History Manga / FruitsBasket

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. The secret of the Sohma family is a HereditaryCurse that changes some members of the family into animals of the EasternZodiac when they are hugged by someone of the opposite sex that is not also a Zodiac member.

Now living with three members, every day is an adventure for sweet Tohru, as she gets to know all of the very different members of the Sohma family 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.

** Results are [[ItGotWorse disastrous]] if marriage to any of the Zodiac members is even suggested. Akito doesn't simply tell Hatori and his fiancee 'No, you aren't allowed to get married.' No, Akito smashes a vase [[EyeScream into Hatori's eye]], and [[MindRape tells Kana that Hatori's nearly blind because of her]], leading Kana into [[HeroicBSOD a severe depression]] that then led Hatori to [[LaserGuidedAmnesia erase her memories of their entire relationship]].

* BreakUpDemand - Akito is fond of this, [[spoiler: She breaks up Rin and Haru, and also Hiro and Kisa]]

* TastesLikeDiabetes: Some fans find Tohru to be this, though usually more in the anime.

* KarmaHoudini: Akito.
** Arguably, ItMakesSenseInContext. Two of the main themes in the series are forgiveness and second chances, after all.
*** And Akito, unlike most KH, ''does'' show remorse for the shit [[spoiler:she]] pulled on everyone, even realizing with horror that there's no way to obtain forgiveness from the most abused members of the cast.
** Also we have Hiro, who treats Tohru like complete crap, insulting her and essentially mocking her dead mother, but being able to get away with it because as he says, he's just a kid...and you're just begging for Kyo to hit him. One could argue that he is forced to show his Zodiac form as a sheep, but that's not really a huge punishment, unless it had been done in front of a group of people, which it wasn't.
*** Though it should be noted that Hiro eventually stopped being such a brat.
*** Hiro's main punishment, arguably, is Kisa's disapproval. When your love and your [[MyGreatestFailure failed protectorate]] tells you you're being a jackass, it hurts.
*** To be fair, Hiro was clearly freaked out by how Tohru asserted herself enough to grab and hug him like she did (before this, she was her usual sweet, somewhat ditzy self around him). And given how Hiro enjoyed jerking her chain, it was a victory for her to just force him to show her what his possessed form was (which was her real intention behind the "punishment").

* KickTheDog: I think it's listed under one of Akito's hobbies on his[[spoiler:/her]] Facebook page.

* KissingCousins: A good portion of the [[OfficialCouple official couples]]. [[spoiler:Shigure/Akito, Haru/Rin, Hiro/Kisa, Hatori/Kana, Kagura's feelings for Kyo...]]
** To be fair, it's a ''very'' large family. In the case of Hatori and Kana, for example, the two hadn't even met until shortly before their relationship began.

* LetsHaveAnotherBaby: Tohru's parents in the BackStory

** 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 stick in her bed, she mentally screams for her mother to not leave or else she'll die.

* ThePowerOfLove: There are like 6 couples by the end, and everyone's lives are improved as a result.

* ScheduleSlip: 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 CreativeDifferences between her and anime director Akitaroh Daichi.

* SocialServicesDoesNotExist: Tohru's 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 however. 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 [[ThePollyanna 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.

* ThereWasADoor: 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.

* VomitDiscretionShot: Manga - Kyo's expulsion is discreetly covered...''by BishieSparkle!'' Also Tohru, in an off-panel shot while [[spoiler:chasing after Kyo in the Cat's True Form]], as well as in the manga flashback when Kyoko is first announced pregnant, she's leaning over the sink.

* IBangedYourMom: [[spoiler:Shigure had sex with Ren, Akito's mom, just to mess with Akito.]]

* CuteShotaroBoy: Momiji Sohma. He hits a significant growth spurt later on in the manga, but retains his childish personality. [[OlderThanTheyLook Older than he looks]].
** Until he [[spoiler:confesses his love for Tohru, at which point he starts acting a lot more mature.]]
** Also, Hiro Sohma.

