Fruits Basket and Basara
Aug. 16th, 2006 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreYeah, so, I've been in even more of a rambly mood than usual lately. Doubt it's going away anytime soon. Should probably skip this is you have zero interest in manga.
After "Ceres" and "Blade of the Immortal," "Basara" and "Fruits Basket" were probably my first and biggest(still existing) manga obsessions("Rurouni Kenshin" "Hana Kimi" and "Inu Yasha" were discovered shortly after these, I believe) Anyway, I read the latest US volumes of each of these this week(vol 19 and 14, respectively) and so...
"Fruits Basket" continuously amazes me because it's simultaneously one of the most cheerful, funny and uplifting "feel good" manga out there, and also one of the darkest, angstiest, most depressing books. I mean, it's about a girl who stumbles into a family with a centuries old curse, who are beaten down by a physically and emotionally abusive head of the family, who hates her for giving them hope, and worse, for giving him hope(my loathing of Akito knows no bounds) The anime went from being pure comedy in the first few eps to being darkdarkdark and then having a hugely uplifting ending in the last few eps. And what's amazing is how effortlessly and seemlessly it changes modes, sometimes on the same page. Vol 14 wraps up the Rin arc before switching back to Yuki and the student council. Now, initially, I hated Rin. She was mean to Tohru, which is a HUGE no-no in my book. Now, though, I think she's almost tied with Tohru for being my 3rd favorite character(with Kyo and Haru respectively being 1st and 2nd) Aside from Tohru, she's the only person willing to stand up to Akito, and she's actually actively trying to break the curse, someone no one else in her family seems willing to try to do. And she's not trying to do it for herself, she's trying to do it for Haru, so he'll be free from Akito. Her obsessive devotion to Haru and his slightly stand-off-ishh devotion to her(he's still shorter than her...he's just waiting for that last growth spurt) makes me completely ship them...Rin has to be the ONLY person(besides tohru) who would ever think of Haru as being a "nice" person(Tohru thinks everyone is nice...probably even Akito) I don't ship them nearly as much as Kyo and Tohru, but almost. The second half is Yuki and the student council. I used to not care much for Yuki...he was arrogant, seemed to be chasing Tohru for purely selfish reasons, and acted like he was superior to Kyo(ok, Kyo was usually the instigator, nbut Yuki pretty much always prodded him) The student council storyline, though, has made him unbend a lot, and is making him interact with people besides Tohru and his cousins, and even make friends(not that he's realized that part yet) Plus, he and Kyo are pretty much at peace, now, and he's admitted that his interest in Tohru was self-centered I love how everyone, including Yuki, knows that Tohru and Kyo are essentially a couple, but they're oblivious. Kyo is always reading Tohru's moods and knows what she's thinking and takes care of her by making her take care of herself, instead of always worrying about others. That is just the cutest.
And then there's Basara. Basara is playing it a little light lately, making up for the deep, deep angst-fest after the big reveal. This is good, actually, as is the current separation with Shuri and Sarasa(though I wish the result wasn't the near total absence of Shuri in this volume...sigh...) But it's allowing the war storyline to progress, and it's forcing Shuri and Sarasa to come to terms with the truth and deal with it, before they have to face each other(last time didn't go well...) Shuri really isn't bothering with any denials...he knows learning that the woman he loved was his enemy ripped about half of him away, as well as a lot of his reasons for fighting so hard, and he knows that, because of that, he'll probably never be able to be happy. But he knows what his duty to his people is, and I think part of him thinks that he can somehow still have Sarasa if he can win the war against his father on his own, "killing" Tatara by stealing the victory and taking it for his own. Sarasa had a deep denial period, but she's recovered from it pretty well and was forced to face herself, so she's currently dealing with things and able to look at them more onjectively than Shuri is. And the wine kiss? I wanted to bawl. Speaking of bawling, I wanted to do that when Ageha saw Motomichi for the first time. He loved Shido as much as he hated him, and almost lost all control of himself seeing Shido's son(on top of his devotion to Senju due to her being Shido's lover, and his need to open her eyes to the world) That scene brought my secondary Basara ship that much closer to being canon. Unfortunately, I'm growing less and less certain of Shuri surviving the series...
