#fruba

I am someone who recently finished the 2019 Fruits Basket series. I had no connection to it prior. Never watched the old anime, never read the manga, had only heard the name in passing. And then I dived in slowly and then a third of the way through S2, I became deranged over it (/pos).

In my watching of the series, there is a VERY specific moment where I realized "omgs I need them to kiss", which doesn't usually happen when I'm watching things. But there I was, summer vacation home arc, edge of my seat cause Akito is closeby but not yet causing too much harm. She's getting ready to leave, this is great— except womp womp, she wants to see Tohru. And she's determined to. And there's Momiji, one of the ones awake when Akito arrives.

I acknowledge the curse and the layers to it. It has hard to defy Akito for a variety of reasons, and every member of the zodiac has different degrees of resistance to it as well as their own unique histories with Akito. Which is why it hit me all the more harder when Momiji tried to ask Akito to spare Tohru the meeting and took a bloody punch to the face.

Kyo didn't take a punch for Tohru. Nor did Yuki, or Shigure or Hatori or anyone else up to this point. But Momiji did. And there was just something so loaded in that action that fundamentally, I could not stop thinking about the dynamic he shared with Tohru. Tohru intervening at that point makes sense, it's in her nature and I'm not going to claim that doing so was unique to Momiji. But it solidified something in my brain from there on out.

Now at this point, I chalk it up to me having my shipping goggles on. I'm fixated cause for whatever reason, it's resonating with me. Except then the show acknowledged my delusion. In the final season, post-growth spurt, the show says: A) Momiji wants to be viewed as more mature now, B) he actively has romantic feelings for Tohru, and C) he wants Kyo to be *abundantly* aware of these facts.

Now don't get me wrong: I like Kyo/Tohru enough. They have the emotional weight, the history, the fighting for one another, and so on. It's not a bad pairing by any means. And I'm weeeeeeell aware of tsunderes and their varying flavors and execution. But Kyo's flavor was very hit or miss for me at times, which impacts the way I viewed their relationship. Easier said than done, but I often found myself wanting him to just be honest about what he thought of or felt towards Tohru and others (not necessarily confessing either).

And then you have Momiji. Someone who is very open with his feelings, someone who repeatedly teases and calls out both Yuki *and* Kyo about how they regard Tohru, someone who was close with Tohru early on and with ease that the proper love interests couldn't achieve due to their own hang ups. AGAIN, I DON'T HATE CANON NOR EITHER BOY! But also, how could I *not* be enamored by this other dynamic the show casually presented to me? /pos

I've asked some other fans who were more familiar with the show for longer about this rarepair of sorts, and according to at least one, it was a decently popular ship back in the day. So who knows, maybe I will reach someone else who enjoys that bunny boy with our beloved Miss Honda. And if not, I'm still gonna draw them kissing so who cares :p

In conclusion: Momiji deserves more recognition for all he did for Tohru as much as the boys and other zodiac members. I wish he got his flowers and in another timeline, I hope he got to properly shoot his shot with her.