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New Fruits Basket Anime's English Dub Brings Back Laura Bailey as Tohru
posted on by Karen Ressler
FUNimation Entertainment announced on Friday that Laura Bailey will star in the English dub for the new television anime of Natsuki Takaya's Fruits Basket manga. Bailey is reprising her role as the protagonist Tohru Honda from the original anime adaptation.
In addition, Funimation announced that Caitlin Glass is directing the dub.
The new anime will have an entirely new Japanese cast and staff, as per Takaya's request. The new anime will cover the entire manga's story.
The anime will premiere in Japan on TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, and other stations in April, and Funimation will stream the anime on FunimationNow. Funimation has also licensed the home video rights.
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 Shindō (Macross Delta, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU) is drawing the character designs. Takaya herself is serving as executive supervisor.
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 first television anime adaptation of the manga premiered in 2001.
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