Akito Sohma
| Akito Sohma | |
|---|---|
| Fruits Basket character | |
 | |
| Created by | Natsuki Takaya |
| Voiced by |
Japanese Murasaki Wakaba Yuka Imai (child) Junko Minagawa (manga DVD) English Chad Cline Aaron Dismuke (child) |
| Profile | |
| Nickname(s) | Akki |
| Gender | Female,[1] Male (Anime) |
Akito Sohma (草摩 慊人 Sōma Akito) is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the manga and anime series Fruits Basket. Akito is the head of the Sohma clan and is shrouded in mystery and although frail with poor health, is feared and loathed by many members of the Sohma clan.
In the manga version of Fruits Basket, Akito is biologically female but has been raised male, and spends most of the series living as a man.[1] In the anime, Akito is referred to as a male and is presumed to be biologically male because he is seen shirtless with a male chest.[2] For consistency, this article refers to Akito as female throughout.
Creation and conception
When asked in an interview, Natsuki Takaya said she had always planned on Akito being a female.[3]
Character outline
Akito countered these statements, telling her hysterical mother that her father had loved her; but because of Akira's parting words, even Akito herself doubted that Akira had loved her the most, fearing that she had "lost" to "that woman" (Ren). One of the elderly maids, wanting to comfort Akito, proceeded to give her an empty box, claiming that Akira's spirit was inside it, and that she had wanted only Akito to receive such a special gift. (The same maid later claimed, in chapter 117, that the box was of course empty, and only given to Akito to help her through such a stressful time, adding that Akito should have well known that her father's spirit wasn't really inside the box.) All of her life, Akito kept this box hidden away in her room; she told Kureno in chapter 117 that part of her didn't believe that anything was inside of the box, yet another part always hoped that maybe there was.
After her father's early death, Akito became the head of the Sohma family (raised to appear and act as a male), in addition to her role as God of the Zodiac animals.
According to an interview with Natsuki Takaya, Akito was enrolled in "better" and "more expensive" schools than everyone else in the Zodiac, though she completed all of her schooling (including high school) by correspondence.[4]
Plot overview
Akito is possessed of the Zodiac's god-spirit, and therefore, all the cursed Sohmas have to obey her every word, no matter what. After Yuki left the Main House to live with Shigure, Akito's mother Ren commented that the cursed Sohmas were abandoning Akito, just as Ren always predicted they would. Akito denied this and claimed they would all come back to her because of their inseparable Zodiac bonds. She and Ren made a dare in which Akito was to allow the cursed Sohmas to form bonds with "outsiders" to test whether they would return to Akito's side. If they did not return, Akito would have to bow before Ren then leave the Sohma family. It was soon after this bet was made that Shigure approached Akito about allowing Tohru stay with his home. Akito, confident that she would win against Ren, consented to this. Since Akito believed that the world was a cruel, bleak place in which unconditional love did not exist outside of the Zodiac bonds, she also believed that Tohru would eventually end up rejecting the cursed Sohmas, causing them to return broken hearted to her side.
It is eventually revealed that Akito had always been lonely and afraid of change. The reason that she clung so desperately to the Juunishi bonds was that she feared that, without them, she would be all alone, and her existence meaningless, just as her mother had always claimed. This revelation occurred after both Momiji's and Hiro's curses broke. With the bonds falling apart, Akito—after having wrongfully stabbed Kureno in the back—ran away from the Sohma estate, wondering if everything really was all her fault, and why her world was collapsing so suddenly. Desperate and looking for someone to blame, Akito suddenly realizes that the Juunishi had been slowly but surely leaving ever since Tohru had appeared in their lives. Akito then walks to Shigure's home and finds Tohru alone outside. Akito comments that Tohru must be happy, because she had "won" and had, in the process, destroyed the only life she had known. Akito then threatens Tohru with a knife; but Tohru, realizing how both she and Akito had been trying to hold onto an "unchanging" reality (Akito clinging to the eternal bonds of the Zodiac; Tohru wanting her mother to always be first in her heart), told Akito that she understood how scary it is to be alone, and instead offered her hand in friendship. Before Akito could accept, the unstable cliff ground collapsed and Tohru fell, while Akito screamed for help. (In the first volume of the series, just after a landslide destroyed Tohru's tent, Shigure warned her that the ground around the area was unstable and due to collapse again one day.)
When Tohru (who recovered at the hospital) was finally allowed visitors beyond her immediate family, Akito was surprisingly one of the first to visit (and even more surprisingly, according to Hatori and Shigure, she went alone and entirely on her own accord). Fearful that she would be rejected by Tohru and Kureno (both of whom she'd hurt, emotionally and physically), Akito was told a comforting story by Momiji, who also offered advice that made it possible for Akito to see Tohru and Kureno for who they really are: People whose kindness for others overrides their ability to be concerned about themselves. With that in mind, she finally went to see Tohru, who offered her hand (despite the fact her arm is injured) to Akito in friendship again, which she accepted with a small smile. Akito also visited Kureno in the hospital, whom she had stabbed in the back (chapter 118); Kureno, however, didn't blame Akito for her actions, and forgave her when Akito cried and apologized to him repeatedly for smothering him all of the years she'd kept him close. From there on out, Akito decided to try to change rather than cling to being "God," and to the memory of her father and what he had wanted her to be (chapter 132).
Towards the end of the manga, after Kureno left to live in the country with Arisa Uotani, and the curse was broken, Akito and Shigure finally confessed their true feelings for each other and reconciled. Akito begins living and dressing as a woman, and in her last meeting with all the formerly cursed Sohmas, she wore a furisode (female kimono), and donned a flower in her hair, something that shocked the younger Sohmas, who had just learned of Akito's true gender.
In the last chapter of the manga, Akito had let her hair grow a little past her shoulders, and wore a dress.
References
- 1 2 In chapter 97, Akito is shown partially clothed with a female body, and Kureno explains Akito's true gender to Tohru in chapter 98. Takaya, Natsuki (2007-08-07). "Chapters 97–98". Fruits Basket, Volume 17. Los Angeles: Tokyopop. ISBN 978-1-59816-799-3.
- ↑ "Let's Go Home". Fruits Basket. Episode 26. 2001-12-27.
- ↑ Takaya, Natsuki (2007-09-11). Fruits Basket Fan Book - Cat. Los Angeles: Tokyopop. ISBN 978-1-4278-0293-4.
Yes, I did. For some reason, I've always loved drawing characters that are gender neutral, so you can't really tell what they are. Like, what's it called—moe?
- ↑ Takaya, Natsuki (2007-09-11). Fruits Basket Fan Book - Cat. Los Angeles: Tokyopop. ISBN 978-1-4278-0293-4.
She didn't exactly attend school. She always stayed home. She did high school by correspondence, and I think she was enrolled at better (more expensive, anyway) elementary and middle schools than the other Zodiac members. It's just like our Akito-sama to stay home from even that kind of school (laugh). Incidentally, I pretend family registers and whatnot don't exist in the Furuba world.