Some of say that we have a spirit animal. Some say their spirit animal is a lion, others (me) say their spirit animal is a penguin. But what if you could transform into your spirit animal if you're hugged by the opposite sex. Fruits basket tells the stories of these people and a how normal, sweet girl, Tohru Honda changes their life.
Fruits basket follows Tohru Honda, an orphaned girl with no home. Because of this, she had to live with her grandfather, but because of circumstances, she couldn't live with him anymore. However, being an optimist she decided to take matters into her own hands and started living alone in a tent. Tohru's tent is soon dicovered by the prince of her class, Yuki as it was on his property, and long story short she starts living with Yuki and his cousins, Kyo and Shigure Souma. What she didn't know about the Souma's is that they can transform into animals of the chinese zodiac if they're hugged by a person of the opposite sex.
Through the show, we get to see how kindly Tohru interacts with all the '12 zodiac members'. She hears them out, never judges them and also truly understands them and empathizes. Since the members of the zodiac are 'cursed', they're treated differently by their families. A lot of them even disowned by their parents. Because of this, they're lonely and Tohru takes some their loneliness away and cultivates really special relationships with them.
What I love about this show is how well it is paced and written. There are a lot of characters, and all of them have their own stories. Fruit baskets shows them to us in a very sequential way. Now this is not to say that other anime don't have many characters, rather they have more episodes which makes it easier for them to talk about many characters. I also think that the animation of the 2019 Fruits Basket is very pleasing to look at. The pale color palate is very calming and compliments the story well. All in all, i think it is an anime worth watching. It's a lot of fun to see which member of the zodiac will appear next and how they will be!