Manga Diaries – Fruits Basket Volume 7

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

Otherwise, let’s go!

• Page 7: Mogeta doesn’t look well.
• 12: Hiro.
• 13: Mrs. Villain?
• 15: Ah, this is the hand injury. The art doesn’t look off/old yet. A bit different maybe, but nothing like where it ends up. Yuki looks more masculine.
• 24: Stupid woman!
• 25: Man, I forgot how jerky this kid is.
• 26: Incredibly jerky.
• 27: A kidnapping! Call the police!
• 28: I wonder where Momiji gets his clothes… Nice angel wings.
• 29: Hiro 1, Kyo 0. It’s probably more like Hiro 1,138, Kyo 0.
• 32: Momiji the wish-granting angel.
• 35: Such a tsundere for Kisa.
• 36: Thick-headed Kyo.
• 37: Tohru is the other woman.
• 40: Little lost lamb. And don’t you hate when someone keeps commentating when you’re watching something? It’s one thing if everyone is doing it, but if you’re the only one, just shut your mouth.
• 43: “Secretly” loves Kisa? Worst kept secret in the Sohma family.
• 44: Kyo loses again.
• 46: Still wondering if she orders ulcer medicine by the pound.
• 49: Boys are so complicated.
• 50: Juunishi? Is this the first time they’ve used that term? I think so. Notice no note. Most people would probably get what Tohru is referring to, but an odd choice.
• 51: Akito would make an excellent prize fighter.
• 53: Shigure – left out of the loop. And he’s not happy.
• 54: I remember Rin…mostly from her cover.
• 55: I think a part of us all wishes we could be a Hiro. Just show up and demand fun.
• 56-57: Hiro now pwning strangers.
• 58: The Hiro Seal of Approval is just a copy of the Kisa Seal of Approval. True fact.
• 59: Tohru is still the other woman in the relationship. It’s like the reverse of most shoujo. Be grateful you’re not a man, Tohru.
• 60: Ouch! Geez, kid needs to be taught a lesson.
• 63: Well, not kicking people may be a start in growing up…
• 65: Kyoko should have just written an inspirational book. She’d probably need help with kanji, but she could have written like the Japanese version of Chicken Soup for the Soul or something.
• 67: Tohru could set up a “Life Lessons for Crepes” stand if she ever needs money.
• 70: Rival! Ever hear the song Rival from Pokemon? It was one of the earliest Japanese openings. Fun song. バトルしようぜ　ポケモンバトル！
• 72: Hana-chan already stealing the best moments.
• 75: Tohru is poor.
• 77: Man, I can see myself being like that old man in my old age…or any age. I hate cooking.
• 78: Good idea. And way to demand the cash. Shigure is happy.
• 79: And now Shigure is scarred.
• 81: In most modern shoujo, the guy would have already picked out the string bikini. And probably is forcing himself into the couples’ changing room even though he isn’t the protagonist’s boyfriend yet.
• 82: Blue is best color. Fact.
• 85: Even colors are sources of inspiration/lessons in Fruits Basket.
• 86: Uo-chan is pretty trendy.
• 87: Already distracted from their goal.
• 88: Girls’ friendship.
• 89: I remember being pretty surprised they weren’t lifelong friends.
• 90: Now, next up in the “Tohru is an Angel” show…a flashback!
• 96: Oh, yeah, Mom was in a gang! Tee hee!
• 98: What a doting parent.
• 100: Girl Yankees focusing on what’s important: taking pictures of guys.
• 102: Wouldn’t Kyoko technically have a daughter complex? It doesn’t make sense to me.
• 103: I will say Takaya takes hospital stays a lot better than me just visiting a hospital for a checkout.
• 104: Lost her idol and her full name in one day.
• 107: Again, Kyoko the Wise.
• 110: A whole bunch of girls who need therapy.
• 119: You can see his face…don’t really need the streaks.
• 130: So evidently for world peace we need to place Kyos and Yukis in high-tension zones.
• 135: Backstory continues.
• 137: I actually know the battle of Sekigahara. Learning Japanese history through manga.
• 138: Perry! I buzzed in first! 100 points to me!
• 140-141: Such an honorable position.
• 143: A few changes, and this could be girls love.
• 145: Nothing says danger like black feathers.
• 146: Bow down to the queen!
• 152: More inspiration speech. Zzzz…
• 156: It really must have been amazing if all three of them got into the same school. Must have been low enrollment that year.
• 158: Yuki and Kyo have pretty much been MIA this volume.
• 160: And now more GL…
• 162: Good relationship with her father now. Happy happy joy joy. And Uo-chan now has her new fan club.
• 165: Pri-Yuki. Yuki-Pri.
• 167: Again, feel like I should just rock out to Rival.
• 169: So then Pri-Uo.
• 170: The old-looking guys are starting to show up more.
• 173: Ironically, still a better relationship start than most shoujo manga…
• 174: Special skill…yeah…
• 179: Fail.
• 181: Yuki doesn’t have that girly beauty anymore.
• 183: Is this supposed to be inspiring?
• 185-186: Man, everyone is so introspective here.
• 190: Sorry, but girls like you in shoujo manga never win. Sorry.
• 191: Don’t remember this dude.
• 192: Weird rules in this club.

Well, after Kyo dominated the emotion last volume, both he and Yuki skip out in this one. Kyo’s moments are limited to getting irritated at Hiro, while Yuki is still the object of his fan club’s obsession. So no matter if you’re on Team Kyo or Team Yuki, I’m sure both types of fans were disappointed by their absence in this volume.

Speaking of Hiro, what a brat. It’s one thing to show off your smarts, but you can’t complain about being treated like a kid when you still other people’s wallets or kick them. “Why am I so childish?” Well, at the same time, you can’t be too childish when you have a long, insightful monologue.

I think the major gripe I have with this volume is all the “I am/was so terrible” scenes. Hrio is a child, Uotani is lonely, and whatever-her-name is jealous. (Makoto? That’s the student body prez, right? …. Looked it up. It’s Motoko.) I know this is shoujo, but even the non-Zodiac characters are almost too self-reflective. Kyoko — directly and indirectly — is responsible for some advice, but there’s just too many chapters in a row of the same thing. I actually enjoyed scenes like Uo-chan’s followers or Tohru’s punishment best. This volume of Fruits Basket is just missing the lightheartedness. It did well on the drama and shock last volume, but we didn’t need three characters in a row talking about how immature they are and directly or indirectly compare themselves to Tohru.

I knew the art shifted, but I didn’t realize it started so earlier. Tohru and the other girls still look the same, but I’ll know they’ll start to look older. Shigure and Hatori still look pretty much the same, but Yuki and Kyo are starting to depart from their previous selves. I praise Takaya for handling her surgery and hospital stay so well and with a good attitude, but it’s a bit jarring to see designs actually degrade when you’re reading a series. Especially since I know there’s still quite a bit more to cover. I’m not saying her art is terrible, but at any stage in her career would I put Takaya’s art in my top 10. I love images like when Kyoko appears, but there’s not a lot of drop-dead gorgeous images I can think of in this series like when I think of Paradise Kiss, Mars, or even Cardcaptor Sakura. The later art in Fruits Basket is like the Hakuoki games when the original artist left: despite being similar, it just isn’t the same nor as good.