Gah, I keep wanting to write a long comment on Furuba, and at the rate my schedule is going, I don't know when I'll manage it. >.< But I just want to say I'm glad you finished it and wrote up some thoughts! *^^* I have a couple of quick responses, at least...
Tohru falling off the cliff was a bit much for me. LOL
*g* I remember when that happened, everyone I knew (who was reading it) was just like "...you can NOT be serious, Takaya-sensei." And then we remembered that the very first couple of chapters established that the ground there was unstable and prone to giving way (Tohru's tent getting buried in the landslide!), so while the actual falling-off-a-cliff is still a bit much, we were reminded of how thorough she is about laying the groundwork for things.
I’m also not quite sure I understand exactly why Akito becomes so possessive and manipulative and cruel as a result unless those traits are just meant to be the perversion of the original deal the animals made with god.
I've always read that as a direct response to Ren belittling and mocking the bond. It's been years now since I've read the series through, but Akito's entire self-image is defined by being the Jyuunishi's god, and by doing everything she can to drive them away, she can prove to herself (and Ren) that they'll love her and stay by her no matter what. (My thoughts/feelings on it are a bit more complex than that, but I would want to dig back into the books for reference before trying to write them up, and I just can't right now. ;_;)
(The most relevant tags I have are this one and this one, but I think most of the posts in one are also in the other. And from a quick glance, they're mostly chapter reactions, not overall stuff--I was reading the series as it was running in Japan, so my corner of the fandom was mostly responding that way at the time.)
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Tohru falling off the cliff was a bit much for me. LOL
*g* I remember when that happened, everyone I knew (who was reading it) was just like "...you can NOT be serious, Takaya-sensei." And then we remembered that the very first couple of chapters established that the ground there was unstable and prone to giving way (Tohru's tent getting buried in the landslide!), so while the actual falling-off-a-cliff is still a bit much, we were reminded of how thorough she is about laying the groundwork for things.
I’m also not quite sure I understand exactly why Akito becomes so possessive and manipulative and cruel as a result unless those traits are just meant to be the perversion of the original deal the animals made with god.
I've always read that as a direct response to Ren belittling and mocking the bond. It's been years now since I've read the series through, but Akito's entire self-image is defined by being the Jyuunishi's god, and by doing everything she can to drive them away, she can prove to herself (and Ren) that they'll love her and stay by her no matter what. (My thoughts/feelings on it are a bit more complex than that, but I would want to dig back into the books for reference before trying to write them up, and I just can't right now. ;_;)
(The most relevant tags I have are this one and this one, but I think most of the posts in one are also in the other. And from a quick glance, they're mostly chapter reactions, not overall stuff--I was reading the series as it was running in Japan, so my corner of the fandom was mostly responding that way at the time.)