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Fruits Basket

Japanese manga series

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ216204
Source-derived summary

Fruits Basket (Japanese: フルーツバスケット, Hepburn: Furūtsu Basuketto) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya. It was serialized in the semi-monthly shōjo manga magazine Hana to Yume, published by Hakusensha, from 1998 to 2006. The series' title comes from the name of a popular game played in Japanese elementary schools, which is alluded to in the series.

Fruits Basket tells the story of Tohru Honda, an orphan girl who, after meeting Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure Sohma, learns that 13 members of the Sohma family are possessed by the animals of the Chinese zodiac and are cursed to turn into their animal forms when they are weak, stressed, or embraced by anyone of the opposite gender who is not possessed by a spirit of the zodiac. As the series progresses, Tohru learns of the hardships and pain faced by the afflicted members of the Sohma family, and through her own generous and loving nature, helps heal their emotional wounds. As she learns more about Yuki, Kyo, and the rest of the mysterious Sohma family, Tohru also learns more about herself and how much others care for her.

Takaya began a sequel titled Fruits Basket Another in September 2015, and a spin-off series titled The Three Musketeers Arc in April 2019. The original manga was adapted into a 2001 anime television series with 26 episodes, produced by Studio Deen and directed by Akitaro Daichi. A second anime television series adaptation, produced by TMS Entertainment and directed by Yoshihide Ibata, aired three seasons from April to September 2019, April to September 2020, and April to June 2021, respectively. A compilation film titled Fruits Basket: Prelude premiered theatrically in Japan in February 2022.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Fruits Basket” is japanese manga series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Fruits, Basket and Japanese, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1998, 2006, 2015, 2019—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Fruits, Basket and Japanese is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “japanese manga series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q216204. VIAF identifies the subject as 293708765. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1998, 2006, 2015 and 2019.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Search vocabulary
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Fruits Basket”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Fruits Basket primary sources, Fruits Basket archive and Fruits research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Fruits Basket” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.