Fruits Basket, Volume 23

This series is my daughter's favorite. She really liked getting this one when it came out.

I've been reading Fruits Basket for most of my adult life, so this last volume really felt like a major milestone for me. But the story closed up neatly, with enough established that I can be happy for my characters, but not so much I felt the author ruined the ending. All in all, a good ending for one of the greatest manga stories I've ever read.

I'll be honest; I haven't been happy with the way Fruits Basket has been going for several volumes. But if you have enjoyed it, this is a near-perfect culmination of all the threads and characters that have been covered within. For myself, it's a nice ending, and somewhat sad, but in other ways a collection of many of my frustrations with the series. Kind of reminds me of Kare Kano... very good, but I wanted something different, perhaps. And even though I don't 'like' it, it really is well done. If you have followed this series at all, I would still advise getting this to see how it all concludes.

The previous volume of Fruits Basket was undoubtedly the climax of the entire series, and Natsuki Takaya wisely does not attempt to outdo herself here. This volume is best considered an after dinner mint, giving us a chance to come down from the heights and say goodbye to the characters we've come to love - and with a continuation of the anime extremely unlikely and perhaps prohibitively difficult in light of significant alterations to Shigure and Akito's characters, this marks the last new Fruits Basket material we are likely to ever get. Although we get one or two subtle reminders that Kyo's happy ending has come at Momiji's expense and how lucky he is that Momiji doesn't have a selfish bone in his body, it's generally a series of happy moments, albeit bittersweet as we're leaving the characters. And we get time to say goodbye to each of them one by one - from Shigure and Akito finding their way together and Ritsu's final spazz attacks, through a deeply moving final scene between Tohru and Yuki and, finally, a look at Tohru and Kyo's future many years later. When reverse harem stories are spoken of in the future, Fushigi Yugi may match Fruits Basket in historical importance and Ouran High School Host Club may ultimately be considered funnier once it's through; but the trials and tribulations of Tohru and the Sohmas capture our hearts uniquely, and Fruits Basket is likely to be the measure of reverse harem and indeed shoujo for a long time to come.

The curse is broken, Kyo and Tohru have confessed their feelings at long last, and now it's time to say goodbye to the Sohmas and Co. "Fruits Basket Volume 23" is a brilliant, bittersweet end to a stunning fantasy/comedy/romance manga series, and Natsuki Takaya avoids the more maudlin and Hallmarky overtones that the finale could have had. Instead she carefully wraps up the various plot threads, pairs off most of the cast, and caps it off with a gorgeous ending that leaves some of the story up to the imagination. The formerly cursed Sohmas are called to a meeting with a newly feminized Akito, who is painfully changing into a new person as she finally accepts her love for Shigure. Turns out her new decisions have also alienated some people formerly loyal to her. And the loss of the curse has had some other effects on people's lives -- some of the former cursed Sohmas are suddenly more relaxed in their freedom, while others are unable to let go of their olds wounds and grudges. Meanwhile, the high school is abuzz with Tohru and Kyo's new relationship, and Yuki and Kyo have stopped fighting altogether -- and just before graduation, Kyo reveals that he wants Tohru to come with him on a long trip. Yuki and Shigure's paths diverge from that of their friends as they start new lives with their new loves, and the other Sohmas also start new lives. It's not so much an end as it is the end of the curse, and the beginning of their real lives. "Fruits Basket Volume 23" is basically all about the united path of the cursed Sohmas splitting off into many different paths -- some are going to college, some are getting married, some are departing on journeys, and others are just continuing as-is but with greater freedom. The main message seems to be that people must go their own way and make their own lives, but that they will never truly be apart from the people they love. The first chapter is a pretty bittersweet one, as Akito finally deals with the last of her issues, but the stories that follow are just to tie up the loose ends. Not all the hanging threads are addressed (Momiji and his family aren't really dealt with), but most of them are. And to deal with the last of Kyo's melancholy, Takaya shows us a hauntingly lovely flashback to the day Kyoko died reveals what she meant to say to Kyo, and what happened after she died. There's also loads of humor (just about any scene with Kyo, Saki and/or Uo is crammed with hilarity), a bit of sadness, and plenty of romance for almost everybody. It's also much lighter and more humorous than the last few volumes of "Fruits Basket," but there's still a bittersweet pang as you realize that the story of the Sohmas is about to finally end. Takaya revisits all the Sohmas in the story -- many of them have changed (Momiji's pranks), but in many ways are still the same (Ayame's over-the-top real estate plans), and some of them haven't forgiven Akito for what she's done. But it's also obvious that the main characters h