Fruits Basket, Vol. 2

Tohru Honda is an orphaned high schooler who lives with the Sohma family. She knows their secret: thirteen members of the family are possessed by animals of the Chinese zodiac, and each one transforms when embraced by someone of the opposite sex.

Volume 2 brings two more cursed Sohmas into the story. Momiji is cheerful and easygoing, while Hatori is reserved and guarded. Their arrival widens the cast and gives Tohru more people to understand.

Ordinary teenage life keeps getting in the way of the secret. A school festival, sleepovers and the holidays each create chances for the curse to be exposed, and the Sohmas have spent years hiding it. Tohru works harder to keep the secret from outsiders, and her presence slowly softens the family's wariness.

This is a shoujo manga by Natsuki Takaya, serialized in Hakusensha's Hana to Yume. The series won the 2001 Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo. The tone is romantic comedy and slice-of-life humor, with family trauma running underneath the zodiac curse. Light school scenes carry the volume, and the darker material stays in the background.