#isuzu sohma

Goth bbs have a date night

I haven’t drawn haru in over a year I think?? This one’s for u king

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

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…

A list from worst to best: Part 1 is the worst of the worst parents, the ones who are the most damaging to their kids.

Ren Sohma

There are many characters in the series who lean more towards either light or dark but there aren’t many who are pure light or pitch black. Ren is one of the few characters who is absolutely vile.

Her relationship with her late husband may seem to her to be genuine and while Akira loved her, it’s perhaps likely that Ren’s love is obsession and unhealthy. Regardless, she probably may have lived a normal life if she hadn’t given birth to the god of the Zodiac. Before she knew she was pregnant, Shigure, Hatori, Ayame, and Kureno had come to her with outstretched hands towards her stomach. This interaction was the start of her hatred for the child she carried. The god would inevitably become more beloved to Akira than her. And so, she came up with a plan. She forced her husband to raise their child as a boy or she would abort the child. Perhaps she thought if Akira raised Akito as a boy, she would still be the most important woman in his life.

When Akito was born, Ren felt slighted as Akira and the Sohma estate turned their attention to the new head of the family, the God. No one gave her a second thought even though Ren believed that she should be the one receiving praise for giving birth to the God of the Zodiac. This led her needing to compete with Akito for Akira’s attention, even as Akira started to slip away due to his illness. This would leave scars on Akito that would eventually manifest in her treatment of the other Zodiac spirits as abuse and misogyny. She needles Akito by telling her the bond she holds with the Zodiac isn’t real and that Akito is holding onto a false sense of love. It’s possible that this is what led to Kureno’s bonds breaking early. (It’s never explained why Kureno was the first to break his bond to Akito but it’s most likely a combination of Akito still mourning the loss of her father, Kureno not having any of the hang-ups that the other Zodiacs do and not having a strong attachment to Akito.)

Ren’s treatment of Akito isn’t limited to just her. She attacks Akito using the Zodiacs themselves. She tells Isuzu to steal a box which Ren claims has the secret in breaking the curse. Isuzu is caught by Akito who cuts her hair and confines her in the Room of the Cat. Perhaps the worst thing she was sleep with Shigure (who, by the way, wasn’t an unwilling participant). It is unknown whether Ren knew or not that Shigure loved Akito but it seems less to do with that than her doing her best to prove that the bonds were unnatural by “stealing” a Zodiac away.

Much of Akito’s personality comes from the treatment she received from her mother. And while this doesn’t absolve her from responsibility, it does explain her personality. She is the product of Ren’s abuse and, like many people who suffer abuse, Akito takes it out on people who can’t fight back, mainly the Zodiac.

Ren’s ultimate fate is to become further isolated within the Sohma family. Akito was able to move forward and not let her mother have any power in her life. Ren sunk so low that she was even willing to attack Shiki, her own grandson, simply because he looked like Akito, and also cause disharmony in Hajime by telling him about the Curse. She falls further and further, having no desire to change.

Isuzu Sohma’s Parents

When Isuzu was young, she believed she lived in a loving household. Though she was cursed with the spirit of the horse, her parents seemed to love her anyways. However, over time, she felt like she was living in a play. (It is later revealed that Isuzu only questioned this narrative when Ren suggested it to her.) She asked if they were really happy. That’s when their parents revealed their true selves. They despised their daughter. They only pretended to love her, seeing her as a burden. With the illusion now broken, they physically, mentally, and emotionally abused her. It got so bad that she ended up in the hospital. When they arrived, they told her that she would no longer live with them. Isuzu was deeply wounded by this event. She wishes that she could go back to the time when she believed they loved her. Isuzu would later live with Kagura’s parents but she was unable to adjust due to the mental abuse. For her parents, there were no consequences either legally or within the clan.

Isuzu would spend her next formative years trying to put up a barrier between her and other people. She feels like she is a leech around kind people, sucking their kindness dry. She would rather have people hate her because that means she wouldn’t have to experience putting hope into the relationship and not having it work out. The scars that she bore would manifest as lashing out at Hatsuharu, Yuki, and Tohru.

Isuzu will eventually start a secret sexual relationship with Hatsuharu. While there is love, there is also a sense of shame between both of them. They both know that if they are discovered, they will be punished once Akito finds out. Akito, who is actively projecting her own insecurities onto Isuzu, tells Rin that she is disgusting, that even with Hatsuharu she is no good. During this fight with Akito, Isuzu would dredge up her own insecurities concerning her parents. Taking the fall for Hatsuharu (both figuratively and literally), she comes to the conclusion that she needs to both sever her ties to her lover and break the curse for his sake.

