All-Request Week 2010: Fruits Basket

Today's entry in All-Request Week 2010 is one (of quite a few) to come from someone who wishes to remain nameless. This person wanted more Fruits Basket. I'm happy to grant this request since it's been over a year (!) since I last posted anything from this great manga/anime.

I tried to go for a nice mix of guys, although this post is heavily tilted toward manga art.

Image Archive (.zip)

Hot Fictional...Guys?

It's April Fools Day and after not doing anything interesting last year, I figured I'd do something fun this time around.

Today's post deals with the anime/manga phenomenon known as the "trap."  A trap is a male character who looks just like a woman (and the reverse trap is a female character who looks just like a man).


The pictures below feature such "traps."  However, two of the pics have female characters in them.  If you're an anime/manga fan, this will probably be easy but if you're not, I encourage you to see if you can figure out which characters aren't male.

[Updated April 2:  And now the answers...]

 

Both of the pics above have male characters.  The one on the left is Bridget from Guilty Gear and the one on the right is Cecil from FFIV

  

This is the first pic with a female character.  This screenshot comes from Gundam 00.  The character in the foreground is Kati Mannequin, the female character.  The guy in the background is Billy Katagiri.

  

The pic on the left has Momiji and Haru from Fruits Basket (both males).  The pic on the right is the second pic of a female character.  She is Integral Hellsing from Hellsing (and a badass character, frankly).

  

This pic above is from Gundam 00 and features Tieria and Ribbons, who are both male (more or less).

 

Finally, here are the three guys from Princess Princess actually dressed up as...princesses.

Fruits Basket

Fruits Basket is a very popular manga and anime series created by Natsuki Takaya.  In the series, a teenage girl named Tohru stays with members of the Sohma family (lifelong rivals Kyo and Yuki and their older cousin Shigure) when she has no other place to go.  She inadvertently finds out the family's secret curse which is that certain members of the family turn into animals when hugged by a member of the opposite sex.  Instead of getting her memory erased, Tohru is allowed to keep the secret and soon affects the lives of the family.

The anime version of Fruits Basket is one of my all-time favorites and the original manga is very good.  Although you'd think the story would be a wacky comedy (and it indeed does have plenty of laughs), it can be dark and dramatic at times.  The author really explores the negatives of the curse (imagine a mother never being able to truly hold or hug her son) to good effect.

Artwork from both the manga and the anime are featured in today's post.  The manga is available in the U.S. from Tokyopop while the anime is available from Funimation.  Both are highly recommended.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Image Archive (.zip):  RS or MF