Yosuga no Sora Arc Breakdown Episodes 10, 11 and 12 (FINALE) Sora’s Arc

Plot: Even though he has started dating Nao, Haru finds himself struggling with increasingly lustful thoughts of Sora. When the tension comes to a head and the twins start a sexual relationship, they try to find bliss in secret, but such a taboo cannot be kept under wraps for long.

Breakdown: I’m going to cut my losses and just evaluate every episode as quickly as I can while still covering all of my bases.

Episode 10 – In episode seven, Haru started a romantic relationship with Nao. However, he keeps becoming preoccupied with thoughts of Sora. At this point, it’s not that bad. He has a dream about kissing her, one memory of kissing her when they were kids, and it’s implied that he revved up the crotch engine during that dream sequence. He’s very adamant about pushing these thoughts away, both because he realizes the taboo and social stigma involved and because he doesn’t want to be unfaithful to Nao.

Speaking of Nao, her personality is a little bit different from the way it is in her arc. There, she’s very much open if not insisting on trying to do things with or for Sora so she can be more accepted as Haru’s girlfriend. She’s still reserved and shy, but she’s also very open and caring.

Here, she’s a little on the obnoxious side. She becomes kinda clingy to Haru and there are even a couple of occasions where she’s overbearing and cringey. For instance, when she’s planning her date with Haru over the phone, she rolls on the floor and plays with the phone cord. This isn’t even in her bedroom – the phone is between the front door and the stairs. It’s not something unheard of for a teenage girl with a new boyfriend to do, but it seemed odd for Nao to do.

Even though she slightly tries to get on Sora’s good side, you can definitely tell that Haru’s preoccupation with Sora is quickly starting to bother Nao, especially when they go on their first date.

It’s not too bad of a shift in character, but it’s clear that they’re making her look a bit annoying so we’ll root for Sora more – not that that’s humanly possible. Not going to commit to saying Nao the rapist would be better than Sora just because she’s a terrible human being, but I am going to imply it quite a bit.

Granted, Haru’s not really being a good boyfriend. He goes on a date with Nao, and most of what he gets excited about doing he does for Sora like buying her a cute hair clip and buying something she’d like for dinner.

Speaking of that date, it’s time to talk about Sora. Guess what she’s doing. If you said ‘Being a useless, bitchy waste of oxygen’ you’d get a cookie for paying attention for the past ten episodes.

Sora lays in the doorway in nothing but a towel because she says it just felt nice and cool on a hot day (Go take a cold shower….and not for THOSE reasons.) and then she teases Haru, claiming he’s getting turned on by her.

When Haru makes the date with Nao, Sora lies to him and says he promised he’d take her shopping for a cute hair pin that day. I know she lied because she, for some reason, writes an apology for lying in her computer to Haru, saying she did it because he’s spending too much time with ‘that woman.’

Haru can’t find the heart to turn down Nao’s date, which he believes he’s keeping secret from Sora under guise of going out with Ryouhei, but of course she knows. When he tells Sora this, she has a temper tantrum and says she doesn’t want to go at all anymore, even though Haru offers to go any other day of the week.

Sora, you’re sixteen years old. Go shopping by yourself. I don’t care about your supposed illness we barely ever see actually existing. Does Haru think Sora is so frail that she can’t even do that by herself? In the Nao arc, she went to the beach alone just fine.

Nao and Haru come home to make curry for Sora, but Haru sends Nao home when he discovers Sora acting strangely. She had a nightmare that he left her all alone. After he hugs her and says that would never happen, he goes off to make her curry.

The next day, Sora and Haru are walking to school when they meet Nao. Haru has to cover up that he was on a date with Nao yesterday. Nao, realizing Haru hasn’t told Sora yet out of supposed embarrassment, helps with the coverup and says she just bumped into him while he was grocery shopping and meant to help Haru with the curry.

Sora suddenly stops and claims she’s too weak to walk very fast, so she sends Nao off ahead so she won’t be late for school. She legit says this with a bitchy smirk.

Sora: “You’ll be late if you wait for us.”

Nao, realizing Sora’s a cunt—oh excuse me, respecting that Sora will take a while to accept her, and later expressing that she was put off by Sora’s defensiveness, agrees to walk ahead. And then Sora grabs onto Haru’s shirt again like a toddler.

Later, when Nao and Haru are having lunch, Haru actually says that Sora works him really hard and it feels like she doesn’t respect him. Whatwhatwhat? Is that self-awareness I see? Will Haru realize that his feelings for his sister are—I’m not even going to do this sarcastic bit. This statement affects nothing.

And then we get to the end of the episode. Haru peeks in on Sora in her bedroom after hearing her call for him.

When he sees her, she’s masturbating and moaning Haru’s name.

Haru actually collapses in front of the door, covers his mouth with his hand….and starts crying. Yeah, that kinda threw me for a loop too. I thought he’d jack it at the door at least, if not take the opportunity to come in for the assist, but nope. I was impressed that they chose to actually have him struggle with this.

For a bit anyway.

Episode 11 – Haru is on his second date with Nao, but his mind won’t stop wandering to images of Sora masturbating to thoughts of him. Building on the fact that he reacted to this by crying and nearly collapsing in the doorway, you’d think maybe he’s just having a deep internal struggle about what to do with Sora because this is obviously insanely awkward.

Nope.

He’s just a horndog.

Did I mention attempted rape in my last post? I think I did. Well, here ya go.

Haru has one too many daydreams of Sora going to town on herself so he suddenly drags Nao into a love hotel and forces himself on her. Nao has to physically push him away before he stops.

Nao questions whether he really loves her. He claimed he did, past tense, back in episode seven (I don’t remember that, but okay), but ever since that first kiss, he’s been really distant and strange. We learn later that he responded by saying he honestly doesn’t know if he loves her, which is really shitty. Never, ever tell someone you love them and then say you don’t know if you love them. Feelings change over time, and if that happens, then fine, that’s just the way things go. But feelings of love don’t change in a period of a couple days.

Sora does the first useful thing she’s ever done ever when Haru comes home to several neatly folded stacks of laundry. In a surprising turn of events, Sora actually proclaims that she wants to do more to help him out since they only have each other now.

The next day at school, Haru does something kinda comical. He researches the history involved with incestuous relationships….in the school library. Discretion was never really his strong suit, was it? (As we’ll definitely find out at the end of this episode. Foreshadowing~~~)

Kozue, who is another girl in the group, but doesn’t get her own arc in the anime, catches him and asks about it. He, surprisingly, talks about what he was researching. She says it’d be shocking to see such a relationship in real life. Kozue is very averse to the whole idea of incest and has stated that in passing a couple times now. Keep that in mind because I guess it’s kinda important later maybe?

That following morning, Haru discovers Sora is sick with a severe fever. And of course it’s such a bad fever that she’s dripping with sweat. Only one thing to do. Guide her into a cool bath, get an ice pack, do what sensible people would do—I mean strip her naked in bed and wipe her down her whole body with a dry cloth.

