Fruits Basket Manga Discussion

As we all know, the anime adaptation of Fruits Basket, though as heartwarming and hilarious as the source material, left much to be desired in terms of continuity. While we are not likely to see a reboot even now that the manga has long since ended, I would still like to analyze what we would have seen had the anime been continued in the right direction.
Ignoring the out-of-order placement of the episodes concerning Kyo's true form as well as the b.s. ending featuring Akito (played as a man) on the verge of death, we would have next seen the kids preparing for summer break. In this arc, Tohru would have met Isuzu the Zodiac horse, Kureno the [ex-]rooster (or sparrow, if you want to be picky), and learned that Akito is the Zodiac's god. Also, if they hadn't given Tohru's class a random male teacher, we would have seen some interaction between Mayuko, Shigure, and Hatori. It also would have been nice if they had included Mitsuru to the episode with Ritsu in it, but at that point the anime studio was rushing to an end. Even though the Ritsu and Mitsuru relationship rarely comes up in the manga, it would've been nice to have that little extra piece of fluff tossed in there.
The next arc we would see involves Yuki's experiences as the Student Body President with his fellow officers Manabe, Machi, Kimi, and Nao. I normally skip these chapters of the manga unless they're relevant to the main story or build on the relationship between Yuki and Machi, and I'll tell you why. Kimi is uselessly lively, as Takaya puts it. So is Nao, but at least he has a small stake in what's going on around him. However, I usually end up skipping much of his parts too whenever I'm skipping over anything involving the Prince Yuki fan club girls, especially Motoko, whom Nao has a crush on. While it is useless for him to be angry with Yuki for that, he does have a right to be ticked off whenever his fellow officers aren't getting their work done.
I put up with Manabe's parts when he's not being too annoying or unreasonable. After all, he does help change Yuki for the better, at least somewhat. What I can't stand about him other than his over-the-top attitude is when he tells Yuki that he hates Tohru because of what happened when her mother died. Apparently his girlfriend's father was driving the car that hit Kyoko and died immediately upon crashing it. Manabe is angry at Tohru for being sad because she wasn't the only one who lost a parent in the accident. Here's what's wrong with that: his girlfriend still has a mother. Tohru is now an orphan living with her grandfather and an abusive extended family who will turn her out of the house in a few weeks. He didn't know that, of course, but he's still an a-hole just the same.
Machi is practically the only girl in school besides Tohru, Arisa, and Saki who isn't in the Prince Yuki fan club and doesn't think of Yuki as a prince. This is a good thing because it means she sees him as a human being. Machi lives on her own because her parents suffer from the same stupidity exhibited by many of the Sohma parents. She and half-brother Manabe were being used as tools by their mothers (much like how Yuki's mother used him) to decide who would be the true heir to their father. After Manabe declares he wants no part of it and Machi's younger brother is born, Machi is tossed away by her mother, who calls her dull and a mistake. This is exceptionally painful in Japanese since the Japanese word for mistake is machigai. All she wanted to do was work hard at school to please her mother and cover her shivering brother with a blanket. The parents in this series really are committably insane.
Over the course of the second half of the series, Tohru tries to figure out how to break the Sohma family curse before graduation so Kyo won't have to be confined in the Cat's quarters. However, she doesn't really learn anything much about it except for more characters' backstories. At school they also have parent-teacher meetings to discuss future goals, which is even more depressing for members of the Zodiac whose wishes are always condemned by the vengeful animal spirits and their family. It's hard to tell which is worse sometimes - the curse or the Sohma adults. Aggravated by the conflict between Akito and her mother, the real curse is the forced bonds backed up by family tradition. Neither Akito nor Ren is right or wrong, and in fact they're both. Anyway, the curse breaks on its own without warning and for no particular reason, and the true Zodiac tale is revealed to the audience as being completely different from the folk tale introduced in the beginning of the series.
We also learn more about Tohru's family's backgound, as Kyo had met and talked to Kyoko on a few occasions when he was little. If you haven't read it yet I won't spoil it for you, but I will say that the reason I didn't like the episode with Arisa and Saki visiting Shigure's house is that the anime left out the story about the boy with the hat, which becomes a semi-important plot point later on. Also, these recollections accomplish setting Tohru up as a more relate-able character instead of the Mary Sue a lot of people seemed to think she was in the beginning. I really hate that term anyway.
Many of the characters also undergo change toward the end of the series. After the birth of his sister, Hiro starts to act more maturely and less like a smart-mouthed kid. Momiji stops wearing the girls uniform as he has finally hit puberty. However, he develops a bit of jealousy toward Kyo because he's fallen in love with Tohru as well. By this point it is obvious to everyone that Kyo and Tohru like each other. Kagura reacts in similar fashion, accidentally knocking Tohru unconscious on one occasion. Yuki is still as mean-spirited as ever toward Kyo, but it isn't the usual Cat vs. Rat fight with them anymore. In the same vein as Momiji and Kagura, he just wants Kyo to treat her right. Arisa and Saki also jump on the bandwagon, making Kyo's courtship of Tohru a living hell, even accompanying them on their first date as promised. It was bad enough when Saki was torturing him with her infatuation with Kazuma. Arisa and Kureno as a couple also closely resemble Tohru's parents.
In the end, Akito outs herself as a woman after being forced to live as a man by her jealous mother since birth. The only people who didn't already know were Ritsu (who thought she shared the same cross-dressing hobby as him) and of course everyone born after her. It's difficult for them to forgive her for everything she's done to them as the "master of their souls," but to some extent they can relate to her since her parents (and a certain demon maid) screwed her up just as badly as - if not worse than - most of their parents had done to them. The message is loud and clear. You can't fix what's been so badly broken, but you can begin to heal. As long as you can keep the light inside you from going out with help from the kindness of those close to you, then the darkness that other people try to drown you in will not keep you down forever.