"Fruit's Basket": A Plum Of An Anime

After being prejudiced by my Hubby's negative opinion of "Fruit's Basket,"  I avoided it for most of my years of anime fandom; that is, until a friend expressed his love for it and suggested I check out an episode via YouTube.  I enjoyed that episode so much, I added "Fruit's Basket' to my Anime Wish List.  Surprisingly, my hubby bought it for me at Otakon 2011!  (Thanks, Boo!  I know how much you must've hated doing that!  I owe you big time!)  "Fruit's  Basket," or "Furuba," tells the story of Tohru Honda, a 16 year old orphaned girl who gets invited to live in the house of her classmate, the handsome boy Sohma Yuki, and his cousins, 16 year old Kyo and 27 year old Shigure. However, these young men and parts of the rest of their family (both close and distant) hold a curse; if they are hugged by the opposite gender, they transform into animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Everyday is an adventure for sweet Tohru, as she gets to know everyone in the large family better (especially Yuki and Kyo), in both common and bizarre situations. But, the Sohma Family curse is certainly no laughing matter... it also holds horrible cruelity and heartbreak.   Of course, there are characters loathed and loved.    The aforementioned main characters are quite amusing, and more or less endearing, while other characters--such as Momiji Sohma and Hiro Sohma--seemed to be a pain in the ass!  There was one character that had me asking WTF....Ritsu Sohma!  All things considered (characters, sugar level, plot), "Fruit's Basket" was pretty entertaining, and may be worth a second look sometime in the future!