I find myself dropping in attention from a lot of manga when they go on for a long stretch like Furuba did. I think I actually like the Akita and Ren related things (probably for Shigure related reason :)) but the thing about Momiji, oy!
This is actually making me slightly irritated with Shigure, because it's bordering on crossing from "seriously messed up" to "taking out angst and frustration on others."
My problem isn't the length (I prefer manga to just get to the point and tell the story, but, well, I am a shounen fan...) but with the fact that it tends to turn into a neverending angstfest towards the end.
The Momiji thing...I mean, what's with that? There were "hello, serious angst looming!" hints in the last volume, but come on! They acted more like siblings before this. Kids in a playground. Mutual platonic adoration society. Did Takaya just realize she broke the shoujo rule that at least one other male must be in love with the heroine so there can be a confrontation? (Why I hate love triangles: They send the message that, for a couple to be happy, someone else must be unhappy. Also why I dislike fanon-created love triangles.)
Shigure's one of those characters, the darker he seems, the more I love him :D
Heh, I've almost entirely given up on shounen apart from FMA and TRC (not sure if that one counts), they just got me too annoyed.
I tend to eat angst as if it was nutella, but I agree the mix of comedy with angst works better (in general and in Furuba both), especially because it makes the angst too real. Have too much angst and it becomes melodramatic, so we become disconnect from the characters and don't particularly care apart from a "angst, lol" way. Which was a very lengthy way for me to say that too much angst is wangsty.
It's not even there long enough to be a love triangle! I don't know what it is ;_;
I like some love triangles and hate others, it really depends of the handling.
Some love triangles are well done, but most are just inserted because it's easy angst. And yeah, it wasn't really there long enough to be anything but "huh?"
When the angst is deserved (and 95% in FB is) or there for total crack I'm a total angstbunny. but when it's there just to have angst, I have no tolerance for it.
TRC is supposed to be shounen, but I think that it was just a ploy and it has long since given up any pretenses of being anything other than gothic shoujo crack.
Shigure has gotten away with a lot of things that would normally make me swear off a character.
I was pretty annoyed with the Kyo-blaming-himself thing too. The whole Shigure thing, I had long ago filed under "people are weird, and Shigure is weirder than most."
I don't think I took the whole Momiji thing very seriously, actually. Maybe I need to look at again. I do remember coming away with a distinct feeling of "jeez, I hope he finds someone nice."
Shigure in this part is starting to border on "using others to deal with his angst and disappointments" which is a huge no-no for me. I give him more leeway than I do others because he's more justifiably screwed up, but it still irritates me.
Momiji was in fullblown "this is my love but she loves yyyoooooouuuuuu!!" mode in the scene with Kyo. Which wouldn't have been as bad if it hadn't come out of nowhere.
But really, this whole thing is why I have so many problems with shoujo. In the longer running ones, it seems the mangaka are required to turn them into fullblown angstfests towards the end, or shift the focus to "all these males are in love with the girl and angsting over how it affects their friendship." There are a few exceptions, and FB isn't quite to that point, but...
I may just be reacting to people's "but once you know Akito's story, you'll come to love her" insistences, but...eeh. Just makes it worse for me, really.
The Momiji/Tohru thing just irritates me because there seems to be no point to it.
Yeah, Kyo's involvement is something we've known about for so long that I kind of forget we know, if you know what I mean. It's been around so long that we just accept it as a given. I think it's just the "oh yeah, more angst!" aspect in how it was presented after nothing but angst in this volume that bothered me.
I was following the raws when this part came out in Japan, and it was such a bore. I agree that part of the charm of Furuba is the angst/comedy balance, and the last -what, four volumes?- of that were pretty much resolving the drama plotlines.
And ugh, yes, Momiji. And he gets worse in the last volume, because suddenly his final resolution was all about Kyou/Tohru. What happened with the joie de vivre and his dreams of becoming a violinist for Momo? Did he lose them as soon as hormones finally hit him? Bah.
