Fruits Basket continues to be a well-loved series from manga to both anime versions because of its lovable characters, comedy, and classic shojo focus on romance and relationships. The Sohma family curse adds magical whimsy and raises the stakes of Tohru Honda's story.
Fruits Basket exemplifies many beloved romance tropes like forced proximity, why-choose relationships, and enemies-to-lovers. All these dramatic tropes and magical elements are balanced out well against the slice-of-life setting. Tohru is a protagonist with unflagging optimism and kindness who is like a balm to the soul. Her personality pairs well with the series' general tone of hopefulness despite difficulty and strife.
10 Sunako Gets Four New Roommates
The Wallflower
In The Wallflower, Sunako is the new roommate to four handsome boys tasked with turning her into a fashionable lady. Audiences who enjoyed the zany and romantic aspects of Tohru rooming with the chaotic Sohma family may enjoy the similar plot line in The Wallflower.
As with Tohru and Kyo's relationship, Sunako has a lot of tsundere-esque interactions with her four roommates. Unlike Tohru, though, Sunako is delightfully stubborn. Her grisly sense of taste and humor make her a unique protagonist who isn't afraid to push back on societal norms.
9 Yona Explores The World With Her Bodyguard At Her Side
Yona Of The Dawn
The flirting moments in Fruits Basket are top-tier, and the same goes for Yona of the Dawn, which is about a sheltered princess who must run for her life with her devoted bodyguard, Hak. There is a lot of romantic tension between Yona and Hak, and Hak isn't afraid to acknowledge it.
Yona is adamantly against admitting to her feelings about her bodyguard, and the way they dance around their feelings for each other is endlessly entertaining. Romance aside, Yona is an excellent female lead with the kind of softness tempered by courage that Tohru also models.
8 Haruhi Gets Mistaken For A Boy
Ouran High School Host Club
Like Fruits Basket, Ouran High School Host Club is a romantic comedy set in a school with a memorable, full cast of characters. Both this series and Fruits Basket have protagonists who are clumsy, which is a common shojo trope. It's Haruhi's clumsiness that gets her involved with the Ouran Academy Host Club.
Ouran High School Host Club is a why-choose romance as well as a slapstick comedy, which Fruits Basket fans may enjoy. The characters are charming, the romance is believable, and it is a lighthearted examination of gender in shojo.
7 Yuki Falls For Her Vampire Guardian
Vampire Knight
Audiences who enjoyed Fruits Basket's supernatural elements and more melancholic moments of may want to watch the dark fantasy Vampire Knight. Both series take place in a school setting, and, like Tohru, Yuki needs rescuing when she meets Kaname.
While the Sohma family lives under a magical curse that makes them shape-shift into animals of the Zodiac, Yuki's love interests, Kaname and Zero, are vampires burdened with bloodlust. Twists and turns in the plot complicate and add momentum to the developing romances in Vampire Knight.
6 Natsume Had A Lonely Childhood
Natsume's Book Of Friends
Natsume's Book of Friends follows a boy who never fits in socially and becomes the guardian of a prized magical artifact. Much of the emotional authenticity in Fruits Basket comes from Tohru's relationship with her mother, who passed away, and how that affects her for the rest of her life and her relationships.
Tohru doesn't fit in well with the rest of her family, similar to Natsume, who struggles to find friends and acceptance because of his ability to see spirits. Natsume's gift from his late grandmother is what reroutes the course of his life. He's given a new purpose: learning all about the yokai tethered to the Book of Friends.
5 Erika & Kyouya Pretend To Date
Wolf Girl And Black Prince
Erika of Wolf Girl and Black Prince lies to her friends, saying that Kyouya is her boyfriend. Kyouya is conventionally good-looking, has the veneer of genteel kindness, and, like Yuki Sohma, he's considered the prince of his school. But beneath that veneer, Kyouya is as explosive and insulting as Kyo Sohma can be.
The real Kyouya is manipulative and has a sharp tongue. He agrees to pretend to be Erika's boyfriend only if she acts like his pet. Like Kyo Sohma, though, Kyouya softens toward Erika with time.
4 Yui Finds A Sword That Transports Her To A Different World
Kamigami No Asobi
Kamigami no Asobi is a supernatural why-choose romance in which a sword artifact takes the protagonist, Yui, to a new world where she meets five charming strangers. Like Tohru, Yui is thrust into the company of magical people who she, in a sense, needs to take charge of.
While Tohru plays house mom to the Sohma family by cooking and cleaning, Yui starts teaching deities in an academy. And similar to the Sohma family, who live under the thumb of their Family Head, Akito, these handsome gods are trapped and could use Yui's help.
3 Lydia Can See Fairies
Earl And Fairy
Earl and Fairy is a visual delight with a whimsical premise about a woman named Lydia who has the gift of fairy sight. Fruits Basket is like a modern fairy tale with its pastel color palette, a Cinderella-coded main character, a family curse, and nefarious antagonists.
Earl and Fairy leans into its historical fantasy setting. Audiences who enjoyed Fruits Basket's whimsy and aesthetics would enjoy watching Lydia traverse Victorian-era Scotland while studying fairies. And like Kyo Sohma, Lydia's new employer, Edgar, has a tragic backstory that fuels his motivation to prove himself as a worthy person.
2 Four Friends Meddle In Each Other's Love Lives
Rainbow Days
Audiences who love Tohru's friendships and the unique array of characters in the Sohma family may enjoy the four boy protagonists in Rainbow Days. Tomoya, Keiichi, Natsuki, and Tsuyoshi all have distinct personalities, and the series follows them navigating their relationships as they attend high school.
Rainbow Days has relatively low stakes and plenty of comedic elements as the well-intentioned boys bungle Natsuki's efforts to find love. It's sweet to see the boys' sincere friendship and Natsuki's altruism when it comes to relationships.
1 Lykos May Be The Key To Breaking A Deadly Curse
Children Of The Whales
The magical curse in Children of the Whales is a double-edged sword akin to the Sohma family curse. The Sohma family enjoys some advantages from transforming into the Zodiac animals; they can summon and receive aid from creatures like themselves, and some family members have superhuman reflexes and agility. The downside is that the Zodiac curse isolates the Sohmas from others.
The magically gifted people in Children of the Whales pay a hefty price for their abilities. In exchange, the inhabitants of Mud Whale island will die young. However, the arrival of a girl stranger named Lykos on the island may change everything.