Crazy dreams, Fruits Basket, BSG and Beautiful Life
First off, have to share: the other night I dreamt Aishwarya Rai was married to Harry Potter. My fandom hats are getting confused, I think.
So, Fruits Basket. It even got me to read scanlations which gives me a headache. Oh well, a sacrifice well-worth-it ;)
I am in the middle of volume 16 which deals with Tohru’s parents. Awwww. And I almost cried when it dealt with her Dad’s death.
But anyway, that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about volume 15. And Yuki. And Kyo.
OMG. Poor Yuki. We get his back-story and how much do I want to stab Akito in the face? Seriously. The whole treat him as toy and fill him with despair? Ugh.
OMG. Poor Yuki. His own parents ‘sold’ him to Akito. For prestige and money. And Akito just loves tormenting him (I do believe Akito loves him. In a horrifically twisted way). The whole thing with Yuki going to school and making first friends he’s ever had and then those friends having to have their memories erased and Yuki begging Akito and Akito is all ‘you are always going to be hated and alone blah blah.’
I HATE AKITO.
And I love that he runs off and rescues child!Tohru and he can’t believe there is a mother somewhere who really misses her child this much. And it saves him, that he was necessary.
I find it so interesting that child!Yuki and child!Kyo hated each other. Poor Yuki, extending friendship only to be rebuffed. I understand why Kyo did it: Kyo is cursed because of the rat spirit after all and as we learned earlier, his life is horrible. But the thing is, what they both see in each other is what they themselves don’t have. They don’t realize the other is in his own special version of hell. Kyo can only see someone who is not despised as a monster, who has both his parents, who isn’t shunned by everyone, who has some sort of a future. And Yuki sees someone who has someone who loves him and cares for him: Kagura. They don’t see that Yuki’s parents don’t care for him and that his main companion is Akito who is slowly messing him up and destroying his spirit. They don’t see that Kyo’s mother killed herself because she thought he was too much of a monster, that his real father thinks of him as a ‘thing,’ that he is looked down by everyone, a freak even in the zodiac.
But I guess that is what growing up is. I think they are beginning to realize those things. Yuki has certainly mellowed about Kyo and realized that his life wasn’t something to envy. And Kyo realized that Yuki is not the ‘prince’ Kyo likes to think of him as (I love the scene where he realizes that he only likes to think that so he’d have someone to blame for his horrible life and he freaks).
I also really buy that Yuki sees Tohru as a mother figure. In a lot of ways, he is a lot more mature than Kyo, and in a lot of ways, he is more emotionally stunted. With everything else horrifically wrong in his life, Kyo has an experience of having a proper parental figure. So he doesn’t really need to look for that as a grown-up. But Yuki has never had that. So I can see how he latches on to Tohru that way (as opposed to Kyo who he admits sees Tohru as a woman). I guess you can tell that in some ways it’s not a relationship of such equals between them. Kyo can be very tender and caring with Tohru, but he can also bicker with her. Yuki always idealizes her a little.
And on the Kyo/Tohru note, I love the bit where he freaked out about Yuki (because I think he realized he was displacing and is feeling bad and his whole world is shifted now), and he comes into the classroom and everyone has left but Tohru is still there waiting for him. And she notices his hand (in his freak-out, he smashed it through glass and cut it) and OMG, he does this awesome hug-not-hug thing, because of course he can’t properly hug her, but he sort of leans into her and I die. And he agrees to do the school play he’s been dragging his heels about.
And then of course, so many ‘true’ feelings are revealed at the play. How he wants to dance with her, though she plays the wicked stepsister. But my fave is when she blurts out at the play, forgetting it’s a play, that if he locked himself away, it would make her very…(and she doesn’t finish).
And I love that he freaks, because he is thinking she couldn’t mean what she meant because if she did, he would never forgive himself.
Hmmmm. He is madly in love with her but he is freaking out that she might feel the same? It can’t be just the curse (though I am sure that’s a chunk of it). I am sure it’s something to do with her Mom. Why? Well, I read the spoilers but he is also thinking that. And wondering if it’s better to forget things or relive them.
Hmm, what else. Noticed further Rin-Kyo parallels, as when Tohru thinks of Rin all messed up, she remembers Kyo all hunched in a corner.
I am also in love with the idea that Tohru is going to get Kureno and Uo together by hook or crook and got Momiji to smuggle the tape of the play (Uo was a participant) to Kureno. Hee. I can’t wait for horrid Akito to lose his boytoy.
In other news I also read massive season finale spoilers for Battlestar Galactica. If true, whoa! (You can find them on TWOP and elsewhere).
Oh, and Amazon? Bizarre. I bought 6 volumes of manga (1-5 of Can’t Lose You and 1 of Basara) and it delivered volumes 1 and 4 of CLY and said the rest will be delivered separately. Why? Bizarre.
I am also midway though ep 8 of Beautiful Life. Kyoko is rather high-maintenance. I am getting mildly annoyed with her skittishness and distrust. So yeah, he knows other women. Chill. But of course, we find out she has a 30% chance of dying (this being a jdrama, it’s a 100% chance ;)) so I’ll cut her slack. She is dealing with it better than I would. I love the scene where Shuji finds her and basically tells her he loves her in this really awesome, matter-of-fact fashion. But the scene I love the most is where he learns about 30% from Kyoko’s Mom and just Kimura’s face: the shock, and trying to process, and disbelief and everything.
