98 Fun Facts About Fruits Basket

Which zodiac animal is Hiro, the sharp-tongued schoolboy who is in love with Kisa?

The sheep is Hiro's animal. Unlike most zodiac parents, his mother took his transformations in her stride, so he grew up in an unusually peaceful, loving home.

In which shōjo magazine was Fruits Basket serialised from 1998 to 2006?

Hana to Yume, Hakusensha's twice-monthly shōjo magazine, carried the whole run. Partway through, Takaya needed surgery and the series went on hiatus until she returned to finish it.

The title Fruits Basket comes from what?

A Japanese schoolyard game gives the series its title: children named after fruits swap seats when theirs is called. Classmates shut Tohru out of it, the root of her feeling that she doesn't belong.

What did Tohru's kindergarten classmates nickname her instead of a fruit?

They named her Onigiri, a rice ball, which is not a fruit, so she was never called and only realised afterwards that she had been left out.

How does Tohru's mother die shortly before Fruits Basket begins?

In a car accident shortly before the story opens, Tohru's mother is struck and killed; a cursed Sohma who saw it hesitated to pull her clear for fear of exposing the curse.

Where is Tohru living when she first discovers the Sohma house?

In a tent in the woods on Sohma land, Tohru camps alone while her grandfather's house is remodelled, unwilling to impose on her friends Arisa and Saki.

What disaster wrecks Tohru's makeshift home, leading the Sohmas to take her in?

A landslide buries everything she owns, so Shigure and Yuki invite her to live in their house, where she earns her keep by cooking and cleaning.

How does Kyo first enter Shigure's house in chapter one?

He crashes through the ceiling of Tohru's new room while Yuki is showing it to her, and at once challenges Yuki to a fight.

What triggers a cursed Sohma's transformation into their zodiac animal?

A hug from the opposite sex, or stress, sets off the change, though a hug from another cursed Sohma is safe. When his curse finally lifts, the first thing Yuki does is embrace the girl he loves.

Which zodiac animal is Yuki?

As the rat, he is the object of Kyo's lifelong hatred, even though the two secretly envy each other.

Which zodiac animal is Shigure, whose house Tohru moves into?

The dog is Shigure's zodiac animal; outside the family he is a novelist who writes literary fiction under his own name and racy romances under the pen name Noa Kiritani.

What role in the zodiac legend does Akito occupy?

Akito is the God of the zodiac, the figure the animals of the legend were bound to; that bond compels the cursed Sohmas to obey Akito and holds the family together.

What does Fruits Basket chapter 97 reveal that the 2001 anime never does?

The family head is biologically female: Akito was raised as a boy at the insistence of Akito's mother Ren, a secret kept from the younger zodiac members and from Tohru until late in the manga.

In Fruits Basket, what awaits Kyo if he fails to beat Yuki before he graduates high school?

Confinement for life on the Sohma estate is his stake in a bet with Akito, who offered him a place in the zodiac if he won. He never beats Yuki, and is spared only because Akito relents.

What happens when Kyo's bead bracelet is removed?

He becomes a grotesque, stinking monster, the true form that his bead bracelet normally suppresses; Tohru follows him into the woods in that form and begs him to come home.

Who took Kyo in and raised him after his mother's death?

Kazuma Sohma, the karate master his pupils call Shishō, took the boy in after his mother died and his own father rejected him, and came to think of him as his own son.

Why did Fruits Basket's karate master feel bound to take in the young cat?

Guilt over his grandfather, the previous cat, drove him. As a boy he refused a sweet the old man offered, calling it cursed, and the forgiving smile he got back haunted him for years.

Hatori is the zodiac's dragon in Fruits Basket, but what creature does he actually turn into?

A seahorse, about eight centimetres long, is all the dragon's spirit can manage. Shigure reads it as a sign that the zodiac curse is weakening.

What does Hatori do to outsiders who learn the Sohma family secret?

He erases their memories with a hypnosis-like technique passed down his line of the family. Momiji's mother begged him to use it on her, because she could not bear having a cursed son.

How did Hatori become nearly blind in his left eye?

Akito attacked him when he asked to marry his assistant Kana, striking his left eye; Akito then blamed Kana for the injury, and her guilt-stricken breakdown ended the engagement.

In Fruits Basket, Momiji the rabbit has a mother from which European country?

