All the characters in Fruits Basket are extremely well-written. After all, it would be difficult to do justice to the heavy themes portrayed in the show with flimsy characters. One of the strongest characters in this respect was Shigure Sohma, my beloved. What I loved about Shigure was his multi-faceted personality.
From an orchestrator of chaos to a somewhat reliable adult, he was everything. His skewed motives often surfaced in all his interactions, whether it was the innocent ones with Tohru or the passionate ones with Akito. This made Ayame stand out as Shigure only reciprocated whatever Ayame directed at him.
It was lovely to see them being silly together, especially with the context of their shared history. I have never seen a better bromance in anime than what these boys shared with each other.
Everything fails in front of Ayame and Shigure’s bromance
Shigure was introduced as the caretaker of our central trio in Fruits Basket. At that point, he was simply a guardian who was looking out for a bunch of troubled kids. As the story progressed, his real personality began to surface, the darkness in his heart started to seep through his innocuous words. I fell in love with his twisted side, and then entered Ayame.
Ayame brought out a side of Shigure that I didn’t even know existed. It’s true that Shigure was never serious in a stubborn way. He let loose whenever he felt the need to, but with Ayame it felt like a default option. No matter what Ayame threw at him, he would reciprocate with the same energy.
Ayame was the wife who loved to plan impromptu vacations and Shigure became the husband ready to carry all the bags. Even though most of their interactions were light-hearted, I loved their bromance because of everything they experienced together. I enjoyed Ayame and Shigure beyond their gimmicks.
Ayame and Shigure beyond their silliness in Fruits Basket
Ayame’s presence and his character was a major contribution to the comic relief of Fruits Basket. However, there were things that bothered Ayame. For instance, his relationship with Yuki and the curse. Shigure had seen it all, he had the complete context of Ayame’s life. I admit that Shigure is evil, but he made things easier for almost every character in the series.
Even though his motivations can be questioned, he allowed everyone to experience momentary relief from the horrors of being a Sohma. He was even aware of Ayame’s admiration for Hatori. And everything he did made it easier for Ayame to express his own feelings and emotions. Whenever they acted like they were deeply in love with each other, Yuki reacted in fun ways.
He was more willing to interact with Ayame in those scenarios. I might be thinking about it in a more serious way than it was intended, but it almost felt like Shigure was creating a safe space for Ayame to repent for his mistakes. The light-hearted scenes were almost as if they were both processing Ayame’s feelings together, whether it was the guilt he left or his sincerity towards Hatori.
Fruits Basket is available to stream on Netflix.
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