Tohru being greated by the Sohma family in Fruits Basket

Anime Like Fruits Basket

When Tooru Honda finds herself homeless, she decides to live in a tent in the wilderness. However, one day she is discovered by a classmate, Yuki Souma, and invited to come live in his house. From there she gets to know many members of the Souma family, not realizing that they all are inflicted by a curse. When they hug the opposite gender, they turn into an animal from the Chinese zodiac.

Whether you’re an old school fan or hyped from the remake, if you are looking for other series like Fruits Baskets, we got them in our anime basket below.

Anime Like Fruits Basket

For Fans of Man Harems

Ouran High School Host Club anime

Ouran High School Host Club

In Ouran High School, the typical student is a member of the wealthy elite, but not Haruhi Fujioka. Accepted on a scholarship, Haruhi wants to avoid all the glitz and glamour in order to study hard and become a lawyer. While looking for a rare quiet place to do so, Haruhi stumbles upon a host club. Frantic to get away from these weird boys, Haruhi breaks a valuable vase. In order to pay back the debt, the club demands that Haruhi becomes a host. There is only one problem, contrary to what the boys believe, Haruhi is actually a girl.

Fruits Basket and Ouran High School Host Club are both about a girl that finds herself constantly surrounded by beautiful boys. These series also both keep a mix of drama and light-hearted fun, but Fruits Baskets remains the darker of the two series in its story line.

amnesia anime

Amnesia

After fainting at work, a young lady awakens in the back room of the café she works at with no memory of her life or those around her. Two of her friends, whom she soon learns are named Shin and Toma, are called to help her get home safely. Once she is alone, she meets a spectral boy named Orion that only she can see and hear. He explains that she lost her memories because of his chance visit to her world, so he vows to help her remember who she is.

While supernatural in more of the literal sense of the word, like Fruits Basket, Amnesia features a girl surrounded by a number of beautiful boys. Each has their own trauma that she serves to sooth a little bit. While not zodiac-based, each boy does have a sort of color scheme going on.

starry sky anime

Starry Sky

Tsukiko Yahisa recently enrolled in a rural school that has recently gone co-ed. She is interested in their exclusive curriculum, but finds herself surrounded by beautiful men.

In the very thinly veiled reverse harem that is Starry Sky, each male character is the living personification of the Chinese Zodiac. While Fruits Basket has them turn into the animals, this series attempts to turn the animals into people.

For Fans of Supernatural Men

The main chracters of the Vampire Knight anime standing extra dramatically

Vampire Knight

Cross Academy is separated into two classes, the day class and the night class. The day class is filled with normal students while the night class is made up of gorgeous elites. However, what the day students don’t know is that the night students are vampires. This is the tale of Yuuki and Zero, guardians of the night students that keep their secret. While Yuuki is the adopted daughter of the chairman, she is happy to interact with her night student savoir Kaname. Zero, on the other hand, has an intense hatred of vampires.

Let’s be honest here, sometimes the drama in Fruits Basket is a little… Over the top and over-dramatic. Vampire Knight works in that same vein. Both shows think more trauma is more dramatic. However for as emo as both series can be sometimes, they do feature interesting plots surrounding their bishounen characters.

kamisama kiss anime

Kamisama Kiss

Homeless and in debt, high schooler Nanami Momozono thinks things are looking up when she rescues a man and he offers to let her stay at his home. She soon discovers that his home is a rundown shrine. Trying to leave, she is mistaken for the man she saved – the man that is also the land god of the shrine, Mikage. Finding out she was tricked into being a god and not wanting to be homeless, Nanami tries to embrace her new divine duties, but has to deal with a hot-headed fox familiar to keep things running smoothly.

Most notably, these two series start off very similar. A girl is homeless and ends up living somewhere new. In both circumstances, these places that take her in are inhabited by supernatural creatures. The series then continues to follow the girl as she endears herself to these people.

ranma boy and girl from from ranma 1/2 anime

Ranma ½

Ranma Saotome is a top-notch martial artist, but while training in China with his father, he meets a terrible fate. After accidentally falling into a cursed spring, he now turns into a girl when splashed with cold water. Luckily, splashing hot water on him and turn him back into a boy. Things are complicated further when Ranma discovers he is arranged to marry a daughter of another dojo, but this girl, Akane, is notorious for hating men.

Did you like Fruits Baskets because there always seemed to be another Sohma member waiting to come out of the woodworks? Ranma ½ is like that considering it has so many characters that just pop in and out of the show as they feel like it. Furthermore, it also has that whole body changing thing going on.

For Fans of Group Dynamics

Saiunkoku romance anime

The Story of Sauinkoku

Although her family was once nobles, they fell on hard times. Now, with her father making a pittance as an archivist, Shuurei takes odds jobs to make ends meet. One day, she receives an offer to become the emperor’s consort for a huge sum of money. She accepts in hopes that it could further her own governmental ambitions.

It’s actually hard to detail the similarities between these shows without moving into huge spoilers. However, Sohma family politics and the politics in the imperial court are not that different at all. Everyone has their secrets and motives, after all.

Arcana Famiglia anime

Arcana Famiglia

The island of Regalo is protected by a supernaturally power mafia-like group called the Arcana Famiglia. However, at his birthday party, the elder of the group announces his retirement. In order to choose his successor, he announces a competition. Furthermore, the winner also gets to marry his daughter. However, enraged, his daughter decides to enter as well.

Arcana Famiglia is essentially a more fight-oriented Fruits Basket. Still the same level of drama, but infinitely more action. Interestingly enough, the characters are also based off zodiac members as well. However, it is not as blatantly advertised.

loveless anime

Loveless

In this world, every person is born with cat ears and a tail that fall off once they have sex. Ritsuka is a young boy who recently lost his brother and his memories. On his first day at a new school, he meets a stranger call Soubi that claims to have been a fighting pair with his late brother. This leads Ritsuko down a deep hole and closer to the mystery behind his brother and his memories.

Do you like the dark and overly dramatic family secrets in Fruits Baskets? Well, Loveless takes that even further. It deals with less characters, but turns the amount of “this is kind of messed up” up to eleven. However, while Fruits Basket has some light-heated moments, there is really not much of that here.

Do you have more anime recommendations like Fruits Basket? Let fans know in the comments section below.

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