Fruits Basket began as a shoujo manga written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya before it became an anime in 2001. In fact, it was one of the highest ranking manga series in both Japan and the United States. It was loved for starting out as a lighthearted story about a young girl living with a family who turn into zodiac animals if they are hugged and slowly delving into darker undertones of the mysterious zodiac family and their rules.
However, the 2001 anime did not stick completely to the manga's story. That is because the manga was not yet done while the anime was airing. The manga finished in 2007. But the good news is that the first episode of an anime reboot has already aired! Funimation has also announced that the reboot plans to cover the whole manga story!
So what do we hope to see? Well, check out our list below. Also, if you haven't read the manga, spoiler warning!
10 Meet The Rooster Zodiac
Fans of the 2001 anime never even got to meet the entire Sohma family, including the rooster zodiac character! If you read the manga, then you did get to meet him. His name is Kureno Sohma. However, you never see him change because is curse was actually broken. So technically, he is a former rooster. Even when he was cursed, he would turn into a sparrow instead of a rooster.
Kureno is also connected to the darker tones of the series, as when his curse was broken, he was confined in the Sohma family house for a long time. He is also a love interest for Tohru's friend, Arisa.
9 Meet The Horse Zodiac
The horse zodiac of the Sohma family was also a character we knew had to exist, but never met in the 2001 anime. In the manga, the horse of the family is Isuzu Sohma who is nicknamed "Rin." Much like the rest of the family, Rin has a history of enduring abuse which makes her personality complicated. She was born to parents that could not cope with her curse.
Rin is closest to Haru, who was a character that did show up in the 2001 anime. In fact, Rin is so close to Haru that their relationship was even once romantic.
8 See Kyo And Tohru's Romance Blossom
The climax of the 2001 anime was when Kyo turns into a monster and Tohru talked him down and they go home together. This hinted at what the manga ultimately planned, for Kyo and Tohru to end up in a romantic relationship. With this reboot, we hope that we will see the two characters develop further in their feelings for each other.
In the manga, Kyo eventually gets his curse broken and is able to hug Tohru without turning into a cat. The two characters also become much more emotional and loving around each other.
7 Learn About Ren Sohma
Someone who is not seen in the 2001 anime that played a critical role in how the Sohma family became so messed up is Ren Sohma, Akito's mother. In the manga, we learn that she is the reason Akito was raised as a man instead of a woman. She was fiercely jealous of her baby since Akito was treated special since she was the zodiac god.
In the manga, we see Ren slowly fall into madness. She even sleeps with Shigure, which is what gets him kicked out of the Sohma family household in the first place.
6 See And Learn More About Akito
Akito is the closest thing Fruits Basket has to a villain. In the 2001 anime, she was never revealed to actually be a girl, so hopefully, that reveal will happen in the reboot. Being the god of the zodiac, she is the tyrannical head of the overall abused family. However, she herself was a victim of abuse and is a very complicated individual. Fans of the 2001 anime got to see very little of her. While Tohru does get to meet her and get her permission to live with Yuki, Shigure, and Kyo, that's as far as the show went.
In the manga, there is a showdown between Tohru and Akito that gets Tohru into the hospital. Akito becomes increasingly unhinged by the fact that everyone loves Tohru to the point where the curses begin to break. In the end, though, Akito decides that she can change and ends up with Shigure.
5 See Shigure's Dark Side
Shigure is a laid-back, perverted, and sage-like character in the 2001 anime. However, if you read the manga then you can also add manipulative, selfish and sinister to that trait list as well. In a way, he is a trickster character who is trying to use Tohru to break the family curse.
However, what's so sinister is that he openly says in the manga that he does not care if someone might get hurt in the process. So while he is comic relief, Shigure is actually the mastermind behind the entire story.
4 Meet Machi
The 2001 anime never got to Machi. In the manga, she was a treasurer with the student council and Yuki's romantic interest. While she is not in the Sohma family, she has a destructive personality much like many of them do. Her abuse mother forced her to be perfect in everything. (Abusive family is a big trend in Fruits Basket if you have not yet noticed.) Due to that, Machi hates perfection.
What pulls this normal student into the story is her relationship with Yuki. She quickly set herself apart from other girls by disagreeing with the "Prince Yuki Fan Club." In the manga, you see her and Yuki develop a romantic relationship.
3 Meet Other Student Council Members
Besides Machi, there were other student council members in the manga that are characters worth exploring. With Yuki being the student council president, these characters were a part of his character. Kimi Toudou is the secretary and Machi's best friend. She is a rather cute and comical character since she often speaks in the third person.
There is also the vice-president, Kakeru, who is Machi's older half-sibling who is the boyfriend of the girl whose father drove the car that hit and killed Tohru's mom. From Kakeru, we learn that he yelled at Tohru for acting like the only victim since the driver died as well.
2 Show Part Of "Fruits Basket Another"
Out of all the hopes on this list, this one may be the most unlikely. Fruits Basket Another is the sequel to the original Fruits Basket, written by the original author. The sequel was released in 2015 and has three volumes to completely tie off the series. The main character is a girl in high school who has no knowledge about the Sohma family but meets the descendants such as Yuki and Machi's son, Mutsuki, and Tohru and Kyo's first son, Hajime.
So the hope is that the series will finish and maybe time skip to the future where we can see Fruits Basket Another just at the beginning. It will show the story go full circle, except this time with no curse!
1 Learn More About Katsuya Honda
Tohru's father was not mentioned that much in the 2001 anime. In the manga though, we learn a good deal about what kind of person he was before he passed away when Tohru was three-years-old. He and Tohru's mother, Kyoko, fell in love while he worked as an intern teacher. When Kyoko is eventually disowned by her parents, Katsuya proposes to her.
In the manga, we see that the mother's last thoughts as she is dying are how she is leaving Tohru alone just like Katsuya did. However, she sees Katsuya and they are reunited in death.