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フルーツバスケット [Fruits Basket] #1-23
Fruits Basket: The Complete Series Box and More!
Books 1-23, FanBook- Cat, and Fruits Basket and Friends Sample Magna Book. All in perfect condition! No Box.
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First published July 18, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 190 reviews
February 10, 2016
This manga is a masterpiece. I am just lost for words. Best manga I have and WILL ever read. One of the stories I shall forever keep in my heart, like a real treasure. Not a lot of things make me feel as happy and secure as this series does.
September 7, 2023
Lets face it, the description does not sound very intriguing. Granted, the first few chapters are chock full of clichés and quite predictable. However, this manga slowly takes a turn and manages to grow on you. It would have been easy to make this a comedy by focusing on the day to day life of the characters, a la Ranma ½, but Natsuki Takaya does a great job in creating a psychological story.
I loved that the characters are all unique and well developed. The backstories showed how their personalities evolved and what made them as they are. Almost all of them had a difficult past, yet they grew up to be strong. Overall, it is an inspiring read with a lot of darkness and subtle metaphors. You might dislike it in the beginning (I did too), but somewhere in the middle, it starts to become amazing. Definitely worth a read!
I loved that the characters are all unique and well developed. The backstories showed how their personalities evolved and what made them as they are. Almost all of them had a difficult past, yet they grew up to be strong. Overall, it is an inspiring read with a lot of darkness and subtle metaphors. You might dislike it in the beginning (I did too), but somewhere in the middle, it starts to become amazing. Definitely worth a read!
February 13, 2016
This series makes me cry. I love following the story of this incredibly large and extremely dysfunctional family. Sure the idea for the series sounds kind of hokey. In fact the description kept me from reading it for years, but then one day I purchased the anime on sale from Best Buy (using a gift card I actually won at a baby shower...I never win anything :D ) and fell in love and had to give the manga a shot. I'm so glad I did.
I became completely immersed in all of the different story lines and each featured family member or friend's unique issue. I cried for characters like Momiji, who's adorable and sweet and completely unwanted and rejected by his mother and neglected by his father. I hurt for Kyo whose fate was determined before he was born and who was angry all the time because there was nothing he could do about it. I cheered for Yuki who finally was able to tell his mother where to put it. And I loved Ayame for being ridiculous but supportive of his little brother. Then there was Tohru who you couldn't help but care about for her sweetness and her fiercely protective girlfriends.
If you're looking for a heart-warming, sometimes hilarious, other times heartbreaking manga series, try Fruits Basket. Once you get over the premise, if you think it sounds silly, you'll love it. Read it all before you judge!
I became completely immersed in all of the different story lines and each featured family member or friend's unique issue. I cried for characters like Momiji, who's adorable and sweet and completely unwanted and rejected by his mother and neglected by his father. I hurt for Kyo whose fate was determined before he was born and who was angry all the time because there was nothing he could do about it. I cheered for Yuki who finally was able to tell his mother where to put it. And I loved Ayame for being ridiculous but supportive of his little brother. Then there was Tohru who you couldn't help but care about for her sweetness and her fiercely protective girlfriends.
If you're looking for a heart-warming, sometimes hilarious, other times heartbreaking manga series, try Fruits Basket. Once you get over the premise, if you think it sounds silly, you'll love it. Read it all before you judge!
June 20, 2010
This was a really cute series and very creative. I think it is also a good series that teaches others not to judge a person by what they look like, but to look on the inside and treat others how you would want to be treated.
December 18, 2019
One of my all time fav mangas.
November 2, 2016
I absolutely loved this series. It was the first manga I ever read which is probably why it holds such a place in my heart because it opened the gateway to my love of all manga and anime.
Despite having such a large cast of characters I found that everyone was given their time to shine and tell their stories. I loved how everything tied together with Tohru and Kyo's history [I was rooting for them all along ;)] The writing truly made me care about the people in the series and Tohru's unending optimism even in the face of the tragic loss of her mother and her hardships with the Sohma family is inspiring. I must confess I always tell my loved ones "Be Safe" when they leave the house after reading this series.
Despite having such a large cast of characters I found that everyone was given their time to shine and tell their stories. I loved how everything tied together with Tohru and Kyo's history [I was rooting for them all along ;)] The writing truly made me care about the people in the series and Tohru's unending optimism even in the face of the tragic loss of her mother and her hardships with the Sohma family is inspiring. I must confess I always tell my loved ones "Be Safe" when they leave the house after reading this series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2016
I haven't read a lot of manga, but I have read and own the entirety of this series and have read it more than once. It's a magical realism fantasy dramady romance that at points gets really angst-heavy. Only upon rereading was I able to appreciate the amount of forethought and foreshadowing this series had, as it was originally written and drawn as a serial over 7 years. It has a large cast of characters that is strongly developed. While there is this mystical element that plays a large role in the story, the story is intensely interpersonal and character lead. It subverts, many times, your expectations, especially when it comes to the "villain" of the piece. If you dabble in reading manga and haven't read this, read this.
June 22, 2010
It was so sad! And so touching! I loved this series and it's my all-time favorite manga series for now and forever. Nothing could live up the this series. You could totally feel for the characters.
June 3, 2019
I'm going to take this opportunity to really show my WHOLE nerd ass and talk about what this series means to me. Because I don't know if I can overstate it. Five stars are not enough to encompass my CAPITAL F Feelings. This review will be filled with unmarked spoilers. I cannot be bothered when I wax poetic about manga. Lord, forgive me this word vomit.
Discovering manga when I was in high school was an extremely formative moment for me. It was filled with girls who were lonely, who wanted to escape their regular worlds, who were desperate to love and be loved, and filled with devastatingly gorgeous, broody boys that made all the fantasies of a real lonely girl feel possible. I'll admit that I probably lost myself in those worlds a bit. I still don't know if they removed me further from the realities of my own life, or if they opened my mind and heart to the CASCADE of feelings a teenage girl can feel. Did they give me wildly unrealistic expectations about love and boys? For SURE. But there are so few places where young people, and girls especially, can really see their deepest wishes and impulses writ-large, and manga was the first place I really felt like all the BIG FEELINGS I had that NOBODY ELSE COULD EVER POSSIBLY FEEL not only existed, but were treated seriously.
Fruits Basket might not have been the first manga I fell in love with (that honor goes to Yuu Watase's original Fushigi Yugi), but it was definitely one of the most powerful. It's a series I am always revisiting, either in whole or in part. I've probably read the entire 23-volume series a dozen times over, and it was such a treat to get to do it again (I'm also very glad I'm finally getting credit for the 4000+ pages I've read multiple times over the years! I thought it would be a bit much to count each individual volume, though it would have catapulted my Goodreads goal into the stratosphere.)
This is a series that gets better the more you immerse yourself in it, that grows with you. I love this story as much, if not more, at 27 than I did at 17. Re-reading it, you really appreciate Takaya's genius...how early so many of the seeds that bloom later in the series are planted. How finely wrought every single character, no matter how peripheral, is. How it presents itself as a light-hearted comedy, but evolves into a deeply nuanced story about family, love, guilt, abuse, and forgiveness. It's such a subtle shift...from the goofy hijinks of all the kids to the darkness that awaits them. You start to appreciate the quiet suffering of the "adults." What they've seen, what they're hiding, how their own plans fall into place. And this goes beyond just the obvious "grown ups" like Shigure and Hatori. Tohru's mother, Kyoko, who could have easily remained an unseen memory, is an integral player in the story well beyond the inciting incident of her death.
