People think about Fruits Basket

Personally, I like Shigure/Akito/Kureno due to the squickiness involved. Now that's an unhealthy relationship. I tend to imagine a thought bubble over Akito's head in the whole Shigure confessing his eternal love scene saying "I don't know what's going on, but I'm getting a whole lot of attention!"

There are many things that don't need a movie

and Fruits Basket is one of them! Why doesn't Fruits Basket need a movie? Well, the first reason is that very few things really need a movie. The part of Fruits Basket I loved required time. It took time to develop relationships, it took time for us to understand the Sohma family dynamics- until volume 13 or so, we didn't know Akito's role or why her word was absolute, for example. What movies don't have is time.

Another reason is that Fruits Basket has loads of characters. There are 14 cursed people- all 12 of the original Chinese zodiac, Kyo, the cat, and Akito, the god. The interactions between these loads of characters is why Fruits Basket is popular. It's not because of people bumping into girls and turning into animals! Nor is it because of Hollywood style romance. We see friendship grow first, and then, tenderness, and then, love. The emotional weight of that such as it is can't really be expressed in a love montage.

There are other issues, such as the fact that the Sohma compound is very well...Japanese. I can imagine Shigure's house in America, and maybe the school, but not the compound. I of course wonder why every movie has to be set in America or fantasyland. There are so many great stories in America- women's stories, black people's stories, Arab people's stories, Latin@ stories, Native American stories- that aren't being told in film. Why go to some other country and butcher their comic book by Americanizing them when we have so many great ideas here?










More people reacting in pure horror

More Fruits Basket

I reread all of Fruits Basket. In order. I thought after reading it that it's not a pure happy ending, and that is why it's so great. I loved Tohru picking up Kyo's beads- the past was painful,yes, but it was a part of him- an important part. And Tohru notes that there is a lot of pain, that will take years to get through. And throughout, it's noted that the attitudes in the main house might take years to change. No, will take years to change. That everyone is not all lined up, smiling happily- but that's OK. It reminds me of the Full Metal Alchemist 1st anime ending. My favorite part of that was the quote that the world is imperfect. And that's OK. Maybe everyone's wishes didn't come true, maybe in that struggle, they lost a lot, almost as much as they gained.

There's no guarantee that everyone will be happy. That's why happiness is valuable. I think those endings are life affirming in that you can't strip everything sad out of life, and have it still be life.

Fangasm

People continue to overthink Fruits Basket, as I finally get chapter 132 in a good translation. VIVA AWESOMENESS! I still think Tohru saved the day using romance[the curse broken because the cat could form a new bond], but the fact that she was willing to do something besides 'love' makes her all good in my neighborhood. I especially liked the acknowledgment that not everything is going to be peaches and cream after the curse.

Sadly, I can't write any fanfiction lately. The story I've been writing needs to be broken up into two or three stories, so I'm pretty sad about that.

In other Fruits Basket news, a guy notes that Fruits Basket is really a story about a cycle of generational neglect and abuse. Personally from what I remember of the anime I don't think that theme is brought out enough, and so we end up with the fluffy stigma, and even worse....fluffy!Shigure. NOOOOO

Overthinking Fruits Basket

I enjoy overthinking shoujo manga. Of course, there are many yummy spoilers for the Fruits Basket manga here I've long thought about the counterpoint of Akito and Tohru. They both have rather masculine names, there is a black wing motif associated with Akito and a white wing motif associated with Tohru, and there's of course, the matter of sexuality. I don't think it's a mistake that Tohru is a pure virgin who blushes and gets flustered when Kyo tells her that they've kissed before, and Akito 'resorts to using her womanhood quickly', in the words of Shigure, who is just one of her lovers.

It's an old archetype- the pure virgin of light vs the experienced witch who is associated with darkness. Akito often speaks about darkness too. She is shown telling Yuki that he is on a pitch black path and saying that her life is dark and so her room has to match. There's also the divide between optimism and pessimism. In volume 2, Hana, Uo and Kyo discuss how Tohru doesn't see her life as a glass half empty. In a scene just a bit later, Shigure talks about how someone thinks his CUNNING PLAN will fail, and someone says "I know full well when my glass is half empty". If one did not know the rest of the story, this would be confusing, but taking a glance at it now, that's certainly Akito saying that[note the hairstyle and kimono, those of you following along in your manga].

Of course, in the manga, Tohru eventually 'wins', but hey, there's always fanfiction.

Buying used books on amazon is always an adventure. My Ouran 8 has a section that was bound upside down and backwards, and my crimson hero 6 is an old library copy. Ouran 8 was quite touching, but I'm wondering if I should buy a copy that isn't messed up or just keep the one I have. I missed this one, so I missed the making explicit of Tamaki's reasoning for being Haruhi's 'father'. The OT7 is breaking apart slowly, slowly. By vol 11, it's still together, but I need to see it dissolve some more.

Crimson Hero 6 was in fine form. I was worried the love story would take away from the volleyball, but luckily, they didn't obsess about it too much and got into the whole 'how to deal with a star player on a mediocre team' problem instead. I'm pumped for Crimson Hero 9 now, which I bought a day or so ago.

I broke down and bought the Fruits Basket fan book. *dies* I would have preferred more information on the mysteries of fruits basket and fewer love quizzes, but I understand that I'm too old to love Fruits Basket the way I do. ;_; But I also love the Mitsu/Ritsu comic... The truth is that the character I'm most like is Ritsu, even though my favorites are Shigure and Akito.

I love this little fragment.

I enjoyed this AkiGure story so much that I nearly passed out.

Also, I like this Persona 3 fic.