#(the legal adult age is 20 but you can get married w/o permission at 18)

[the-sage-libriomancer]

try as i might, i simply can't make Kyoko and Katsuya's relationship work right in my head. Katsuya was apparently just an intern teacher when they met, so you could say that he was 18-19 at the time (even if it's a stretch bc he's implied to be in his mid twenties), but that still leaves Kyoko 15 going on 16 which is definitely not great. i just don't see how Katsuya would realistically fall in love with Kyoko unless he was a creep, which is obviously not the sort of person he's being portrayed as. it also makes Katsuya's family look a lot more sympathetic for opposing their relationship because uh. that actually is the sort of thing you would realistically have a problem with.

judging from the series' themes, the point of the age gap is likely to show how pursuing a relationship that society disapproves of can isolate the couple and cut off all potential support, thus sticking with the theme of cruelty creating more cruelty, or in this case simply more trauma. Tohru ended up taking on a huge emotional burden because apart from Katsyua's father, no one was around to help Kyoko through her grieving process, to the point that 3 y/o Tohru was literally all that she had.

(it might also be a semi-deconstruction of another shojo trope: the high school protagonist marrying her adult love interest. in this case, being a teenager who marries an adult isn't as easy as overcoming a parent's disapproval. you won't get any support from the rest of the family, especially not extended family, and you'll likely be treated as an outsider for the rest of your time with them. if something happens to rupture your idyllic life (like oh, say, your husband's untimely death), you won't have a safety net and life will get extremely tough. definitely not the triumphant leap into womanhood most teenage girls are dreaming of.)

anyway, i think if i had the opportunity to change one thing about Fruits Basket, i would reconfigure the age gap. the plot-mandated scandal is the biggest issue, but that could've been accomplished just fine by making Kyoko an 18 y/o high school student and Katsuya an 18-20 y/o intern teacher or tutor. still a bit iffy, but at least it's believable that they'd pursue a relationship and doesn't paint Katsuya in an unforgivably bad light. the fact that Katsuya is courting a former student (one who hasn't even officially graduated high school yet) would be enough to make tongues waggle, especially with her delinquent past. no need to make it any squickier than that.