Fruits Basket

Tooru Honda is an orphan with nowhere to go but a tent in the woods, until the Souma family takes her in. However, the Souma family is no ordinary family, and they hide a grave secret: when they are hugged by someone of the opposite gender, they turn into animals from the Chinese zodiac!

Now, Tooru must help Kyou and Yuki Souma hide their curse from their classmates, as well as her friends Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima. As she is drawn further into the mysterious world of the Soumas, she meets more of the family, forging friendships along the way.

But this curse has caused much suffering; it has broken many Soumas. Despite this, Tooru may just be able to heal their hearts and soothe their souls.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Fruits Basket received the 2001 Kodansha Manga Award in the shoujo manga category and the "Best Manga" award at the 2007 American Anime Awards.

Fruits Basket was published in English by Tokyopop from February 10, 2004 to July 6, 2009. A box set with the complete series was released on September 29, 2010. All volumes were re-released in "Ultimate Editions" from October 9, 2007 to July 12, 2011, with two sequential volumes combined in a single hard-cover volume, including new cover art. Those releases were met with mixed reviews as they were exact reproductions of the previously released volumes and did not adjust page numbers or correct prior errors. Yen Press republished the series in 12 volume Collector's Edition from June 28, 2016 to April 18, 2017.

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Related Manga

Other:	Meisaku 4-koma Hakurankai
Alternative setting:	Fruits Basket: Another
Side story:	Fruits Basket: Mabudachi Tokubetsu-hen
Adaptation:	Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket: Prelude, Fruits Basket: The Final, Fruits Basket 2nd Season, Fruits Basket 1st Season

More characters
Characters

Souma, Kyou

Main

Honda, Tooru

Main

Souma, Yuki

Main

Souma, Hatsuharu

Supporting

Souma, Momiji

Supporting

Souma, Shigure

Supporting

Souma, Ayame

Supporting

Souma, Hatori

Supporting

Hanajima, Saki

Supporting

Souma, Isuzu

Supporting

Reviews

Jul 9, 2009

Suzuhana

Recommended

I find that there are people who absolutely love (this seems to be the majority) Furuba or people who can't stand it.

I believe that it's hard not to like Furuba. At first I thought it was just going to be funny, because the first 7 or so volumes are full of hilarious scenes (mainly because whenever the Juunishi are hugged by the opposite sex, they change!). But once you get to volume 6 everything seems to start to gravitate in a different direction.

The story line, when it's revealed, is a little cliche in my opinion. Hence the rate of a 9. Don't get ... me wrong, its a beautiful story and one I find myself learning from over and over again no matter how many times I read it. It's about growing up and becoming who you're meant to be and finding the reason why you were born. It's almost hard to believe sometimes, the pain the characters have to go through in Furuba. But I'm so engrossed in each pain that it's not something that can be put down easily.

The characters are the winning point in Furuba. In reality they'd be a bunch of loners, depressing and sad. And just about every one of them is believable. Their personalities range from overtly happy (meaning there hiding the pain) to stubborn as a horse (go figure) and just down right conceited (he knows who he is). Even 'God' too. The growth of each of them is stunning and gorgeous and reading them grow is like watching the sun rise on a rainy day. I've laughed obnoxiously, cried until my chest hurt and felt the red hot burn of hatred while reading this manga. My favorite character is Kyo because he's absolutely adorable and I think I would also try to solve everything with anger myself. And the one character that I hated and grew to love was Yuki because he, in my opinion, is the one who grows the most. The one problem I have though is our main character. I love and I hate Tohru Honda. It's hard to place into words, what Tohru is. Because she becomes everything at once. A mother, a sister, a friend, a confident, a hero and the reason for someone else's life. But she's also the saddest girl I have ever seen. Bottled up with the most horrifying feelings. Even in the beginning it's obvious. Losing your mother would tear anyone's heart it two. I love her and what she does for everyone in the story. Because if I were to meet her myself, I think I would react much as all the Zodiac do. I would treat her as if she were the sun itself. But where, but in a manga, do you find someone so selfless.

The enjoyment I had and continue to have for this manga is absolute. I own every single volume and I'll pick up one all the time and just read it. There's a lesson in every chapter and words, that even though I don't think anyone in the real world has the heart to say, that make me want to become a better person. Someone who would give and give and give and ask for nothing in return. It makes me want to smile. To be the reason that someone else could smile. It makes me want to to the rock that someone can stand on. It's hard to read this manga and not feel ashamed for something you've done. It makes me ashamed to feel that I don't do as Tohru does. Which is why I believe that everyone should read this manga. Because it's heartwarming, sad, and where life continues to grow.

