Veteran Voice Actress Maaya Sakamoto Joins All-New Fruits Basket Cast

Another cast member has been revealed for the brand new adaptation of the beloved classic Fruits Basket! The animé’s official website has just announced that veteran seiyuu Maaya Sakamoto is joining the cast as Akito Sohma.

Sakamoto started her voice acting career in 1992 and has since voiced numerous memorable characters. Some examples of characters she has voiced include Ciel Phantomhive from Black Butler, Hitomi Kanzaki in Vision of Escaflowne, and Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell: Arise. She has branched out into singing as well, releasing OSTs for animé such as Cardcaptor Sakura and Wolf’s Rain.

Joining Sakamoto in the all-new cast are the previously-confirmed voice actors such as Manaka Iwami as Tohru Honda, Nobunaga Shimazaki as Yuki Sohma, Yuma Uchida as Kyo Sohma, and Yuichi Nakamura as Shigure Sohma. The all-new Furuba will be directed Yoshihide Ibata.

Released in 2001, the first animé adaptation of Furuba was famously denounced by Natsuki Takaya because she and Studio Deen ran into numerous creative disagreements. The end result was the animé series deviating from the original story in the manga, causing Takaya to reject offers for a remake or a second season—that is, until news came out last year that Takaya has finally agreed to a new adaptation. According to reports, she agreed on the condition of hiring an all-new cast and staff. TMS Entertainment, the studio handling the new adaptation, has also given Takaya lots of input in the process by naming her as the series’ Executive Supervisor. The new adaptation will also cover the entire manga’s story, fulfilling Takaya’s request of staying faithful to her work.

The all-new adaptation of the beloved classic is set to air in April 2019.

Source: Anime News Network, Crunchyroll