After tending to Sora all day, Haru falls asleep by her bedside and Sora wakes him up with a kiss on the lips. Sora confesses her love for him, unable to hold back after all the naked rubdowns and whatnot. Haru gives in to his desires, kisses her back and confesses he also loves her too. They insert rod A into slot B (Eventually, because for some reason Haru has trouble finding slot B on Sora but no other girl. *shrug*) and start a romantic relationship.

Transition to the walk to school the next day. Sora is 100x more pleasant to be around now. I guess she just needed to get laid to cure her horrible virus of a personality.

Don’t believe me? When she gets home, she prepares dinner and vows to work hard to learn to cook well since all she can make is frozen food and instant soup right now. Then she asks for a kiss as a reward, which he gives her. Good dog—I mean, girl.

So is she really doing all of this just because she wants to help Haru or is she fishing for sex rewards?

Anyhoo, I should bring up that Haru is cheating on Nao. They never officially break up, even though what happened at the love hotel would break up any relationship, but she seems to want to still be friendly with him and they never outright say they’re ending it. Also, on the Wiki page, it says she ends the relationship later than this so I’m standing by my claim that he’s totally cheating on her….with his sister. Haru’s an asshole, yup yup.

Since Sora is apparently too dense to realize the social taboos involved with incest, and Haru still doesn’t understand discretion, the group at school quickly become suspicious of the twins’ overly friendly behavior and spending too much time together. Kozue even confronts Haru about it, but he covers it up by saying she spent so much time in the hospital when she was younger that getting sick like that again triggered his need to give her some extra attention.

And by “extra attention” I mean his dick.

And by “his dick” I mean the next scene is Sora giving Haru a blowjob at home.

Haru is apprehensive because of the confrontation with Kozue the previous day, but Sora pays it no mind, explaining that they’re special because they were apart for a really long time, so it’s fine for them to do it.

Before I get my psychology hat on again, Sora and Haru grew up with each other. He just didn’t see her as often because she spent so long in the hospital. But as far as I know he visited her fairly frequently, so this claim is just stupid.

Even if they were apart completely for however long she was in the hospital, which I think was for a couple years at most considering we know they spent plenty of time together out when they were little kids, that means nothing. You don’t make up for lost time with a sibling by plowing them.

They’re late for school because of the blowjob, and Haru gets to class just to have a daydream about more blowjobs.

He rushes out of school the instant the bell rings so he can go home with Sora and do the intercourse some more.

Now buckle up because they’re about to amp up the lack of common sense and discretion by about 1000.

They start making out in the doorway, which eventually leads to them starting to screw in the entryway of the front door.

The unlocked front door.

The unlocked front door that also has large windows on either side.

Golly.

I wonder what happens next.

Kozue, who is just as suspicious as ever about Haru and Sora’s relationship, finds Haru’s cell phone in his desk and internally debates going to his house to give it back. Nao arrives and asks her about it. Only then does Kozue decide to go, which is weird because if she thinks Haru and Sora are pogo sticking each other, why would she want to bring Nao, who is supposedly his girlfriend, along?

Have I ever mentioned that Nao is Haru and Sora’s NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR by the way? Because apparently neither of the twins understand that voices are loud, and maybe in addition to the doorway sex being a bad idea, LOUD doorway sex is even worse.

Nao and Kozue arrive and hear the loud doorway sex. Both are stunned, and Kozue rushes in to get….I really feel weird saying this, but just about the best possible view of this sex to catch them in to ensure they’re both dumbfounded. It’s almost like Haru and Sora were filming a porno and had the camera in front of the door. He is taking her from behind, and they are both straight on facing the door. And, of course, they happen to come in right as Sora is hitting her high note.

Haru and Sora are both stunned, though, really guys, come on. It’s like you wanted to get caught. Sora did point out where they were to Haru before they got down and dirty, but all they ended up saying was that it made it exhilarating. Yeah it’ll be real exhilarating when you get caught and ostracized by the whole town.

Which brings us to…

Episode 12 – Kozue runs out of the house screaming like she just caught a brother and sister having sex—oh wait. And Nao solemnly apologizes, leaves and shuts the door.

Can we all have a moment of silence for Nao here? She not only found out her boyfriend was cheating on her, but he was cheating on her with his sister. His terrible sister.

And just to highlight how terrible she is, after Nao and Kozue leave, Sora seems to give zero fucks about the repercussions this could have on Haru (even if she, personally, doesn’t care what any of them think about her) and immediately tries to goad him back into sex while he continues to sit there in utter shock and dismay.

I guess they did go back to sex, because the next morning Sora is getting breakfast stark naked.

(Can I mention that it’s weird that each sex scene has Haru fully clothed? Every time. He doesn’t even take his pants off. He’s sometimes seen naked after the fact, but during the actual sex, he’s always fully clothed.)

Haru doesn’t want to go to school for obvious reasons, but Sora says it’s no big deal. Surprisingly, word hasn’t spread like wildfire about this. In fact, it appears as though Nao and Kozue kept their mouths shut about it.

When Haru sees Kozue, she looks HORRID. I guess she’s been up all night crying over this, making her eyes damn near glow red….Look, I get that it’s shocking, and Kozue also had feelings for Haru (you’d never really know outside of the attraction every girl gets for Haru. She just suddenly confesses to him while talking about the sex later.) but this is a bit of an overreaction, emotionally, for her. She’s barely a side character. If anything, Nao should be reacting like this, especially considering that, without Haru, she’s said to be very despondent and depressed.

That evening, Kozue tells Haru that she won’t tell anyone about what happened, but she wants him to know that she thinks what they’re doing is very wrong. She used to love him, but now she’ll never speak to him again.

Immediately after that, Nao talks with Haru. She says she had her suspicions about their situation, but didn’t want to think the worst.

Haru apologizes, and then…..he explains why he did it.

Therein lies the problem I have with this whole pairing.

Haru heralds back to when he and Sora were ten (Haru later says he found Nao two summers later, and they were 12 there, so they’re ten now.) She had just come home from the hospital, and he claims that the girl that came back from the hospital was not the same sister he knew. She was a delicate girl that made his heart race, and he couldn’t stop thinking of her like that.

Apparently, even as a littler kid, Sora was still a bitch because we see her snubbing Haru during dinner for no reason. So her shit personality is not because her parents died. That closes the door there.

Haru explains that Sora is not an honest person, so whenever she’d get scared or rely on him and cling to him like a toddler, his heart would go pitter patter.

In summary, he loves her and is attracted to her because she’s a useless pile of human goo. Excuse me, a CUTE useless pile of human goo.

He realized even back then that loving his sister in that way was wrong, so when he made a connection with Nao two years later, he tried to make it into true love, but it obviously didn’t go well. To his credit, Haru does make a sincere apology to Nao for hurting her, even though that doesn’t make up for attempted rape.

When Haru has his head down while apologizing, Nao approaches him. I was about to roll my eyes because I thought she was going to pet his head or hold him and comfort him, but instead she just smiles and gives us the second badass moment of this entire series.

Nao: “It really didn’t go well, yes.” She then turns around him and walks out of the room without another word.