Germany is his mother's homeland. Repelled by the curse, she rejected him, so he grew up on the Sohma estate apart from her and from his sister Momo, who doesn't know he is her brother.

What do the Sohmas call Hatsuharu's calm and enraged personalities?

White and Black are the names for his calm and his violent sides; he is the ox, with white hair over black roots, and as a child he blamed Yuki for the ox's reputation for stupidity.

What does Ayame, the snake and Yuki's older brother, sell in his shop?

Custom romantic costumes such as frilly dresses and maid outfits are made to order with his seamstress, Mine Kuramae. When his curse lifts, he can finally embrace her.

Which zodiac animal is the shy Kisa, who stops speaking after being bullied?

The tiger is Kisa's animal; her tawny hair and golden eyes are marks of the curse, and she grows close to Tohru, calling her onee-chan, after Tohru coaxes her to speak again.

Which zodiac animal is the anxious, constantly apologising Ritsu?

The monkey is Ritsu's animal. He dresses in women's kimono because he feels less pressure that way, and he is in training to succeed his mother as hostess of the Sohma family's hot-spring inn.

How did the young Kagura get Kyo to propose in the Fruits Basket manga?

She threatened him with a knife when they were children and has called herself his fiancée ever since. She later admits her love began as pity for the cat.

What is unusual about the rooster's curse when Fruits Basket begins?

It broke roughly ten years earlier, when he was in his teens, yet Akito keeps him confined to the estate to hide it, so he is 26 before he first sets foot in a convenience store.

Which bird did the Sohma family's rooster actually turn into?

A sparrow, not a rooster, was his animal form. He is also the one who frees Rin after Akito locks her away.

Why did Fruits Basket's author lengthen Rin's hair from her first short-haired design?

To suggest a horse's mane blowing in the wind, Takaya lengthened the short hair of her first design, since Rin is the zodiac's horse. Akito later hacks it short as a punishment.

What was Tohru's mother Kyoko before she married?

Leader of an all-girl biker gang in her teens, she was nicknamed the Red Butterfly because her bike's tail-light looked like a red butterfly as she rode at night.

In Fruits Basket, what was the dying Kyoko asking of Kyo when he heard only "I'll never forgive you"?

To protect Tohru, as he had promised her years before. She got out only "I'll never forgive you", and Kyo carried the guilt for years.

What special ability does Tohru's friend Saki Hanajima have?

She senses and sends out "waves", an electric-signal power she can also use to attack, and her reputation for poison waves keeps the Prince Yuki Fan Club away from Tohru.

Which Sohma does Tohru's brash friend Arisa Uotani fall for at a convenience store?

Kureno is the Sohma she meets at a convenience store; she frets over their nine-year age gap, and in the final chapter prepares to move in with him.

How did Fruits Basket's author name most of the cursed Sohmas?

After old lunar-calendar months matching their animal is how Takaya named the cursed Sohmas, a scheme she admitted she broke by accidentally swapping the rooster's and the rabbit's names.

Why did Takaya give Tohru a name normally used for men?

She likes masculine names on female characters, which she says balance them out. She also has the cast call her Tohru-kun, an honorific usually kept for boys, because it sounded more dignified.

Which company animated the 2001 Fruits Basket anime?

Studio Deen animated the 26-episode 2001 series under director Akitaro Daichi. It aired while the manga was still running, departs from the books in places and stops well short of their ending.

Which studio produced the 2019–2021 Fruits Basket anime, made with a new Japanese cast and staff at Takaya's request?

TMS Entertainment produced the reboot under director Yoshihide Ibata. Its 63 episodes across three seasons adapt all 23 volumes of the manga, the full story the first anime never reached.

Who sang the opening and ending themes of the 2001 anime?

Ritsuko Okazaki sang both the opening "For Fruits Basket" and the ending "Chiisana Inori" of the 2001 anime; she died in 2004.

What is the first opening theme of the 2019 anime?

The first opening was "Again" by Beverly; "Chime" by Ai Otsuka took over from episode 14, and the final season opened with "Pleasure" by WARPs UP.

Which English voice actress plays Tohru in both the 2001 and 2019 Fruits Basket dubs?

Laura Bailey voiced Tohru in Funimation's 2001 dub and came back for the 2019 reboot with much of the original English cast, even though the Japanese version was recast from scratch.

Who voices Kyo in English in both Fruits Basket anime series?