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Nov 7, 2022

Rollapoid

Mixed Feelings

2022 edit: the opinions expressed in this review are currently outdated, take with a grain of salt.

Young adult/teen characters in a abusive and closed-off family environment with a variety of resurfacing childhood traumas, and how a girl whose greatest strength is her kindness manages to awaken new changes in dealing with that trauma.

Fruits Basket was one of my first manga series ever. I started reading when I was about 12 years old. I didn't know what I was getting myself into- going from enjoying the animal transformations and the cute edgy orange haired teen boy, to seeing the series to the end ... even though I couldn't make sense of the themes and volatile relationships. Now, about ten years later, with much more perspective on un/healthy relationships and family dynamics, and better taste in people I date, I wanted to see if any of my nostalgia needed debunking and if I could clear my past confusion.

The short answer is that the good parts are better than I remembered, and the bad parts are as bad as I remembered. The main characters are still likable (except for Shigure and Akito), whoever your 2008 Sohma crush was they're still dreamy, the character interactions are engaging, and even when they're put in simple scenarios like The Hot Sprints Chapter, The Beach Chapter, The School Festival Chapter, ect, there's still great story and personality development. Before rereading this month, I thought Tohru was probably actually really bland and didn't do anything but I was wrong. You'd be surprised how many of the Sohmas have never had just a single straight up polite semi-nice person interact with them. She's not just a magical cure all fix for problems either, she has her doubts and moments where she has to learn something new, just like any other person, thus she is interesting. Tohru's best friends are often understated on why others like this series. Hanajima and Uotani are not only unique but lovable. I feel that I am vicariously living through them when they confront bullies in high school.
It wasn't just the silly handsome ratboy being eye candy, it was seeing my own personal desire to care for people an try to "fix" their problems and the cascades of twisted relationships found underneath. We've all had to deal with emotional issues between ourselves, friends, and family at some point, so you might see a scenario between these characters mirror something that happened to you. And even if that's not the case, you'll probably feel empathy and the desire for change towards these characters.
Like this, there are a lot of great moments in Fruits Basket, but no need for me to spoil the whole show.

This isn't Natsuki Takaya's first manga, but the art definitely improves from the first chapters onwards. For my tastes, peak Takaya artwork happens between about chapters 35 through 77. I know that post chapter 77 Takaya has some sort of permanent hand injury and the only way she could continue to draw was by changing her style, however on a level of my personal preference, I dislike the new style. I feel it's much less expressive and less detailed than before and I feel it literally shows on the character's faces, and there's more lack of variety in other things like screentones and patterns. I have to give her props though, for not giving up and pushing through a lot of pain.

Now...for the bad unfortunately. Most of the main and side characters are part of a family community. This means that everyone is related to someone in some way. There are cousins who love their cousins in this story and it's put in a positive light, which really puts me off, especially when one of the central themes of this series is learning to find a better way in life with people who aren't connected to you in unhealthy ways. Incest is a pretty big moral taboo, and a lot more bad has come out of it compared to any good.
There is also a very large age gap between Tohru's mother and father. It seems she was about 14-15 years old when they got married and he's about 8-9 years older than her, putting him around 23 years old. They joke once that he's a pedophile, while all the chapters previous explained what a nice guy he was. Most if not all relationships with this kind of age gap where one side is 15 years old are abusive. Chapter 90 portrays the father in too positive of a light, and that's where I ended my reread this year because I was ready to make my full judgments.
I don't consider these to be spoilers though I know others might disagree. But it's a big part of my hangups about the series and I feel I couldn't complete this review without the above information.

Closing statement:
If you've never read this, you're curious, and can push past the incest and the one age gap, I say go for it. It's got a great mix of fun and seriousness, the characters are gems.
If you already read this and your nostalgia is creeping up on you, I say revive those old memories, and just hit the pause button after chapter 77. In addition to my warnings above, I feel that the story pacing after 77 becomes slower and starts to suffer.
If you read this and don't like it by the end of volume 2 or 3, drop it.

Thanks.

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Apr 25, 2018

aesaloniichan

Not Recommended

So here I'm about to pan one of the most-loved manga series of all time, what am I thinking...

I think the reason I have such a negative opinion of this series is because it is so fundamentally wrong on so many levels. But the largest is that it's a story of abuse, abuse, and more abuse; abuse as the default of human interactions; abuse carried through the generations; abuse that carries the weight of some kind of vast karmic mystery. And that's revolting.

Caution: while I will try to avoid spoilers, it's possible that I'll give something away as I will discuss plot in what follows.

