Yay or Nay?: Fruits Basket (Manga)

Am I ready to get my heart broken after finishing Twinkle Stars? 

Apparently yes. Yes I am.

I hear that Fruits Basket is in for a remake. Which if you can’t tell already, I am so ready to watch. I just finished the first volume of this series and I am so sold you have no clue. Natsuki Takaya knows what I love, and what breaks my heart, this manga ranks on my favourites list with the likes of Jellyfish Princess, Black Butler, and Demon Prince of Momochi House. 

Its been the first book to keep me glued to its seat in such a long time. The last one, obviously, was Love and Gelato, which if you haven’t read, you should definitely check out here .

The Story 

Tohru Honda is living in a tent after her mother’s death, and her grandfather’s house is being re-modeled. Under the guise that she’s staying with a friend, Tohru does not know that the land she stays on belongs to the Sohma family, who’s family is cursed by transforming into the animals of the Chinese zodiac whenever hugged by a person of the opposite sex!

Tohru moves into the Sohma household where a classmate from school, Yuki Sohma

also lives with his relatives Kyo, and Shigure, where she discovers more about the Sohma clan and their mysterious curse! 

Now that may not sound like the most exciting story ever, but I promise you, it is! It is so good! And its hilarious and heart-breaking all at once! If you liked Takaya’s other work, Twinkle Stars, you’ll love her masterpiece [this] even more!

My Thoughts 

One of Takaya’s greatest narrative strengths is her ability to create characters that are not only likeable and loveable, but also super relatable and heartbreaking. She has this unique ability to give the reader a taste of how the character feels through wordplay and backstory in a way that I’ve never experienced before. I don’t know her characters very long, but they all manage to worm their way into my heart. Here, I have not met a character I do not like, or find annoying to the story. I cannot for the life of me figure out her methodology, but whatever it is, it works spectacularly. 

Similarly in Fruits Basket each character has a great dynamic, and develops a heartwarming relationship to others. Part of these relationships are driven by each character’s past, and in Tohru’s case, one in which the title of the manga is named for.

"I should have known. There was no way I could have joined the others. A rice ball doesn't belong in a fruits basket."

~Tohru

The story itself also is interesting. Aside from the obvious “curse” the Sohmas have there is the mystery behind why the family’s head “Akito” allowed Tohru to live with Shigure, Kyo, and Yuki, and what their true ‘curse’ is, as its not simply them transforming into the animals of the zodiac. That said, the most the story itself is mostly character-driven. 

“It's true. I......I wanted to be born in the year of the cat……!”

The cat is the only animal who got excluded in the “banquet” that the Chinese zodiac is named for. My knowledge of this lore is super limited, but since then, the cat spirit, embodied in Kyo strives to become one of the zodiac animals, but only if he can defeat another in battle (which lead to some funny, as well as sad moments with Yuki). Tohru, in turn has always wanted to be the cat who “dreams of banquets yet to come”.

 one of my favourite scenes. 

The humour of the story, of which there is a lot (don’t worry!) is also one of the highlights of this manga. There are in-text comments which note how a certain panel is supposed to be read, or how a certain a character says something, which if you pay attention to them, makes the experience a whole lot better, especially in Shigure’s case, who is fucking hilarious. 

And actually, now that I’m writing this review and thinking back on it this is the first thing I’ve read that a) I haven’t been able to predict the ending, and b) don’t know who to root for in terms of who will end up with who. 

"Maybe the reason that you don't see it is because it's stuck to your back. What I mean is, a person's admirable qualities. They're just like, say, a pickled plum on a rice ball! In other words, the person's the rice ball and the plum is stuck to their back. So all over the world, you could have rice balls made with all sorts of wonderful ingredients, all different flavors and shapes and colors, but since it's stuck in the middle of everyone's back, someone could have a plum and not even know it. They'd look at themselves and think, 'I'm so plain, nothing but white rice.' Even though it isn't true, because turn them around and sure enough, there it is ... there's the plum. So if someone is jealous of somebody else, well then it's probably because it's easier to see the plum on someone else's back than your own. Yup, I can see it, I can see it very clearly, Kyo ... You don't know it, but you have a great big plum on your back. Yuki's admirable in his way, and you're admirable in yours."

"Okay now that is definitely the dumbest thing I've ever heard! What's so great about a stinkin' plum anyway?!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, we can change it to salmon if you want. Excuse me, I guess I left the kettle on the stove."

"Hey ... You've got one too ... I mean, stuck to your back. There's a plum. I...I can see it."

"You can see it?"

"Yeah, but it's really small, like a baby plum."

"Baby plums are delicious!"

"No, it's way, WAY tiny.”

~Tohru and Kyo

Maybe this may change, but right now, Tohru seems to see the best of both Kyo and Yuki, and seems to like both of them equally. What’s funny is that Yuki and Kyo both admire each other, foil each other, and of course, hate each other. But I like this dynamic because I think that it sets up the whole scenario for these characters to grow, develop, and shed light on one another and their pasts, which is what makes this all work together. 

And yes, I've watched the first episode of the anime too! It's so far, pretty faithful to the first book, but I heard it got cut-off, and the remake this year will include the whole story. 

My Rating 

I refuse to spoil a single thing here. So I won’t say more than this: START READING THIS MANGA if you haven’t already. Get a copy of it— or watch the old anime of it, which I’ve watch an episode of and it looks so good! But read the first volume, at least first. 

My rating is pretty obvious

5 STARS!!!!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

-Meghan