#she's a lot like Tohru but without someone to look after her so she just... throws herself headlong into other people's problems...

[runawaycarouselhorse]

(Miracle Train Episode 11) [CW character death, traffic accidents, SPOILERS because I'm spoiling the whole twist of this episode, okay. Japanese audio, English subtitles, background music.]

A friend brought up the subject of low-effort, generic anime series having one stand-out, well-written episode that feels like it's from another show entirely and reminded me of Miracle Train Episode 11.

Miracle Train is light-hearted, silly show where humanized train stations (who are all prettyboys, yep, that kind of show) help A Girl (Usually) With A Problem.

In this episode, a carefree, but wholly selfless and kind, very spacey girl boards the train. She wants to meet the man she loves, it's a special day for them! She's all bubbly and sweet and so happy, two of the stations correctly guess she's going to get married.

They guard her to her stop, she always sets out two hours in advance, because she's often loses track of time and gets caught up in everybody else's problems. They try their best to guide her, look, you don't have to do everything yourself, there's other resources, other people help too, see?

Despite moving to Roppongi for work three years ago, her knowledge of buildings and places is dated... she claims this is her first date with Hideaki since moving to Roppongi... her flip-phone is battered and old, her love's face is rubbed off the sticker on the back.

... she's a ghost. She died rushing into the street, to catch a little girl's balloon. She didn't see danger coming, she was so focused on helping...

[jenoutof10]

Can I ask, if you have top favorite romantic couples (can be canon or non canon) of all time from any media? Why love them? Thx :D

hi! this is kind of scary to answer HAHA but im trying to remember that this is tumblr... not twitter. actually, im not that much of a shipping fan in the way i dont go looking for ship content, but i do enjoy seeing content ppl make of them if they appear on my TL lol also im privy to a pairing with design compatibility and are easy on the eyes so lots of these have that as a strong reason

satosugu (jjk)

surprise surprise. a lot of the plot for jjk happens because of the events in 2006 (spv/hidden inventory arc), i really like how gege told their story and how their characters are then built upon the events that befell on them. the parallels between them really interests me, but theres definitely more qualified people to explain their dynamic than me LOL. who doesnt love a good white/black trope! plus the jjk fandom is big enough for there to be amazing content made of them, so no shortage here. there was a point in time before my bllk phase where i was so obsessed w them that everything around me started to remind me of them, i cld not listen to a single song without acquainting it to them.

chosoyuki (jjk)

in the simplest way i can explain, their dynamic is basically...

atleast that's what i got from their interactions while protecting tengen! at the same time, they're both really strong so it makes for good balance. plus their designs are really neat together! strong cool biker gf and alt aesthetic bf (who loves his lil bros)! i like them as partners in crime and tbf i think id go ballistic and wld rip someones head off i see yuki kissing a MAN. but i wish yuki could carry choso bridal style off into the sunset after they murder kenjaku and live in a picket fence house

soukoku (bsd)

im horrified of the bsd shipping fandom but the whole ex-partners thing is amazing cause you get the "i hate you, i know everything about you, every night i think of how i would kill you, i understand you better than anyone else, i see right through you." their relationship is insane to me, like idc romantically or platonically it just works so good...

here are ships that i love but dont think really need too much explaining!

haruhi x tamaki (ouran)

yuki x machi (fruit basket)

i hope no one attacks me but idgaf abt tohru and kyo PLEASE just give me them

mitsuri x obanai (kny)

AHHHHH!!!! mitsuri who had tried to change herself to fit other people's standards, obanai who always accepted every part of her. obanai who hated women bcs of the twisted household he was born into, eventually found mitsuri and she was the first one he thought to be BEAUTIFUL AHHH!

beidou x ningguang (genshin)

im excluding any other genshin and hsr bcs im particularly scared of those fandoms LOL

[akehoshimystar]

Chapter 3

Shinobu: Tadah! Here’s a photo of the little one.

Ito: Oh, he's adorable... Wow, his fur is so shiny.

Shinobu: Let me introduce you to Maro-kun, a smooth-coated chihuahua. He's 7 years old, an age where his cuteness is at its peak.

The one in the photo with him is our client, Tohru-san

Ito: (They look so happy. So, the reason she requested the rescue is….)

Is he missing?

Soyogu: Tohru-san and her boyfriend, Kuchiki Yuuto had been semi-living together until last month. Maro was taken away by him.

Apparently, it happened while she was sleeping at the night she brought up the topic of breaking up.

Ito: !

Soyogu: She has tried to get Maro to come home many times through a third party, but….

"I want to talk to you again, just the two of us. If you accept that condition, Maro will go home with you right away.” That’s what he said.

Of course, there’s no way she could accept that, so the conversation is at a standstill.

Ito: Just the two of them?

Shinobu: It's weird, isn't it? He’s so hung up on that.

From what I've heard, he seems like a typical emotionally abusive, controlling man.

If Tohru-san were to be alone with him, he might be able to do what he has been doing up until now. If that's the case, it's seriously so over.

Ito: …………………Has she consulted the police about this?

