Fruits Basket

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This article is about the manga and anime series. For the game, see Fruit Basket Turnover.

Fruits Basket
Genre	Romance, Drama, Comedy, Harem, Shojo
Manga
Authored by	Natsuki Takaya
Publisher	Hakusensha Tokyopop Madman Entertainment Chuang Yi Editora JBC Delcourt Carlsen Mundo Vid Norma Editorial Penerbit PT Elex Media Komputindo
Serialized in	Hana to Yume
Original run	January 1999 – November 2006
No. of volumes	21 (23 volumes total) 14 released in the U.S. 19 released in Australia 20 released in Singapore 19 released in France 16 released in Mexico 16 released in Brazil 12 released in Spain 11 released in Germany 14 released in Indonesia
TV anime
Directed by	Akitaro Daichi
Studio	Studio DEEN
Network	TV Tokyo ABS-CBN , Studio 23 , Hero TV CoLours TV Déclic-Images
Original run	5 July 2001 – 27 December 2001
No. of episodes	26

Fruits Basket (フルーツバスケット, Furūtsu Basuketto^?) is a shōjo manga series created by Natsuki Takaya (pseudonym, real name unknown^{[citation needed]}) serialized in the semi-monthly Japanese Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams) magazine, which is published by Hakusensha. It won the 2001 Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo. Fruits Basket has also been adapted into a 26-episode anime series by Akitaro Daichi (director) on TV Tokyo. The word "Fruits" in the title is always plural.

The title is often shortened to Furuba or Fruba, a portmanteau of the two parts in the Japanese pronunciation of the title, Furutsu Basuketto.

[edit] Story

Fruits Basket follows the life of high school student Tohru Honda, recently orphaned when her mother is killed in a car crash. Tohru lives with her grandfather, but when remodelling is needed on the house, Tohru resorts to living in a tent and holds down a job to support herself. Despite suffering many hardships, Tohru remains her cheerful and optimistic self.

One day, Tohru comes upon a house in the woods which is the home of Shigure Sohma and Yuki Sohma (a first year at her school with an unwanted fan club) from the Sohma family. When the Sohmas discover that Tohru is, in fact, living in a tent in the woods, they are quite surprised. The entire area is Sohma property, and Tohru pleads to stay, offering to pay a rental fee for living on their land. Feeling sorry for her, and desperate to end their take-out eating habits and filthy living conditions, the Sohmas offer her their spare room in exchange for cooking and housework. When her tent is buried that night in a landslide, she has no option but to accept.

Tohru soon discovers the Sohma family's secret, and the reason why Yuki is so private and taciturn: thirteen members of the family are possessed by the 12 animal spirits of the Chinese Zodiac ("Jyūnishi" in Japanese) and the spirit of the cat who was left out of the Zodiac according to legend. They transform into animals when hugged by the opposite gender, or when they are under great amounts of stress. When she promises to keep their secret, the Sohmas allow Tohru to keep her memories rather than hypnotically erasing them, a fate that had previously befallen anyone not on the "Inside" of the Sohma family who had discovered the secret.

The story follows the lives of Tohru and the Sohma family, as they deal with each other and a society where neither quite fits in, as well as the feared Akito Sohma, head of the Sohma family.

[edit] Main characters

Main article: Fruits Basket characters

• Tohru Honda

(本田 透 Honda Tōru), 16-17 - An orphaned high school student, Tohru ends up sharing house with Shigure, Yuki and Kyo Sohma. She loves to cook, is an excellent housekeeper and has an after school job as a janitor to help pay her tuition fees (since she doesn't want to be a burden on her grandfather). She's always polite, and is extremely kind and selfless; in fact, the other characters sometimes have to tell her that she needs to look out for her own interests. (Seiyu: Yui Horie, VA: Laura Bailey)

• Yuki Sohma

(草摩 由希 Sōma Yuki), 16-17 - Yuki is the rat of the zodiac. Known as "The Prince" at school, Yuki is very pretty and refined, and has many admirers at school, but has a hard time being social. He wishes that he could be with people as friends, rather than admired and worshiped from afar. Yuki has suffered a traumatic childhood at the hands of Akito, the head of the Sohma clan, who locked up and mentally tortured him. Because of this, Yuki has a somewhat low sense of worth and is claustrophobic. With Tohru's help, however, Yuki is gradually able to loosen up. (Seiyu: Aya Hisakawa, VA: Eric Vale)

• Kyo Sohma

(草摩 夾 Sōma Kyō), 16-17 - Kyo is the cat, an animal not in the zodiac, but which legend says would have been if it had not been tricked by the rat into missing the induction feast. Kyo despises Yuki and has dedicated his life to defeat him. He made a bet with Akito: if he defeats Yuki before high school ends, he'll officially be accepted along with the other Jyuunishi by the Sohmas. If he does not, however, Kyo would be forced to live "inside", within the Sohma estate for the rest of his life. Despite many months of strict training, Kyo has never managed to even land a decent blow on Yuki. Kyo runs away even from the people that want to help him, because he is ashamed of his true form, which he turns into when his rosary bead bracelet is removed. When Tohru sees his true form, however, she still accepts him and begs him to stay with her, which forms a bond of sorts between the two.(Seiyu: Tomokazu Seki, VA: Jerry Jewell)

[edit] Origin of the title

The phrase "fruits basket" means simply a basket of fruit in Japan. In Japan, where arable land is in short supply and fresh food very expensive, a basket of fresh fruit is a costly and desirable item. It is written in Japanese as フルーツバスケット, fu-ru-u-tsu ba-su-ke-t-to, where the 'tsu' kana represents the 'ts' in "fruits", making it plural.

