With the final season of the Fruits Basket remake set to air sometime in April 2021, it's the perfect time to catch up on the manga and the rest of the anime series. This delightful shojo series follows a young girl named Tohru Honda who becomes entangled with the Sohma family, whose members are cursed to turn into the zodiac animals if they're embraced by anyone from the opposite sex. The series has garnered a big fanbase since the manga was first released and has only gained even more fans with the newer iteration of the anime series.
There are two serialized anime adaptations so far while the manga series comprises 23 volumes. But it can be difficult to know where to access them. To get prepared for the upcoming season -- or get started with the series as a whole -- here's where you can read and watch Fruits Basket.
How to Read The Fruits Basket Manga
The Fruits Basket manga ended in 2006, but you can still buy it from various places. Keep in mind that two different versions currently exist: the Collector's Edition and Tokyopop versions. Tokyopop was the first to translate the series in English but you'd be hard-pressed to find any of these early editions as they went out of print years ago. Fortunately for new and existing fans, Yen Press began releasing Collector's Editions in 2016.
For those who want to read the physical copies, you can find them in bookstores like Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Indigo, Indiebound, RightStuf and Amazon. Or you can check if they're in stock at your local bookstores. You can also download each volume digitally from Yen Press for $12.99, or through sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Walker, comiXology, Google Play, iBooks and Kobo.
If you finish the original Fruits Basket manga and want to read more, there is a sequel titled Fruits Basket Another. It follows the children of the original cast and throws in a few twists, like Yuki and Kyo's sons being best friends. While it's not as popular as the original series, it still hits a lot of nostalgic notes for those who have been long-time fans. Unfortunately, you can't buy any physical copies at the moment but you can still read it digitally for $6.99 on the same platforms that you can find the original.
How to Watch The Fruits Basket Anime
The final season of Fruits Basket airing this year is the rebooted version, animated with a more modern style befitting of today. The original series first aired in 2001 and ran for 26 episodes. The 2001 series doesn't cover everything in the manga series and actually includes anime-only scenes, such as the altercation between Tohru and Akito. The season stops rather abruptly without viewers knowing if the Sohmas ever become free from their curse, or who Tohru ends up with. The series still carries a lot of nostalgia for fans, despite not following the manga as closely, and can still be viewed via Funimation, both subbed and dubbed. If you want to watch the 2001 series on DVD, you can find it on Amazon or buy it from Funimation for $52.49 on Blu-ray.
Because the Fruits Basket reboot, which began airing in 2019, is a little more faithful to the manga, fans are expecting to get the conclusion that the 2001 version didn't have. All 50 episodes of the first two seasons can be viewed on FUNimation and Crunchyroll. If you want the physical copies, the DVD sets can be found on Amazon and FUNimation at $63.74, which also includes some merch. Fans can look forward to an exciting third and final season later this year, which will be available on FUNimation as the previous seasons have been.