Soyogu: I heard that she already did, but didn't get the response she had hoped for. The conclusion seems to be that it is difficult for the police to intervene at this point.

Ito: I see….

(They're living together like a family. It's still difficult when someone like that is taken away without consent...)

I once received a consultation about a stalker at my previous job. I remembered an employee who said the same thing, "I already consulted the police, but didn't get the response I had hoped for.” And ended up quitting the job due to the damage caused, and I felt a little heavy in my stomach.

Ito: (I couldn't do anything back then.)

Soyogu: After considering all the circumstances, our leader decided on two major policies.

First, "Do not let Tohru-san and Kuchiki come into contact".”

Second, “To avoid resentment, we will handle Kuchiki in a way that causes as little mental and physical damage as possible.”

Ito: (Leader... Head of the department Fushimi?)

Soyogu: Shizuka-san is still coordinating the details of the strategy, but the plan is to create a "dog escape" accident.

Shibobu and I are the “rescuers” who cause an accident. And we will have Yashiro act as the carrier.

Ito: Carrier?

Shinobu: Gucchi and I are going to let Maro-kun out, that’s when you have to pick him up and head to the meeting place a few stations away.

Ito: (Eh?)

Shinobu: Once we delivery him to Tohru-san, it’s mission complete!

Ito: ………………Thank you for the rundown.

Can I ask you one thing just to be sure?

Shinobu: Sure, bring it on.

Ito: Sorry if this may come off as an amateur opinion. From what I've heard, I think the carrier is a very important position.

Are you sure you want a temporary member to take on that role?

Shinobu: Ah. Well...

Soyogu: It's simply a process of elimination.

Ito: (By process of elimination, huh…)

Shinobu: Could you be even blunter?

Soyogu: We don't have enough people. The commander role needs experience and intelligence, and the rescuer and guard roles need a certain level of physical strength to do their jobs.

But Shizuka-san judged that Yashiro could be trusted with the carrying task. That’s why he summoned you. Nothing more, nothing less.

Ito: (.….So I was called because he deemed me capable of doing the job.)

Thank you for having a faith in me. I understand.

I'll do my best as a carrier. Looking forward to working with you.

Shinobu: Same here!

On the very day, Shizuka-san will support you with his instructions, so it’s a pretty safe role, you can rest assured.

Nevertheless, there's one thing I'm concerned about.

…...And that is?

Shinobu: Kuchiki has a wide circle of friends, and not friendly ones. They have lots of free time on their hands and are all over the place.

Ito: (A bunch of unfriendly people, huh.....)

Something like… Drunkards who walk around a busy street at night?

Shinobu: Ahaha, the image in your head is very HD. That's probably what they’re like.

Ito: (My least favorite type of human being!!)

Shinobu: There's a chance that you will face those kinds of people while you’re on the move.

I'd like you to at least take a basic self-defense lesson...or rather, a course to learn how to use your body. Would that be fine with you?

Ito: .…..If it's not too much trouble, please allow me to take part in that.

Shinobu: Great! I will be joining you, and our instructor will be Gucchi.

Soyogu: Do you have any experience in sports or martial arts?

Ito: No, nothing in particular.

Soyogu: Are you confident in your physical strength?

Ito: My physical strength is pretty much… average...? I think.

If I have to say it clearly, I would say not at all.

(My physical education grade has always been average.)

Soyogu: I see. Then, I'll make sure you can say “Yes, I am.”

Ito: Eh?

Soyogu: The more stamina you have, the better.

Just leave it to me.

…..And that brings us to today.

Soyogu: .....Let's go again! Start.

Shinobu: Okay then... I'll grab you from behind.

Ito: (If someone come at me like this, open up my palm and do this!)

Shinobu: Oh!

Soyogu: Don't be complacent with that, dash off now!

Ito: …..Nghh.

Ito: ………………Haaa...Haaa...

Soyogu: That was good.

Shinobu: Exactly my thoughts! It was really smooth.

Ito: I’m glad…... to hear that…..

Soyogu: Now it's time for repetitive practice. Ultimately, the ideal is to be able to move your body without having to go through the steps in your head.

There's nothing more unreliable than "what you know in your head".

Soyogu: ...Alright. It's already time, let's call it a day

Ito: ……!

Thank you….. very much

Soyogu: Good job today.

Shinobi: You did well!

Ito: (I managed to survive somehow...)

Shinobu: Yashiro-san, here’s water.

Ito: Thank you so-…... Thanks.

Shinobu: You’re still using polite language in this situation?

Ito: Sorry, I just thought I could do it.

Shinobu: No, it’s okay. I'm the one being selfish and leaving only Yashiro-san to speak casually after all.

"I feel uneasy when someone my age use polite language, but I also don’t want to speak in a casual manner to the acting owner." After the first meeting was over, Aizawa-kun brought up his “small worry.” After careful consideration, we have settled on this form of communication for the time being.

Ito: (...………………It's certainly rare for me not to use polite language in response to someone my age who uses polite language with me.)

(I thought it would be more awkward, but surprisingly it wasn't.)