Jerry Jewell voices him in both: Funimation brought back its 2001 leads for the reboot's English dub, while the Japanese version was recast from scratch.

Who voiced Tohru in Japanese in the 2019 Fruits Basket anime?

Manaka Iwami took over from Yui Horie, the 2001 Tohru, because Natsuki Takaya asked for an entirely new Japanese cast and staff.

Which award did Fruits Basket win at the 5th Crunchyroll Anime Awards?

Best Drama went to its second season at the 2021 awards. A year earlier the first season had been nominated for the same prize and lost to Vinland Saga.

Which publisher relaunched the Fruits Basket manga in English in 2016?

Yen Press licensed it in a package with two more Natsuki Takaya series, Twinkle Stars and Liselotte & Witch's Forest.

What is the title of the sequel manga Natsuki Takaya began in 2015?

Fruits Basket Another follows high-schooler Sawa Mitoma among the next generation of Sohmas. Takaya launched it alongside the collector's edition and said Tohru, Yuki and Kyo would not appear.

What does the 2022 Fruits Basket film add to its recap of the series?

A prequel episode about Tohru's parents, titled Kyoko to Katsuya no Monogatari, is added to the recap, showing how student teacher Katsuya Honda fell for the delinquent Kyoko.

In Fruits Basket, what did the young Yuki give a lost Tohru after leading her home?

A baseball cap that had been Kyo's: Yuki tried to hand it back, Kyo refused it, and Yuki kept it. Tohru treasured the cap for years without knowing which boy had led her home.

What do Fruits Basket's final pages show about Tohru and Kyo?

They had a son and a granddaughter: the final pages jump ahead to show the two walking hand in hand in old age.

Domee Shi credited Fruits Basket as an inspiration for which animated film that she directed?

Turning Red borrowed the playfulness and looseness with which Fruits Basket treats magic, Shi said; her heroine changes into a giant red panda whenever strong emotion hits.

What did convention attendees fold in 2005 to campaign for more Fruits Basket anime?

Paper cranes were chosen because Japanese folklore says folding 1,000 of them grants a wish. Fans hit the target that year, yet a new series was not announced until 2018.

Crunchyroll announced a Fruits Basket collaboration with which character franchise at Anime Expo 2022?

Hello Kitty teamed up with the Sohmas for a crossover that debuted in August 2022, the year after the anime's last season had aired.

What colour is Kyo Sohma's hair, which a teacher at school once threatens to dye black?

Orange hair gets Kyo noticed: when he tries to slip out of class on Valentine's Day, a teacher stops him at the door with a folder in his face and makes the threat.

What is the profession of Shigure Sohma, who owns the house where Tohru, Yuki and Kyo live?

Novelist is his trade twice over: Shigure publishes literary fiction under his own name and trashy romances under pen names such as Noa Kiritani.

Which instrument does Momiji Sohma play, inspiring his little sister to start taking lessons too?

Violin lessons are as close as she can get to him: raised apart from Momiji, she has no idea that the boy she is so curious about is her older brother.

What after-school job does Tohru Honda work to pay her own tuition fees?

Office cleaner is the evening job Tohru takes so that she will not burden her grandfather, and Momiji sometimes helps out, since the building belongs to his father.

Tohru's class performs a play in Fruits Basket that is loosely based on which fairy tale?

Cinderella becomes Sorta Cinderella in the class's hands, and Yuki's fan club schemes to have Tohru cast as a wicked stepsister so that she will look bad.

Animerica's reviewers found the 2001 Fruits Basket anime similar in premise and music to which earlier series?

Ranma ½ also follows a cursed teenager who changes form at awkward moments, in his case a martial artist who becomes a girl when splashed with water.

What royal title does Yuki Sohma's school fan club, led by Motoko Minagawa, give to him?

Prince Yuki's fan club bans every member from being alone with him so that nobody can steal him away, a rule that only leaves him lonelier.

What subtitle was given to the third and last season of the Fruits Basket anime, aired in 2021?

The Final finished adapting the whole manga, something the 2001 series never did, and went on to win Anime of the Year at the 8th Anime Trending Awards.

Which one-word subtitle did the Fruits Basket compilation film released in Japanese cinemas in 2022 carry?

Prelude opened in just 25 Japanese cinemas yet took about $1.12 million, and its theme song, Niji to Kite, was performed by Ohashi Trio.

Why does Tohru Honda have to leave her grandfather's house shortly before Fruits Basket begins?

