Fruits Basket Vol 5

Rating:
Summary: Fruits Basket Vol. 1: Did it live up to my expectations?
Review: Fruits Basket or Furuba as it is known to fans, is something that many fans of manga have been anticipating for a long time. But I myself, had only just heard of it last December. I really had no idea what it was about even though I read about the anime and such. I expected it to be quite different from what it is.

Fruits Basket, if you don't know, is about a girl named Tohru Honda whom is an orphan, and is currently living in a tent because her grandfather is fixing up his house so other relatives can live in it as well. She doesn't want to trouble anyone, so she decides to rough for those couple months in a tent. She ends up camping on the property of the Sohma family. A group of young men whom find her and decide to take her in for the night, but she soon finds out that they are a cursed family. Each of them represents a member of the Zodiac and one of them is the cat, the one who didn't get to go the banquet. :( Tohru has always been fascinated with the Zodiac and especially with the cat, she always wished that her sign could be the cat. She soon finds out about their curse and that when they are hugged by a member of the oppositte sex they turn into the Zodiac animal they represent. They decide not to erase her memory and let her stay with them, she does chores for them and cooks for them, and begins to feel quite at home. In fact, she feels so at home, she feels like it is her home.

Needless to say, this is NOT what I had thought Fruits Basket was, but I found it very intriguing and fun to learn about the Chinese Zodiac. And the plot is pretty fluffy, but its all in good fun, and the characters are well developed and have their own personalities. The drawing style is nice too.

All-in-all, I would say Fruits Basket is a quality Shojo manga, and lived up to my expectations by being something I completely did not expect and still turning out to be very good. I will continue to follow the series. :D

God Bless ~Amy

Rating:
Summary: Great!!!!!!
Review: I love this manga!!!!

Clean and sweet, without being sappy, Fruits Basket is a really cute story about a sixteen year old orphan named Honda Tohru. One day when walking through the woods, she discovers a strange house. Under further investigation, she finds that the house happens to be the home of none other than the prince of her school, Sohma Yuki. When Yuki and his cousin Shigure find out that Tohru had been living in a tent, they immediately take her in. However, Tohru soon discovers their family secret. The Sohmas are the bearers of the "juunishi" (zodiac) curse. When their bodies grow weak, or when they are embraced by a member of the opposite sex, they transform into their designated animal of the Chinese zodiac, or in Kyo's case the outcast aka the cat.

I have only read two volumes of the manga, but I own all four anime dvds and love them. It starts out sweet and gentle, but the end, of the anime at least, is dark, depressing and to use a word I hate a real "tear-jerker." I cried. A lot. Even so, it was wonderful. Don't not buy it now because you think it to be dark and full of pain and misery. It's not. Every {good} story needs some dark pasts, mental scars, and evils. Otherwise, how did the villian become a villian, why is the good guy good? There would be no motivation. GO buy the manga. NOW.

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Summary: Just thought I'd mention this
Review: I was depressed for several days, then I went to Border's and bought some manga, one of them Fruits Basket #3. I swear, I felt so... happy afterwards! I'm serious, every time I read Fruits Basket, it just puts me in such a good mood... it's full of hope and compassion without seeming forced or sappy. Natsuki Takaya really has a talent for this! In this volume, after Momiji was talking about "The Most Foolish Traveler in the World" story in the "funny" stories book, and how he related it to Tohru, I actually cried, and I rarely cry over manga! XD Most of my favorite mangas are the more serious or sinister kind for older audiences, such as Confidential Confessions, Petshop of Horrors, Uzumaki, etc. and I'd never thought I'd enjoy a series like this. But I love it and it's one of my favorites... even though it sounds a little rediculous in its description (turning into animals when hugging the opposite sex ^^;) when you actually read it, it's really enjoyable, touching, and funny, and the characters all have deep personalities. I highly reccommend Fruits Basket!!