Fruits Basket



After the death of her mother, young Tohru Honda has been secretly living on her own in a tent. Her life changes forever when she stumbles upon the secret of the Sohma family, whose land she has been living on. They are afflicted by a Hereditary Curse that changes some members of the family into animals of the Eastern Zodiac when they are hugged by someone of the opposite sex that is not also a Zodiac member.

Now living with three of the Sohma family, every day is an adventure for sweet Tohru, as she gets to know all of the very different family members better, in both common and bizarre situations. But, the Sohma family curse is certainly no laughing matter...it also holds horrible cruelty and heartbreak. Despite this, the members of the Sohma family find a new peace thanks to the presence of Tohru.

Hailed as one of the best shojo series out there, during its five years in-print (2004-2009) it was the best-selling shojo manga series in America, and often the second best-selling manga series in the US period, beat only by a certain ninja.

Also see this page for tropes that can be applied directly to the characters.

Watch it on Hulu here.

"Shigure: Yup, we were inseparable! So much so that they called us the Mabudachi Trio/Three Musketeers.
 * Abusive Parents: Be thankful you weren't raised in this series.
 * Adaptation Dye Job: Tohru's eyes are changed from brown to blue and Kyo's bracelet is no longer red and white (which changes its origins). There are other hair and eye variations too, however Tohru's the most prominent.
 * Kazuma Sohma, aka Shishou, has his hair changed from brown to silver.
 * Always Camp: Ayame Sohma
 * Animorphism: There is one person corresponding to each animal in the Eastern Zodiac, as well as a cat. Hair color and personality appear to be linked to the animal spirit the person possesses, which causes problems for the people cursed by animals with exotic coloring.
 * Hilariously lampshaded with Hatsuharu : To prove to the overeager student council's president that his hair is naturally white with black roots, . Of course, when Tohru asks Hatsuharu how he did it, and due to the fact that Haru is and isn't really thinking straight, things end with a double Megaton Punch.
 * The Beast Master: The Zodiac members do have the ability to attract and (sometimes) control whatever animal they are possessed by. However, only Yuki is seen actually utilizing the latter ability in the early chapters to help him dig out Tohru's belongings after her tent is buried in the aftermath of a landslide.
 * Kyo is regularly mocked by people who don't know his secret, who suggest that he should become a "Cat Trainer" given how cats are attracted to him.
 * The Beautiful Elite: Practically everyone, but especially the Sohmas.
 * Berserk Button: When.
 * Big Bad: Akito is directly responsible for a good portion of the problems several of the Sohmas dealt with. Ren was the one that ultimately pushed Akito over the edge.
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: Where to begin?
 * Bishie Sparkle: With an entire cast of Bishonen, this naturally happens a lot, but most notably during Tohru's daydream of "if Yuki and Kyo got along".
 * Blank White Eyes: Used to great effect throughout the series, especially by mild-mannered characters shocked with the insanity around them.
 * Boyfriend Bluff: Kyo pulls a non-verbal version of this to protect Tohru from some guys that want to take advantage of her.
 * Bratty Half-Pint: Hiro Sohma
 * Break Up Demand: Akito is fond of this..
 * Akito doesn't so much demand break ups verbally so much as does something to one half of the relationship that leads the other half to break the relationship off. Though the previous two examples did break off in this way, the worst example would probably have to be between Hatori and Kana. Akito doesn't simply tell Hatori and his fiancée they aren't allowed to wed. No, Akito smashes a vase into Hatori's eye, and tells Kana that Hatori's nearly blind because of her, leading Kana into a severe depression that then led Hatori to erase her memories of their entire relationship.
 * Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Kyo and Tohru fit this to a T. To a lesser extent, Hiro and Kisa as well.
 * Broken Bird: Isuzu/Rin Sohma.
 * Bug Buzz: Ah, the perfect summer sound!
 * But Not Too Foreign: Momiji is half-German and speaks German fluently from time to time in the manga.
 * Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Justified and lampshaded as the Sohma being The Beautiful Elite, but in fact it goes way further than just them.
 * Censor Steam: When the Sohmas turn back from animals into (completely naked) humans, the transformation is accompanied by smoke clouds that handily obscure almost everything but the character's face.
 * Cerebus Syndrome: Although the general message of the anime is one of The Power of Friendship and The Power of Love, the buried angst from the Dysfunction Junction becomes dominating in the later manga volumes.
 * The Chessmaster: Ren Sohma
 * Childhood Marriage Promise: Subversion: Kyo's promise to Kagura was extracted by her threatening him with a knife (or a large rock in the anime).
 * The Clan: Well, the Sohmas.
 * Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: In the manga, most obviously.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Kagura Sohma is a genuinely nice girl, but around Kyo she tends to switch into berserker mode, leaving the object of her 'affection' a crumpled heap on the ground before she knows it. ("My love! Who did this to you??") Kyo is rightly terrified when she first appears.
 * The Prince Yuki Fan Club is the definition of this trope.
 * Her mother is even worse.
 * Color Failure: Usually Kyo after Kagura visits.
 * Covered in Mud: At one point, Tohru's uniform is dirty from the mudslide that fell on her tent. Once she gets cleaned up, one of Yuki's fan club, jealous that Tohru arrived at school with Yuki, says "That mud looked so good on you".
 * Cross-Popping Veins: Parodied. After Kagura causes a big mess at Shigure's house, Kyo yells at Shigure for being too easy going about the incident. Shigure promptly reaches down and sticks a large, red set of veins to his head, declaring "Now I'm mad," and removing them a moment later. And Kyo in cat form is seen often sporting these.
 * Dark-Skinned Redhead: Kyo is darker skinned than everyone else, at any rate. Could be partially due to his curse, partly to how much time he spends outside.
 * Dead Little Sister: Several (some are manga-only), to varying degrees. Hatsuharu and Hiro each feel that they failed to protect someone they loved, though no one died. Averted with Tohru, whose mother (and father) died, because her warm personality is the point of the series.
 * Denouement Episode: The final episode of the anime is largely this.
 * Don't Try This At Home: After tripping Kyo (who was running at breakneck speed), Hatsuharu then breaks the fourth wall to say that doing this could cause serious injury to anyone besides Kyo.
 * Which prompts Kyo to yell back "Don't try it here, either! And who the hell are you talking to anyways?!"
 * Due to the Dead: Many characters assist in proper respects to Tohru's dead mother.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Everyone has a tragic past, screwed up family history, and/or other significant psychological issues. Parents in general tend to be abusive, neglectful, ashamed of their childrens' forms, or dead.
 * In the manga, a brief look into Kimi Todo's backstory shows her getting teased in middle school, with the girls wondering aloud why she doesn't just go hang out with the boys and get by on her looks. And then Kimi subverts your expectations hilariously.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: For all the love and friendship this series has, there's also a lot of pain.
 * Eastern Zodiac: There is a character for each animal in the zodiac, plus a cat and the 'god' who arranged the legendary banquet. "God" doesn't get a transformation, however, it does have the power to manipulate the other spirits at will, forcing them to do anything it asks. They also love it unconditionally and can never blame it for anything. Unfortunately for the owner of the dragon spirit, a little wordplay means that instead of turning into an actual dragon (which would be badass), . While the traditional legend says there was one banquet and that the rat tricked the cat into missing it, the end of the manga reveals what really happened:
 * Even the Guys Want Him: Yuki Sohma
 * Everyone Is Related: Both in the sense that half the cast is actually biologically related to each other (the Sohma family is HUGE), but also in that the characters all manage to have some sort of connection to each other. The friend Yuki makes at school, for example? Tohru's homeroom teacher?  The most obvious example, however, is that.
 * Evil Matriarch: Ren Sohma, in spades.
 * Foreshadowing: In the first chapter, Shigure tells Tohru that the hillsides are weak.
 * In chapter 19, the female student council assistants imagine Momiji in the male uniform after a growth spurt, accurately.
 * Forgotten First Meeting: Tohru met Yuki when they were younger. Yuki remembers that first meeting, but think that Tohru doesn't (in actuality, she does).
 * The First Cut Is the Deepest: Kana to Hatori
 * Fractured Fairy Tale: When they realize how woefully miscast they are in a play of "Cinderella", they rewrite it into "Sorta Cinderella" and invert a great deal of it. It manages to be a Crowning Moment of Funny and very (unintentionally) touching at the same time.
 * Gang of Bullies: Motoko Minagawa leads a small group of girls who routinely make life a little more difficult for the main character.
 * Gender Blender Name: "Tohru" is a boy's name; all of the male Zodiac members have girl's names.
 * In the case of Tohru, it's commented on quite frequently. Her father chose the name, because he wanted Tohru to be like when "you add something salty to something sweet to bring out the flavor".
 * Godiva Hair: When Censor Steam just isn't enough... (Rin gets this due to her Rapunzel Hair.)
 * Green-Eyed Monster: Yuki's fangirls toward Tohru. And anyone else who so much as looks at Yuki.
 * towards Akito. It's the reason why . Very much edges towards If I Can't Have You I'm Going To Destroy You And Make You Completely Emotionally Inaccessible For Anyone Else Ever.
 * Tohru finds out that one of the reasons for the friction between is jealousy.
