Helen: Volume 2 of Fruits Basket Another, Natsuki Takaya’s sequel to her most famous title, continues to waffle between a few different directions the story can go, and the series remains frustratingly staid as a result of this indecision.
Takaya still refuses to actually show any of the main cast from the original series on screen. The closest we’ve gotten to seeing any of the old cast are a few siblings who were only minor characters to start with (like Hana and Momiji’s younger siblings) and the way the Furubana goes out of its way to hide the original cast feels like a deliberate tease at this point more than anything else. We are still meeting more of the current generation of Sohmas but adding so many new characters so quickly is hamstringing Takaya in multiple ways (also, it’s a bit disappointing that the previous generation of Sohmas turned out so straight, it took me quite a while to work out who flamboyant Ayame’s wife must be).
There’s no way to properly flesh out this many characters in such a short time. The original series took over 20 volumes to achieve this and Furubana has nearly as large a cast as the original already. Almost no one outside of leading girl Sawa and Yuki and Kyo’s sons Mutsuki and Hajime has had nearly the amount of screentime they need to be fleshed out. Heck, even Mutsuki hasn’t had much of an opportunity to develop a personality beyond “if Yuki was more of a troublemaker,” despite the fact that he’s on the cover for this volume.
I would say that since Hajime is getting slightly more focus that he must be Sawa’s love interest, but the story keeps playing up that another Sohma, Akito’s son Shiki, has a past connection with Sawa so I’m really not sure. Normally at this point I would say “hopefully everyone will have more chances to be fleshed out later on” but since Takaya intends to end the series with volume three that’s not really an option this time!
Another way Takaya has really hindered herself by having such a large cast is with the art itself. Takaya’s strengths do not lie in character designs and there is a lot of same face syndrome going on, enough that you really can’t write it off as “oh but all of these characters are related anyway” since even the unrelated characters have the same face and eye shapes! I don’t recall if this was as much of a problem in the original Fruits Basket but I do remember that that series had a fairly significant art style shift by the end, I believe at least in part due to Takaya’s injuries, but by this point I am having a hard time telling the cast of Furubana apart which is a problem.
Overall this follow-up is turning into a bit of a disappointment. I do intend to finish out the series but at this point I’m much more excited for the upcoming anime remake of the original manga than I am about volume three of Furubana.
Helen’s rating: 2 out of 5
Krystallina: It’s amazing how much better Fruits Basket Another is when these Sohma kids shut up about their parents. We finally learn about Sawa’s mother, and we see how much she has affected her daughter’s self esteem. I’ve always found these kind of relationships much more interesting than the usual “you will follow my rules” or MIA parent. With a mother like that, Sawa’s overly-apologetic and self-demeaning attitude is understandable. I’m sure far too many readers will relate to this type of “I’m just kidding” and “I’m just looking out for you” passive-aggressive, narcissistic attitude.
Had Fruits Basket Another had focused on this (and maybe the usual shoujo triangle), I think I would have really liked the series. It probably should have since it’s planned to be only three volumes. But instead the Sohma clan keeps popping up and make thinly veiled references to their parents and aunts/uncles. This second volume isn’t quite as new-Sohma crazy as the first, but the Sohma family tree still overshadows the story at large. Even though no one has stated directly their parents’ names, it’s still easy to figure out who belongs to who…except for one. Rio, just who is your father?!
I also found the three middle school students more interesting than all of Sawa’s high school classmates. There’s a new Mabudachi Trio/Three Musketeers in town, and I didn’t expect them to all be Go players. It helps that they’re more different from their parents compared to their cousins. Also, Shiki and Sawa appear to share a special connection, even moreso than the presumed pairing of Sawa and Hajime.
Hajime does help Sawa find the courage to voice her true thoughts, but if the series is meant to be a romance, it’s not doing a lot on that front either. There are just too many characters and Fruits Basket references to spend a lot of time on Sawa with any potential boyfriend. I also didn’t like how each chapter seems to have scenes that took place right at the end of the previous, but as flashbacks.
Speaking of the visuals, while the character designs are as flat as ever, I do love Takaya’s visual cues. Sawa becomes like a flustered alien after a visit from her mother, and the colors being inverted when a certain someone arrives suggests that there is more to that meeting than we know.
While I don’t know what that means, I do know it’s going to be a long time before we get the third and final volume since it hasn’t even been published in Japan yet. Maybe Takaya will finally get to it with the new Fruits Basket anime coming up; otherwise, there’s no need for fans to rush out for this right now. But at least those who do buy it will be treated to a better volume than the first thanks to the conflict between Sawa and her mother.
Krystallina’s rating: 3 out of 5