Can This Many Fruits Basket Fans Be Wrong?

So, Fruits Basket is, like, one of the most popular manga series out there in the American graphic novel market (heck, it is one of the most popular graphic novels PERIOD), so I thought it would be nice to take a look at the first volume to see if the title lives up to all the hype.

Short answer? I believe it does.

Long answer? Read on...hehe.

Here, off the back of the book, is the description of Fruits Basket, and it will show you how little a description can really tell you of a book -

Tohru Honda was an orphan when one day fate kicked her out of the house and on to land belonging to the mysterious Sohma family. After stumbling upon the teenage squatter, the Sohmas invite Tohru to stay in their house in exchange for cooking and cleaning. Everything goes well until she discovers the Sohma family's secret, when hugged by members of the opposite sex, they turn into their Chinese Zodiac animal!

I cannot be the only one who does not sound such a setup not all that interesting, can I?

I mean, they turn into animals when they're HUGGED?

How weird is THAT?

However, if you were to judge this series based on strictly the concept, or the super girly cover,



then you would be doing yourself (and this series) a great disservice.

Natsuki Takaya does what all good serial writers should accomplish - she creates a world filled with interesting characters who interact well, and each one of them contains a good deal of layered personality traits.

Tohru is a young high school girl whose mother rose her to be nice - at all costs. It is a bizarre thing to see, as she is a very nice girl, however, for all her kindness, there is always, in the back of your mind, "Is this natural?" The way she talks, it is almost as if her mother brainwashed her to be nice, so all the pain and dejection she has gone through in her life (she was sent to live with her grandfather when her mother died, but her grandfather was renovating, so Tohru decided to live in a tent in the woods, while going to school AND working extremely hard at a job) never seems to really have a time to process in her brain. Heck, it does not appear as if she even really has the ability TO do so! That is why it is so amazing to see her able to solidify her feelings towards the end that she DOES want to stay with the Sohma's, as family, she relates, is what you make of it. In her blood family, she was the rice ball in a fruits basket (hence the title). In the Sohma family, she is an important, and one might say NECESSARY ingredient to the mix.

And what a mix!

The three Sohma cousins, who are the other stars of Fruits Basket 1, transform in front of our eyes. Yes, they also ACTUALLY transform, into the animal of the Zodiac that they each belong to (including Kyo, whose animal, the cat, was left out of the Zodiac), but rather, they also transform from a series of cliches to developed characters.

The transition is done well, with a good deal of humor mixed in to the story.

The three cousins are Shigure, the oldest, who is the head of the house, and Yuki and Kyo, the two cousins who constantly quarrell (Kyo's whole goal is to someday defeat Yuki in a fight). There is a love triangle, of sorts, between Tohru and the two younger cousins, as she manages to bound with both of them very easily, and in very different manners, making it impossible, after just one volume, to really have any idea who she would lean to, or even which one would be BETTER for her. Always a good sign of a good ongoing series, when there is a real air of mystery, but also of EXCITEMENT, as to what the characters will do in the future.

All of this is wrapped in nice art by Natsuki Takaya, who illustrates her own stories well (although the Japanese sound effects are weird...it is sometimes SLIGHTLY confusing).

With all said and done, Fruits Basket is an engaging, complex story that is also FUN to read. So look past the cover on this one, folks, there is a GOOD reason why this series is so successful in America right now, sales-wise.

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