Each story centers around one of the main characters or pairs. The last section of volume 4 (besides a dialogue-less extra exclusive to the book) collects 4-page stories that were originally included in the Japanese home video releases of the 2019 anime. If you’re going to skewer Fruits Basket, the number of stairs on the local temple is not a good punchline. I think too much text was a big issue, and these jokes can’t carry through 60 pages of content. Meta comedy and lampshading can be extremely fun in bonus stories, but these abridged tours and debating putting uplifting disclaimers before/after episodes didn’t tickle my funny bone. Other Furuba characters occasionally swing by with their own jabs, but otherwise, it’s mostly Hatori gritting his teeth and letting his annoyance be voiced whenever Ayame/Shigure stop to take a breath. I never had a problem with Ayame in the main story, but this is just him flamboyantly monologuing about how things will be in the new anime as Shigure matches his pace (and maybe work on redeeming his character in the process). This short serialization is meant to be comedic fourth wall-breaking entertainment, but I found myself reaching for ear plugs despite this being a book. And without any direct confessions or anything, Shiki and Sawa’s romance has a wonderful beauty with its subdued tone.Īfter that comes The Three Musketeers Arc. The manga emphasizes the parallels and contrasts between Sawa’s and Shiki’s mothers as well as coming full circle around the idea of eternity. He has grown up relatively happy and privileged, but Shiki has also faced a lot of harsh comments and guilt-by-association because of who his mother is. Shiki has been heavily crushing on Sawa, and those new emotions as well as her situation causes Shiki to reflect on growing up as Akito’s son. Well, there’s only one chapter of Another included here, lucky #13, to conclude this next gen Sohma story, and it focuses on Shiki rather than Sawa.

“Wait, how can that be!” I hear some of you exclaim. But the final volume of Fruits Basket Another is not. Well, the finale of Fruits Basket Another is good. Neither I nor my co-reviewer Helen have been blown away by this sequel series, but hey, maybe this actual final volume will help redeem things? Yen Press billed Fruits Basket Another volume 3 as the final volume, but it was known Natsuki Takaya had planned on penning more Fruits Basket content.

Fruits basket another vol 1