Nao’s really handling this well for someone who not only just found out her boyfriend was cheating on her with his sister, but was also using her to help him avoid incest and nearly raped her to deal with his pent up sexual tension for her.

Haru cries when she leaves the room, but I don’t have any sympathy for the guy.

Like so many of these stupid incest “love” stories, the love isn’t real. Sora is overly dependent on Haru and completely fixated on him both emotionally and sexually. She has never made an effort to care for anything else besides the internet, junk food and Haru, and she constantly treats Haru like crap – like he’s obligated to spend all of his time with her and take her places and cook for her. Only recently has she finally decided to start doing stuff around the house for him, and I really think that’s only because she wants to play housewife.

Haru’s just as bad. His love for Sora is only lust. The end. Like Yori in Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru, there are no likable aspects of his sister to fall in love with. I will admit Iku is at least a relatively nice person, but otherwise they’re both stupid, naïve, useless human beings who I’m surprised can blink without their brothers pushing and pulling their eyelids. Haru never states that he loves his sister for anything about her as a person – just that she’s cute and frail and he loves when she needs him.

But we’re still not done. Haru is moping in his room. When Sora tries to feed him whatever slop she piled together for dinner, she tries to get him to kiss her. For god’s sake, Sora, read the room. You can’t solve every problem Haru has with sex. Are you really so desensitized as a human being that you can’t understand what has happened? That he actually cared about the people who were hurt by your actions? Is getting your various holes plugged with Haru really all you care about?

He pulls away, but only for a moment before, suddenly, more attempted rape.

He grabs her by the face, shoves her to the floor, rips off the top of her dress and starts lapping at her boobs like a crazed dog.

Sora is initially panicked, but quickly chills out because who cares if it’s attempted rape as long as it’s Haru-kun? She even says this.

Sora: “I don’t mind if you mess me up. If you want to, Haru, you can.” Ugh.

Haru rushes over to the wall crying and says they should stop their relationship because it’s wrong. Sora has another tantrum because of course she does. She doesn’t understand why siblings can’t kiss or have sex. She doesn’t care what other people think of them – she just wants to be with Haru.

Haru suggests that there are other problems associated with incest, namely the issues that would come up with a baby if they were to have one.

Sora addresses that problem by saying she’d just get rid of it.

Fucking peach, she is.

Haru FINALLY slaps this bitch to the floor. I only say that celebratory now because I hate her so much – in regards to a romantic relationship, this is just a window to how unhealthy it would really be in the long run.

Later, at dinner, Sora asks why HARU would say such horrible things. What horrible things?! All he said was he didn’t want to have a relationship due to all of the terrible baggage that comes with it, both social and practical, then he told you not to say such terrible things like, oh I dunno, flippantly saying you’d have an abortion if you ever got pregnant with his kid.

Haru explains that he got a text from their uncle earlier. I guess he and their aunt (unrelated) were overseas. I forget that part of the story. They’re coming back to Japan and are offering residence. Haru and Sora were left with no money after their parents died, which just raises all sorts of questions.

Why would their parents leave them with no money? Did the uncle and aunt give them money? Because how have they been affording food, Internet, cell phones etc. if they were left with no money? The kids in town specifically said only rich kids have cell phones. Or is he saying the money they were left with is running out? Their parents seemed pretty well off, and it’s only been a couple of months, if that. Why do they have no money?

Their aunt and uncle can only take one twin each, however, so they’d be separated. Haru wants to do it so they can find happiness.

Sora has her biggest tantrum yet and trashes the kitchen before stomping off.

Days pass. Haru and Sora decide to stop going to school. Also, even though Haru is clearly against their relationship now, he seems perfectly willing to sleep with a naked Sora in his bed. He’s also having those same wet dreams about her.

They sleep all day, and when Haru awakens, he finds Sora’s room trashed. She even broke the window, ripped the curtains, tore the sleeves off of her uniform, ripped up her dress and her oh so precious stuffed bunny was torn to shreds. What the actual shit is wrong with this girl?

Anyway, Sora is missing. She texts him saying “I’m your little sister, but I want to kiss you…I want to become one with you…but I guess that bothered you after all…I’m sorry…” Isn’t it great that Sora keeps backhandedly blaming Haru for all of this while playing the victim? Especially after she’s the one who first put the moves on him?

Oh wait, no, that’s terrible, and she’s a shitty human being.

Also, isn’t it nice how this still isn’t about how their love is tormenting them so? And that it’s still about kissing and sex?

Oh wait, no. That’s shallow and toxic. Ignore me.

Haru rushes off to find her and bumps into Nao, who actually helps him try to look for her.

They stop to regroup for a bit, and Nao explains something that happened earlier. Before Nao went to confront Haru about his relationship with Sora, she went to the roof to talk to Sora.

Sora only said, “Now we’re even.” She’s speaking in regards to her seeing Nao and Haru have sex when they were 12.

That…is the first thing she says to Haru’s girlfriend….after Nao sees them playing human wheelbarrow. I’m not defending Nao’s rape, even if the show and Haru don’t treat it like a rape, but Sora is a cunt. Plain and simple. She doesn’t take this opportunity to apologize or try to show some sympathy or shame – for someone who used to be her friend, no less – she acts like this whole situation, the one that is currently ruining Haru’s life, is the perfect revenge on Nao for having the nerve to try and get with Haru in the first place.

Someone, please, tell me again why anyone with a living brain cell is meant to like this little she-demon.

Haru remembers Sora hearing how the lake behind the shrine is meant to be a place of rebirth, so he believes she might be there. He races to the shrine, avoiding Akira because he doesn’t know how he’d talk to her about it. He finds Sora at the lake, and I’m really thinking she wanted him to find her because it’s been several hours since she left and she’s barely up to her waist in water. If she was planning to kill herself in the lake, she’s taking her sweet time.

I guess neither of them can swim, because the instant their feet can no longer touch the bottom they’re both drowning. Also, they get teleported to a spot where the water is about 50 feet deeper somehow.

They’re both conscious but neither of them are even making an effort to swim back up. Haru’s even accepting his fate to die there with her so they can finally be together in a world far away. Yes, best big brother ever. Accept your death for the both of you and don’t even actually try to save her.

Miraculously, like really they never explain how, they both end up safe and sound on the steps of the shrine. There’s a trail of water leading to them, so I can only assume someone actually did save them, but I don’t know who. Haru never told Nao where he was going, and she was the only other person helping him look for Sora.

Resigned, Haru decides that he’s going to dedicate his life to making Sora happy no matter what. He no longer cares what anyone thinks, and, even though he doesn’t know how yet, he’ll somehow find them happiness.

This next shot change is confusing. As we go from night to morning, we also go from Sora and Haru kissing with all of their clothes on to the both of them half-clothed and hugging. Did they just have sex on the shrine steps or are they using body heat for warmth on this summer night?

Cut to some time later, Haru and Sora have left together, not even taking their stuff from home. Leaving one lone text on Kazuha’s phone. Haru explains that they’ve taken several planes and buses to get to an undisclosed location overseas to live together in peace to find happiness. What the…how? Did their uncle wire them money? Because they’re supposed to be broke, right?

