Fruits Basket: Book 16

Fruits Basket Book 16 by, Natsuki Takaya. ISBN-13:978-1-59816-024-6

One of the most popular shojo manga series worldwide, Fruits Basket is a series with an intricate web of characters with strong emotions and dark secrets. This, the sixteenth book in the series, is a bit hard to comprehend without reading the previous books. It begins with Kyo, who is remembering that he had actually known Tohru's mother, Kyoko. While Tohru is a heroine of the series, she plays a minor role in this episode. Kyo reveals that Tohru's mother was unwanted by her family and by middle school she was already heading down a dark path. She met Katsuya, a student teacher at her school, and fell for him. He decided to give up teaching, and the two fell in love. Her parents disowned her, he married her, they got pregnant, had Tohru, and a few years later Katsuya died. Readers of the Fruits Basket story will be excited to finally know Tohru's back story. The transition to the second half of the book is confusing and choppy. There are fifteen characters presented at the beginning of the book, but the majority of those in this story are not listed in the cast. The depictions of the characters change, making it even harder to follow. Jumping in at book sixteen is like flipping on your t.v. for the season finale of a soap opera you've never seen. The plot jumps all over the place and the characters and their decisions are inappropriate for younger readers. Fans of Kare Kano will appreciate the Fruits Basket series. If you are not a manga aficionado, however, this book is not the place to start.