This review contains no spoilers.

On this site I would like to talk about different kinds of publications, so today I shall be talking about a shoujo manga series called Fruits Basket.

This series is by Natsuki Takaya (pen name) and it has 23 volumes and 136 chapters. It was originally published from 1998 to 2006. It also has an anime counterpart but the anime only covers content from volumes 1 to 8. So it misses out a lot of the important story lines that happen in the manga. If you’re looking for something short and light hearted then the anime is a good choice. However the anime did leave me feeling a little empty as the issues weren’t really resolved. Thus I decided to read the manga to find out what happened afterwards.

So let’s begin talking about the manga.

It’s really good. The thing I love the most about this series is how Takaya manages to blend sorrow and humour. She covers some dark issues but at the same time the series is still uplifting and hilarious.

I felt like I was learning emotional lessons as well as reading an entertaining story.

The characters are richly written. They’re three dimensional and there is no real bad guy. There are characters that do bad things and you do end up disliking them but Takaya has a way of writing characters that are human, so you end up understanding them. You get to see why that character behaves that way and how they got to that point. Instead of a character being evil just because an antagonist was needed, a character is flawed because of traumatising life events that happened during their childhood.

Really, sometimes I think that this manga teaches the dangers of treating children wrongly. It shows how the things that happen to us as children can follow us for the rest of our lives. And that’s true, I believe.

As for the plot, I love stories that are intricately written. Everything is set up perfectly. I feel like she planned her whole story and was able to foreshadow from volume 1. (Unlike me who writes as I go aha). But she foreshadows so subtly I never noticed. I only noticed how much she foreshadowed when I re read the series. It is amazing, like finding hidden golden nuggets.

I first read it as a teenager and I got one message, but then I re read it in my early twenties and I got another message. It ages well. I feel like this is a series you can read at any stage in your life and you’ll gain something.

Apart from all that it is enjoyable. I love the humour in it, it genuinely cracks me up. The different personalities in the manga have their own style of humour and they blend well together.

I love the romances and the real human interaction moments. They are so sweet and homely feeling.

I highly recommend it.

That is all,

I give this series a five out of five! Yes I love it that much!

 

If you’re wondering why I’m re-uploading. I had another blog and I’m deleting it and transferring posts here. As to not overwhelm you (and me) I’m releasing them one by one.