Kozue wonders if they can really find happiness, and Nao explains that it’s possible because you can’t help who you fall in love with. Way to out their incestuous relationship to the others, Nao. Kozue vehemently disagrees, disbelieving that feelings can really be enough in their situation. Yup. I agree. If their relationship is really just lust and codependency, it will either be a lasting toxic relationship or a relationship with no staying power. I’m forced to think the former.

Brought to tears and broken down yet again, Kozue walks off ahead of the others. Again, why is she so violently affected by this? If you want to go ‘ew icky’ and lament your unrequited off-screen love, go ahead, but stop reacting like you just saw your parents die in front of you.

On a train leading wherever, Sora has a new identical bunny somehow (That has no connection to her mother now, so outside of continuing to make her look like a child, this was pointless to give her.) She tells Haru about some crumbs on his lips and sucks them off with her mouth while sitting on his lap and practically humping him. They’re alone on the train, but jeez, do you guys ever learn?

The end.

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It’s no real secret, but this arc is horrible. I don’t believe their “love” or support their relationship in the least. Even if they weren’t related, Sora is way too unlikable and Haru is way too driven by his dick for me to think this relationship is anything but hollow and unhealthy. Sora never takes Haru’s feelings into consideration, and when she does all she offers him in comfort is sex.

They’ll never find happiness wherever they go because I doubt they can keep the fact that they’re siblings a secret. Oh that’s right. I didn’t mention the fact that the location they’re heading to is somewhere that their parents had connections. That’s sure to end well. Their complete lack of discretion will also mean they’ll certainly be caught easily.

But hey, I guess like most of these poorly written ‘taboo’ relationships, these two dumbasses deserve each other. He wants a useless cute doll to take care of, and she wants Haru and only Haru. Works out in their weird little toxic world.

I saw a surprising number of people in the comments actually writing well-written analyses on their relationship and this series as a whole. Even though I respect their points, I can’t agree with damn near any of them. At the end of the day, Sora is a whiny, manipulative, useless, petty brat who got exactly what she wanted, and Haru is a doormat who can’t control his winky. It’s a sad state of affairs when I am seriously wondering whether or not BwInKwS is the better incest story here. I’d probably still side with YnS just because there’s less rapey-ness, but it’s still a close call.

Oh by the way, there’s a sequel game to the original visual novel called Haruka na Sora in which Sora and Haru, reportedly, get married somehow and, break out the cigars – they’re expecting a baby! Because who wouldn’t want to write in a pregnancy for a girl who flippantly said she’d just have an abortion if she ever got pregnant?

This arc can kiss every part of my ass.

Next time, the full series review.

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Yosuga no Sora Arc Breakdown Episodes 8 and 9 (Nao’s Arc)

Plot: After starting a relationship with Nao, she and Haru have great difficulty dealing with Sora’s reaction to their romance.

Breakdown: Since Nao and Haru already established a relationship in episode seven, this arc is about Sora dealing with their love.

And according to my eyes, ears and whatever remains of my brain cells, she takes it approximately….bad.

Episodes eight and nine are literally just Sora being a completely immature, bratty, possessive little cunt.

I don’t like saying the c-word. So I keep it reserved for special people who deserve it.

Sora is one such person.

If you thought Sora was useless, apathetic, abrasive and annoying before, buckle up, buttercup, it’s about to get so much worse. This arc is a trial of my patience. Every thing that happens, Sora has a fit about. She’s either being passive-aggressively bitchy or she’s being full-on bitchy, all the while maintaining her inability to do a single thing ever. She’s seriously in the running for most infuriating female anime character I’ve ever seen. Yes, Heroine from Amnesia might have some competition. At least Sora gets a name, but Heroine’s not a bitch.

Starts out innocently enough. Sora overhears Haru saying he’s with Nao, so she amps up the cold aloofness towards them, but most particularly towards Nao. She is doing everything in her power to get Sora to accept her, but Sora won’t budge an inch.

Granted, they made quite the INSANELY STUPID error of forking each other in the goddamn living room with the view to the outside wide open and the door to the main house open a crack, allowing Sora to catch them doing the dew….again. Bear in mind, she was also audience to Nao’s rape of Haru back when they were kids.

After this, she literally throws Nao out of the house, not even allowing her to put her shirt back on, and bars her from ever seeing Haru again, claiming this is just like back when she had sex with him back in the day. In her mind, Nao is forcing herself between Sora and Haru. When Nao leaves, Sora rushes into the kitchen, dumps the curry that Haru and Nao made for her into the sink and chucks the pot onto the floor.

Nao decides to break up with Haru for Sora’s sake, but Haru convinces her to get back together, promising that he’ll have a talk with Sora about it. However, Sora’s too much of a stubborn bitch to even let him get a word in. Nao continues to try to get on Sora’s good side, but she won’t have it.

It eventually gets to the point where Sora is faking sick (badly….at least fake a cough or something.) so Haru will stay home with her instead of going to the beach with Nao and the others. It doesn’t work, but he says he’ll come home immediately if she texts him.

Sora heads to the beach since she’s too hot to stay home (and apparently doesn’t possess the ability to make ice in her freezer…..I am not kidding.) When she gets there, she sees Haru has been nearly drowned and is on the beach, unconscious and not breathing. She does nothing. She doesn’t even panic. She’s scared of living a life without him, but he’s basically dead in front of her and she has no reaction.

Nao does CPR on him, saving his life, and while it seems like this might be the moment Sora would start accepting Nao…..Nope.

She heads home.

Meanwhile, Haru, Nao and the others head to the shrine to check out the summer festival setup when Haru gets a text from Sora, alerting him to come home due to her illness. When he arrives, Sora is sprawled out over the floor, seemingly passed out. He panics, and when he tries to get Sora to wake up, he discovers that she’s fine. She hugs him and tells him to never leave her. Panicking your brother for no reason when you have a history of ‘illness.’ Nice.

She continues to play sick for a while, but it’s not working. When he leaves to go to school one day, Sora refuses to go. Haru finally seems like he’s getting fed up with her shit and moves to meet Nao at the end of the path leading to their house. Sora steps between them and forces him to choose either her or Nao. Haru decides to go to school with Nao.

When Haru arrives home, Sora is gone, leaving a message saying she wants them to leave this village. Haru, Nao and their friends search all over the village trying to find her for hours when Nao finally finds her hiding in the bus stop.

Conveniently, a bolt of lightning strikes the bus stop after Nao and Sora exit, catching it on fire. Sora’s stuffed bunny is still in the bus stop, though. It’s the last thing Sora has as a memento of her mother. Nao decides to do the only badass thing done in this series – she goes into the building to get the bunny.

Meanwhile, Sora is just sitting on the ground silently like a useless sack of shit. Even when the sign falls down and blocks the entryway, trapping Nao inside the blazing inferno, what does Sora do? Yell out for Nao? Call for help? Try to douse the fire somehow? Try to move the sign? Why would she do any of those things when she could do literally nothing? Not even care. She just sits on the ground with that stupid look on her face.