After "Ceres" and "Blade of the Immortal," "Basara" and "Fruits Basket" were probably my first and biggest(still existing) manga obsessions("Rurouni Kenshin" "Hana Kimi" and "Inu Yasha" were discovered shortly after these, I believe) Anyway, I read the latest US volumes of each of these this week(vol 19 and 14, respectively) and so...
"Fruits Basket" continuously amazes me because it's simultaneously one of the most cheerful, funny and uplifting "feel good" manga out there, and also one of the darkest, angstiest, most depressing books. I mean, it's about a girl who stumbles into a family with a centuries old curse, who are beaten down by a physically and emotionally abusive head of the family, who hates her for giving them hope, and worse, for giving him hope(my loathing of Akito knows no bounds) The anime went from being pure comedy in the first few eps to being darkdarkdark and then having a hugely uplifting ending in the last few eps. And what's amazing is how effortlessly and seemlessly it changes modes, sometimes on the same page. Vol 14 wraps up the Rin arc before switching back to Yuki and the student council. Now, initially, I hated Rin. She was mean to Tohru, which is a HUGE no-no in my book. Now, though, I think she's almost tied with Tohru for being my 3rd favorite character(with Kyo and Haru respectively being 1st and 2nd) Aside from Tohru, she's the only person willing to stand up to Akito, and she's actually actively trying to break the curse, someone no one else in her family seems willing to try to do. And she's not trying to do it for herself, she's trying to do it for Haru, so he'll be free from Akito. Her obsessive devotion to Haru and his slightly stand-off-ishh devotion to her(he's still shorter than her...he's just waiting for that last growth spurt) makes me completely ship them...Rin has to be the ONLY person(besides tohru) who would ever think of Haru as being a "nice" person(Tohru thinks everyone is nice...probably even Akito) I don't ship them nearly as much as Kyo and Tohru, but almost. The second half is Yuki and the student council. I used to not care much for Yuki...he was arrogant, seemed to be chasing Tohru for purely selfish reasons, and acted like he was superior to Kyo(ok, Kyo was usually the instigator, nbut Yuki pretty much always prodded him) The student council storyline, though, has made him unbend a lot, and is making him interact with people besides Tohru and his cousins, and even make friends(not that he's realized that part yet) Plus, he and Kyo are pretty much at peace, now, and he's admitted that his interest in Tohru was self-centered I love how everyone, including Yuki, knows that Tohru and Kyo are essentially a couple, but they're oblivious. Kyo is always reading Tohru's moods and knows what she's thinking and takes care of her by making her take care of herself, instead of always worrying about others. That is just the cutest.
And then there's Basara. Basara is playing it a little light lately, making up for the deep, deep angst-fest after the big reveal. This is good, actually, as is the current separation with Shuri and Sarasa(though I wish the result wasn't the near total absence of Shuri in this volume...sigh...) But it's allowing the war storyline to progress, and it's forcing Shuri and Sarasa to come to terms with the truth and deal with it, before they have to face each other(last time didn't go well...) Shuri really isn't bothering with any denials...he knows learning that the woman he loved was his enemy ripped about half of him away, as well as a lot of his reasons for fighting so hard, and he knows that, because of that, he'll probably never be able to be happy. But he knows what his duty to his people is, and I think part of him thinks that he can somehow still have Sarasa if he can win the war against his father on his own, "killing" Tatara by stealing the victory and taking it for his own. Sarasa had a deep denial period, but she's recovered from it pretty well and was forced to face herself, so she's currently dealing with things and able to look at them more onjectively than Shuri is. And the wine kiss? I wanted to bawl. Speaking of bawling, I wanted to do that when Ageha saw Motomichi for the first time. He loved Shido as much as he hated him, and almost lost all control of himself seeing Shido's son(on top of his devotion to Senju due to her being Shido's lover, and his need to open her eyes to the world) That scene brought my secondary Basara ship that much closer to being canon. Unfortunately, I'm growing less and less certain of Shuri surviving the series...
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Date: 2006-08-17 06:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-17 06:40 am (UTC)Which is why I haven't watched all of it yet
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Date: 2006-08-17 04:09 pm (UTC)