A Rewrite of Love

I'm the one who decided to do this."

What I find most interesting about Kureno is that his relationship with Arisa Uotani parallels that of another couple in Fruits Basket, Tohru's parents, Katuya and Kyoko Honda. While the circumstances behind their meeting are different many of the details are the same.

Katsuya and Kyoko Honda met when Kyoko was in high school. Katsuya was a teacher at the time specifically her teacher. Kureno and Uotani also share a significant age difference and while they don't have the same dynamic that Katsuya and Kyoko have because their student/teacher relationship they do share some other key traits.

Katsuya is described as being soft spoken and kind, which is similar to Kureno. Kyoko on the other hand was a rebellious yankee, much like Uotani was before meeting Tohru. She was angry at the world, like Uo, and once she fell in love with Katsuya and found happiness she continued to be outspoken and cheerful where her husband was reserved. This is also similar to Kureno and Uotani's dynamic. Finally, Uotani and Kureno run off together at the end of the series. This is much like how Katsuya left his job and Kyoko left her home in order to be together.

What I find interesting about these parallels if that it is unclear as to whether they were intentional or not. Uotani is described as being similar to Kyoko throughout the series so the comparison between them is not entirely unexpected. What is more curious is that while Kureno was clearly intended to be Uo's romantic interest from their first interaction his similarities to Tohru's father may be entirely unintentional.