#; u; i apologize for my future actions xD

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket S01, Overall Impression:

Disclaimer: I want to express that I love Furuba so much. But kindly note this is my overall first impression of the story/anime, so far. My opinion might change about certain aspects as the story/show progress, so Kindly refrain from correcting me. Although I highly respect the author & anime team, I have no personal attachment to them as this is my first introduction to their work, unlike many veteran fans who’s read the manga. This is my personal opinion, I hope I can write another one after the anime/story finishes, to see what changes.

The Writing’s strength:

The writer created a work that focused on human drama, emotions, & mentality. Although there’s fantasy, it can easily symbolize real life obstacles. Love it!

This is one of the rare stories where the majority of the characters’ emotions & actions are real. I lost track of how many time I’ve wrote “this is a real depiction of...this is so real..realistic”. This’s Furuba’s greatest strength! This is why I still follow this story! the characters are highly flawed in a realistic way.

It deals heavily with children’s abuse, destructive traditions, wrong choices, depression, child’s neglect, murder, death, & suicide, yet manages to not be depressing or gloomy. Hope is created in a balanced & natural way throughout the story & doesn’t feel imposed. Genius!

The Writing’s flaw (Personal opinion):

The story tends to give a life lesson per episode (mostly), not a weakness by itself, however, It creates a presence of the writer where u know this is today’s lesson.

Its contradictory depiction of physical violence within the story, where sometimes it should be taken seriously, others just a comedy. The story says violence is wrong (kisa being hit/hatori ‘s eye) but use it as a joking comedy as well. I know it is not meant to be taken seriously, it’s an anime thing, but the story takes violence seriously. For example, School Rumble anime doesn’t take itself seriously, mainly a comedy, so hitting/beating can be jokes. But Furuba deals with heavy physical abuse of characters (children & adults) & does not shy away from depicting it, so, to joke about it is weird to me personally. Furuba is already funny without it. Violence is one of the those tricky story elements, that is rarely used positively unless it’s self-defense. However, I’ll give the writer credit for not falling into the usual anime’s cliche of using physical violence as a healing aspect to maximize the climax & add extra drama. We didn’t see Shigure & Aya beating Hatori in the lake ep, although they were frustrated with him giving up on life. They’ll need to interfere in the future to push him forward, but I bet it will be realistic. Furuba doesn’t need to restore to such cliches to create drama, climax & explore the depths of broken mentality & emotions. This story is really unique in its approach of dealing with broken humans realistically. So far, none of the heavy emotional breakdowns felt like an anime drama, with a warning this aspect is not serious, it is just maximized, forget this aspect & focus on the other, NO, they all felt real. I guess for how great of a story furuba is, weird jokes are a minor thing, after all.

The anime’s strength:

pretty art designs, excellent music, perfect voice actors, & real dedication.

It is clear that the show is taking its time & not rushing anything which is a very rare instance in anime worlds.

The anime’s weakness (personal opinion):

tendency to over-dramatize emotional moments so unnecessarily. (shallow waters had its own post).

The eps MUST end with a happy note, each & every ep, no cliffhanger, no sadness. Furuba is not the kind of show where cliffhangers are a must, but always ending happily creates an episodic feel. Even when kyo became a monster, tohru hurt, suicide is hinted! & everything was dark, it was resolved within the ep. The only exception is Arisa’s ep, but that’s a two ep background story, doesn’t affect the current timeline. The only moment it became close to a cliffhanger when kyo apologized. boy~, I have never clicked faster for the next ep in Furuba, XD. We’ll see if this continues as now most character intro are done. Are we still gona end every dark ep with a happy feel & nothing left hanging?

[romanssippycup]

Undeniably Important Chapter 1: A Liquid Beginning

This is my very first Sander’s Sides Fanfiction that I have ever done. I currently have ten chapters and would like to make more, but I lost motivation once Sander’s Sides Appreciation Month took over my life. XD I will post the first 10 chapters and please let me know if you all want me to continue. I still have a lot of ideas for this fanfic. This was inspired by @prplzorua‘s Innerworks, but I wanted to go with a more scientific and dimensional approach on the sides.

There is Prinxiety and Logicality, but that won’t be apparent until future chapters and it is NOT the main focus of the story. There is a strong brotp between Logan and Anxiety though that starts off from the beginning. (Please note this was written before Anxiety’s name reveal.)

