Furuba 126 scans and partial translation reaction; accidental swag
This chapter's definitely more about peeling back layers and resolving things clearly than it is about subtlety. Lots of interesting stuff in here. ^^ This is all to do with the main events in the chapter--depending on what's said, may post a bit more when the Kisa and Hiro material is translated, but I may have already said everything I want to about that based on the summary . . .
I wonder what kind of job Akito's been doing all along as head of the family--she's been so horrible to the 12shi, and it wouldn't surprise me if all of the servants were at least a little afraid of her, but for most of the family, how has she been? Kazuma only talks to Tohru about Akito's connection to the 12shi, rather than to the Sohmas in general, IIRC. Anyway, I wonder because I really like the way she simply says she's going to go deal with Kyo's father herself; the maid's negative reaction to the change in her *may* suggest that such direct action is unusual, as well as obviously being a comment on her different attitude toward the Cat. I like that she's not a figurehead--not that I think she ever was one, but this is an aspect of her that we've never really had much chance to see before.
Kyo's father is just *so* awful, and while it's not surprising that he may be much more responsible for his wife's death than he thinks, it was painful to see Kyo realize it. Poor kitty. ;_; I wonder if there's ANY consciousness of it on his father's part--is his blame of Kyo so complete because he can't accept his own responsibility, or was it *this* intense all along? (That doesn't seem like I've expressed it clearly . . . I'm running on very little sleep again. I'm wondering if he was this vicious about how Kyo [and by extension Kyo's mother] ruined his life before the suicide, or was it a quieter discontent/anger than flared up after she died, to protect himself from any sense of guilt?)
He also seems to connect Kyo's theoretical imprisonment *very* strongly with his wife's death, as if the fate of the Cat had to do with some specific guilt . . . but Kazuma's grandfather was locked away, and every sign is that it's a long-standing family tradition. So how did the suicide and imprisonment become so entwined in his head? I can't think of any other references to it that didn't involve it being simply scheduled to happen after Kyo finished high school, but his father always brings it back to "he killed my wife, so he needs to be locked up".
. . . suddenly I have this image of Akito's little chat with him including something about his exaggerated sense of self-importance in the scheme of things, for thinking that the details of *his* life have so much to do with what's actually a family tradition older than he is, but that's not a serious thought.
Ginny and I have been talking about things that still need resolution--thematically, more than relationship-wise--and I think that, assuming there aren't any twists in the Kyo/Tohru dynamic, Kyo *himself* may be resolved. He's now been dealing with his guilt over Kyoko and his mother, he's made the first huge step toward dealing with his father, Akito has said he won't be locked away, and he and Tohru have both basically confessed to each other. So what's left? I don't think his actual curse *needs* to be broken for the overall story to find resolution, as long as we're able to assume that it will break at some point (operating on the assumption that Takaya may not take the time to show each curse breaking, unless it's handled in a quick montage way towards the end--since so many manga seem to end with a last chapter that sort of flickers over the cast's lives after the main story closes). It's the relationship with the rest of the Sohmas that's always weighed on him, rather than the facts of transforming (which is pretty impressive, given the nature of his transformations. I'm not suggesting that these are trivial things, esp. considering how people have responded to his 'true' shape, but I think they're not the vital issues for his character).
So that really leaves his relationship with the 12shi, and their acceptance of him. And Kyo himself really seems to be ok with them. When Kagura breaks down and apologizes for the way she used him to feel better about herself--which we now know isn't simply a flaw in her, but rather the way the 12shi all (instinctively?) respond to the Cat, Kyo is not only unsurprised, but very accepting of it. This is a quick-tempered, emotionally crippled boy with every right to be bitter--and yes, his relationship with Kagura is different than the others, so that obviously has a lot of weight--but he just lets it go. So I think that from his side, there isn't a huge need for resolution with the others, most of whom have come to accept him in practice since they began gathering around Tohru. The underlying discomfort is still there, as we see from Hiro's "but--the CAT", and Haru's response that Hiro's said what no one else wants to. But I think what we're left with is the rest of the 12shi needing to deal with their own response to Kyo, rather than Kyo needing to deal with it. They now see him as family, as one of them, in an unprecedented way, and the conflict between what they've been raised/conditioned to think and how they've been acting is pretty stark. (We know that the Sohmas are good at denial, as evidenced by Haru's denial of what was happening to Rin.)
