I’ve thought a lot about the series finale of Fruits Basket and what this series has meant to me for the past 16 years. But this show has a new meaning for me now. One that’s so much more personal.
When I first started watching anime seriously, I was in middle school (6th or 7th grade) I was an outcast. Severely introverted and shy, lowest of low self esteem, the pathetic list can go on. Anime was my biggest source of comfort growing up. It would give me fantasies about finding friendships, love, and growing into my own and finding a place where I belong. These 20-40 minute episodes would give me the greatest happiness, and every Saturday evening was dominated by binging Tonami and Adult Swim. Fruits Basket was my introduction to shoujo/romance, and I quickly learned it was my favorite genre. I watched the 2001 version on DVD, and completely fell in love. When I found out that it barely scratched the surface on that the series truly is and that there was a whole manga with the COMPLETE story I didn’t hesitate to read it all and become obsessed! Fruits Basket was where all of my fantasies in life grew even more. Then years later, they announced a reboot that would air in 2019! When I say I was freaked I was FREAKED. Finally the show I grew to love was going to be redone, and redone RIGHT! I’ve watched this new series for the past two years and it did not disappoint.
However, I have a new reason as to why this show is so important to me. My mother, who I loved more than anything and anyone in this whole world passed unexpectedly in January of this year (similar to Tohru and Kyoko) and my whole world just shut down. It’s like I couldn’t breathe anymore. I became this zombie like creature that just couldn’t live anymore, or lost the will to live. It’s to this day my worst nightmare. But then suddenly, a show that I loved so much became my biggest source of comfort. I was grieving with Tohru before I knew it, and started to learn how to move past this life I knew all this time, and welcomed my new one without my mother. But similar to Tohru as well, I developed beautiful and close friendships over the years that became my new family when I lost my mom. I got married in May recently to the man I know I’ll be with for the rest of my days. I still have so many moments where the pain of losing my mom is unbearable. But Fruits Basket has shown me, especially this year alone, that you can fight and move past the greatest tragedies and still have a life worth living. So for that, thank you Fruits Basket. Thank you for saving my life all of these years, and continuing to do so even now. I will never forget you❤️
So I already uploaded this picture earlier but I want to bring your attention to the foot steps! Katsuya’s stop where he is, kyoko’s goes a little further out, but Tohru’s keeps going until it is out of frame! Great symbolism of moving forward!
i’ve been thinking about that scene where tohru is holding rin and saying “being alone is scary… being all alone is terrifying”
and it shows a tiny flashback panel to tohru alone in the apartment when her mom abandoned her…and here’s what i realized: so there are all the obvious reasons that tohru wants to keep kyo from being confined after graduation….but i’d never thought about how the thought of him being alone and confined in complete solutitude would hit her so deep because she experienced that herself when her mom abandoned her after her father died.yes it’s different because she wasn’t being locked up for life because she was considered a monster, and kyoko did eventually come back… but being such a small child, she was in a sense trapped in a small apartment, not that different from a single room, because it’s not like she could really escape that situation even if she wanted to. she doesn’t want kyo to get locked up because she loves him and wants to stay with him and getting confined for life is bad, true…but it goes past that, because she has, in a way, already felt the pain of being trapped and all alone personally—being abandoned—and she doesn’t want kyo to experience the same thing by being confined. that was her past, and she doesn’t want that to be his future.
i can’t really write about this without also bringing up the parallel of kyo and tohru both having mothers who abandoned them at one point or another, because i think for both characters the idea of being all alone is completely tied to the concept of being abandoned by someone they love. obviously kyo’s mother died when he was very young whereas tohru’s was much more recent, but when you think about it, kyoko’s initial abandonment of tohru came at a similarly young and formative age (even if it was temporary, the abandonment had a lasting effect on her throughout the story… and it is later followed by kyoko’s death, anyway). that parallel is the key to unpacking their resulting abandonment issues, although those issues manifest in different ways. kyo’s are coming from a lack of self-worth and from self-doubt (he thinks he was abandoned because of something inherently wrong with him, thinks that every choice he makes causes pain for himself/others and causes people to leave him). tohru’s are coming from a denial of her own needs and feelings (in chapter one she thinks, “don’t feel bad for me, Sohma, because my mother had it so much worse”; she thinks it’s morally wrong and disrespectul to—even a betrayal of—her mother to acknowledge her feelings of pain, particularly regarding her abandonment, rather than redirecting her focus to someone else’s pain; being selfish means she’s someone who deserves to be abandoned).
and it hits me directly in my windpipe when i think about how these formative experiences allow kyo and tohru to empathize with each other like no one else can and influence their actions in the narrative so greatly. kyo has to confront his own self-hate, all the voices in his head, and move past it with his own inner guidance—to accept that he is someone who didn’t deserve to be abandoned and is actually capable of 1) being loved and 2) giving that love back. meanwhile tohru has to actually acknowledge her own feelings for once, above anyone else’s or what she thinks is expected of her, and accept that she doesn’t want kyo to be locked up because she doesn’t want to lose him—not for some greater moral purpose or to save the world, but because she would be devastated to be, you guessed it, abandoned by him. and because of this, she stands up for what she selfishly wants and learns that it isn’t ungrateful or a betrayal of her mother to act according to your own needs, and that she won’t be abandoned just for having ugly facets to her. and he recognizes that he can make choices and exist without it harming anyone, that he can trust himself going forward, and that he can be accepted by others and himself as someone who can be loved, someone people won’t abandon. this growth for both of them is all about action, emotional acceptance, and making choices, at its simplest level. it involves acknowledging what they want now and moving on from their past abandonment, from a time when they were all alone. and then they finally get their shit figured out! and they’re not alone anymore, they’re together.
and i think it’s absolutely bonkers that a pairing that looks like “opposites attract” on the surface actually features two characters who are so intertwined and similar on so many levels. sure, tohru accepts and loves kyo because she’s got a big heart and is very naturally empathetic, but so much deeper than that, she empathizes with and understands him because she’s actually been through some very similar experiences. that’s also why their dynamic works both ways, and he’s able to understand her and empathize with her right back. (which is fantastic for reciprocity’s sake and makes me happy!) those similarities continually reinforce and inform the narrative and give context and motivation to everything that these two do. and to bring it back to the reason i even started writing this, i’m just marveling at tohru’s line to rin because, in literally one or two sentences, in one panel, the narrative connects kyo and tohru and shows how and why they understand and ultimately need each other so deeply.
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.
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.
