:Episode 3 -"Kindness has different shapes for
everyone ":
(focus on Kyo/Yuki)
Like in the last episode, this one starts out right
where the last has left off - with Kyo running away
from the co-ed classroom in his new school - the one
that Tohru and Yuki have visited all this time. Yuki
follows him and in the next dialogue we have the personal
dilemma/conflict of the two in a nutshell:
Yuki: Living
in fear every day of transforming is far preferable
to living like I'm in hiding, and going to the boys'
school that Akito decided on. I wanted to get out
of the Sohma cage, if only a little bit.
Kyo: ...
How could a Rat... how could you understand? ...
I will win! I will win against you for sure! I will
win against you and become a formal member of the
Sohma family! I won't stand for being shunned any
longer! I will win!
There it is: Yuki wants out, Kyo wants in and both
see the other as the mirror of their own failure at
suceeding. Tohru realises this when she follows them
and overhears this talk. Being Tohru she can't help
but try to calm Kyo down, which a) turns him into
a cat again, and b) makes him lose his temper so much
that he tells her she is "nasty to look at".
Kyo - as always - regrets his outburst immediately
and feels even more guilty when Yuki refuses to fight
him out of disgust with his behaviour towards Tohru
Openhearted and therefore vulnerable Tohru is deeply
hurt at being cursed at like this by her Juunishi-favorite
and sits in atypical dejection medidating on this,
until she is found by Hana-chan and Uo-chan. Aware
that she looks hurt, Tohru even goes as far as hurting
herself on purpose, so that no one asks what the reason
for her dejected attitude is.
Meanwhile Kyo - disgusted at his own behaviour - has
skipped school and is actually feeling bad enough
to tell Shigure what he did to Tohru. Shigure, in
his mix of teasing and wisdom, reads him the riot
act:
 Kyo:
I say nothing but terrible things... to her.
Shigure: To her? You mean to Tohru-kun?
Uh-huh. You yelled at her again, with the same tone
you always use, right? If it gets you down afterward,
you could just not yell, you know. Such a wretched
temperament.
Kyo: It's no use. I'm just not cut
out for associating and living with people.
Shigure: There
are people who are like that, but in your case, it
just comes from not having enough experience with
them.
For example, with one fist you can break a table in
half. However, you can also make that fist stop just
short of it. That's because you can control by yourself
how much power to portion out your fist, right? [...]
Look, you. It's the same with getting along well with
other people. It's just that this training can't be
done in the mountains. It has to be done in the cities,
where people live.
Unless you interact with people, hurting them and
being hurt by them as you learn about them as well
as learn about yourself, you'll never become the kind
of person who can care about others. Even though you
may have a black belt in martial arts, you still have
a white belt at getting along with others. In order
for you to become able to cherish a girl, who at some
point is kind enough to tell you that she likes you,
right now you have to continue to train, without running
away.
Kyo: There'll never be anyone like
that!
Shigure: But if there were, what would you do?
Kyo: I can't even imagine. First,
I'd ask if she was crazy.
Meanwhile Tohru is on her way home from her part-time
job, late in the evening as always, pondering the
rage of Kyo and the fact that he probably hasn't eaten
dinner again. She's also rather nervous, remembering
Shigure's warning that molesters have been known to
frequent the woods around his house.
So when Kyo, who overheard Yuki and Shigure talking
about Tohru's late return, silently as his name-sake
the Cat appears next to her - to accompany her home
- she mistakes him for a molester and he gets her
schoolbag in the face (^^). Kyo, of course, equates
this with the way HE would react to being verbally
abused and just considers it his just deserts - which
is why he does not get overly annoyed - but doggedly
goes on with his planned apology:
Kyo: Stop saying
"-san" after my name!
It irritates me. You can do without it.
Tohru: ...Kyo-kun...
Kyo: What do you want?
Tohru: Ah, I was just trying it out.
Kyo: Don't call on me without a reason!!
Tohru: YES!!
Kyo: No.... I mean... that's okay...
calling me without a reason. It's okay for you to
hang around in front of me, and if I do anything that
upsets you, you can hit me like you just did.
Tohru *thinking*: ( Could this possibly mean...
he's trying to apologize about what happened today?
Is that why he's here now?) [...] Umm...
I ... I'm sorry, that wasn't it. The reason I hit
you with a bag is because I mistook you for a molester!
Kyo: Molester?
 Tohru:
So you see, it's not that I was upset at you! Quite
the contrary... I like you! I really like the Cat
from the Juunishi! That is to say, um, I... want to
be friends!
Kyo *remembering* (Shigure: If there were
one, what would you do? A girl who says she likes
you?)
... There isn't anything good about the Cat. Let's
hurry up and go home.
Tohru *thinking*: (I've started to somewhat
understand Kyo-Kun.. He's a little more awkward than
others, but he's certainly a good person deep down.
He's a gentle person, who knows when he feels sorry.)
~Eye Catch
So now Tohru and Kyo have made their peace, Kyo tries
to hold on to his temper in front of her. In fact,
in school he is much more approachable than Yuki,
so when Tohru drags him into her circle of friends
to play "Poor man, rich man" he manages
to get along with Uo-chan and Hana-chan quite naturally
- even when his temper bubbles over and he lets himself
be tempted into a wagger of having to clean the classroom
if he loses the game.
Yuki, however, feels more and more isolated seeing
this and having to fend off another love-sick schoolgirl's
desperate devotion:
Yuki: Sorry.
