By Natsuki Takaya. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Sheldon Drzka.

As I’ve said a few times before, you can usually tell when a series has suddenly become a big hit by the writing. Fruits Basket has hit it big, to the point where the Hakusensha editors must have told Takaya she can stretch it out how she wants. And so we can get extended flashbacks devoted to Uotani, Tohru’s yanki friend, and how she went from a middle school delinquent to one of Tohru’s strongest protectors. We also get a brief one-chapter day in the life of Minagawa, the over the top president of the Yuki Fan Club, who like any other teenage girl is filled with doubts and insecurities of her own. And we see foreshadowing that I had forgotten happens this early, as the new Student Council members, whose faces are hidden from us, discuss their interest in Yuki… and Tohru. Are they SECRETLY EVIL? (Answer: no, but it’s a nice ominous cliffhanger that won’t be resolved for a while yet.)

We are also introduced to two more Sohmas. I’ll start with Ritsu, as I’m less interested in him. He’s deliberately grating, in a way that irritates everyone not named Tohru, but it’s not without cause, and once again shows us how hard it is to be living with the Sohma curse, or living with someone who has it. Also, his meeting with Micchan is hilarious – they really are perfect for each other. More important to me is the introduction of Hiro, who I suspect will annoy the new reader even more than Ritsu does. Hiro’s a brat, there’s no mistaking it, and what’s worse, he’s smart and insightful but can’t deal with the emotions that go along with that. Throw in a crush on Kisa, and some veiled suggestion that telling Akito he was in love with her was the worst thing ever, and I find a lot to sympathize with. He also pegs Tohru perfectly, albeit rudely, and we start to see the first signs of the cracks showing in her all-loving facade here, as she admits that she focuses on others to the exclusion of her own needs mostly out of desperately not wanting to look hard at herself.

I’d mentioned foreshadowing before, and the other big introduction we see here will have to wait till next time, which is Rin. She’s in hospital, apparently put there by Akito, and judging by the fact that she’s recently broken up with Hatsuharu, seems to be trying to cut all ties – except to Shigure, who she’s convinced can help her. Rin looks scary, to be honest, and given how popular Haru is with fandom, it’s no surprise that she too gets off on the wrong foot in Furuba fandom, only she doesn’t have the benefit of being a cute guy in this female-driven fandom, so it seems worse. Oh yes, and we also get more of the Yuki backstory that was hinted at in the last omnibus, and I feel bad for saying that Akito smothered him – there was just as much abuse as everyone else has had to ensure. Being a Sohma is suffering.

This is about where the anime broke off, with its adapted ending that to this day doesn’t quite sit right with me. It’s also where Takaya hurt her hand, causing the manga to go on hiatus for a year. It stayed popular in Japan, and became huge over here, but I wonder if we may have gotten a second season otherwise. (Probably not – allegedly she had issues with the director, similar to Kare Kano.) In any case, the first few books in Furuba show us sad teens with emotional problems, but as we move forward, the depth of the writing shows that the sadness and the emotional problems have not begun to be plumbed. If you never read this the first time, you’re missing out.

By Natsuki Takaya. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Yen Press.

The benefit of re-reading a series with so much going on like Fruits Basket is that things you hadn’t noticed before turn out to be signposted, whereas things that once held your attention don’t appear to be as relevant in the long run. We only get one new Sohma this time around, as we meet shy, bullied Kisa trying to escape from serious bullying at school and a somewhat hysterical mother at home. I remember being impressed at the time with the fact that Takaya had the characters take exception to the standard Japanese response for bullying, which is “if you were strong enough, they wouldn’t bully you”. Of course, this is sort of what happens – the newfound bonds with Tohru and, to a lesser degree Yuki, allow Kisa to find inner strength and return to school. So the message is a bit undercut, but it’s still a very good arc, I think.

Speaking of Yuki, he talks about his own past and that he once turned in on himself the way Kisa did, but the details are sketchy – no doubt to be saved up for later. Certainly he once again contrasts with Kyo – the head of the family, Akito, seems to have smothered Yuki a bit, whereas the opposite is true of Kyo. There’s also the love triangle, which at this point Takaya is still trying to keep as balanced as possible, but knowing the outcome as I do, it’s difficult not to see that she had Kyo and Tohru in mind as the endpoint even at this stage. And while most of the latter part of this omnibus deals with Kyo’s family issues, as he and his sensei Kazuma try to show affection while still somewhat not understanding the other person, it’s very clear that Tohru is why Kazuma showed up in the first place.

