#hiro sohma

Fruits Basket is ending soon and I need more than just happy ending, ugh! ♥️

I freaking squealed when I saw this! You get your girl Hiro!

Hiro’s face had me cackling in laughter and I don’t know why! It is just so great

can we just take a moment to talk about their glo ups? i mean, it’s the best glo up i’ve ever seen. don’t get me wrong, they still looked beautiful in the beginning of the manga, but wow the change is real and i’m living for it. i absolutely love it!

Manga: Fruits Basket

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHG

I’ll Help You With It: Yuki Sohma (Unless You’re Kyo), Hatori Sohma

Yeah, Sure: Hatsuharu Sohma, Kisa Sohma, Momiji Sohma, Ritsu Sohma (Apologizes Loudly for Any Errors on His Homework)

Bold Of You To Assume I Did the Homework: Saki Hanajima, Shigure Sohma, Ayame Sohma

LOL, Nope: Arisa Uotani, Hiro Sohma, Kyo Sohma (Unless You’re Tohru)

Wait, We Had Homework: Tohru Honda

Read at 5:55 P.M. Akito Sohma, Isuzu “Rin” Sohma (Her Cell Phone is never on)

With the fast approaching release of the Fruits Basket OVA, it’s time  to do a time-honored tradition of ranking things in a series. In this  one, I’ll be ranking the Parents of Fruits Basket, because why not?

The criteria of how it will be ranked are as followed.

A: The nature of the relationship between parent and child

B: The effect that relationship has on the child from the start to the end of the manga series.

C: How present the parent is in their child’s life.

D: How willing the parents are in growing a relationship with their child.

So, without further ado…

Part 3 are the best of the best. There are surprisingly very few parents that are good. Most do their best with one or two stumbles along the way but really, that’s parenthood.

Kisa Sohma’s Mother

For being a such a young child, Kisa has endured such hardships. Her parents, her mother in particular, are overprotective, which has run her ragged. Being the tiger made her parents hyperaware that she is different from her peers. Her “un-Japanese” looks made her classmates bully and ignore her. The worst thing that happens to her is Akito abusing Kisa (which they allowed to happen without consequence). Her parents, it seems, tried everything to help her but to no avail and they were at the end of their rope. Even her friend, Hiro, who was riddled with guilt because he felt responsible for her treatment by Akito, ignored her. Kisa responded to these traumas by going mute and running away.

Kisa, in her tiger form, would inevitably be found by Hatsuharu and brought to Shigure’s house where Tohru does her best to get the child to open up. Kisa’s mother arrives and tells her that she is causing trouble for everyone and to come back home. Tohru tells her that the reason she’s been bottling up her feelings is because she didn’t want to be hated by her mother. Kisa, moved by this, proceeds to embrace Tohru.

Mother and daughter spend some time apart. Tohru would give Kisa the compassion she needed but it is actually Yuki who helps Kisa by telling her about how he came to realize that you can only accept yourself as you are when someone accepts you as you are. This breaks the “spell” on Kisa’s muteness. She stays with Tohru a little while longer until she is ready to face her schoolmates again. With Tohru’s help, Kisa is able to face the world again. As for her parents, they become much more loving towards her.

Katsuya Honda’s Father

Katsuya and his father was said to have a strained relationship in their early years. It’s implied that the only reason he became a teacher because his father pushed him into the profession. It wasn’t until Katsuya’s mother died that the two began to reconcile. And he would later give his blessings for Katsuya to marry Kyoko. We don’t see much of their relationship but we know that Grandfather was an important figure after the death of both of Tohru’s parents. He took her in and they lived together prior to the start of the story. He loves Tohru enough to let her live with the Sohmas and while he is an ancillary character, we can see that Tohru loves him back.

Mokoto Minagawa’s mother

Your typical mother who is done dealing with her daughter’s weird dreams, we only see her in one chapter and she doesn’t play a role in the story. Any character traits of Mokoto are probably due to her own character rather than any nurturing by her mother.

Mayuko Shiraki’s mother

Another character that we only see once, Mayuko’s mother is your typical “You should date this hot guy” mom. But Mayuko is a very dutiful person to help with her parents’ bookshop and they have a good enough relationship that it seems she did a good job raising her daughter.

Kagura Sohma’s mother

Though we don’t see them for long, Kagura’s parents are among the few good parents in the series. They initially had a fight that was in part due to Kagura’s curse but it’s implied that they worked through things and they are now on better terms with each other and their daughter. Her mother isn’t smothering or cruel to her daughter and is genuinely concerned with her well-being. Kagura’s impulsive and destructive nature seems to be more due to her emotional immaturity rather than anything related to how her parents raised her.

