Yuki is Not Your Enemy

“It wasn’t logical. It didn’t need to be.”

As Fruits Basket continues its crazy, emotional, often violent ride toward a conclusion (spoilers ahead for episode eight of the final season), Kyo reveals his connection to Kyoko, particularly her death, and how that is itself connected to his hatred toward Yuki. The series had already made aware Kyo’s envy of Yuki having “everything” while he had nothing, but this episode emphasizes that further when the latter is able to find Tohru when they were young (the hat incident), even though Kyo had promised Kyoko that he would be the one to find her missing daughter.

Akito later uses this anger by promising to allow him into the zodiac should he defeat Yuki in combat before they graduate. And so, Kyo turns his anger even more fiercely toward the boy, seeing him as a “bad guy,” though not just as an attempt to break the curse. He is indeed using that feeling as a cover for the shame he feels, for as Kyo reveals to Tohru, he had a chance to save Kyoko the day she died, but afraid that pulling her from the street into his arms would literally reveal his true self, he hesitated, and she was hit by a car.

Kyo is lucid as he explains the past and his thought process, even admitting that his hate toward Yuki doesn’t make sense. The latter, is in effect, a scapegoat for Kyo’s guilt (albeit one that fights back). Still, Kyo fights and fights against one who isn’t his enemy.

I wish I could be so lucid. In my screaming and yelling (sometimes in a literal sense), I rail against lots of people—those with different politics than me, those that say and do things that I oppose, those that effect my life in a negative way. My thoughts and words run the spectrum from a slight annoyance to aggressively angry (murderous, in a sense).

But are these individuals my enemies? Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, instructs the church to think in a different manner, and is telling me the same (Eph 6:12-13):

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

My struggle is not against flesh and blood. It’s a spiritual battle, a war against a dark world. But in my anger and pride, I make it about the same people that Jesus came to die for, the people whom he loves just as much as he loves me.

And in reframing my thinking, I remember that my battle is exactly the same as Kyo’s. My anger is misplaced, my sense of righteousness missing its mark, and my heart full of blind pride rather than scriptural truth. Like Kyo, I’m fighting Yuki, when the real enemy is not a person at all.

My enemy is the curse.

I’m not sure how Fruits Basket will end, though I have a feeling that love will break the curse. What I do know is how my story ends. As Christ said, “It is finished.” The war has been won. The curse has been lifted. Even as I struggle this side of eternity, I know that it’s because the devil scratches and claws desperately, knowing his time left is short and his destination certain.

So until then, I will put on the armor of God, preparing for the spiritual battles rather than a punching in the air against opponents that aren’t my enemies at all. And like Kyo, I hope to face reality but with the faith that comes with a certainty he cannot yet see—that love has already won.

Fruits Basket can be streamed through Funimation.

Twwk
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3 thoughts on “Yuki is Not Your Enemy”

  1. I’ve read the manga and so far the anime is excellently adapted and paced. Be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster ride. It looks like this will be finished in 4 more episodes!

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