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

...i'm biting down on the temptation to ask you what you were disappointed in and derail the thread more.

 

at least 40% of my disappointment was that every dude who expressed attraction to other dudes wound up in a relationship with a woman by the end of the series, and gender nonconformity was something that was "fixed" for 2/3rds of the gnc characters

it was a haven of lowkey gay content when i was like 14 and it ending up being Heteronormative City at the end was just really disappointing to me

 

Oh, I guess I just never really expected it to be all that gay so that wasn't that disappointing. Also, idk if I'd call

Spoiler: major late-manga spoiler

Akito gnc, because to be gnc is a choice and that's really not the circumstances that were going on with Akito. If anything, she probably was constantly getting hit with dysphoria while presenting male while also despising the thought of presenting femininely because she'd look so much like her mother.

The way things resolved with Ritsu's preference for presenting femininely was disappointing, but I read something about how that's also a thing with gender expectations in Japan... like, it's something about different cultural pressures that the stuff with Ritsu is supposed to reflect, even if it's also really easy to read him as trans.

EDIT: The 'to be gnc is a choice' was poor wording on my part, but I was referring to the preference for how you present, which is something the character in question has not been allowed to express until the very end due to various stuff. The way they ended up presenting might seem to you as them being 'fixed', but I think it's more complicated than that.

 

It makes sense within the world that those characters would move back towards presenting as their assigned genders, but it's still disappointing that the world was written like that, you know? And the reveal abt spoilersspoilers > her getting involved with a dude who's both MUCH older than her and had a lot of playflirting with another dude was... in text, it wasn't very well supported, and out of text it just felt like it was rushing to get everyone paired off in het as fast as possible, since by the end of the series i dont think there was ANYONE who wasnt in a m/f relationship

idk man like, if there'd been a couple straight pairings in the endgame, I probably wouldn't have minded so much, but ayame AND shigure AND ritsu AND yuki AND haru AND like, didn't even the vice president or whatever of the student council end up with a girlfriend? there wasn't even any space left to imagine gay futures because they were ALL in heterosexual relationships at the end.

 

I mean I totally agree that that one specific endgame pairing is the thing I'm most uncomfy about in Fruits Basket, but I am totally fine with the wave'o'girlfriends because it gave me Machi, my favorite character who I think fits really really well with who she ends up with.

Some were definitely sillier than Machi, though.

IDK, I'm not disagreeing with you that that 'Fruits Basket, but a lot more queer' would be exactly up my alley, I guess my experience was difference from yours because I didn't have those expectations set up to be crushed.

Spoiler

Akito/Shigure, while my most uncomfy relationship in Fruits Basket, is I think unfortunately pretty damn well set up and foreshadowed and supported. I just would have liked for them to not actually end up at the end because it wigs me out that Shigure gets what he wants after manipulating everyone and goading Akito into brutally attacking people, even aside from the age gape. It would have been more poetic for him to get what he wanted re: breaking the curse and setting Akito free, but then for that freedom to also be the freedom to not be in a relationship with Shigure. Him actually having to deal w/ that would be interesting. In my headcanon they break up post-canon.

 

Machi Kuragi is my very good daughter and I wish she didn't get a ton of backlash for being paired with the character she's paired with, especially since she draws different things out in him than the other popular ships with him do.

EDIT: but seriously, do we have a furuba thread? Can these posts be moved? I'm getting embarrassed.

 

I had a similar experience in furuba ended when I was young and didn't develop any expectations about the ending, so on initial read I was very happy with it. When the curse finally breaks.. I first read that in the bookstore, and yes I openly wept in a Borders as a like 13 year old.

I rly want to reread furuba now but I read the first volumes so much as library copies that scanlations are always off enough in translation that it bothers me :c

 

Fortunately I bought all the volumes as a teen so I'll probably reread pretty soon.

 

I need to get around to buying them, because I had borrowed a friend’s and have to do the Scanslation Dive every time I want to reread. The wildly varying fonts are what end up killing me.

 

I have all the volumes plus the two official fanbooks. Still a pretty good decision from my teenaged self I think.

 

Copypasting my ideal Furuba tweaks from discord, with some editing.

Spoiler

Ok phoneposting but here are my dumb gay ideas for my ideal furuba ending
I like the resolution of the main plot and kyo and tohru. Keep all that for sure
A) arisa and kureno was a weird subplot. They can meet and be friends but the romance was way fast. Also, maybe arisa and saki can date???
B) trim waifu wave. Machi stays bc she's rlly well characterized. Mine still is around and ayame's best non-sohma bestie who secretly knows about the curse but is not dating ayame
Teacher and hatori reunite and get closure and friendship but keep romance ambiguous (EDIT: Cut out romance entirely if making Hatori/Ayame a thing)
Ritsu is not paired with a joke character.
C) I'm fine with haru and rin but please takaya-sensei be more explicit he is bisexual God please
Also ayame and hatori? Please?
D) if im gonna be honest i want to explore more trans stuff with ritsu and also akito like even if akito is cis she'd have dysphoria right?
E) shigure and akito arent together in the end. She doesnt need a boyfriend right then and certainly not him. God.

 

HEY HOW ABOUT THAT NEW ANIME

IT'S A NEW REMINDER OF HOW MANY THINGS IN FURUBA I CAN CRY AT EVERY WEEK!!

also a discovery that i still have a deep, abiding crush on hatsuharu, oh my god.
which is weirder now that i'm 23