When Kagura wanted to go to the summer cottage with the other Zodiacs, her mother told her not to because she heard Akito was going and she didn’t want Kagura to get hurt. When Kagura comes back from her conversation with Kyo, her mother wants to comfort her. However, Kagura is fine feeling hurt with what happened because it’s genuine and solely hers.

But if there is any indication on how well Kagura’s parents do is allow Isuzu to stay with them after her first hospitalization. Their interaction is never seen but at the very least, she isn’t abused there. Isuzu keeps both a physical and emotional distance between her and Kagura’s parents as they only leave food in front of her door to eat but she is recovering until the events of Summer Cottage arc.

Satsuki Sohma and her husband

The best of all the Sohma biological parents, Satsuki and her husband are unique in the clan in that they don’t see Hiro as a burden due to his curse nor do they feel the need to be overprotective. It’s hard to imagine how hard it must have been to be not to be able to hug your child, to know that there’s nothing you can do to help with this. But, unlike Isuzu’s parents, who faked their happiness, Satsuki is genuinely happy that she is Hiro’s mother. She doesn’t smother him with fake love nor keep her distance emotionally from her. She is present in his life without reservation.

In fact, if it weren’t for what Hiro suffered, having to keep the secret of being a witness to Akito hurting Isuzu and feeling responsible for Akito hurting Kisa, he would be the most well-adjusted Sohma.

Satsuki gets pregnant and gives birth to her daughter, Hinata, and doesn’t forget her son. She loves both equally, unlike Machi’s parents who completely discarded her after their son was born.

Hiro’s curse breaks earlier than the others, being the third to be free before Akito willingly releases the others. Satsuki realizes this when Hiro holds his sister without transforming. The lifting of the curse leaves Hiro feeling bittersweet. It was both burden and blessing for him and Satsuki tells him that it is okay to feel that way because he has lived with the curse for so long. And for the first time, she could hug him without worrying about him turning into a ram.

Kyoko Honda

For a character who is introduced having already been dead, Kyoko has a surprisingly long life in the manga. Tohru holds her mother in very high esteem and she uses what her mother has said as her gospel she spreads to the other Sohmas.

Kyoko, after leaving her parents and marrying Katsuya, devoted her whole life to her husband and daughter. Sadly for her, her happiness wasn’t meant to last. Katsuya died of sudden pneumonia and leaves Kyoko raising her daughter on her own. She fell into a deep depression and completely ignored the world and, more importantly, her own daughter. It doesn’t seem as though she had any adult friends, which makes sense considering her upbringing but it also makes her life harder because there’s no one that she can rely on to help her in her time of need. (It may be that her father-in-law was there for her but it isn’t the same as having friends on your level.) Kyoko nearly ended her life in an attempt to reunite with her husband but a chance encounter with a mother and daughter snapped her out of this and she remembered that Tohru needed her. After returning home, Kyoko promised herself that she wasn’t going to abandon her daughter and would raise her well.

This depression would have an impact on Tohru and lead her to speak formally because she wanted her mother to see Katsuya in her. And it would fester into resentment of her father, casting him as the bad guy that would take her mother away from her. It may also have led to her believing her wants and needs were secondary to everyone else.

Kyoko does a complete 180 and showers Tohru in love and affection. In turn, Tohru lived a happy life with her mother. She was very attentive to her, as evidenced by Tohru’s recollection that she had tried to hide the fact that she was being bullied in school and Kyoko figured it out. The two were as close as mother and daughter could be. She would give her daughter life advice that Tohru would later give to the Sohmas, prefacing it as “My mother would say…”

Kyoko would also act as a surrogate mother to Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima. She had actually rescued Arisa from the gang life, causing Arisa to break down crying because she wanted to be the kind of friend Tohru would be proud of. As for Saki, Kyoko tells her that even though her parents love and accept her, it’s perfectly natural to seek acceptance from others, i.e., her friends. And then there’s Kyo. He met her some time after her Tohru goes to school. Kyoko hints to him that he doesn’t really hate Yuki like he thinks he does (an idea that he wouldn’t admit until near the end of the series). For Kyo, she was an example of how a mother could love her child, especially when he sees them through their apartment window. It would be to him that Kyoko would entrust Tohru to with her last breath.

Sadly, the cruel hand of fate snatched Kyoko away from Tohru. Tohru does her best to move forward, promising to her picture that she will finish high school, get a job, and become independent. Her loving relationship with her mother is her drive to keep going. It is also her albatross. By keeping her first in her life, Tohru refuses to move forward.