(Maybe it's because Aizawa-kun's communication skills are on another level.)

Shinobu: As usual, you must have it rough. Let's take our time to cool down.

Ito: Aizawa-kun... You still look energetic as always. As expected from you.

Shinobu: Nyahaha. Well, this is the Watchdog Dept. we’re talking about…. Ah.

Just when I was wondering why Aizawa-kun suddenly stopped talking…. A soft towel fell over my shoulders from behind.

Ito: ! Shinkai-san?

Soyogu: Your body will get cold, so wipe yourself properly. You haven’t gone through all that training just to let a cold weaken you.

Ito: …….Yes. Thank you.

(.…..A gentleman. A very kind gentleman...)

(Just now he was saying, "Don't be afraid of self-defense, you’re only evil when you attack with murderous intent".…. I feel like I'm going to catch a cold from the difference in temperature he’s giving off.)

Shinobu: Gucchi suddenly turned into a good guy just like that? No fair. What was that, Mr. Cool guy?

Soyogu: Just hurry up and stretch before taking a shower. Yashiro, sis asked you to come meet him, right?

Ito: Yes. I was originally planning to go back to Aporia after today to say hello, but….

I was offered a training course for counter work. I heard that he had time to teach me because the reservation was canceled.

Soyogu: I see….

Shinobu: And I’m supposed to go out drinking under the pretense of being a customer, what about Gucchi?

Soyogu: I'm having dinner with Sei-san today. Well, Yashiro, you had better prepare yourself.

Ito: Prepare myself?

Soyogu: Sis may be that kind of person, but when it comes to work, he’s really strict.

Ito: Eh?

Soyogu: You best brace yourself.

The scary thing here is the fact that I didn’t hear "That's not true" from Aizawa-kun. Time passed by in the blink of an eye...

Shinobu: Good evening.

The person who greeted us there was…..

Takeru: Come in! I've been waiting for you.

Ito: .….You must have been working hard.

(I thought I was already used to the corporate culture of Aporia by now. But this person really shattered my confidence...)

Glamorous makeup that stands out in the slightly dimmed lighting, beautiful long hair, a figure and beautiful posture that make him look like a show model. The voice that resonates from the visual, which is worthy of being described as a “beauty” is unmistakably that of a man. I was taken aback for a while by this person who had such an overwhelming presence.

Shinobu: Were you surprised?

Ito: Eh?

Takeru: Oh no, I haven't done anything yet. Did I scare you?

Ito: Not at all. I just thought that you are really pretty.…..

Takeru: Oh my.

I expressed my thoughts without any twist. It’s as if I was just spilling out the contents inside of my head. Mikado-san suddenly flashed a smile.

Takeru: I’m pretty fond of honest girl like you, thank you.

Takeru: Once again, I'm Mikado from the Watchdog Dept. Feel free to call me Mika-san.

Nice to meet you. Ito.

Chapter 4

[scrapcheese]

MKDM headcanons!

Headcanon: Takiya and Kobayashi knew each other from college

At the time they’re just in the same classes and end up on a lot of group projects together. One night they go out drinking and one of them slips up and mentions maids, freaks out a bit but then the other one ALSO starts talking about maids and ever since then they started to hang out more. They are both giant nerds in slightly different directions and i think even in college they were like that.

//

Also I am 100% certain that in canon, Takiya is considered attractive by his coworkers and he finds it annoying when they try to ask him out!! (chapter 8 of the manga, he joins Kobayashi for christmas as an excuse because people keep asking him out around that time)

SO IN COLLEGE THEY START TO FAKE DATE to get people off of Takiya’s back and because kobayashi’s parents keep bothering her about getting a boyfriend.

The thing is they are super bad at it and their dynamic doesn’t change whatsoever, they still act very much like bros, just that when people ask they’re just like “oh yeah we’re dating totally” and it somehow.. works?? 

also the trope of “we fake date but actually fall in love for real”?  Never happens. That’s because I feel like at this point Kobayashi probably realizes she’s not quite into guys and prefers girls more and Takiya realizes he’s not quite into girls (or anyone for that matter.)

They stopped fake dating after college. Maybe they don’t talk as often while looking for jobs and going about life, but reconnect after they start working at the same company

=====

Headcanon(?): All the kids go to the same school

This one isn’t much of a headcanon but more of I just never see it being discussed. I’m pretty sure Kanna, Saikawa and Shouta all go to the same school, just in different grades. Come on there’s so much potential there!!!!!

=====

Headcanon: Takiya used to work at a bookstore or some sort of customer service/retail job in that year before joining the company

because HOLY SHIT HE HAS THE PATIENCE OF A SAINT. I don’t think he’s ever gotten genuinely mad at someone in like the whole series. And I feel like you need a lot of patience (or some level of "too tired to deal with this”) to be roomates with Fafnir, at least initially.

