Fruits Basket
The story is centered around Tohru Honda, a high school student who's mother recently died in a car accident. First, she lived with her grandfather, but when her grandfather's house needs to be renovated so that more people can moved in (his son's family?), Tohru chooses to live in a tent in the woods and support herself. Don't worry, the situation does not last long because she is quickly found by Shigure and Yuki Sohma. Yuki is the "Prince" of her school and generally the most popular, hottest boy around. Shigure is... Shigure... a 27-year old novelist who writes both literary novels and trashy romance novels under different names.
...He also has a thing for high school girls.
DON'T WORRY! THIS IS NOT THAT KIND OF A MANGA!
I will never, never, never, never, never, never feature hentai on this blog... unless I find one that had narrative potential... which I have never seen. Feel free to suggest one if you find it!
Anyhow, once the boys find out about Tohru's situation, she is invited to stay with the Sohma's until the renovations on her grandfather's house is complete in exchange for keeping the house clean and cooking for the culinary-challenged boys. Of course, once Tohru is settled in, a fourth resident crashes into the ceiling of Tohru's room... Kyo Sohma.
About that time you learn that the Sohma family is under and ancient curse where hugging a person of the opposite sex causes them to turn into one of the thirteen animals of the zodiac. Yes, I said thirteen. That's because the story goes that there were once thirteen animals invited to a party with God... or someone like God. Anyhow, the Rat tricked the Cat into thinking the party was a day later. So the Cat was never made a member of the zodiac and there are twelve signs instead of thirteen. However, in this family, the Cat is the most cursed of the members besides the member that sort of represents God.
Yuki is the Rat. Shigure is the Dog. Kyo is the Cat.
And, that's the story. Tohru's life with three men/boys who live together constantly bickering along with transformation hijinks and meeting the other members of the Sohma family who share the curse. It's a bit of a slice-of-life manga, but there is an over-arching plot centered around the idea of breaking the curse which has gotten weaker over the years.
The Dragon is a Sea Horse.
Yup, that's not embarrassing at all...
The manga is fairly faithful except for one huge twist towards the end. The radiodrama is also fairly faithful, but it's made by a person who loves the source material so it's understandable.
If you do read this manga, be ready for A LOT of tears and catharsis. Every person in this manga is a broken bird in some way or another and every person in this manga gets better as time goes by in little ways. The end message seems to be that sometimes terrible things happen to people, but you just have to go on, become stronger and maybe someday things will be better even if all along you were just hoping to be able to cope with the bad.
And I do mean that things in this manga are pretty dark for all the funny moments and there are a lot of funny moments. Nothing has made me laugh and cry as much or as fast as this manga. It's made of mood whiplash to the extreme. Forcing you to laugh through the tears really is this manga's forte.
However, even with the mood whiplash and the severely depressing stories and the fact that Tohru does sometimes seem to be a bit of a Mary Sue, the manga is good at what it does. It's a manga of catharsis. It helps you release whatever pent-up pain you may be going through and look to a brighter tomorrow where maybe the hurt won't hurt as bad. It also helps you put things in perspective.
The fact that your boyfriend dumped you by cellphone doesn't seem so terrible when you learned that one character's mother doesn't remember him because it hurt too much to know that she'd given birth to a monster or that another character's mother killed herself for unknown reasons but he blames himself because he thinks he's a monster. Yeah... there are really dark moments in the manga, but it always gets better for every character and it always lightens the depressing stuff with happy moments between the main trio: Tohru, Kyo and Yuki.
The anime is, to me, very much lighter and softer. It doesn't finish up the story line, but it does make for a very nice slice-of-life anime with very subtle low-key music and moments that make your heart hurt following moments that you can't stop laughing about. That, and all the Sohma's are handsome boys of various types. So, if you want the "prince" type, there's Yuki. If you would prefer the... flamboyant type, his brother Ayame would do. If you like perverts, there's Shigure and Ayame a bit (they're best buds). If you want the strong, intelligent, quiet type, Hatori is the Sohma for you! It's a buffet of cute anime guys!
I recommend this manga to anyone and everyone who doesn't mind reading from right to left and would like a nice story about family, curses, and the way life always goes on. I recommend it to lovers of romance because there are multiple romantic plot-lines. I recommend it to anyone who feels like life sucks because of the message that life does go on and get better. I recommend the anime to anyone who likes their fluff with some deeper issues mixed in and I recommend the radiodrama to anyone who doesn't mind listening to things instead of looking at them.
Sweet dreams!
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