Tohru, in the beginning, feels like she can’t be selfish, that she needs to be grateful for every little thing that it leads her to be reckless. She camps out in the Sohma estate instead of asking Arisa or Saki for help, putting herself in danger. She nearly stays with her terrible relatives because she feels like she can’t wantto stay with the Sohmas. She puts herself into a minor financial hole getting Valentine’s Chocolates for everyone instead of paying for the school trip. Tohru gets a fever but initially refuses to think about recovering her strength but instead focuses on making up for her failed test and cooking for the house.

And this is a lesson that Kyoko failed to impress on her daughter, that it’s okay to put yourself first in some situations. But Tohru eventually learns that it’s okay to want, to be selfish. She also learns that it’s okay to be frustrated, to open up when she’s feeling down. (It’s actually Kyo who gives voice to her negative feelings even before she actually admits it out loud.) She learns gradually, especially as she finds about the nature of the curse and seeks to free the Sohmas. It’s not wholly because it’s the right thing to do but because she loves Kyo and wants to be with him.

It’s actually emotionally devastating for Tohru to do this at first. She mentions that she is betraying Kyoko’s memory by loving Kyo. However, she comes to realize that putting Kyo first in her heart does not mean her mother cannot stay. She just has change how she views the memory of Kyoko. And, in the end, Tohru is happy, which is all her mother ever wanted for her.

Kyoko is an example of a parent who does nearly everything right and sadly had more to give to Tohru. She did her best and her daughter grew up to be the kind of adult any parent would be proud of. If only she had been there to see it.

Kazuma Sohma

As someone who was tangentially touched by the curse of the Cat, Kazuma was in a unique position to understand Kyo’s struggles. Kazuma had rejecting his grandfather’s kindness simply because he was the hated Cat. After his grandfather died, he would learn that the only reason his grandmother stayed with him was out of pity. Kazuma starts to understand how painful being the Cat is. This comes to a head when he witnesses a bunch of adults piling on Kyo, blaming the Cat for being responsible for his mother’s death. The absurdity of blaming a child for his mother’s suicide led him to adopt Kyo, something his bio father was more than happy to allow.

Kazuma tells himself that he’s doing this to assuage his own guilt for the way he treated his grandfather all those years ago. But as he settles into being a parent, he starts to love Kyo. He gives him the love that Kyo so desperately needs but also guiding him into adulthood.

Kazuma starts to teach Kyo martial arts, believing that he is going to need to learn how to defend himself but I suspect that Kazuma initially taught him this so that he had an outlet to release his pent-up anger. Under Kazuma’s guidance, Kyo would grow. Yuki, in his own thoughts, would describe Kyo as being the type of person people are drawn to and this may be hard to see it initially. However, when you look at Kyo, you see a person without artifice, like you are always seeing the “real Kyo” and not a mask. Despite being the hated Cat, he has great relationships with the other Sohmas. On top of that, after only a month or two of being in school, he has two friends, Hiroshi and Yusuke, who he gets along with, even if he isn’t fond of the nickname Kyon-Kyon. But Yuki, who had been in the school since the start of the first year, hadn’t made a single friend until his second year when he met Kakeru.

Kazuma feels so proud of the progress Kyo has made. The two would grow to have a very close bond, to the point where Kazuma would see Kyo as his son. However, he never told him this as he didn’t want to burden Kyo with his feelings, believing that he is still wary of people. Kyo still feels the disdain of the non-Zodiac Sohmas who believe he was the reason his mother killed herself. He also knows that once he graduates high school, Kyo is going to be locked away for the rest of his life in the Cat Room. Kyo feels like he has no hope. This is further exemplified by a wayward comment Kyo made after getting in trouble, that Kazuma wasn’t his father, just his guardian. In truth, Kyo didn’t believe he had the right to call Kazuma his father, especially with how he still felt responsible for his mother’s death.

The breaking point for Kyo was when he witnessed Kyoko’s death. The woman with whom he had made that promise so long ago was in front of him. A car was about to hit her. Kyo was there. He explains that he could have saved her but was scared that he would transform in front of everyone so he did nothing as the car hit her. As she laid dying, the last words she speaks was “I won’t forgive you” which causes Kyo to panic and run away, believing that his selfishness caused his friend’s death, not realizing that what she meant to say was “If you don’t protect Tohru, I won’t forgive you.”

Kazuma would take Kyo to the mountains. While he framed it as training, Kazuma says that Kyo was barely living, the guilt he felt not saving Kyoko left him in a pit of hopelessness. He feels not only that he can’t escape but that he has no right to escape. But Kazuma would tell him that even as despair would grind him down, the hope in his heart that he might escape this cycle will come again.

