With Fruits Basket headed toward its climatic end in Volume 23 (which is due out in July 2009), TokyoPop is doing their level best to keep the Natsuki Takaya fan club happy by releasing two earlier works by this popular shojo manga-ka. Those With Wings (Tsubasa o Motsu Mono) is due out in March 2009, but in the meantime, Phantom Dream Volume 1 is due to hit the bookshops on December 30, 2008.
TokyoPop has posted a 22-page online preview of this new/old series from 1996, so you can kind of get an idea of what you're in for. But as you check it out, remember this: very few manga-ka make their debut drawing and writing stories that are the same caliber as the stories done later in their career. Most early efforts by popular manga creators are promising, but ultimately disappointing. ZombiePowder by Tite Kubo is one example. Phantom Dream is another.
If you're a Fruits Basket reader, you'll see hints of some of your favorite Furuba characters in the cast of Phantom Dream. Cheerful Tohru, brooding Kyo and wiley Shigeru will come to mind when you encounter cheerful Asahi, moody Tamaki and his matter-of-fact mother. You'll even see some of the parent / child angst that drives much of the drama in Fruits Basket. But that makes this supernatural shojo manga series more of a curiosity than a truly compelling story in its own right.
Check out my review of Phantom Dream Volume 1 by Natsuki Takaya from TokyoPop and find out why this story has hints of great things to come, but maybe doesn't fulfill them this time around.
Image credit: © Natsuki Takaya
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