Fruits Basket: Another

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Quickie Review: 100% not what I expected when I heard there was a Fruits Basket sequel; new characters; I love how the artist of Fruits Basket always nails what emotions a character is feeling through their eyes; it doesn't matter if it's happiness, love, fear, blood-freezing full body horror...

Detailed Review: So, for starters, I'm biased towards Fruits Basket as a default. The odds of me loving anything Fruits Basket-related are very, very high. Now that being said, I didn't expect this when I first learned of a sequel to Fruits Basket. I mean, going by the popularity alone, I assumed there WOULD be a sequel ... someday, but I expected it to maybe follow the lives of Tohru, Yuki, Kyo as adults... this is not that.

This follows the story of their children plus a new girl, Sawa, who I assumed would be Tohru 2.0 at first. She had the same traits: friendly, panics easily... not a Sohma... but this story continued to surprise me because while she does have some similar characteristics to Tohru, Sawa is her own character, and her character goes on a journey in a short 16 chapter, 3 volume manga. I started this manga mostly expecting the same plot but different characters, and what I got something else entirely with the only running theme is that there are many more Sohmas.

So the story mainly follows Sawa and her journey to remembering her childhood friend Shiki and also it follows her mother being THE ABSOLUTE WORST. Tohru and Kyo's son Hajime is somehow a perfect blend of both of his parents, while Yuki's son is surprisingly cheerful and seems to have inherited his dad's charm.

I enjoyed this manga, but I don't know if I'd ever re-read it because, well, it's so short! I mean, Sawa realizes that her mother is AN ABSOLUTE GARBAGE HUMAN, but that's about it. I'd definitely recommend it to fellow Fruits Basket lovers because it's still Fruits Basket, but if you're looking for the characters from the original, you won't get that. The most we get of the OGs is the back of Hana's head toward the end. However, if it's lengthened... I'd probably pick it back up.

I heard rumors that they're making this into an anime, and I'm excited to see what comes of it. 8/10, It was a good read.

I found out about this series just as I finished the FB anime reboot. naturally, I was excited to consume more furuba content even though I hadn't read the original manga. This series serves as a small extension to the main series rather than as a sequel even though it features the next generation. With the way it starts off, it just seems to recycle old character dynamics without developing them on their own. But the content of the last 2 volumes really got me invested in this story as well, especially because of the new protagonist Sawa Mitoma and Shiki Souma. The other characters ... also become enjoyable and fun to read, but the series ends just as things start to get interesting. So while it is a worthwhile read for Fruits Basket fans, it doesn't really stand on its own.

As you may know, I'm one hell of a fan of Fruits Basket. Personally, it's one of the Shoujo Series that stays in my heart throughout my life. Every single moment did not bore me, especially the reboot (which was my first exposure to it). After the reboot was done, I decided to read FB Another, which is the sequel to the original story.

Oh boy. Something about the sequel did not accept my approval at all.

Story (4/10)
IT'S THE SAME AGAIN AND AGAIN. It's the same as the original but switches the opposites around. So this becomes the Sohma's helping Mitoma, which I ... kinda find intriguing, but it instantly falls throughout the whole sequel. The story lacks originality and it is crucially mediocre. Sadly, it takes away most of its realistic undertones, to the most somewhat cheesy, generic trope. Unfortunately, I don't like it in most shoujo rom-com series. Comparing to what the original has presented, it played out its fundamentals well and extends its mysteries completely right. But in this, it felt dull and has poor build-up to the most important scenes. There were tons of loose plot holes and fails to execute. Two things I appreciate about this is the bonus chapters and including Shiki's backstory. Some of the bonus chapters displayed Yuki and Kyo’s children’s background. Let’s say Mutsuki. One thing I admired is how Yuki and Marchi were able to raise him well and uses the repeated metaphor on the snow, that they mentioned from Yuki and Marchi’s similarities of each other from the original series. Shiki’s backstory is the only backstory that I uniquely focused on. If you say that Akito had a happy ending, yeah no you’re wrong. Akito had to face many consequences within the Sohma House, whilst sacrificing her son to have a normal life. Have a read yourself for further context, I’m not going to explain more than that.

Art (6/10)
Art was fine. The character designs are simply a look like rip-offs of the original cast and it’s more clear without the messy sketches from the original.

Characters (3/10)
This protagonist couldn’t get my attention. If I had a reason for not liking her, I suppose of why she is hated? In the original series, we see why the Cursed Zodiac children received bad treatment because of how indifferent they are to the humans in this society. But again, my questions weren’t answered so that’s that. Also, I kinda find her annoying throughout the next chapters because she overreacts whenever her mother comes up, which I don’t feel sympathetic to or anything. Which got me feeling, why the fuck is her mother like that? In terms of writing, she’s probably worse than Ren. Although I hate her guts, Ren is still an intriguing but horrible mother.

Now let’s talk about the two boys, Hajime and Mutsuki. I’m not surprised that they are the lookalikes of Kyo and Yuki, but having a cheesy personality in your usual shoujo rom-com trope. To put it into words, I didn’t mind them that much as standalone characters. I appreciate their friendship though, glad the rival’s sons were able to establish a strong friendship.

The other problem with the newer cast is they mostly act as filler characters and doesn’t add any purpose to this sequel. In the original, it was able to flesh out extremely well, whilst having this rather large of a cast. It was able for me to relate to other supporting characters, not just the main, with their backgrounds. Although I liked Sora, her personality showed some purpose to Mitoma’s existence.

Enjoyment (4/10)
The sequel made me bored and not seemed interested. It’s a copy of the original and I felt like it was losing ideas to construct a new but good sequel manga. However, I did enjoy Shiki's mini arc and the bonus chapters.

Overall (4/10)
Y’know what’s better than this, an actual spin-off one shot of our original cast in the future. The newer cast was unable to express originality and uniqueness. It’s a below-average manga that could have done more adjustments and express new ideas, but simple, not provoking.