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Fruits Basket: The Launching Platform For Anime Enthusiasts

Posted on Monday, 1st September 2008 by Shadow

Japanese animation, or Anime, has slowly been invading America in several forms; merchandise, cartoons, and comic books. Most people are introduced to anime through what the American translators have destroyed and posted on television. I mean, what has been ‘translated’ and played on your general ‘G’ rated children’s television stations. Even though anime itself carries no rating – but the general western idea is that cartoons are for children, so anime has been adapted thus.

Background

Unknown to the common watcher, almost all anime has roots in comic books, and is simply an adaptation to what the original creator has already done. The graphic novels (large comic books, usually around 100 - 200 pages) known as manga, are large multi-paged hand-drawn books that span many volumes and chapters. Some of the series pick up speed as soon as the storyline hits volume twenty (a good example being InuYasha), while others taper off after one volume (like Miyuki-chan in Wonderland).

Depending on the translator (or scanlator) you can generally get a really good quality translation. Some companies translate terminology as close as possible, even if it has no literal meaning in English; some even translating the honorifics. A few of these companies also turn the sound effects written in katakana or hirigana (Japanese written alphabet) into western sounds – and more often than not that comes across as sounding extremely lame. Other companies (In my opinion, the good companies) translate the Japanese nuances into what is known as “romanji” which is spelling out Japanese words in the western alphabet. That way you can still get a closer idea of what’s being said, instead of someone else’s judgment (which isn’t always correct … ‘dattebayo’ in no way means “believe it!”). A lot of the sayings have a heavy effect, or multiple meanings, but when translated into English, it loses all of its meaning and the insult or effect that was intended gets thrown out the window, so the characters reaction doesn’t make sense.

With a basic knowledge of manga in general, narrowing it down to a single series won’t go over ones head.

The Manga

One series in particular that has rocked the media shelves, and is referred to the best selling shoujo-manga in America, is known as Fruits Basket. The series by Natsuki Takaya has gained a large fan-base of all ages, and possibly genders – even though it’s a series aimed at females. The series itself has reached volume 18 or 19 in America, and it’s still going strong; even with a simple rating of pg-13.

With how eccentric anime tends to get, Fruits Basket is a nice change. Anime holds nothing sacred, and I mean NOTHING. It tends to plunge head-long into whatever it can get its hands on, whether that be homosexuality, abuse, sex, cross-dressing, incest, or ninja’s. Fruits Basket touches lightly on several issues brought up throughout anime, but it never indulges deeply enough to scare off people. It has hints of homosexuality, mild cases of cross-dressing, mild amounts of abuse, and a small amount of incest. For someone trying to get into anime, Fruits Basket is a good starting point; it gets people used to certain ideas without drowning them in it.

One problem I’ve always had with anime and manga is the female characters. Most creators depict females as useless, screaming, big-breasted twits who can only stand around for the main male hero to protect.

Now, I’m not saying I’m a feminist, but those females just grate on my nerves. Natsuki Takaya steps away from the stereotype and makes her females very strong and, oh my god, useful! The main heroine, Honda Tohru, is a young teenager who has lost both of her parents and is now determined to look after herself. Instead of burdening her family and friends by being dependant on them, she has taken on a part-time job and lives in a tent in the middle of no-where. Her character is a little flakey, and down right stupid at times, but she is still very human. She tries her hardest to help others, and to do things for herself. You don’t see women like THAT very often.

Every character Takaya-san creates has something everyone can relate to, whether its being out-cast by the way you look, fights with siblings and parents, and just general self depression. She creates an every-man out of all of her characters, which makes it easier to read because you can relate – unlike some other stories about a random girl falling through a portal to another world where she gains mystical powers to save some world full of elves and demons.

Separated from the outside world, the Sohma’s are a family locked into an ancient curse. It is an immense family known to send the younger ones to single-gendered schools, and keep all members locked within the walls of the large estate. Some cursed members even separated within the walls from their own families.

The Curse? When a member is “huggled” (comes in contact with someone’s chest, usually through a hug – or head on collision) by a member of the opposite sex, they turn into a creature of the Chinese zodiac. These members are usually shunned by their own parents because of their transformations (mothers losing their sanity when they hug their new-born for the first time and it turns into a baby animal), and picked on at schools because of their strange hair and eye colour. A very blatant example of this would be the ox of the zodiac; a boy with black and white hair – literally. His laid back personality (stemming from the belief that the Ox was stupid) allows any insults to slide off of him. But not all are as impervious. The tiger of the zodiac, a young girl with deep orange hair and chocolate brown eyes, actually stopped speaking and going to school because of the teasing.

Any outsiders (including un-cursed members of the family) are usually hypnotized and made to forget anything if they find out about the curse. This further separates the cursed members, having someone they cared about completely forget their existence. For example, the dragon of the family was once engaged, but when she found out about his curse, her mind was crushed by the head of the family. Being driven almost completely insane, the only way for him to save her was to suppress her memory.

With their twisted history, it is rare for someone to get close enough to the family without being forced to lose their memory. But one person did …a young girl named Honda Tohru. She is a fellow classmate of Sohma Yuki, the rat of the zodiac (who defied the ruler of their family by moving out of the main house and in with his cousin, Shigure, who lived on the “outside”, and attending a co-ed High School.) and because of the strange and sad situations of her own life, ended up in their living room with a fever.

A land slide late into the night had crushed her tent, and only home, leaving her at the mercy of the Sohma’s. Not wanting to burden her friends with the knowledge that she lived in a tent, and now lived no-where, she agreed to live with the Sohma’s with only one condition – she became their maid.

Every family has its own internal scuffles, and because of a scuffle Sohma-style (a.k.a, what happens when two black-belts start fighting), Tohru ended up finding out about the curse – after transforming three members.

Every fear the Sohma family carried about other people finding out about their curse was vanquished the moment Tohru found out. They were always taught that outsiders would find their transformations disgusting and hideous, so, no one was to ever see it. Tohru’s first reaction was, of course, to panic (any rightful person would panic if you bumped into a boy and then suddenly holding a cat with crumpled clothes around your feet); afterwards, she was even accepting. Since she knew the truth, the matter had to be taken up with the head of the family; Sohma Akito. For the first time in their history, he allowed Tohru to keep her memory.

From that point on all the members wanted to meet her; this started the ball for many awkward situations, and more insight into the warped mind of Akito.

The series is still on going, with an estimated 24 - 26 issues to be released. Due to its subject material (being neither too far into a subject to scare off a reader, or skimming too much to not be able to hold ones attention), it is generally a good series to start on for one just getting into anime. From there on, with a basic knowledge and interest, it is easier to branch out to other series that follow more of a persons interest base.

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