(Context: In canon, Ch 35, Kobayashi gets accepted first into the company that they work at, then Takiya in the following year)

=====

Headcanon: Fafnir has a hair routine

Like its probably not a very long one, but he definitely takes care of his hair. Like its super long and stuff and at one point in the anime Takiya gets him some sort of shampoo/conditioner. I like to think that he really gets into it after a while.  (Probably takes better care of his hair than Kobayashi does honestly)

the other dragons probably bought him a dyson airwrap for christmas, either as a joke or as a serious gift (he would definitely use it for real though)

=====

Headcanon: Takiya has a Fafnir fund.

OK so we know Fafnir is freeloading in Takiya’s apartment. I like to think that after Fafnir’s been there for like a month or something, a part of Takiya’s “otaku expenses fund” got transferred into a “Fafnir expenses fund” to cover for the amount that the electrical bill must be. Like bro is gaming for 21+ hours a day, and there are 2 computers running in that household, can you imagine how much that would cost in the long run?

His friends probably donate to the Fafnir fund as a joke sometimes, like I can see Kobayashi and Lucoa doing that. 

=====

Headcanon: Tohru and Fafnir meet up once a week so she can teach him about cooking human food. 

I literally wrote a whole fanfic about this. I think Fafnir knows how to cook but only after he goes to Tohru to ask about human food and how to make it. He doesn’t ask her directly about how to cook (he doesn’t know how to ask for help) but I think they’re good enough friends that Tohru can pick up on the request without him even saying it.

Also Elma is there sometimes to learn how to cook but she usually ends up eating her share of the ingredients before it’s done.

=====

Headcanon: Kanna is oddly good at playing shiritori

Ok this one is a headcanon that I just like because it’s fun to think about + it came from memories of my childhood. Shiritori is that word game where you use the last letter (or syllable in japanese0 as the start of a new word.

I think that she plays that with her classmates and they find our that she’s just really good at it, like “hasn’t lost once” levels of good at it. They challenge her a few times a week, and after she gets tired of doing it so often, they set a rule where you have to bet something in the game in order to play. This becomes a trend in her school, and they even have shiritori tournaments sometimes. I think the teachers would encourage this because it gets the kids reading and learning more words.

=====

Headcanon: Elma has a hydroponic garden in her apartment

You know those gardens that don’t use soil and just water? Yeah Elma has one of those, she’s literally the holy sea priestess, she can control water well enough. She just keeps it somewhere in her (in canon very empty) apartment and grows a bunch of vegetables. And melons, I think she would like melons.

But also she’d probably eat them before they are fully ripe, I don’t think she has the patience to actually wait for it to fully grow

[anime-addictt]

Enneagram 9

Need: To live a zen life, to be at peace with oneself. Deadweight and sloth when overvalued, a doormat when undervalued. 

Belongs to: Gut-triad. The withdrawn gut type that withdraws from the outer world to avoid acting on their instinct/emotion/thought to bring peace to themselves.

You can’t hate a 9. They are very convenient people, they make sure everyone around them is in a joyable state. They live life at such a slow pace where they can take in everything one-by-one thereby enjoying it to the fullest. They’re like the clouds on a sunny day. To be honest, we have a lot to learn from 9s. 

However, despite all these good attributes, 9s have failed or neglected to learn one thing: to feel the intensity of the things they do. A lot of 9s, both in anime and real life avoid living or accepting some parts of them cause they’re genuinely scared of the fact that the intensity can disrupt the peacefulness within them. There are so many instances where they don’t even realize that they’re angry till they explode. A lot of them shut themselves down cause they can’t afford to disrupt the peace or the pleasant situation in front of them. (Some of them are genuinely lazy)

As long as I’m living a peaceful life, I have nothing to complain about. I have a lot of minor issues, but I can ignore them cause that’s not important as me enjoying the moment. People have it worse than me and they probably need more focus.

Many 9s, as kids have been the mediator in family disputes. They were forced to swallow their own feelings and emotions about the situation. And since they couldn’t voice out what they wanted, they decided to smoothen out the situation. And this brought a sense of peace to them.

Wings:

9w8:  The 9s that actually don’t give a damn. They do crave a sense of peacefulness like every other 9 and 8 wing let’s them attain it without a care. They don’t like conflicts, but will get into them if something dear to them is being affected. They have a really good understanding of their boundaries. I understand that it is important, but I’ll look into it once I’m done enjoying what I have. Also, just because I don’t care, doesn’t mean you can mess around with the things I hold dear to me. Try doing that, and I’ll make sure you pay for it. 

9w1: The 9s that care way too much. They make sure that the inner sense of peace or relief they desire isn’t harmful or wrong to anyone else. These are also the 9s who would care a lot more about the general atmosphere of the group or people they’re with and actively try to bring a sense of peace to it. I like to waste time like everyone else, but if I think it hurts someone, I rather not do it. I don’t think I should tell them how much I hate seaweed, but is it really that important ? I rather not do it if it is going to bother everyone else, cause then it would ruin this fun moment. 

Subtypes:

Sp9: I would sleep than listen to your life issues. It’s not that it isn’t important, I just don’t feel like dealing with it right now. I understand what you’re trying to say, I really do. But if everything is okay right now, do we really have to change it ? 9s that are extremely prone to ‘inertia of motion’. Very conscious of their boundaries and what bothers them, but would fail to react to their issues cause they don’t think enough about it or they assume it would go back to normal. Also, more focused to enjoying life and its simplicities. 

