Furuba spoilers
This will be my first Fruits Basket new chapter reaction post. And just in time, too, since there aren't that many new chapters left.
I started following FB spoilers with chapter 121, which ended with a big cliffhanger. Ever since then, every chapter that I have read spoilers for has made me increasingly happy. First, Tohru didn't die from her injuries (and Kureno was okay, too). Then, various long-standing issues got pulled out and examined and dealt with. The curse was broken. Relationships were resolved, some of them in fits of romantic ecstasy. It's all good stuff. Now there are just a handful of chapters left, and it seems their purpose is to give a sort of epilogue--a little glimpse into what the futures of the characters hold now that all these things have come to pass.
As of right now, I haven't seen scans for chapter 134, nor have I found any kind of substantial summary. All I have to go on is a "highlights" sort of summary from a French website that I read via babelfish. So maybe...I shouldn't be too quick to judge. On the other hand, this is not the first chapter for which the first spoilers that I found came in similarly garbled fashion, and yet it is the first which has made me feel...bleh.
Here's what I have gleaned so far:
1. Yuki and Manabe both either fail or miss (can't tell which from the French) their University entrance exams.
2. Yuki says he wants to live somewhere on his own, away from his family.
3. Ayame and Mine are...looking for a place to live together? This is kind of unclear, b/c the people on the French board seem to be arguing about whether or not they already live together.
4. Kyo tells Tohru he wants to leave the city after he finishes school.
5. Kyo asks Tohru to come with him. I can't tell for sure, but the way people on the French board are reacting, it looks like he's asking her to live with him.
My reactions:
1. Yuki not-passing the entrance exam is kind of strange and unexpected, and a lot of people on SubaFuruba are freaked out by it, but...okay, this one doesn't bother me that much. It's bizarre, but I could buy it.
2. This is okay, and what I expected from Yuki. A lot ot people at SF seem to be taking it as him distancing himself from Machi as well as his family, but I think that's a misunderstanding.
3. Apart from the confusion about whether they alredy live together and are, perhaps, either making their relationship public, or looking for a new home, or something like that, or if they really are moving in together for the first time, there's no problem here. A fuller summary will probably clear this up.
Now for the two that are freaking me out.
4. NO. This makes no sense. For Yuki, yes. For Kureno, yes. For a lot of the others, maybe. But not for Kyo, and definitely not for Tohru. Okay, I had to go and search for a post I made on randomfandom a while ago to explain myself:
Tohru is on her own journey, and her journey is taking her deeper into the Sohma family, making her, in a way, a part of the family Yuki is trying to escape. Often in stories characters who are orphans have a character arc that involves becoming part of a family, and I think that is the case for Tohru. An important part of her journey is to learn about receiving love, (giving it happens, too, as I mentioned in the other thread, but receiving it is what she has trouble with). So it is necessary for her to move further in to the family circle-to really, in a way, become one of them (and, I think, she probably will literally become one of them by marriage, though the readers may or may not get to actually see that-depends on whether or not we get some kind of epilogue that takes place a little ways down the road from the current time line). So it makes sense that Tohru would have to have a romance with another character whose arc involves moving further in as well, as Kyo’s does, rather than further out, as Yuki’s does. Kyo and Tohru grow by finding love with each other as they also gain acceptance from the Sohma family. Yuki grows by tearing away his old facades, including those imposed by his family, and connecting to outsiders like Manabe and Machi. Hence, it makes more sense for him to fall in love with Machi, who is well outside of the Sohma family, as well as outside of the mainstream high school crowd that placed Yuki on a pedestal.
I just don't see Kyo and Tohru moving far away from the family. If that's the case, it feels to me like the story is over-emphasizing this "moving to the country" business as a means of escape from a painful past. I think it makes sense for some characters, but it shouldn't be what happens to all of them, and it esecially doesn't make sense for these two. Tohru...she needs to be near the other Sohmas, I think. I love Kyoru, but I don't believe they will find abolutetly all their needs met in being only with each other. They need other people, both of them. I do not, NOT want them to move away.
5. Okay, again, what works for some characters does NOT work for others. *sigh* Don't give in to this post-modern anti-marriage nonsense, Takaya-sensei! I know that people like me who believe that marriage should come first are a dying breed, and I accept that many of my favorite fictional couples that I like to swoon over would be likely to live together without getting married, but NOT TOHRU AND KYO. It just doesn't suit their characters at all! They are both innocent, sexually reserved characters, and they both seem to be the type to have old-fashioned values (Tohru with her overly polite speech, Kyo with his chivalrious behavior). I just...really think they would see marriage and "living together" as going hand in hand. (I know they already live together in a technical sense, but you know what I mean).
At this point, I find myself hoping that Tohru says "NO" to Kyo.
But of course...there could easily be things I'm misunderstanding and nuances I'm missing. It's also possible that Takaya-sensei could convince me to see things differently on certain points. So I'm not passing final judgement. I'm just...feeling nervous about this chapter, desperately wishing we had more info, and needing to vent a bit.