Nao kicks the sign down in one swoop from the other side and walks out of the bus stop with the bunny, her skin and clothes steaming with the heat and rain combined. Doesn’t make up for the rape, Nao, but good job.

Sora, being a cunt, doesn’t even thank her for what she did or ask if she’s okay, she just takes the bunny. She admits that she was worried Haru would throw her away if he got with Nao. With her mother and father gone, she’s afraid of Haru leaving her all alone. Still a piss-poor excuse.

I would allow this if Sora was just being grumpy and not welcoming Nao with open arms, but her actions were WAY over the top, overly possessive towards Haru and cruel to Nao.

Not only that, but she has no reason to believe Haru would just throw her away. He does literally everything for her and dotes on her all the time. A good chunk of what Nao and Haru are doing together is either for Sora or something Sora is fully invited to partake in because everyone’s going. If anything, she’d just have one more person to dote on her and baby her like the infantile piece of shit she is. She’d be LESS alone than she is if she accepted Nao.

She’d be less alone if she were less of a cold bitch, too. Every one of the group at school treats Sora like a friend – they’re nice to her, they do things for her, they invite her out to stuff all the time, but she almost never gives a crap about them. She always choose to sit at home lazing about in bed, doing whatever she does on her computer and munch on chips.

In addition, that really shows bad faith in Haru if she believes finding a girlfriend would make him dump her like that.

And what is Haru supposed to do – never have a love life? Never get married and have a family of his own? Dedicate his entire being to catering to a useless vegetative ungrateful little bitch his whole life?

Considering this is supposedly an arc where Sora isn’t in love with Haru, does this mean she never wants to go off and get married to some poor bastard or have kids who will probably die shortly after childbirth because she’d be too lazy to do anything for them? Maybe get a job where she will be promptly fired for getting everyone else to do her work for her and being a bitch to everyone?

Also, remember, Sora is 16 not 6. I feel the need to remind everyone of this because it’s very easy to confuse that fact given her behavior and appearance.

After the bus stop incident, Sora seems to finally accept Nao and oh so graciously allows her and Haru to date.

Nao and Haru bone at the summer festival right out in the open because why learn to have discretion?

The end.

As for the Nao and Haru relationship outside of that, it’s fine in regards to how they mesh with each other, but it’s also unhealthy and one I can’t support.

Not only is there the obvious rape issue, but according to Ryouhei, Nao is extremely depressed and listless when Haru is not around, and it’s been that way since Haru left four years ago. So, basically, her happiness is dependent upon him and he feels obligated to be by her side to make her happy. (Side note, even though I’ve never seen her dad, her home life seems fine now.)

They pretty much went through their own separate story in episode seven, so there’s not much to talk about here in regards to their relationship – the arc is almost entirely focused on Sora.

In essence, I pretty much hated this arc. That one badass moment in the end does not make up for 40+ minutes of Sora being a spoiled little selfish toddler.

As for the Motoka omakes this time around, graphic sex scene in episode eight, implied one in episode nine. It’s actually a bit weird that I’m almost certain Motoka will be the one to get the most action out of all of the girls in canon.

Next and final arc, but also the most painful to deal with, Sora’s arc. Just a heads up, more attempted rape, cheating, and of course uncomfortableness courtesy of incest. Let’s just get this over with.

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Yosuga no Sora Arc Breakdown Episode 7 (Foundation of Nao and Sora’s Arcs)

Plot: Branching back to episode one, this episode creates the building blocks of Nao’s arc and Sora’s arc. Nao and Haru are developing feelings for each other again after being separated for four years, but a sin in Nao’s past from that last summer with Haru is haunting her. In addition, Sora does not support their budding romance at all to say the least.

Breakdown: I want to explore this topic all in one go since it’s so heavy and complicated, so be warned that this part of the review will spoil some parts of Nao’s arc, if you care.

One of the reasons I was very wary of addressing this episode wasn’t simply that rape is a part of it. I’ve talked about that several times already, and even though I still don’t like discussing it, I feel like I can do so without much hesitation. The actual reason was because 1) The rape is a big part of the backstory of the NaoxHaru pairing and 2) the rape in question is of the kind in which I have very little knowledge. It’s such an odd circumstance that I had great difficulty broaching the topic, especially in regards to any future relationship between the two.

I did my best, is all I can say. Which is at least better than what the writers did.

While episode seven does technically set the foundation of Nao and Sora’s arcs, unlike episode two which was pretty evenly set between Kazuha and Akira in regards to romantic development, episode seven is extremely slanted towards Nao to the point where it could technically just be a part of her arc entirely. In fact, Nao and Haru are officially together by the end of the episode, which is another thing that will make Sora’s arc all the more painful.

Haru and Nao knew each other from when he last visited the village as a child. One day, Nao ran away from her house after hearing her parents arguing again. She went to Haru’s house where he was laying in the doorway to the porch. Suddenly, we cut to her on top of him and she just….rapes him.

There is literally no more to that backstory. She was upset, she found Haru and raped him. She appears happy after it happens and only expresses guilt and shame after she sees Haru sprawled out on the floor with his shorts down with an empty look on his face.

Now…first and foremost, obviously rape is wrong. There is no arguing that. There is also no argument that boys can’t be raped for any stupid reason like guys are too strong in comparison to girls to be raped, or guys always want sex anyway so they can’t be raped. Those are incredibly harmful mindsets that only perpetuate the problem and stigma of sexual assault against men and boys.

What Nao did was wrong. She realizes this too late, but she does realize this.

The circumstances, however, and the lack of details make me question how drastically this skews my opinion on….pretty much everything involving Nao’s arc.

They’re twelve here (they’re 16 now and this happened four years ago), and she obviously knows what sex is because she easily does it (she’s on top) and is even guiding him to grope her breasts. However, is she too young to understand that forcing sex on someone is wrong, even when it’s a female on male situation? Is she even making the connection that Haru doesn’t want this due to his seeming lack of resistance? She understands afterward, and he didn’t really change his expression the entire time, so what dots aren’t connecting here?

Note – I’m not saying lack of resistance or negative response is consent, it’s certainly not, but is she at an age where she knows this and can process this?

I feel kinda shitty thinking about this so hard, because I think, if the circumstances were reversed (IE the genders were reversed), my knee-jerk reaction would be one of anger and blame without really taking into consideration the age or maturity level.

My position here is pretty frustrating, though, due to the lack of information. For all I know, she went there intentionally and planned to have sex with him because she saw him as a comfort to the arguing we heard for all of 10 seconds, I guess, instead of just stumbling upon him and making the quick decision to jump him for comfort. All I know for certain is that she had sex with him to make herself feel better about her home life.

Even the Wiki page is very low on details about this or her connection to Haru. “When the Kasugano twins last visited the area, their departure was particularly painful for Nao, who, for some reason, had grown quite close to Haruka, after having raped him on one occasion, about which she expresses guilt.”

