The highly-anticipated Fruits Basket: Prelude resulted in disappointment for many movie-goers who flocked to the theaters to better understand the love story between Kyoko and Katsuya Honda before they had Tohru, the series' protagonist. Despite widespread curiosity about their story, many fans were left uncomfortable and confused as to how and why their questionable relationship began in the first place.
As a flawed yet beloved character in the Fruits Basket series, Kyoko is known for her complexity and troubled past. Raised by cold and abusive parents who never thought she was good enough, she becomes a juvenile delinquent who constantly skips school and joins a gang. When Kyoko finally visits her middle school and is scolded by her teachers, she's left alone in the room with Katsuya Honda. He claims she's acting out because she wants attention, then invites her to lunch after school. However, the audience soon discovers that Kyoko is a 14-year-old student in junior high, while Katsuya is a 22-year-old student teacher with an unsettling 8-year age gap and unfair power dynamic.
When they first go to lunch together, Kyoko admits that it's unusual for a student to go to lunch with a teacher and wonders if Katsuya will get in trouble for buying her ramen. When this question is addressed, it's simply brushed to the side when Katsuya explains that he's just a student teacher interning at her middle school. However, this doesn't change the fact he's a fully-grown adult who's about to graduate college and enter the workforce. This disturbing relationship between student and teacher develops at the middle school, where Kyoko admits she goes to school simply to hang out with him on the rooftop during lunch, all while skipping her actual classes.
Despite the age difference, Katsuya shamelessly makes advances and flirts with Kyoko by teasing her about her eyebrows and spunky personality. The age gap is also referenced and joked about throughout the film for comedic effect, which was met with more cringes than laughs. When Kyoko asks Katsuya if he has a "Lolita" or "little-girl complex" because of his romantic interest in her and he admits that he has one now because of her, movie-goers could hear the audible gasps and "oh nos" throughout the theater. This lighthearted approach to a questionable and illicit relationship created several tone-deaf jokes that didn't sit well with viewers.
While the age gap between a minor and an adult is enough to upset many fans, the power dynamic between a mature teacher and a troubled student comes with its own set of problems. Kyoko is a student failing out of middle school while Katsuya is a student teacher who can easily charm her with his money and maturity. Knowing that Kyoko has a difficult home life, he seems to pursue and groom her because she's an impressionable and easy target. He later admits that teaching isn't for him because he fell in love with a student and implies it could happen again, making him a deeply flawed character.
When Kyoko's parents decide to fully disinherit her after getting beaten up and hospitalized by her former gang, Katsuya magically appears to yell at them and declares that he's going to marry Kyoko. While this dramatic confession is meant to be exciting and romantic, it's impossible to overlook a grown man claiming an underage girl as his own without consulting her or getting her permission. Kyoko cries and follows Katsuya with her packed bags as she's kicked out of her parents' house before questioning why he'd want to marry her and whether he just feels sorry for her.
She ultimately agrees to marry him, and he takes her in, but this leaves viewers wondering if Katsuya took full advantage of her vulnerable position and having nowhere else to go, and whether she only agreed to marry him because she believed he was her only option. They soon get married while admitting that everyone is incredibly against the marriage -- and for good reason -- besides Katsuya's father.
Despite the questionable subject matter and controversy surrounding Fruits Basket: Prelude, some fans enjoyed watching two flawed and complex characters come together to build a better life than the one they had known. While Kyoko and Katsuya's relationship can seem deeply unsettling, the film provides important background and context surrounding the Fruits Basket story outside its supernatural powers, featuring the emotional and messy love story that Natsuki Takaya wanted to tell.