbearable. I watched this in eng dub and the voices seemed so forced and cringe, whenever a fight/dramatic scene comes up. Although, Kazuma's eng dub nailed his badass essence as well as his calm nature. If you ask me, that's a pretty good casting voice for Kazuma.

Characters: (3/10)
Oh no. This is where the juicy parts comes in. Let's begin with Kazuma, since he is the only likeable character in the show (for real). His introduction was able to sympathise with him for a while, until the second half. His character was unfortunately meshed with insufficient characterisation, which made me feel disappointed, as I enjoyed his character a lot. Nevertheless, it doesn't stop liking his personality and intriguing background.

Ayano here was another dumpster fire character that I completely hated the most. Every time she blames on Kazuma, I had to start ranting because of how annoying she is. Well in this case, she's your generic tsundere with no chill.

I really forced myself to like Ren, but no, he went the same direction as his sister did. He was likeable when he is useful in some ways of the episodes, but again I could not sympathise with his background.

The supporting characters were just a bunch of cliché acts, can't explain more than that.

Enjoyment: (3/10)
What ruined the series was the dragged storylines as most of the eps were a bunch of cliché + generic ass moments. Including Ayano and her constant summoning of Enraiha, whilst trying to be a badass, but she's not. The fanservice was just unexpected and made it worse for her character. Which was another factor I couldn't resist.

Overall: (4/10)
I'm not giving anything lower than this, despite this was my childhood show when I was kid. But I personally, do not recommend this, even if you do not like generic tsunderes and dragged down storylines.