 * Groupie Brigade: Despite not being a really "famous" person," Yuki is regularly stalked by a vast brigade of obsessive fangirls.
 * Hair Colors: Correspond to the person's animal form, and it is remarked upon as unusual...
 * Lampshaded/parodied with Haru, when the school president insists he'll never believe black and white are Haru's natural hair colors. Cue Hatsuharu dragging said president into the bathroom.
 * Harem Nanny: Shigure Sohma
 * Homage: The plot is rather reminiscent of Beauty and The Beast.
 * Hereditary Curse: A curse that changes some members of the family into animals of the Eastern Zodiac when they are hugged by someone of the opposite sex that is not also a member of the family.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: The Mabudachi Trio (Shigure, Ayame, and Hatori).
 * Hime Cut: Isuzu/Rin Sohma.
 * Hot Mom: Ren Sohma
 * When Kyoko was alive, so was she. And Tohru is nearly bowled over when she sees a picture of Momiji's German mother, while Yuki's homeroom is rather stunned when they see his mother.
 * Hot Springs Episode: Kyo, Tohru, Momiji and Yuki visit the hot springs resort owned by the Sohma family. Not as much fanservice for guys, but (considering the cast of Bishonen) a fair amount for the female audience.
 * I Banged Your Mom: Not Played for Laughs.
 * I Just Want to Be Loved: Mostly everybody.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the manga, Motoko eventually says this to Yuki.
 * This ultimately is how Tohru's friends feel about Kyo dating and "taking" Tohru from them - they don't mind, as long as he makes her happy.
 * I Know Your True Name: Megumi Hanajima, Hana's little brother, claims to be able to curse a person if he knows his name. Every member of Yuki's fanclub accidentally reveals her name to him, to their horror, except one. ("Nice to meet you, Number Two-san.")
 * Innocent Cohabitation: Tohru Honda and three male members of the Sohma family.
 * Instant Bandages: Kyo gets these after being tripped.
 * Instant Fanclub: Yuki has a small, very determined fan club. One episode is centered on their possessive, inconsiderate attitude.
 * According to the anime, almost half the entire school's female population is part of Yuki's fan club. We never see them though.
 * In the manga, Kyo eventually has his own fan club.
 * Involuntary Shapeshifting: Members of the Zodiac transform when weak or hugged by the opposite sex.
 * Japanese Delinquents: Uotani and Kyoko when she was a teenager.
 * Karma Houdini: Multiple characters, and it It Makes Sense in Context. Two of the main themes in the series are forgiveness and second chances, after all.
 * Akito, who does show remorse for the shit pulled on everyone, even realizing with horror that there's no way to obtain forgiveness from the most abused members of the cast.
 * Ren really doesn't get punished for all of the emotional abuse and trickery she racks up over the course of the manga. Although she still doesn't end up too well, given that
 * Kick the Dog: One of Akito's hobbies.
 * Ren is also quite fond of it. Really, that's almost certainly where Akito picked it up from.
 * Kissing Cousins: A good portion of the official couples. Possibly justified by the size of the family, and that  had never met each other before their first meeting.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia
 * Lethal Chef: Kazuma and Yuki Sohma
 * Let's Have Another Baby: Tohru's parents in their Backstory. They were never able to.
 * Longing Look
 * Magic Pants: Totally averted. Retrieving clothes is the first priority of any of the family members after they turn back human.
 * May-December Romance: Kyoko/Katsuya, with an age difference of eight years.
 * Also possibly.
 * The Messiah: Tohru Honda
 * Mind Rape: Kana,, and Yuki,.
 * Very ironically,.
 * It's implied that Tohru herself went through this as a child, when her father died and she had to listen to her relatives talk about how Kyoko was a good-for-nothing bitch who didn't properly care for Katsuya and probably was having affairs, how Tohru was probably an illegitimate child, and how "a child like that is no consolation". Ouch.
 * Morning Routine
 * Never Got to Say Goodbye: Tohru always said goodbye to her mother, except for the one day her mother ended up dying in a car accident. This comes up again as a lesson about no second chances near the end of the manga.
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
 * No Fourth Wall: After tripping Kyo, Hatsuharu turns to warn viewers "Don't Try This At Home". Later, Tohru comments "Somehow this has turned into a fighting anime."
 * No Sense of Direction: Hatsuharu Sohma
 * No Sense of Humor: Hatori Sohma
 * Odd-Shaped Panel
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Shigure, though it's more like "Obfuscating Goofiness".
 * Official Couple: Given the too-huge-to-be-listed number of these (every major character is in one, and most minor characters as well), this is pretty much the Trope Codifier.
 * It's easier to list the exceptions. The only characters who aren't part of some sort of relationship at the end are
 * Only Sane Man: Hatori, but mostly with Ayame and Shigure.
 * Only Sane Man: Hatori, but mostly with Ayame and Shigure.