After four months, Kazuma and Kyo separate and Kyo starts living in Shigure’s house. This is where he meets Tohru and he begins to change. Kazuma would return months later and see Kyo smiling, believing that he is beginning to move forward again. However, Kyo tells him that he doesn’t want to live with them anymore and wants to return to Kazuma. Kazuma realizes that this is his fear talking, that Kyo believes he doesn’t deserve kindness, especially from Tohru.

This is when Kazuma does perhaps the most damaging thing he could have done to Kyo. He takes away Kyo’s Juzu Beads in front of Tohru. This act reveals the Cat’s True Form, an alien beast smelling of rotting flesh, inhuman limbs and massive strength. Tohru runs towards Kyo after Kazuma explains. This was a huge gamble on his part. If she hadn’t been the person she was at that point, Kyo would have been broken forever. And it almost did. When Kyo hits her, Tohru nearly walks away from him, completely terrified of him. However, she persevered and was able to connect with him, seeing his ugliness and not pretending she isn’t afraid. She tells Kyo that she still wants to be by his side. These are the words that he always wanted to hear. He reverts back to his human form and embraces Tohru.

Kazuma sneaks away in the morning, unable to apologize in person for what he did that night and for forcing his feelings of fatherhood on Kyo. However, Kyo confronts Kazuma and tells him that he will one day be worthy enough to be a man who can call him ‘father’. This makes Kazuma happy and calls him his son.

Their relationship strengthens and Kazuma is happy that Kyo is slowly moving forward, finding something worth living for, specifically Tohru. Kazuma is now prepared to defy Akito and the rest of the Sohmas to guarantee Kyo’s freedom. He even confronts Kyo’s father and tells him that he delights in seeing Kyo grow, demonstrating to him that Kazuma is a true father, unlike his bio father who refuses to take responsibility.

And in Kyo’s third year, the curse breaks. Kyo and Tohru go to visit Kazuma and when he shows his father his wrist without the Juzu beads, the two hug. I can’t imagine how much happiness Kazuma felt when his son was finally free of his burden and that he can move on with his life, the threat of being locked away now firmly gone. His son found love in the woman who had stood by him even when seeing the ugliness inside of him. And for the first time in perhaps ever, he had a clear vision of his future. As for Kazuma, he could ask for nothing more; his son was happy and was with the love of his life.

Well, maybe he could hope for some grandchildren

And he would get that as well. In Fruits Basket Another, Hajime Sohma views Kazuma as his one and only grandfather.

Saki Hanajima and her family

While the Sohmas had a blueprint of how to handle their cursed children, the Hanajimas did not because Saki had something different. She could hear the mental waves of those around her. This affected her life constantly when she was younger as she couldn’t control it. Going outside meant hearing the thoughts of everyone around her. I can imagine the family taking Saki to doctors, priests, and mystics to figure out what was going on with her but no one could give them an answer. As much as they couldn’t help her with her powers, Saki didn’t lack for love from her family. They didn’t wrap her in bubble wrap. They addressed her problem and did their best to find a solution.

When she was in school, her classmates found out that she had powers. How this came about is unclear but it wouldn’t surprise me to know that it came out on accident because someone’s waves were hitting her and she made a comment about it. They started calling her a witch and one boy tried to force her to eat newts. Saki became so overwhelmed that she attacked the boy with her waves, causing him to fall unconscious. Saki did feel guilty afterwards and wanted to turn herself in to the police. Her parents could do nothing but comfort her. Even the youngest, Megumi, would pray so that Saki would find someone who would be with her.

Saki was both feared and reviled, many students avoiding her or openly bullying her. She did her best to avoid trouble, not wanting to repeat the earlier incident. But some students held her down and tried to burn her skin. Thankfully, this was stopped by the intervention of a teacher. This was the breaking point for the Hanajima family. To give Saki a better chance of flourishing, they switched schools.

This is where she would meet Tohru and Arisa. At first, she tried to keep them at arms-length. However, when the rumors of the events of her old school come up, Saki’s first reaction is to run away. But Tohru and Arisa chase her. Their offer of friendship is what Saki wanted most. She would later lament that the love her family gave her wasn’t enough for her. But Kyoko would tell her that it’s only natural to seek the acceptance of others. This gave her the strength to control her powers.

Saki’s parents are still among her biggest supporters. Her mother is with her during her parent-teacher conference. They are there when she gets the lead role in the class play. And in the Fruits Basket sequel, they still have a great relationship with each other.

The Hanajima family is the best example of how a loving family is suppose to be.