Ex: Gintoki Sakata

Gin is the best example of 9s who know their boundaries and what they want. Doesn’t really get affected by external opinions, but would step into a conflict if it bothered him beyond a point. He doesn’t care enough to participate in rants between others, but cares enough to the point where he ends up mediating the conflict. He doesn’t care much about the past or the future. His focus is on right here and now- to enjoy it. He doesn’t really think much about improving his conditions cause he’s living just fine- he doesn’t have to change it if everything is going good. As you can see, he isn’t stagnant. There just isn’t enough friction (motivation) for him to react on. 

And like all 9s, he tries to shut down his feelings and thoughts by continuing his state of peace. If he’s always like this, he doesn’t have to think about being a failure or having regrets right ?  

Sx9: I would really like not being bothered. However if you are something or someone who gives me a sense of peace, I’ll do anything to attain you. I’ll make sure to stay by your side. A 9 that would do anything to merge or feel wholeness, They love the peaceful feeling on being one and whole with the thing they’re crazy about. Also the 9 that would mostly likely have no thoughts of their own. Receptive 9s. 

Ex: Hinata Hyuga

Hinata’s biggest motivation was Naruto. Someone who could passionately run behind what he wants without thinking about what people thought about him. Someone who, even after failing so many times, never gave up. She saw him tackle all her insecurities and issues without thinking twice. Watching him as someone she could never become, Hinata started idealizing him. She took up his motto and made it hers. She tried to solve her underlying issue using the ideals he had set for her. And finally she was literally ready to sacrifice herself so that her idol, Naruto could live. She tried to complete herself by watching Naruto and eventually ended up merging her thoughts, dreams and ideals with his ideals.

So9: I don’t realize my issues/feelings/anger. I see these in others. I see the pain in their eyes and I want to make sure that they feel safe, feel comfortable, feel at peace. I will help people find their inner peace and get what they want. Watching them get what they want will bring me a sense of peace.  9 that doesn’t really know what it wants but unknowingly sees it in others. May look like a 2 as these 9s are very giving. Cares a lot about people feeling comfortable around them. 

Ex: Honda Tohru

Tohru is always helpful. She tried to bring a sense of peace to herself by making everyone around her comfortable and happy. She kept shutting down her emotions, her desires of wanting to be with the Sohmas, wanting a family, wanting someone to take care of her and unconsciously projected these by helping people with the exact same issues.  

MBTI Correlation:

Most Likely: 9w8: ISTP, INTP; 9w1: ISFJ, INFJ, INFP

Least Likely: ENTJ, ESTJ, ESTP, ESFP

[lamelinam]

Shigure and Akito in episode 9

I have my beefs with the pacing of season 3 and the 13 goddamn episodes limit (they better not cut Kyo and Yuki’s fight!). BUT...

One thing I’m very happy with is how the show has handled the Akigure materials. This episode gave me even more meat to chew than in the corresponding manga chapters!

I knew this episode was going to be all about Akito’s development, but i didn’t expect to have Shigure’s thrown in there too.

They made the very interesting choice to draw explicit parallels between Tohru sitting next to Akito and later Shigure joining Akito.

A lot has been said about Shigure’s harsh treatment of Akito. He can’t afford to indulge her because he’s fighting every step of the way to be considered her equal, lift the curse and free everyone.

The whole overarching plot of Fruits Basket can be read as an elaborate chess game that he plays against her. The battle ground is the zodiac banquet, as this episode makes pretty clear:

I don’t know about you, but all I could see in this images was Akito and Shigure.

In spite of what Akito is saying to Tohru (”You’ve won! Everyone loves you.”), in the banquet imagery, the figure around which all the zodiacs are grouped isn’t Tohru, but Shigure. He is sitting directly in front of her, literally on the other end of the line, in an adversary position. He’s not facing away from her, like Hatori, but he’s not looking at her either, instead showing off to the other zodiac members that he seems to have drawn away from her. In this context, it’s easy to assume his smile is addressed to Akito, mocking her misery.

He has taken all of her pieces. He is winning.

But there’s one thing that he has dismissed, or relegated, something that has been reproached to him in-world by Hatori and in the fandom: the pain that his winning inflicts on Akito.

He can’t be kind because he knows that he must be her adversary, and he feels resentful enough and justified enough in his actions not to back down. From his point of view, this is both legitimate revenge and a necessary evil. He is a cold, pragmatic bastard, and he knows that she will suffer anyway, so best he vies for the happy epilogue. But, though necessary (and without him, no curse-breaking!), his actions still hurts her.

Then you have Tohru, who when she notices Akito’s terrible loneliness does the exact opposite of Shigure: she immediately reaches out to her. She does not join the other zodiacs on the opposite side. She sits down right next to Akito. “There you are.” And this act of genuine kindness and compassion changes everything.

