Welcome back to my next entry in “The Psychology of Fruits Basket”! After discussing the importance of Kyoko in my previous piece, I want to start looking at how she impacted some of the other characters in the series starting with the ornery and sadly anxious ridden cat, Kyo. If Kyoko is a “butterfly godmother”, then Kyo is the child that Kyoko protects and guides the most out of the Fruits Basket cast. To truly understand the similarities between the two characters, let’s start by establishing Kyo’s characterization.
Being possessed by the Cat, Kyo is doomed to be scapegoat of the Sohma family from birth. While it may not have been the original intention of “the first promise”, the Sohma family curse evolved to the point where the Cat spirit became the the penultimate object for the rest of the Zodiac members to project their anger and frustrations on to. I will save the depth of the Zodiac lore in Fruits Basket so as to reserve some spoilers, but as Shigure puts it, the Cat allows the other Zodiac members to think “At least I’m better off than him”. The concepts of projection and scapegoating theory are very common themes in Fruits Basket which we will see repeatedly through various characters.
As such, Kyo’s life starts as tragic as one might expect. His mother commits suicide due to the curse. His father blames him and ostracizes him for it. One of Kyo’s only saving graces for his childhood is that Kazuma, the grandson of the previous Cat, adopts him so that the Cat could have a fighting chance for once. (Though there is also a selfish element to this decision; Kazuma feels a sense of guilt because of how he rebuked his grandfather because he was the Cat. Interesting to note, Kagura, his self professed “love”, has similar guilt that drives her affections.) However, even though adopting him, Kazuma handles Kyo as a pupil more so than a true ‘father’ figure. Thus, no one in the Sohma family ever really takes the time to truly connect with young Kyo.
With this background, Kyo’s erratic emotional displays when interacting with those who care for him makes a lot of sense. This can be considered a Fearful-Avoidant Attachment style in psychological theory. Basically, because Kyo learned early on that the people he should be able to rely on in times of distress and danger are the exact people he can’t rely on, he never learned how to connect to people. We need safe social interaction to grow in to healthy, well adjusted adults.
A great study that illustrates this is Harlow’s surrogate mothers study. In this study, Harlow presented young monkeys with two surrogate mother puppets who held food. One puppet had a plush covering to replicate fur and the other was only wire and wood. Harlow found that the monkeys given the wire surrogate, which had no comfort to offer, would only interact with the mother to get food. They would then exhibit anxious and fearful behavior when presented with new situations and environments. Essentially the comfort and security of a parental figure in childhood impacts how we learn to react to our environment.
In this way, Kyo and Kyoko are kindred spirits. Remember that Kyoko was neglected by her family, only receiving the necessities she required to keep living. This treatment directly resulted in her acting out behaviors such as becoming the notorious leader of a Yankee gang. It is certainly not a coincidence that the author chose such similar names for both of the characters.
During his first day of school, Kyo becomes overwhelmed with anxiety due to flock of schoolmates he’s never met before fawning over him. To escape, he leaps out of a 2nd story window in a panic. As everyone reacts, Ou comments on how Kyo reminds her of Kyoko and not just because of his bright hair color. This memory recall is likely due to the bombastic, attention grabbing nature of Kyo that is similar to Kyoko’s. There are several other instances like this that point out that Kyo is intended to be a mirror of Kyoko.
The irony of this is that Kyoko is also likely the closest thing to a mother figure that Kyo ever had. When Kyoko chose to befriend young Kyo, she did so without knowing his history or curse. She simply saw a child sitting alone in an alley amongst abandoned garbage and immediately empathized with him. She showed Kyo that he could make friends just by being himself this way (another recurring theme of the story).
If you have ever watched the show Dollhouse, it is very reminiscent of Season 1, Episode 11 named “Briar Rose”. Echo goes to visit a troubled teen in an orphanage. Her imprinted persona for this visit is revealed to be based off a brain scan of that exact teen. However, Topher adjusted it to be the healed version of that teen if she is able to get the help she needs. Echo is essentially embodying the troubled teen’s potential future. It reminds me a great deal of Kyoko and Kyo's dynamic. Kyoko is very close to an image of how Kyo may turn out if he gets the support and healing he needs.
If Kyo had not been upset by Yuki interacting with the Honda family, I wonder how much sooner Kyo might have gotten the help he needed? Might the curse have been lifted sooner? Would Kyoko have gone toe to toe with Akito? (I’d pay money to see that honestly.)
Kyo’s second chance at help arrives with Tohru who is able to teach all the lessons that Kyoko may have herself if given the chance. All the love that Kyoko poured into Tohru can be passed on to Kyo now. Honestly, in looking at Kyo’s character development in this way, with how Kyoko impacted his life, it makes most sense for he and Tohru to have the romantic relationship in the end. Believe me, I originally was of the opinion that Tohru should have ended up with Yuki. But now, after thinking through it, Tohru and Kyo were set up from the very beginning.
Kyoko modelled how someone with their troubled backgrounds can love unconditionally for him in the short time they knew each other. She essentially introduced him to Tohru, a stable, understanding, and patient girl who is willing to wait for what is most important: The people she cares most about. That is exactly what someone with a fearful-avoidant attachment style needs. If Tohru’s father healed Kyoko, then Kyoko helped give Tohru the tools to heal Kyo.