The series is named after the children's game, Fruits Basket, in which everyone sits in a circle, and the leader of the game names each person after a fruit; when the name of a child's fruit is called, that child gets up and swaps positions with others with the same name. When Tohru first played this game in kindergarten, she was assigned "Onigiri" (rice ball), which was fine with her, since she believes onigiri are delicious. However, everyone but her was called, and she was the only one left sitting when she realized that an onigiri isn't a fruit and that she'd never be called. She was purposefully excluded from the game; another of the mean tricks that other kids used to pull on her. She realizes that an onigiri can never belong in a Fruits Basket.

During the course of the story, lines spoken by members of the Sohma clan are often illustrated by a super deformed (SD) head of the corresponding animal: for example, when Yuki speaks from off-screen a small mouse head might appear, and when Kyo snaps a reply there might be an angry cat face. Uotani and Hanajima's SD heads are based off their names and are a fish and a flower, respectively(Although at the beginning of the manga, before the Sohma curse was revealed, Shigure and Yuki's SD were the first letter of their names enclosed in a circle). As the series goes on, Tohru's comments are illustrated in the same way with an animated onigiri: illustrating that although Tohru might have been rejected by classmates at school, she has found a place she can belong with the Sohmas.

[edit] The manga

Fruits Basket is still being published in Japan. It has 135 chapters as of November 2, the penultimate chapter of the series. Chapter 136 will be officially out on November 20. Chapter 136 is officially the final chapter of the series, as first mentioned on the cover of chapter 134 (referring to 134 also.) This will make a total of twenty-three volumes in the series.

Twenty-one collected volumes have been released in Japan, and the final two are expected to be released next year around January and May. (Following past Japanese release dates.)[1] In 2003, the manga was licensed for United States distribution by TOKYOPOP after it topped a poll of requested manga on their website. The first translated volume was released in February, 2004. In Singapore, an English translation is adapted by Chuang Yi, and the Singaporean translation is imported to Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment. Meanwhile, in Europe, the French translation of the manga is available up to volume nineteen, as of September 2006. In Brazil, the Portuguese translation is published by Editora JBC since April, 2005. A runaway hit, by volume five in the U.S, it had taken the title of "Best Selling Shōjo Manga in 2004." [2]

[edit] Manga cover

The volumes each feature a specific main character on the cover. They are, in order:

[edit] Manga volumes

Japanese Volumes to date: 21

English USA Volumes to date: 14

English Volume 15 scheduled for release December 12, 2006[3]

English Singapore/Australia Volumes to date: 20 [4] [5]

French Volumes to date: 19

Currently (September 2006[6]), no official date for French Volume 20 yet.

Spanish volumes to date: 17(Mexico)

[edit] Manga contents

The contents of the manga Fruits Basket is much more detailed that the anime series. Where the anime ends with volume 8, though little content is included, the manga continues to cover Kyo, Yuki's and Tohru's relationships, the student council and other things happening inside the Sohma family, including Akito's and Kureno's secrets.

[edit] The anime

The Fruits Basket anime is a 26-episode series adapted by Akitaro Daichi. It aired on TV channel TV Tokyo from July 5 to December 27, 2001, at 18:00 on Thursdays. It currently airs as part of the FUNimation programming block on CoLours TV. The beginning and ending songs are "For Fruits Basket" and "Chiisana Inori" (Little Prayer).

The anime series follows the manga up to approximately the middle of volume 8 of the collections.

Following the series release in North America by FUNimation, a grassroots effort has been mounted by the fan base to have a second season of the series produced in Japan. Funimation has had a sizable hand in this effort, organizing origami crane folding events at various anime conventions. These cranes were then sent to Japan as a form of petition for the production of a second season. At the beginning of 2006, however, Natsuki Takaya and Daichi Akitaro announced in two separate interviews that there will not be any more work on the anime due to a number of reasons.

[edit] Production staff

• Studio: Studio DEEN
• Director: Akitaro Daichi
• Assistant Director: Nagisa Miyazaki
• Series Story Editor: Rika Nakase
• Character Design: Akemi Hayashi
• Music: Seji Muto

[edit] Cast

[edit] Distribution

In North America, FUNimation has released the Fruits Basket anime on DVD in R1, comprising four volumes. This is also available as a complete Boxset in Australia and New Zealand from Madman Entertainment The anime is produced in English in Singapore by Odex. FUNimation has received high acclaim for their work in dubbing the series.

[edit] A note on Romanization

The name spellings used here are only one possible romanization and have been chosen to correspond as much as possible to the officially licensed R1 DVD names. Names are given in Western order, with the family name last. The romanization style according to the Manual of Style is given in parentheses to the right of the official romanization in Japanese order, with the family name before the given name.

[edit] See also

• Dai Hin Min - The card game frequently played during the series.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Fruits Basket

Official sites

• (Japanese) TV Tokyo's Fruits Basket Site (anime)
• (English) FUNimation's Fruits Basket Site (anime)

Unofficial sites

• (English) TokyoPop's Fruits Basket Site (manga)
• (English) Chiisana Inori (fansite anime/manga)
• (French) Suba Furuba (fansite anime/manga)
• (English) Otaku Corner (manga)
• (French) Fruits Basket Temple (fansite anime/manga)
• (English) Time.com's Interview with Natsuki Takaya (manga)
• (English) Silverstar's Fruits Basket anime fansite (anime)