I don't have a tidy ending to that. Or is that tidy enough? Well, it's not like I'm doing academic work here. ^^
In a comment on my last post, I was thinking again about my belief that there's a strong physical resemblance between Akito, Rin, Ren, and Yuki ("Akito and Yuki look alike, Rin reminds Akito of Ren, Ren reminds Shigure of Akito . . . so I think it's safe to think that Rin, Akito, Ren, and Yuki all have a strong similarity"). I wonder if it's any kind of accident that Rin's resemblance to Ren was so important to Akito, and that now that Rin's hair's short people often comment on thinking Akito looks like her (has anyone ever thought Rin looked like Akito? Probably not, with the clothes--Rin shows up in traditional clothes occasionally, but it definitely doesn't go both ways).
Ginny is pointing out that it'd be nice to have another conversation between Yuki and Kyo, too. I think it'd be good if the series ends (or close to it) with them and Tohru, again . . .
She's rereading vol. 6 as I type, and says that she thinks Kyo's mom really *did* try with him, and that there just wasn't much she could do against the weight of the whole family's disdain, and her own husband . . . (my addition: and as soon as she was gone, all of that fell straight onto Kyo. She really was a literal wall between him and the family--maybe it wasn't just her shame that made her keep Kyo inside when he was little). Ginny also notes the flashback of Kyo's mom saying that she'd die for Kyo if it would help him . . . not that it seems to have actually helped, but . . ?
***
I was thrift-shopping with Ginny, Chris, and the girl over the weekend, and found this handpainted mug for $1. Accidental Haru-swag! (I keep telling people this does NOT mean I want to acquire cow-related things in general. It's just that this reminded all of us of the way he's drawn in ox form . . . ) And I've just now finished the tea that was steeping when we took the picture. ^_^
I wonder what kind of job Akito's been doing all along as head of the family--she's been so horrible to the 12shi, and it wouldn't surprise me if all of the servants were at least a little afraid of her, but for most of the family, how has she been? Kazuma only talks to Tohru about Akito's connection to the 12shi, rather than to the Sohmas in general, IIRC. Anyway, I wonder because I really like the way she simply says she's going to go deal with Kyo's father herself; the maid's negative reaction to the change in her *may* suggest that such direct action is unusual, as well as obviously being a comment on her different attitude toward the Cat. I like that she's not a figurehead--not that I think she ever was one, but this is an aspect of her that we've never really had much chance to see before.
Kyo's father is just *so* awful, and while it's not surprising that he may be much more responsible for his wife's death than he thinks, it was painful to see Kyo realize it. Poor kitty. ;_; I wonder if there's ANY consciousness of it on his father's part--is his blame of Kyo so complete because he can't accept his own responsibility, or was it *this* intense all along? (That doesn't seem like I've expressed it clearly . . . I'm running on very little sleep again. I'm wondering if he was this vicious about how Kyo [and by extension Kyo's mother] ruined his life before the suicide, or was it a quieter discontent/anger than flared up after she died, to protect himself from any sense of guilt?)
He also seems to connect Kyo's theoretical imprisonment *very* strongly with his wife's death, as if the fate of the Cat had to do with some specific guilt . . . but Kazuma's grandfather was locked away, and every sign is that it's a long-standing family tradition. So how did the suicide and imprisonment become so entwined in his head? I can't think of any other references to it that didn't involve it being simply scheduled to happen after Kyo finished high school, but his father always brings it back to "he killed my wife, so he needs to be locked up".
