Fruits Basket: shipper heaven
I was going to talk about the awesomeness of Tohru/Kyo but it will have to wait a bit as I am in the middle of volume 14 right now and so I am all about Haru/Rin!
!!!!!
Fruits Basket is seriously such a shipper haven. I knew I was going to like them as a couple because I thought Haru was a darling (he is my favorite secondary character together with Hatori) and because I liked the tough, temperamental Rin from the moment we met her. And I was hooked from that scene in vol 12 (??) where Yuki came across sick Rin and tried to talk to her about Haru (it is clear from previous volumes that Haru and Rin used to date, and she dumped him, and he is broken up about it) and she just lashes out. And when Yuki points out that he realized something, that she is always looking out for Haru, she loses it. And she tells Yuki that he doesn’t know that the only reason he (Yuki) can live outside the Evil Compound is because Haru went and literally begged Shigure to take him in. For a girl who is putting on the attitude of ‘I don’t care about Haru blah blah’ she is certainly doing a poor job of proving it.
And then Haru shows up, and there is awesome kissing, and her pushing him away and all sorts of ‘pushes all my buttons’ stuff.
Yeah.
But then we get into volume 14 and I go nuclear-shippy. Because we know from past volumes that Rin is recently out of the hospital and that Akito (who really must die) put her there, but we find out the entire back-story.
Basically Rin was mistreated by her parents and finally ended up in the hospital. And that is how her thing with Haru started, when they were both kids, because he is the one who found her, and then he was yelling at her parents, to apologize to her. And the thing is, she has a Kyo-complex, in a way. She thinks she is totally unworthy and everything, and is a ruined thing. And Haru keeps dragging her out and making her feel better etc etc. And I love how she both loves him for how kind he is and how she worries (it’s so indicative that Haru was the only one who’d sneak in the visit Yuki in his ‘lock-up room’ even though Akito forbade it and he would be in a hell of trouble if he got found out, and that Rin would go along though she doesn’t care about Yuki, just to be a look-out for Haru). And then I love the scene where they are grown-ups and he asks her if he can kiss her, and he tells her he can’t bear it if she goes with another guy just because she is afraid of Akito, blah blah blah…awesomeness. Also points for indicating that Haru/Rin clearly had a physical relationship as well (and awwww, Rin is such a sap, thinking she’d love to be born as Haru’s heart :D)
But that’s the thing. She is so scared she’ll hurt him or lose him and she feels so unworthy of goodness. And then Akito finds out and OMG OMG. Akito hates women in general, but someone as beautiful as Rin? So he does the whole ‘you are nothing, you will drag him down’ speech and then he says that when he finds things like this out, he gets mad, and you know, last time he poked Hatori’s eye out. So who is responsible for this, she or Haru, so he’d know who to punish? (Of all the evil Akito games, this creepy one of ‘pick your own punishment’ freaks me out the most) and of course Rin says it’s all her fault and ends up so severely mistreated she has to be hospitalized. And that is when she breaks up with Haru (who is so lost, and still loves her) so as to protect him.
And now she is trying to figure out how to break the curse, so as to free Haru (and I think she wants to free him from Akito more than from the transformation. I don’t think any of the zodiacs would be as keen on the breaking if the head of the family wasn’t the REAL monster). And OMG, she even offers herself to Shigure if he helps her (who thankfully doesn’t take her up on the offer. She has no self-worth, really). But then when she collapses again and gets taken to the hospital again, and Haru visits her, she drives him away again. But he says he’ll visit anyhow. Oh, you poor poor woobies.
Speaking of woobies: Kyo! Tohru! Kyo/Tohru. Make me die of glee. Tohru is so clueless, it’s adorable. A word to the wise, girl: if one thing he says drives you to joy and another to despair, even though neither is particularly earth-shaking (‘wanna kill some time with me?’ is not Shakespeare :D) and if holding his hand makes you giddy, the fact that you are all ‘what does it mean?’ is adorable. It means you are in love with him, dummy! Just as earlier, they are on the roof, and Kyo asks her if she fell for some guy and he tells her if she falls in love with some guy, he’ll cooperate (though he looks really unhappy) *dies* and she is “that is not the case” and is all 'why does my heart feel torn’ etc. I reiterate. That is because you are in love with Kyo, dummy!
*does dance of joy herself*
I loved the parent-teacher conferences. I loved Kazuma coming in with Kyo and how Kyo has no plans for the future (because all he has is one last year of freedom and then being locked up forever). And how Kazuma would never acknowledge that and tells him he (Kazuma) doesn’t mind if Kyo takes twice as long as everyone to decide what he wants to do, as long as what he finally hears is what he wants. OMG! I just love their father-son relationship. (Btw, Hana crushing on Kazuma is LOL).
And then I die from swooning because what Kyo is thinking is that he has only a little time to be with Tohru and that is all the future he is thinking about. When he goes 'I have only a little time to be with her,' I just died. OMG OMG. It’s like he is storing things to last him for the rest of his existence (because I can’t call it a life).