It is being remodelled, and her grandfather asks her to stay with a friend until the work is finished. Not wanting to impose on her two best friends, Tohru fends for herself.

Which keepsake of her late mother Kyoko does Tohru Honda treasure throughout Fruits Basket?

A photograph of Kyoko is Tohru's treasure: she calls her mother the most important person in her life, and feels unfaithful to that memory when she finds herself falling in love.

Which zodiac animal is Kagura Sohma, who insists that she is engaged to Kyo?

The boar suits Kagura, a girlish young woman of great strength who berates and beats up the boy she adores, and who finally admits that her love grew out of pity.

Which zodiac animal is Hatsuharu Sohma, who as a child blamed Yuki for his reputation as stupid?

The ox was tricked out of first place in the old zodiac legend, and young Haru held a grudge until Yuki simply asked whether he really believed he was stupid.

As the Snake of the zodiac, what is Ayame Sohma especially susceptible to in Fruits Basket?

Cold saps Ayame, the flamboyant older brother Yuki can barely tolerate; only Hatori is said to be able to rein in his worst behaviour.

Which Japanese honorific did Natsuki Takaya have other characters attach to Tohru's given name?

-kun, an honorific typically used for boys, follows Tohru's name because Natsuki Takaya thought it a more dignified form of address.

What does Momiji Sohma wear to high school, to Kyo's horror, until a growth spurt in his second year?

The girls' uniform, worn with shorts instead of a skirt, is Momiji's choice until he shoots up at the start of his second year and switches to the boys' version.

What was Kyo Sohma promised if he could beat Yuki in a fight before finishing high school?

A place in the zodiac was the prize Akito offered: official acceptance by the family that shuns him. Despite months of strict training, Kyo never lands a decent blow.

Which publisher first released the Fruits Basket manga in English in North America, then closed that division in 2011?

Tokyopop counted Fruits Basket as its best-selling manga, with more than 2 million copies sold by 2006, before the licence lapsed and the series found a new English home.

Which Japanese publisher collected the Fruits Basket manga into 23 volumes between 1999 and 2007?

Hakusensha also issued the first three chapters in a dual Japanese-English edition in 2003, and a full-colour digital version of the manga in 2019.

Which Japanese honour did Fruits Basket win in its shōjo category in 2001?

Kodansha Manga Award honours came in the year the first anime aired, and in 2007 the series added Best Manga at the American Anime Awards.

Gekidan Studio Life, which staged Fruits Basket as a play in 2009, is a theatre troupe made up entirely of whom?

Men play every part at Studio Life, and for Fruits Basket the troupe cast only performers who were making their stage debuts, in a two-week run at the Galaxy Theater.

What is Mayuko Shiraki's role in the school lives of Tohru, Yuki and Kyo in Fruits Basket?

Homeroom teacher Mayuko once broke up a fight between two Sohma boys by dumping a bucket of water over them, and Natsuki Takaya pictured her teaching literature.

Which student council treasurer, compelled to spoil anything too perfect, becomes Yuki Sohma's girlfriend?

Machi Kuragi was pushed to be flawless as a child, so she trashes neat rooms and tramples fresh snow. Unlike most of the school, she sees Yuki as a lonely boy, not an idol.

Which illness killed Katsuya Honda on a business trip when his daughter Tohru was three years old?

Pneumonia took Katsuya so suddenly that Kyoko fell into despair, pulling through only when she remembered that her small daughter still needed her.

What is Kyo Sohma doing at the moment his curse finally lifts in Fruits Basket?

Confessing his love to Tohru comes just before the hug in which Kyo fails to transform, and every Sohma still under the curse is freed at the same moment.

Which holiday destination does Hatori Sohma invite Mayuko Shiraki to in the last chapter of Fruits Basket?

Okinawa is the trip that seals their romance: Mayuko had quietly liked Hatori for years while he was engaged to her best friend, Kana.

Akito dreams of keeping the zodiac together forever inside the Sohma compound in a never-ending what?

Banquet is Akito's word for a future in which the zodiac, once old enough, live out their lives on the estate. Tohru's arrival is what starts to pull them away.

What does Ren Sohma ask Rin to steal from Akito in return for the secret of breaking the curse?

A black box said to hold the spirit of Akito's late father is the price, but the promise is a lie, and when the lid finally comes off the box proves to be empty.

