Fruit basquet is a classic shojo manga and anime series starring the gentle heroine Tohru Honda, who is on a personal mission to befriend and advise the cursed members of the lonely Sohma family and help them create a better future for themselves. She has a lot of work ahead of her, especially when it comes to the spirit of the cat.
Every cursed Sohma carries a serious burden, but that goes double for the spirit bearer of the house cat, the unofficial thirteenth member of the Chinese zodiac. In the current generation, it is the tsundere Kyo Sohma who carries this spirit, and his tragic life story makes it clear how horrible it is to be the cat. His life comes with more than a few harsh realities, some of which are unique and some of which he shares with the other 12 spirits.
10 The cat can’t hug people
This is a harsh reality that the bearer of the cat spirit shares with all cursed Sohma: the inability to hug someone of the opposite sex without transforming into an animal. That may not sound too bad to some anime fans, but the Sohmas certainly don’t like it.
Transforming like this is a closely guarded secret, to the point that Doctor Hatori Sohma will erase the memory of any stranger who witnesses a zodiacal transformation. This makes the members of the zodiac isolated and alone, as shown by Kyo and his rival kuudere, Yuki.
9 Akito is especially hard on the cat
The cruel head of the Sohma family, the conceited Akito Sohma, verbally abuses all members of the family, including some physical abuse as well, such as injuring Hatori’s eye or slapping people with all his might. However, the cat gets the worst of it.
Anyone with the feline spirit must face the worst verbal abuse and scorn Akito can muster, which is saying a lot, and there is no escape. Like the other 12 members, Kyo is bound to Akito by the curse, so Akito’s cruel words are never far away.
8 The cat is recognized as rejection
The members of the strange Sohma family are somewhat isolated from mainstream Japanese society and are almost like outcasts, which is difficult for all of them. But even in that context, the bearer of the cat spirit is a total outcast and outcast, and that weighs heavily on the cat.
Kyo is a reject among rejects; even on his best days, that fact always hangs over his head like a storm cloud, no doubt eating away at his psyche. The cat is a rejection due to the original cat’s actions in the zodiac story and there is nothing Kyo can do to change that.
7 The cat’s parents feel upset and guilty
It is never easy being the father of a cursed Sohma, as the story of Fruit basquet He showed. Some parents go out of their way to take it easy and support their children, but others, like Yuki’s selfish mother, just make things worse and resent having a cursed “weird” child. For the cat, it is even worse.
Kyo’s parents hated their son for being the cat and felt that they had committed some grave sin. In particular, Kyo’s father absolutely despised his son and blamed the boy for his mother’s suicide, which is obviously unfair. In fact, Kyo and her father never fully reconciled.
6 The cat is destined for confinement
This harsh reality is another example of how the cat’s fate is an even more tragic version of what the other cursed members of Sohma go through. All of the cursed Sohmas are semi-isolated and are urged to stay within the confines of the large family compound, such as Kureno, who is supposed to stay by Akito’s side.
The cat has it much worse. When they turn 18, the cat will be locked in a small prison and will remain there for the rest of their lives. That was Kazuma’s grandfather’s fate and it was supposed to be Kyo’s fate as well. Fortunately, Kyo escaped this nightmarish fate and created his own future with Tohru.
5 The cat has a monstrous true form
It’s bad enough that the damn members of Sohma transform into their animals when hugged, which tends to alienate anyone outside of the family and the family’s support staff. However, the cat has it worse. Not only will Kyo transform into an orange house cat when hugged, but he has another, more unique form.
Kyo’s true form is a monstrous, hairless thing that barely resembles a cat, and also emits a strong stench of rotting meat. Kyo hates this form and when Tohru saw it, Kyo was convinced that Tohru would hate him forever. Kyo was lucky that Tohru is an unusually compassionate and tolerant person.
4 The cat has rivalry with the rat
The world of shonen is known for its intense rivalries, but sometimes shojo stories like Fruit basquet it will also feature intense rivalries, such as that between Kyo and Yuki. Her grudge is largely based on their respective spirits, as the cat deeply resents the rat for cheating on her in the original zodiac story.
Kyo has enough to worry about without feeling like Yuki is constantly outdoing him and making a fool of him. Just the sight of Yuki was enough for Kyo to rage and attack him, but having Tohru around helped Kyo control these angry feelings a bit.
3 The cat didn’t get his wish
This is a harsh symbolic reality that the cat must face; in a tradition-bound family like the Sohmas, that can mean a lot. In the original story of the zodiac, the cat did not want to become immortal, he wanted to die of old age and say goodbye to the god of history. However, the cat was forced to become immortal anyway.
Against her will, the cat is reborn again and again to stay with her fellow zodiac animals, meaning that Sohma’s current situation completely contradicts the cat’s original wish. That means Kyo must live a lifestyle that the original cat never wanted for him.
two The cat gets cranky and tired during the rain
Cats generally don’t like water and the spirit of the house cat feels the same way. Rarely does Kyo get caught in the rain in his real cat form, but the rain is still a problem for him. Tohru learned this for herself halfway through the story of Fruit basquet.
When it rains, Kyo, like the cat, will get tired and be somewhat grumpy. As long as it’s raining outside, Kyo will have no choice but to retreat to his room and wait for it to pass. No other spirit is affected by the weather in such a way.
1 The cat must wear special beads at all times
Kyo can’t stand his true form, but he has a beaded bracelet to help with that. This beaded bracelet keeps his true form in check as long as he wears it and has clearly gotten used to it.
However, the beaded bracelet should never come off and can get uncomfortable or snag on things from time to time. Also, this bracelet serves as a mark of shame for anyone who wears it and Kyo can only hide it with long sleeves.
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