i love all your fruits basket fanfics!!
what do you recommend watching after?
i feel like nothing could ever compare 🥺
nana was my favorite anime before furuba
thank you so much that’s so sweet!! and it’s funny you mention nana, because that’s been my big hyperfixation of 2024 lmao. i hope you’re okay with recs for manga as well as anime since i tend to read more than i watch. my biggest recs if you enjoyed furuba would probably be:
chihayafuru: a sports manga about three childhood friends and the ways their lives intersect. very complicated, engaging characters and an equal focus on platonic and romantic love (mostly lmao). the anime is 3 seasons and incomplete, but i HIGHLY recommend it as well as the manga! the emphasis on the interpersonal and coming of age themes is what draws me to it, similar to furuba
sand chronicles: after her mother’s death, a young girl navigates grief, love, and growing up. from that summary i feel like the parallels to furuba are very apparent, but i was so touched by the depiction of grief and mental health in this story, and i really cared about all the characters. the MC is one of my favorite female MCs in all of shoujo now! i don’t believe it has an anime but the manga is so worthwhile
skip and loafer: basically high school slice of life but with some of the most devastating, careful character writing you’ve ever seen! i love the emphasis again on platonic love and romantic love in this series, along with its very nuanced portrayals of queerness/aromanticism & reckoning with what romantic attraction even feels like. the anime is only 1 season but the manga is a must read, it’s like a warm cup of soup
boys over flowers (anime/manga): this is a controversial pick but if you love stuff that is insane and camp, BOF is a must-watch. poor girl goes to a rich school and all the rich guys get obsessed with her but also bully her. imagine if all the goofier tropes & potential cliches in furuba weren’t subverted……then you would have BOF. but like it’s FUN. i do unironically love the female MC because she is a bitch but she’s MY bitch. the boys are horrible but i love them as well
(added because I thought of it after posting) heaven official’s blessing: feels silly to rec since tgcf is literally so popular BUT i need to make the case for how hualian, the main ship, are sooooo yaoi kyoru! just trust me!! the animated series has two seasons and then the novels are truly a delight. if you’re looking for that same romantic high that reading kyoru’s story for the first time gives, you absolutely need to experience hualian. impeccable mixture of centuries of yearning + the simplicity of enjoying each other’s company
i hope these recs are helpful! and as a general starting point a lot of 90s-2000s shoujos may scratch that furuba itch for you as well!