** [[spoiler:'''Yuki:''' Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up!!]]

* AdaptationDecay: The creator herself has [[WordOfGod expressed dislike of the anime adaptation]]. The fans overwhelmingly disagree.

* FracturedFairyTale: 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 CrowningMomentOfFunny and very (unintentionally) touching at the same time.

* DramaBomb: When Tohru discovers [[spoiler: Kyo's true form]] at the end of the anime and in Chapter 121 in the manga when [[spoiler: Tohru confesses her love to Kyo, confronts Akito and then falls off a cliff.]]

** How about Kyo? [[spoiler: His own father repeatedly blamed him for his Mother's death, he wasn't able to help Tohru, and he thinks that Tohru's mother hates him and will never forgive him ever for not saving him.]]

* TheBeautifulPeople: Practically everyone, but especially the Sohmas.

* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: {{Justified}} and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] as the Sohma being TheBeautifulPeople, but in fact it goes way further than just them.

* AllergicToDiabetes: ''Some'' fans find Tohru to be this.

* HimeCut: Isuzu/Rin.

* FridgeLogic: Wait, a minute, Hatori is completely blind in one eye. Why is he the most competent driver?
** Well clearly, Shigure is so horrible a driver that a man blind in one eye is better behind the wheel than he is.
*** And the other people old enough to drive would be Ayame (Hatori at one point refuses to let him drive), Ritsu (ha!), Rin (probably hasn't had time to learn), Kagura (possibly) and Akito (who gets Hatori to drive)

* HoYay: [[HoYay/FruitsBasket See here]].

* WorldOfWoobie

* TraumaticHaricut: [[spoiler:Isuzu/Rin gets one after a run-in with Akito late in the manga.]]

Hailed as one of the best shojo series out there, being the best-selling shojo manga series in America.

* AdaptationDecay: The creator herself has [[WordOfGod expressed dislike of the anime adaptation]] much to the protest of fans.
* AdaptationDyeJob: 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.

* [[spoiler:BabiesEverAfter]]

* BerserkButton: When [[spoiler: Kyo admits he would be more like Yuki, Yuki flips out.]]

* BrokenBird: Isuzu/Rin. [[spoiler: And Akito]]

* CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds: In the manga, most obviously [[spoiler:in case of Yuki]].
* ClingyJealousGirl / {{Yandere}}: Kagura ''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 [[spoiler: although their leader, Motoko, later realizes she's being selfish about what Yuki wants after an attempt to confront Hanajima backfires and Hana questions them about being to pushy and forcefull towards Yuki. She then speaks to Yuki and gets over him]].
** [[spoiler: Akito is an enormous Yandere. She has her reasons and eventually gets over it.]] Her mother is even worse.

** Until he [[spoiler: confesses his love for Tohru, at which point he starts acting a lot more mature.]]

* DarkSkinnedRedhead: Kyo is dark''er'' skinned than everyone else, at any rate.
* DeadLittleSister: Several (some are manga-only), to varying degrees. Hatsuharu and Hiro each feel that they failed to protect someone they loved ([[spoiler: Rin, for Haru; Kisa and later Rin as well, for Hiro]]), though no one died. Averted with Tohru, whose mother (and father) died, because her warm personality is the point of the series.
* {{Denouement}}
* DenouementEpisode

* EasternZodiac: 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 ''[[CursedWithAwesome badass]]''), [[spoiler:he turns into a 竜の落し子 (''tatsu no otoshigo''; "baby dragon"), or ''seahorse'', however, Shigure in the manga series says that the curse is falling apart and even the animal forms are half-baked forms of what they used to be, and he actually says: "Look at Hatori, for example."]]. While the traditional legend says there was one banquet and that the rat tricked the cat into missing it, end of the manga reveals what ''really'' happened: [[spoiler:the animals partied with the god all the time, but when they started approaching death the god came up with a drink of reincarnation and gave some to the unconscious and dying cat. The cat woke up after drinking it and gave a WhoWantsToLiveForever speech that pissed everyone else off. CompletelyMissingThePoint, they felt betrayed by the cat, drank the elixir, and died at some later point.]]

