Funimation Reveals Cast, Staff, Streaming for New 2019 Fruits Basket TV Anime

Funimation announced on Monday that it will stream a new television anime adaptation for Natsuki Takaya's Fruits Basket manga. Funimation stated the anime will air in Japan on TV Tokyo in 2019, and Funimation will stream the anime on FunimationNow. Funimation also confirmed it has licensed the home video rights. Funimation confirmed the new anime will cover the entire manga's story.

Funimation also revealed two visuals.

The new anime will have an entirely new cast and staff. The new cast includes:

·         Manaka Iwami (Tsuki ga Kirei's Aira Miyamoto, Maquia's titular character, Tada Never Falls in Love'sTeresa Wagner) as Tohru Honda

·         Nobunaga Shimazaki (Waiting in the Summer's Kaito, Date A Live's Shido Itsuka, Scum's Wish's Mugi) as Yuki Sohma

·         Yūma Uchida (Macross Delta's Hayate Immelmann, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans' Ein Dalton, Banana Fish's Ash Lynx) as Kyo Sohma

·         Yūichi Nakamura (Fairy Tail's Gray Fullbuster, The irregular at magic high school's Tatsuya Chiba, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind's Bruno Bucciarati) as Shigure Sohma

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.

Funimation also released a full comment from Takaya. In the comment, Takaya discussed her feelings about the new anime, but also revealed her requests for the new work. Below is a snippet from her comment: (As Funimation's website is region-locked in some countries, ANN has copied over Takaya's full comment here.)

I never once felt negatively about the project or thought that I didn't want to do it, but still, my first thought was “What?!” (lol)

So, I made several requests right off the bat.

One of those was to do it with a completely new team.

Completely new. Every single person.

I told [the producers], if you want to open the curtain again, then please make it all new. Please rebuild the Furuba world from scratch, with new everything.

Another request was to not make the art look too much like my art.

This was partly because my Furuba art is old now, pure and simple, and also largely because I was in poor health back then (you can find more details about that in the afterword to the Collector's Edition, if you're curious), so my drawing was awfully shaky. Because of that, I wanted them to rebuild the art as well.

Other than that… Well, it was a mix. On some things I gave them detailed thoughts, and on others I gave them my blessing to do as they liked.

The production staff promptly accepted my requests and worked to meet them, and I'm truly grateful to them all. Thank you again.

They also readily gave me permission to visit the recording sessions sometimes, which makes me so happy. I don't actually do anything there; I'm just an observer. (Really, I don't do anything.)

It's a pure delight, getting to see the reels a little early like that.

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 plans to end the manga in its next chapter, but also plans to draw one-shots for the manga afterward. The third volume will be the final volume.

The manga takes place after Tohru has graduated high school, and it features a girl named Sawa who has just entered high school.

Sources: Funimation (Nicholas Friedman), link 2

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