The Sohma curse is presented with a sort of slapstick silliness and is totally played for laughs in the early volumes, but the shift of understanding that we get through Tohru shows that's it's so much more than just transforming into an animal, that the junishi are shackled to history and tradition and that the curse has real world consequences for them. This is most keenly evidenced through the brutally beautiful relationship between Kyo and Tohru. The curse has burdened Kyo his entire life, has ruined his family and sense of self, and when he finally sees a glimmer of light and opens his heart to the potential of love, the curse keeps him at arm's length...literally. THE ANGST. IT HURTS SO MUCH. But in the end, the story is about the love we accept and think we deserve, and how the right person at the right time can unpack the hatred we've heaped upon ourselves. That they can crack us open and let the light in, though it is still up to us to choose our own destiny and make the change in ourselves.
The romance is one of the main selling points of this story, but this recurring theme of self-love and forgiveness unfolds in myriad ways. Tohru's tenderness helps Yuki learn to love and forgive himself, and open his heart to both love and friendship. It forces Yuki and Kyo to confront the fact their hatred of one another is couched in a deep jealousy of the "freedoms" the other has. Tohru herself is forced to unpack her own traumas and break down the facade she's worked so hard to construct. Even Akito, who is presented as a tyrannical abuser with a literal god complex, is just a lonely soul who is desperate not to be left behind. Just when you feel like you can write off a character, their story gets turned around. A new facet is revealed. It goes to show that everyone has a deeper story. Everyone is going through their own shit. This is the kind of stuff that hits you harder the older you are, and I love when a series continues to surprise me, even DECADES on.
Another huge asset of this story beyond Takaya's brilliant unfolding narrative is the genius of her artwork. She says so much in the unspoken moments, in the subtle expressions she illustrates, in the shadows she casts on their faces. I read a wonderful review that complimented Takaya's art and how it manages to illustrate the "the disparity between Tohru's private emotions and her public front, the punishing intensity of Kyo's feelings for Tohru," which is a descriptor I can't stop thinking about. PUNISHING is a key word in this series. There's so much silent suffering. I don't think I've made it through a read-through without breaking down into tears at some point. There are pages that literally make my heart ache...STILL. Even after all these years. Some things just stick with you. And that's why you stick with this story for 23 volumes. The burn is punishingly slow, but the payoffs are incredibly worthy.
I can't believe my luck that just as I'm finishing this read-through, a brand new anime adaptation of the FULL SERIES is underway. I enjoyed the original adaptation as much as the next person, but it barely scratched the surface of the depth of this story, and totally rewrote some of the subplots that would have thrown the rest of the story off anyway. I don't know how my heart will handle the new series, but I hope that it directs a whole new generation of fans to Takaya's brilliance and this precious gem of a series.
On a tangentially related note, I'm extremely mad that it took me until a few weeks ago to hear that there was a NEW FRUITS BASKET SERIES that's been publishing since last year. I promptly ordered both published volumes of Fruits Basket Another and even though I know in my heart it probably won't come close to the original, I don't think I'm quite ready to leave this world yet.
Discovering manga when I was in high school was an extremely formative moment for me. It was filled with girls who were lonely, who wanted to escape their regular worlds, who were desperate to love and be loved, and filled with devastatingly gorgeous, broody boys that made all the fantasies of a real lonely girl feel possible. I'll admit that I probably lost myself in those worlds a bit. I still don't know if they removed me further from the realities of my own life, or if they opened my mind and heart to the CASCADE of feelings a teenage girl can feel. Did they give me wildly unrealistic expectations about love and boys? For SURE. But there are so few places where young people, and girls especially, can really see their deepest wishes and impulses writ-large, and manga was the first place I really felt like all the BIG FEELINGS I had that NOBODY ELSE COULD EVER POSSIBLY FEEL not only existed, but were treated seriously.
Fruits Basket might not have been the first manga I fell in love with (that honor goes to Yuu Watase's original Fushigi Yugi), but it was definitely one of the most powerful. It's a series I am always revisiting, either in whole or in part. I've probably read the entire 23-volume series a dozen times over, and it was such a treat to get to do it again (I'm also very glad I'm finally getting credit for the 4000+ pages I've read multiple times over the years! I thought it would be a bit much to count each individual volume, though it would have catapulted my Goodreads goal into the stratosphere.)
This is a series that gets better the more you immerse yourself in it, that grows with you. I love this story as much, if not more, at 27 than I did at 17. Re-reading it, you really appreciate Takaya's genius...how early so many of the seeds that bloom later in the series are planted. How finely wrought every single character, no matter how peripheral, is. How it presents itself as a light-hearted comedy, but evolves into a deeply nuanced story about family, love, guilt, abuse, and forgiveness. It's such a subtle shift...from the goofy hijinks of all the kids to the darkness that awaits them. You start to appreciate the quiet suffering of the "adults." What they've seen, what they're hiding, how their own plans fall into place. And this goes beyond just the obvious "grown ups" like Shigure and Hatori. Tohru's mother, Kyoko, who could have easily remained an unseen memory, is an integral player in the story well beyond the inciting incident of her death.
The Sohma curse is presented with a sort of slapstick silliness and is totally played for laughs in the early volumes, but the shift of understanding that we get through Tohru shows that's it's so much more than just transforming into an animal, that the junishi are shackled to history and tradition and that the curse has real world consequences for them. This is most keenly evidenced through the brutally beautiful relationship between Kyo and Tohru. The curse has burdened Kyo his entire life, has ruined his family and sense of self, and when he finally sees a glimmer of light and opens his heart to the potential of love, the curse keeps him at arm's length...literally. THE ANGST. IT HURTS SO MUCH. But in the end, the story is about the love we accept and think we deserve, and how the right person at the right time can unpack the hatred we've heaped upon ourselves. That they can crack us open and let the light in, though it is still up to us to choose our own destiny and make the change in ourselves.
The romance is one of the main selling points of this story, but this recurring theme of self-love and forgiveness unfolds in myriad ways. Tohru's tenderness helps Yuki learn to love and forgive himself, and open his heart to both love and friendship. It forces Yuki and Kyo to confront the fact their hatred of one another is couched in a deep jealousy of the "freedoms" the other has. Tohru herself is forced to unpack her own traumas and break down the facade she's worked so hard to construct. Even Akito, who is presented as a tyrannical abuser with a literal god complex, is just a lonely soul who is desperate not to be left behind. Just when you feel like you can write off a character, their story gets turned around. A new facet is revealed. It goes to show that everyone has a deeper story. Everyone is going through their own shit. This is the kind of stuff that hits you harder the older you are, and I love when a series continues to surprise me, even DECADES on.
Another huge asset of this story beyond Takaya's brilliant unfolding narrative is the genius of her artwork. She says so much in the unspoken moments, in the subtle expressions she illustrates, in the shadows she casts on their faces. I read a wonderful review that complimented Takaya's art and how it manages to illustrate the "the disparity between Tohru's private emotions and her public front, the punishing intensity of Kyo's feelings for Tohru," which is a descriptor I can't stop thinking about. PUNISHING is a key word in this series. There's so much silent suffering. I don't think I've made it through a read-through without breaking down into tears at some point. There are pages that literally make my heart ache...STILL. Even after all these years. Some things just stick with you. And that's why you stick with this story for 23 volumes. The burn is punishingly slow, but the payoffs are incredibly worthy.
I can't believe my luck that just as I'm finishing this read-through, a brand new anime adaptation of the FULL SERIES is underway. I enjoyed the original adaptation as much as the next person, but it barely scratched the surface of the depth of this story, and totally rewrote some of the subplots that would have thrown the rest of the story off anyway. I don't know how my heart will handle the new series, but I hope that it directs a whole new generation of fans to Takaya's brilliance and this precious gem of a series.
