We’ve seen her in every OP and ED since episode one, but during this week’s episode we finally got to meet the littlest (and, arguably, the cutest) Sohma: the tiger of the zodiac, Kisa. It’s a happy coincidence that Kisa’s episode should fall on the very same week I take a look at another victim of bullying: March Comes In Like A Lion’s Hina Kawamoto. It’s interesting that, while the two girls handled it in two very different ways, Hina loudly and defiantly challenging her bullies, Kisa silently bearing up under the weight of her pain, I really think that one was no more or no less brave than the other. It would be easy to argue that Kisa, unlike Hina, (literally) ran away from her problems, but I would argue, even more strongly, that she was, in her own way, just as brave…
By taking all of her pain and sealing it up inside of herself, along with her words, Kisa was doing her utmost to appear strong and resilient. I reckon that she didn’t want to give her bullies any additional ammo by speaking out. I also think that she didn’t want to seem weak in front of her mother, whose approval she so desperately craved. I’m not saying that this was the best, most healthy way to deal with her problem, but it must have been so, so hard for such a young girl to have borne all of this pain silently and by herself, so you’ve got to admire her for that much!
Though I think we can all agree that Kisa would have been better off if she had just sought out help in the first place! Granted, she didn’t want to look weak, but is it really all that bad, to seem weak in front of other people? It is only when Yuki admits that there was a time when he stopped talking too and spoke about his ongoing battle to accept himself that Kisa breaks her silence. In other words, Yuki used his weakness to reach Kisa. I think that, in this way, our weaknesses can serve a valuable purpose. When a person reveals their weaknesses to me, I start to think, hey, I’m not the only person to struggle with X, Y, and Z, and, if they’ve learned to face up to their weaknesses, maybe I can too… It gives me strength. And you can tell, by the fact that, following this conversation, Kisa spoke up and returned to school, that Yuki’s revelation had the very same effect on her!
So, yeah, Kisa wasn’t the only character to show bravery this week. It was also very brave of Yuki to lift the lid ever so slightly off of his traumatic past to help somebody else. He also decided to face up to his fear that he isn’t good enough and people wouldn’t like him anymore if they knew “the real him” and accept the position of student council president. Bless him. That boy makes my heart ache.
Unsurprisingly, it was Tohru who equipped Yuki with what he needed to be able to do this. Yuki has, many times now, bore his soul to Tohru, who has accepted him for exactly who he is. And this episode she did the very same thing for Kisa. This proved to Yuki, once and for all, that, even if you can’t love yourself, there will be people out there who can. In fact, it is only when other people accept you, warts and all, that you can begin to accept yourself. This runs contrary to the old saying: “You have to learn to love yourself before others can”, which is, aptly, spewed out by Kisa’s homeroom teacher, but, I don’t know, it kind of rings true. Speaking from experience, standing in front of a mirror and chanting positive affirmations over myself, like I was always taught by my counselor, has had very limited success. It wasn’t until I found unconditional love, from Jesus and from my husband, that I started to feel okay, even good, about myself. Maybe it all goes back to the fact that we’re built to be social creatures who care about other people? This extends to what others may think about us. Perhaps, were this not to be the case, those positive affirmations wouldn’t have felt so, as Yuki put it, “hollow”?
Thanks for joining me again this week! What did you think of Kisa? And did you take anything away from her story? I hope that you’ll join me again next week! It looks like we’ll be meeting yet another Sohma!
Watashi Wa Bucho!! 