Fruits Basket Anime

Fruits Basket (フルーツバスケット Furūtsu Basuketto?), sometimes abbreviated Furuba (フルバ?), is a Japanese manga series by Natsuki Takaya. It was serialized in the semi-monthly Japanese magazine Hana to Yume, published by Hakusensha, from 1999 to 2006. The series was also adapted into a 26-episode anime series, directed by Akitaro Daichi. The series tells the story of Tohru Honda, an orphan girl who, after meeting Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure Sohma, learns that thirteen members of the Sohma family are possessed by the animals of the Chinese zodiac (十二支 Jūnishi?) and are cursed to turn into their animal forms if they are embraced by anyone of the opposite sex.
The word "Fruits" in the title is always plural; the spelling originates from the transcription of the English word "fruit" into Japanese, where because there is no "tu" sound, "tsu" is used instead. The title comes from the name of a popular game played in Japanese elementary schools, which is alluded to in the series.
The name spellings used in this article correspond to those given in the official Region 1 DVD and English manga releases. Romanization style names are given in Western order, with the family name last.

Plot

Fruits Basket follows the life of high-school student Tohru Honda, who was recently orphaned when her mother, Kyoko Honda, died in a car accident. After that, Tohru lived with her grandfather, but when his house needs remodeling, Tohru resorts to living in a tent in a forest and holds down a job to support herself. Despite suffering many hardships, Tohru remains optimistic.
One day, Tohru comes upon a house in the forest that is the home of her classmate Yuki Sohma and his cousin Shigure Sohma. When the Sohmas discover that Tohru is living in a tent, they are quite surprised by her inner strength. The entire area is Sohma property, and Tohru asks to be allowed to stay in her tent, but then collapses because of a fever brought on by working too hard. A landslide buries her tent, including her mother's picture and school clothes, and she moves into Shigure's house for the night. Desperate for a break from the filth of the house and takeaway meals, she is asked to become a permanent guest in the house, if she cooks and cleans. She accepts, and is being shown her room by Yuki when Kyo Sohma bursts in (through the roof) to challenge Yuki. Tohru, not knowing Yuki's strength, tries to stop Kyo by grabbing him, and as a result he transforms into a cat. She is then hit on the head with a plank of wood, and collapses into Shigure and Yuki, turning them into a dog and rat respectively.
Tohru discovers the Sohma family's secret, and the reason why Yuki is so private and secretive at school: thirteen members of the family are possessed by the 12 animal spirits of the Chinese Zodiac plus the spirit of the cat who was, according to legend, left out of the Zodiac. They transform into animals when hugged by the opposite sex or when put under a great deal of emotional or physical stress (such as being sick). 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 "Inside" 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. Soon, after living with the Sohma family she began to like, then love, all of the Sohmas, and sets out to break the zodiac curse.

Differences between manga and anime
In many places, the anime episodes are very similar to the corresponding manga chapters.[1] However, the anime does make some changes to the story. Several events are combined, and some events, such as Tohru's first meeting with Momiji and all references to Tohru's baseball hat, never happen in the anime at all. The anime series also added more instances of Sohma members being accidentally transformed by Tohru. For example, in episode six when Tohru's friends Hanajima and Uotani visit the Sohma house, the anime has a lengthy series of accidental transformations,[2] while in the manga, no transformations occurred during their visit.[3] Much of the events surrounding the revealing of Kyo's true form are greatly changed in the anime, including adding an extended chase sequence, Tohru meeting Akito in the woods, her meeting with Hanajima and Uotani at her mother's grave, and Yuki having also chased after Kyo,[4] none of which happen in the manga.[5]
While the anime keeps most of the characters exactly the same as in the manga series, it does make some changes. In the manga, Momiji is half-German and half-Japanese and regularly speaks German, particularly when he first meets Tohru, while in the anime his bi-racial status is never mentioned and no German is spoken.[6] Shigure's darker tones are toned down in the anime, with many remarks he makes in the manga that hint at a hidden agenda are left out, along with most of his early scenes with Akito.[6] In the anime, Akito is biologically male and will die at a young age because of the curse,[7] while in the manga, Akito is biologically female but brought up as male and is not dying.[8]

Tohru Honda (本田 透 Honda Tōru?)

An orphaned high school student who, at the start of the story, begins living with Shigure, Yuki, and Kyo Sohma in exchange for housekeeping. She loves to cook and describes herself as an excellent housekeeper. She also has an after-school job as a janitor to pay her tuition fees to avoid being a burden on her grandfather.[9] She is depicted as polite, optimistic, extremely kind, and selfless;[10][11] several other characters, including Kyo,[12] Rin,[13] and Hanajima,[14] tell her she needs to look out for her own interests and not shoulder everyone else's burdens. In the original Japanese, Tohru habitually speaks formally (see Honorific speech in Japanese), but not always correctly,[15] a habit she picked up from her father, Katsuya, after he died when she was three, as a way of replacing him in her mother's eyes.[16] Tohru's mother, Kyoko, raised her alone until she died in a car accident shortly after Tohru entered high school, a few months before the start of the story. Tohru repeatedly calls Kyoko the most important person in her life and treasures her photograph;[17] when she falls in love with Kyo she feels guilty of being "unfaithful" to her mother's memory.[18]
In the first half of the series, as Tohru learns about the zodiac curse and its effects on those she loves, she becomes distressed, and when she learns that the dangerous Akito is the "god" of the zodiac, she resolves to break the curse.[19] Only later does she admit that she wants to free Kyo most of all.[20] Despite setbacks, she stubbornly persists in her goal and eventually frees Kyo and her friends.[21] In the last chapter, she begins moving with Kyo to another city so he can continue his martial arts training, and in the final pages they are shown as a loving elderly couple with a granddaughter.[22] Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese), Laura Bailey (English)

Yuki Sohma (草摩 由希 Sōma Yuki?)

