Fruits Basket Discussion: Abuse, Trauma, and Hope

Welcome back to Anime Rants! Today, we have the second post in a blog series full of Fruits Basket discussion. This anime has a lot to say about psychological trauma and abuse. But this anime is not “dark” in the same way as a show like like Neon Genesis Evangelion. I enjoy grim, hopeless explorations of psychology sometimes – but at other times, I want to see themes of hope and healing.

Fruits Basket does this extremely well. Firstly, the show depicts trauma and its complexity with surprising realism. Instead of leaving its characters to wallow, however, Fruits Basket provides themes of personal growth, acceptance, and healing. In the end, recovery is possible. If you’re anything like me, you’ll first cry over the pain these characters endure. Then you’ll cry again when they find the hope to keep living.

I’ve already written at least one other blog article about trauma in Fruits Basket, which you can read here. (I plan to edit it soon with information from the final season.) Anyway, I don’t want to be too redundant. That’s why this artice will not discuss the three most important characters: Tohru, Kyo, and Yuki. Instead, we’ll use two supporting characters as examples for study: Rin (AKA Isuzu) and Kisa. After examining their stories, we will tackle the topic of hope.

Disclaimer: This post may contain spoilers for Fruits Basket across all three seasons.

Previous Post Link: Fruits Basket Discussion – Character Relatability

1) Kisa Sohma’s Traumatic Experiences

Kisa is a young girl possessed of the Tiger spirit of the Zodiac. We can think of her trauma as twofold, consisting of one extremely horrible event and many instances of being mistreated over time. We’ll start with the prolonged trauma. Since Kisa has naturally golden hair and eyes, the other kids thought she was strange. Some of them started bullying her. They conspired to ignore her completely, except to laugh at her whenever she spoke. It had become a real problem by the time Kisa was about twelve.

The bullying affected Kisa so much that, at about age twelve, she suddenly stopped speaking. This lasted at least a few months, and even years later, Kisa remained a girl of few words. Stopping all speech is a serious trauma response. Kisa’s mother realized this, but didn’t know what to do. She was overwhelmed by the strain of raising a young child. Day by day, the mother became more frustrated and emotionally distant. This obviously didn’t help the situation.

As for the other traumatic experience, it happened after Hiro made the mistake of telling Akito that he was in love with Kisa. Akito did not approve of romance between Zodiac members – even a harmless childhood romance like what Hiro and Kisa had. Thus, the cruel Zodiac God called Kisa over and proceeded to assault her. Kisa was beaten badly enough to warrant spending some time in the hospital.

Being hurt by anyone – especially when you are a small child – can potentially be traumatic. But it was worse for Kisa because of the unique “bonds” between Zodiac spirits and their deity. Due to a covenant made centuries ago, Zodiac members are spiritually and psychologically bound to respect and revere the existence they consider God. Thus, Kisa naturally felt worshipful of Akito. She couldn’t defend herself. As one who longed for Akito’s love, Kisa was deeply wounded by this violent event.

The little tiger girl was normally well-behaved and sweet. But due to the bullying and the hate from Akito, Kisa started to “act out” in unhealthy ways. She caused trouble at home and eventually ran away. The emotional distress meant she was frequently turning into a tiger cub. In this beastly body, Kisa bit at least two people: Tohru and Hatsuharu. They were only trying to help her, but Kisa was like a wounded animal. She felt cornered and lashed out at everything.

2) The Abuse of Rin Sohma

Isuzu is the name of the girl cursed by the Horse spirit of the Zodiac. However, I will refer to her as Rin, since that’s her nickname, and it sounds better. Rin’s parents were highly abusive, but up to a certain age, her mother and father acted relatively normal and healthy. In fact, it was suspicious how they happy they seemed. Rin recalled thinking it was like a theater performance. So, one day, she started asking questions about why her parents always seemed perfect.

The parents were mentally unstable, but for years, they tried to be sane and cope with the fact that they had a cursed daughter. But now that Rin was old enough to see through the façade, there was no longer any point in keeping it up. In the blink of an eye, Rin’s parents became hostile and unhinged. We don’t know the details, but one or both of the parents physically abused Rin on a regular basis.

When Rin fainted from an injury, Hatsuharu found her and took her to the hospital. The doctor quickly understood the only answer to the suspicious bruising: severe child abuse. Knowing that the game was up, Rin’s parents abandoned her that day. She never went home with them again. Being literally abandoned like this was too much for Rin to handle. She was heartbroken and forever traumatized. Believe it or not, that was only the beginning of her painful story.

The kind man who was taking care of Kyo agreed to take Rin as well. As she grew, Rin fell in love with Hatsuharu, the boy possessed by the Ox spirit. They liked and supported each other for many years. As teenagers, they started dating – but they had to keep it secret from Akito, who would disapprove. Unfortunately, the next time Akito talked to Rin one-on-one, she was able to tell that something had changed.

Once Akito figured out that Rin and Haru might be romantically involved, she responded by pushing Rin out a window. The fall was several meters, and Rin hit her head on a rock at the bottom. She was incredibly lucky to survive. After that, Rin went rogue. She broke up with Haru to protect him from Akito’s wrath. Then she fled the hospital and started her private quest to investigate and break the Zodiac Curse.