So, Fruits Basket. It even got me to read scanlations which gives me a headache. Oh well, a sacrifice well-worth-it ;)
I am in the middle of volume 16 which deals with Tohru’s parents. Awwww. And I almost cried when it dealt with her Dad’s death.
But anyway, that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about volume 15. And Yuki. And Kyo.
OMG. Poor Yuki. We get his back-story and how much do I want to stab Akito in the face? Seriously. The whole treat him as toy and fill him with despair? Ugh.
OMG. Poor Yuki. His own parents ‘sold’ him to Akito. For prestige and money. And Akito just loves tormenting him (I do believe Akito loves him. In a horrifically twisted way). The whole thing with Yuki going to school and making first friends he’s ever had and then those friends having to have their memories erased and Yuki begging Akito and Akito is all ‘you are always going to be hated and alone blah blah.’
I HATE AKITO.
And I love that he runs off and rescues child!Tohru and he can’t believe there is a mother somewhere who really misses her child this much. And it saves him, that he was necessary.
I find it so interesting that child!Yuki and child!Kyo hated each other. Poor Yuki, extending friendship only to be rebuffed. I understand why Kyo did it: Kyo is cursed because of the rat spirit after all and as we learned earlier, his life is horrible. But the thing is, what they both see in each other is what they themselves don’t have. They don’t realize the other is in his own special version of hell. Kyo can only see someone who is not despised as a monster, who has both his parents, who isn’t shunned by everyone, who has some sort of a future. And Yuki sees someone who has someone who loves him and cares for him: Kagura. They don’t see that Yuki’s parents don’t care for him and that his main companion is Akito who is slowly messing him up and destroying his spirit. They don’t see that Kyo’s mother killed herself because she thought he was too much of a monster, that his real father thinks of him as a ‘thing,’ that he is looked down by everyone, a freak even in the zodiac.
But I guess that is what growing up is. I think they are beginning to realize those things. Yuki has certainly mellowed about Kyo and realized that his life wasn’t something to envy. And Kyo realized that Yuki is not the ‘prince’ Kyo likes to think of him as (I love the scene where he realizes that he only likes to think that so he’d have someone to blame for his horrible life and he freaks).
I also really buy that Yuki sees Tohru as a mother figure. In a lot of ways, he is a lot more mature than Kyo, and in a lot of ways, he is more emotionally stunted. With everything else horrifically wrong in his life, Kyo has an experience of having a proper parental figure. So he doesn’t really need to look for that as a grown-up. But Yuki has never had that. So I can see how he latches on to Tohru that way (as opposed to Kyo who he admits sees Tohru as a woman). I guess you can tell that in some ways it’s not a relationship of such equals between them. Kyo can be very tender and caring with Tohru, but he can also bicker with her. Yuki always idealizes her a little.
And on the Kyo/Tohru note, I love the bit where he freaked out about Yuki (because I think he realized he was displacing and is feeling bad and his whole world is shifted now), and he comes into the classroom and everyone has left but Tohru is still there waiting for him. And she notices his hand (in his freak-out, he smashed it through glass and cut it) and OMG, he does this awesome hug-not-hug thing, because of course he can’t properly hug her, but he sort of leans into her and I die. And he agrees to do the school play he’s been dragging his heels about.
And then of course, so many ‘true’ feelings are revealed at the play. How he wants to dance with her, though she plays the wicked stepsister. But my fave is when she blurts out at the play, forgetting it’s a play, that if he locked himself away, it would make her very…(and she doesn’t finish).
And I love that he freaks, because he is thinking she couldn’t mean what she meant because if she did, he would never forgive himself.
Hmmmm. He is madly in love with her but he is freaking out that she might feel the same? It can’t be just the curse (though I am sure that’s a chunk of it). I am sure it’s something to do with her Mom. Why? Well, I read the spoilers but he is also thinking that. And wondering if it’s better to forget things or relive them.
Hmm, what else. Noticed further Rin-Kyo parallels, as when Tohru thinks of Rin all messed up, she remembers Kyo all hunched in a corner.
I am also in love with the idea that Tohru is going to get Kureno and Uo together by hook or crook and got Momiji to smuggle the tape of the play (Uo was a participant) to Kureno. Hee. I can’t wait for horrid Akito to lose his boytoy.
In other news I also read massive season finale spoilers for Battlestar Galactica. If true, whoa! (You can find them on TWOP and elsewhere).
Oh, and Amazon? Bizarre. I bought 6 volumes of manga (1-5 of Can’t Lose You and 1 of Basara) and it delivered volumes 1 and 4 of CLY and said the rest will be delivered separately. Why? Bizarre.
I am also midway though ep 8 of Beautiful Life. Kyoko is rather high-maintenance. I am getting mildly annoyed with her skittishness and distrust. So yeah, he knows other women. Chill. But of course, we find out she has a 30% chance of dying (this being a jdrama, it’s a 100% chance ;)) so I’ll cut her slack. She is dealing with it better than I would. I love the scene where Shuji finds her and basically tells her he loves her in this really awesome, matter-of-fact fashion. But the scene I love the most is where he learns about 30% from Kyoko’s Mom and just Kimura’s face: the shock, and trying to process, and disbelief and everything.