Yen Press billed Fruits Basket Another volume 3 as the final volume, but it was known Natsuki Takaya had planned on penning more Fruits Basket content. Neither I nor my co-reviewer Helen have been blown away by this sequel series, but hey, maybe this actual final volume will help redeem things?
Well, the finale of Fruits Basket Another is good. But the final volume of Fruits Basket Another is not.
“Wait, how can that be!” I hear some of you exclaim. Well, there’s only one chapter of Another included here, lucky #13, to conclude this next gen Sohma story, and it focuses on Shiki rather than Sawa. Shiki has been heavily crushing on Sawa, and those new emotions as well as her situation causes Shiki to reflect on growing up as Akito’s son. He has grown up relatively happy and privileged, but Shiki has also faced a lot of harsh comments and guilt-by-association because of who his mother is. The manga emphasizes the parallels and contrasts between Sawa’s and Shiki’s mothers as well as coming full circle around the idea of eternity. And without any direct confessions or anything, Shiki and Sawa’s romance has a wonderful beauty with its subdued tone.
After that comes The Three Musketeers Arc. This short serialization is meant to be comedic fourth wall-breaking entertainment, but I found myself reaching for ear plugs despite this being a book. I never had a problem with Ayame in the main story, but this is just him flamboyantly monologuing about how things will be in the new anime as Shigure matches his pace (and maybe work on redeeming his character in the process). Other Furuba characters occasionally swing by with their own jabs, but otherwise, it’s mostly Hatori gritting his teeth and letting his annoyance be voiced whenever Ayame/Shigure stop to take a breath. Meta comedy and lampshading can be extremely fun in bonus stories, but these abridged tours and debating putting uplifting disclaimers before/after episodes didn’t tickle my funny bone. I think too much text was a big issue, and these jokes can’t carry through 60 pages of content. If you’re going to skewer Fruits Basket, the number of stairs on the local temple is not a good punchline.
The last section of volume 4 (besides a dialogue-less extra exclusive to the book) collects 4-page stories that were originally included in the Japanese home video releases of the 2019 anime. Each story centers around one of the main characters or pairs. Some are written for pure laughs, like Yuki and Kyo arguing over who’s worse at chores, and others are more romantic in nature, like Rin snuggling with Hatsuharu. These are separated by an illustration and note from Takaya. As a collector, it warms my heart to see these often-Japan-only bonuses collected into a book and being made available to international audiences. The last two function as epilogues to Another (although Takaya points out they’re not presented in chronological order), but otherwise, these anime extras don’t add much to the Furuba world. If you’re not the sort who often buys non-numbered volumes of manga (i.e. fanbooks) or collector’s editions of media with bonus bookelets, these chapters will only be mildly entertaining.
Yes, Fruits Basket Another volume 4 is a misnomer. It’s an independent collection that happens to include a couple of epilogues to tie it back to Another. As a numbered volume, it’s too light on story with the titular manga being only a third of the book, and as a bonus fanbook, it lacks any interesting insights or outright skewering of the main story. You can buy a digital copy of Chapter 13 separately, and unless you love physical media or are a Furuba completionist, that may be a cheaper option to see Shiki decide on the sort of person he wants to be in the future. My score would be much different if I were reviewing just that chapter instead of the whole book.