Joie
I started following FB spoilers with chapter 121, which ended with a big cliffhanger. Ever since then, every chapter that I have read spoilers for has made me increasingly happy. First, Tohru didn't die from her injuries (and Kureno was okay, too). Then, various long-standing issues got pulled out and examined and dealt with. The curse was broken. Relationships were resolved, some of them in fits of romantic ecstasy. It's all good stuff. Now there are just a handful of chapters left, and it seems their purpose is to give a sort of epilogue--a little glimpse into what the futures of the characters hold now that all these things have come to pass.
As of right now, I haven't seen scans for chapter 134, nor have I found any kind of substantial summary. All I have to go on is a "highlights" sort of summary from a French website that I read via babelfish. So maybe...I shouldn't be too quick to judge. On the other hand, this is not the first chapter for which the first spoilers that I found came in similarly garbled fashion, and yet it is the first which has made me feel...bleh.
Here's what I have gleaned so far:
1. Yuki and Manabe both either fail or miss (can't tell which from the French) their University entrance exams.
2. Yuki says he wants to live somewhere on his own, away from his family.
3. Ayame and Mine are...looking for a place to live together? This is kind of unclear, b/c the people on the French board seem to be arguing about whether or not they already live together.
4. Kyo tells Tohru he wants to leave the city after he finishes school.
5. Kyo asks Tohru to come with him. I can't tell for sure, but the way people on the French board are reacting, it looks like he's asking her to live with him.
My reactions:
1. Yuki not-passing the entrance exam is kind of strange and unexpected, and a lot of people on SubaFuruba are freaked out by it, but...okay, this one doesn't bother me that much. It's bizarre, but I could buy it.
2. This is okay, and what I expected from Yuki. A lot ot people at SF seem to be taking it as him distancing himself from Machi as well as his family, but I think that's a misunderstanding.
3. Apart from the confusion about whether they alredy live together and are, perhaps, either making their relationship public, or looking for a new home, or something like that, or if they really are moving in together for the first time, there's no problem here. A fuller summary will probably clear this up.
Now for the two that are freaking me out.
4. NO. This makes no sense. For Yuki, yes. For Kureno, yes. For a lot of the others, maybe. But not for Kyo, and definitely not for Tohru. Okay, I had to go and search for a post I made on randomfandom a while ago to explain myself:
Tohru is on her own journey, and her journey is taking her deeper into the Sohma family, making her, in a way, a part of the family Yuki is trying to escape. Often in stories characters who are orphans have a character arc that involves becoming part of a family, and I think that is the case for Tohru. An important part of her journey is to learn about receiving love, (giving it happens, too, as I mentioned in the other thread, but receiving it is what she has trouble with). So it is necessary for her to move further in to the family circle-to really, in a way, become one of them (and, I think, she probably will literally become one of them by marriage, though the readers may or may not get to actually see that-depends on whether or not we get some kind of epilogue that takes place a little ways down the road from the current time line). So it makes sense that Tohru would have to have a romance with another character whose arc involves moving further in as well, as Kyo’s does, rather than further out, as Yuki’s does. Kyo and Tohru grow by finding love with each other as they also gain acceptance from the Sohma family. Yuki grows by tearing away his old facades, including those imposed by his family, and connecting to outsiders like Manabe and Machi. Hence, it makes more sense for him to fall in love with Machi, who is well outside of the Sohma family, as well as outside of the mainstream high school crowd that placed Yuki on a pedestal.
I just don't see Kyo and Tohru moving far away from the family. If that's the case, it feels to me like the story is over-emphasizing this "moving to the country" business as a means of escape from a painful past. I think it makes sense for some characters, but it shouldn't be what happens to all of them, and it esecially doesn't make sense for these two. Tohru...she needs to be near the other Sohmas, I think. I love Kyoru, but I don't believe they will find abolutetly all their needs met in being only with each other. They need other people, both of them. I do not, NOT want them to move away.
5. Okay, again, what works for some characters does NOT work for others. *sigh* Don't give in to this post-modern anti-marriage nonsense, Takaya-sensei! I know that people like me who believe that marriage should come first are a dying breed, and I accept that many of my favorite fictional couples that I like to swoon over would be likely to live together without getting married, but NOT TOHRU AND KYO. It just doesn't suit their characters at all! They are both innocent, sexually reserved characters, and they both seem to be the type to have old-fashioned values (Tohru with her overly polite speech, Kyo with his chivalrious behavior). I just...really think they would see marriage and "living together" as going hand in hand. (I know they already live together in a technical sense, but you know what I mean).
At this point, I find myself hoping that Tohru says "NO" to Kyo.
But of course...there could easily be things I'm misunderstanding and nuances I'm missing. It's also possible that Takaya-sensei could convince me to see things differently on certain points. So I'm not passing final judgement. I'm just...feeling nervous about this chapter, desperately wishing we had more info, and needing to vent a bit.
Joie