One of my favorite series of the year has been the reboot anime adaptation of the classic manga series Fruits Basket. For the last 25 weeks, I’ve been watching faithfully as Tohru Honda and the Sohma family have grown closer together into a tightly knit family unit. The one thing that has bothered me about this series, however, is not knowing when we would be seeing the second season. That was fixed with the airing of the final episode of season one. At the close of the last episode, it was revealed that the second season of this adaptation would be airing at some point in 2020. No further details were revealed.
Originally a manga series that ran from 1998 to 2006 in Hana to Yume magazine, the series was adapted into a 26 episode anime in 2001 which only partially followed the source material and led to the author disliking this adaptation. In November 2018, a brand new anime adaptation was announced which would feature an entirely new cast and crew and would follow the story in the source material much more faithfully. The new adaptation began airing in the spring 2019 season and has become a much-beloved title praised by many fans throughout its run for its emotional twists and turns.
Both Crunchyroll and Funimation streamed the new series as it aired, with Crunchyroll describing the story as:
Tohru Honda thought her life was headed for misfortune when a family tragedy left her living in a tent. When her small home is discovered by the mysterious Soma clan, she suddenly finds herself living with Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure Soma. But she quickly learns their family has a bizarre secret of their own: when hugged by the opposite sex, they turn into the animals of the Zodiac!
If you haven’t been watching Fruits Basket, you’ve been missing out on one of the greatest shojo anime adaptations of the last few years and you should remedy that immediately.
