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There is a certain terminology in Fruits Basket that is special to the
series, as it happens with most anime/ manga series. Here is a little
guide to the special words and terms used throughout the series (and
this website) that might confuse you.
- - - - - - - - - -> Anime / Manga
Hopefully you already know what this means if you're going around
this site. Anime is Japanese for "animation," and it's
often used to refer to Japanese cartoons. Manga is Japanese for
"comics," and is used to refer to Japanese comics, obviously.
:P Like most series, Fruits Basket first started as a very successful
shoujo manga, and it ran in a bi-weekly magazine (or phonebook) known as
Hana to Yume. It was later turned into an anime TV series,
spanning over 26 episodes.
- - - - - - - - - -> AYAME
This is Souma Ayame's store that he owns, where you order uniforms
for people such as waiters, stewards, maids, etc. Most of his customers
are male.
- - - - - - - - - ->
Baka-neko
Ah, this is the top insult for Kyou. It literally and simply means,
"Stupid cat!" Yuki commonly addresses Kyou by this name, just
to get a rise out of him.
- - - - - - - - - -> Chiisana Inori
This is Japanese for "A
small prayer," and is the ending song for the anime series.
- - - - - - - - - -> Fruits Basket
This is a game that is often played in Kindergarten in Japan. Its
American counterpart is something like Musical Chairs. Obviously, Fruits
Basket is the name of the series, and I'm sure you're wondering why.
Though the anime/ manga series has absolutely nothing to do with fruits,
it has a lot to do with the game.
The game Fruits Basket is played like this: Everyone is assigned a fruit
name, according to their personality or appearance, or what not. People
call out the names of these fruits, and until your name is called out,
you sit in a chair. When your name is called, you're "it" and
you run out of your chair, joining the rest of the game. This game is
very significant in Tohru's life. Whenever she played Fruits Basket in
Kindergarten, she would always be named "onigiri," which means
"rice ball." Obviously, since it's not a fruit, her name would
never be called.
Tohru relates this a lot to her real life. She feels that much like the
game, she has always been the odd "rice ball," rather than a
fruit, like everyone else. Because she has always been an odd rice ball,
she was never called out of the chair. She was never included into the
normal game, or other people's lives. When she meets the Souma family,
it's as if someone called out "Onigiri!" and she was able to
join the game. The importance is that when she's with the Souma family,
she belongs. For the first time in her life, she feels like she's
included with other people.
- - - - - - - - - -> Hana to Yume
This is the bi-weekly shoujo magazine (or phonebook) that the Fruits
Basket manga ran in. These magazines are known as "phonebooks"
because that's how large they are. They resemble phonebooks in that
they're very thick, and run either bi-weekly, weekly, or monthly, and
feature many different manga series at a time.
- - - - - - - - - -> Juunishi / The Chinese Zodiac
A very important key to the plot of Fruits Basket, the Juunishi are
the twelve signs of the Chinese Zodiac. These signs are represented by
animals:
| English
|
Japanese
|
FB Character
|
| Rat |
Nezumi |
Souma
Yuki |
| Ox |
Oushi |
Souma
Hatsuharu |
| Tiger |
Tora |
Souma
Kisa |
| Rabbit |
Usagi |
Souma
Momiji |
| Dragon |
Ryu |
Souma
Hatori |
| Snake |
Hebi |
Souma
Ayame |
| Horse |
Uma |
Souma
Rin |
| Sheep |
Hitsuji |
Souma
Hiro |
| Monkey |
Yamazaru |
Souma
Ritsu |
| Rooster |
Ondori |
Souma
Kureno |
| Dog |
Inu |
Souma
Shigure |
| Boar |
Inoshishi |
Souma
Kagura |
Each animal's vengeful spirit curses a member of the
Souma family, and people who are cursed by these spirits turn into them
whenever they're hugged by the opposite sex, or their bodies get nervous
or weak. For more information on the Juunishi, the best places to go in
this site are the Intro and the Juunishi
sections.
- - - - - - - - - -> LOVE ME YUKI!
This is Yuki's fan club set up by the girls at Tohru's school. There are three
leaders (and one president) and we meet them in the first episode, where they get
dangerously jealous of Tohru for walking to school with Yuki. They don't
like anyone getting close to him, and get jealous very easily.
Often they give Tohru a hard time, but they're instantly set straight by
Tohru's two friends, Uo and Hana. Since Tohru often doesn't stick up for
herself when the girls are mean to her (or she's too air-headed to
realize), Uo and Hana are the ones that come to the rescue.
- - - - - - - - - -> Nekozuki
A nickname that Kyou's classmates have given him. It means "friend of cats" or "a cat
person." Though he hates being called it, it suits him quite
nicely.
- - - - - - - - - ->
Onigiri
This is Japanese for "rice ball." This is what Tohru has been called all
her life, while playing the game Fruits Basket. This is a symbol to how
Tohru has often felt like an outsider for a large bulk of her life;
while playing the game Fruits Basket, she wasn't dubbed the name of a
fruit, but rather, she was the rice ball. Therefore, her name was never
called, and she wasn't able to participate in the game.
Tohru mentions a few times throughout the series that rice balls seem to
have a lot of significance in her life. Once when her school was
putting together a festival, she was assigned in charge of cooking rice
balls for her class rice ball stand.
- - - - - - - - - -> Shoujo
This is the Japanese term meaning "girls" or "for
girls." This term is used to classify anime/ manga series, and Fruits
Basket falls into this classification. Shoujo works are aimed at teenage girls around the age of fourteen or so, and are usually uplifting
and involve lots of delightful love triangles and love situations.
- - - - - - - - - -> Takaya Natsuki
The creator/ author of the Fruits Basket manga! This lady is the
reason that Fruits Basket exists today. She debuted as a manga writer
(or manga-ka) with her work, "Born Free," and later went on to be
very successful. She won the 25th Kodansha Manga Award for best shoujo
manga, our delightful Fruits Basket.
- - - - - - - - - -> Valentine's Day / White Day
Valentine's Day in Japan works a little differently than in Western
tradition, and a sub-plot in Fruits Basket is dedicated to these two
days. You see, in Japan, our Western Valentine's Day is split up into
two days: Valentine's Day and White Day.
On Valentine's Day February 14th, it's tradition for girls to give
chocolate to the boys that they like. In Fruits Basket, Yuki and Kyou
are chased around madly by their rabid admirers at school, and Kyou gets
a special visit from Kagura, much to his dismay. Obviously,
Valentine's day is a day of high tension and stress for both girls and
boys. While girls have a hard time confessing their love and giving
chocolates, boys like Yuki and Kyou are dreading the onslaught of rabid
fans.
White Day is a month after Valentine's, on March 14th. This is the exact
opposite of the above. While on Valentine's, the girls gave away
chocolates, this time it's the boys' turn! Roles are switched around as
the boys stress about giving chocolates to people they care about,
and girls are tense, thinking, "Will he
acknowledge my feelings from Valentine's Day by giving me a chocolate in
return?" etcetera.
- - - - - - - - - -> Back to Info
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