Isuzu spends much of the series trying to actively break the curse, using her sexuality to try and get information out of Shigure and later, breaking up with Hatsuharu to further distance him from herself. It is through Tohru’s persistence and understanding that Isuzu begins to break out of this self-hatred. But this is undone when Akito punishes her by cutting her hair and locking her in the Cat’s Room. When Kureno brings her to the hospital, Isuzu escapes and is found by Hatsuharu, who gives her the closure she needs to end her hunt of breaking the curse.

Isuzu doesn’t get over the trauma she experienced at the hands of Akito as quickly as the others do, almost certainly because she, of all the Zodiacs, is the one who suffers the most. The physical and mental scars that she bears, however, do not define her future, though. She, along with the others, will go forward into the unknown future.

Machi Kuragi’s Parents

Bad parents aren’t limited to those in the Sohma Family. Machi is equally scarred by her awful parents. Machi’s father had an affair with Kakeru’s mother, resulting in Kakeru’s birth happening around the same time as Machi’s. Because her father was quite wealthy, it led to Machi and Kakeru’s mothers forcing them to compete with one another to prove themselves worthy to be his heir.

Machi’s mother expected her to have the perfect personality, the perfect academic record, and anything less than that was seen as “losing” in her mother’s eyes. Because Machi spent most of her childhood trying to please her mother by competing, she never had the time to discover her likes and dislikes. Machi was expected to dance as her mother’s perfect puppet. Her mother didn’t praise her for doing well but punished her for doing poorly. Machi would describe it later as being suffocated.

After her mother gave birth to a son, Machi was pushed aside entirely in favor of this new child. All of the effort she had put into perfection bore no fruit. Her mother told her to her face that she was raised wrong and made no effort to make things right. And this became her reason to despise perfection, lashing out at anything orderly. Machi would lose any desire to defend herself and became withdrawn and sullen. She would be someone who fades into the crowd, never standing out, not finding things of her to be proud of, just existing rather than living.

The breaking point in Machi’s life is when she sees her brother sleeping. Believing that he would be cold, she puts a blanket over him. However, her parents accuse her of trying to kill their son. Whether they truly believed it or were just looking for an excuse, the result was the same. They forced her out of their house and to live alone.  She lives in an apartment by herself, wallowing in a mess of garbage and imperfection.

Machi would later find an understanding with Kakeru as they are together when they are first introduced. I believe that they find solace in one another as they have suffered the same pain due to their father.

Yuki, who at this point, has put in enough work on himself to recognize a kindred spirit in Machi, goes out of his way to learn more about her. He gives her praise and helps her discover her interests. He helps destroy perfection in less damaging ways, like breaking a piece of chalk from a new box set or promising her to walk in unadulterated snow. Machi eventually comes out of her shell and can be a person who isn’t the robot her parents made her into and she can be someone new. The two of them date and eventually marry.

Machi’s parents are mentioned in the Fruits Basket sequel. She gets calls from them criticizing her. But otherwise, she lives happily with Yuki and their son, Mutsuki and has a support group in Tohru, Kyo, and Kakeru.

Yuki and Ayame’s Mother

The only parent to have two Zodiac children, their mother is a cold and distant woman who sees her children as existing to benefit her, while at the same time, despising them.

Ayame’s relationship with his mother when he was younger isn’t shown but the audience knows that each of the Zodiac’s parents get a stipend for raising one of them. Having two Zodiac children, especially a child cursed with the Rat, must have increased both her wealth and status in the family. It’s possible that she tried to use this to make Ayame into the person that she wanted as she eventually does with Yuki. However, Ayame had a support system in Shigure and Hatori so he didn’t need her validation. So she all but abandoned any plans with him. This had the unfortunate consequence that he wasn’t able to get closer to his brother, Yuki. Ayame admits to Tohru that when he was younger, he was only vaguely aware that he had a brother. His mother almost certainly separated them to prevent any influence from him. I imagine that watching his mother favor Yuki also created this image in his mind that his family didn’t need him. And so, the one time Yuki reached out to him, he refused to help.

We get two scenes during his high school years, one of him telling his principal that his long hair is a sign that he is descended from royalty and the other with him declaring to the school board saying that to combat the lust of his fellow students, he will offer himself as an object of lust. While this is amusing by itself, it may also be a symptom of a much deeper problem. In family dynamics where there is a golden child and a forgotten child, the forgotten child tends to act out as a way of gaining attention, even if it’s bad attention. It seems this was his way of standing out, of saying “Look at me. I exist.”

