This series needs no further introduction, but I'll give it one anyway just in case. Fruits Basket is a Japanese shojo manga series, written and drawn by Natsuki Takaya, that ran from 1998 to 2006 in Hana to Yume magazine. It tells the story of an orphan named Tohru Honda who through tragic circumstances comes to live in a house whose family hiding a dark secret that has completely torn them asunder. Through learning about them, laughing and crying with them, Tohru will uncover the mystery and potentially save them from the centuries-old curse that threatens to forever silence any chance at happiness they have. The first English translation for the series was done by Hakusensha in 2003 who released it as part of a line of bilingual editions meant to help Japanese schoolchildren learn English. Tokyopop then licensed and distributed the manga for English territories, primarily in the US and Europe from 2004 until 2011 when they closed their doors. Chuang Yi Publishing did likewise for English speaking territories in Asia and Oceania from 2003 until they too went out of business in late 2013. The licence was then rescued by Yen Press in 2015 until present who now distributes to all English speaking territories. The takeaway message from this is that throughout almost two decades Fruits Basket has been translated into English four times, three of which have covered the entire series, and we will be looking at those different translations in this blog post, starting with volume one.
So let's get the party started. One where everyone can follow along...hopefully...we'll see.