On a tangentially related note, I'm extremely mad that it took me until a few weeks ago to hear that there was a NEW FRUITS BASKET SERIES that's been publishing since last year. I promptly ordered both published volumes of Fruits Basket Another and even though I know in my heart it probably won't come close to the original, I don't think I'm quite ready to leave this world yet.
February 9, 2025
Warto było wrócić do tego po 4 latach. Klasyk myślę, że każdy powinien choć raz przeczytać chociaż może mi się podoba tylko przez sentyment kto wie
August 16, 2016
Fruits Basket is one of the most endearing manga I have read. The cast of characters are amazing, and they play off of one another so well that you can believe the world Natsuki Takaya created is real.
Tohru Honda is a gentle protagonist who is living in the woods by herself after she loses her mother in an accident. She finds out that the property her tent sits on belongs to the Sohmas, a mysterious family that the school prince, Yuki Sohma, belongs to. When her tent is destroyed in a land slide, Yuki and his cousin Shigure (who lives in a house close to her tent) offer her a place to stay. She then discovers that the family is cursed with the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, and every time they are hugged by a member of the opposite sex, they transform in the animal they are cursed by.
The story evolves beautifully as Tohru meets other members of the Sohma family and offers her love and friendship to them freely. It's a beautiful story of friendship, trust and true love. Even when the story explores the darker regions of the human spirit, you keep out hope that everything will turn out because Tohru is such a lively and loving character.
I would definitely recommend this amazing tale, even if you are not a manga reader. The characters alone are enough to make you love it and want to read it again and again.
Tohru Honda is a gentle protagonist who is living in the woods by herself after she loses her mother in an accident. She finds out that the property her tent sits on belongs to the Sohmas, a mysterious family that the school prince, Yuki Sohma, belongs to. When her tent is destroyed in a land slide, Yuki and his cousin Shigure (who lives in a house close to her tent) offer her a place to stay. She then discovers that the family is cursed with the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, and every time they are hugged by a member of the opposite sex, they transform in the animal they are cursed by.
The story evolves beautifully as Tohru meets other members of the Sohma family and offers her love and friendship to them freely. It's a beautiful story of friendship, trust and true love. Even when the story explores the darker regions of the human spirit, you keep out hope that everything will turn out because Tohru is such a lively and loving character.
I would definitely recommend this amazing tale, even if you are not a manga reader. The characters alone are enough to make you love it and want to read it again and again.
June 22, 2014
How on earth can one adequately describe 'Fruits Basket'? It's a series that presents a huge, magnificent cast of characters, each one well-developed and unique, and ties them together with a touching and thought-provoking insight into life's many hardships and joys. Tohru, Yuki, Kyo, Shigure, Akito and the others are so vibrant; they pull the plot along effortlessly, giving us both laugh-out-loud comedy scenes and tear-jerking moments until we reach an ending that is at once far-too-soon yet not rushed, bittersweet yet satisfactory.
'Cry. Cry with me. Cry like the day you were first born into this world.'
I have yet to read a line that can match this, anywhere. For sheer depth and emotion, 'Fruits Basket' outclasses all other manga.
Prove me wrong. I dare you.
'Cry. Cry with me. Cry like the day you were first born into this world.'
I have yet to read a line that can match this, anywhere. For sheer depth and emotion, 'Fruits Basket' outclasses all other manga.
Prove me wrong. I dare you.
July 23, 2012
I'm a dude and the series was fantastic. It was my first shot at the more emotional shojo manga and I was not disappointed. Every page is filled with charming artwork, sincere dialogue, and a magnificent heap of emotions expertly portrayed by Natsuki. If you let it, Fruits Basket will change the way you think about yourself and other people in the most positive sense. Life lessons abound in these beautiful books.
November 15, 2015
Funny, sweet and interesting (I adore the idea of people possessed by spirits and I think it's interesting it's the Chinese Zodiac). Everyone has their own things and the different mind sets and traumas make this series bittersweet but more sweet than bitter. Seeing how everyone grows (the younger group ever more!) was amazing.
Solid four stars. Fast to read, interesting and lovely. No more to add.
Solid four stars. Fast to read, interesting and lovely. No more to add.
April 24, 2020
Cooped up at home and browsing through a few storage boxes of comics collections from childhood, I dug out my copies of Fruits Basket and started flipping through them, only to find myself rereading the entire series with increasingly feverish intensity. I think it was the first time I'd made my way through all the volumes in nearly a decade—I was probably a teenager when I'd last gone over every page—and I was hoping the story would hold up, even a little. Did it? Oh, it absolutely did.
My reading tastes have expanded since my early teenage years, thank god. Returning to Fruits Basket, though, became much more than a pleasant dip into nostalgic fandom, or a visit to my past self. I remembered why it had a formative influence on me back then. But this time I ended up reading the series less in comparison with other manga or comics than with fiction more generally. And even from that less specific vantage, I think this is profound work, maybe even more than I did when I first got hooked. A lot of reviews here make it clear how many manga fans love and respect Fruits Basket, and many of their comments resonate with me. But I don't think you need to know much about manga to find this a worthwhile reading experience.
The hero, Tohru Honda, doesn't have any outstanding or innate talents. Instead she has an unusual capacity for compassion, which at first she wields almost like a superpower, so astonishing is her ability to make emotional connections with people in distress and help see them through their moments of crisis. As we learn more about Tohru, we gradually realize that her compassion isn't a gift that came out of nowhere: it's a personal quality she's developed through sheer willpower. (There's something Kantian about the way she acts to do the right thing, even in cases where there's great personal risk.) She's not a martyr or a saint, but we come to learn about the emotional burdens she carries and the many ways they weigh on her, even though we can also understand the reasoning behind her decisions.
Tohru falls into a milieu full of individuals who walk around with broken hearts and spirits, with embarrassing secrets and traumatic childhoods, with desires to live better lives but no clear sense of how to do so. But starting very gradually, one person at a time, she awakens their sense that, yes, a fuller, happier way of life is possible for all of them. There's surprisingly little moralizing in the process. More than anything, Tohru listens to those around her, offers them recognition of their full humanity, and acknowledges that she doesn't know the answers to life's questions better than anyone else. But as a few characters begin to heal, they also start to follow her example, recognizing and helping one another in turn. And the more other characters do Tohru's work for her, the more difficult the challenges Tohru takes on herself.
There's a definite good-versus-evil struggle in Fruits Basket, but here evil resides not in a specific person but within a whole system. Most of the characters belong to a very big extended family, a handful of whose members live under a fantastical curse. Even though that curse is mostly played for laughs at the beginning, its more terrifying traits become apparent over time. The story ends up in a potentially radical place, examining the ways a deeply entrenched hierarchy—especially one that's lost much of its original meaning—can leave marks of abuse on everyone within it, even the people at the very top. I could see someone plausibly reading this series as a parable against organized religion or something similar, though I think such a reading might be too literal. The story deals with many moral issues, but it doesn't strike me as ideological. At its heart, it's about the necessity of change and the powerful emotional forces that often get in the way—forces that illustrate how brave acts of personal growth can be sometimes.
And it's wonderful to see that change unfold from volume to volume. These characters evolve in moving and dramatic ways, not just because we encounter more of their backstories, but because they're constantly affecting one another and working with imperfect intention toward mutual growth. Here, one of the amazing aspects of the serial manga form is we get to see that change in the author's own work. Natsuki Takaya wrote and drew this over an eight- or nine-year period, and every aspect of her style evolved significantly over that time, from her rendering of the characters to her dialogue to the expressionistic visual techniques she uses in her storytelling. Her characters advance with her, and vice versa. The idea that a good life is a process, not a thing, is embodied in the medium itself and the way Takaya uses it.