On top of that, he had very little connection to others outside of Shigure and Hatori. This is exemplified by one particular incident in his high school years. The student council president of a nearby all-girls school, a girl who had plenty of interactions with Ayame, had developed a crush on him. However, he was so self-absorbed, he couldn’t even remember any of these interactions or even her name and told her that she lacked any presence or personality. It can be posited that his lack of connection with other people is the result of his parents (mostly his mother) unwilling to connect with him. It wasn’t until he met Mine that he began to see how his former actions hurt others. It makes him desperate to fix his relationship with Yuki.

As for Yuki, being “the golden child” in the Sohma family was not as golden as one would be led to believe. In the Zodiac, the Rat is the one closest to God. Because of this, once he was old enough, his mother sold him to Akito. Akito would often tell him cruel things as a way of impressing herself onto Yuki, to prove to Ren that the bonds were real. Yuki was made vulnerable not just because of his young age and his mother’s negligence but also because he was sick. He became the perfect victim for Akito’s abuse.

Unfortunately for Yuki, his isolation, reframed as “being the closest to God”, was the cause for some of the other Zodiacs to despise him. Hatsuharu, after constantly hearing others mock him for being dumb like the ox in the Zodiac story, lashed out at him. And when he meets Kyo, this same anger causes Kyo to lash out at Yuki, who had first tried to be Kyo’s friend. (His interest in martial arts was probably an attempt to make friends with Kyo. However, the moment Yuki’s skills surpassed Kyo’s, Kyo would feel even more resentment towards Yuki.) Yuki’s isolation prevented him from making friends, making connections, culminating in the transformation incident in school. This would further isolate him.

His mother did nothing to help him. It is almost certain that she knew of Akito’s abuse and her son’s failing mental health. But she didn’t care. She saw Yuki as a tool to advance her social status. And she wasn’t above hitting Yuki to keep him in place. With no one there to help, he was alone. No one cared about him enough to do something. He was utterly alone, believing that he could disappear and no one would notice.

Yuki would erect walls around his heart, becoming a cold and distant prince. (Ironically, this is further exacerbated by the Prince Yuki fanclub who keeps other girls from interacting with him.) He can smile but it is a smile that signifies nothing. His eyes aren’t in the moment. He’s still in the past and stays there because he believes he deserves to be there.

Along came Tohru.

Tohru offered him understanding without judgment, compassion without conditions. And this confused Yuki. For a while, he believed he wasn’t worthy of this kindness. But Tohru gave without taking. She didn’t make large gestures. All she did was small things like reassuring him that she would still be his friend even if her memories were erased, helping him protect his vegetable garden, and inviting him to play Daihimin. Yuki soon felt like he could open up to her. Slowly and surely, he began to change. It was noticeable enough that even the leader of the Prince Yuki fanclub had to admit that he has changed.

Yuki was originally confused about his feelings. He thought that he was falling in love with Tohru. But after the summer at the beach house, he realizes that one, his feelings for Tohru are that of a son for his mother, and two, Kyo is the one who loves her like a woman. But Tohru’s limitless compassion allows him to push himself out of his comfort zone by becoming student council president, making friends with Kakeru, rebuilding his relationship with Ayame, and even falling in love with Machi. He was also able to reject his mother’s plans for his life by speaking up and telling her that he will decide his own future.

But perhaps his biggest change is in finally reconciling with Kyo. After Tohru’s hospitalization, Yuki pushes Kyo to pursue Tohru, telling him that he’s the only one who can make her happy. When Kyo admits that he has always been jealous of Yuki, Yuki realizes that the two of them are same, both of them not seeing the good qualities of themselves and only seeing them in the other.

At the end of the series, Yuki tells Tohru that he is grateful for the kindness she showed him, which gave him the strength to change himself and that she is the mother figure he had always wanted.

Akira Sohma

Akira wasn’t actively abusive like many of the others on the list. However, he has done so much to shape Akito’s terrible personality.

A sickly man who many expected to die, he fell in love with Ren, one of the estate’s maids. (While it’s debatable whether Ren really loved him, it is clear that Akira loved Ren.) She would eventually give birth to a special child, the god of the Zodiac. Akira would later come to know that Ren truly despised the child she was carrying. And when she learned it would be a girl, she gave Akira an ultimatum. Akito would be raised as a boy or she would abort the baby. It may have been altruistic on his part or maybe he thought he could change Ren’s mind, but raising Akito as a boy gave rise to her struggles with both her gender identity and her place in the lives of others, something that would be worsened as she got older.