I briefly flipped through episodes eight and nine to get a better idea of this situation. I did get a tiny bit more insight into why Nao liked Haru back then, but it’s super short and kinda stupid. He comforted her when she was crying once and, not lying, said she was prettier when she smiled. Plenty basis for a crush. Not so much on the rape.

This problem still extends into present time. Nao feels guilty about what she did, and has since that day, which is why she tries to shoot down any suggestion that Haru has feelings for her or that they should get together. However, she still starts a relationship with Haru. She is plenty old enough to know what rape is now, and she SHOULD be fully aware that she raped him. Starting a relationship with Haru, even if he seems game, should be the last thing she should think about doing. No basis of a healthy relationship involves rape.

In addition, once you reach the ending you get the idea that she moreso thought Haru hated her for what she did or that he simply didn’t like the sex or her, not that she wanted to avoid a relationship with him out of guilt and shame for, ya know, being his rapist.

I didn’t want to paint Nao as a monster if she really didn’t understand what she was doing, but I also DEFINITELY don’t want it to seem like I’m giving her a pass or over-sympathizing with her because she’s a girl – that’s completely unfair.

One of the main factors that helped clear the air for me was, oddly enough, Sora’s view on this.

In episode eight, we’ll learn that Sora was watching the rape as it happened. Two things are brought to light that solidified that I do indeed need to press Nao as badly as I would in any normal situation because of what was said regarding the situation in Sora’s memory of it.

Keep in mind, Sora is the same age as Haru and Nao.

The first was what Sora says about her view on the situation:

Sora: “I didn’t know what you were doing at first (Nao knew what she was doing) but I knew you were doing something bad.” It’s possible that she was just talking about sex being something they shouldn’t be doing, but in the end she knows that this situation is bad, which is something Nao should know. What they are doing is wrong. She’s ignoring Haru’s reactions until the deed is already done and never stops to realize he’s not actively participating or question why – she just keeps going.

The second was something Nao says in this flashback. You distinctly hear Nao say “I’m sorry.” while the rape is happening. She’s off-screen, but there’s no reason for her to say that unless she’s realizing that there’s something wrong about what she’s doing.

So, logically, her sudden mood shift after the act from happiness to remorse is either her delusion fading, something isn’t matching properly in continuity or she was satisfied with herself without realizing what she did to Haru or taking his feelings into consideration, which is very feasible. Remember, she only went into this to get comfort for herself and assumed Haru would be good with it.

Back to….I guess I’ll say ‘motive,’ I’m certainly not going to give her a pass for whatever fleeting emotional stress she was going through because her parents were arguing a lot at the time. Many parents argue a lot, some of which to point of physical violence and constant disdain, and their children don’t suddenly burst into the rape scene. Running away like she did? Gotcha. Understandable. Crying? Definitely. Rape? No. It would be a stretch to say any 12 year old in her shoes would even seek consensual sex (with someone her age) in this situation.

And lastly, when Nao finally apologizes for it (which is in this episode) it’s not treated as a rape. Haru says he didn’t dislike it. He was just nervous because it was his first time and couldn’t say anything or even react much, I guess even several moments after it was over too. And immediately after saying that, he says they can finally move on.

Fuck you, Yosuga no Sora. You just dropped child on child rape onto my head and made me damn near go insane trying to properly approach this topic and write about it with respect, fairness, and understanding while still maintaining the seriousness of the situation and attributing proper blame to it, only for me to find out that you took this same topic, wiped your ass with it and flushed it down the toilet.

Let me admit something here. I know the ED for this show is usually around the 20 minute mark because of the omake and the two separate EDs, and I jumped the gun a little writing this analysis because I had a lot to say and wanted to write it out while I was still in the proper mindset. So I stopped the video at 18 and a half minutes, right after they fall on each other in the locker room. I knew they kissed after this and what happened in the short scene with Sora at the very end, since I had seen it flipping through, so I thought I was safe to start writing. I got a bit out of hand before it was too late, because that’s just what happens with me sometimes.

I only had one and half minutes – count it – ONE AND A HALF MINUTES left on the runtime for this episode when I felt the need to start writing. As I was wrapping up this part, I finish off the episode and suddenly there’s the resolution to the rape plot – written away as if it’s not even a rape plot, so let’s move on. Fuck you.

Rape is such a difficult topic to be included in stories without feeling gratuitous for shock value or for the sake of sex and fanservice, and this one just feels like it was for sex and fanservice, which is especially disturbing because these are kids. Ultimately, the rape was a plot device written to give a reason for Nao’s initial reluctance to get together with Haru and an additional reason for Sora to hate Nao and be afraid of her relationship with Haru – both of which can EASILY be accomplished with even more weight without the rape.

Hahahaha, not addressing serious issues of sexual assault on minors with any sort of gravity is hilarious.

Have Haru and Nao get really close and spend a ton of time together while Haru is visiting because her parents are always fighting and she needs a distraction, cheering up and comfort. Have Haru accidentally neglect Sora during this time because of all the time he’s spending with Nao. Maybe break a promise or something. Then have Nao think Haru hated her because he broke a promise to do something with her too because he went to do something with Sora to make up for neglecting her or something. Haru was unable to figure out anything was wrong or mend bridges with Nao before he left for home that summer. Then Haru and Nao clear up the misunderstanding four years later when they’re lead to the pool by Ryouhei and Akira.

Boom. Done. A rapeless equally effective setup.

I’m done talking about this stupidity. I am legitmately angry. Partially at myself because I wrote this much for a plot that is basically swept under the rug, but I didn’t want to blow by it either. Unlike the writers, I actually give a few shits.

As for how this affects my view on what happens between them in Nao’s arc, well, I don’t support any relationship where it’s a rapist and his/her victim getting it on. Even if this circumstance in particular is iffy, I don’t support it. The resonance this should have with Haru and Nao won’t come to pass. It will not be felt at all beyond this point other than with Sora, and I couldn’t give a frog fart about Sora’s feelings.

Oh yeah, I have to save some anger because we still haven’t talked about Sora’s role here.

Sora’s still a useless inactive waste of molecules. Since this is also the foundation of Sora’s arc, we get more fanservice with the continuation of the uncomfortable undressing scene from episode one that stupidly results in her asking him to get her measurements (neither version explains what the hell she was talking about with the ‘Let me come’ stuff.)

In this version, she actually kills the mosquito she was chasing in episode two by slapping it across Haru’s face, which is at least better than creating a bomb out of her room with endless hair spray. However, we also get more fanservice as she itches a bug bite on her upper thigh.

Since there’s so much focus on Haru’s relationship with Nao here, Sora obviously gets very jealous, childish and pissy. I can’t believe I had to hear Haru tell Nao that Sora is ‘cranky because she just woke up.’ Keep talking about her like the toddler she seemingly believes she is – you’re just going to make me more uncomfortable during her sex scenes in her arc.

She gets mad that Nao sews her uniform buttons on (It’s a school tradition for girls to do it themselves, like I mentioned before, but Sora and Haru both don’t know how, so in this version Nao did it.) This does drive Sora to teach herself how to sew, but it’s never made clear if she actually succeeds or not.

And, uh, that’s it.

Oh no.

Hang on.

