#I like the quiet ways in which we see the characters mourn. How Megumi laughs at the letter‚

[longagoitwastuesday]

I actually like the last chapter. I think the ideas are very good. I have my qualms on how some things were managed, as I always do, but I think shonen authors get tangled in the expectations of a shonen to the point it jeopardises their writing, often even when they're not lacking in skills

[nevermeyers]

Yeah, I know I said I'd keep quiet about it because I plan on ignoring the ending. I've done it plenty of times, even with books I consider my favorites. "Oh this book is so good, it's one of my faves... How does it end? I don't remember." I'm going to do that with jjk because I've done it more times. Anyways.

Seriously, where's the character development? Why dedicate an entire chapter to showing how much criticism affects you and making excuses for your narrative instead of fixing it? Gege could have written about the characters and their problems, their worries, their evolution even while talking about how the politics of jujutsu world are changing rn.

What are Nobara's thoughts right now? There could have been an entire chapter dedicated to her character to fill in the gaps and finish defining her, what about her mother? How does she feel about her childhood friends? What are her plans now?

What about Megumi? Yeah, seeing him laugh was therapeutic, but honestly his character hasn't had the development/ending I expected. The timeskip was weird, his acting is literally the same as the beginning of the manga. It feels like I'm reading the same person who appeared in chapter one and not a traumatized boy who is learning to live. Where is Itadori teaching him that it's actually worth moving on? Where's the whole PTSD thing I'm sure he has? (fuck megumi haters btw fuck them, and fuck the way they victim blamed a kid). What are his thoughts about Gojo? About Sukuna?

Yuuji... Our mc. I was expecting to see him mourning Choso, mourning Gojo. But no, apparently it's more important to explain that there was a secret society (lmao) than to have him show respect and tears for those people he loved. His family, who he never got to spend time with, and his sensei, who decided not to execute him and who taught him almost everything he knows. I wanted to see him taking his friends to the movies to see some B-movie horror instead of going through the horror of watching characters insult him and tell him that it's better if he were dead.

And yes, I know there are two chapters left and some of the things I mention here might appear, but we've already wasted our time with one chapter, that's many pages. There won't be time to fix whatever is this. I feel bad :/

Now, one of the things that bothers me the most is that there are characters that were implied to be dead and now suddenly appear alive. I thought this was about letting the new generations create a fair world, but no. Do you know which character bothers me the most? Mei Mei. No, I'm not against someone writing sa/csa in fiction as long as it's not romanticized (I accept the unreliable narrator because that happens a lot irl and it's sad). The thing is that Mei Mei literally embodies the values ​​of the jujutsu world. In the jujutsu clans there was everything, sexism, abuse, neglect and most likely incest since (at least that's how I see it) they are like the monarchies of the Middle Ages. Mei Mei is the embodiment of all those rotten values ​​that Gojo hated, that the new generations are destined to eradicate. Seriously. What is she doing alive? Take her out rn. Gojo didn't die for this.

I read someone saying that maybe the point of this chapter isn't to break the cycle, but to repeat it. I have to say that I'm a big fan of that trope! It reminds me that humans repeat the same mistakes, but even if that were the point I think it wouldn't be well written.

There came a point in the story where both options: love is worthless and love is worth it were acceptable by the end of the manga. This is the ending where love is worth it, but why hasn't anything changed? The characters we saw in 269 are almost exactly the same we saw in chapter number one.

If this is a story about how love is worth it, accept the consequences and write characters who, thanks to love, move forward and build a new world instead of neutralizing any kind of development

[tardytothepardy]

Fruits Basket - Vol. 9

Can people please stop hating Kyo for being a Cat Boy? Hate him for something else, idk. It bothers me so much when characters are hated for something they have literally no control over. Hell, it bothers me when it happens in real life! Hate a person because they're an asshole, not because of something they were born into. Kyo's made it pretty fuckin clear that he doesn't like being a Cat Boy. I'm sure, given the chance, he'd prefer something else. People be fuggin talking like he chose it. Wtf. Shit's stupid.

Anyway, apparently Yuki is gonna spend his summer dealing with some very tiring individuals. He's part of some student council or something, and apparently the previous/current people are not really that great at cleaning up after themselves, so Yuki has to spend his summer just trying to fix things and make shit work. It doesn't help that there's one guy who reminded him fantastically of his brother, Ayame. Things end on a slightly hopeful note, that maybe he can become friends with the people there, so that's good for him. He could benefit from a large group of people that have nothing to do with the Sohma family.

Also, Uotani got a boyfriend?? Kinda?? Idk. One night when she was working, a guy bumped into her. She laughed, which made him basically go 😳, but then she didn't get to know much about him after that. While she was talking about this guy (was his name even mentioned? I can't remember), she saw him?? Or was that a flashback?? Idk, it was really hard to tell. The important thing currently is that he's 26 and she's,,,, not. A nine-year age difference was mentioned a few times, and tbfh I'm bellowing from the roofs that that's not a vibe guys. Tis not. Please stop. Especially because it turns out that this motherfucker is in kahoots with fucking AKITO may he self-ignite in an empty gas station thank you very much, this does not bode well for Uotani. Akito probably planted him there to bump into Uotani, so that Uotani might eventually introduce him to Tohru and Hanajima, leading to ALL SORTS of bullshittery. I can wait. I can simply wait.

We also got some backstory on Hanajima! Finally!! She might be one of the last characters in the main circle to get one, but it has arrived nonetheless.

