Fruits Basket, Volume 13

I absolutly love this series. While at first it may seen strange you just can't help falling in love with the characters (I highly recommend this series to everyone of all ages.

Fruits Basket is by far my favorite Manga to date, and this is one of my favorite volumes. I don't quite know why, it's not one of the most ground-breaking volumes, I just love all of the small things in it, like momo and kyo wiping tohoru's tears (I <3 Kyo) I don't know, but it is definatly worth it and here I go again waiting for volume 14. ^__^

fruits basket is the best series i have read to date, so i may be biased. but even though this is not the most ground-breaking volume, i love the things we discover about yuki, momiji, kakeru, and kureno that make the story more interesting. i've never seen character development as excellent as fruits basket. also, the simple thoughts and actions of the characters make the manga feel close to home and relatable to our own lives. it seems that the manga improves with every volume, because the characters change, grow, and become more appealing and wonderful. reading fruits basket never fails to be a special treat.

In this 13th volume of "Fruits Basket," we finally get to meet Yuki-kun and Ayame-san's mother when she attends a parent teacher conference. She already has Yuki-kun's life planned out, but can Ayame-niisan save the day? Yuki-kun, as president of the Student Council, then has to deal with the strong personalities that make up the Student Council officer. Can he survive them, especially Vice President who has a Power Ranger complex? Next, Tohru goes on mission to the Sohma Estate to meet with Kureno-san after coming to believe this is the man that Uo-chan has fallen in love with. Along the way, she has a chance encounter with Momo-chan, who reveals some very interesting things. Can Tohru meet with Kureno-san without Akito-san finding out? Finally, the class trip is finally taken. Yuki-kun, Kyo-kun, Tohru, Uo-chan, and Hana-chan are grouped together which is sure to lead to fun. In this volume, Takaya-sensei takes time to explore how Yuki came to be via his mother. This was an interesting story which showed how much Yuki had grown. Ditto Ayame. Yuki having to deal with the headaches of being Student Council President are weaker since the people that are the officers are mostly annoying. Tohru isn't as happy-go-lucky in this volume as in previous ones. However, I was glad to see the Momo-story touched again, not to mention there's table-setting going on for Kureno-san's character. With these stories being told, Takaya-sensei never forgets why we read the manga and thus doesn't lose focus on that. As such, she doesn't get bogged down in the story of Yuki and Ayame's mother. She doesn't get bogged down in the Momo/Momiji story. She continues to press forward, which helps a lot. As usual, Alethea & Athena Nibley do fantastic, otaku-friendly work. Considering that this debuted in the top-50 of book sales, then rose to the 30's the next week, I guess that goes to show that Japanese honorifics and other otaku language being left in the translation can enhance the readers enjoyment of the title. It certainly does mine. I only wish TokyoPop had a translator note section in their manga. Bottom line: more "Furuba" goodness from Takaya-sensei.

This volume is a huge one for both of Tohru's favorite nii-sans as one big brother's dream comes true while the others' goes down in flames - at least for the time being. First up, in the wake of the wrap-up of the Kyo/Kagura storyline, is the climax of the Yuki/Ayame subplot. Most readers were probably expecting this to go down closer to the end of the series, but Aya is really a supporting character and the timing is just about right considering how much there still is to cover. Ayame himself admits that he bears his share of responsibility for Yuki's childhood situation deteriorating to the point it did and that he's lucky Yuki is on speaking terms with him. But he's so genuinely remorseful and trying the only way he knows how to make things up to Yuki that it's impossible not to root for him as he faces his moment of truth and squares off against their venomous mother to protect Yuki the way he should have years ago. Will Aya pull it off? Did anyone really think he was heading for a sad ending? Unlike Ayame, Momiji is completely guiltless regarding his situation. But sometimes innocence isn't enough and life isn't always fair. The selfless young man is asked to make yet another huge sacrifice for his immediate family when his little sister Momo, now old enough to walk short distances without adult supervision, begins to actively seek him out - and starts to get too close to the truth their father feels she isn't ready to handle yet. Perhaps the most seamless mixture of joy and angst so far.