This will be deconstructed later in the series, but at this point it’s astonishing how straight it’s played that everything can be healed with the power of Tohru’s all-loving presence. Shigure is betting everything on Tohru being what finally breaks the curse. Kazuma arrives as he’s heard about Tohru and wants to make sure that she’s not going to run away if she sees the actual true form of what Kyo’s curse is. And her immediate “I love you!” to Kisa, even if it’s more in a “so cute!” way, is what starts her on the road to healing. In retrospect, of course, this really is setting us up for a fall – the arrival of Hiro next time around will help, but right now Tohru is being portrayed as a saintly goddess as that’s how most of the main characters are viewing her.

As with previous volumes, this is a good adaptation of the Japanese omnibuses. The interstitials are gone, replaced with simple SD-art, but it was like that in the Japanese reprint as well. and there’s nice color pages at the start. And the translation is smoother but also looser than the original Tokyopop one. Anyone wishing to upgrade should be quite happy.

By Natsuki Takaya. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Yen Press.

If ever there was a series that cried out for a license rescue and re-release, it was Fruits Basket, one of the biggest gateway manga of the 21st century. First released in North America between 2004 and 2009, the story of a young girl and her encounter with a “cursed” family is one of the most beloved shoujo manga of all time over here. It was also big in Japan, and the re-release we’re seeing is based off of the Japanese re-release. I say that because I know some people will be annoyed that the original author’s sidebars are missing – this is very common with re-released manga, simply as the sidebars tend to be very dated – as Takaya herself says in her afterword. We do see new cute SD-art to replace them, but sadly it repeats itself, so we see the same bookmark-ish art over and over. There’s also a new translation, which reads fine, though of course those who have the old one memorized may find it jarring. It feels a bit freer than the Tokyopop one. Worry not, though, we do have honorifics here.

As for the content, what is there to say? If you haven’t read this series, do so right away. I will try not to spoil it, though it’s honestly very difficult not to do so, as the fun of re-reading is going back and seeing all the little hints that I never picked up the first time I was reading the series. I’ve made little secret that my favorite character is Shigure, for example, and I recalled his character getting darker and more manipulative as the series went on. But no, there it is as I reread it. He was like that from the very beginning, it’s just we were distracted by the whole “high school girls!” and flirting with Ayame going on. Likewise, Tohru’s relationship with her late mother, which I think the reader is first meant to see as sweet and touching, already shows some of the dark undercurrents to come.

These two volumes show us the first four of the original release, and you can tell right away that no one was quite sure if it would be a hit yet. Takaya’s previous big hit for Hakusensha, Tsubasa: Those With Wings, was only 6 volumes long. And you can see here that Takaya wants to get a lot of the zodiac introduced and show us their deep traumas and tragedies as quickly as possible, just in case it goes the same amount of time. It is almost startling how fast Hatori’s backstory is breezed though, to give an example, or Momiji’s. The exceptions are Yuki and Kyo – as the two male leads, they get the most focus, and we see the development of their characters over the course of both omnibuses – each wants what the other has, and wishes things could be different.

It’s not all sad boys in snow, though. Fruits Basket could be hilarious much of the time, and the humor works very well. Tohru’s friends Hanajima and Uotani contribute the bulk of it, being the sort of girls you;d normally imagine would never hang out with a bright shining object like Tohru but brought together through circumstances we don’t know about yet to form a deep bond. We see how much the two girls care about Tohru, and worry she might be taken advantage of by the Sohma family, even if they seem nice enough. But Tohru needs a place to stay. And, as becomes clear, Yuki and Kyo need Tohru – as does Shigure, who clearly has some scene that requires her to be there and make the others break out of their shells. We see what might be driving that when we get a few glimpses of Akito, the leader of the family, who manages to terrify Yuki in just a few seconds, leading Tohru to physically push him away – something startlingly unlike her.

If you already have Fruits Basket and are wondering whether to get it again, well, it’s a larger trim with new covers and interstitials, and a new translation. Make up your mind from that. If you haven’t, do so at once. The series only gets better as it goes along, and rewards readers who pay attention. A well-deserved classic.