#like it's a given Haru is hatable

[righteousdelusions]

Haru haters are really the most uneducated people around, I really do hope they are legit teenagers, because if grown women are around thinking like that we're truly doomed, the misogynists won

[luanna801]

So as a Fruits Basket fan I have to ask: Favorite characters? Least favorite characters and why? Fave ships, least fave ships and why? :3

Awesome, thanks for sending this!

Favorite Characters: Honestly, I really love most of the characters in this story? I think the main three are all fantastic, and I love the balance of their three very different personalities: Tohru is bubbly and warm, Kyo is passionate and volatile, and Yuki is (usually) calm and reserved. Watching the three of them play off each other is fantastic, but I also think they’re all great characters in their own right. I love how Tohru is so deeply good and kind and yet she’s also one of the most proactive characters in the series? When she sees Akito hurting someone, she steps in. When she realizes how the curse is hurting the Sohma family, she starts taking steps to end it. She’s kind but she’s never passive, and I really appreciate that. So many people equate softness with being bland and ineffectual, but Tohru is honestly really strong.

Yuki is great because Yuki is the character who seems so incredibly perfect on the surface: He’s literally nicknamed ‘the Prince’ at school, he’s handsome, he’s well-mannered, he’s kind, he gets perfect grades, all the girls love him, etc., etc., etc. And yet he’s honestly really flawed and interesting? He can be an absolute brat to Kyo, just as much as Kyo is to him, and I actually love that, because it makes him so much more human. And the way his insecurities and how his abuse affects him are just done so well? That boy’s self-hatred runs deep, and he’s constantly afraid to believe he can actually have a future and people might actually like him, much less love him. And what I love is that (with the admitted exception of said brattiness to Kyo), he really never takes out his issues on anyone. He’s so kind and sweet and caring, and yet he never thinks his kindness is good enough?? He’s constantly worrying he’s selfish and that if he focuses on himself that’s wrong, and it just kinda breaks my heart?

Kyo is… oh my gosh. Kyo grows up so much over the course of the series??? He starts off so prickly and angry and constantly lashing out at the people around him, and that’s understandable when you know his story, but of course that doesn’t excuse it. But the best thing is he knows that, he knows he needs to change and he works to do that. And it’s honestly beautiful to see how much he’s able to open up and let go of some of that anger? He’s such a sweetheart when he lets himself be - you see that side of him even in the early arcs, but you see it more and more as the series goes on and I love it. He’s also so damn selfless??? Like, when he realizes he’s in love with Tohru, he has no hope it could actually work out (you know what I was saying above about Yuki’s self-hate issues? Yeah, he ain’t the only one) but he just wants to spend any time he can with her and make her happy in any way he can, and just… break my heart, why don’t you. I hate the way Kyo’s been made to feel like he can never be anything but some destructive force that hurts everyone around him, and the way he’s been made to feel like he can never have a normal future. But seeing him fight back and start to move past that mentality is so, so important and rewarding.

And that’s just the main three, but honestly, there are so many more characters I could talk about here? I freaking love Hatori. I love the way he’s so often the only level-headed one in this ridiculous family, I love that he’s so serious and reserved and pretty no-nonsense honestly, but he’s also really deeply kind and trying to do the right thing? And even when he’s completely given up on finding happiness for himself, he just wants to protect Tohru and Yuki and Kyo and keep them from making them same mistakes he did? I just… I have a lot of feelings about Hatori, okay.

And Hanajima and Uotani are really great too? I love that they’re not just there to be Tohru’s Best Friends, they have their own stories and internal struggle and you get to really see inside their heads, and honestly both of their stories are fascinating? Like… I would legitimately read a whole spinoff series about Hanajima and her brother. Goth kids with superpowers who freak out everyone around them but are actually complete sweethearts and totally devoted to each other? Sign me the heck up. They’re Addams Family-esque in the best possible way. (Also, can we talk about how you know there’s a lot going on in this series when the fact that Hana has literal superpowers and almost killed someone with them when she was a kid is honestly a pretty minor subplot?)

