Fruits Basket Volume 11

Fruits Basket Volume 11

"You just want to analyze me with your holier-than thou logic!"
Takaya, Natsuki. (2002). Los Angeles:TOKYOPOP. ISBN-1-59532-406-2

Plot
Tohru Honda is a poor orphan girl. Somehow she is permanently visiting the rich Sohma family, in this volume at their summer beach house. Tohru is the only one who knows that the Sohma family lives under a curse: when someone hugs them, the Sohma's turn into various Chinese zodiac animals. In this volume Tohru is romantically involved with Yuki Sohma (the rat), and Kyo Sohma (the cat). Akito, who really looks like Michael Jackson, is the evil power in the family, and at the end of this volume he seems to have much greater power than anyone knew before.

Reader’s Annotation
Fruits Basketis called "the world's most popular manga. In Volume 11, the relationships between poor orphan Tohru Honda and three of the male members of the Sohma family develops, though the fact that they all transform into Chinese zodiac characters when she squeezes them slows things down.

Critique
Being fair, this is Volume 11. Being accurate, the incomprehensibility of this graphic novel is not due to the advanced volume number.Many students are passionate fans of manga; several of them recommended Fruits Basket as a favorite. I hate Fruits Basket. As a self-respecting Library Science student I must clarify--I don't want to ban it; I don't want to stop the many people who are devoted fans from reading and enjoying it. I just hate it. Benefit of the doubt can blame the dialogue on poor translation--it was choppy, bizarrely disjointed, and disorienting. In the 200 pages there were maybe 10 pages worth of actual story, and what there was still did not make sense after three readings. The pictures are hideous. None of the main characters appear Japanese or even human. Actually, not just Akito but everybody looks like Michael Jackson, with tiny pinched noses and hair over their eyes. Speaking of the eyes--the worst--square eyes with little venetian blinds inside them; blank round eyes with a tiny dot in the middle, like a shark.
I am glad since to have read Death Notes, so that, even though manga is not my preferred medium, I now know that some examples are enjoyable.

About the author
Natsuki Takaya has been writing manga since the early 90's. She has won important Japanese manga awards.

Genre
Graphic Novel

Curriculum Ties
I hope not.

Booktalking Ideas
The drawings in this book--good or bad?
Why would one of the Sohma boys be a better match for Tohru than another?
Discuss the experience of reading backwards.

Reading Level/Interest Age
Teen/Age 13+ (publisher)

Challenge Issues
Mild swearing; religious
Be knowledgeable about the book and prepared to discuss it calmly. Provide complaint form per board policy; ; gather teen comments; Top 10 Shojo Manga Must-Reads


Why Included?
Frequently recommended when teens were asked for manga suggestions

Selection Tools
Student suggestion; public library offfering.