Today I suddenly decided to 'research' on things that I wanted to know... (Actually can't exactly be considered as 'suddenly' as I had no idea what I wanted to do online.) I started with Itazura na Kiss, an anime that Kaiyi said was interesting to watch, then I moved on to the mangaka (a person who draws manga) of the series, then to Ritsuko Okazaki, the singer of the theme songs of Fruits Basket, then to Yui Horie, the voice actress of Tohru Honda of Fruits Basket, then to Ayumi Hamasaki and Utada Hikaru, and finally Fruits Basket and the books + CD relating to it other than the manga itself. Here's what I learnt:
-Itazura na Kiss was never finished due to the death of the mangaka while moving house.
-The mangaka of Itazura na Kiss, Kaoru Tada, hit her head on a marble table while moving house with her husband and son and went into a coma. She passed away 3 weeks later, on March 11 1999 at 38 years old.
-Ritsuko Okazaki passed away on May 5 2004 due to sepsis shock (a medical term for bloodstream infection). She was 44 years old.
-Apparently Ritsuko Okazaki produced songs for Yui Horie, the voice actress of Tohru Honda in Fruits Basket and voice actress of Yuki Cross in Vampire Knight.
-Fruits Basket anime was produced in 2001, before the manga finished in 2006. As a result the anime only featured part of the whole manga series and never introduced all the zodiac characters. This is also why Ritsuko Okazaki was able to compose and sing the theme songs. She also came up with the lyrics herself.
-Yui Horie has released 7 albums in addition to her many roles of voice actress in various animes.
-Ayumi Hamasaki started modeling at age seven, after which she acted and sang. Her first few singles, as well as her previous results of modeling, acting or singing did not exactly bring her to popularity. It wasn't until she released her debut album (she released a rap album before though) that she became famous.
-Ayumi Hamasaki is deaf in her left ear from a disease.
-Utada Hikaru is 25 years old this year, but is married at age 19 before divorcing at 24. She plans to get married again.
-There was once when the two singers were competing with their albums in year 2001, which resulted in each album (Ayumi a compliation album and Hikaru a second studio album) selling over 5 million copies.
-Fruits Basket has a drama cd released by magazine Hana to Yume, a fan book and 2 art books by Natsuki Takaya. There are also items like Fruits Basket plushies of the various zodiac animals, calendars (wall type), clothes, keychains, button, figurines, school supplies and a collectible card game, some of the items produced. (I personally own a Fruits Basket envelope and letter set.) This shows how popular Fruits Basket is.
-Fruits Basket is known worldwide. Apart from its original Japanese language, this manga is also translated into 11 other languages.

Ok, I've no idea why I wanted to put all this on my blog. Maybe I am a fan of everything Japanese so this is the result?? I really want to collect all the Fruits Basket merchandise though... Only bought up to volume 8 and already a hard-core fan. LOL. Signing off!
~foreverfriendsg
P.S. Information on all this is on Wikipedia and Anime News Network.