Fruits Basket (Japanese: フルーツバスケット, Hepburn: Furūtsu Basuketto), sometimes shortened to Furuba or Fruba (フルバ), is a Japanese manga written and drawn by Natsuki Takaya. It was published in the Japanese magazine Hana to Yume, which is for young girls, from 1998 to 2006. The title comes from a game played in Japanese elementary schools, which is mentioned in the story.
The story follows Tohru Honda, an orphan girl who meets Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure Sohma. She discovers that 13 members of the Sohma family are cursed to turn into animals from the Chinese zodiac when they feel weak, stressed, or when someone of the opposite gender who is not part of the curse touches them. As the story continues, Tohru learns about the struggles of the Sohma family members and helps them heal emotionally. She also learns more about herself and the care others have for her.
In 2015, Takaya started a sequel called Fruits Basket Another. In 2019, she began a spin-off series titled The Three Musketeers Arc. The original manga was adapted into a 26-episode anime in 2001, produced by Studio Deen and directed by Akitaro Daichi. A second anime series, made by TMS Entertainment and directed by Yoshihide Ibata, began in April 2019. It had three seasons, with the final one airing from April to June 2021. The reboot anime was first produced by Funimation, later moved to Crunchyroll. A movie called Fruits Basket: Prelude was released in theaters in Japan in February 2022 and in other countries later that year.
By December 2018, the manga had sold over 30 million copies, making it one of the best-selling manga series and one of the most popular shōjo manga ever. Academic works have called it a classic favorite among shōjo manga worldwide.
Plot
When Tohru Honda's mother dies in a car accident, Tohru moves in with her grandfather. After several months, her grandfather decides to rebuild his home and asks Tohru to stay with a friend until the work is finished. Tohru does not want to trouble her two best friends, so she buys a tent and begins living in a forest near her school.
While exploring the area, Tohru finds a house where her classmate Yuki Sohma lives with his cousin, Shigure. Soon after, a landslide destroys Tohru's tent, and the Sohmas invite her to stay in their home. As Yuki and Shigure show Tohru her new room, they are interrupted by Kyo Sohma, Yuki and Shigure's cousin, who breaks through the ceiling and challenges Yuki to a fight.
Tohru tries to stop the fight. While doing so, she accidentally falls into Kyo, causing him to change into a cat. This reveals the Sohma family's curse: twelve members of the family, except Kyo, are connected to the spirits of the Chinese zodiac (十二支, Jūnishi). These members transform into their zodiac animal when they feel weak, stressed, embarrassed, or when hugged by someone of the opposite gender. Kyo is linked to the cat, which was excluded from the zodiac, and he is often mistreated by the family.
After learning about the curse, Tohru promises to keep the secret. She is allowed to stay with the Sohmas. Although the curse is more complicated and serious than Tohru first understands, her presence and kindness begin to help the family. She works to end the curse and meets the Sohmas' angry zodiac spirits, including their leader, Akito, who holds the role of "God" in the Chinese legend. Akito both unites the family and keeps them bound to their spirits.
Production
The name of the series comes from a children's game called Fruits Basket (フルーツバスケット, furūtsu basuketto). In the game, children sit in a circle, and the leader calls out the names of fruits. When a child's fruit is called, they must find a new seat. When the main character, Tohru Honda, first plays this game in kindergarten, her classmates do not give her a fruit. Instead, they assign her "onigiri," a type of rice ball. Tohru thinks onigiri is delicious and does not notice that her classmates are leaving her out of the game. After the game ends and all the other children have been called, Tohru realizes that onigiri is not a fruit and understands she does not belong.
Tohru later connects this game to the Sohma family, feeling she does not fit in with them, just as onigiri does not belong in a basket of fruit. In the first volume of the manga, after Yuki and Kyo take Tohru to their home from her grandfather's house, she begins to feel she belongs with the Sohma family. She then imagines herself as a child hearing "onigiri" called in the game, showing she has finally found her place.
The author, Natsuki Takaya, named most of the twelve Sohma characters cursed by zodiac animals after old names for months in the former Japanese calendar that match their zodiac signs. Exceptions include Kureno and Momiji, whose names were accidentally swapped. Kyo, who represents a cat, is not part of the official zodiac and does not follow this naming rule. Yuki's name also does not follow this pattern because Takaya created it before deciding the other names.
