Fruits Basket
An overview of the series.
The series Fruits Basket is a story about a teenaged girl named Honda Tohru who becomes deeply involved with the Sohma family after learning that some of its members can transform into animals of the Chinese zodiac. This transformation only happens when the accursed becomes physically weak or when embraced by a member of the opposite sex.In exchange for keeping the curse a secret, Tohru is offered room and board at Sohma Shigure's home and quickly begins to form close bonds with her housemates: Sohma Yuki and Sohma Kyo.
Fruits Basket, or "Furuba" for short, is a series that first debuted in Hana to Yume magazine in July of 1998 and finished publication in November 2006. It's written and illustrated by Takaya Natsuki and on September 4, 2015, she began publication of a sequel entitled Fruits Basket another. September 4, 2015 also marked the release of new collector editions of the manga: a series of graphic novels with new covers, condensing the story down to 12 volumes.
The manga was available to English-speaking audiences by TokyoPop, which had some criticism among fans for typographical errors and in some cases, poor translations. Their license expired in 2009, ending the printing of English language volumes. On December 4, 2015, YenPress announced that they had acquired the license to publish Fruits Basket in English and would start by releasing translations of the special collectors editions in 2016.
On July 5, 2001, an anime adaptation premiered on Japanese television. It quickly became a popular series and was picked up by FUNimation for English-language dub. The English version of Fruits Basket was originally distributed on DVD but is now available on blu-ray and also for free on FUNimation's official site.