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Maaya Sakamoto Joins Cast of Fruits Basket Anime
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The official website for the new television anime of Natsuki Takaya's Fruits Basket manga announced on Thursday that Maaya Sakamoto (Ouran High School Host Club's Haruhi Fujioka, Ghost in the Shell: Arise's Motoko Kusanagi, Black Butler's Ciel Phantomhive) is joining the cast as the character Akito Sohma.
The new anime will have an entirely new cast and staff, as per Takaya's request. The new anime will cover the entire manga's story. The previously announced new cast includes:
- Manaka Iwami as Tohru Honda
- Nobunaga Shimazaki as Yuki Sohma
- Yūma Uchida as Kyo Sohma
- Yūichi Nakamura as Shigure Sohma
- Atsumi Tanezaki as Arisa Uotani
- Satomi Satou as Saki Hanajima
- Rie Kugimiya as Kagura Sohma
- Megumi Han as Momiji Sohma
- Makoto Furukawa as Hatsuharu Sohma
- Kazuyuki Okitsu as Hatori Sohma
- Takahiro Sakurai as Ayame Sohma
The anime will premiere in Japan on TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, and other stations in April, and Funimation will stream the anime on FunimationNow. Funimation has also licensed the home video rights.
Yoshihide Ibata (Pikaia!!, FLCL Progressive) is directing the anime at TMS Entertainment. Taku Kishimoto (Silver Spoon, Haikyu!!, 91 Days, Hanebad!) is in charge of series composition. Masaru Shindou (Macross Delta, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU) is drawing the character designs. Takaya herself is serving as executive supervisor.
Takaya serialized the original Fruits Basket manga in Hakusensha's Hana to Yume magazine from 1998-2006. Tokyopop released the manga in English from 2004 to 2009, and Yen Press re-released the manga in 12 updated omnibus volumes beginning in June 2016. Yen Press describes the story:
After a family tragedy turns her life upside down, plucky high schooler Tohru Honda takes matters into her own hands and moves out...into a tent! Unfortunately for her, she pitches her new home on private land belonging to the mysterious Sohma clan, and it isn't long before the owners discover her secret. But, as Tohru quickly finds out when the family offers to take her in, the Sohmas have a secret of their own--when touched by the opposite sex, they turn into the animals of the Chinese Zodiac!
The original manga inspired a television anime adaptation in 2001.
Takaya launched a sequel manga titled Fruits Basket another on the free "HanaLaLa online" website in September 2015, but it moved to Hakusensha's Manga Park website and app in August 2017 along with the other HanaLaLa online manga. Takaya ended the manga last December but also plans to draw one-shots for the manga afterward. The third volume will be the final volume.
The sequel manga takes place after Tohru has graduated high school, and it features a girl named Sawa who has just entered high school.
Source: Fruits Basket anime's website