* EveryoneIsRelated: Both in the sense that half the cast is actually biologically related to each other (the Sohma family is [[BigScrewedUpFamily 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? [[spoiler: His girlfriend's father just happened to be the driver of the car that ran into Tohru's mother.]] Tohru's homeroom teacher? [[spoiler: She just happens to be a friend of Shigure, Hatori and Ayame, and is in love - and by the end of the series, most likely on her way to being an [[OfficialCouple official couple]]- with Hatori.]] The most obvious example, however, is that [[spoiler: Tohru just happened to have met Yuki as a child, and Kyo just happened to know her mother.]]

* GodivaHair: When CensorSteam just isn't enough... (Isuzu gets this due to her RapunzelHair.)

** [[spoiler: Shigure]] towards Akito. It's the reason why [[spoiler: he slept with her mother. And manipulated everyone around him for years on end.]] Very much edges towards [[IfICantHaveYou If I Can't Have You I'm Going To Destroy You And Make You Completely Emotionally Inaccessible For Anyone Else Ever.]]

* HairColors: Correspond to the person's animal form, and it ''is'' remarked upon as unusual... [[spoiler: Poor Kisa.]]

* IBangedYourMom: [[spoiler: Shigure had sex with Ren, Akito's mom, just to mess with Akito.]]

* InstantFanClub: Yuki has a small, very determined fan club. One episode is centered around their possessive, inconsiderate attitude. [[spoiler: Though in the manga, the leader (Motoko Minagawa) actually [[CharacterDevelopment gets over it]].]]
** According to the anime, almost the entire school's female population is part of Yuki's fan club. Apparently we never see them though.

*** And Akito, unlike most KH, ''does'' show remorse for the shit [[spoiler: she]] pulled on everyone, even realizing with horror that there's no way to obtain forgiveness from the most abused members of the cast.

* KissingCousins: A good portion of the [[OfficialCouple official couples]]. [[spoiler: Shigure/Akito, Haru/Rin, Hiro/Kisa, Hatori/Kana, Kagura's feelings for Kyo...]]

* MayDecemberRomance: Kyoko/Katsuya, with an age difference of eight years. [[spoiler: Uotani/Kureno, with a difference of nine years. And Saki/Kazuma, with a difference of at least ''20 years''. [[WordOfGod Takaya has said]] she [[AuthorAppeal likes May-December romances]].]]

* MindRape: Kana, [[spoiler: thanks to Akito manipulating her after the incident with Hatori and driving her into madness]]. Yuki, [[spoiler: thanks to Akito's psychological abuse when they were kids.]]
** Very ironically, [[spoiler: Akito is a ''victim'' of MindRape from much earlier: it came from her mother Ren, who after years of ''horrendous'' mental and emotional abuse, drove Akito to think that the Sohmas would abandon her forever for somebody else...who turned out to be Tohru, [[IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight who also was able to save Akito from herself]].]]
** 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 her mother was a good-for-nothing bitch who didn't properly care for him and probably was having affairs, how Tohru was probably an illegitimate child, and how "a child like that is no consolation". Ouch.

* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: 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. [[spoiler: In the Manga, there's is a flashback with Kyoko saying the same thing about Tohru's father Katsuya.]]
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler: The point of Ren's bet with Akito to not erase Tohru's memories was to allow the Zodiac to gravitate towards a stranger and away from Akito aka 'God' proving to Akito that the bond between the zodiacs and God was false and that no one truly loved her, thereby pushing her into the DespairEventHorizon. The end result was the breaking of the Zodiac curse, Akito pulling a HeelFaceTurn and Ren being left with nothing but her rage.]]