So it's astonishing how cohesive the whole thing still feels at the end. For such a long story with so many characters, the plot's development and gradual resolution are thoughtful and gracefully orchestrated. Maybe some of the plot-driven coincidences are a little too tidy in places. But even in those moments, when the series leans toward fable or allegory, I'm struck by how deftly Takaya allows the story to be as tightly or loosely plotted as it needs to be in different moments.
The series starts with a light form of magical realism; several characters are cursed to transform occasionally into animals of the zodiac, and those characters' personalities often reflect traits associated with their respective animals. But even as the realist elements gradually overshadow the magical ones, Takaya still weaves between highly realist passages and more symbolic struggles, especially as Tohru learns more about the depth of the curse. So Takaya lets her characters play two roles at the same time, or to different degrees at different moments: they can each represent typical human personalities or problems, and at the same time they can be their own unique and psychologically complex individuals.
The story doesn't feel like a standard work of contemporary literary realism, or like much speculative fiction, or even like a lot of new literature that tries to bridge the two. Instead it makes me think of an older form: the philosophical novel, or the novel of ideas. In books like The Brothers Karamazov or The Magic Mountain (trying to watch myself here, the ground feels a little shaky), characters can both represent larger positions toward the world and be meaningful individuals in and of themselves. Those positions are constantly in heated dialogue, but the dialogue changes each character who participates in it. The characters challenge their preordained roles without ever leaving them completely behind.
Stepping back from the lit-crit stuff for a minute: I really love these characters. With this kind of length, a reader gets to know them well. It's the sort of sustained development found in a long serial novel or a good TV show. The emotions the characters feel are heavy, their interpersonal drama is intense, and their soul-searching is continuous and often super astute. And even in the second half, when the series gets particularly moody, Takaya still includes a lot of scenes that are really funny. These characters play off each other in unexpected ways, and their collective growth means their expectations of one another get upended all the time. Fruits Basket isn't completely immune to accusations of melodrama or sappiness or ponderousness, but the comedy keeps the serious parts from slipping into a predictable posture.
I remember reading Fruits Basket as an tween/teen and frequently reflecting on certain admirable qualities I saw in these characters, and thinking, "That's how I want to be." But several years into adulthood, as experiences lead me to question my own beliefs and certainties, sometimes I find myself a little lost, asking, "What kind of person did I want to become again?" Revisiting these books, I had several moments of gut-level recognition: "Ah, yes, I wanted to be like that, and in many ways I still do." Some useful reminders, and some new realizations as well. Stark realism is necessary and great, but I think it's important for us to also have stories whose characters suggest a world we want to bring into being, as long as overidealized expectations are kept in check. Sometimes slightly unrealistic or ridiculous art is the most galvanizing kind.
One last note: I began reading this series when I was in sixth grade and a friend started talking about it at school. I think about how, even though the series was originally marketed as a shojo manga, everyone who I knew read it was also a boy, including this friend of mine. Which makes me wonder if, for them as for me, the story fed a longing to break with the conventions of macho masculinity around us in favor of something more nuanced and reflective. This friend changed my life by recommending Fruits Basket to me, which makes me even sadder when I remember the ways other kids picked on him and made his struggles in school even worse, until he got expelled in eighth grade—possibly because of a setup, again by kids who had it out for him—and I lost track of him completely. When I think about Fruits Basket, I also think about him, and I hope he's doing okay, wherever he is.
My reading tastes have expanded since my early teenage years, thank god. Returning to Fruits Basket, though, became much more than a pleasant dip into nostalgic fandom, or a visit to my past self. I remembered why it had a formative influence on me back then. But this time I ended up reading the series less in comparison with other manga or comics than with fiction more generally. And even from that less specific vantage, I think this is profound work, maybe even more than I did when I first got hooked. A lot of reviews here make it clear how many manga fans love and respect Fruits Basket, and many of their comments resonate with me. But I don't think you need to know much about manga to find this a worthwhile reading experience.
The hero, Tohru Honda, doesn't have any outstanding or innate talents. Instead she has an unusual capacity for compassion, which at first she wields almost like a superpower, so astonishing is her ability to make emotional connections with people in distress and help see them through their moments of crisis. As we learn more about Tohru, we gradually realize that her compassion isn't a gift that came out of nowhere: it's a personal quality she's developed through sheer willpower. (There's something Kantian about the way she acts to do the right thing, even in cases where there's great personal risk.) She's not a martyr or a saint, but we come to learn about the emotional burdens she carries and the many ways they weigh on her, even though we can also understand the reasoning behind her decisions.
Tohru falls into a milieu full of individuals who walk around with broken hearts and spirits, with embarrassing secrets and traumatic childhoods, with desires to live better lives but no clear sense of how to do so. But starting very gradually, one person at a time, she awakens their sense that, yes, a fuller, happier way of life is possible for all of them. There's surprisingly little moralizing in the process. More than anything, Tohru listens to those around her, offers them recognition of their full humanity, and acknowledges that she doesn't know the answers to life's questions better than anyone else. But as a few characters begin to heal, they also start to follow her example, recognizing and helping one another in turn. And the more other characters do Tohru's work for her, the more difficult the challenges Tohru takes on herself.
There's a definite good-versus-evil struggle in Fruits Basket, but here evil resides not in a specific person but within a whole system. Most of the characters belong to a very big extended family, a handful of whose members live under a fantastical curse. Even though that curse is mostly played for laughs at the beginning, its more terrifying traits become apparent over time. The story ends up in a potentially radical place, examining the ways a deeply entrenched hierarchy—especially one that's lost much of its original meaning—can leave marks of abuse on everyone within it, even the people at the very top. I could see someone plausibly reading this series as a parable against organized religion or something similar, though I think such a reading might be too literal. The story deals with many moral issues, but it doesn't strike me as ideological. At its heart, it's about the necessity of change and the powerful emotional forces that often get in the way—forces that illustrate how brave acts of personal growth can be sometimes.
And it's wonderful to see that change unfold from volume to volume. These characters evolve in moving and dramatic ways, not just because we encounter more of their backstories, but because they're constantly affecting one another and working with imperfect intention toward mutual growth. Here, one of the amazing aspects of the serial manga form is we get to see that change in the author's own work. Natsuki Takaya wrote and drew this over an eight- or nine-year period, and every aspect of her style evolved significantly over that time, from her rendering of the characters to her dialogue to the expressionistic visual techniques she uses in her storytelling. Her characters advance with her, and vice versa. The idea that a good life is a process, not a thing, is embodied in the medium itself and the way Takaya uses it.
So it's astonishing how cohesive the whole thing still feels at the end. For such a long story with so many characters, the plot's development and gradual resolution are thoughtful and gracefully orchestrated. Maybe some of the plot-driven coincidences are a little too tidy in places. But even in those moments, when the series leans toward fable or allegory, I'm struck by how deftly Takaya allows the story to be as tightly or loosely plotted as it needs to be in different moments.
The series starts with a light form of magical realism; several characters are cursed to transform occasionally into animals of the zodiac, and those characters' personalities often reflect traits associated with their respective animals. But even as the realist elements gradually overshadow the magical ones, Takaya still weaves between highly realist passages and more symbolic struggles, especially as Tohru learns more about the depth of the curse. So Takaya lets her characters play two roles at the same time, or to different degrees at different moments: they can each represent typical human personalities or problems, and at the same time they can be their own unique and psychologically complex individuals.
The story doesn't feel like a standard work of contemporary literary realism, or like much speculative fiction, or even like a lot of new literature that tries to bridge the two. Instead it makes me think of an older form: the philosophical novel, or the novel of ideas. In books like The Brothers Karamazov or The Magic Mountain (trying to watch myself here, the ground feels a little shaky), characters can both represent larger positions toward the world and be meaningful individuals in and of themselves. Those positions are constantly in heated dialogue, but the dialogue changes each character who participates in it. The characters challenge their preordained roles without ever leaving them completely behind.