And I love that it’s Kyo who finds Tohru when she is freaking out about her Grandfather: she has such a fear of her loved ones leaving her, and that their exposure of weakness is mutual. He’s shown his enormous messed-uppedness to her, but he’s also seen her at her weakest as well.
I also loved the scene with him and Kagura, their final explanation to each other. OMG, child!Kyo is the most adorable thing ever. And oh, even then, he played all by himself because no one wanted to play with him. And I keep thinking about how many normal things he’s missed (he doesn’t even watch TV because when he was a kid, his Mom would get mad if he did) and he was so delighted when Kagura wanted to play with him but she wanted to play with him out of her sense of superiority, because being with him made her feel that yeah, her lot isn’t so good, but compared to the ‘cat-boy’ she has it easy. And she takes off his bracelet because she wants to wear it and he transforms etc etc, and she runs away.
Oh, poor Kyo.
And after that she ‘makes’ herself fall in love with him because she wants to feel better about herself doing that to him, to be the kind of girl who can love a ‘monster’ but I love that when she sees Tohru go after Kyo in vol 6, it finally sinks in, that she is being selfish. Because it was always about herself for her, with Kyo being incidental, and she realizes that for Tohru it is not like that, for Tohru it is about Kyo and this is how it should be. And I love that Kyo tells her that he will never ‘like’ her this way, but she shouldn’t feel bad about the childhood stuff, because for whatever reason she played with him, he was happy that someone did.
And she tells him that she really does love him, for real, however it started, and I love that she is crying and holding him, and he is touching her hair and he tells her ‘Thank you.’ He is growing up quite well, isn’t he? (Or maybe not :D His rejection of that girl who asks him out in Vol 13 ‘I don’t even know your name’ is hilarious. He really waffles between a kid and a grown-up.)
What else? I loved the whole interlude with Kureno, with Tohru going to see him to find out if it’s the same guy Uo fell for. I loved Kureno telling her she shouldn't be in a place like this, and she confirms he is Uo's Kureno because he looks so torn on mention of her name. And he says he doesn't want to see Uo but even Tohru can see he so does. And I love that Tohru gives him Uo’s address in case he changes his mind. And OMG he is thinking his heart is being torn apart. *hates Akito*
Also, we meet Yuki’s Mom and she is a bitch. He used to beg her to take him away from Akito but she’d ditch him there anyway. And how much do I love Ayame showing up at the parent teacher conference, and earning a gazillion awesome big bro points by protecting Yuki? LOVE.
Momo (Momiji’s little sis who doesn’t know she is) and Momiji’s story is so sweet and sad because she wants him for a big brother and he wants nothing more but can’t let her get too close.
And Shigure (who is clearly scheming things) is beginning to freak me out. I don’t think he really has a heart, you know?
!!!!!
Fruits Basket is seriously such a shipper haven. I knew I was going to like them as a couple because I thought Haru was a darling (he is my favorite secondary character together with Hatori) and because I liked the tough, temperamental Rin from the moment we met her. And I was hooked from that scene in vol 12 (??) where Yuki came across sick Rin and tried to talk to her about Haru (it is clear from previous volumes that Haru and Rin used to date, and she dumped him, and he is broken up about it) and she just lashes out. And when Yuki points out that he realized something, that she is always looking out for Haru, she loses it. And she tells Yuki that he doesn’t know that the only reason he (Yuki) can live outside the Evil Compound is because Haru went and literally begged Shigure to take him in. For a girl who is putting on the attitude of ‘I don’t care about Haru blah blah’ she is certainly doing a poor job of proving it.
And then Haru shows up, and there is awesome kissing, and her pushing him away and all sorts of ‘pushes all my buttons’ stuff.
Yeah.
But then we get into volume 14 and I go nuclear-shippy. Because we know from past volumes that Rin is recently out of the hospital and that Akito (who really must die) put her there, but we find out the entire back-story.
Basically Rin was mistreated by her parents and finally ended up in the hospital. And that is how her thing with Haru started, when they were both kids, because he is the one who found her, and then he was yelling at her parents, to apologize to her. And the thing is, she has a Kyo-complex, in a way. She thinks she is totally unworthy and everything, and is a ruined thing. And Haru keeps dragging her out and making her feel better etc etc. And I love how she both loves him for how kind he is and how she worries (it’s so indicative that Haru was the only one who’d sneak in the visit Yuki in his ‘lock-up room’ even though Akito forbade it and he would be in a hell of trouble if he got found out, and that Rin would go along though she doesn’t care about Yuki, just to be a look-out for Haru). And then I love the scene where they are grown-ups and he asks her if he can kiss her, and he tells her he can’t bear it if she goes with another guy just because she is afraid of Akito, blah blah blah…awesomeness. Also points for indicating that Haru/Rin clearly had a physical relationship as well (and awwww, Rin is such a sap, thinking she’d love to be born as Haru’s heart :D)
But that’s the thing. She is so scared she’ll hurt him or lose him and she feels so unworthy of goodness. And then Akito finds out and OMG OMG. Akito hates women in general, but someone as beautiful as Rin? So he does the whole ‘you are nothing, you will drag him down’ speech and then he says that when he finds things like this out, he gets mad, and you know, last time he poked Hatori’s eye out. So who is responsible for this, she or Haru, so he’d know who to punish? (Of all the evil Akito games, this creepy one of ‘pick your own punishment’ freaks me out the most) and of course Rin says it’s all her fault and ends up so severely mistreated she has to be hospitalized. And that is when she breaks up with Haru (who is so lost, and still loves her) so as to protect him.
