Manga Diaries – Fruits Basket Volume 8

Fruits Basket Volume 8
If you don’t know what my diaries are, please go here. Spoilers ahoy!

Otherwise, let’s go!


  • Cover: Poor Hatsuharu…he’s aged.
  • Page 14: Dummkopf. Who says manga isn’t educational?
  • 15: Kyo is everyone’s toy.
  • 16: Yeah…Yuki doesn’t look feminine or androgynous anymore.
  • 18: Black Haru looks better than cover Haru.
  • 20: Stupid cat, stupid cat!
  • 21: Kyo’s mad because he was useless in the last volume, so he wants to open this volume with a bang.
  • 23: Yun-chan is not happy by this revelation.
  • 24: Go sensei.
  • 27: Nice fight. As in, no fight. Booo.
  • 28-29: The hands…I cannot look away. I know fans would have been thrilled to know Takaya continued this series instead of wrapping it up quickly, but look at the hands. Yuki here has no wrist. Tohru’s fingers on the next page are long ellipses.
  • 29: Momiji: Official Kyo’s Voice of the Heart.
  • 31: Can I borrow those fairies? And Haru’s comment comes from left field.
  • 33: More “I’m a terrible person” stuff. Picking up right from last volume.
  • 35: Is this Rin? I forget. Too bad Yuki is no Shigure or we could have gotten a funny “You cheater!” scene.
  • 39: What a pretty kimono.
  • 40: Tohru finally shows some intelligence! Although I don’t think her bottom dialogue should have been in the creepy font.
  • 44: Bad Shigure.
  • 45: Books on fruit. What a weird hostess gift.
  • 47: Raise your hand if you know where this is going.
  • 51: Yuki is mad now.
  • 53: I really wonder how I’d feel about Yuki’s appearance if he always looked like this.
  • 54: Two overly-polite people.
  • 56: Noooooooooo!
  • 57: And here it is.
  • 58: Naked monkey.
  • 61: You would think more people would come up to him as a woman. Always getting hit on and stuff.
  • 62: Ritchan, don’t pray to God and Buddha. Might as well as for Jesus and Buddha since they’re roommates. And if you don’t get this reference, I am sad.
  • 65: More trademarked inspirational quotes.
  • 67: Duh, he’s a monkey after all.
  • 71: This reminds me of somebody else’s style. My first thought was Tachibana Higuchi, but that’s not quite it…
  • 73: Kyo can’t take a joke.
  • 74: +1 Hatori.
  • 75: MIIIIIILLLLLLKKKKKK!!!
  • 78: Have you ever heard the Vocaloid song “Hikyou Sentai Urotander”? It’s one of the most popular songs of all time in the Vocaloid world. I’d love to hear Shigure sing it. Ayame as backup of course. Basically the whole song is about fighting dirty.
  • 79: Haa-kun doesn’t look like Haa-kun.
  • 81: How much gaming is she doing to fry two PlayStations?!
  • 85: Trying to out-polite each other.
  • 89-92: I wish we could have more of the light comedy besides two people apologizing for apologizing and stuff like that.
  • 93: I don’t think “I want to eat your takoyaki forever” works as a proposal line.
  • 97-98: The power of takoyaki.
  • 99: Peace!
  • 100: Was Rin, was right.
  • 101: D’awwww.
  • 104-105. Wow, this picture looks terrible in black and white. Hana’s hair is a part of Haru’s pants. And plus Haru’s pants look like a skirt…
  • 108: Eat a Snickers.
  • 109: We all know Uo-chan would win.
  • 110: Tohru the Humble Angel.
  • 112: Yuki and Kyo really couldn’t win here no matter what they responded.
  • 114: LOL at Kyo.
  • 117: Momiji’s harem.
  • 121: Really is a waste.
  • 123: He could always be a cat whisperer. Dude would become rich.
  • 127: Don’t make a girl cry, Kyo. You lucky the Official Tohru Guard didn’t see this.
  • 131-133: Tohru finally receives advice.
  • 140: So subtle how Ayame slips in these facts about himself, lol.
  • 145: Correct answer is “sure” and then make Ayame buy something expensive.
  • 148: Love Ayame’s whole look.
  • 151: Ayame’s part-time job: sock puppet. Seriously, he looks like a sock puppet.
  • 156: Mine looks like a battle nun.
  • 162: So uncool…
  • 163: Poor Hatori.
  • 169: Uo-chan is scary…
  • 170: Miracle!
  • 174: Poses in the rain aren’t as cool as TV makes them out to be.
  • 179: I’d love to see a haunted house designed by Momiji.
  • 180-181: See, this whole scene is more like Tohru moe rather than Tohru’s weakness or comedy.
  • 184-187: Haru has some of Shigure’s talent.
  • 190: Tohru really looks nice in these volumes. Too bad the guys look so different.
  • 191: I’ve always wanted to smash watermelons. Manga makes it look so fun.
  • 192: Hiro’s waist. What an hourglass figure. Now we all need brain bleach.
  • 194-195: Dun dun dunnnn.

So that’s the end of another volume. We meet Ritchan, but except for the cross-dressing thing, there’s not much about him we didn’t know. So overall not much happened besides seeing Tohru needing some encouragement of her own. The whole volume is a bit of a rehash from last volume (“I’m weak/terrible”) and setup for the next (Rin). Yuki gets more attention here, but Kyo gets the better moments between protecting and helping Tohru and everyone prickling him. The art is still in flux with the guys looking less like their earlier selves and losing a bit of their individuality. There’s not much new humor here. Tohru is polite (and gets someone to rival her politeness), Momiji and Haru cause trouble, Ayame gets on Yuki’s nerves, and everyone irritates Kyo. The comedy is definitely secondary to the big “life lessons” moments. It’s like an even more saccharine version of Full House with less laugh-out-loud moments. Kagura with her dynamic yandere self continues to be MIA, but Akito is also not the center of the drama. It just feels like it’s dragging right now. Everyone has issues and wants to do better. I get it. But even the central issue of the fact there are 13 people who transform into animals is basically in the backseat. We don’t get to see anybody try to hug Yuki or Kyo, and Ayame transforms when he’s alone with Yuki. I’m missing the fantasy elements right now.

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2 Comments

  1. The Otaku Judge

    I have fried a few PlayStations over the course of my gaming life. Rest in peace faithful PS2.

    Reply
    1. krystallina

      *moment of silence for the PS2*

      Reply

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