Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya
Reviewed by Michele
Fruits Basket is another one of favorite mangas. It’s definetely the cutest one. I’m not sure how many guys are into it, but I’d be surprised if there was any girl who didn’t like it.
Tohru Honda is a sweet, friendly high school girl. Her father died when she was very young, and her mother died a year before the series takes place. Tohru is supposed to be living with her grandfather, but his house is having renovations done on it so he asked her to live somewhere else for a while. She doesn’t have many friends, and she didn’t want to trouble the ones she has, so she lives out in a tent in the woods (I know, she’s crazy right?)
One day on her way to school, Tohru discovers a house with little zodiac ornaments outside. While she is looking at them a man named Shigure Sohma sees her and then her classmate Yuki Sohma, who also lives there, walks with her to school and on their way home. Tohru unknowingly is living on the Sohma property, and eventually the Sohmas find her living in her tent. They insist that it’s too dangerous for her to be living there, and insist she stay with them until she can go back her Grandfather’s (they need a maid anyways…). In just the first day of living there, they’re paid an unexpected visit by Yuki’s rival, Kyo Sohma. He insists on fighting Yuki, but Tohru grabs him in attempt to stop him. Then the unexpected happens…Kyo turns into a cat. Tohru learns that the Sohma family is under a curse, each of them turns into an animal of the Chinese zodiac when hugged by the opposite sex or when they’re weak. This is a secret that hardly anyone outside of the family knows, and throughout the series Tohru tries to be accepted by the family. IN almost every book you meet a new member of the zodiac.
This series is very popular, and was made into an anime as well. I highly recommend it, the story is very original. I just can’t put it down!
