Takaya Natsuki - Fruits Basket, vol. 02 (Eng. trans.) (reread)

[oyceter]

Slooowly catching up with rilina in the Great Manga Reread Project: Fruits Basket edition.

Spoilers for this volume under the cut; spoilers for later volumes further hidden using spoiler code. Please use spoiler code for later volumes in the comments! Also, I've only read up to around ch. 126.

Comments

[fmanalyst]

:-) Manga is full of Vegetation of DOOM. Whole series of covers feature Vegetation of DOOM. For truely ominous Vegetation of DOOM, see Kurama.

[oyceter]

Manga really is! Is this Kurama from YYH? I really should read that sometime; I know it's classic shounen, but never got around to it when it was still coming out in Taiwan.

[fmanalyst]

Yep, that's Kurama from YYH. His whole arsenal is Vegetation of Doom. His usual weapon is a rose whip: http://kuramalover.tripod.com/yyh/kurawhip.html. He also plants seeds in his opponent's body or traps them in a plant.

[oyceter]

Dude! I had totally forgotten about the rose whip! Good lord!

[rilina]

On a more serious note, we have heavy parallels between Tohru and Kana here, from Tohru's first reaction to Hatori-as-seahorse resembling Kana's first reaction to Tohru getting the riddle of what snow becomes correct.
(spoilers through 126) And this, of course, foreshadows how so many of the couples in FB are doubled: Kyoko and Katsuya, Kyo and Tohru, Hiro and Kisa.

And I love Kyo telling Tohru that she's got an umeboshi on her back too. A reaaaaalllly tiny one.
And this, in a nutshell, sums up why I find Kyo so adorable. He's so awkward, but in the end, also so honest.

And because I am twelve, I am so amused by the kotatsu because of Ouran!
Me too! I will forever associate kotatsu with Kyouya and Tamaki.

I am thinking that wafuku is more a symbol of being closely tied in with the curse and the Sohmas and extra behind-the-scenes plotting.
(spoilers through 126) The major break in that pattern is Kazuya; aside from that, the pattern holds. Think of how very much Rin and Haru avoid traditional dress. And I think Yuki is a very

[oyceter]

Oh! I didn't think about the doubling of all the couples -- I picked up a little on Kyoko/Katsuya in vol. 1, but forgot the others. I'll have to pay more attention to that.

Oh man, I adore Kyo so much more the second time around, now that I'm not worrying about the possibility of a romantic triangle driving me nuts.

Oh! I don't even remember Kazuya being in wafuku! Awesome! I also agree re: Yuki being a very liminal figure; his child-wafuku and his teen-uniform really symbolize how he's moving away from the main house and Akito, and also how he's in that odd role of being Akito's favorite while also wanting to leave the Sohma family as far behind as possible. Neat note on Haru and Rin's really non-traditional clothing, I hadn't thought of that!

Also, didn't think about Akito and birds and Kureno! Awesome!

This reread project is so fun! I mean... there is just so much going on; I can't believe this is just vol. 2!

[rilina]

(spoilers through 126) I think Kazuma (whose named I screwed up above! eep!) is probably in wakufu because of his profession; but perhaps there's something more to it. He's certainly not aligned with Akito and Shigure in the story.

Meanwhile, re: doubling of couples - Katsuya even looks like a Sohma! When he's not one! (This is probably a product of Takaya's style as much as anything intentional, but it still makes the doubling that much more striking.)

[oyceter]

Haha, I totally didn't catch your name screwup because I forgot his name too -_-;;.

[almeda]

note: I've not read past #4 or #5

[oyceter]

I am really looking forward to seeing what you think of Shigure as the series progresses, along with your opinion of the other characters.

One of my absolute favorite things about Fruits Basket is how all the characters develop and deepen and how dark the series actually gets, despite its happy fluffy exterior.

[almeda]

I checked on Amazon; it seems it is Vol. 4 that is the last I've read.

[chomiji]

I'm reading them for the first time, as you may recall ...

I have to say I also like Shigure, but I'm aware that it's because of his resemblance in many, many ways to my favorite Samurai Deeper Kyo character, Sanada Yukimura, also a charming schemer. I'm trying (but mostly failing) to be more objective about him.

At this point I've read on much faster than I can blog ... I'm getting ready to write up 4-7, but I've actually read through 10. And my opinion of the series changed radically with the reading of vol. 4.

I like the notes about the costume choices, etc., which are helping me with a deeper reading of the series. This may have been mentioned, but the notes on Wikipedia (yes, I know, a doubtful source ... ) say that each of the Jyūnishi's names come from the traditional names of the months of the year associated with the signs, some of which include names of plants (e.g., Ayame = iris, and is usually a girl's name).

[oyceter]

I don't think I believe you when you say your posts will get shorter.

Hee! I keep thinking they will, and yet....

I love doing this reread! There's so much to find.