Stepping back from the lit-crit stuff for a minute: I really love these characters. With this kind of length, a reader gets to know them well. It's the sort of sustained development found in a long serial novel or a good TV show. The emotions the characters feel are heavy, their interpersonal drama is intense, and their soul-searching is continuous and often super astute. And even in the second half, when the series gets particularly moody, Takaya still includes a lot of scenes that are really funny. These characters play off each other in unexpected ways, and their collective growth means their expectations of one another get upended all the time. Fruits Basket isn't completely immune to accusations of melodrama or sappiness or ponderousness, but the comedy keeps the serious parts from slipping into a predictable posture.
I remember reading Fruits Basket as an tween/teen and frequently reflecting on certain admirable qualities I saw in these characters, and thinking, "That's how I want to be." But several years into adulthood, as experiences lead me to question my own beliefs and certainties, sometimes I find myself a little lost, asking, "What kind of person did I want to become again?" Revisiting these books, I had several moments of gut-level recognition: "Ah, yes, I wanted to be like that, and in many ways I still do." Some useful reminders, and some new realizations as well. Stark realism is necessary and great, but I think it's important for us to also have stories whose characters suggest a world we want to bring into being, as long as overidealized expectations are kept in check. Sometimes slightly unrealistic or ridiculous art is the most galvanizing kind.
One last note: I began reading this series when I was in sixth grade and a friend started talking about it at school. I think about how, even though the series was originally marketed as a shojo manga, everyone who I knew read it was also a boy, including this friend of mine. Which makes me wonder if, for them as for me, the story fed a longing to break with the conventions of macho masculinity around us in favor of something more nuanced and reflective. This friend changed my life by recommending Fruits Basket to me, which makes me even sadder when I remember the ways other kids picked on him and made his struggles in school even worse, until he got expelled in eighth grade—possibly because of a setup, again by kids who had it out for him—and I lost track of him completely. When I think about Fruits Basket, I also think about him, and I hope he's doing okay, wherever he is.
February 2, 2021
What a lovely gem! I was first introduced to the original Anime which only had one season and then was recently reintroduced to the story through the rebooted Anime and fell in love with the characters all over again and I needed to know the rest so of course I read the entire Manga. The basic premise is a girl named Tohru goes to live with a mysterious family and she discovers that they are possessed by spirits of the Zodiac and turn into animals when hugged by the opposed sex. It's seems fun and fluffy on the surface, but it gets very deep and intense.
The characters are all just so lovely. Tohru is absolutely prescious because she's so caring and a ray of sunshine to the point that everyone comes to love her. I am so protective of Yuki because he went through so much trauma and it's so frail that I just want to protect him. Seeing him grow and become confortable with himself and other people and smile makes my heart sore. And then there is Kyo who I love with my whole heart. Like Yuki he grows so much through the course of the story and a lot of that has to do with Tohru's influence and his feelings for her. Watching their relationship naturally progress made me so unbelievably happy. There are so many characters I absolutely loved that I can't name them all. There's probably only one or two that I didn't like which is impressive considering the size of the cast.
The story develops in such an incredible way. The members of the Zodiac are slowly introduced so enough time is taken to build each of their characters. The way that foreshadowing, flashbacks, and reveals are handled is unbelievable. There are layers to everything so nothing is as it seems and there is weight to everything even if you don't realize it at first, so it really became a fun reading experience.
**Mild spoilers from here forward**
One of the things that makes a great writer is to be able to make the readers empathize and come to love the antagonists. At the beginning I really hated Akito because she hurt my babies and she was filled with so much anger. But when her backstory was revealed, it's clear that she was set up with unrealistic expectations for her whole life so her actions made complete sense. I literally cried for her multiple times. And although she did terrible things and I understand characters like Rin who can't forgive her, I can appreciate how she tried to make things right and she's trying to be a better person.
The Kyo reveals hurt me to my core and watching him cofess to Tohru about how he knew her mom and watched her die broke my heart. But then I cried harder because they both love each other so much! I know some people wanted her to be with Yuki, but Kyo was the one from the very beginning. (Plus Yuki didn't feel that way and Yuki and Machi forever <3.) The ending of them expressing their feelings in combination with each of the characters getting to say a goodbye while remembering the first time they met Tohru was such a beautiful way to end this series.
I love this series and these characters so much. I laughed, I cried, I gasped, I cried some more. It's like cuddling up with a warm blanket and it brings me so much joy. I can basically gush about this series forever.
The characters are all just so lovely. Tohru is absolutely prescious because she's so caring and a ray of sunshine to the point that everyone comes to love her. I am so protective of Yuki because he went through so much trauma and it's so frail that I just want to protect him. Seeing him grow and become confortable with himself and other people and smile makes my heart sore. And then there is Kyo who I love with my whole heart. Like Yuki he grows so much through the course of the story and a lot of that has to do with Tohru's influence and his feelings for her. Watching their relationship naturally progress made me so unbelievably happy. There are so many characters I absolutely loved that I can't name them all. There's probably only one or two that I didn't like which is impressive considering the size of the cast.
The story develops in such an incredible way. The members of the Zodiac are slowly introduced so enough time is taken to build each of their characters. The way that foreshadowing, flashbacks, and reveals are handled is unbelievable. There are layers to everything so nothing is as it seems and there is weight to everything even if you don't realize it at first, so it really became a fun reading experience.
**Mild spoilers from here forward**
One of the things that makes a great writer is to be able to make the readers empathize and come to love the antagonists. At the beginning I really hated Akito because she hurt my babies and she was filled with so much anger. But when her backstory was revealed, it's clear that she was set up with unrealistic expectations for her whole life so her actions made complete sense. I literally cried for her multiple times. And although she did terrible things and I understand characters like Rin who can't forgive her, I can appreciate how she tried to make things right and she's trying to be a better person.
The Kyo reveals hurt me to my core and watching him cofess to Tohru about how he knew her mom and watched her die broke my heart. But then I cried harder because they both love each other so much! I know some people wanted her to be with Yuki, but Kyo was the one from the very beginning. (Plus Yuki didn't feel that way and Yuki and Machi forever <3.) The ending of them expressing their feelings in combination with each of the characters getting to say a goodbye while remembering the first time they met Tohru was such a beautiful way to end this series.
I love this series and these characters so much. I laughed, I cried, I gasped, I cried some more. It's like cuddling up with a warm blanket and it brings me so much joy. I can basically gush about this series forever.
March 14, 2019
This is not the first time I have read this series. With the new complete anime coming out soon it seemed a good time to visit it again.
Even after all these years I still love it. It starts off cute and silly. However, by the end it is so tragic and beautiful. All of the characters are so well developed. When it was coming out just 1 chapter a month you never knew who Tohru was going to end up with and what was going to happen. It was so crazy. I am so happy it ended the way it did.
This is one of my absolute favorite series ever.
Even after all these years I still love it. It starts off cute and silly. However, by the end it is so tragic and beautiful. All of the characters are so well developed. When it was coming out just 1 chapter a month you never knew who Tohru was going to end up with and what was going to happen. It was so crazy. I am so happy it ended the way it did.
This is one of my absolute favorite series ever.
June 13, 2019
I just finished reading this manga AGAIN... ever since I found out they’re making a reboot of the anime I went back to it and got hooked AGAIN! It is one of the best mangas I’ve read (and I’ve read a lot!) simply because it has amazing character development and extremely touching moments that tug on your heartstrings.
I have watched the old version of the anime (2001) which was nice but didn’t cover much of the story and it ended without much closure. SUPER EXCITED to find out the remake is gonna cover the whole story! 63 episodes WOHOOO.
If you’re a fan of good manga/anime definitely give this classic a shot! You won’t be disappointed.
