Today, Funimation announced that popular shojo series Fruits Basket would be getting another anime adaption. Airing on TV Tokyo in Japan in 2019, Funimation will distribute the series in America via FunimationNow. Funimation will also release the new series on home video and it confirmed that the show will cover the entire run of the manga.
The cast of the show is completely new compared to the original Fruits Basket anime. Manaka Iwami will be playing lead character Tohru Honda, while Nobunaga Shimazaki, Yūma Uchida, and Yūichi Nakamura will play the three initial members of the Sohma clan. Yoshihide Ibata, who’s worked in the past on Pikaia!! and FLCL Progressive, will be directing the show. Original manga artist Natsuki Takaya will serve as executive producer.
Takaya released a full comment as part of the new show’s announcement. She was the person pushing for a new cast and crew. The creator wanted a fresh start if they were going to tackle the same material again. She also wanted the anime to take on a different art style as the manga. Her original artwork came from a time where she suffered an illness, so she pushed for a new interpretation of her works.
“The production staff promptly accepted my requests and worked to meet them, and I’m truly grateful to them all,” she said. “Thank you again.”
Fruits Basket covers Tohru Honda, a girl who moves in with several of her male classmates. These classmates eventually reveal that they’re living with a Zodiac-style curse. Each one turns into an animal from the Zodiac when weak, under stress, embarrassed, or hugged by someone of the opposite sex. The original manga ran from 1998 to 2006 and the American release lasted from 2004 to 2009. The first anime adaption of the show started in 2001, covering the first third of the manga while making significant changes to the story.
