Fruits Basket 7-12

[lunabee34]

1. I wrote back when I had only read through volume nine: "I am even more anxious to discover what the deal with Akito is. I can't imagine any reveal making me sympathetic to him. He beats up and psychologically tortures children. He seems fixated on preventing any member of the zodiac from having a romantic relationship. Emma's theory is that if none of them have children, the possession dies with them, which is a good theory except that I can't imagine any of them pursuing romance if simply being celibate would end the curse. Emma also predicts that Akito is not actually part of the zodiac." Well, Emma was right about that last at least. Akito is not a member of the zodiac; instead, he's the master of the zodiac. He calls himself god. He may not be possessed by a spirit of the zodiac, but he's clearly possessed by something. Maybe he will become a normal person when the curse is broken.

2. Speaking of romance, I love the flirting between Shigure's editor and Ritsu. I love their teacher's involvement with the Sohma family (so sad). I am also intrigued to discover that Yuki is the mysterious boy from Tohru's childhood. This reminds me of the story line form Kenichi. The story keeps giving equal shipping time to Kyo and Yuki, so I'm intrigued to find out who Tohru ends up with. I also really liked that Kagura was able to admit that she doesn't *really* love Kyo and that he was able to finally appreciate her.

3. I am utterly horrified by the future of isolation and loneliness planned for Kyo. I wonder why they're waiting until after graduation to institute his imprisonment. I know Akito has this morbid bet about whether Kyo can ever beat Yuki, but I wonder if the real reason is to avoid government involvement. As in, we know this kid exists; why is he not in school?

4. Uotani's backstory is awesome. I love that she finds a new family with Tohru and her mom. I think Tohru is like a sister to her and that she thinks Tohru and her mom saved her.

5. What does Yankee girl mean? From context, it seems like it means a member of a gang or a "bad" girl.

6. Hanajima's backstory is equally satisfying but more heartbreaking. I love that she genuinely has powers and that she has to learn to use them. I also think her love for Tohru is not strictly platonic. So for, I'm shipping this the hardest and forcing myself not to find X-Men analogies. LOL

7. Curious to see what's going on with Rin and why she's pushing everyone away, especially Haru.

8. I'm certain that Tohru is going to break the curse; I just can't figure out what she could possibly do to break the curse. If all it takes is love, then she already loves most of the Sohmas. If it was just something like accepting Kyo's hideous form, she's already done that. Maybe it will be something magical like a kiss? IDK



Can't wait until the next volumes arrive.

Comments

[umadoshi]

Furuba!

I can't really comment on Akito, because...well, stuff. Spoilery stuff. Lots of it. I can only say that things will be addressed!

KAGURA. *hearts*

Tohru's friendship with Saki and Arisa is so wonderful. *^^* I adore the three of them together, and that while Tohru is in some ways thoroughly caught up in/enveloped by the Sohmas' world, she doesn't lose her outside relationships.

The "yankee" thing, as I understand it, is basically a subculture of delinquent youth who dye their hair blonde and wear heavy makeup. But what I know of it comes entirely from manga and anime, which may be exaggerating the traits and are almost definitely losing some subtlety? I find it interesting that Arisa so blatantly opts to retain the outward trappings of her past. (I adore her. *^^*)

Rin, Rin, RIN! My girl. *dies* Oh, I love her so much. So fierce and intense and, uh, vicious. At least sometimes.

(When I was falling in love with Newsflesh one of the things I particularly enjoyed was not feeling the need to get protective/defensive of Georgia even when other readers dismissed her as cold or unfeeling. I have YEARS of experience with Rin being my Most Beloved Girl, and alas, many of those years involved other fans being horrible about her, and I never lost my instinct to hackle protectively over her, which I've has since pretty much the moment she appeared on the page in front of me. I was literally dreading her appearance in the English version, because I hated the idea of dealing with a fresh wave of readers being nasty about her [but fortunately that didn't really come to pass].)

(Now I want to go comment on your "come talk to me?" post, but I'm falling asleep at my desk and should've been in bed half an hour ago. *hugs* So alas, that's not in the cards right now. But oh, I'm glad to see you posting again!)

[lunabee34]

*huggles*

Get some good sleep.

That's basically what I was getting from the Yankee girl label; I just think it's weird that it's called Yankee girl.

I am fascinated with Rin, and I can see how you'd be protective of her. So far, we probably know the least about her character (just that Akito hurt her, that she and Haru were together and have broken up, and that she's never really fit in even with the other Sohmas), and I'm interested to know more. Haru seems to care about her so much; I hope they get a happy ending.

And I love what you say about George. She definitely doesn't need protecting. :)

So far, I dont' see anything that would make anyone be ugly about Rin. That's a shame that she was disliked by some fans.

[umadoshi]

I do love how long Takaya-sensei took to dole out information about Rin, because most of the other characters get at least the bare bones of their situations laid out fairly promptly once Tohru meets them. Which contributes to part of what drove me up the wall about people's negative reactions to Rin--clearly she has damage and reasons, because everyone else does. *sighs*

People didn't like her because she broke up with Haru* (who's a sweetie and therefore was obviously Hurt For No Reason), and because of how she dresses, and because of her as-yet-unexplained scene(s) with Shigure. :/

*I think for some people there was also an element of "but I thought Haru's in love with Yuki and who the hell is this GIRL?" -_-

[lunabee34]

I like the way she's drawn. It's so distinctive that I do not confuse her with anyone else. LOL

There's lots about Shigure and Hatori that seem unexplained to me. They appear to vacillate between being appalled at Akito and being his henchmen. It's a little difficult to suss out their characters.

I can't wit for the next volumes to arrive!

[torachan]

There's no need to capitalise yankee as it does not mean the same as in the US (and I'm not even sure it's capitalised here?). It means basically juvenille delinquents, and while the word is still used today, it's most strongly associated with the 80s, especially the motorcycle gangs. While dying your hair blond (or brown) has always been something popular with delinquents, there's not really a strong association with dyed hair and yankees (or with heavy makeup, necessarily). The things most associated with yankees (especially in that classic period) would be long school skirts for girls (to the ankle instead of the knee-length most other girls wore) and long school jackets for guys (often worn open with no shirt underneath, just white cloth wrapped around the stomach), regent hairstyles for guys (a type of pompadour I've never seen outside of Japan), and the yankee squat. This guy's got the squat and the hairstyle. One of the girls in the movie Kamikaze Girls is a yankee.

It's not known exactly where the word came from. It seems to have first been used in Osaka and the most common theories are that it might have come from juvenille delinquents at the time in that area liking to wear aloha shirts (thus yankee meaning someone who dresses like someone from the US), or that because the kids used the sentence ending yanke, they were called yanke-ii (people who say yanke), which morphed into yankii (and then took on the Americanised spelling of yankee), or that it was short for young kids (yangu kizzu = yankii).

[lunabee34]

Oh, thank you thank you!

This is so fascinating. What an interesting sub-culture; I love all the possibilities for the etymology of the term.

:)