Not getting too into Momiji as I've mostly avoided spoilers for this for the last 5-6 years, but yeah. Vol 19 was "hey, Momiji grew up nice!" and this volume was "and was studying how to be a spurned shoujo 3rd party while he was at it!"
I figured you wouldn't be spoiled so I tried not to be specific about it but yeah... just saying it won't be quite solved by the end of the series. And it sucks because I for one liked Momiji a lot.
I kind of like how f-d up Shigure is, it's been interesting to see how the layers peel away. He's so twisted, but also peculiarly pure in his devotion.
Some Furuba characters don't get a lot of resolution. Momiji is one, which is too bad.
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I find myself dropping in attention from a lot of manga when they go on for a long stretch like Furuba did. I think I actually like the Akita and Ren related things (probably for Shigure related reason :)) but the thing about Momiji, oy!
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My problem isn't the length (I prefer manga to just get to the point and tell the story, but, well, I am a shounen fan...) but with the fact that it tends to turn into a neverending angstfest towards the end.
The Momiji thing...I mean, what's with that? There were "hello, serious angst looming!" hints in the last volume, but come on! They acted more like siblings before this. Kids in a playground. Mutual platonic adoration society. Did Takaya just realize she broke the shoujo rule that at least one other male must be in love with the heroine so there can be a confrontation? (Why I hate love triangles: They send the message that, for a couple to be happy, someone else must be unhappy. Also why I dislike fanon-created love triangles.)
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Heh, I've almost entirely given up on shounen apart from FMA and TRC (not sure if that one counts), they just got me too annoyed.
I tend to eat angst as if it was nutella, but I agree the mix of comedy with angst works better (in general and in Furuba both), especially because it makes the angst too real. Have too much angst and it becomes melodramatic, so we become disconnect from the characters and don't particularly care apart from a "angst, lol" way. Which was a very lengthy way for me to say that too much angst is wangsty.
It's not even there long enough to be a love triangle! I don't know what it is ;_;
I like some love triangles and hate others, it really depends of the handling.
Reply
When the angst is deserved (and 95% in FB is) or there for total crack I'm a total angstbunny. but when it's there just to have angst, I have no tolerance for it.
TRC is supposed to be shounen, but I think that it was just a ploy and it has long since given up any pretenses of being anything other than gothic shoujo crack.
Shigure has gotten away with a lot of things that would normally make me swear off a character.
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I was pretty annoyed with the Kyo-blaming-himself thing too. The whole Shigure thing, I had long ago filed under "people are weird, and Shigure is weirder than most."
I don't think I took the whole Momiji thing very seriously, actually. Maybe I need to look at again. I do remember coming away with a distinct feeling of "jeez, I hope he finds someone nice."
Reply
Momiji was in fullblown "this is my love but she loves yyyoooooouuuuuu!!" mode in the scene with Kyo. Which wouldn't have been as bad if it hadn't come out of nowhere.
But really, this whole thing is why I have so many problems with shoujo. In the longer running ones, it seems the mangaka are required to turn them into fullblown angstfests towards the end, or shift the focus to "all these males are in love with the girl and angsting over how it affects their friendship." There are a few exceptions, and FB isn't quite to that point, but...
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The Momiji/Tohru thing just irritates me because there seems to be no point to it.
Yeah, Kyo's involvement is something we've known about for so long that I kind of forget we know, if you know what I mean. It's been around so long that we just accept it as a given. I think it's just the "oh yeah, more angst!" aspect in how it was presented after nothing but angst in this volume that bothered me.
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And ugh, yes, Momiji. And he gets worse in the last volume, because suddenly his final resolution was all about Kyou/Tohru. What happened with the joie de vivre and his dreams of becoming a violinist for Momo? Did he lose them as soon as hormones finally hit him? Bah.
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Some Furuba characters don't get a lot of resolution. Momiji is one, which is too bad.
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