– Tohru Honda “Maybe the reason you don’t see it is that it’s stuck to your back. What I mean is, a person’s admiral qualities, they’re just like, say, a pickled plum on a rice ball. In other words the person’s the rice ball and the plum’s stuck to their back. So, all over the world you can have rice balls made with all sorts of wonderful ingredients, all different flavors and shapes and colors, but since they’d be stuck in the middle of everyone’s back, someone could have a plum and not even know it. They’d look at themselves and think “I’m so plain, nothing but white rice,” even though it isn’t true because, turn them around and, sure enough, there it is. There’s the plum. So if someone is jealous of somebody else, well, then, it’s probably because it’s easier to see the plum on someone else’s back than it is on your own. Yup. I can see it. I can see it very clearly, Kyo. You don’t know it but you have a great big plum on your back.”
I’m not going to lie, Tohru gets on my nerves quite often. She’s a major league doormat, and her incredibly gentle nature tends to get a little grating. Granted, she’s not like this all the time. There are several moments when she stands up for others (though rarely herself) and breaks down, but I won’t deny that her basically mousy demeanor aggravates me. That being said, she does have one of the kindest hearts and she has beautiful views on life. She’s definitely someone I’d love to have as a friend, and this quote highlights why that is.
This is a quote that I really need to hear and keep in my head as I go through life, and probably a lot of other people feel that way as well. In a world where having high self-esteem or a good view on life can be just incredibly difficult, this quote pokes through the clouds and gives a ray of sunshine. And unlike a lot of other positive quotes that seem unrealistic and cheesy, this one is presented in such a way that, while being very simple, also makes a lot of sense and is realistic. I nearly cried during this scene and only Tohru could be the one to make this quote hit home, especially since she may be integrating her own experiences into it given that she’s associated with riceballs. (In school, they’d play a game called ‘Fruits Basket’, the namesake of the series, in which all the kids would be given names of fruits. She would always be labeled as the riceball and would be excluded from the game since riceballs don’t belong in a fruits basket. It could be taken that this quote is her turning what was an insult for her into a positive thing, which is just what Tohru would do.)
I’m actually thankful for this prompt because this is a quote that I wish would be passed around more often. It’s a long quote, yeah, but it’s well worth every word.
By the way, you have something on your back. 😉
The Anime Madhouse 