Fruits Basket 17
December 23, 2007
I’m also behind on this series, which is amazing since it’s quarterly and I only have to read it once every three months or so. I was even looking forward to this volume since I knew a huge bombshell was being dropped, but I think I just cannot get myself fired up about this series. Even with all the plot development, I just feel like it moves so slowly, and we get so few scraps dropped to us as far as romantic development goes… and there’s a lot of story time spent on the huge cast of minor characters.
I complain, but there was more plot in this volume than in any other volume of Fruits Basket ever. We basically find out all about Akito and how his life has been, and we find out Akito’s mother is alive and well and really likes to berate him, which is amazing. Akito needs more characters that stand up and defy him.
We also get to hear a bit about Kureno and what his deal is… or is not, as the case may be. He spills the truth about his relationship to Akito, and the possible relationship between he and Arisa is dealt with as well. It is all very sad.
Kureno actually tells all of these things straight out to Tohru (about both himself and Akito), and in the aftermath of this conversation, Tohru is devastated and has to spend the night at Hanajima’s house feeling sorry for everyone.
In case this wasn’t enough plot for you, we also find out the nature of the relationship between Shigure and Akito, and why Shigure has been a jerk all this time. I actually quite liked this bit of explanation.
Amidst all these explanations, Yuki and Kyo are buried, their story continued in later volumes. Kyo barely appears at all. I was pleased to see the explanation for Shigure though, who is not a minor character. The minor/side character stories needed to be told in order for the plot to make sense… but I think that’s one of the other reasons I lose patience with this series, too many minor characters. But I’m faulting it for something that’s in its nature, it handles this huge number of characters better than any other series I’ve read. I just hate having to constantly switch between them all.
December 24, 2007 at 12:53 pm
[...] at Manga Life. Tangognat enjoys vol. 1 of Suppli. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 17 of Fruits Basket, Reptilia, vols. 3 and 4 of Iron Wok Jan, Cain Saga 5: Seal of the Red Ram 2, vol. 10 of Hikaru No [...]
February 25, 2008 at 12:08 am
I really loved this volume, actually. True, Yuki and Kyo were barely present, but I liked that many subplots got touched on, at least. Sort of an “I haven’t forgotten about this — it’s still important to this character” from the author.
Shigure was amazing in this vol. My review’s up, as well.
http://www.flaminggeeks.com/swanjun/?p=382
February 27, 2008 at 3:48 am
Yeah, I kind of didn’t give Shigure enough credit for his role in this volume. He was awesome, and it’s just like you said, we get to see him playing a variety of parts throughout, and it works out really well.