Wait.

I did mention that there was a tiny bit with Sora at the very end of the episode. Yes, yes.

After Haru and Nao make up about the rape and make out at the pool, we cut to Sora who is typing at her computer.

Guess what she’s doing.

She’s typing “I hate Nao.” obsessively, over and over, like she’s in The goddamn Shining.

How can anyone with an ounce of sanity or intelligence in their bodies like this insane possessive little leech?

Oh and the cherry on top? The Motoka omake today also basically includes a rape scene on Haru. She rips his clothes off out of nowhere, literally jumps him while stripping, and after that we hear non-sexy screams from Haru coupled with very fast bed squeaking sounds before cutting to them sleeping naked in bed. Then Motoka feels deep shame for taking advantage of Haru while she was in a drunken rage, calling herself a terrible person….

…..THEN HARU BLAMES HIMSELF FOR IT. Because he was busy or neglecting her or whatever (They’re dating at this point).

In any other episode, I probably wouldn’t have gotten too angry at this, but this piled on top of the Nao stuff just cemented the insulting feeling all the more. So, one more time, fuck you, Yosuga no Sora.

Oh and yeah, can’t forget the lovely people in the comments section of the website I watched this on, where any time someone pointed out the rape it was met with either wishing they were Haru or acting like it wasn’t a problem because it was girl on guy, or acting like it wasn’t a rape because his lack of verbal or physical resistance and response basically implied consent to them.

Remember, kids. Never read the comments section if you treasure your brain cells.

Next up is Nao’s arc. I can’t promise I’ll be any less angry. I hope I got most of it out here. If Nao’s arc requires just as much of my anger reserves, I’ll probably die trying to do Sora’s.

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30DAC – Day 12: Favorite Anime Scene

Well, since I see ‘Most Epic Scene Ever’ on this list, I guess I have to go a different route here. There is one scene that I can keep watching over and over and for some reason it never gets any less funny, and that is a scene from episode 13 of Fruits Basket.

 

Background on the show’s not entirely important here, barring a note I’ll get to in a minute, but the three main characters, Yuki, Tohru and Kyo meet up with Yuki and Kyo’s cousins, Hatsuharu and Momiji who recently started going to their school. Momiji looks really young for his age, and decided that he’d look cuter in a girl’s uniform than in a guy’s. The class president sees this and demands that he change into a boy’s uniform immediately to conform to school dress code.

Hatsuharu, hearing his loud and obnoxious blatherings, gets incredibly irritated, snaps and ‘goes black’. The note I was mentioning before was that Haru and the Sohma family, Momiji, Yuki and Kyo included, are cursed with different animals from the Chinese zodiac. Yuki’s the mouse, Kyo’s the cat (different story), Momiji’s the rabbit and Haru’s the ox. Because of this, Haru has a bit of a side effect where he has basically two sides of his personality; the white side which is extremely calm, kind and respectful and the black side which is really intense, angry, violent, flirtatious and sometimes rude. He doesn’t get many moments to show off this side, and this is definitely the best black Haru moment in the series.

He chews the living crap out of the Class President going on the best tangent ever trying to argue his side for Momiji. The Class President keeps trying to fight back, but gets shot down time and time again. Even when he gets put down a peg with a bit of logic, he calls out Haru for also not obeying the rules by assuming his hair is dyed because it’s both black and white. (It’s really that way because….well, moo)

 

Oh he can convince you, alright.

 

I don’t really want to explain the scene full out, watch it for yourself, but it did include one of the most shocking and risque moments in the series at the end of the scene. It’s absolutely hilarious when you realize what he did.

Technically, Momiji was in the wrong here as you agree to school rules when you enroll, including dress code, but it was incredible to see this loud hothead get his ass verbally handed to him.

Fruits Basket Review

Plot: Tohru Honda is an incredibly polite and kind girl. She’d never want to bother anybody or impose. That is why, when her mother died, she decided to live in a tent in the woods instead of bothering anybody for a place to stay. That is until a boy named Yuki Sohma and his cousin Shigure found her and decided to take her in.

She accidentally discovers the Sohma family secret – they have been cursed with the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Whenever they get hugged by a member of the opposite sex or if they fall under a good deal of stress, they transform into an animal of the Chinese Zodiac. Only 13 members of the family have this curse. Yes, 13. 12 of the regular zodiac plus the cat from the stories.

Usually they have a person’s memory erased when they discover the secret, but the family leader, Akito, has decided to leave her be as long as she promises to keep their secret. Now living with Shigure, Yuki and the cat Kyo under the condition that she be their housekeeper, Tohru does everything she can to help them while learning of the darker side of the curse.

Breakdown: If you want a feel-good anime with tons of comedy and touching moments, watch this show. It’s hilarious, it’s emotional, it has plenty of good life lessons and advice, and, if you’re into it, it’s technically a reverse harem. Hooray!

I love this anime with all my heart. It’s definitely one of my absolute favorites. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s without its flaws, most notably with the ending.

The last two or three episodes take a really drastic turn in mood. Kinda like how Angelic Layer was really bright and happy-go-lucky until the final two episodes. Fruits Basket has plenty of drama, some of it stemming from the Sohma family curse and some from other sources, but, for the most part, it’s a really lighthearted comedy show. The final three episodes, however, are much darker compared to the rest of the series.

The actual show ends on a light note, but not before a ton of very heavy scenes.

Now, if the change in tone doesn’t bother you, the actual ending might.

Spoilers

We end with Akito confronting Tohru. He starts assaulting her until she talks him down. She’s allowed to stay with the Sohmas despite now knowing all of their secrets and accepting Kyo for who he is.

The problems are as follows – 1) We never get a resolution to the curse. The curse never gets lifted from the family. Thus it kinda ends on a cliffhanger.

2) We never get to meet the other members of the Zodiac that are, as of now, manga exclusive. We never meet Rin (Hatsuharu’s girlfriend. She’s the horse of the Zodiac) or Kureno (The rooster of the Zodiac. However, some have speculated that the little bird that’s always around Akito is actually Kureno, but that’s debatable. Why would Kureno be transformed all the time? What would trigger the transformation anyway? And, even if it was, we still never get to meet the actual character.)

I’m really not one to harp on differences between manga and anime. Even if I prefer one medium’s version over another, I realize that some stuff has to be changed because of the shift in medium. However, completely cutting two major characters and leaving us hanging, even if there is a slight resolution with hope for the future, just seems like a bit of a rip off.

Another moderate issue is the fact that Akito got a gender change for the anime. In the manga, Akito’s a woman who is forced to grow up and act like a man so that she can be the head of the family. In the anime, Akito’s a guy.

I’d really like to see a season two of the show where we get to continue on alongside the manga, maybe a semi-short OVA, but I doubt that’d ever happen….Well, Inuyasha eventually continued so maybe there is hope.

END OF SPOILERS

Let’s run through the characters before hitting the bottom line.

