Fruits Basket

:This article is about the manga and anime series. For the game, see Fruit Basket Turnover.

Story

Fruits Basket follows the life of high school student Tohru Honda, recently orphaned when her mother is killed in a car crash. When we first meet her she has had to temporarily leave her Grandfather's house (as her Grandfather's sister's family is moving in as well and he needs to remodel) and, unwilling to impose on her friends, is living in a tent in the woods. Despite suffering many hardships, Honda remains cheerful and optimistic.

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One day Tohru comes upon a house in the woods which is the home of some young men from the Sohma family, including Yuki Sohma, a worshiped but aloof boy from her school. Feeling sorry for her, and desperate to end their take-out eating habits and pig sty living, the Sohmas offer her their spare room in exchange for cooking and housework. When her tent is buried in a landslide, she has no option but to accept.

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Tohru soon discovers the Sohma family's secret, and the reason why Yuki is so private: many members of the family are possessed by animal spirits from the Chinese zodiac ("Jyūnishi" in Japanese), and transform into that animal when hugged by a member of the opposite gender or when their bodies are weak or stressed. When she promises to keep their secret, the Sohmas allow Tohru to keep her memories rather than hypnotically erasing them, a fate that has previously befallen all who have found them out.

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The story follows the lives of Tohru and the Sohma family, as they deal with each other and a society where neither quite fit in to make a heartwarming medley of romance, comedy, drama, angst, and all-around goodness.

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