Takaya Natsuki - Fruits Basket, vol. 19-22 (Eng. trans.) (reread, mostly)
(The "mostly" is for vol. 22, which is a first read.)
Wow, it's been a long time since I've read Fruits Basket. I started in 2006 and got through the first chapter of vol. 22 before deciding that reading multiple chapters in Japanese meant poor reading comprehension on my part, and then tried to carefully reread in 2007. Now that the last volume is out, I am finally getting the chance to finish the series!
I was going to do detailed posts for my rereads, but when I attempted writing up my scribbled notes, I didn't actually have a post, just... random scribbled notes.
Spoilers should be themselves
I noted early on in my reread this time that the main theme was change. It's underscored in these last few volumes, when the text notes that Akito wants permanence and eternity and we get the true story of the curse's origins. I love how the curse's origins ties in with Tohru's current fear of forgetting her mother, how even she, who is the catalyst for so much change, is afraid of forgetting, afraid of moving on, afraid of loving someone more than she loves Kyoko. And it's not only the Juunishi who fear change. Kyoko herself was ready to give up and stop when Katsuya died, and although Tohru's reaction to Kyoko's death isn't as extreme, she was still holding herself in stasis until now.
As with previous reads, I'm still conflicted over Akito's change. I'm glad of it, but also a little skeptical of how quickly it's happening. Of course, it helps that she (he? I can't tell if Akito thinks of him/herself as male or female or neither or both) is still very young, just a few years older than Tohru and company. But what I do like about Akito's change of heart is that it emphasizes how even though much of the abuse the Juunishi took was at Akito's hands, all of it was backed up by the extremely dysfunctional Sohma family, from Ren to the entire structure of the household. It is institutional and endemic, and it kept perpetuating itself, even prior to Akito's birth. One of the series' strengths is portraying how abuse goes from generation to generation and how the abused become abusers as well.
On a minor note, Takaya's later art weirds me out a little. A lot of it is when she uses screen tones for eyes, which makes the person look like they are oddly spacing out. Sometimes it's fitting for the scene, but sometimes she uses it when someone is smiling kindly, and it looks like they are oddly menacing. I noticed it most on big!Momiji this time around, as I kept being distracted by his new character design. I love him still, but I so miss wee!Momiji. Well, that, and I'm not entirely sure the new face strecture works...
I had also completely forgotten that Kakeru was dating Komaki and had interacted with Tohru previously, along with Kyo's role in Kyoko's death. I hope we get to learn later how much of his retelling is what happened; I'm sure a lot of it is influenced by his own emotional turmoil.
And oh, I cried at the entire montage of the curse breaking for everyone, of course starting with Kyo and ending with Yuki, everyone unsure and tentative and happy and lost all at the same time.
Other random notes:
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Wow, it's been a long time since I've read Fruits Basket. I started in 2006 and got through the first chapter of vol. 22 before deciding that reading multiple chapters in Japanese meant poor reading comprehension on my part, and then tried to carefully reread in 2007. Now that the last volume is out, I am finally getting the chance to finish the series!
I was going to do detailed posts for my rereads, but when I attempted writing up my scribbled notes, I didn't actually have a post, just... random scribbled notes.
Spoilers should be themselves
I noted early on in my reread this time that the main theme was change. It's underscored in these last few volumes, when the text notes that Akito wants permanence and eternity and we get the true story of the curse's origins. I love how the curse's origins ties in with Tohru's current fear of forgetting her mother, how even she, who is the catalyst for so much change, is afraid of forgetting, afraid of moving on, afraid of loving someone more than she loves Kyoko. And it's not only the Juunishi who fear change. Kyoko herself was ready to give up and stop when Katsuya died, and although Tohru's reaction to Kyoko's death isn't as extreme, she was still holding herself in stasis until now.
As with previous reads, I'm still conflicted over Akito's change. I'm glad of it, but also a little skeptical of how quickly it's happening. Of course, it helps that she (he? I can't tell if Akito thinks of him/herself as male or female or neither or both) is still very young, just a few years older than Tohru and company. But what I do like about Akito's change of heart is that it emphasizes how even though much of the abuse the Juunishi took was at Akito's hands, all of it was backed up by the extremely dysfunctional Sohma family, from Ren to the entire structure of the household. It is institutional and endemic, and it kept perpetuating itself, even prior to Akito's birth. One of the series' strengths is portraying how abuse goes from generation to generation and how the abused become abusers as well.
On a minor note, Takaya's later art weirds me out a little. A lot of it is when she uses screen tones for eyes, which makes the person look like they are oddly spacing out. Sometimes it's fitting for the scene, but sometimes she uses it when someone is smiling kindly, and it looks like they are oddly menacing. I noticed it most on big!Momiji this time around, as I kept being distracted by his new character design. I love him still, but I so miss wee!Momiji. Well, that, and I'm not entirely sure the new face strecture works...
I had also completely forgotten that Kakeru was dating Komaki and had interacted with Tohru previously, along with Kyo's role in Kyoko's death. I hope we get to learn later how much of his retelling is what happened; I'm sure a lot of it is influenced by his own emotional turmoil.
And oh, I cried at the entire montage of the curse breaking for everyone, of course starting with Kyo and ending with Yuki, everyone unsure and tentative and happy and lost all at the same time.
Other random notes:
- There are some great moments where I want to give the characters a hug and then realize no one is hugging them because of the curse. I don't know if other readers feel the same, but it was a particularly effective way to show how damaging just the animal transformation was to me.
- In the first reread, I was noting who was wearing wafuku vs. youfuku and when and where. I note now that both Yuki and Ayame seem to wear Chinese-inspired clothing a lot (the collars, the frog buttons down the front, and why are they called frog buttons anyway?). I have zero idea what this means.
- There's a lot of people looking out from windows at other people in the series, from Akito at his/her window viewing the outside world and being afraid of people leaving to Kagura watching Kyo transform to his true self and Tohru going after him to Yuki watching Tohru and Kyo talking. It's people realizing they are not the right person but watching all the same, it's people feeling cut off, but it's also people caring enough to watch over their friends and relatives to make sure they're ok.
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