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Hey
Kids! Manga!
Fruits
Basket, vol. 1
story and art by Natsuki Takaya
I've been
a fan of anime since high school, mooching as much as I could
from my more financially viable older brother so I could get
my fix. But as an anime fan, one inevitably has to go to the
source of what you're watching and dig into the format where
most anime starts from: manga (pronounced "mahn-ga."
Say it right, dammit!), the Japanese comic book.
One of
my current favorite anime choices is the Fruits Basket
series, produced by Funimation. A sweet, touching story,
with some overwhelmingly cute characters and moments, it's
a natural selection for a girly girl like me.
My love
of the series brought me (compelled me) to buy the first volume
of the original Fruits Basket manga by Natsuki Takaya
when I spotted it on the shelf at the bookstore last week,
and I'm glad to say, it doesn't disappoint.
I'll do
a summary of the main story for those of you who are still
scratching your heads. You might want to stop reading now
if you don't want spoilers, since I need to talk about the
plot.
The story
goes like this: Tohru Honda (Honda Tohru in the Japanese style,
they use the American style in the manga) is a high school
student who, recently orphaned, takes up residence with the
Sohma family, and gets mixed up in their crazy life of living
with the family's secret curse. Turns out, when members of
the family get stressed, or hugged by members of the opposite
sex, they turn into an animal from the Chinese Zodiac.
They story
itself is very humorous. It's a shojo (girl's) comic
story, and so it's very light, funny and cute, with hints
of romance. Tohru is very innocent, and always cheerful, seeing
the good parts of everything. Her new housemates range from
the respectful and intelligent Yuki Sohma, who turns into
the rat when shaken (not stirred), his older cousin Shigure
Sohma, a writer, and admirer of high school girls (watch the
anime for the delightful song regarding this in English) who
is the dog of the curse, and the violent but entertaining
Kyo Sohma, who is Yuki's nemesis as cat of the zodiac.
Now, now,
I know a lot of you are saying, "There is no cat in the
Chinese Zodiac!!" Well, you're right, but there's an
old story regarding the cat that you can read the manga to
find out more about, because I'm not typing the whole damn
thing and giving away more of the story.
Kyo and
Yuki both develop a fondness for Tohru, and become her protectors
in a way, in this first book, as does Shigure. And this fondness
leads to learning life lessons in sweet and wonderful ways.
For those
of you who need doses of violent behavior to get your kicks,
the angst and fight sequences between Yuki and Kyo ought to
fill your need. They both seem to be black belts, so they've
been busy for most of their 14 years.
Natsuki
Takaya's art style is easy on the eyes, though not anything
particularly extreme in terms of manga art. She tends toward
the more gender neutral male characters, so Shigure, Kyo,
and Yuki are all a bit waif-ish in their appearance. Yuki
is the extreme case in those terms, and Ms. Takaya uses that
for comic relief, having several background characters question
his gender.
TokyoPop
prints the US version of the manga, and much to my delight,
stays true to the Japanese form of printing everything right
to left. And don't say it's backwards. It's Asian style, and
they've been writing fluently like that since the Egyptians
got bored and started drawing pictures. But I digress. Maintaining
the original format keeps the images from being flipped and
messing up the continuity of the story. They also kept the
original Japanese written sound effects, but neglected to
translate them, so it loses a bit in the effects department.
Overall,
I would have to say it's a decent manga, though not something
I'd recommend for those who crave a bit less gushiness in
their lives. If you're looking for cute, sweet, light and
funny, with very little brain power involved, Fruits Basket
is the place to go.
Fruits
Basket, Book 1
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