Fruits Basket Volume 1 Comparison: Chuang Yi vs Tokyopop vs Yen Press vs Hakusensha Bilingual

I should've done this years ago. Ever since Yen Press rescued Fruits Basket from the "out of print" void, I knew the decision to redo my original post was inevitable, but given that I've recently acquired the bilingual edition, by Hakusensha Comics, and the ending of the 2019 anime reboot, my Furuba fever has not quite abated. Posts by fan and content creator, Jacob Chapman, have also inspired me to delve deeper than I did originally and think harder about how little differences can build to a different reading of these beloved characters and their unique situation.

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.

Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Volume 3 Comparison (Kodansha vs Kodansha!)

The last few months have brought many changes to my life. A lot of things have happened, both good and bad, but I'm ready to get back into this and catch up before the next release. I'm sorry to everyone for the long wait.

So...the Sailor Moon manga is now available digitally for the first time in English. While I'm in no hurry to give up my physical copies, this is fantastic news for those who don't have the shelf space or the money. I can also see many double dipping for the convenience of being able to read the eternal editions on the go. One thing I've noticed while casually flipping through the preview pages for the other languages is they all seem to have localised honorifics whilst the English version is the only to maintain the Japanese ones. For the languages that used the same alphabet at least. As someone who would've preferred localised honorifics in the English edition, I can help but feel a little envious.

Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Volume 2 Comparison (Kodansha vs Kodansha?)

Well, everyone, here we are again. First of all, I would like to apologize for how late this comparison ended up being, but while last time, it took me a couple of weeks to get my copy of the manga that ultimately ended being to my benefit as several interviews were released during that time giving tidbits of information that I was able to include in my look through. That and other purple dragon related distractions led to me choosing to wait for a couple of weeks, which unfortunately ballooned into a couple of months. Christmas, family gatherings and my own lethargic tendencies also played a part and for that, I'm sorry. I'm definitely going to try to be more prompt with volume three. Realizing it has the same release date as Kingdom Hearts 3 though, that may prove to be a struggle. Fingers crossed.