Tohru Honda: Tohru is an incredibly nice and caring girl who never does anything in her own interests (Even to the point of making herself so stressed that she makes herself sick several times). However, this makes her a tiny bit annoying as she’s pretty much a doormat. She never sticks up for herself and never gets angry. Ever. This is why I dislike her pairing with Kyo. He may get nicer as he goes along with Tohru, but Kyo still yells around and at her constantly, and he’s even physically hurt her on occasion. Not on purpose, of course, but still. She never defends herself, so it really seems like a slightly abusive relationship.

Still, I love Tohru, and I always wished I could know someone like her in real life.

Yuki Sohma: The rat of the Zodiac, Yuki is incredibly smart, kind and gentle. Because of this, he is loved by all of the student body at his school and is hailed as “Prince Yuki.” He even has his own fanclub called the Prince Yuki Fanclub. I really like Yuki even if he seems somewhat blunt sometimes. I much prefer pairing him with Tohru over Kyo, but that’s just my opinion.

Shigure Sohma: The dog of the Zodiac, Shigure is a published author who’s as goofy as he is perverted. I adore Shigure. He’s such a fun character, and he’s another one of those characters that you’d love to know if they actually existed.

Kyo Sohma: The cat of the Zodiac, Kyo gets treated like crap in the family (but at least better than the previous cat who was basically imprisoned) because the cat is seen as the outcast in the Zodiac and not even an official member. Because of this, Kyo’s a bit of a defensive jerk.

He’s loud, mean and rude, but can be nice when he actually tries. He has a long standing rivalry against Yuki. It seems like he hates him, but he’s actually fairly jealous of him and vice versa.

Kagura Sohma: The boar of the Zodiac, Kagura is deeply in love with Kyo and wants nothing more than to marry him as he ‘promised’ when they were younger. She seems to have two sides to her. One that is incredibly shy and kind and another that is basically like a rampaging boar. I really liked Kagura and would prefer her with Kyo over Tohru. At least Kagura would be able to deal with him if he went off the rails.

Momiji Sohma: The rabbit of the Zodiac, Momiji is an energetic and spirited boy who gets excited over practically anything. Despite his child-like appearance, he’s actually 15 years old. Momiji actually has one of the sadder pasts in the series, but that doesn’t stop him from making the most out of his life. I really love Momiji even if he does tend to be a little too much sometimes.

Hatori Sohma: The dragon of the Zodiac, Hatori actually turns into a seahorse when he transforms (this is because a seahorse is called the dragon of the sea) Hatori is seen as evidence that the curse is slowly fading because he doesn’t turn into an actual dragon (I guess that means that the dragons before him were actual dragons. That must’ve been a lot more awkward…)

Hatori is the family doctor and also possesses the ability to erase the minds of anybody that learns of their secret. Hatori also has a pretty sad backstory and is a really likable character. Poor guy, though.

Ayame Sohma: The snake of the Zodiac, Ayame is a flamboyant man with long silver hair and bright yellow eyes. He’s Yuki’s older brother, but Yuki doesn’t really like him much. Ayame was best friends with Hatori and Shigure in high school and they still very much hold their dynamic. Ayame’s a fun character, but I don’t much care for his loud background music.

Hatsuharu Sohma: The cow of the Zodiac, Hatsuharu also has a bit of a dual personality problem, only much worse than Kagura. He has two sides to him, white and black. When he’s white Haru, he’s very mild mannered and kind. When he’s black Haru he’s very loud, rough and blunt.

Haru’s my favorite character. His character design is really cool, his personality’s awesome and Justin Cook plays him so well it’s amazing. I can’t watch that scene where he turns black in episode 13 enough.

Kisa Sohma: The tiger of the Zodiac, Kisa is an incredibly quiet girl who is SO ADURRRRABLLLLLLLL. ❤ Not much to say about her but she’s SO KYUUUTTT….*cough*

Hiro Sohma: The ram/sheep of the Zodiac, Hiro’s a brat. He’s even more annoying than Kyo. Hiro’s only at his nicest when he’s around Kisa, whom he has a crush on, but even that’s not really nice. Again, this seems like an abusive relationship waiting to happen. Hiro’s even more of a jerk than Kyo and Kisa’s more quiet and reserved than Tohru…

Ritsu Sohma: The monkey of the Zodiac, and the final zodiac member we ever meet, Ritsu is a crossdresser that has no self-confidence. No matter what he does, if something bad happens at all, he flails around the room going crazy asking for forgiveness and saying he’s sorry. Ritsu’s okay, but he gets annoying after a while. He’s best in small doses. I guess it’s a good thing he’s only in one episode.

Uo: Uo is one of Tohru’s best friends. She really looked up to Tohru’s mom and even sometimes takes the guise of her mom’s old gang uniform mask. Uo is very much a tough girl who keeps the bullies, such as the Prince Yuki Fanclub, away from Tohru. However, she’s still incredibly kind and a great friend to Tohru.

Hana: Hana is Tohru’s other best friend. She’s a monotone psychic who is also incredibly protective of Tohru and will send out her psychic energy to any that threaten her. Hana’s actually very funny because she keeps bringing this creepy deadpan monotone humor to this otherwise lighthearted show. Despite seeming creepy to many, she’s very kind and loving.

Akito Sohma: The ‘god’ of the Zodiac and the head of the Sohma family, Akito has caused more than his fair share of despair across the family. He’s an incredibly skinny and frail person who likes keeping his family under his thumb. Akito’s a bit of a psycho, bit of a jerk and pretty scary, but that’s his purpose.

Art and Animation: The art is great and pretty unique. Both the character designs and the backgrounds are wonderful to look at. The animation is also fluid and lovely.

Music: The music, for the most part, is lighthearted and cheerful. It’s very calming and fun, even if Ayame’s is just a bit too annoying. The soundtrack is great and yet another CD I’d gladly own. I particularly love the OP.

Voice Acting: Dub wise, I’m not much of a fan of Aya’s or Ritsu’s voices, but that might just be me. Everyone else is spot on and perfect for their roles. Sub wise, Yuki’s voice always seemed way too girly and high pitched for me. I get that he’s a gentle boy, but he has gone through puberty, people.

Bottom Line: Most of the characters are really likable in some way and many are so likable I wish I could know them in real life. The story is very engaging and entertaining, and I wish it continued. This is one of those anime that I could watch over and over again and never get tired of it. I recommend everyone to give it a shot, but don’t get your hopes up too high about the ending.

Additional Information and Notes: Fruits Basket is based off of a manga by Natsuki Takaya. The anime adaptation was directed by Akitaro Daichi who also directed Kodomo no Omacha and Animation Runner Kuromi. It was written by Higuchi Tachibana and produced by Studio Deen.

Funimation currently holds the licensing rights to the English Dub in the US.

Episodes: 26

Year: 2001

Recommended Audience: There are some hints of nudity because the Zodiac members don’t transform back to humans with their clothes on. However, you honestly can’t see anything. Kyo swears a bit and the ending is pretty heavy in tone. 10+

Final Notes: This review was written long before the 2019 version of Fruits Basket was announced. To put it in perspective, this is one of the first reviews I ever wrote. This page will be updated when I have fully watched and reviewed the reboot……but I am so excited to see it!

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