Fruits Basket

I stayed away from this one for a long time, at least partly because of the name. It just doesn't flow well in English, even though, after learning what it referred to in the manga, "fruit basket" doesn't really work either. I finally started reading the manga a few months ago, and finished the whole 123 chapter thing waaay sooner than I should have considering how much homework I had. I have a weakness for sequential art, what can I say? This happens to me every time I get into a new comic or manga. I try so hard to pace myself, because I know that all too soon I'll be caught up and I'll have to wait two days or a week for the next update just like everybody else (and because I know I have a lot of homework). But I just can't help it. I'll inhale huge chunks of the archives, or just read it all at once, and then I'll be behind in my homework AND wailing because the next update doesn't come until next Wednesday, dang it!

Fruits Basket (which I keep trying to spell Fruists Basket) is about Toru Honda, a Japanese high-schooler (I don't think I've ever read a manga where the main character wasn't Japanese) who is an orphan living in a tent because she has nowhere else to go. She tries to remain cheerful and happy, but then a landslide buries her tent! Luckily for her the land she was staying on belongs to the family of one of her classmates, Yuki Sohma, and they take her in. Yuki is super popular at her school, and a little mysterious. She soon finds out why- after she accidentally hugs him, Yuki turns into a rat! It turns out that all the members of his family turn into animals corresponding to the ones in the Chinese Zodiac. BUT they only turn into animals when they're under a great deal of stress, OR they get hugged by a member of the opposite sex.

This is the other half of why I avoided it for so long. It just sounds like an ecchi (perverted) manga. But it isn't. It's actually a funny, deep, well done story about opening up your heart and letting go of past hurts.

And now the anime is on Hulu.

Goodbye, life.