Tohru says later in the manga that it doesn’t matter whether she thinks she was right or wrong, what matters is that her actions made Akito suffer. This is a something that this episode makes a point of showing Shigure reflecting on.

There he is seen contemplating the events of the day before, when he sat next to Akito. Perhaps the downsides of his methods and the merits of the straightforward kindness of someone like Tohru. And I wouldn't say he necessarily regrets them, or that he was in any position where he could have acted like Tohru without undermining his goal (God had to befriend an outsider). It's more that perhaps he realizes that they've come to the point where distance and coldness are no longer relevant, and that pushing Akito to the brink exacted a price.

The editing of those scenes is very interesting. In the manga, this is the first time that Akito and Shigure are seen together that does not end in a toxic mess. They just sit silently, a respite after the storm.

But the show adds to this scene, by superposing to it Akito’s lines at the end of the episode.

It’s as if Akito was recounting what Tohru did for her to Shigure. As if they’re finally having an actual conversation, communicating, making their first steps towards each other again. Those lines could also apply to Shigure right now. (The soundtrack is the same as when he gave her the flower!!)

Shigure, effectively emulating Tohru’s gesture, makes the visual argument that he has learned from Tohru. He is starting to let go of his lingering resentment and the “battle of wills” mindset. Akito is finally changing. It is time to stop considering her an adversary and bury the hatchet.

And it’s not that he was 100% wrong per se. Alongside Tohru’s, you could say his actions were indeed necessary. But people have been hurt. As Tohru would say, this isn’t about whether he was right or wrong, justified or not anymore. This is about the fact that people he cares about are suffering.

“Now I sorta see what the point of ‘meeting someone halfway’ would be.”

He says to Hatori, adding that he feels somewhat remorseful. He indicates that he is ready to make compromises, something he has absolutely refused to do in 3x5.

Some manga readers criticized the way the manga wrapped up Shigure and Akito’s relationship, feeling that the conflict and toxicity were resolved too quickly. As an Akigure shipper, and as much as I love Shigure and Akito's characters, I've come to think that a "sorry" on both sides would not have been remissed as they rekindle their relationship.

(But some wounds run too deep to be erased by a simple apology. Isn't this what Akito quietly brings up with her dilemma with her own unsaid apologies to the zodiacs? Actions speak louder than words in the end.)

I think this episode is giving us the closest we're ever going to get to a mutual apology. It is doing very well expanding on the present Akigure elements, giving more visual cues to this relationship's development, and showing how Shigure and Akito’s relationship can be something other than destructive.

One other thing I love about those scenes is that they can also be viewed not only from Shigure’s side but also from Akito’s. The banquet imagery, an antagonistic Shigure drawing all the zodiacs away from her, are after all Akito’s own interpretation of the situation.

Shigure sitting next to her may be the moment she realizes that she has viewed the situation through distorted lenses, seeing him as an opposing force, when he has instead always been waiting for her, waiting for the opportunity to sit by her side, as an equal, if she would let him.

Those interpretations are not mutually exclusive - in fact, I consider them very much inclusive. Those two are ready to find each other again, after a lot of hurt and grievance, and meeting halfway requires steps on both sides.

[chronicallylatetotheparty]

Grand Premier

Summary: Barely in Paris and Kagami is already expected to rub elbows with the local elites. Specifically, one Adrien Agreste. At least he dresses better than his father.

---------------------

Kagami didn't want to be here.

"This is an important deal for our company's expansion into France, Kagami," Tomoe Tsurugi reminded her in Japanese. "Be polite with Adrien Agreste."

"Yes, Mother." Kagami would play her role to perfection. Even if it was at the premier of a mediocre movie.

"And if the young Agreste isn't polite I hear he fences at the same school we're enrolling you in."

Kagami didn't smile. No, not at all. And if she did there were no witnesses. "Yes, Mother."

Keeping her usual stoic expression as the parasites, pardon, the paparazzi used flash photography in her face Kagami walked down the red carpet. Arm extended for her Mother.

Gabriel was just as tedious as she imagined him and wearing the ugliest suit Kagami had ever seen. And she'd seen ugly yakuza suits in person. At least Adrien's all black suit was suitable for a family in the fashion industry.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Tsurugi Kagami," the blond boy greeted in heavily accented Japanese. A polite smile on his face as he bowed slightly. "Welcome to Paris. My name is Adorian Aguresuto."

Kagami raised an eyebrow. That didn't sound right.

Eyes widening as he realized his slip up and- Wow, those were expressive eyebrows. -hand going to rub the back of his head as a faint blush painted his cheeks. "I mean Aguresuto Adorian! I, yup..." Suddenly self-conscious Adrien jerked his hand down. Smile nervous but more honest.

Kagami decided to have mercy on him. "Your inflection needs work but the pronunciation is adequate."

His lips twitched. "Adequate?"

"Yes. That is the most accurate description," Kagami stated matter-of-factly.

"Well, then I guess I better ade-quit while I'm ahead," Adrien joked, switching to French.