Media
The 136 chapters of Fruits Basket were first published in Japan by Hakusensha in the magazine Hana to Yume from July 1998 to November 2006. These chapters were later grouped into 23 tankōbon volumes, which were released between January 1999 and March 2007. On September 4, 2015, the first two volumes of Fruits Basket: Collector's Edition were released in Japan under the Hana to Yume Comics Special imprint. The 12th and final volume of this edition was published on July 20, 2016.
The series is licensed for English publication in North America and the United Kingdom by Tokyopop, and in Singapore by Chuang Yi. The Singapore edition is also available in Australia and New Zealand through Madman Entertainment. All 23 English-language volumes have been released in North America and Singapore. In 2007, Tokyopop released a box set containing the first four volumes. They later began re-releasing earlier volumes in "Ultimate Editions," which combined two volumes into one larger hardcover book with new cover art. However, the first Ultimate Edition received mixed reviews because it did not correct errors or update page numbers. By June 2008, six Ultimate Editions had been released, covering the first 12 volumes. After Tokyopop stopped publishing, Yen Press took over the license and planned to release the series in 12 omnibus editions that matched the Japanese collector's editions. Starting in June 2016, Fruits Basket: Collector's Edition was released in English by Yen Press.
On September 4, 2015, a new series titled Fruits Basket Another began being published in HanaLaLaOnline. In August 2017, it moved to Manga Park. Originally, the series was expected to end on December 3, 2018, but in March 2020, it was announced that the series would return with "chapter 13" (split into three parts) on April 20, 2020 (originally scheduled for April 6). The second part of "chapter 13" was published on May 4, 2020, and the third part was released in September 2020. The author, Takaya, stated this would be the final chapter. The first collected volume of Fruits Basket Another was published on August 19, 2016. The series concluded with its fourth volume, released on February 18, 2022. In November 2017, Yen Press acquired the rights to publish the series in English.
A three-chapter story titled Fruits Basket: Three Musketeers Arc was published in Hana to Yume on April 20, June 5, and July 5, 2019. A "second season" of this story began on April 20, 2020. The second chapter was published on June 20, and the third chapter was released on August 5, 2020. These chapters were collected in the fourth volume of Fruits Basket Another. Yen Press digitally released the series, with the chapters published on April 23, June 6, and July 9, 2019. The first chapter of Fruits Basket: The Three Musketeers Arc 2 was published on April 28, 2020, followed by the second chapter on June 22, 2020, and the third chapter on August 5, 2020.
The Fruits Basket anime series, directed by Akitaro Daichi, was produced by Studio Deen and NAS, with TV Tokyo as the broadcasting company. It aired on TV Tokyo from July 5, 2001, to December 27, 2001. Some story elements differed from the manga, such as the way characters like Momiji and Shigure behaved. The opening and ending themes were performed by Ritsuko Okazaki. The English dub version used "For Fruits Basket" as the opening theme, performed by Meredith McCoy, and "Chiisana Inori" and "Serenade" as the ending themes, performed by Laura Bailey and Daphne Gere, respectively.
The anime was released in Japan on nine DVD volumes by King Records. Each volume contained three episodes, except the first, which had two. The first volume was released on September 29, 2001, with subsequent volumes released monthly until May 22, 2002. A box set containing all 26 episodes, a message card from Natsuki Takaya, a 60-page booklet, and a bonus soundtrack CD was released on April 25, 2007.
Funimation aired the English-dubbed version of the anime on their channel, Colours TV, and released it on Region 1 DVDs in four volumes, each containing 6–7 episodes, and a complete box set. In 2007, Funimation re-released the series in a cheaper version called the Viridian line. In 2017, they released it on Blu-ray in standard and collector's editions. In the United Kingdom, Funimation initially worked with MVM Entertainment, but later partnered with Revelation Films. Revelation re-released the four volumes and a box set in 2007. MVM later reacquired the rights in 2011. In Region 4, Madman Entertainment released the complete box set on October 15, 2003.
