more on fruits basket, and some links.

[annwyd]

It's strange, but the more I read Fruits Basket, the more I like Tohru. I didn't expect it, because she's such a straightforward yamato nadeshiko in so many ways--gentle, cute, domestic, non-threatening. I like to see female characters break from their assigned roles, and she in no way breaks from her role.

But there's such a sincerity to her. Her

Comments

[meganbmoore]

Yeah, that's why I always get twitchy when people start FB and initially like Yuki/Tohru, as usually seems to be the case. When I first started reading it, the US edition was at Vol 4, and everyone I knew preferred Tohru/Yuki, and since I was new to anime and manga, I thought that meant the series was going to go that direction, and I hated the idea. (It's also probably part of why it took me so long to warm up to him.) I just couldn't understand why everyone preferred the pairing that was about her making him feel good to the pairing where he wanted to be around her because it made him feel better. One wanted her to do something for him, and the other just wanted to be with her.

As far as Tohru goes, I think the thing is that she's that way because it's what she wants to be and what makes her happy, not what she thinks she has to be.

[annwyd]

I hadn't noticed that trend--the FB fans I know are fairly evenly split among Kyou/Tohru, Yuki/Tohru, and "I don't care." I don't really blame Yuki for it (although if I'd started from a position of everyone around me cheering for Yuki/Tohru I might have), since that kind of clingy self-centered behavior is very believable and understandable in someone who's gone through the kind of abuse he has, and he's been a whole lot less obnoxious about it than most male characters in his position are. But I don't find him all that compelling as a character, either. I started out somewhat interested in Kyou and have more and more found my interest moving to Tohru herself.

That's a part of it, yeah. For me the biggest draw is that her cheerful kindness is not depicted as her natural "default" state--her default state is being curled up in a scared ball of loneliness--but one she constantly strives for.

[meganbmoore]

Part of it was also that the material you've read took about 2 years to come out for me, so there was time for irritation with the whiny clingyness and everyone talking about how amazing and wonderful he was (and largely ignoring Kyo) to fester.

[annwyd]

Yeah, that would have done it, all right. Kind of surprising, since it seems to me like Kyou would get just as many fangirls...the very earliest volumes do seem to focus slightly more on Yuki/Tohru, but not by that much.

[parasaurolophus]

I've only seen the anime, never read the manga, and that was several years ago. I just remember Tohru being really likeable, and the SUDDEN SERIOUS plot shift that happens in the last two episodes.