Why No "Fruits Basket 2?"

Note: If you've never read the Fruits Basket manga that TokyoPop has currently released, there will be some SPOILERS involved as I will be referencing the manga. Someone complained to me about this aspect, so now I've warned you. ^_^;;;

With Fruits Basket being one of the best-selling manga in the United States (each new volume scores well on USA Today's Top 150 Best-Selling Books list and even managed to place during the ultra-crowded Christmas buying season) and with the anime being one of FUNimation's top sellers, it is only natural that fans in the U.S. would want a second series (or season) to be produced. With the manga having ended last December in Japan, the question many fans have had is, "where is Furuba 2?"

From the start, there has been resistance on the part of the Japanese to do a sequel to the very popular anime title. DAICHI Akitaro (大地丙太郎), who directed Fruits Basket, showed reluctance to do a sequel as seen in the interview on one of the FUNimation DVDs. If you own the DVD's, make sure to take a look at this.

In May 2004, I was talking with Japanese fan SUGIYAMA Tamihiro. We discussed the Furuba anime (along with other stuff. Here's the relevant portions of that discussion.

T: I havent read the manga and I'm rather a newbie on this title, so concerning an anime sequel I owe the debate to the fans who are talking on "Furuba" boards. According to them in an interview the director Daichi was rather negative on the possibility. Fans are willing to see a sequel, but they think it wont be soon anyways. Following the conclusion of the manga perhaps? They arent sure either.

A: Any word on why Daichi was negative on the possibility? I loved the series and would love to see more.

T: This I didnt know the detail so I went to director Daichi's private site and asked for a comment on his BBS. His answer was, "In short because I havent been asked to" from the investors. Gees. *lol*

It sounds like a joke but perhaps hes telling a truth, in a way. If a sequel is coming up he would have heard of it anyway. Its left to us to guess why the investors arent pushing forward.

At this point, I began to really doubt that we'd get any more anime and we'd have to wait for the manga (two volumes had been released in the U.S. at that time and fourteen tankoubons in Japan).

Still, FUNimation seemed keen on carrying the project forward and doing what it took to get things done. They even did a project where they sent a 1000 (or so) cranes to Japan to show how serious they were about doing another series. I don't know if FUNimation offered to pony up cash for the series as a sponsor (which you'll note, a lack of sponsorship is a reason Daichi-san states no sequel had been done).

In June 2006, Animetique had this news from Adam Sheehan (FUNimation Marketing Director)which came out of Wizard World Philly convention as to the reasons for no sequel to Furuba.

1. The Voice Cast - Most of the voice cast has retired and they aren't interested in coming back to do a second series. They came out of retirement to do the first season. Coming out of retirement again is less appealing.
   
2. The Mangaka - Natsuki Takaya (the mangaka - creator of the manga) didn't like the anime's director, Akitaro Daichi. If they were to do a second season, Takaya would want to replace the director.
3. The Producton Company - Unlike Takaya, the production company, NAS, likes Daichi and would want him to do the second season.

Item one is bogus because if you'll look at the seiyuu list, most of them are still working titles in anime to this day. Besides, even in Japan, casting has changed for titles at times when the desire has been there to proceed with a new series.

That leaves us with item 2 & 3, which sounds very much like the disagreement between manga-ka Tsuda-sensei and ANNO Hideaki (of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame) over his direction of the anime adaptation of her Kare Kano manga.

So, I made it my mission to discover what about the anime adaptation of Furuba might have upset Takaya-sensei. I don't think she would have been upset by the little additions such as Uo-chan and Hana-chan coming over to Shigure's house to visit Tohru and help her clean just before New Years. I don't think that Takaya-sensei would have minded having Kyo-kun's true-form story moved to the end of the anime for dramatic purposes. So, I came up with two reasons that she may have objected to his work.

First, Daichi-san completely removed the hat element from the anime adaptation. From the very first chapter, Takaya-sensei made a point of displaying the hat (which I've colored red).
Now notice Tohru's tent as seen in the anime.
Notice there's no hat in the anime.

By volume 2 of the manga, Takaya-sensei had told the story of the hat from Tohru's point of view, but Daichi-san had decided to remove the hat story from his version, apparently seeing it as not important or did not want to have a dangling plot thread unresolved. Now that we know the hat initially belonged to Kyo-kun and was given to Tohru by Yuki-kun (something Takaya-sensei had planned from the start as I understand it), you can understand why this omission would irritate her.

However, the biggest change Daichi-san made was to the character of Akito-san. Now, the seiyuu casting isn't really a problem (it is on the English dub) because the voice is ambiguous enough so as not to reveal Akito-san's big secret. However, Takaya-sensei had always intended for Akito-san to play the part of the god-figure from the zodiac legend. As such, all of the Juunishi (zodiac) are bound to Akito-san and thus Akito-san's word becomes a law which they cannot disobey (at least, not without great effort and pain to themselves, as we've seen in the manga).

So, Daichi-san came up with his own explanation of Akito-san. Now instead of being the god-figure in the legend, the curse goes into the body of Akito-san and as such, Akito-san has been born to die for the Juunishi, so they do as they are told by Akito-san as some sort of obligation (at least, that's how I understood it from the Japanese version). Further, Kazuma-dono works with Akito-san when it comes to forcing Kyo-kun to show his true form in front of Tohru, something Kazuma-dono would NEVER do based on the manga. Not only that, but when Akito-san attacks Tohru in the last episode (something which is in keeping with the character but not in the manga), Yuki-kun, Shigure, and Hatori all rush to stop Akito-san and go against him. None of them save Momiji-kun have stood up to Akito-san thus far in the manga because at this point, they cannot do so.

I imagine this modification on the part of Akito-san by Daichi-san is the main reason she dislikes his adaptation of her manga. I suspect that she wasn't consulted about this ahead of time, otherwise I'm sure she would have told him who Akito-san truly was. If she did tell him, then that would give her more reason not to want him to do a sequel.

However, this is all pure speculation and short of being able to interview Takaya-sensei myself, I doubt we'll ever learn the truth.

Still, should there be a sequel, how can the anime rectify things? The hat story is easy enough to pick up. Some minor retconning would have to be done in the form of flashbacks to Tohru in the tent and first moving to Shigure's house, and her version of the story would have to be told early. Other than that, it should be easy to recover that. The stuff about Akito-san's dying for the Juunishi is going to be a huge (nearly impossible) hurdle to overcome as is those members of the Juunishi standing up to Akito-san.

In the end, I no longer believe there will be a sequel to this anime title. Indeed, doing this research where I watched the anime and read the manga at the same time depressed me a bit and makes the final episode of the anime difficult to watch. That said, both will still remain favorites of mine even if we never get a sequel anime series.

Update (27 January 2007): Apparently, Takaya-sensei stated that she does not want another Furuba series, but the site that had this information has since pulled it. If I find something, I'll add it as well.

Update (19 May 2007): Word is at Anime Boston 2007, FUNimation reported they are still trying to convince the powers that be to create a sequel series to Furuba. I don't think it will work, but you never know.