A new anime adaptation was announced in November 2018 and began airing in April 2019. This version covered the entire manga and featured new cast and staff, with TMS Entertainment handling production. Yoshihide Ibata directed the series, and Taku Kishimoto and Masaru Shindou worked on the script and character designs. The first season aired 25 episodes from April 6 to September 21, 2019, on TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, and TV Aichi. The opening themes were "Fruits Basket" and "The Future," performed by different artists, and the ending themes were "
Reception
The Fruits Basket manga series is one of the most popular manga series in Japan and the United States. Over 18 million copies have been sold in Japan, and more than 30 million copies worldwide. It is Tokyopop’s best-selling manga series, with over 2 million copies sold by 2006. The fifteenth volume of the English version reached the fifteenth position on the USA Today Top 150 Bestselling Books list, which is the highest position ever achieved by a manga volume in the United States. The eighteenth volume debuted at the top of the Nielsen BookScan sales list, and the nineteenth volume was the second bestselling graphic novel in March 2008. Despite a slow manga market, Fruits Basket remained the second highest-selling manga series among BookScan companies in 2007. The final volume of the English adaptation was a New York Times manga bestseller from June 28 through July 25, moving from second to first in the list during the week of July 19–25. The volume fell to second place the following week and then to fourth place during the week of August 8. The final volume stayed on the bestseller list for 12 weeks.
The Fruits Basket manga received the 2001 Kodansha Manga Award in the shōjo manga category and the "Best Manga" award at the 2007 American Anime Awards.
Critics praised the story in Fruits Basket as thoughtful, with the first volume hinting at deeper, darker themes that make readers "question everything that happens." Some critics felt later volumes included too much sadness and questioned the large number of troubled parents in the series. One reviewer said, "in the world of Fruits Basket, good parents are as common as penguins in the Sahara—every single one is either neglectful, smothering, unfeeling, abusive, misguided, or dead."
Takaya’s artwork has been praised for detailed drawing, shading, and the ability to show characters’ emotions without dialogue.
In Manga: The Complete Guide, Jason Thompson gave the manga three and a half stars out of four. He called the series "surprisingly sad" and praised the well-defined characters but noted the artwork was "neither particularly well drawn nor incredibly witty." He described it as "a fascinating manga, like a sweet, melancholy dream." A factor in its success in English-speaking countries was that the books were sold in bookstores instead of comic shops, which are usually for male customers.
The first Fruits Basket anime adaptation was well received, ranking third in Anihabara’s list of top televised anime series in Japan for February 2002. In the June 2002 issue of Animage magazine, the series was first in a list of the best twenty anime series in Japan. In 2001, the anime won an Animage Anime Grand Prix award. In 2006, five years after the series finished airing in Japan, it was ranked 93rd in TV Asahi’s list of Japan’s 100 favorite animated TV series. Animerica reviewers compared the anime to Ranma ½ in terms of premise and musical score. Julie Davis described the characters as "superficially pretty" and "so-clean-they-look-almost-like-paper-cutouts" with "really, really gigantic eyes," but noted the zodiac animal forms were "cute and cuddly." Another reviewer, Urian Brown, said the characters were "designed in a sleek, stylish manner that is classy" and praised the animation as "refined." Critics felt the ending of the anime was a good stopping point, leaving room for future storylines, such as the curse and Tohru’s future choice between Kyo and Yuki. While some felt the plot lacked development, they praised the strong character relationships. Allen Divers of Anime News Network called the series a "true emotional roller coaster" that hides "truly deep and heartfelt drama" behind humor, adding that the show explores many "aspects of emotion."
In April 2005, Funimation Entertainment started a project asking convention attendees to help fold 1,000 origami paper cranes. In Japanese folklore, folding 1,000 paper cranes grants a wish. After fans successfully folded 1,000 cranes by the end of the 2005 convention season, Funimation sent the cranes and pictures to Studio Deen and Hakusensha to request a second season of the anime. This effort led to a 13-year gap before the new Fruits Basket anime was announced in 2018.
The 2019 version of the anime also received positive reviews. Thrillist listed the 2019 series among the best anime of the 2010s. At the 4th Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2020, the anime was nominated in three categories, including Best Drama; its second season won Best Drama, and Akito Soma was nominated for Best Antagonist at the fifth edition. The final season was nominated in four categories, including Best Drama and Best Romance, at the sixth edition. In February 2022, Fruits Basket: The Final won three awards, including "Anime of the Year" at the 8th Anime Trending Awards.