The story is not actually about Logan, but more of the situations between the side’s interactions. I tried to keep them all in character as much as I could. There is a lot of science as you will see in future chapters. Also please critique me on my writing from about 2 months ago. I want to see how much I’ve grown!

(Also if you want to read the actual story on wattpad, click this link.)

Also big shout out to @mewsicalmiss as we helped each other on our fanfiction. Go follow them for their awesome content!

Taglist: (Computer’s being stupid will reblog sometime with taglist)

Without further ado let’s get into it:

Words: 2,187

9:03 pm.

Logan decided that the most logical way to finish his busy day was to warm down with his favorite book: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. If he had to count the amount of times he read it, this was probably his 32nd. Or was it his 33rd? No it was definitely his 32nd. He kept a good mental record of everything and he was sure he would have remembered if he did.

The couches in the living room were Logan's optimal place for relaxation. He could have picked any one of the three couches surrounding the tv, but for the night decided on the sofa whose back faced the kitchen. Little did Logan know that if he had chosen a different couch, the events that followed may never have taken place.

Logan was about to get to his favorite part of his book when he heard the fridge door open and close in the kitchen behind him. This stumped him as he knew that both Princy and Morality were either asleep or close to it because Thomas wanted to be in bed early tonight. No...could it be? He turned his head from the couch to spot the darker trait, walking back to his room from the kitchen with a glass of milk in hand; hence why Logan heard the Fridge.

"Hello Anxiety." he stated dryly.

Anxiety didn't even see or hear Logan when he had entered the kitchen or opened the fridge door so hearing his name being called upon from behind him spooked him out quite a bit. So much so that he jumped and spilled his milk.

"Ahh!!" Anxiety jumped and his milk spilled onto the carpet from the side of his glass. He sighed, irritated at the wet spot on the floor. "Dang it Logan! You scared me half to death."

From behind him, Logan stood up quietly, put his book down, and went to the kitchen to grab the paper towels and carpet cleaner.

"My apologies Anxiety, I was uninformed that you were unaware of my presence." He said as he knelt down to clean the carpet. Anxiety stabilized his glass of milk by taking a sip and licking the rest of the spill from his hand and the outside of the glass.

"U-uh its fine I guess..." he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I thought I was the only one awake. I usually am..."

"Ah. I see..." Logan responded as he finished wiping up the rest of the mess and began to spray the carpet cleaner on the stain. "Tonight Thomas has a lot on his mind and this has caused me to help him plan for tomorrow and a few days in advance. I was just warming my mind down with a book before I go to sleep. Morality and Prince have already agreed to let Thomas go to sleep early tonight. Maybe you should do the same...unless you have some unfinished business to deal with." Logan had finished up cleaning the mess and was now holding the dirty paper towels in his hands.

Anxiety looked down at where the mess used to be and then back at Logic dumbfounded at what he just did.

"Well...I usually just worry...It's my job..." He was slightly uncomfortable with the situation and telling his true reason for staying up so late.

Logan nodded at his answer. "Understandable, the milk should help however. It has been found to do more than just neutralize stomach acid. One of its main functions is to relax the body and help it maintain homeostasis while sleeping." he stated matter of factly expression unchanging.

Anxiety looked at his milk and then took a drink. After swallowing he waited for a minute and then looked at Logan as if to say, "it didn't work."

Logan gave an amused laugh. "Expect it to take effect in about 15 minutes, then you should have no problem falling asleep." he turned back to the kitchen to throw the paper towels away leaving Anxiety to ponder everything that just happened.

"Logan?"

"Yes Anxiety?" Logan threw away the trash and returned the carpet cleaner to its rightful place underneath the sink.

"Thanks for cleaning it up, but why?"

Logan walked back toward him and explained the situation through his eyes. "Simple. I said hello. My greeting frightened you and thus spilled your milk. Your hands were full and if you had tried to clean it up yourself, you would risk spilling more of your milk. I was not doing anything important and spills need to be cleaned up right away, so I decided to clean it up myself."

"But I spilled it. Isn't only 'logical' to let me clean it up?"

"Perhaps, but efficiency is key. It would have taken you much longer to clean it up, because of your current status." Logan motioned to the milk in his hand. "But also, lets not forget the amount of stains you've left behind because you 'forgot' to clean them up." Logan eyed him suspiciously.

Anxiety smirked and looked at the ground guiltly, admitting his previous actions.

"Plus I believe Patton is rubbing off on me and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not." Logan and Anxiety shared an amused chuckle. "About the milk though, did you know that it would help you relax? Or did you just decide against a carbonated drink tonight?"

