Fruits Basket 4-6 + Penny Dreadful

[lunabee34]

Okay, I have to be honest; the first three volumes were a little underwhelming for me. I was mostly digging it because Emma was digging it, and I like talking with her about stuff she's into. However, each volume was more interesting and better paced (IMHO) than the last, and this set of volumes hit tons of my narrative kinks. I can genuinely say that I am totally digging Furuba for my own sake at this point and looking forward to the next set appearing at the library.

Highlights (bring on the soul sucking angst LOL):

1. Akito gets even more terrifying. He locked Yuki in the dark for some unspecified reason, perhaps repeatedly. And Yuki clearly hates himself and fears Akito. I am just waiting for the reveal of what's up with Akito.

2. All the mom issues all the time. When I discovered that most of the Sohmas are estranged from their parents, it hurt my heart. Momiji's story is so terribly poignant for me. To know that his mother rejected him and that he spends all the time he can near her and his sister while they think he belongs to someone else. *sob* Normally the pictures don't do much for me, but that picture of him in his animal form with Tohru hugging him and them both crying just about slayed me. Same with Kisa, so bullied she can't speak, and Tohru's intervention with her mother. And Kyo. His mother's suicide and the way his dad blamed him was so hard to read. I cried multiple times while reading these volumes, especially when he called the guy who taught him martial arts dad.

3. Kyo's true form. Whoa. It's not just that Kyo wants to be part of the zodiac. It's a physical imperative. He's literally dying because he's not welcome.

4. I forgot who because I neglected to write it down and I've already returned the books, but several times characters of the same sex talk about loving each other. I think Akito maybe says that Yuki loves him, and the guy who turns into the bull says he loves somebody IIRC, and brain waves girl says she loves Tohru. So my question is, am I to interpret this as romantic love or platonic love? I think with brain waves girl it's platonic, but I'm not sure about the male characters.


Who else is watching Penny Dreadful? I am really digging it. Love the cast, love the costuming, love the way the show continues to surprise me. Anybody have any thoughts to share?

Comments

[umadoshi]

There, you've essentially covered the material that went into the anime! (Minus the handful of vol. 7-8 chapters that got cut out of context and dumped into the show before the reveal and immediate fallout about Kyo's true form, which the anime half-mangles before ending there [well, plus the horrifically awful tacked-on "ending" that still makes me want to track down whoever was responsible and give them a good shake, because HELL NO]).

Ohmygosh, Akito. (And that's all I'll say about that.)

Momiji gets just about everyone in the gut. I love him so much! (But for many reasons beyond Holy Crap Horrible Past.) He and Hatori are pretty much the gateways into "wait, this story is taking itself seriously", IMO, and they're not my favorites, but I adore them both.

re: #4, how much of an answer do you want? I can be really vague or really specific or take the middle ground and tell you how people generally feel the series handles that, without getting into detail.

And sort of re: #4, I know you've long since met Haru (my pretty ox boy!), since he turned up in vol. 3 (well, technically in vol. 2), but I'm excited anyway, 'cause he's pretty much my favorite male character ever. So I have Feelings about his sexuality. *g*

Setting Furuba aside: I haven't watched Penny Dreadful yet, but I'm hearing good things and am definitely planning to check it out!

I'm really glad to see you posting! I've missed having you around.

[lunabee34]

That's all that the anime covered? But, but, nothing has been resolved. And we know nothing, Jon Snow! Seems like a weird snippet of manga to base the anime around.

re 4: give me the middle answer; I'm not too terribly worried about spoilers although I'm not deliberately seeking them out; I just wanted to be sure that there wasn't a cultural misunderstanding going on making me think the characters mean one thing when they mean another

Haru! Yes! Pretty sure he's one of the ones talking about loving someone. I like his character very much so far.

[Thank you! I don't post as frequently as I used to, and sometimes that makes me sad. But I am always reading! LOL]

[umadoshi]

I know! I used to love the anime, but once you start reading the manga and getting the actual story, it's like...what? The anime doesn't even introduce everyone! (And in its quest to "have an ending", it makes up this appalling bullshit about Akito. And some other stuff.) So now I have sentimental fondness for the anime and about half of the Japanese cast, but...yeah. *sighs*

re: #4, possibly the biggest complaint I've seen about the manga is that it kept hinting at same-sex love and not following through (romance is never the point of the series, IMO, but everyone who winds up paired off winds up in a heterosexual relationship). Yuki and Akito's relationship is complex, so I won't even touch on that, but Shigure and Ayame's joking around is presented as just joking (very consciously so), and Saki (the wave girl *g*) loves Tohru in a deep friendship way, or at least it's never spelled out as anything else.

Haru, now... He does say flat out that Yuki was his first love, and so the fact that he then turns out to be interested in a female character aggravates some people. Me, I read him as pansexual. *shrugs* (And I don't speak Japanese, mind you, but I've only ever seen that line of his translated as "Yuki WAS my first love", which last I checked has a strong implication of "and I'm not in love with him anymore", so honestly I fail to see why people like to get into such a flap over it.)

Haru is complicated and intense and frustrating and quirky and violent and care-taking and he's SUCH A MESS and I love him so, so, so dearly.

(Gosh, he's a messed up boy who has violent and nurturing streaks and loves hard and is the more emotionally vulnerable one in any prospective relationship. It's like I have a type or something! ^_- Although not as much as I do with my favorite girls.)

[lunabee34]

At the point the anime was made, was the manga complete or largely complete? Because I understand an anime like Fullmetal Alchemist that starts when the manga is new and then branches off in an entirely new direction to become something on its own. But to make an anime from an existing manga that's that divergent is really weird.

Okay, re: 4. That's pretty much what I thought as I was reading, so it's good to have confirmation.

I can't wait to read more about Haru!

[umadoshi]

The animators were in a bit of a bind, I admit. Takaya-sensei had surgery on her drawing hand somewhere around vol. 8, and IIRC (this happened a bit before I got into the series) there may have been some doubt whether she'd be able to resume the manga or not. But the degree of awful they managed to pack into that ending (both objectively and in terms of outright contradicting the manga characterizations and concept, making it impossible to ever simply pick up with it again) is impressive. In a terrible way. :/

And to be fair, that does happen with a lot of anime, in terms of running out of manga material or simply not being allotted more episodes, but Furuba got hit harder than most. :/ Like, both Trigun and Ouran have obviously tacked-on endings (as opposed to the FMA there where there's a huge divergence that takes up half of the show!), but they're not inherently horrible tacked-on endings.

I started really falling for Haru just a couple of volumes past where you are now. ^_^

[lunabee34]

I'm so glad the surgery was successful; that must be so scary when you have to have surgery or have injured the part of your body you rely on for not only your livelihood but your creative joy--like singers injuring their throats or runners busting their knees.

The library has volume nine in. Where is seven?! LOL