MAKE-YOU-CRY MONDAY: Rin Sohma and Tohru Honda

Minor Fruits Basket spoilers today. If you don’t want to know who the horse of the zodiac is, read no further.

I have a pattern: whenever I read Fruits Basket, I cry.

The series’ halfway point is usually where I get emotional. People think Fruits Basket is just a dumb shojo manga (I could name names…you know who you are), but there’s some really intense stuff in it.

This time around, I started sobbing in volume 4.

However, I just finished Volume 14, which is a real doozy, so today’s post is about Rin Sohma.

Rin, much like Ronan Lynch, has had a messed-up life. It would be hard enough being possessed by an ancient spirit. Imagine your love life complicated by the fact that whenever someone of the opposite sex hugs you, you turn into a horse.

Imagine your happy family shattered the first time you questioned the sincerity of its happiness.

Imagine developing ulcers due to the stress and having your parents punish you for it.

This all happens to Rin Sohma BEFORE the story even starts.

You might have noticed some similarities in the characters I’m drawn to. A lot of the characters I like are really, really mean. Rin lashes out at everyone, does questionable things to obtain information, and says hurtful things to little kids. She hits her boyfriend and, as a horse, tries to kick Tohru in the face.

But Rin would do anything for the people she loves and is honest about what she needs. After the head of the family calls her “pathetic,” “completely hopeless,” and “rotten to the core,” then PUSHES HER OUT A WINDOW, all Rin thinks as she falls is:

But Haru did want me. There was someone who wanted me, even though I had been told that I was unwanted. I’m happy… What a happy thing.

Rin later admits why she is so mean to “kind” people:

I hate for kind people to suffer. To see them get hurt.

She pushes away her loving boyfriend and Tohru Honda because she can’t stand to seem them become collateral damage.

She finally breaks down in front of Tohru and admits her weakness. She ends up crying in Tohru’s arms for hours.

Tohru tells her something that hit me really hard: “Being by yourself is scary. Being alone is a frightening way to live.”

Hear, hear.

Later, Rin reflects on why Tohru is such a calming influence for everyone around her.

People can’t help but be drawn to someone like her. People who know how scary it is to be alone can’t help loving others.

This makes me wonder about the people in my life who are always happy. What sorts of things have happened to them that I don’t know about?

Stop relating to my real life, Fruits Basket!

Need cheering up?
Look at this picture! All the animals! See how happy they all are!

Yeah…not my best find.

[Note: I realize today is Tuesday. I was doing some other writing yesterday and completely forgot about blogging.]