The second most damaging he does is tell her that she is a special child. Akira, perhaps not really understanding the weight of his words on a child so young. He tells her that she was born to be loved. This was in contrast to what Ren told her, that Akito’s bonds with the Zodiac were of no consequence.

Akira’s words stuck in the worst way. Because Akito believed this, it led her to the conclusion that no matter what she did, the Zodiac would stay with her regardless of what she did. And why wouldn’t she believe that. All of the older Zodiacs reinforced this belief, including Shigure. So, of course she wouldn’t believe otherwise. And since they will love her no matter what, she can do as she pleases with the Zodiac. Akito can damage Hatori’s eye because it is her right. She can imprint cruelty and isolation on Yuki because it is her right. She can torture Isuzu because it is her right. She can abuse Kyo because it is her right. She is god. And god answers to no one.

But perhaps the cruelest consequence of Akira’s assertion that Akito and her bond with the Zodiac is special is that she cannot live without them. If she isn’t god, then who is she? This is why when Kureno’s curse broke, Akito was terrified. The curse is what binds her to the Zodiac. It was real. It was eternal. Her father said so and he wouldn’t lie. If he was lying, then Ren was right. And that thought was untenable. Momiji’s curse breaks in his second year and Akito is scared. How can she be god of the Zodiac if the Zodiac are no more?

Akito is, in many ways, similar to Tohru. They both hold on to their bonds with their loved ones. Tohru to her mother and Akito to the Zodiac. They both are forced into the painful realization that, in order for them to change, they need to let go of the bond and redefine it. And it is during their fateful conversation at Shigure’s house and the hospital, Akito decides to relinquish her role as god. She decides to live as a woman, not as God.

Kyoko Honda’s Parents

Kyoko remembers her parents as being very cold. They never ate together, went out together, and Kyoko can’t even remember being held by either of them. Her father was also abusive and she had told her mother that she had wish she hadn’t given birth to Kyoko.

Because of the neglect, Kyoko sought out validation elsewhere, eventually falling into the gang life. Her gang filled the void that her parents created. And yet, instead of realizing that Kyoko was crying for help, her father told her that she was never to darken their doors again.

Kyoko would later leave the gang life after falling in love with Katsuya, which would put her in the hospital. After being discharged, her father told her that he was disowning Kyoko and that he didn’t care what happened to her afterwards.

Kyoko and her parents would never reconcile. After Katsuya’s death, her father called her to tell her that neither she nor Tohru were welcomed in his house. Tohru would never have a relationship with them. It is truly their loss because they missed out on such a wonderful person who would grow up to be a kind and selfless person who will eventually have a family of her own.

Kyo Sohma’s Father

Putting Kyo’s father this far down the list of terrible parents may seem like sacrilege but it does make sense when one considers that he isn’t involved as much in Kyo’s life as many of the other parents.

It was to his deep shame that his wife gave birth to the Cat. The cat is the outcast, the one who brings shame to the other Zodiac for rejecting god. And now, he must bear the burden of being its father. He blamed his wife for being cursed with this child and blamed the child for being the Cat. It’s implied that he was emotionally and perhaps physically abusive to his wife and child. But it certainly wasn’t his fault. It was Kyo’s fault for being born as the Cat. And certainly, he’s not going to be an involved father. If his wife wanted to play mother to this creature, well, that’s her prerogative.

His wife eventually committed suicide due to the pressure he and others put on her. Rather than realize that he was part of the reason she did so, he pushed all of the blame on Kyo, a boy who just lost his mother. When Kazuma agreed to raise Kyo, his father must have been relieved. Kyo was going to be someone else’s problem. No one could love Kyo. He’s a monster and the reason his life fell apart. The only benefit anyone would gain taking him in was the money.

Kyo visits his father during Tohru’s hospitalization in order to move forward. Just the act of pouring his heart out to his father makes Kyo vomit. He hopes that one day, the two of them could have a relationship. However, his father is so set in avoiding blame and placing it on Kyo that he refuses to move past it. And he misses out on Kyo’s life, including meeting Tohru and his grandson Hajime. Such is the punishment for those who refuse to change.

Yσυɾ ʅσʋҽ αɳԃ ƙιɳԃɳҽʂʂ ƙҽҽρ σɳ Ⴆɾҽαƙιɳɠ ƚԋɾσυɠԋ.

Mყ ԋҽαɾƚ'ʂ ʂσ ɯαɾɱ αʅʅ Ⴆҽƈαυʂҽ σϝ ყσυ

I did this after watching Rin’s backstory, I love her so much

Bi 4 Bi couples!

(Some characters here are canonically bi while some are just headcanons)