It ... shouldn't take long for the reader to realize that this is one of those stories where incomprehensible painful circumstances are meted out to all characters indiscriminately. Our heroine Tohru is recently orphaned; and thrown out of her house by her grandfather, because his family doesn't like her. So she's living in a tent in the woods.

Cheerfully.

COME ON. This is a straight-up Stepford Smiler routine. If you ever meet someone who is this relentlessly cheerful under these circumstances, sleep with one eye open, because that is some INTENSE baggage, most especially to be dumping on a 14-year-old! With no support structure! Tohru's smile ought to be hiding profound psychological agony; Tohru's unrelenting smile should suggest to all that she has some serious unaddressed issues. But no, her principal characteristic is that she truly does love and forgive everyone, even when she ought to be torching the place. This also establishes early a central theme of the series, which is that extended family exists to torment everyone.

Soon we meet the other family that will be the focus of the series, a large, wealthy, extended family straight out of a semi-feudal society. Which is itself made up of a bunch of smaller family groups, all of which have been torn apart by a karmic curse that exists for Reasons and which pretty much everybody would like to break, but nobody knows how. (Don't worry, reader! By the end of the series, nobody will still know how--although the Power of Plot Compels It, so I suppose there's that.) We also meet the two live-in love interests, a pretty-boy sweetheart who's too shy to look you in the eye, and an Angry Young Man. Of the former: well, that shyness is largely because of the abusive environment in which he was raised, with inappropriate relationships and responsibilities thrust upon him immediately, and rejection by his actual family; to the extent that he's suffering from learned helplessness and unable to make his own decisions. Of the latter, we can at least say that he is portraying a much more realistic response to abuse than Tohru does: he's been threatened, made to claim responsibility for things that he did not do, physically abused, socially rejected, and generally tortured his whole life; and his response is, understandably, to inflict that pain right back on everyone else, physically or emotionally.

This is supposed to be a romance?

One can predict, from the genre, that the theme is a Really Tolerant, Persistently Loving Girl needs to come along and rescue one of these poor tortured boys with the power of unconditional love; but the reality is these folks don't need a girl(or boy)friend, they need a therapist. Well, actually they need the police; and child protective services; and then several therapists. Because these are not problems that one person's unconditional love is capable of solving. These are problems that will need to be reflected upon at length, until all three of these characters have learned self-respect and the ability to set and enforce safe boundaries, and have recognized the maladaptive coping mechanisms and expectations their lives of abuse have instilled within them.

Not to mention that it is not the job of the first attractive accommodating woman to enter the life of a troubled young man to perform all the agonizing emotional labor needed to Fix His Dark Brooding Past. (But five bucks what's going to happen...)

It gets worse from there; it's a 23-volume series and there's only one direction for the stakes to go. But suffice it to say that this is a series that normalizes phenomenally troubling interactions and presents them as acceptable. It's a series that promotes an acquiescence to horrific circumstances; and a seriously messed-up response of just accepting and forgiving and accepting and forgiving, in a way that's revolting to watch.

This is the principal reason for my low opinion of the work, and I've gone on long enough anyway, but I should add that aside from its bad social modeling, the book is largely just meaningless melodrama. Several volumes seem dedicated to side characters who serve no real narrative purpose other than to provide extra bodies to pair people off with. I suppose one could call this "character development," but the growth that occurs is largely arbitrary and implausible; it feels more like filler.

The art's good enough--not my favorite, and rather lazy and repetitive in many places--but passable. (Although of course Takaya-sensei can draw way better than I can...) But overall the series is an offensive, tedious slog.

I made it all the way to the end hoping there would finally be some questions answered, or that the inevitable happy end would be earned somehow. If you're hoping the same--well, better luck to you than I had.

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The official website of the Fruit Basket television anime announced a compilation film subtitled Prelude on Friday, revealing a key visual (pictured). The film will ...read more

Oct 30, 2021 1:00 AM by Vindstot | Discuss (23 comments)

'Fruits Basket' Side Story 'Kyouko to Katsuya no Monogatari' Announced for 2022

The 13th and final episode of Fruits Basket: The Final, the third and final season of the anime series, announced a new anime titled Kyouko to Katsuya no Monogatari...read more

Jun 28, 2021 6:34 PM by Vindstot | Discuss (29 comments)

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Poll: Fruits Basket Chapter 7 Discussion bluegummiworms - Jan 26, 2009	6 replies	by SuperJohnDoe »» Nov 14, 2023 3:14 PM
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Poll: Fruits Basket Chapter 135 Discussion Zekkenshin - Jul 20, 2023	2 replies	by marquinti2 »» Jul 20, 2023 6:58 PM

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