Fruits Basket Love Post, part 4

[ingvild]

I was thinking about Tohru the other day, and wondered if she could be characterized as a strong person. After a while I had to admit that it was irrelevant: none of the characters in Fruits Basket are strong all the time. Spoilers.

Comments

[waterfall8484]

With Tohru it's kind of annoying, because if she's strong or not there's always someone who will point to that as a reason for why she's a Mary Sue... which she most definitely is not.

I suppose it would be a just as interesting discussion to turn your observation on its head and say that all the characters are strong sometimes. There's no-one (that I can think of) that don't have a moment of being strong and living up to the best of what they could be, even Akito.

And, like you say, they usually have these moments because of their weaknesses: Tohru learns to share and to have mutual give-and-take relationships, Akito overcomes her fear, Kyo learns when to take responsibility and when to let go, Yuki reaches out, etc.

All in all, it makes them a lot more interesting than if they had these strengths from the beginning. :~)

[ingvild]

Whether they're strong with weak moments, or weak with strong moments, or just a combination of strengths and weaknesses, it makes them much more complex and, yes, interesting.

Manga Tohru is far from a Sue. Anime Tohru...a bit more of one, because the anime doesn't allow the same amount of complexity as the manga.