She could pinpoint the second Adrien noticed what his mouth had said (seemingly without permission) by the way his rosy cheeks went into full bloom. Kagami was fairly certain she was interpreting that expression correctly. "I see why you learned, Japanese."

Apparently deciding her impression of him was already ruined, Adrien forged ahead. "Anime has some impressive puns. I couldn't resist."

Kagami's perfect posture straightened ever so slightly. "Oh? What kind of anime are you interested in?"

Adrien began listing several shonen. Which, honestly, Kagami should have seen coming. At least it included One Piece. Kagami resisted the urge to proclaim the merits of the completely arbitrary power ranking system unprompted. It just fit the story so well and- No! Focus! What was he saying?

"...but right now I'm reading Fruits Basket."

Ooh! Kagami's self control slipped just a little bit. Her eyes might've lit up even. "Yuki is my favorite character."

Adrien beamed at her. "He's amazing! Torhu's my favorite!"

Kagami glanced at a large poster of the movie. Chat Noir displayed prominently with Ladybug. Oh, right. That was a thing. "I would've thought it'd be Kyo"

"Not all catboys are created equal, Kagami," Adrien stated solemnly before breaking into a grin. "He's my second favorite. I just really like Torhu 'cause she's so kind and selfless and..." Adrien paused. Looking down as he fiddled with a silver ring on his finger. "And she's so brave. After losing her mom like that. I really admire her."

Kagami felt she was missing something. She usually felt that with strangers but it was on the tip of her tongue.

Before Kagami could pinpoint why Adrien's appreciation for Honda Tohru felt the way it did Adrien snapped out of whatever he was in. "Anyway, what about you?"

"I relate a lot to Saiki Kusuo. He has trouble understanding people despite being telepathic." Was that too much? It felt like too much.

Apparently not 'cause Adrien's smile was back. The honest one, not the polite one. "Yeah, it's hard to understand people when they don't say what they mean."

Oh, thank you! "What's worse is when they say things they don't mean. It's very confusing."

"Right!? It'd be so much simpler!"

"..." Kagami was supposed to respond here. She was positive that it was expected. But she didn't have anything she felt like adding at the moment. "... So have you read Fullmetal Alchemist?"

Kagami was positive Adrien was restraining himself from vibrating in excitement. She could tell because his eyes were huge and his grin unrestrained. His enthusiasm making her lips form their own smile. Kagami had never met someone her own age she could tolerate, let alone geek out about the differences between anime and manga adaptations.

Most of the other rich kids Kagami knew acted like that ponytailed girl who thought Kagami couldn't see her glaring from across the room. But she wasn't important.

... Actually, there was something Kagami wanted to know. "I hear you fence."

Suddenly shy again Adrien's hand went back to rubbing his neck. "Uh, yeah. Not to brag but I'm the best fencer on the team."

"Not for long."

"Huh?"

"I'll be coming for that top spot, Adrien," Kagami promised.

Adrien's eyes widened, then a competitive gleam sparked in his eyes. "Looking forward to it," he smirked.

In the end the movie was just as mediocre as Kagami thought it would be. Enjoyable sure, if you ignored all the cliches.

"It's even worse on screen!" Adrien proclaimed cheerfully.

Kagami eyed him as they filed out of the theater. "Aren't you the male lead?"

"Against my protests!" He grinned.

"A pleasure doing business with you Madame Tsurugi," Gabriel Agreste's grating voice said from his assistant's tablet. Kagami amused herself by imagining Gabriel was actually that small in person. "Come along now, Adrien."

"Yes, Father." The open expression was gone. Adrien's demeanor immediately subduing at Gabriel's call. Turning towards her, Adrien gave her a small smile- "I look forward to seeing you at school." -and winked with his whole head.

Kagami's cheeks heated up slightly as she returned his smile. "I won't go easy on you."

Adrien frowned. "Well, of course not. That would defeat the entire purpose of dueling."

Kagami's smile grew wider. "Yes. Yes, it would."

She stared at the passing city through the window as they made their way to their new home. Committing the unfamiliar skyline to memory.

"And how was the young Agreste, Kagami?" Tomoe asked. "Was your interaction fruitful?"

Kagami thought about Adrien's predilection for certain manga tropes, how he'd blundered effortlessly past her walls, the clear eagerness Adrien felt at talking to someone else who gets it. He was... endearing. And Kagami wouldn't mind his company again.

"Yes, Mother." Yes, it was.

----------------------

Notes: Written for the Alternate First Meeting promt of Adrigami Week 2021.