Anxiety raised his head slightly. "I knew that whenever Thomas drank milk I felt no need to-ya know- bother him. I thought that maybe...I might sleep peacefully too. For once.."

Logan's expression was still unchanged. "It seems as you have made a correct beverage choice then, have a good night."

As Logan turned back to the couch, a door down the hall opened and hall light was flicked on causing the two aspects to jump back as their eyes got used to the blinding light.

"Did somebody say my name!?" Patton jumped out of his room in his kitty onesie with a teddy bear doing a ta-da pose.

Before the other two aspects had time to groan, another door opened and out walked Roman in a frog onesie.

"Shush Morality! I am trying to get my beauty sleep."

Logan and Anxiety exchanged panicked glances. Crap. They were both up.

Morality jumped for joy. "Yay! We are all awake now! Lets watch a movie."

"What?! No! Its 9:10 pm! Logan and I both agreed Thomas would go to bed early because of all the things he has to to do tomorrow. You even agreed with us Morality." An agitated Princy declared while motioning to Logan.

Anxiety immediatly downed the rest of his milk. He was not going to put up with this tonight.

"I knnnnoooowww." Morality pouted. "But Im wide awake now."

Suddenly, Thomas materialized in the middle of the hallway. "Sorry guys. I just had some caffeine." He sheepishly admitted.

Anxiety groaned. Logan facepalmed. Princy was annoyed. And Morality just stood there vibrating like a chihuahua.

"What!? Thomas! We had just-"

As Princy bickered with Morality and Thomas, Logan carefully whispered to Anxiety. "Anxiety...is there any milk left?" Neither wanted to deal with hyper Morality, especially Logan.

Anxiety didn't take his eyes off of the argument in front of him and slowly nodded. He slinked silently into the kitchen with Logan following close behind. Anxiety silently opened the fridge to not disturb the quarrel in the hallway and grabbed out a somewhat full carton of milk.

"Help yourself." He mumbled after he had poured himself a second glass. "I am not dealing with these idiots tonight."

Logan huffed in amusement as he reached for a glass in the cupboard and began to pour himself a glass of milk. "Milk is not a drug Anxiety, its just a natural relaxant. And don't drink too much. Or you might get a stomach ache."

"Since, when have you started to worry about me? Wow, Morality has rubbed off on you. You gotta dad joke to share too now?" Anxiety pestered Logic waiting to see a reaction.

Its safe to say that Logan was not the least bit amused. "Only if you 'share' that love poem you wrote." Logan shot back.

Before Anxiety could even think about reacting, Thomas, Princey, and Morality walked out of the hallway to the living room loudly bickering over which Disney Movie to watch. It was obvious Princey was immediatly sucked right in to the movie night idea. He turned Logan's way and mouthed the words "I'm sorry." to him.

Logan groaned and downed his glass of milk immediatly. "What were you saying about drinking too much?" Anxiety took another chance to poke fun at him.

Logan shot another glance at Anxiety, but was quickly interrupted by Morality.

"Heya kiddos! We are gonna watch a disney movie. I think Thomas wants to watch Treasure Planet. Oh is that milk?! I guess you can say all the vitamins and minerals it has in it is a real-"

"Don't you dare!" Logan pointed a finger at Patton.

"BONE-us!!"

Anxiety chuckled as Logan fumed.

Morality chuckled too. "And remember kiddos! Don't drink too much milk or it will give you a stomach ache."

Anxiety had to cover his mouth with his hand to keep from laughing out loud. The annoyed facial expression that Logan portrayed was absolutely priceless.

"Oh my god! You HAVE turned into dad! You even said the same thing as him." He mumbled through his hand.

Logan didn't say anything and put the milk back inside the fridge and went to the far left couch. He looked completely defeated. So much so that Anxiety had almost felt sorry, but he really wasn't. This was just too funny.

Not wanting to have to deal with a pouting Morality, Anxiety reluctantly joined in on the movie night and sat in the only seat open which, unfortunately for both of them, was right next to Logan. He normally would slink away to his room, but he wanted to trust what Logan said for once, about the milk being a natural relaxant. If Logic was correct then he would be long gone about 15 minutes into the movie. If it didn't work he would never let Logan live it down that he was wrong. Either way Anxiety won.

Logic didn't even flinch when Anxiety sat down next to him. He had his book in his hands again and had continued reading from where he had left off when Anxiety had spilled his milk.