Tohru: Really?

Kyo: More like the Three Idiots if you ask me.

Yuki: How did Hatori put up with you for so long?"

"Hanajima: I could her with electro-poison waves."
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Rather than becoming a mythological creature, the "dragon" Hatori becomes a sea dragon.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: While not called werebeasts, each member has a single and unique alternate animal form, brought about by being hugged by non-Zodiac members of opposite sex. The animals are a cat, rat, dog, tiger, rabbit, dragon (seahorse), ox, snake, sheep, monkey, horse and rooster (sparrow).
 * Also, the person possessed by the cat will turn into a foul-smelling monster if their prayer-bead bracelet is removed.
 * Overtook the Manga: Barely averted. Due to Natsuki Takaya's hand injury necessitating a leave of absence from the series, the anime would have done this had it continued any longer than it did.
 * Personality Powers: While more obvious for certain characters than others, their animal forms tend to reflect their personalities: Yuki (the rat) is quiet and shrewd, Kyo (the cat) is impulsive and hotheaded , Shigure (the dog) is laidback and friendly, etc.
 * Pimped-Out Dress: When she and Yuki visit Ayame's shop, Tohru gets dolled up in one by Mine, causing Yuki to have a "Romantic BSOD".
 * Not to mention the dress Ayame had been wearing a few minutes before.
 * Ayame's store tends to deal with these in general. The ones he provides for the girls in the cast of "Sorta Cinderella" are pretty nice as well, with Mine loving Hanajima's request for a "pure black" one.
 * Please Don't Leave Me: Akito says this.
 * A variant is done when Tohru dreams that she is back in her old apartment, and it is the morning that her mother left and was hit by a car. While she dreams that she is stuck in her bed, she mentally screams for her mother to not leave or else she'll die.
 * Plucky Girl: Tohru Honda and Kagura Sohma
 * Posthumous Character: Kyoko Honda
 * Puppy Love: Hiro and Kisa Sohma
 * The Power of Friendship: Tohru's kindness, healing the hearts of the Zodiac members.
 * Yuki's later friendship (such as it is) with Kakeru also helps him out a good bit.
 * The Power of Love: There are about six Official Couples by the end, and everyone's lives are improved as a result.
 * Raised as the Opposite Gender: in the manga.
 * Reincarnation: The agents of the curse, not the characters themselves.
 * Rapunzel Hair: Isuzu/Rin, Ren, and Ayame all have incredibly long hair. Hanajima and Minagawa are borderline.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Kyo and Yuki, respectively.
 * Schedule Slip: The artist, Natsuki Takaya, broke her left hand - her drawing hand - while working on the 8th book, forcing her to take an extended break from the series. This is one of the reasons that the anime ended the way it did, the other reason was the Creative Differences between her and anime director Akitaroh Daichi.
 * School Idol: Yuki, complete with an insane fan club.
 * Shout-Out: Early on in the manga, Tohru refers to the massive garbage pile in the Sohma's kitchen as "the Sea of Decay".
 * Single-Target Sexuality: Run, Kyo, run! Kagura's coming!
 * Social Services Does Not Exist: Tohru is living in a tent in the woods at the beginning of the series, and the Sohma kids have all been so abused/neglected that they're barely able to socialize at school. Justified in that Tohru always and constantly makes clear she does not want to be a burden to anyone, probably including any social service that would be responsible for her (not to mention she sees it as a training for the harsh real life), so she apparently took care that Social Services never learned about her one-week-adventure with the tent. And the big messed up Sohma family are secluded and rich and stick to themselves, so Social Services could hardly step in.
 * Not to mention, poor Tohru was loathed by her remaining family except for her grandfather, who can't do a lot about it since he's extremely old and sickly. When she has to live witht them, her aunt and cousins treat her in a really horrifying manner - they don't beat her up, okay, but they badmouth her and her Missing Mom every five minutes. At that rate, it was for the best for her to not stay with them.
 * Sound Effect Bleep: Hana, in the first episode/chapter.
 * Not to mention, poor Tohru was loathed by her remaining family except for her grandfather, who can't do a lot about it since he's extremely old and sickly. When she has to live witht them, her aunt and cousins treat her in a really horrifying manner - they don't beat her up, okay, but they badmouth her and her Missing Mom every five minutes. At that rate, it was for the best for her to not stay with them.
 * Sound Effect Bleep: Hana, in the first episode/chapter.


