Fruits Basket, Volume 1

From the title of it, you would expect it to be very hentai-ish, but it's not. In my opinion it has to be the cleanest manga that one can possibly stand. (IE it's not so clean and happy go lucky as Hamtaro *shudders* Hamataro is evil, pure evil). Well I got off track. This review has spoilers abound so beware if you haven't read the manga (or seen the anime).

Fruits Basket is about a girl name Tohru Honda a girl with a heart of gold and truly a wonderful person, whoes father died when she was very young. She is now 16, her mother had just died in a car wreck, and she went to live with her grandpa on her fathers side. (Because her mother and she were not exactly on speaking terms with her mothers side of the family). Her grandfather has to get his house remoldeld for some distant relatives on his side of the family so Tohru has to move out for a while. He told her to find some friends to stay with.

Not wanting to be a burden to any of her friends Tohru decides to rough it, and she finds a tent and campsout for about a week, on the Sohma familys property (not knowing of course). One day while walking to school she comes across the Sohma family household. She looks around in it for a while and comes across some stones with the Chinese Zodiac on it. Than she run's into Shigura (who is the year of the dog) and Yuki (her high-schools "Prince" He is the year of the rat) Later on in the story we are introduced to Kyou (the year of the cat, who is not in the zodiac because he was betrayed by rat). And this is where the trouble starts.

The Sohma family is cursed and therefore whenever they are touced or huged by a member of the opiset sex of someone NOT in there family, they turn into the animal that they are the year of. Tohru finds out this secret, and therefore she might have to have her memories erased from her. What will become of our poor Tohru? Find out when you read the manga! And belive me, you will. It is a must read.

Now I odviously left out a lot of details from this manga, but I didn't want to give away the whole storyline, that would be quite dumb wouldn't it?

Also this manga is printed in the original left to right reading format, therfore preserving the original artwork and sound-effects. It makes it even more enjoyable. All in all this manga is a must read. It's kinda of a comedy/romance, kind of. And it's shojo, so it's more or less going to be apealing to the femail gender a little bit more. That's not to say that a guy wouldn't like it. It has quite a bit of action in it (not like Trigun action) more martial arts action. But it is a must read. And I really hope my review helped. Do you believe it was written by a 16 year old? The reveiw I mean.


Love the Anime? Read the Manga!   June 20, 2005
AstroNerdBoy (Colorado)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

My journey into the world of "Fruits Basket" started when I rented the 26-episode anime TV series from FUNimation. I loved the series so much that I immediately sought out the manga from which the anime was based. My money was not wasted.

In Volume 1 of the manga, we get the first six chapters of this touching and humorous story that were the basis for episodes 1-5 of the manga. Takaya-sensei begins to set the stage with this volume. She does a wonderful job of capturing the tough life that Tohru-san has, yet managing to keep her with a positive attitude and a nature that doesn't focus on her own problems, but looks out for others first. She's such a sweet, cute, and wonderful character that I couldn't help but immediate fall in love with her character. Granted some people will be put off by this (and some of the sugary nature of the manga), but most folks I think will enjoy it.

The other characters are very memorable. The battles between Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun were amusing, but their working together to bring Tohru back home at the end of chapter 6 was very nice. Shigure-san with his "older and wiser" moments combined with his ecchi thoughts makes him a fun character. Kagura-chan, one of the female zodiacs in the Sohma family, is a hoot with her manic and violent nature as she expresses her love for Kyo-kun. Tohru-san's best friends Uo-chan (the former "Yankee", or gangster) and Hana-chan (the girl with the deadly "vibes") are a lot of fun and should prove to continue to fill that role in the future.

Takaya-sense has remarks scattered throughout the volume, some as side-bars and some at the beginning of a new chapter. I found these to be a delight to read as it gave me more of an insight into the manga-ka's life.

Finally, my hat is off to Alethea and Athena Nibley, the translators TokyoPop hired for "Fruits Basket" as well as the rest of the staff. First, all of the Japanese honorifics survive and this is so critical to truly getting an understanding of the characters. Just an excellent job by TokyoPop and I felt they should be praised for it.

Bottom line: if you loved the anime, you'll love the manga. If you've never seen the anime but you like a good, clean, humorous, & sweet story, you'll like this. While targeted for the shoujo (girl) market, many guys will enjoy it too.