Fruits Basket Manga Volume 23 (finale)

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Coming to the final volume of the manga, it is a time for goodbyes and that is what this volume is full of. It is also a time for new beginnings. To start this off, we have the final gathering of the Sohma family where Akito reveals the truth that she is a woman and not a man. I have to say that even though I don’t like Takaya-sensei’s current character designs, I do like that she made Akito look like a lovely woman. That helps for the start of the renewed romance between Akito and Shigure.

There were many nice moments in this manga including getting to see all of the zodiac members. We got to see how different couples were going planning to go in the near future, which is cool. It seems that most people have a partner except for Momiji, who pines for Tohru, and Kagura, who pines for Kyo. I kinda feel bad for the two of them, especially Kagura. Momiji has had lots of girls interested in him but Kagura has only been tied to Kyo and shows no sign of moving along. Oh well.

It is humorous that Hana appears to be in a relationship with Kazuma, Kyo’s adoptive father. Talk about an age difference. Wow. Kazuma scores, eh? ^_^; Actually, so does Kureno. Get the girls as soon as they emerge from high school after marking them their 3rd year. *lol*

Speaking of Hana and humor, the part with Hana and Uo tagging along on Kyo’s and Tohru’s first date is pretty fun and humorous. Not only that, but way back when, both girls had vowed to crash Tohru’s first date and they basically kept that promise. I loved how Hana teased Kyo and read his mind. Of course there was some seriousness about losing one of her best friends to Kyo, but she can continue to have fun with Kyo by marrying Kazuma. *lol*

The strangest and darkest part of the volume is one of Kyoko immediately after the accident that takes her life. As such, we get to see her final thoughts as she dies and are allowed to see that in death, she didn’t say she hated Kyo but rather wanted Kyo to take over her role in protecting Tohru. So even though he doesn’t know this, Kyo ends up carrying out Kyoko’s wish and that’s sweet. Also sweet is seeing Kyoko and Katsuya meeting in the afterlife.

Going to the TokyoPop piece of the manga, I still hate this cheap paper that’s being used. These limp manga volumes just feel so wrong. That said, TokyoPop at least gave us a color image from Takaya-sensei of Tohru, the rat, and the cat which is very nice. Also, it has a note from Takaya-sensei and I like that.

I’ll write a piece to cover my thoughts for the entire manga series but to wrap up the series, I thought that volume 23 does a nice job of things. We get closure for all the characters with only two really getting the short end of the stick. As such, I don’t think Furuba fans will be disappointed at what they read.