I have watched the old version of the anime (2001) which was nice but didn’t cover much of the story and it ended without much closure. SUPER EXCITED to find out the remake is gonna cover the whole story! 63 episodes WOHOOO.
If you’re a fan of good manga/anime definitely give this classic a shot! You won’t be disappointed.
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September 24, 2025Started this in middle school and decided to start it over recently because I never finished it. While reading it I remembered exactly why I loved it back then. This series holds a little special place in my heart #nostalgia 🧡
January 14, 2021
The first manga I ever picked up, around 11 years ago. Took me a minute to actually finish it.
June 20, 2023
my favorite romance series ever
bets romance and its got so much hurt/comfort goodbye
bets romance and its got so much hurt/comfort goodbye
March 30, 2020
At first, my expectations were average about this manga. A few years back, I watched the 2001 anime version of this story when I was beginning to get into anime, and there was alot left to be desired. The anime didn't fulfill my desire to learn about this universe, and I began reading the manga. At first, it was very slow paced and slightly repetitice since I was already familiar since I had seen the anime. That slightly discouraged me and I took a break off the manga. But then, I decided that I would finish this manga, and I certainly did not regret it. Though slow paced at first, the story gives you greta background to work with and connect with characters. Almost every character had a personality of their own. Anyone who may have seemed perfect had a story, some worse than others. One thing however that I thought was not necessary was making most parents seem as a bad guy. It was as though almost every parent was an evil being, except a few who were angels. Otherwise, this manga blew my mind amd had me very invested. The second half of the manga flew by and had great pacing and exposure to details. You were just hit with surprises right after another, but all of them were satisfying in their own way, even if they were not the most pleasant events or news. Of course, some things seemed cliché but what's a story without something to love yet cringe over?
I definetly recommend this manga. One thing that gave me that extra push to finish the manga was the fact that they were remaking Fruits Basket in 2019, which is very well deserved for such a story. I'm excited to watch this story in animation again, but this time with more connection and personality to help me re-live the experience.
I definetly recommend this manga. One thing that gave me that extra push to finish the manga was the fact that they were remaking Fruits Basket in 2019, which is very well deserved for such a story. I'm excited to watch this story in animation again, but this time with more connection and personality to help me re-live the experience.
March 22, 2017
Absolutely stunning series... it goes from simple/cute to dramatic/complex so gradually you barely realize it.
April 18, 2024
100/10 this is definitely a story I will reread in the future. Perfect combination of coming to age with a hint of fantasy/spiritualism. So happy this was my first manga!
February 4, 2019
I read this series as a young teenager and it completely changed my world. I reread it as a young adult, and it still held up in almost every way.
As a kid I had so much FUN swooning over the DREAMY guys (I WAS going to marry Hatori Sohma!!!), GASPING over the shocking plot twists, getting excited every month when a new translated volume was released at Borders (yeah, I'm old; Borders was still a Thing), reading/writing fanfiction of the series, crying over the angsty AMVs... And seeing myself and some of my own family struggles reflected in the Sohmas.
The story is incredible. The art is SOMETIMES gorgeous, sometimes average. (The fact that the creator broke her drawing hand early on in the series and had to switch plays a factor in this.) It evolves/gets better as the series goes on!
(Looking back, a few things made me feel uncomfortable: , but some of that can be excused as cultural difference, I suppose. I also think that but that's just nitpicking a long, phenomenal story that I mostly only have praises for.)
My favorite character is Isuzu Sohma. Her journey resonated with me the most, but really it's hard to pick a favorite from this cast of colorful and memorable characters I still find myself thinking about all the time.
A rundown of all the volumes:
1: Sets the groundwork, but not the most interesting.
2: The first hint that the series is far darker than it appears on the surface.
3: Laugh-out-loud funny at points, heartwarming at others-- a perfect example of what Furuba as a series can do/be.
4: The Plot is in full swing, and in steps our long-speculated antagonist. Also one of the threads of reconnecting damaged family ties.
5: Not the most memorable, but a sweet story of some trauma recovery.
6: ONE OF THE BIG ONES. Some real s*** goes down, and tests our protagonist Tohru's mettle. (Side note: I LOVE Tohru. She's so GOOD. She's not perfect, as some naysayers might complain. She is NOT a Mary Sue. She is flawed and STRONG. I could write entire essays about this girl. Often in a story with MANY characters, the protag feels kind of flat and bland to serve as an audience avatar, but NOT THIS GIRL.)
7: Mrgh. Not a favorite. We needed a cooldown after vol6, but a lot of people have complaints about the character this volume featured. I don't HATE him, because 1. He's a traumatized child 2. Furuba is about how different people respond to the same abuse, and just because his coping mechanisms aren't fun to read about does not mean they're unrealistic. (Also it had a B-plot about Uotani's backstory, and Uo is FREAKING awesome.)
8: I like this one because it introduces Isuzu, and ISUZU IS THE CHILD OF MY HEART, okay? And I love the whole summer arc that spans 8-11. So many EMOTIONS. So much angst.
9: Another of the less-memorable ones. It was necessary to advance the plot, as it introduced a Yuki-related thread, and it was kiiinda cool to have a Hanajima backstory (I used to roleplay as Hana), but meh.
10: Some GOOD, achy feelings for my lil shipper heart. Summer sadness. HATORI STUFF.
11: Drama! Dun dun dunnn... Our hero and antagonist butt heads, and it isn't pretty. It demonstrates how useless (sometimes deliberately so) the adults are at protecting the kids in their family. Also, end of summer!
12: I'm not a huge fan of the Yuki/student council stuff, though I understand how essential it is to HIS healing and growth, but it makes volumes like this tedious. Also I HATE Shigure with a FIERY BURNING PASSION, so I growl whenever the plot takes a detour down his memory lane. But! More Rin stuff.
13: My babygirl is on the cover! (It would have made more sense to have her on 14, but okay.) OH the parent-teacher conference stuff HURTS. MY. HEART. This is the point where I started to love Ayame. AHHHHH MY HEART.
14: Possibly my FAVORITE volume of the series. Also, the volume that made me CRY A RIVER. Isuzu backstory. The bare beginnings of her healing process. AND some Yuki trauma! Good stuff.
15: MORE LONG-AWAITED YUKI TRAUMA, OH BOY. He is arguably the MOST woobie character of this series, and that's saying a LOT. Also, the wrecking of a ship for some readers, but it was never MY ship, so I didn't mind.
16: It's at this point that EVERYTHING HAPPENS A LOT. Do you know how hard it was to wait for new volumes to be released, waiting months between installments? DO YOU? Tohru's been living with the Sohmas for over a year at this point and all the ugliness of their family/curse is becoming apparent to her. Rather than run away screaming, she holds on tight for the ride. THIS one is mostly a Tohru story. Her backstory, her MOTHER... Ugh. Bring tissues, you're gonna cry.
17: This is it. The big one. Where most of the twisty twists are revealed. Be prepared to SCREAM.
18: Another cooldown volume. A conclusion to the Yuki/student council arc.
19: SHIPS AHOY, MATEYS. DRAMA DRAMA EVERYWHERE. More screaming.
20: Oh, Isuzu :'(
21: AHHHHHHHHHH
22: See above, but with more sobbing from me.
23: The epilogue we all needed. The creator giving us chicken soup for the soul after repeatedly kicking us in the kidneys/heart/spleen/other organs. After binge-reading you'll need to lay facedown on the floor and contemplate existence for a few hours days, so plan your schedules accordingly.
This deceptively cutesy little series, really about the pitfalls of abuse and isolation and familial codependency, as well as healing through kindness, forgiveness (or choosing not to forgive!) really makes your heart ache at certain points. I'm so happy it exists. It's a classic to remember forever.