 * Speech Bubbles: Odd shapes and different fonts are used extensively, especially in the English edition.
 * Spit Take: Shigure pulls one off in the manga when he learns that Tohru is still stuck using her middle-school swimsuit.
 * He does it again (though right at the edge of the panel, so it's easy not to notice, and nobody calls him out on it like in the above example) when Ayame orders Tohru to immediately remove all her clothes in volume 8.
 * Split Personality: Hatsuharu Sohma's "black" side.
 * Staying with Friends: What Tohru insists she's doing until people find out otherwise.
 * Surrogate Soliloquy: Tohru talking to a picture of her dead mother.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Isuzu/Rin and Ren Sohma
 * Tall, Dark and Handsome: Hatori Sohma
 * The Cutie: Tohru Honda and Kisa Sohma
 * The Klutz: Tohru Honda
 * There Are No Therapists: See Dysfunction Junction, above, and the lack of any comforting figures (parents included).
 * There Was a Door: Some part of poor Shigure's house is nearly constantly being repaired as a result. Causes of damage usually involve Kagura or Kyo, either kicking something or being kicked into something.
 * Kagura appears to have a tendency to break her own house, given a scene where she punches a door and her mother comments "Kagura, that's the second time you've broken that door in as many months."
 * Title Drop: The title references a memory that Tohru had of a game she once played in Kindergarten called "Fruits Basket" (essentially Duck-Duck-Goose, only with fruit names). She was assigned the name of "onigiri" (rice ball) and was never called on, leaving her to conclude that "there was no room for an onigiri in a Fruits Basket".
 * Twisted Echo Cut: In the second to last chapter.
 * To Become Human: The curse greatly restricts the social freedom of the afflicted and binds them to the head of the Sohma family. Emphasized more in the events after the anime.
 * Trash of the Titans: How Shigure's house was until Tohru moved in. A throwaway gag later reveals that his bedroom remains like this.
 * Machi's apartment wasn't much better.
 * Traumatic Haircut:
 * Troubled but Cute: Kyo, who starts out as an Arrogant Kung Fu Guy.
 * Tsundere: Kyo is a male example.
 * Kagura is a straight Type B example.
 * Villainous Crossdresser: in the manga, prior to her Heel Face Turn.
 * Vomit Discretion Shot: In the manga, Kyo's expulsion is discreetly covered...by Bishie Sparkle! Also Tohru, in an off-panel shot while, as well as in the manga flashback when Kyoko is first revealed to be pregnant, she's leaning over the sink.
 * WTH? Casting Agency: In-universe obvious example. Playing Cinderella at the school festival? Fantastic idea! Tohru will be perfect in the role of… What do you mean, she was cast as the mean stepsister? Charming Prince Kyo has no chance of rejecting the stepsister, in this case.
 * And when the characters realize it, instead of switching a few actors, they completely warp the story so it fits the actors personality. At the end of the play, we have actually no idea what was part of the rewriting, what was the actors going Off the Rails.
 * Windows Match the Drapes: Tohru and most of the Zodiac members, in the manga, anyway.
 * Wholesome Crossdresser: Ritsu Sohma
 * Yandere: Kagura, given that she shows her love to Kyo through harassment and violence.
 * Yaoi Fangirl: In the manga, Hatori explains that he's seen Yuki naked because he's a doctor. One of the female students says "I'm relieved, but kind of disappointed."
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Sometimes seen on characters like Rin and Motoko.
 * Yaoi Fangirl: In the manga, Hatori explains that he's seen Yuki naked because he's a doctor. One of the female students says "I'm relieved, but kind of disappointed."
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Sometimes seen on characters like Rin and Motoko.