Yuki is the rat of the Chinese zodiac. Yuki is depicted as an attractive, reserved, and accomplished young man with many admirers, but who finds being friendly difficult. When Yuki was young, Akito Sohma kept him isolated and convinced him no one liked him;[23] because of this, Yuki has low self-esteem and feels isolated.[24] He is known as "Prince Yuki" and "Prince Charming" at school, where he has a fan club headed by Motoko Minagawa that tries to "protect" him from other admirers, with the result that Yuki is further isolated,[25] and he is pressured by his popularity to become president of the student council despite his misgivings.[26] Yuki, however, wishes that he could be with people as friends, rather than be admired from afar, and envies both Kyo Sohma's and Kakeru Manabe's easy ways with others.[27][28] He is touched when, faced with the prospect of having her memory of the Sohma family secret erased, Tohru Honda asks that he remain her friend,[29] which no one had asked him before.[30] With Tohru's help Yuki is gradually able to "open the lid" on his feelings, and the summer after she begins living in Shigure's house, Yuki admits to himself that he loves her.[31]
When Yuki was around six or seven years old, he ran away from Akito and was the one who returned Tohru to her mother when she was lost.[32] For that, Yuki has always had fond feelings for Tohru for actually "needing" him.[32] However, he later admits to Manabe that he was looking for a mother-figure and found her in Tohru.[30] As the rat, Yuki despises the current cat, Kyo, despite envying him, and is contemptuous of his attempts to defeat him. Even when he recognizes the true nature of his feelings for Tohru, Yuki is uncomfortable when he recognizes her and Kyo's growing feelings for each other.[33] Yuki becomes attracted to Machi Kuragi, a student council secretary who also had a traumatic childhood,[34] and falls in love with her. When he knows that Kyo will be confessing to Tohru that he loves her, Yuki meets with Machi, and is with her when his curse lifts, whereupon the first thing he does is embrace her.[21] In the last chapter, he gives Machi a key to his new apartment, where he will be living as he attends university.[22] Voiced by: Aya Hisakawa (Japanese), Eric Vale (English)

Kyo Sohma (草摩 夾 Sōma Kyō?)

Kyo is cursed by the cat, an animal not in the Chinese zodiac but which legend says would have been if it had not been tricked by the rat into missing the induction feast (see Zodiac origin stories).[9] He is depicted as an orange-haired young man who is short-tempered and charismatic, if initially awkward around people; Arisa Uotani once calls him "anger management boy,"[3] and Yuki Sohma expresses envy of his ability to make friends easily.[27] He is also fiercely competetive, and can be easily manipulated into doing things he does not want to by turning it into a competition—especially against Yuki. As the cat, Kyo hates Yuki, the current rat of the zodiac, who he sees as never having to work hard at anything,[3] and has dedicated his life to defeating him. Shortly before the series beginning, Kyo made a bet with Akito: if he defeats Yuki before graduating high school, he would officially be accepted as part of the zodiac; however, if he does not, Kyo would be confined inside the Sohma estate for the rest of his life.[35] Despite many months of strict training, however, Kyo never lands a decent blow on Yuki. Their rivalry distresses Tohru, who likes them both, but she comes to worry even more when they do not fight.[36] The two eventually tell each other, during an argument, they envy as well as despise each other and come to a truce for Tohru's sake.[37]
At the start of the story, Kyo moves into Shigure's house with Yuki and Tohru.[9] When Kyo was young, his mother died in an accident rumored to be suicide over her son's curse, and after his father rejected him, Kyo was taken in by Kazuma Sohma. The two love each other as father and son,[38] but Kazuma insists he continue to live with Shigure because he believes Tohru is helping him open up.[39] Aside from his foster father, however, Kyo runs away from the people who want to help him, because he is ashamed of his true form—a grotesque, foul-smelling, larger version of his zodiac animal—which he turns into when his bone juzu bead bracelet is removed.[38] When Tohru sees his true form, however, she is initially repulsed but follows him to beg him stay with her, which strengthens their bond.[38] However, Kyo also blames himself for the death of Tohru's mother, whom he could have saved at the risk of turning into a cat, and he was shaken by Kyoko's last words, "I'll never forgive you..."[40] As the story progresses, Kyo falls in love with Tohru, but he refuses to subject her to the pain he is convinced he will cause, so when she confesses she loves him, he calls her "delusional."[40] Only when Uotani, Hanajima, and Yuki impress upon him how deeply his rejection hurt Tohru does he get up the courage to accept her, and when he does finally confess to her, his curse lifts—along with the rest of the zodiac.[21] In the last chapter, he and Tohru begin moving out of Shigure's house to another city, where he will study at another dojo in preparation for inheriting Kazuma's, and in the final pages they are shown as a loving couple with a grandaughter.[22] Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (Japanese), Jerry Jewell (English)