July 29, 2017
Amazing. Still kicking myself over the fact that I put the series down around volume 7 a few years ago. Darn it, past me!!
January 27, 2014
Our orphaned teenaged heroine, Tohru, is living in a tent when the people whose land she's living on discover it and insist on having her stay in the house. While there, she learns they are under a curse: if they are hugged or hug a member of the opposite sex, they turn into an animal. Thirteen members of the family are thus accursed -- one for each member of the Chinese Zodiac, and the cat. (It tells the legends for why.) And at this particular house, the Dog, the Rat, and the Cat all live. Although they can erase memories, they let her stay and remember.
Which leads to a great many plots. Their lives and all the lively subplots that going to school can yield. The somewhat -- interesting family dynamics. Enlivened by the curse in the Sohma family, but then, Tohru's family is somewhat interesting all by itself. And then there's learning about the curse and who has it and what its effects are.
Tohru is bright, cheerful, generous, always thinking of others. Overwhelmingly. In part this is a reaction of the traumas of her life, a way to cope. It does seriously enliven the lives of those around her, because if you actually want to help her, you have to figure out how to help her out without input from her. Indeed, her two best friends corner the Sohmas to tell them that they are thoroughly ashamed that they didn't figure out that Tohru was living in a tent (she had told her grandfather she could stay with friends while the house was renovated, but she didn't want to impose), and they want the Sohmas to treat her well. And one character deliberately doesn't tell her something because otherwise she would fuss.
And all the other characters, in the families, in the school, are lively and a broad palette of types.
The art is something else. It's amazing how many emotions you can convey with stylized drawings. Some of them, if you are not familiar with manga, you have to pick up through repetition, because they are icongraphical, but some of it just explains itself.
I am particularly fond of the play of Cinderella they put on. The characters are woefully miscast -- Tohru as the wicked stepsister? she reads her own lines and starts crying! -- so they rewrite the play and give us Sorta Cinderella with all the characters having roles that they can play.
Which leads to a great many plots. Their lives and all the lively subplots that going to school can yield. The somewhat -- interesting family dynamics. Enlivened by the curse in the Sohma family, but then, Tohru's family is somewhat interesting all by itself. And then there's learning about the curse and who has it and what its effects are.
Tohru is bright, cheerful, generous, always thinking of others. Overwhelmingly. In part this is a reaction of the traumas of her life, a way to cope. It does seriously enliven the lives of those around her, because if you actually want to help her, you have to figure out how to help her out without input from her. Indeed, her two best friends corner the Sohmas to tell them that they are thoroughly ashamed that they didn't figure out that Tohru was living in a tent (she had told her grandfather she could stay with friends while the house was renovated, but she didn't want to impose), and they want the Sohmas to treat her well. And one character deliberately doesn't tell her something because otherwise she would fuss.
And all the other characters, in the families, in the school, are lively and a broad palette of types.
The art is something else. It's amazing how many emotions you can convey with stylized drawings. Some of them, if you are not familiar with manga, you have to pick up through repetition, because they are icongraphical, but some of it just explains itself.
I am particularly fond of the play of Cinderella they put on. The characters are woefully miscast -- Tohru as the wicked stepsister? she reads her own lines and starts crying! -- so they rewrite the play and give us Sorta Cinderella with all the characters having roles that they can play.
June 4, 2023
*Compressing all of the volumes into one read*
Adding review 6/4/23:
Fruits Basket was a childhood favorite of mine, I think I started reading it when I was maybe 12? I've re-read it many many times. But, most recently, I haven't re-read it since early 2018, when I was 20 years old. Now I'm 26 and everything is different. I remember the parts I used to cry about and those have changed. I used to cry about loss and apologies and this time I cried about the sheer virtue of existing and struggling and loving and forgiving. I cried way more than I ever used to. I'll try to sum up how I feel without spoiling anything.
Every character is incredible, fleshed out, and represents a different kind of struggle for goodness against different circumstances. Every character has their own hidden ugliness - their own flaws and horrible qualities (all of which can be explained by their individual natures and backgrounds) that they constantly interact with to try to be their best selves. Life is not easy for anybody. But their ugliness is just another part to accept and understand. Every character seeks and finds forgiveness in one form or another. The kindness and strength of Tohru as she loved and cared for everyone around her deeply affected me. The way she was given love in return was equally beautiful.
The series is also hilarious - it has incredible comedic timing and I laughed a lot. There were many light-hearted and endearing moments.
I feel like reading Fruits Basket centers me to what's most important - kindness, love, compassion, and forgiveness for everyone around me. The desire to learn every person's story. To accept the intrinsic wrongness that every person carries, including my own.
This series helped form me as a child and it will continue to shape me as an adult. I will return to this series for the rest of my life. I absolutely love it.
Adding review 6/4/23:
Fruits Basket was a childhood favorite of mine, I think I started reading it when I was maybe 12? I've re-read it many many times. But, most recently, I haven't re-read it since early 2018, when I was 20 years old. Now I'm 26 and everything is different. I remember the parts I used to cry about and those have changed. I used to cry about loss and apologies and this time I cried about the sheer virtue of existing and struggling and loving and forgiving. I cried way more than I ever used to. I'll try to sum up how I feel without spoiling anything.
Every character is incredible, fleshed out, and represents a different kind of struggle for goodness against different circumstances. Every character has their own hidden ugliness - their own flaws and horrible qualities (all of which can be explained by their individual natures and backgrounds) that they constantly interact with to try to be their best selves. Life is not easy for anybody. But their ugliness is just another part to accept and understand. Every character seeks and finds forgiveness in one form or another. The kindness and strength of Tohru as she loved and cared for everyone around her deeply affected me. The way she was given love in return was equally beautiful.
The series is also hilarious - it has incredible comedic timing and I laughed a lot. There were many light-hearted and endearing moments.
I feel like reading Fruits Basket centers me to what's most important - kindness, love, compassion, and forgiveness for everyone around me. The desire to learn every person's story. To accept the intrinsic wrongness that every person carries, including my own.
This series helped form me as a child and it will continue to shape me as an adult. I will return to this series for the rest of my life. I absolutely love it.
September 22, 2025
I was first introduced to manga by the Digimon series, and later the Dragon Knights series. After I started reading Dragon Knights, during Christmas my parents noted that I began to read manga or Japanese comic books as they called them. On that Christmas morning I received the first volumes of three different manga series. They were Planet Ladder, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles, and Fruits Basket.
After reading it and going back through it over and over, I honestly think this series is brilliant. Fruits Basket is an artistically creative series that tells a story that seems innocent and sweet on the outside but has a lot of phycological commentary.
The story is basically a girl that encounters a large family who influences them and gives them peace for excepting them for who they are. I like it so much is that the story hasn't been done like this.
Instead of just writing a story about a girl who changes a broken family story, Takaya cleverly added a curse involving the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac into the story where it makes Fruits Basket a little bit more dramatic and forces the relationships to be a little more complicated to a point where readers don’t exactly know where it was going.
My first impression was that the author was going to create an ending that is not the perfect ending but the heroine will make most of it. But it didn’t go that route and I’m fine with the original ending.
What I really like about this manga series is that there was no villain in this series at all. I know some people say that Akito was the villain but personally I saw a person who would react and behave if they were put into these certain circumstances. Like Akito's fear of being all alone. That is a feeling that anybod would feel. But that doesn’t mean Akito wasn’t the antagonist. Akito’s story was one about a person's effect on people both emotionally and mentally.
The other characters develop nicely and they learn to accept themselves because someone else, who doesn't have the same problems, accepted them and loved them for who they are. And not just accepting folks, but loving the whole person.