Although Rin tried to handle things all by herself, pushing others away, the trauma and abuse chipped away at her mind. She was unstable both mentally and physically, as she continued avoiding adults and running from Hatsuharu. If nothing changed, Rin would almost certainly end up even more hurt and alone. She could even die.

3) Healing and Hope in Fruits Basket

Kisa’s character arc had a hopeful conclusion. After she ran away from home and started biting people, her mother came to get her. The woman was exhausted and frustrated. She failed to understand why Kisa couldn’t tell her about the bullying or why she was causing so much trouble. It looked like Kisa’s mom was about to break and destroy what was left of the relationship with her young child. Luckily, Tohru was there.

The unusually wise teenager explained to Kisa’s mom that it’s embarrassing and difficult to tell someone you’re being bullied. Young children especially feel like it’s their fault. Tohru knew this from personal experience. After she was bullied in elementary school, Tohru’s mother comforted her and told her not to be embarrassed. It was Tohru’s desire to see Kisa getting that kind of support. As for Kisa, she realized Tohru wasn’t just talking hot air. She actually understood. Thus, the little tiger cub reverted to her human form and tearfully clung to Tohru.

This was the start of Kisa’s healing journey. To give her mother a much-needed break, the child would stay at Shigure’s house for about a week. Tohru took take of her during that time, and Kisa slowly started speaking again. The child’s mother was ready to care for her again after the break, so the mother-daughter relationship stayed in tact. A little over a year after that, the Zodiac curse finally broke, freeing Kisa from her forced attachment to the abusive Akito.

Every situation is slightly different, and what people need in order to heal varies widely. I think the best way to heal from trauma is to get professional help, such as counseling from a therapist. But not everyone can do that. Even if they could, therapy is usually only one step of several in the healing process. Sometimes, you need other kinds of help. As for Kisa, what she needed was understanding and patience – someone with empathy-based knowledge about her type of situation. Tohru was able to grant that.

Going back to Rin, she also started a journey of healing thanks to Tohru and Hatsuharu. But there was a lot more pain for her along the way compared to Kisa. Additionally, she always stays a little moody, and never gets to the point of forgiving Akito. I think that’s completely fair and healthy considering that Akito literally tried to murder her. That’s a bit more serious than “just” abuse. Let’s review what happened with Miss Isuzu and how Tohru and Haru were able to save her.

During the second season of Fruits Basket, Rin is working alone and trying to gather information about the Zodiac Curse. She goes to Shigure’s house when nobody is around, looking for answers. While there, she starts to have sickening flashbacks of her parents yelling at her and abusing her. Tohru finds Rin in the middle of an intense panic attack. When Rin eventually passes out, Tohru takes care of her at Shigure’s house for a few days before convincing her to go to the hospital.

While with Tohru, Rin tried to act strong and tough at first. Soon enough, however, she broke down, cried, and clung to Tohru. She was just so tired of being alone and having no comfort or affection. Of course, Tohru gladly shared a motherly embrace with Rin, tearing up from empathy as the other girl cried. Tohru remembered feeling all alone at one point in life, too – shortly after her father died, when her mother was lost in depression. She knows that being alone is terrifying, so Tohru comforts Rin.

After this, Rin made friends with Tohru, and consulted her a little about wanting to break the curse in season 3. However, this still wasn’t the end of Rin’s lonely, painful journey. She went off by herself once again to investigate Akito’s house. Long story short, she was caught by Akito, who abused and starved her for several days. Rin’s life was in serious danger, as she was already weak and skinny before this terrible imprisonment.

Luckily for Rin, someone let her out of confinement. She tried to walk to safety, but collapsed and passed out. Fortunately, Hatsuharu found her. He told her the painful journey was over, and she needed to “come home” to him. Haru carried Rin to safety, both physically and emotionally. For the last few episodes of season 3, Rin slowly recovered. The Curse then broke for the remaining Zodiac members, and Rin was finally set free from the scourge of Akito.

Rin needed safety, comfort, and support. In Hatsuharu, she found the love and support of a romantic partner and best friend. In Tohru, she found the empathy and comfort of a mother figure. This brave young lady will also need more long-term support and care from mental health professionals. She has a lot of intense trauma to work through. The healing process will be long – possibly ongoing throughout life – but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Hope was also a key component in what Kisa and Rin both needed. It’s important to the healing process to have hope. If you don’t think there’s any chance of things getting better, you won’t try to hold out for anything. Hope is not the same as pure faith because the latter is belief in spite of lack of evidence. Hope, on the other hand, is a belief at least loosely grounded in experience. Hasn’t someone helped you before? Aren’t humans social creatures whose society is build around helping each other? Yes, and so, there are reasons to push forward.

Fruits Basket is largely about coming to terms with trauma and starting to heal. At the center of this important theme stands Tohru. She’s just one girl, and not a very clever or thoughtful one. But she possesses this incredible ability to inspire hope in others. She loves being helpful, which makes her a great caretaker. She’s also great at giving comfort and consistent emotional support. Without Tohru’s empathy and insight, neither Risa nor Rin would have found what they needed to begin their healing.

Other important themes related to healing include introspection, self-expression, confiding in others, and taking emotional risk. All of these are needed for healing, and all of them play critical roles in the lives of Fruits Basket characters. As you can see, this anime protrays a lot of pain, trauma, and abuse. At the end of the day, however, it’s about moving past that deep-seated hurt.

Thank you for reading~

PATREON