Manga 'Fruits Basket' Receives New TV Anime Adaptation

This year's 24th issue of Hakusensha's Hana to Yume magazine announced a new anime adaptation of Natsuki Takaya's supernatural shoujo manga Fruits Basket on Tuesday, scheduled to air on TV Tokyo in 2019. The new anime will adapt the manga series in its entirety. Avex Entertainment also opened an official website for the series simultaneously, revealing new staff, cast, and a teaser visual (pictured).

The anime announcement was originally revealed through Hana to Yume's listing of the issue's cover on November 12. The magazine promptly removed the listing and issued a statement on its official Twitter the following day that reads, "Please wait for the official announcement regarding Fruits Basket's media adaptation on November 20."

Synopsis
Tooru Honda is an orphan with nowhere to go but a tent in the woods, until the Souma family takes her in. However, the Souma family is no ordinary family, and they hide a grave secret: when they are hugged by someone of the opposite gender, they turn into animals from the Chinese Zodiac!

Now, Tooru must help Kyou and Yuki Souma hide their curse from their classmates, as well as her friends Arisa Uotani and Megumi Hanajima. As she is drawn further into the mysterious world of the Soumas, she meets more of the family, forging friendships along the way.

But this curse has caused much suffering; it has broken many Soumas. Despite this, Tooru may just be able to heal their hearts and soothe their souls. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Staff
Director: Yoshihide Ibata (FLCL Progressive co-director)
Series Composition: Taku Kishimoto (Boku dake ga Inai Machi)
Character Design: Yuu Shindou (Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru.)
Executive Supervisor: Natsuki Takaya
Studio: TMS Entertainment

Cast
Tooru Honda: Manaka Iwami (Gamers!)
Yuki Souma: Nobunaga Shimazaki (Ore Monogatari!!)
Kyou Souma: Yuuma Uchida (Banana Fish)
Shigure Souma: Yuuichi Nakamura (Inu x Boku SS)

North American anime distributor Funimation also announced in a press release on Monday that it has licensed the new anime for both streaming and home video rights.

Fruits Basket was published in Hana to Yume magazine between 1998 and 2006 and compiled into 23 volumes. Hakusensha later reprinted the series in 12 omnibus volumes in 2015-2016. Takaya began serializing the Fruits Basket: Another sequel manga in Hana LaLa online web magazine in September 2015, which later moved to the Manga Park website last August. The manga is expected to end in the next chapter, with one-shots planned for subsequent release. The second volume went on sale last September, with the third and final volume scheduled for release at a later date. According to Hakusensha, Fruits Basket has sold a cumulative 30 million copies of its compiled volumes worldwide. The sequel manga currently has 340,000 copies of the first two volumes in circulation.

Studio Deen produced a 26-episode anime series in Summer 2001, adapting the first six volumes and the earlier chapters of the seventh volume. Funimation released the anime in North America on four DVD volumes in 2002-2003 and later on Blu-ray last August.

Tokyopop originally published the manga in English from 2004-2009 and Ultimate Editions beginning 2007, combining two sequential volumes in a single hard-cover volume. Yen Press relicensed the series in 2015 and published it in 12 omnibus volumes between June 2016 and April 2017, matching Hakusensha's collector's editions.

Fruits Basket received the 25th Kodansha Manga Awards for shoujo manga and Best Manga award at the American Anime Awards in 2007. The anime series also won the 2001 Anime Grand Prix Award.

Official site: https://fruba.jp/
Official Twitter: @fruba_PR

Source: Comic Natalie

Fruits Basket (2019) on MAL