"Okay! Movies ready to go!" Thomas grabbed the tv remote and turned on the tv to the Main Menu of Treasure Planet. Princey came back with a large bowl of popcorn. Logan reluctantly closed his book and decided to be attentative.

"Okay! I am ready! Let us begin!" Princey sat with Morality on the opposite couch as Anxiety and Logan were sitting while Thomas sat on the couch in front of the TV by himself.

Thomas hit play, the lights in the living room dimmed, and the movie began.

Anxiety was watching but soon found himself failing to keep his eyes open. He yawned once and let himself drift off to sleep. The milk had helped him relax.

Part 2

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket,Se03, Ep 9 (part 2)

This ep hits the feels simply cuz  we’re finally in tohru’s head! It shows tohru’s skill of reaching ppl’s hearts, not jst within furuba’s world but the viewers as well. However, while the emotion buttons were hit with tears, outbursts, suspense with the knife & cliff looming all over akito/tohru scenes, then tohru’s fall, fear of her death, another surge of emotions when kyo finally kissed her after their tragic encounter last ep, sth is still missing. For me personally, while the feels were 100%, the writing wasn’t.

-Minor writing Issues with akito/tohru’s “ face off leading to connecting moment”:

The akito/tohru scenes were more designed for the audience feel tohru’s pain more than for akito to connect with tohru. We were in tohru’s head more than listening to these two girls talk. That’s why the emotions hit us & we cried cuz we were listening to tohru’s heartbreaking monologue abt leaving her mom & hear her fear of being lonely without her mom. The heartbreaking visuals were all in tohru’s head. Akito didn't hear or see that. What akito heard was few sentences. Perhaps it is due to not having enough time to cover deeper dialogue between the girls, but akito was supposed to change her entire character, feels, demeanor, with one short dialogue. Tohru was talking to herself most of the time akito was facing her, the actual dialogue between the two was so short & touched upon their similarities briefly. Off course, akito slapping tohru multiple times was needed to indicate that “ look we know akito wont be won by tohru’s sincere words just like that on the spot, we’ll add slaps, multiple slaps to convey that it is logical that akito would refuse tohru’s words initially”. Unfortunately, once again furba uses violence to bridge gaps. tohru standing there weakly taking beating is such a bad taste that it bugs me that ppl are labeling it “ connecting”. I get that akito saw that tohru is after all similar to her & it led her to change, but it was done so quickly that we saw a peaceful, embarrassed, sincere smiling akito at the end of the ep. A new akito.

Furuba has this tendency to take long time building up dramatic character struggle & fix it in 5 or 8 minutes of the eps 20 min running time. The tools are: dramatic confrontation in a climactic style. Nothing is wrong with the tools themselves. They’re excellent story telling techniques, but the falling action is where the author’s skill at. Write drama & climax & raise the heart beat with suspense & emotions but the following consequences is what makes or breaks what you do. The ep needed to warp up akito’s realization for atonement so next eps will show her taking actual steps towards that. It also needed to wrap up kyo/tohru confrontation, so one of the two goals suffered on behalf of the other. kyo/tohru was established in the earlier ep, so it didnt suffer when it was wrapped, but akito/tohru is new thing brought in this ep only & was supposed to signal a new change! the villain getting redeemed. it worked in the emotions department, lots of ppl cried, but I felt it’s a bit weakly written. wished the girls “connected” by talking more before akito extended her hand. Oh well~ it is minor.

-Atonement vs forgiveness:

Akito is seeking atonement. Fixing her mistakes which means she’ll apologize to those whom she wronged & won’t repeat the horrible path of abuse. Atonement doesn't necessarily mean forgiveness. No one is obligated to forgive her just cuz she changed. Anyone who was bulled or abused understands how hard it is to accept the nightmarish past & move on, & look to see your bully/abuser doing well & has become a good person. It sucks to feel, “ oh so, I’m part of ur learning journey towards being a good person? Glad I could help in u realizing abusing ppl is bad, have a good time being good, me? I’m nursing my wounds & dealing with my nightmares that u caused, I’m doing way better now, but the wounds wont disappear”. Ppl might pressure you to forgive them cuz it’s the “ right thing” to do since it will help the abuser stay in the “ good” path. However, only YOU can choose how to respond. Only you can decide if forgiving them is helping u to cope or not. You dont even need to be part of their “ healing journey”. Focus on yourself  & live. Seek happiness & understand that sadness is part of the deal.