Right now, I don't feel like seeing anybody, so I
have to say ...
Girl: No, I don't want to
hear it! Yuki-kun!
Yuki: Ah... Well...
Girl: Yuki-kun, you are
nice... but there's something about you that rejects
others!
Everyone says so! "Yuki-kun is special",
they say. "An 'ordinary' girl isn't good enough
to match up with Yuki-kun."
Returning to the classroom finding Kyo as part of the
class-community, starts the old resentment bubbling
in Yuki, so when school is over and he talks to Tohru
about the game, trying to downplay his own regret
of not having been part of it, while watching Kyo
clean the room, both Sohmas get into another fight
with the despairing Yuki being a harsher victor than
usual - which Tohru and even Kyo realise.
Kyo: Damn, why
can't I ever win! Today's move was a particularly
rough one. He must be in a bad mood.[...]
Tohru *thinking*: (No matter how considerate
Sohma-kun is towards others, he may be the kind of
person who keeps his own feelings shut up inside him.)
So when Tohru finds Yuki outside the place of her part-time
job, waiting to accompany her home that night, she
urges him to confide in her and share the burden.
Unfortunately, a drunk passerby knocks Tohru into
Yuki, but maybe in his Rat-shape it is easier for
Yuki to open his heart to Tohru and share his fears
with her:
 Yuki:
When I was at my parents' house, it was like I was
in a cage, being kept watch on by the main house and
Akito. I was surrounded by ordinary people and yearned
for an ordinary life. That's why I left the house
and began going to a co-ed high school.
However, as it turns out, I haven't left the cage
at all. I'm still living in a Sohma's house, same
as before, and I can't associate with others very
well. It's not that I... mean to reject them, but
there's something about me that's awkward. And since
I am like this, I can't escape my feelings of inferiority,
or my being frightened.
But Kyo is different! He may not take well to those
who he's unfamiliar with, but I think once you get
to know him, he's the type of person that draws others
in. Even if he can't become one of the Juunishi, I
think it's better for one to be able to naturally
get along with ordinary people. I wanted to be like
that, too.
That's why it gets on my nerves. When I see for myself
how Kyo wants to join the Sohmas... I wonder what
it is about me that wants to leave there.
Tohru: Sohma-kun, you too have the
power to draw people in. So many girls say they like
you, and that you're nice.
Yuki: I'm only nice because I want
to be liked by them. It's like I'm giving them candy
because I want to be in their circle of friends. I'm
only being nice for my own sake. Maybe that's hypocritical...
With the night turning to a rainstorm, Yuki needs to
defend his "secret base" which turns out
to be a small vegetable plot. Tohru decides to help
him in her enthusiastic way, cheered by the honour
of having been introduced to the secret base. So while
the winds and the rain rage around them, she picks
up the thread about being nice and tries to show him
another perspective on kindness - the wisdom
of her mother.
Yuki: Honda-San,
you sure are kind!
Tohru: Ah, you can't mean it. It's...
it's the first time I've ever had anyone say that
to me. I'm so happy. Ah, but what if I too am being
hypocritical, and only doing this so I will look like
a good person to others?
Yuki: No, Honda-san, I think it's
in your nature.
Tohru: Still, my mother always said
that it's better to believe than to doubt.
"People aren't born with kindness, you know",
she would say. "Things like our appetites, or
material desires - that's what we're all born with.
It just means that they are instinctive for survival.
Kindness is something that develops, just like our
bodies do, and the heart that grows inside us is our
conscience", she'd say. That's why it takes on
different forms, depending on the person.
*flashback*( Kyoko: Desire is something that
everyone is born with, so it's easy to comprehend.
But kindness is like something which people have to
hand-make for themselves, so it is easily misunderstood
or taken to be hypocrisy, you see.)
*end flashback*
When I heard that, I was exited to think that people
had kindnesses that were of different shapes - like
they could be round or pointy.
Sohma-kun, your kindness is like a candle. Your light
shines brightly. When it does, I become happy and
want to smile. Ah... a candle must seem pretty weird,
hmm?
Yuki: Mmmm... no, it's just... I'm
really pathetic. Here I am a guy, yet the way I was
going about everything...
Tohru: I'm happy you did. Sohma-kun,
for you to tell me so many things about yourself,
I feel that we are getting along that much better.
[...]
*flashback* (Kyoko: Doubting is easy, it's
something all of us can do. Tohru, you believe. Become
the kind of girl who can believe in others... That
will surely... surely lend strength to someone.)
*end flashback*
 Having
successfully defended the vegetables, the bedraggled
Yuki considers Tohru's advice and decides to jump
over his own feeling of awkwardness and take part
in the next card-game Tohru and her friends set up.
In fact, he openly and completely happily beams at
Tohru, making her realise that this is the first time
she has really seen Yuki smile.~ END OF EPISODE
to watch a slideshow of the most interesting
moments in Episode 3. You better bring some time though,
since the images are of good quality ;-).
Name
Suffixes: Japanese names are
sometimes given suffixes, like English
use prefixes.
- -san:
is similar to Mr., Mrs. or Ms. It
is used in most circumstances.
- -chan:
This is usually used to refer to people
who are younger than you or as a term
of endearment.
- -sensei:
Used for an instructor or teacher.
- -kun:
This is used with people who are your
peers or lower in status.
- -sama:
This is used as a very formal respectful
manner like lord or lady.
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