Crying about magical furries and horrible families: Tumblr's #1 problematic manga [FRUITS BASKET]

Yuki: Wow I ran away from the Sohma household where I had a roof over my head and everything and the whole time Honda-san has been living in a tent I am a spoiled brat

Me: Yuki you are a goddamn abuse survivor you are allowed to leave your home ok there is more to this situation than Tohru not having a house ok bruh, Tohru's self-imposed outdoor lifestyle is not a moral reflection on you

 

To continue my liveblogging that nobody asked for

Yuki: *arrives with rat army*
Shigure: Aah, youth... With their rat armies and walkmans and pokemon gos.. Such fun...

HERE COMES DAT BOI
OH SHIT WADDUP

 

Yuki calls Kyou "stupid cat" by using the kanji for cat but having it read as "baka", not "neko", and I think that's beautiful

 

The artwork in the first volume is charmingly janky at times. Man, just seeing it is so nostalgic... I forgot that I'd memorized those faces so thoroughly.

 

I actually prefer the older art XD it's much more polished in the later volumes, but idk I find the old art much more... Lively? I'm not quite sure ehe

In further news: no one is having a good day

 

Yeah, it is more lively. The later artwork is super clean and consistent, but at the expense of some expressiveness.

 

I disagree, but then I'm one of the people who likes the first season of Sailor Moon Crystal bc it doesn't use face faults, but is still really expressive. it's just not as obvious as a face fault, but it's still there

 

So, I'd love to read that paper, if possible.

 

Same!!!

Also my local bookstore has collector's editions of the manga (in Japanese aha) and I think it's multiple volumes per book, but uh yeah I bought the first two books in the series and uh yeah I'm in FB hell XD

 

I think you're in the clear.
The point about playing one's assigned role reminds me of all the times in Japanese media where a character comments about how an action or situation suits/doesn't suit their "image." I always assumed they were breaking the fourth wall, but now I wonder...

 

I reread the whole series and I must say, I'd forgotten how much Kisa's introduction absolutely DESTROYED me.

 

Esp the bit about it being harder to talk about your problems with people you love and respect sometimes.

 

I keep meaning to revive this so I can gush about Machi and @Elaienar 's fantastic art from the Chrismukkah secret santa thing but I don't have the spoons rn, so this is mostly just me posting to say that the art and the char are fantastic and I will do a better post on this later

 

Read the manga, don't watch the anime. The anime isn't bad but it's an alternate and much shorter story that leaves out a few of the major characters (because it ended before the manga reached them) and leaves out a lot of the ways the protagonist and antagonist aren't foils for each other so much as mirrors (because it ended before the manga reached a lot of the reveals there).

 

Well I guess they're still foils but like, their mothers went through some almost identical things, they both have similar emotional problems, they both desire the same thing deep down despite it being unhealthy, etc.

Spoiler: Real late manga stuff, MAJOR SPOILER

I'd argue the difference is that Akito was simultaniously enabled and horrifically emotionally abused after the death of her dad while Tohru always had a loving support system.

 

Now I want to reread Fruits Basket.

 

I really wanted to love furuba but it wound up being really disappointing to me in the endgame

not disappointing enough that i dont still have like 16 volumes of it on my shelf, but disappointing all the same