Manga a Day: Fruits Basket

Amazon.com: Fruits Basket, Vol. 17: Books: Natsuki Takaya ISBN: 1598167995 ISBN-13: 9781598167993

Volume 17 includes chapters 96 through 101, and the big big spoiler is finally out in English. This is my first post in my Manga-a-day, where I'm going to try to write about a manga each day. Usually these kinds of blogs have a time limit of some sort, like a movie a day for 30 days or 100 days of paintings. I'm going to see if I can't at least do 30.

Many of the mysteries of Fruits Basket are revealed in this volume. In so many ways it's just one big block of exposition, especially chapter 96-98 which just has a ton of information packed tightly into it. Here's what we learn:

1. Kureno's curse is broken
2. Akito is a woman
3. Who the mysterious figure that was talking to Hatori was when Tooru snuck into the compound (Ren Sohma)
4. Hana-chan really can read minds
5. Shigure slept with Ren, and was kicked out of the compound because of it
6. Kyou has a fan-following in school too.

The thing I love about Fruits Basket is that minor things from previous chapters that seem so carelessly placed become such a big deal later on. Momiji's fliming of the school play is what set off the whole exposition bomb in the first three chapters. However sometimes she can just be confusing. They start off with talking about graduation practice which I think places this volume sometime in late February. Graduation happens in the spring in Japan, so practicing in February for an April or May graduation makes sense. I was confused at first with all the discussion of Graduation, until I realized they were talking about the third years graduating instead of Tohru's class.

Kureno really does feel like a male version of Tohru, a comparison that was used way back in his first appearance. It really strikes home here where we see him pretty much warping his life to make other people happy. He completely sublimates his own wants and needs to the family and especially Akito. He doesn't even seem to angst about it too much until he realizes (when he watched Momiji's dvd) that Arisa is hurting because of him. I really wonder about his need to confess all to Tohru, he could have just said he had other obligations and left it at that.

I think that like the other Junninshi who crowd around Tohru partially because of the novelty of an outsider who knows the secret that she's the first one he can really tell everything to. It must have been very lonely for him, not being able to tell anyone that he was free or really even why he was staying with Akito. Like the others, I think that Kureno has been waiting for someone to tell him it was okay to be happy. At first he's very blase about how he'd only met Uo-chan twice and that it wasn't very important. But once Tohru shows a bit of sympathy he admits that he really does want to see Arisa.

But before Tohru can even react to that he goes into a huge explanation on why he can't leave Akito, including explaining about Akito's secret and about her Mother. I really found the scene where Shigure, Ayame, Hatori and Kureno dreamed about the birth of the god creepy. I think it's one of the few places that you really get the idea that the curse isn't just that they turn into animals but that they are really inhabited by spirits. Those spirits were happy to see the god again, not Kureno, not Shigure. No wonder Akito spent her life wondering if the feelings they expressed were true and needed constant reassurance.

Ren really is a sick and awful person, so it's sad that so much of what she says is true.

Tohru is uncharacteristically rocked by all the secrets revealed, normally this is where she'd think of something to say, but all the words are trapped. She can't say anything, or even move she's so shocked. I think it's interesting that Kyou flashes up in her mind as she's thinking of the hopeless love between Kureno, Arisa and Akito. I also remember the first time I read this chapter in the japanese with a translation being confused if Rin who seems to see the tail end of this conversation was actually there or just another memory fragment. I don't understand why she doesn't go to Tooru right at that moment. It seems like she's such a direct person that she'd want to know what they just talked about, but I think she's also so weak against tears that maybe she couldn't.

My love for Hana-chan is renewed in this volume, as she hears Tooru's distress and kidnaps her for a nightwear soriee. I love how Uo-chan and Hana-chan just lay it out so simply for Tohru that their happiness is not her responsibility. Hana-chan tells her that she worries about how Tohru carries everyone's feelings until it may get to heavy to bear and Uo-chan bursts in saying that'll never happen. I love Tohru's friends and even with Kureno's storyline we just don't see enough of them.

The second to last chapter centers around flowers. I admit to being completely distracted in this chapter by the actual mechanics of making the flowers that way. I've never seen paper flowers made that way turn out the way Takaya has drawn them. To make paper carnations turn out that way you usually use circular pieces of paper and pierced through the middle. If they made flowers the way they've shown them there they wouldn't look as circular (they'd mostly look like the one Machi made.) This is an extremely nitpicky thing that really has no bearing on the story.

Poor Tohru starts to keep secrets in this chapter. And I want to kick Shigure for not making it easier to open up to him. She tries to bring it up in the beginning of the chapter and he pretends he doesn't know what she's trying to ask. I wonder why he doesn't want to discuss it with her.

Poor Prince Yuki is feeling left out because no one wants him to help with the graduation preparations and he can't seem to join in any of the camaraderie. Then, of course, Machi pops up to say hello just to him. She's made a big effort out of it, showing that she really cares about him. It's just so CONVIENIENT. I like Machi, and I think I'm one of the few people who really enjoyed the student council chapters and seeing Yuki grow as a person. But Machi is just too perfectly matched to show off all his growth. She only pops up just when he needs her. I think Yuki's whole storyline was too rushed to feel natural. If Machi was a little less awkward, and a little less in need of saving I think I'd have been able sympathize with her better.

The last part of the chapter with Kyou and Tohru is very cute, but it really bothers me that Kyou doesn't press her to know what's making her cry. Does he just think it's the thought of the curse that's starting to wear on her? The gift of the flower is just too sweet though.

The last chapter is all about Shigure, which is great because I love him. Shigure is so jealous,and he's been jealous for so long. I think  when Akito asks if he likes her it's really telling that he asks if she's asking all the Junninshi that. It implies that really, he wants her to just ask HIM that kind of question. I am very, very fond of pure romantic love, and I think Shigure's feelings started out as that.

We get to see his parents, but like Mitchan says, it's just not enough. You only get a quick glimpse. No fair! No fair at all! (I love seeing Shigure tease Mithan about Ritsu. Her reaction is so telling.) Of course it quickly goes dark from there and we find out what the relationship between Akito, Kureno, Ren and Shigure is. I wonder how much Shigure really planned and how much was really done in just a fit of jealous rage? When he tells Akito that he slept with Ren because she slept with Kureno and Akito flips out that that's fine if she does it, it makes it seem like he was trying to wake her up to reality. It's like he wants to break her into a million tiny pieces just so he can put her back together again.

The last bit of the chapter shows Tohru trying to find Rin so she can discuss the curse with her. I want to kick Rin's classmates in the head, but really Rin probably hasn't made it easy to be friends I suppose.

Overall I love Fruits Basket, but it's really with this volume that I think the pacing really starts to fall to pieces. We've got 17 volumes that make up the first two years of the story. Now everything starts zooming along towards the conclusion. So much was covered in this volume that it feels really rushed. I feel like Shigure's storyline, being squeezed into the last chapter, just doesn't flow well. Yuki's chapters in previous volumes also feel awkwardly placed and too convenient, but it's in this volume where overall things start to feel a little too pat and orchestrated. However, I do love how so many things from earlier volumes have been tied up. It's hard to explain exactly, at the same time things feel rushed you see a bunch of little threads that were first established in the early volumes come to fruition. You see both extremely masterful plotting and planning and bad pacing all wrapped up in the same volume. Taken over the whole series, Takaya manages to tell an amazing story. It just feels strange that she used this volume to tell so much of it at once.