On the other side, if you were once a bully or an abuser, regardless of what made you choose such a path: an horrible trauma, being wronged yourself or simply not knowing better, you gotta understand that you might not be forgiven. It is ok if you weren’t. It is the other ppl’s right. Focus on yourself. Become a better person, work to fix the mistakes, ask forgiveness & be understanding of whatever response you might receive & move on. There is nothing else you can do. You cant spend your life waiting to hear the liberating words of “ i forgive you”. Those ppl you abused weren’t  liberated becuz of you for a long time, so it is understandable. Just focus on doing what you can to better yourself, atone, fix what can be fixed & live. Seek happiness & understand that sadness is part of the deal.

I like how akito embodies this themes of Atonement vs forgiveness, I just wish it was done with nice pace~ man! Now I’m really annoyed at the filler eps in se01 & 2! XD..-_-’’

-Again: don’t become the foolish traveler:

I cant say this enough. Tohru & kureno are the poster for kindness is an amazing virtue but don’t over do it.  You shouldn’t put yourself in danger & die like the foolish traveler. There is a reason both tohru & kureno are in the hospital & the author is doing a good job explaining that. Akito’s knife that deliberately went deep into kureno’s body, could have cut tohru by sheer panic & anxiety. Be kind but preserve yourself, too. Momiji said it. kind ppl exist & those who took advantage of them do exist as well. Still you can be kind. Reach out to ppl, but above all be kind to yourself<3

Side Notes:

I get that a yuki/kyo confrontation must happen to mirror tohru/akito. From enemies to buddies/friends/not enemies/ cool with each other. I just hope against all hopes that the drama is toned down a bit. But whom am I kidding? furuba has a history of running like a loose bull! >_<...fine! I’ll change my wish, I hope that kyo’s “ making a turn” from his tragic past & choosing better path is done better than akito’s, as in with “ enough time within furuba’s world, not necessarily multiple eps”.

Guessing who will forgive akito from the wronged zodiacs? I already know yuki, hatori & kureno had forgiven her. I want kisa to be spared from all this delima. Kyo’s entire trauma is abt seeking forgiveness, so I can see him forgiving her. I wouldn't be surprised if there were future kyo/akito encounters due to thoru befriending akito! would love to see that! As for Isuzu, the character who got the most severe abuse ( attempted murder) from akito, I can see her refusing this. Why should she care that akito is now “good”? From her perspective: screw akito! I saw death! nothing is wrong with such perspective from a helpless victim.

This ep is where akito & tohru’s Japanese VA shined the most, but kyo’s Japanese VA didnt have the right to steal their crown with his broken voice upon seeing near-dead tohru!! I wasnt even focused on him! but his voice stabbed me harsher than akito;s knife in kureno’s body! What a performance!!! It gave me chills! I’ve always said kyo’s English & Japanese VAs are good. but that moment, kyo’s Japanese VA delivered beyond comparison! well-done!

I’m still holding on shigure’s character analysis. Gotta wait for the bigger picture. but boy, he’s so grey.

The studio ditched akito’s lean boyish design & opted for a girlish design with lots of lashes, cute runs & girl stye of sitting on the bench. ok, cool. but I hoped akito stayed the same in her design even if she decided to acknowledge being a woman. Not all girls are feminine? they could've kept her the same. She spent i duno 20sth years walking & carrying herself a certain way, Now, tohru changed her, so even her style is different?

Also, It seems I need to give up on my pathetic conclusion that yuki will chang his “ akito-like” hair style! XD. That was a nice theory, ok?XD. I mean having a different hairstyle from ur abuser whom u spent ur childhood with is liberating! but I guess... anime is anime.. T_T. they can become grandparents & still same hair! lol !

Momiji is kind but he is NO foolish traveler. He didnt solely let go of his mom, sister, & tohru cuz he’s blindly kind nor cuz it is the best option for them. He considered & respected the other person’s emotions, desires & stance. He acknowledged & respected that his mom didn’t need him in her life, that his sister needs to grow a bit older before choosing to connect with her, that tohru isn’t a toy he & kyo fight for & he just give back to kyo cuz he’s a gentleman. No, tohru’s feelings matter & her choice is hers. He also didn’t blindly forgive akito nor brush her cruelty or quickly accept her. He stood up with judgemental looks, disapproving of her, waited to hear her sincere guilt, then approached her with wisdom & advice. Momiji is the best example of moderate kindness.