And now she is trying to figure out how to break the curse, so as to free Haru (and I think she wants to free him from Akito more than from the transformation. I don’t think any of the zodiacs would be as keen on the breaking if the head of the family wasn’t the REAL monster). And OMG, she even offers herself to Shigure if he helps her (who thankfully doesn’t take her up on the offer. She has no self-worth, really). But then when she collapses again and gets taken to the hospital again, and Haru visits her, she drives him away again. But he says he’ll visit anyhow. Oh, you poor poor woobies.
Speaking of woobies: Kyo! Tohru! Kyo/Tohru. Make me die of glee. Tohru is so clueless, it’s adorable. A word to the wise, girl: if one thing he says drives you to joy and another to despair, even though neither is particularly earth-shaking (‘wanna kill some time with me?’ is not Shakespeare :D) and if holding his hand makes you giddy, the fact that you are all ‘what does it mean?’ is adorable. It means you are in love with him, dummy! Just as earlier, they are on the roof, and Kyo asks her if she fell for some guy and he tells her if she falls in love with some guy, he’ll cooperate (though he looks really unhappy) *dies* and she is “that is not the case” and is all 'why does my heart feel torn’ etc. I reiterate. That is because you are in love with Kyo, dummy!
*does dance of joy herself*
I loved the parent-teacher conferences. I loved Kazuma coming in with Kyo and how Kyo has no plans for the future (because all he has is one last year of freedom and then being locked up forever). And how Kazuma would never acknowledge that and tells him he (Kazuma) doesn’t mind if Kyo takes twice as long as everyone to decide what he wants to do, as long as what he finally hears is what he wants. OMG! I just love their father-son relationship. (Btw, Hana crushing on Kazuma is LOL).
And then I die from swooning because what Kyo is thinking is that he has only a little time to be with Tohru and that is all the future he is thinking about. When he goes 'I have only a little time to be with her,' I just died. OMG OMG. It’s like he is storing things to last him for the rest of his existence (because I can’t call it a life).
And I love that it’s Kyo who finds Tohru when she is freaking out about her Grandfather: she has such a fear of her loved ones leaving her, and that their exposure of weakness is mutual. He’s shown his enormous messed-uppedness to her, but he’s also seen her at her weakest as well.
I also loved the scene with him and Kagura, their final explanation to each other. OMG, child!Kyo is the most adorable thing ever. And oh, even then, he played all by himself because no one wanted to play with him. And I keep thinking about how many normal things he’s missed (he doesn’t even watch TV because when he was a kid, his Mom would get mad if he did) and he was so delighted when Kagura wanted to play with him but she wanted to play with him out of her sense of superiority, because being with him made her feel that yeah, her lot isn’t so good, but compared to the ‘cat-boy’ she has it easy. And she takes off his bracelet because she wants to wear it and he transforms etc etc, and she runs away.
Oh, poor Kyo.
And after that she ‘makes’ herself fall in love with him because she wants to feel better about herself doing that to him, to be the kind of girl who can love a ‘monster’ but I love that when she sees Tohru go after Kyo in vol 6, it finally sinks in, that she is being selfish. Because it was always about herself for her, with Kyo being incidental, and she realizes that for Tohru it is not like that, for Tohru it is about Kyo and this is how it should be. And I love that Kyo tells her that he will never ‘like’ her this way, but she shouldn’t feel bad about the childhood stuff, because for whatever reason she played with him, he was happy that someone did.
And she tells him that she really does love him, for real, however it started, and I love that she is crying and holding him, and he is touching her hair and he tells her ‘Thank you.’ He is growing up quite well, isn’t he? (Or maybe not :D His rejection of that girl who asks him out in Vol 13 ‘I don’t even know your name’ is hilarious. He really waffles between a kid and a grown-up.)
What else? I loved the whole interlude with Kureno, with Tohru going to see him to find out if it’s the same guy Uo fell for. I loved Kureno telling her she shouldn't be in a place like this, and she confirms he is Uo's Kureno because he looks so torn on mention of her name. And he says he doesn't want to see Uo but even Tohru can see he so does. And I love that Tohru gives him Uo’s address in case he changes his mind. And OMG he is thinking his heart is being torn apart. *hates Akito*
Also, we meet Yuki’s Mom and she is a bitch. He used to beg her to take him away from Akito but she’d ditch him there anyway. And how much do I love Ayame showing up at the parent teacher conference, and earning a gazillion awesome big bro points by protecting Yuki? LOVE.
Momo (Momiji’s little sis who doesn’t know she is) and Momiji’s story is so sweet and sad because she wants him for a big brother and he wants nothing more but can’t let her get too close.
And Shigure (who is clearly scheming things) is beginning to freak me out. I don’t think he really has a heart, you know?