Generational Trauma, Outsiders, and Healing

A Review of Fruits Basket (2019)

Image from Crunchyroll

The story of Fruits Basket starts with Tohru Honda. Tohru’s mother had recently died in a car crash. Tohru stayed with her grandfather for a while, but had to leave because his house is being remodeled. Tohru, not wanting to be a burden on anyone, thought that it would be best if she lived in a tent in a forest until the remodeling of her grandfather’s house is finished. She also works as a janitor to help pay for her tuition and to not burden her grandfather with her finances.

While walking through the forest one day, she discovers Yuki Sohma’s house (who is the most popular boy in her high school). When Tohru’s tent is destroyed, the Sohmas (Yuki and his cousins Shigure) invite her to stay with them as long as she is willing to do housework. By accident, Tohru discovers that the Sohmas are cursed. Whenever the Sohmas are hugged by a member of the opposite sex or their body is under a great amount of stress, they turn into animals from the Chinese zodiac. Tohru not only helps keep their secret but also becomes a great friend to the individual members of the zodiac and helps them to heal.

The Sohma’s curse is a big part of Fruits Basket’s storyline. The curse is loosely based on the folktale of the Chinese zodiac. In Fruits Basket version of the folktale, they talk about how God had invited all the animals to a banquet. He told them to come the following evening and that they could not be late. The rat heard about God’s invitation and decided to play a trick on his neighbor, the cat. He told the cat that the celebration was the day after tomorrow. The following day, all the animals lined up to go to the celebration. The sneaky rat led the way, riding all the way there on the back of the cow. Fun was had by all except for the cat, who missed the whole thing.

The story deals with several different things. One is the concept of an outsider. The story gets its name from a game called Fruits Basket. Tohru is always excited to play this with the other kids. They would often have her be the rice ball. Since Tohru was the rice ball, no one would call her name because she wasn’t a fruit. It left her feeling left out. Kyo feels the same thing. He is the cat of the Zodiac, but is often excluded from family events because of it. He is often viewed as less than within the Zodiac, which makes Kyo want to prove himself to the Zodiac members even more.

There is also the concept of generational trauma. Not only are there members of the Zodiac, but there is also the person who plays the part of the god. The god is born to die young and suffer constantly. Because Akito is the god over the Zodiac this round, he often punishes the members of the Zodiac if they ever slight him. For example, Hatori wants to get married and told Akito about it. Akito gets mad and permanently damages Hatori’s eye. Hatori’s fiancé blamed herself for the incident, and Akito nudged Hatori to erase her memories so that she could move on with her life. Another example is when Akito beat up Kisa so badly because Hiro told Akito that he loved Kisa. Afterwards, it made Hiro avoid Kisa because he didn’t want her to get hurt again.

In all of these situations, the elders in the family never intervene. The god is always right and is allowed to treat the Zodiac members however she wants. It has been like that for generations, and the older generation doesn’t want to change tradition, which leaves these young people in a constant cycle of abuse and fear.

With everything that is going on, there is a concept of what makes a monster. Kyo was feared by his mother because he had another form other than the cat. When he takes the mystical beads off his arm, he turns into a hideous beast. He is blamed for his mother’s death because the village thinks that he drove her to suicide, and his father wants to have him ostracized and hidden so no one will have to look at him.

One of the reasons why I like the series is that Tohru uses a lot of listening skills and communication to help the various characters work through their trauma. For example, Tohru doesn’t treat Kyo badly when she finds out about his beast form. She accepts him as he is and wants to move forward with him as his friend. Another example is with Kisa; Tohru was able to verbalize all the pain she was feeling from being bullied at school, which allowed them to connect with each other and allowed Kisa to build up her own voice.

I also like the fact that the characters rally around Tohru when she needs help. For example, Tohru was going to be left in the house by herself for several days during New Year’s Eve. Kyo and Yuki didn’t think anything of it until they ran into Tohru’s friend Saki, who tells then that this was a horrible time of year for Tohru to be alone because it was her first time celebrating the holiday after the death of her mother. Kyo and Yuki rush back home, skipping events with the Sohmas. Once they got there, they discovered that Tohru had been crying by herself. At that point, they knew they had made the right decision to come home and cheer up Tohru.

I loved this show because it shows that you can be broken by a person, but you can be healed by another. Scars can still be healed gradually. I also like that it showed how lasting a generational trauma can be and the great lengths one has to go through to break it. I have seen both the 2001 and 2019 versions of the Fruits Basket anime. I would recommend seeing the 2019 version because it covers the entire manga. Even though it is a sad tale, it leaves the viewers with hope that something good can come out of tragedy and that everything doesn’t always have to remain the same