Before marrying Akira, the head of the Sohma family, what was Ren's position in the household?

Maid to the lonely, sickly Akira, Ren won his heart by being the only one to notice his loneliness, though many in the household thought her too lowborn to marry him.

Rin is a nickname in Fruits Basket, taken from an alternate reading of a kanji in which given name?

Isuzu Sohma goes by Rin because the second kanji of her name can be read that way; stubborn and independent, she cannot stand having to depend on anyone.

In Fruits Basket, Tohru's nickname Uo for her friend Arisa Uotani comes from a kanji in the surname meaning what?

Fish is the meaning of the first kanji in Uotani, so a little one stands for the tough former gang member in the manga, just as a small flower marks her friend Hana.

Why does Saki Hanajima wear black clothes and black nail polish outside school in Fruits Basket?

As a sign of guilt, Saki took to black after a boy who bullied her collapsed and nearly died, a disaster she blamed on powers she could not yet control.

Why did Fruits Basket's serialisation stop for about a year partway through its run?

Its author needed surgery for occupational dystonia, and when Natsuki Takaya came back after the year off she noted that her drawing style had changed.

What kind of family business is Ritsu Sohma training to take over from his endlessly apologetic mother?

A hot spring owned by the Sohmas is run by Ritsu's mother as its hostess, and her habit of apologising frantically for everything has passed to him along with the job.

In Fruits Basket, which Japanese title does Kyo use for the karate teacher who raised him?

Shishō, meaning master, is what his pupils call him; Natsuki Takaya draws him young but puts his age at almost 40, and he is so hopeless in the kitchen that he cannot even prepare tea.

What is the name of Saki Hanajima's younger brother, said to need only a person's name to curse them?

Megumi shares both his sister's deadpan manner and her psychic gift, and the close-knit Hanajima family accepts and nurtures the abilities of both children.

Kisa Sohma is a fan of which fictional anime series within the world of Fruits Basket?

Mogeta is a show Kisa sometimes watches with Tohru and Hiro, and Yuki later gives two figurines of its characters to a fellow fan he has grown fond of.

Which shy first-year student is the heroine of Natsuki Takaya's sequel manga about the next generation of Sohmas?

Sawa Mitoma is drawn into the student council by Mutsuki and Hajime Sohma, in a series first created to promote a collector's edition; the old main cast do not appear.

What is the title of the Fruits Basket spin-off that Natsuki Takaya began publishing in April 2019?

The Three Musketeers Arc ran for three chapters in 2019, came back for a second season of three more in 2020, and was collected in the last volume of the sequel series.

Chiisana Inori, the main ending theme of the 2001 Fruits Basket anime, has a title that means what in English?

Small Prayer closes every episode but the 25th, which ends on Serenade; for the English dub the theme songs were rewritten and sung by the show's voice actresses.

Which singer performed Chime, the second opening theme of the 2019 Fruits Basket anime's first season?

Ai Otsuka's Chime took over from episode 14, and the reboot went on to use five opening themes in all across its three seasons.

Which series did Natsuki Takaya begin in 2007 as her first new work after completing Fruits Basket?

Twinkle Stars followed a spell in which the exhausted Takaya considered quitting; sure she could never top Fruits Basket, she set out simply to stay true to her own voice.

Who is the first person Ayame Sohma embraces once he is finally freed from the zodiac curse?

Mine Kuramae, the seamstress who works beside him and shares the flat above his shop, gets the hug along with a confession of love.

Freed from his curse in chapter 118 of Fruits Basket, whom does Hiro Sohma hold for the very first time?

His baby sister Hinata is the first person he reaches for, and she is also the one who gives Hiro the courage to tell Haru what he saw Akito do to Rin.

What is the name of the younger sister of the zodiac's Rabbit, who has no idea that he is her brother?

Momo was never told about her brother Momiji after their mother rejected him, yet she is drawn to him anyway, and by the time of the sequel she knows the truth.

Which energetic student council vice president reminds Yuki Sohma strongly of his older brother Ayame?

Kakeru Manabe likes to call the student council a School Defense Force and once tried to make its members pick team colours; he even refers to Ayame as his commander.

What does Kisa Sohma call Tohru in the English dub of the Fruits Basket anime?

Sissy stands in for the Japanese onee-chan, which the manga and the subtitles render as big sister; Kisa attaches herself to Tohru because both of them were bullied.