. . . suddenly I have this image of Akito's little chat with him including something about his exaggerated sense of self-importance in the scheme of things, for thinking that the details of *his* life have so much to do with what's actually a family tradition older than he is, but that's not a serious thought.
Ginny and I have been talking about things that still need resolution--thematically, more than relationship-wise--and I think that, assuming there aren't any twists in the Kyo/Tohru dynamic, Kyo *himself* may be resolved. He's now been dealing with his guilt over Kyoko and his mother, he's made the first huge step toward dealing with his father, Akito has said he won't be locked away, and he and Tohru have both basically confessed to each other. So what's left? I don't think his actual curse *needs* to be broken for the overall story to find resolution, as long as we're able to assume that it will break at some point (operating on the assumption that Takaya may not take the time to show each curse breaking, unless it's handled in a quick montage way towards the end--since so many manga seem to end with a last chapter that sort of flickers over the cast's lives after the main story closes). It's the relationship with the rest of the Sohmas that's always weighed on him, rather than the facts of transforming (which is pretty impressive, given the nature of his transformations. I'm not suggesting that these are trivial things, esp. considering how people have responded to his 'true' shape, but I think they're not the vital issues for his character).
So that really leaves his relationship with the 12shi, and their acceptance of him. And Kyo himself really seems to be ok with them. When Kagura breaks down and apologizes for the way she used him to feel better about herself--which we now know isn't simply a flaw in her, but rather the way the 12shi all (instinctively?) respond to the Cat, Kyo is not only unsurprised, but very accepting of it. This is a quick-tempered, emotionally crippled boy with every right to be bitter--and yes, his relationship with Kagura is different than the others, so that obviously has a lot of weight--but he just lets it go. So I think that from his side, there isn't a huge need for resolution with the others, most of whom have come to accept him in practice since they began gathering around Tohru. The underlying discomfort is still there, as we see from Hiro's "but--the CAT", and Haru's response that Hiro's said what no one else wants to. But I think what we're left with is the rest of the 12shi needing to deal with their own response to Kyo, rather than Kyo needing to deal with it. They now see him as family, as one of them, in an unprecedented way, and the conflict between what they've been raised/conditioned to think and how they've been acting is pretty stark. (We know that the Sohmas are good at denial, as evidenced by Haru's denial of what was happening to Rin.)
I don't have a tidy ending to that. Or is that tidy enough? Well, it's not like I'm doing academic work here. ^^
In a comment on my last post, I was thinking again about my belief that there's a strong physical resemblance between Akito, Rin, Ren, and Yuki ("Akito and Yuki look alike, Rin reminds Akito of Ren, Ren reminds Shigure of Akito . . . so I think it's safe to think that Rin, Akito, Ren, and Yuki all have a strong similarity"). I wonder if it's any kind of accident that Rin's resemblance to Ren was so important to Akito, and that now that Rin's hair's short people often comment on thinking Akito looks like her (has anyone ever thought Rin looked like Akito? Probably not, with the clothes--Rin shows up in traditional clothes occasionally, but it definitely doesn't go both ways).
Ginny is pointing out that it'd be nice to have another conversation between Yuki and Kyo, too. I think it'd be good if the series ends (or close to it) with them and Tohru, again . . .
She's rereading vol. 6 as I type, and says that she thinks Kyo's mom really *did* try with him, and that there just wasn't much she could do against the weight of the whole family's disdain, and her own husband . . . (my addition: and as soon as she was gone, all of that fell straight onto Kyo. She really was a literal wall between him and the family--maybe it wasn't just her shame that made her keep Kyo inside when he was little). Ginny also notes the flashback of Kyo's mom saying that she'd die for Kyo if it would help him . . . not that it seems to have actually helped, but . . ?
***
I was thrift-shopping with Ginny, Chris, and the girl over the weekend, and found this handpainted mug for $1. Accidental Haru-swag! (I keep telling people this does NOT mean I want to acquire cow-related things in general. It's just that this reminded all of us of the way he's drawn in ox form . . . ) And I've just now finished the tea that was steeping when we took the picture. ^_^