My Take on “Fruits Basket”
First of all, that name is so inappropriate and doesn’t remotely match the tone of the series.
Neither does this cover -_-;
On the surface, Takaya Natsuki’s, Fruits Basket, is the story of Tohru Honda, a girl that realizes that one of her classmates, Yuki Sohma, turns into a rat when people of the opposite sex hug him. From this startling revelation she realizes that Yuki and 12 others in the Sohma family are possessed by the animals of the zodiac and that they transform into these animals when embraced by members of the opposite sex. She meets Kyo Sohma, possessed by the cat that, according to the story, was left out of the zodiac because of a trick the rat played on him. Sounds like light, fun soujo stuff, right? Well, it is, at times, and at other times it isn’t. Takaya does a great job of mixing humor and angst, campy characters and deep moments.
I must say that Takaya Natsuki’s Fruits Basket is a great manga. It’s well written and really well drawn, the characters actually develop and they’re interesting, and the way Takaya draws them, you see them age throughout the series, you can see what they’re thinking or feeling. I just finished the 22nd book of the 23 volume series. I’m waiting until tomorrow to finish it. In a way, I don’t even want to finish this manga. It’s just been such a pleasure to read, it starts off really fun and light (but hints at darker things going on) and then it slowly progresses into a meatier story full sadness, hope and most of all, loneliness. Throughout this there are good laughs and even times where I thought I might cry ( -_- ).
This isn’t to say that Fruits Basket is perfect, there are things that can be better, for example sometimes I felt that there were too many interior monologues and that there were a couple of secondary characters that we could have done without and lastly, the heroine is your typical naive yet lovable heroine (but she makes up for it). But the substance and merit of the story is so great. There’s a point to the story, this isn’t just another Shoujo manga that’s entertaining and fun and light and fluffy (*ahem* Ouran High School Host Club, I love you but…) Furuba, as it’s also called, is all of those things and a well written story. Things start off light, get a little crazy in the middle (maybe a bit too crazy) and then culminate into an ending (well, of where I am at the moment) that makes sense yet… it leaves you thinking.
I think I have a natural liking towards characters that are a bit lonely and a bit self-loathing, it makes them interesting and Takaya does a great job of shaping them into real 3 dimensional characters. And the way she draws them is funny when it needs to funny and emotional (angry, sad, lonely) when they need to be emotional.
See what I mean?
Anyway, I know that a lot of people already know about Fruits Basket (it is the number one selling shoujo manga in the world, number two in Japan) and I know a lot of people think that it’s overrated, but I assure you, at least in my opinion, it certainly is not.
June 12, 2008 at 3:29 am
My friend LOVES this manga series except the name put me off it. And I kinda couldn’t be bothered listening to her when she was explaining what happens XD Except after reading your post, it actually does sound interesting! But 23 books!!! Lol, I have no time to even read my school txtbooks let alone a manga series XD I’ll put it on my to-do-after-finishing-high-school list
June 12, 2008 at 3:32 am
P.s if it’s the number one in the world, but number two in japan..then which one is number one in japan ? :S
June 12, 2008 at 9:14 am
I know the title threw me off too, I started reading Furuba when I was in middle school, abadoned it and then picked it up again last summer (cause I had NOTHING to do after graduating high school haha) and then I abondoned it again. Finally, last week I started reading the series again when my little sister brought her friends volumes of furuba home. So i read 6-13 with those and then the rest I read/am reading online.
I know 23 volumes is LOOOOONG, It’s so expensive to buy and just really… LONG. but Fruits basket is worth, you won’t want it to end.
Anyway, I’m not sure what’s number one in Japan. I’ll figure it out. ^_^
June 12, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I love furuba.
I’ve laughed and cried when reading this but then I’m known to cry for the smallest things.
But the characters develop which I find great because in some manga’s the characters never develop so it’s frustrating to read.
Number one in Japan, it might be Nana by Ai Yazawa.
June 12, 2008 at 4:05 pm
furuba is one of my favorite shoujo manga lol..
but i have stopped reading after the 17th book…i’ve been lazy to buy them(its the only manga series i ever bought)…
hopefully i can catch up to the latest volumes though!
thx for this post..im glad to find this blog even tho it was from a random place lol it was very informative =]
June 12, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Nana is the fourthe bestselling, the number one is Hana Yori Dango (surprise surprise….)
haha
June 13, 2008 at 2:59 am
This is super freaky.
I’ve never read the manga but I watched the anime……in fact it was one of my first introductions to anime years ago so I’m surprised to find a sudden blog post about it. It’s cool and freaky at the same time lol ^^;;
June 13, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Why is it freaky? lol I started but never finished the anime because I kept having to watch with french subs and it was getting on my nerves. The anime only includes the first 9 books of the manga though. you should read the manga it’s really good.
June 14, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I guess not so much freaky as surprising (my word choice sucks…I apologize lol)…
It’s been so long since I watched it that I didn’t think I’d hear about it any more…
September 25, 2008 at 1:02 pm
fruits basket is funny but also sad i picked up the story from book 2 i watch evry ep in english dub on justdubs.net its all off the eps in english dub and there is also a lot more like chobits and stuf ^.^
October 30, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I think that Fruba iz so cute and funny but cause of like GCSE i kinda gotta STOP but plzzzz peops read it cause it really iz cool and that iz how i learnt 2 drw. I Love drwing and just read the books and leart 2 drw both Manga and Anime
xxRead+Drawxx