Basically, she has always had powers. From the way that she talked about them previously, I had thought that she was just really good at reading people's emotions and body language, and used her intimidating appearance to freak people out, but it turns out that she does genuinely have some kind of powers. They're psychic or something. It didn't go into where those powers came from, or how she got them. It seems like her brother (who is nothing like her, they don't even look alike) also has some kind of powers. It's been mentioned that he can "curse" people, but again, I'm not sure if that's literally the case, or just an intimidation tactic. The fact that everyone in her family outside of herself and her brother seem to have lighter colored hair might be an indication that something else is going on with her and her brother whose name I definitely haven't forgotten what are you talking about?? (i looked through it again, is his name Megumi? idk sorry)

From the beginning, people took her withdrawn, dark, and quiet appearance and decided that she was a witch, and were complete assholes for it. Just,,, raging assholes. They had her eat newts, they tried to burn her, they said she had "poison waves", whatever the fuck that was supposed to be. To be fair, she did make a boy go unconscious by wishing that he'd die, but that was back in elementary school. What kid didn't do that, haha right? But all this harrassment resulted in her parents transferring her to a new school, the same one that Tohru and Uotani were in.

The rumors followed her, but Tohru and Uotani insisted on being her friends, she simply couldn't refuse. And she wouldn't've, anyway, because it turns out that having friends is really nice, and she wouldn't change it for the world. <3 (that heart comes off as kinda sarcastic but it mostly isn't)

Chapter 52 (I'm using chapter numbers again?) started pretty nice, but, as I'm sure you could tell from the beginning of this post, it got just a smidge less nice. Basically, Kazuma invited Tohru and Kyo to have lunch with him at his place, and Tohru was pretty excited, but also mourned the departure of Kazuma's ponytail, may it rest in peace or something idk it's his hair. From their arrival, the lunch was a bit of a disaster, as Kazuma had completely burnt what would have been their food. Tohru, being Tohru, then offered to make lunch for all of them, much to the objection of Kyo, saying that a guest shouldn't be making the food for everyone (which I can get but like,, if she's cool with it I would be too). While Tohru's preparing the lunch, she lets it slip that Kyo once made a soup or something for her (probably when she got that fever over worrying too much about school or something), which Kazuma finds quite interesting, especially when Tohru says it was pretty good. Kyo however would much rather that the conversation would stop right now right here no more talking gtfo the kitchen Shinsou get out it's not important shut up. So y'know, average shenanigans.

After Kazuma has been removed from the kitchen, we meet a new character (though I'm not sure how much he's gonna be around in the rest of the series I guess I'll found out skdhgldhfgl): Kunimitsu. He says he's an understudy but also a secretary to Kazuma, but he's also known Kyo for a little while, and he and Kazuma have a chat about how chill Kyo's gotten over the last few months, and how much of a significant change it's been. Then none other than Kyo's dad, who hasn't really been brought up in the series thus far (and the only thing about his mom is that she's dead), calls Kazuma, who leaves to talk with him. Kyo's dad is straight up like "It's [Kyo, because he seriously referred to him as an 'it'] been allowed to be around people for too long, and that's bad. It's bad and gross and stinky and bad, and when it graduates, we'll lock it in a fucking dungeon until it dies and it'll never know the touch or voice of another person ever again. By the way, can you, Kazuma, the man who raised it, pwetty pwease help us in locking it up?" and then he's surprised when Kazuma is like "tf no"

Kazuma even went so far as to be like "Why are you so angry at him? Like seriously, you genuinely believe that Kyo, as a child, had any part in most of what happened to him when he was a child??" Specifically with the death of Kyo's mother, which of course his father blames him for. Kazuma says that Kyo's been so happy in the last few months, and that the way that Kyo's father was acting in that moment, was super close to how Kyo himself used to act: just angry and scared and lashing out at everything. It's not a cute look dude, get over yourself and stop being angry at a child. (No, Kyo's not a kid anymore, but still.)

Kyo's father retaliates by accusing Kazuma of taking in Kyo simply for the money, as if that would invalidate all the things Kazuma said, even if it was true.

Also, we found out who That Hat belongs to! Y'know, that hat that Tohru got after following the boy who helped her find her way back to her mom. Thanks to the hair shading, I thought it was Kyo, but it was actually Yuki. At least, that's what the story is saying now. Anyway, the hat is like,,, weirdly big, if it's supposed to be a hat that a child was wearing. No wonder it fell off. If I see Tohru wearing it, and it fits her fine, she either has a head the size of a small child, or that is a big ass hat for a small child. I doubt she would wear it though, because she seems to have it more as a memento rather than a fashion accessory.

Then the window in the room that Yuki and Tohru were in literally exploded, for some reason. It was like, moment of realization, Yuki basically being like 0o0, then the window exploded. Idk why, it was pretty random.

Also there was a bonus story about Tohru and Co. being stuck in school due to some rain and Haru told the scariest story, of a guy who was really thirsty, so he went into the kitchen and found a glass of iced coffee. He drank it all up without thinking, and then saw, in the bottom of the glass, a fucking COCKROACH and I swear to god that is something that I fucking worry about way too often. What the fuck would I do if I took a drink out of my water bottle and then saw a fucking bug what the fuck would I do that shit is so scary. Thankfully, the other characters also found it to be a very alarming story. Haru said he has a story about grated cheese, which I'm scared but also very interested in hearing about. Apparently Shigure wrote the story, so I guess he is actually writing something, this whole time. We see little blips of him writing stories, but the main consensus is that they are bad and should never have been written.