I also really love Momiji and Rin and Hatsuharu but uh. This is super-long so I’ll stop here. (It’s really nice because I almost never have this feeling of ‘Ugh, why are we focusing on this character?’ no matter where the story goes. Even the characters I dislike as people, like Akito, are really interesting and compelling and doing their part in the story really well.)

Least Favorite Characters: Well, Akito, obviously. I have very little tolerance for abusers, and what she’s done to her family is effing horrifying. I mean, I don’t think this one needs much explanation. She pushed Rin out a freakin’ window for daring to get a boyfriend. She almost blinded Hatori in one eye and made him feel like it was his fault. She psychologically tortured Yuki for years and tried to completely break him. She put a twelve-year-old child in the hospital just because another twelve-year-old had a bby crush on her. I… really have very little time for sympathizing with Akito. I know she was abused too, but after a certain point… I don’t care? It in no way excuses the absolutely horrifying things she’s done to people who did absolutely nothing to her? Abuse messes with you as a person, absolutely, but she’s still responsible for her own actions. The people she’s abused were all seriously messed up by it too, but they didn’t torture other people because of it. And when they do lash out over it, that’s something they have to work on and realize they’re acting in a way that’s not okay. Having been through a lot isn’t a free pass to excuse anything you do.

I’m also reeeeeeeally not fond of Shigure. I find it particularly chilling that he… honestly seems amused by the things Akito does a lot of the time? It honestly mostly comes across like he can’t be bothered to take any of this seriously, and that’s gross. I find that kind of complete moral vacuum almost as hatable as outright villainy. (Also, as I’ve mentioned in the past, the way he continually pervs over teenage girls, particularly Tohru, and the series plays it off as a joke? Gross. Gross, gross, gross. Even if you assume he’s joking - which I tend to hope he is for my sanity - it’s still creepy as heck that that’s his idea of humor.)

Favorite ships: Kyo/Tohru, of course. Honestly, the whole central love triangle is done really well. (With the exception of a few things that I won’t get into here because I’m saying what I like.) Both relationships make sense and are well-developed and have some incredibly sweet moments. But ultimately I’m really happy with Kyo and Tohru ending up together.

I also really like Mayu and Hatori (no surprise since, as I mentioned above, Hatori is another fave of mine), and I enjoy how… normal and mature their relationship is? There’s no big drama, they’re just two nice, likable adults who get along well and are good for each other. That shouldn’t seem so rare in fiction, but it honestly does? Rin and Haru are also a great and fascinating relationship and tug on my heartstrings in so many ways. (I’m also not quite up to their relationship yet in my reread, but I think Yuki and Machi seem good? I know they end up together and I like how her character’s been developed so far from where I am in the story, so I’m excited to see how it goes.)

Honestly, I was thinking the other day that Fruits Basket is a rare series because basically all the canon ships work really well for me? There are some I’m more into than others, but for the most part I think they all work really well and are likable/interesting in different ways, and I wouldn’t want to change how anyone’s paired off with one notable exception. That’s rare.

Least Favorite Ships: *looks up at my Least Favorite Characters* … It will stun everyone to hear that I’m not very fond of Akito/Shigure, I’m sure. :-P

Also, I think the whole thing with Uotani and Kureno really comes out of nowhere and… really doesn’t work for me at all? Like, they meet two times and suddenly we’re supposed to believe that they’re so important to each other and be invested in this whole star-crossed lovers thing and it just… really doesn’t feel believable? At all? I mean, I know sometimes people are very smitten right from the first time they meet, but in a series which usually takes the time to develop relationships so believably, it feels far too sudden. Also I don’t get why it was necessary to give them such a big age difference? Like… she’s in high school. He’s almost a decade older than her. If Takaya wanted to pair them off, why not make Kureno closer to Uo’s age? Like, you could still have an age difference, but make them like.. 17 and 21, instead of 17 and 26. That would feel far less squicky to me.

… But honestly, just pair Uo and Hana instead? That would’ve made so much more sense to me, and gives you a wlw couple in a major role too.