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Fruits Basket Love Post, part 2
In this post, I'll talk about Tohru's baseball cap, and how the story behind it goes into the psyche of not only Tohru, but Yuki and Kyo as well. This post is extremely spoilery for the manga. The baseball cap does not exist in the anime.
I have a special fondness for stories that are told several times but from different angles. If done well, it enriches the tale to a great extent. The story of Tohru's hat is one of those well-told multi-angled tales.
The hat makes its first entrance in the very first issue, here (although before that, we have seen it next to the picture of her mother). Not much is explained about it there, but in the second volume of the manga, during the sleepover, Tohru tells the story: She got lost once, as a child, and a boy appeared in front of her. She ran after him, and ended up in front of her own house. He put the hat on her head and left. She's forgotten his face, but not his random act of kindness, and so, the hat represents a precious memory to her.
In chapter 53, volume 9, Yuki asks about the hat, and we later see that he was the boy who gave the hat to her. Nothing more is revealed until later. There's three separate references to Yuki and the hat in volume 10, where among other things, he reveals that he's grateful to Tohru for remembering the incident - although he still hasn't told her that he was the one who gave her that hat. The full story isn't revealed until chapter 84, volume 15, where we delve into Yuki's backstory. Here's another complication: The hat was originally Kyo's. Kyo, however, didn't want it once Yuki had touched it.
Later, Yuki tells Kyo that the hat is now with Tohru, and is it okay if he doesn't return it? And Kyo looks sick, and doesn't join them for dinner. What does that hat mean to him? We don't find out until chapter 119, volume 20, when Kyo tells Tohru about how he'd met and spoken to her mother when he was young. He tells her about how, when she was lost, he promised her mother to find her, only to return and find out that she had already been found - by the person the hat had moved on to.
So there we have it. The hat, originally Kyo's, came into Yuki's possession, before he gave it to Tohru, who hung on to it. However, it's more than that.
For Tohru, the eternal optimist who insists on seeing the good in people, the hat represents the random kindness of strangers. It is precious because it reminds her that there is good in people, that an unknown boy can take the time to help a crying little girl.
For Yuki, the hat represents the first time he was needed. Yuki spent his childhood being told that everyone hated him, and no-one needed him. However, Tohru needed his help to find her way home, and the fact that she hung on to it means that she remembers him, even though she has forgotten his face. It's a good memory because the incident made him feel necessary. For lonely, sad Yuki, the hat incident reminded him that he was important to someone.
For Kyo, the hat is a painful memory - one of when he made a promise he couldn't keep, and was yet again effortlessly upstaged by Yuki. Yuki took something that was supposed to be Kyo's, and Kyo was, once again, not good enough. Even more, the memory of the hat is connected to Kyoko Honda, and Kyo is tormented by those memories. Put simply the hat hits him right in his inadequacy/guilt issues.
And there we go. A story told from three angles, steeped in the psychology of the characters who tell it. Masterful.
I have a special fondness for stories that are told several times but from different angles. If done well, it enriches the tale to a great extent. The story of Tohru's hat is one of those well-told multi-angled tales.
The hat makes its first entrance in the very first issue, here (although before that, we have seen it next to the picture of her mother). Not much is explained about it there, but in the second volume of the manga, during the sleepover, Tohru tells the story: She got lost once, as a child, and a boy appeared in front of her. She ran after him, and ended up in front of her own house. He put the hat on her head and left. She's forgotten his face, but not his random act of kindness, and so, the hat represents a precious memory to her.
In chapter 53, volume 9, Yuki asks about the hat, and we later see that he was the boy who gave the hat to her. Nothing more is revealed until later. There's three separate references to Yuki and the hat in volume 10, where among other things, he reveals that he's grateful to Tohru for remembering the incident - although he still hasn't told her that he was the one who gave her that hat. The full story isn't revealed until chapter 84, volume 15, where we delve into Yuki's backstory. Here's another complication: The hat was originally Kyo's. Kyo, however, didn't want it once Yuki had touched it.
Later, Yuki tells Kyo that the hat is now with Tohru, and is it okay if he doesn't return it? And Kyo looks sick, and doesn't join them for dinner. What does that hat mean to him? We don't find out until chapter 119, volume 20, when Kyo tells Tohru about how he'd met and spoken to her mother when he was young. He tells her about how, when she was lost, he promised her mother to find her, only to return and find out that she had already been found - by the person the hat had moved on to.
So there we have it. The hat, originally Kyo's, came into Yuki's possession, before he gave it to Tohru, who hung on to it. However, it's more than that.
For Tohru, the eternal optimist who insists on seeing the good in people, the hat represents the random kindness of strangers. It is precious because it reminds her that there is good in people, that an unknown boy can take the time to help a crying little girl.
For Yuki, the hat represents the first time he was needed. Yuki spent his childhood being told that everyone hated him, and no-one needed him. However, Tohru needed his help to find her way home, and the fact that she hung on to it means that she remembers him, even though she has forgotten his face. It's a good memory because the incident made him feel necessary. For lonely, sad Yuki, the hat incident reminded him that he was important to someone.
For Kyo, the hat is a painful memory - one of when he made a promise he couldn't keep, and was yet again effortlessly upstaged by Yuki. Yuki took something that was supposed to be Kyo's, and Kyo was, once again, not good enough. Even more, the memory of the hat is connected to Kyoko Honda, and Kyo is tormented by those memories. Put simply the hat hits him right in his inadequacy/guilt issues.
And there we go. A story told from three angles, steeped in the psychology of the characters who tell it. Masterful.