Now let's take a look at the characters: By the way, I should point out that these characters were named after the archaic names of month in the former Japanese lunisolar calendar that corresponds to their zodiac animal. Which shows how smart this manga is because it shows the thought and attention to details the author had while writing this manga.
(except for Kureno and Momiji, they were swapped by mistake apparently)
Tohru Honda: At first I was indifferent towards Tohru. Don't get me wrong. I didn't hate her at all, it's just that she wasn't all that interesting compared to the other characters. She's nice, hard-working, polite, a bit of an airhead, and (for lack of a better word) motherly. She wasn't a bad character, it's just that she didn't seem that complex and not that interesting.
To me, she appeared as more of a role model instead of a character It isn't until later in the story that I started to notice the depth in this character. As I got older, I noticed how Tohru always talked about her mother. I know that she is trying to keep her mother into her life but I noticed some things about Tohru's feelings concerning her mother that made her more complex than I thought.
To be clear, Tohru isn't passionate about her mother, she is obsessive over her mother's memory.
The question is, why?
Because she feels so much guilt about not saying to her mother "Bye, be safe." She always brings up her mother because she doesn't want to forget her. And that is understandable, But what was alarming to me was her reaction when she realized she was falling in love with Kyo. The expressions on her face and the mood surrounding the moment make it seem as if she discovered something really horrifying. Tohru shows signs of fear for falling in love with Kyo and almost denies it. As if she refuses to hold Kyo as someone precious in her heart because her mother would disappear from that special place in her heart. Tohru is afraid of loving Kyo because she made a promise that her mother would be the most important person in her heart.
I found that really fascinating and realized I didn’t give Tohru credit as a great character. She is so attached to her mother that she doesn't want to forget her but at the same time she falls in love with Kyo as he is alive and living in the present with her. Now, she has to learn how to balance her love for her deceased mother and her growing love for Kyo. I completely underestimated Tohru. Way to go Takaya.
The Sohmas were fun and each had their unique personalities even when most of then were not very expressive. The backstories were all unique and tragic but also fed into the commentary of the phycological affect on people with abuse and tragedy.
I also like Tohru’s friends. They were very unique and created a dynamic group with Tohru, Arisa, and Hana. And I liked the different relationships the girls had. The one that stood out the most to me was the relationship between Arisa and Kureno. There seemed to be so many parallels between those two and Tohru’s parents that I thought it was a nice little touch.
I also like the different relationships relationships. More specifically, Kyo & Tohru. Kyo and Tohru are one of my examples of a bad boy X good girl relationships done right. Kyo is not a sex fiend that makes Tohru uncomfortable by any means and Tohru is not a stupid girl who blindly looks over Kyo’s fault because he’s hot. Their relationship is so good because they actually have chemistry. They have conversations, they talk about their problems, and try to help each other in any way they can. It's a developing relationship that that’s a slow burn and you actually believe that they're in love. They both help each other out: Tohru teaches Kyo about being a kind person and opening up to others, while Kyo teaches Tohru that it's okay to cry and let your emotions out because you can have friends to rely on. These two just work great and it makes their relationship wonderful to read.
I know it’s weird when I give a little bit of criticism when I gave this series 5 stars. I love this series, even with all my nitpicks. I do plan to go back reread the manga and do a separate review of each volume now that I just read the sequel series.
After reading it and going back through it over and over, I honestly think this series is brilliant. Fruits Basket is an artistically creative series that tells a story that seems innocent and sweet on the outside but has a lot of phycological commentary.
The story is basically a girl that encounters a large family who influences them and gives them peace for excepting them for who they are. I like it so much is that the story hasn't been done like this.
Instead of just writing a story about a girl who changes a broken family story, Takaya cleverly added a curse involving the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac into the story where it makes Fruits Basket a little bit more dramatic and forces the relationships to be a little more complicated to a point where readers don’t exactly know where it was going.
My first impression was that the author was going to create an ending that is not the perfect ending but the heroine will make most of it. But it didn’t go that route and I’m fine with the original ending.
What I really like about this manga series is that there was no villain in this series at all. I know some people say that Akito was the villain but personally I saw a person who would react and behave if they were put into these certain circumstances. Like Akito's fear of being all alone. That is a feeling that anybod would feel. But that doesn’t mean Akito wasn’t the antagonist. Akito’s story was one about a person's effect on people both emotionally and mentally.
The other characters develop nicely and they learn to accept themselves because someone else, who doesn't have the same problems, accepted them and loved them for who they are. And not just accepting folks, but loving the whole person.
Now let's take a look at the characters: By the way, I should point out that these characters were named after the archaic names of month in the former Japanese lunisolar calendar that corresponds to their zodiac animal. Which shows how smart this manga is because it shows the thought and attention to details the author had while writing this manga.
(except for Kureno and Momiji, they were swapped by mistake apparently)
Tohru Honda: At first I was indifferent towards Tohru. Don't get me wrong. I didn't hate her at all, it's just that she wasn't all that interesting compared to the other characters. She's nice, hard-working, polite, a bit of an airhead, and (for lack of a better word) motherly. She wasn't a bad character, it's just that she didn't seem that complex and not that interesting.
To me, she appeared as more of a role model instead of a character It isn't until later in the story that I started to notice the depth in this character. As I got older, I noticed how Tohru always talked about her mother. I know that she is trying to keep her mother into her life but I noticed some things about Tohru's feelings concerning her mother that made her more complex than I thought.
To be clear, Tohru isn't passionate about her mother, she is obsessive over her mother's memory.
The question is, why?
Because she feels so much guilt about not saying to her mother "Bye, be safe." She always brings up her mother because she doesn't want to forget her. And that is understandable, But what was alarming to me was her reaction when she realized she was falling in love with Kyo. The expressions on her face and the mood surrounding the moment make it seem as if she discovered something really horrifying. Tohru shows signs of fear for falling in love with Kyo and almost denies it. As if she refuses to hold Kyo as someone precious in her heart because her mother would disappear from that special place in her heart. Tohru is afraid of loving Kyo because she made a promise that her mother would be the most important person in her heart.
I found that really fascinating and realized I didn’t give Tohru credit as a great character. She is so attached to her mother that she doesn't want to forget her but at the same time she falls in love with Kyo as he is alive and living in the present with her. Now, she has to learn how to balance her love for her deceased mother and her growing love for Kyo. I completely underestimated Tohru. Way to go Takaya.
The Sohmas were fun and each had their unique personalities even when most of then were not very expressive. The backstories were all unique and tragic but also fed into the commentary of the phycological affect on people with abuse and tragedy.
I also like Tohru’s friends. They were very unique and created a dynamic group with Tohru, Arisa, and Hana. And I liked the different relationships the girls had. The one that stood out the most to me was the relationship between Arisa and Kureno. There seemed to be so many parallels between those two and Tohru’s parents that I thought it was a nice little touch.
I also like the different relationships relationships. More specifically, Kyo & Tohru. Kyo and Tohru are one of my examples of a bad boy X good girl relationships done right. Kyo is not a sex fiend that makes Tohru uncomfortable by any means and Tohru is not a stupid girl who blindly looks over Kyo’s fault because he’s hot. Their relationship is so good because they actually have chemistry. They have conversations, they talk about their problems, and try to help each other in any way they can. It's a developing relationship that that’s a slow burn and you actually believe that they're in love. They both help each other out: Tohru teaches Kyo about being a kind person and opening up to others, while Kyo teaches Tohru that it's okay to cry and let your emotions out because you can have friends to rely on. These two just work great and it makes their relationship wonderful to read.
I know it’s weird when I give a little bit of criticism when I gave this series 5 stars. I love this series, even with all my nitpicks. I do plan to go back reread the manga and do a separate review of each volume now that I just read the sequel series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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