Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Amazon once again has pushed reviews over from a different version of this product. In this case, most of the 150+ reviews here are for the out of print Tokyo Pop version of this manga. I do not like Amazon's practice of doing this and I want you to know that THIS review is for the actual Yen Press Collectors Edition of Fruits Basket that came out in the U.S. in June of 2016. My "real" score for this version would be 4.5 stars if Amazon would let me dock a half star. This edition is not perfect but because Fruits Basket is such a strong manga, it makes up for the few shortcomings. The book itself is an over-sized manga, a bit bigger than most that are released today. If you get other manga from Seven Seas or Shonen Jump, you will see immediately that the size of this book is bigger by an inch on both sides. That's a good thing as there is more room for Takaya's art to spread out as intended. I always found Furuba a difficult manga to read as a fan-sub because of the odd panel shape that Takaya uses for much of her layout. It is wonderful to see in print and flows well in a two-page layout. The book is also not without a few shortcomings. The Tokyo Pop version released previously contained all the authors side notes that had been included in the Japanese versions. Those have been removed in the new Collector's Editions and Takaya explained that she did this because most were out of date and not relevant anymore. If you are familiar with these, you will know that many of the notes were about her gaming habits and eating habits - interesting tidbits but hardly worth saving for posterity. I, personally, do not miss them but some purists might balk that they have been removed. Another thing I do not like about the book is the cover. They used a flat, non-glossy cover on these editions. For a "Collector's Edition" I would have expected better. The flat cover feels a bit chalky in the hand and it certainly will not slide onto a shelf easily when you put your books away. I'd have rather seen a nice glossy cover on these editions. (Update - Yen Press seems to have changed the cover paper (from volume 3 on) to a semi-gloss that's a bit shinier and smoother than the paper they used for volumes 1 and 2. It's much nicer paper and feels better in-hand. It also can be wiped off and doesn't show fingerprints or dirt as badly as the first two volumes. It's a welcome change and improves an already outstanding manga.) These editions do contain full color pages at the beginning. I believe many of these were included with the Japanese versions as well and they have been collected from the original volumes and reprinted here. Yen Press DID use glossy paper for the color pages and they look wonderful. The black and white printed pages are also nice to look at. I compared this edition to some of my Shonen Jump manga and can say that the paper quality seems better on this Yen Press version than the Shonen Jump titles. It's a bit smoother and the artwork is nice and crisp. Finally, the story itself is truly a manga masterpiece. If you haven't read Furuba yet, you owe it to yourself to pick up this new version and start losing yourself in the world of Tohru Honda and the Sohmas. And if you've only seen the anime version of this story they I can't stress enough how much more you will enjoy the manga. There is so much more to this rich story. You will also not be disappointed with the translation offered here. Yen Press did a fine job translating this from the original Japanese and I have yet to find any problems as I read through the first volume. It's easy to follow and is a huge step up for those of you who might have only seen this as an "Engrish" fan-sub. Yen Press has also included translation notes at the end of the book that clarify cultural differences that might have been left in place during translation. These are very helpful and enhance the story. Overall, this version is well done and highly recommended for those of us who were not able to obtain copies of Fruits Basket because it had gone out of print. These new versions truly fill a void that had existed in the manga world during the time that Furuba wasn't available. And for those of you that might have only seen the anime, you owe it to yourself to read the manga. There is so much more to this story and you will not be disappointed with this true manga classic.