Manga Diaries – Fruits Basket Volume 6

If you don’t know what my diaries are, please go here. Spoilers ahoy!

Otherwise, let’s go!

• Cover: So cheerful considering what the volume is like.
• Page 13: Tohru needs to read more shoujo manga. Umbrella scenes are a big deal, you know.
• 16: Observer secretly eyeing a smiling main character. That’s always a bad combination.
• 18: Kagura is happy at finally being back in the manga after being MIA in the volume she was on the cover on.
• 20: Shigure must have a large emergency house repair fund.
• 21: Such a yandere.
• 23: Nice faces, LOL.
• 29: Everyone in the crowd is like, “Who should we feel sorry for here?”
• 31: Is it just me, or does Kagura look so different here than on the cover of volume 5? I’m also surprised her backpack isn’t a cat.
• 37: Tokyopop does use “shishou”.
• 40-41: If you just show people this picture, no one would know what Fruits Basket was about. It does look like a manga I would read, though.
• 43: Kazuma. Never would have remembered that name in 1,000 years.
• 44: He takes hair lessons from Hatori evidently.
• 44: They also use “shihan”. Wow, there’s a lot I don’t remember.
• 45: I finally bought my first Persona game: Persona 4 Golden. Now, when will I play it? Who knows.
• 47: Kyo here is so sad.
• 48: And now mad. So tsuntsun.
• 52: Deredere mode activated.
• 55: Plant here.
• 57: All the Kyo fans must have been fangirling so much in these chapters.
• 59: Here’s the usual Kyonkichi.
• 62: Poor Kagura…
• 68-71: Kazuma really moves the plot forward.
• 74: One of the most powerful images in the entire series. It’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t expect, and Takaya does a good job giving readers a shock. I still think he looks like a Pokemon more than a regular monster though. A pants-wearing Pokemon. Sorry, Kyo, it’s your big tragic moment and I’m making fun of you. But you really feel like Takaya’s love of RPGs comes out in Kyo’s design here. It’s shoujo, but she draws a real monster, and even his smell is revolting.
• 81: This is definitely one of Tohru’s (and Takaya’s) best moments. Even Tohru is human and cannot stomach the smell — literally.
• 85: I haven’t read Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time manga, let alone play the game. But Angelique is a series I’d love to play. Forget manga, I’d spend all my talking to Takaya about games.
• 87-89: Don’t be like Kyo here, people.
• 89-91: This would be interesting to see from Kyo’s mom’s POV.
• 95: I bet this was the moment that sealed it for TohruxKyo fans.
• 98-99: OK, I lied. I bet this was the moment.
• 104-110: Such sweet moments between Kyo and his Shishou.
• 110-111: Forget to make a couple of dialogue boxes’ text in italics.
• 113: Just think…Final Fantasy IX hadn’t even come out yet when this was written. How the years go by…
• 121: Father again.
• 133: I was double-checking my page numbers and just realized Tokyopop screwed up. They call this Chapter 34, but it’s really Chapter 35. So the page numbers in the Table of Contents are missing the real Chapter 35’s page, and this affects the remaining ones.
• 135: Yuki puts on his tie. Yay?
• 138: I’ve always found this hilarious.
• 139: Another game I own an haven’t played. (Well, really the PSP port.)
• 140: He lasted 30 seconds.
• 144: Finally, the return of Haru.
• 153: Speed tie tying skills are very important.
• 157: I can so hear Hisakawa when I read this line.
• 160-161: To get your girl, you have to put up with a lot.
• 169-170: Ayame News Report: Always willing to give you the latest scoop no matter when or where.
• 170: Just imagine Ayame when smartphones are invented/become popular. I hope Shigure and Hatori have unlimited MMS or data. He probably spams them on Line.
• 174: Of course, the better question is, “Who wore it better: Ayame or the man?”
• 177: Sparkling Ayame-san.
• 179: It’s a female-for-Tohru version of student body prez.
• 190: Of course Tohru looks like an angel. She’s got to put the “ten” in “tenten”. (Told you I’d start using it.)
• 196: Seriously, Hatori, don’t get a smartphone. Don’t even get a Japanese advanced phone. Just get the cheapest and least powerful one to protect yourself from Ayame’s barrage.

So unlike last volume, this one is very important story-wise. The beginning is all about Kyo, then we check up on Yuki. Yuki’s chapters shows he’s ready to move forward in some aspects but not others. Kyo, meanwhile, is forced to confront the darkness inside him. These chapters are excellent and help shake Fruits Basket up. It’s this type of volume that fans point out the series is a mix of sweetness and darkness. Tohru gets her moment in the spotlight without being usurped by someone. Visually, the artwork is very strong here. I definitely don’t think Takaya’s artwork is anywhere near the best even in shoujo (especially in the beginning, and the major art shift later on), but the characters are very expressive, and the screentones and inking help show the characters’ feelings.

Everyone else, though, has been starting to lose their importance. Kagura has become the yandere chick who drops in occasionally. Momiji isn’t around, and Haru just drops in to prod Yuki along. Ayame gets a moment, but his scenes are still more essential to Yuki’s growth rather than Ayame being healed. Even Shigure, whom we know has a plan, is reduced to being an observer with occasional ero-jiji moments or lines. Outside of the the Kyo monster chapters, I guess it’s a little more debatable if you like seeing more of the focus on the love triangle or having an ensemble cast. I know there’s a lot of ground to cover, and I don’t really remember when certain things happen. Most of what I really remember is not for awhile. I guess it’ll be be like reading things for the first time.