Fruits Basket

The story starts out with high school girl Tohru Honda. Her mother has died and she's living alone in a tent, a fact she has kept from the other students at her school. She is interested in the Chinese zodiac. She wishes should had been born in the year of the cat.

She had originally been taken in by her grandfather (her own father had died earlier), but he had to have his place remodeled so she choose to move into a tent.

There's a boy she knows at school, Sohma-kun, who's somewhat of a mystery and who ends up making fun of cats to her.

Sohma and his cousin, Shigure, find out that Tohru is staying in a tent. She's feverish and they take her to their place. Sohma and his cousin allow her to stay with them which would be ok except for one small problem.

They turn into animals if hugged. In fact, their whole family is cursed by vengeful animal spirits from the Chinese zodiac.

It also doesn't help that two of the boys tend to fight whenever they even see each other. They even discuss whether Tohru's memories would have to be erased so their family secret would not be revealed.

One of my favorite parts is when Tohru is remembering something her mother had said:

"But she said that kindness is something that grows inside of each person's body, but it's up to us to nurture that kindness in our hearts. That's why kindness is different for each person We're all born with selfish desires so we can all relate to those feelings in others. But kindness is something made individually by each person. "

Things get even more complicated when another member of the group shows up. This one's a girl and plans to get married to the boy who turns into a cat. Then her grandfather's place gets repaired and she moves back in with him, doensn't really want to be there, gets rescued by the Sohma group; it's all really wild and wonderful and romantic, all at the same time.


There's a really nice Fruit's Basket site here

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