** It's easier to list the exceptions. The only characters who aren't part of some sort of relationship at the end are [[spoiler:Sohma Momiji, Sohma Kagura, Hanajima Megumi, and Toudou Kimi.]]

--> '''Kyo:''' The three idiots is more like it.

* OurWerecreaturesAreDifferent: 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, ox, snake, sheep, monkey, horse and rooster.

* PersonalityPowers: While more obvious for certain characters than others, their animal forms tend to reflect their personalities: Yuki (the rat) is quiet and shrewd [[spoiler: and pretty screwed up mentally]], Kyo (the cat) is impulsive and hotheaded [[spoiler: but defrosts to certain people he chooses]], Shigure (the dog) is laidback and friendly, etc.
* PimpedOutDress: When she and Yuki visit Ayame's shop, Tohru gets dolled up in one by Mine, causing Yuki to have a "Romantic [[HeroicBSOD BSOD]]". In the anime, the camera keeps panning across her while tinkly music repeats until the show's onigiri mascot comes on camera and snaps "Get on with it already!"

* ScheduleSlip: The artist, Natsuki Takaya, broke her left hand - her ''drawing'' hand. Hence, the reason why the anime ended the way it did because it overtook the manga.

* ShoutOut: Early on in the manga, Tohru refers to the massive garbage pile in the Sohma's kitchen as "the [[WarriorsOfTheWind Sea of Decay]]".

** Justified however. 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 [[ThePollyanna training for the harsh real life]], so she apparently took care that the Social Service never learned about her one-week-adventure with the tent. And the Souma's big messed up family - are secluded and stick to themselves, so social service could hardly step in.

* SpeechBubbles: Odd shapes and different fonts are used extensively.
* {{Spittake}}: Shigure pulls one off in the manga when he learns that [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous Tohru is still stuck using her middle-school swimsuit]].

* StayingWithFriends

* ThereWasADoor: Some part of poor Shigure's house is nearly constantly being repaired as a result. Causes of damage usually involves Kagura.

* TitleDrop: 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", and was never called on, leaving her to conclude that "there was no room for an onigiri in a Fruits Basket".

* VillainousCrossdresser: [[spoiler: Akito]] in the manga, prior to her HeelFaceTurn.
* VomitDiscretionShot: Manga - Kyo's expulsion is discreetly covered...''by BishieSparkle!'' Also manga: Tohru, in an off-panel shot while [[spoiler:chasing after Kyo in the Cat's True Form]], as well as in the manga flashback when Kyoko is first announced pregnant, she's leaning over the sink.

** Until he [[spoiler: confesses his love for Tohru, at which point he starts acting a lot more mature.]]

* HoYay: Among others, a notable incident, nay, SCENE occurs in which Kyo wakes up to find Ayame in his bed and screams, causing Ayame to embrace him closely and ask him to be quiet, as he's still sleeping. At the breakfast table after, Kyo wants to know why he didn't sleep in Shigure's room, to which Ayame replies, "Because if I had, Shigure would have kept me up all night" with porny music in the background. Shigure responds, "Please... not in front of the children..."
** It should be noted that both Ayame and Shigure have female love interests, so they're probably just being silly when they have HoYay conversations. Probably.
** Hatsuharu is also not shy at all about vocalizing his love for Yuki.

* KarmaHoudini: Akito.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia

** Very ironically, [[spoiler: Akito is a ''victim'' of MindRape from much earlier: it came from her mother Ren, who after years of ''horrendous'' mental and emotional abuse, drove Akito to think that the Sohmas would abandon her forever for somebody else...who turned out to be Tohru, [[IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight who also was able to save Akito from herself]].]]

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. The secret of the Sohma family is a curse that changes some members of the family into animals of the EasternZodiac when they are hugged by someone of the opposite sex that is not also a Zodiac member.