[tenyacore]

sweet summer days

-> husband!iida tenya x gn!reader

read before continuing!!: although reader is labeled as gender neutral, the kids sharing both your features and tenya’s implies female anatomy or the ability to bear a child. this can be twisted to be gender neutral friendly though, like a relative of yours being a surrogate. you have tohru (7), toshiro (6), and tomoe (5).

ack this isnt as good as i wanted it to be ㅠㅅㅠ it just sounded so much better in my head aaaaa. i just wanted sweet n soft cuteness. i also fell in love with the children omg i want. kids. now ...

warnings: none.

word count: 1.4k words

check out my masterlist for more of my works!!

laughter and the sound of tiny feet running across the hardwood floor filled your spacious home. what was meant to be a lazy day off for your husband has turned into a chaotic day of cheeky grins, sticky fingers, and rough splashes of pool water. your husband tenya, however, couldn’t be any more happier than he is right now.

the clinking of ice cubes against glass and the mattress dipping underneath you gently woke you up. you look up to see tenya opening a new book he bought recently, quickly becoming submerged in it’s contents. groaning ever so softly, you contemplated whether you should wake up or stay in your comfortable position. unfortunately you didn’t have much of a chance to decide, as your youngest, tomoe, woke you up with a soft grunt, kicking her feet in the air as she desperately tried making her way up onto your bed.

“tomoe? what are you doing up so early?” your husband asks, reaching over you to pick up the girl with ease. tomoe was the sleepiest of your three children; she was shy, silent, and soft in nature, much different than her two older siblings. it was rare to see her this active in the mornings, much less awake, as she had a tendency to nap whenever she saw the chance to.

“tohru and toshiro are fighting again” she whines, a lazy hand reaching up to rub her eye as you sit up, patting down the stray hairs sticking up from her head. she had shoulder length blue hair, with your eyes and smile, along with tenya’s quirk. he swore up and down that he’d train her the best he could so she could continue his legacy. while he promised he had no favorites, you could tell tenya was excited to have tomoe as his successor.

“ahh,” tenya shakes his head “those two tend to bicker quite a lot. did they wake you?” your daughter only responded with a soft nod, already falling back asleep, soothed by her father’s embrace and your gentle hand stroking her head. “i guess i’ll have to scold them a bit for making a commotion, then” tomoe let out a soft ‘mhm’ in agreement, her head finally resting against tenya’s chest as he stood whilst carrying her in his arms.

ever since graduating, becoming an adult, and starting a family with you, tenya’s become a much calmer man. it was a bit hard at first, but after learning from you and tohru that his stiffness and sudden movements aren’t exactly the most relaxing, he tried to become more loose. despite this, he’s still the awkward, nerdy, and strict boy you fell in love with at heart.

“you’re so mean tohru!” your son toshiro’s voice could be heard loudly as soon as you opened the door of your room. your two other kids were in the living room, minecraft sounds playing loudly over their argument.

“i'm not being mean, i'm being fair toshiro! papa made times for us to be on the game so we wouldn’t get into fights!” you sighed, thinking to yourself ‘so much for that schedule tenya put all that effort into’. “you shouldn’t have started a game when you knew your time was almost up!” tohru continued to holler at toshiro, who looked like he was about to cry.

tohru took mostly after tenya, his strict way of being mixing with your louder, more carefree side. she was a stickler for rules but enjoyed picking on her brother and had a tendency to be loud and over-the-top. she had your hair color but tenya’s sharp eyes. she had long hair and lighter skin than the other two from staying inside and reading more than being outside.

“tohru, sometimes, we can just choose to be nice. when you’re nice, most of the time your kindness will be returned. either way, seeing your kindness make someone happy will always be the best part of being nice. if you see that your brother is having a fun time, why don't you let him keep playing?” you take your eldest into your arms, pulling her close to you as you sat down. you weren’t afraid to talk to her about more complex/harder to grasp topics as she was extremely intelligent like her father.

“i guess you’re right…” she hung her head and sighed.

“yeah, tohru!” toshiro angrily huffed, chopping her head tenya style. tomoe continued to sleep as her siblings ran after each other around the house, chaos ensuing wherever they went.

“dad!” toshiro climbed tenya’s back and flashed you a toothy smile. toshiro was the most hyper out of the three, but also a complete cry baby. he was a proud older brother to tomoe yet relied on tohru to protect him, and was an all around happy, cute kid. he had short messy hair that was the same color as yours, with a single streak of blue. he was generally the most balanced combination of you and tenya and had much darker skin than the others, constantly playing around in the sun with todoroki’s kid.

he continued to poke his fathers cheek as he spoke “can we get in the pool today? can we? can we?” he repeated, only stopping and climbing down when your husband caved and said yes to toshi’s whining. “dad! (mom/dad/parent)! you should come in too!” was the last thing the little boy said before disappearing to quickly change and get his towel, which tohru did as well.

“what do you say? wanna go into the pool?” you asked tenya, getting up to change before toshi started whining again. tenya shook his head softly.

“i'm going to cut up some watermelon for the kids and then sit by the pool. i’d rather read for today.” he contentedly sighs as he moves toward the kitchen island, pulling out a watermelon from god knows where and starting to cut it. allowing him to enjoy his day however he’d like to, you went on ahead without him.

“how are you not burning up, ten?” you asked once he joined you all outside, just the mere sight of him in the blazing sun making you sweat. he just smiled and shrugged, continuing his book with the sounds of his children playing together in the background. you held tomoe cautiously as she half heartedly splashed the other kids. honestly, how she came out with a personality more like todoroki’s is beyond both you and tenya, though todoroki jokes that tomoe is really just his child that you guys stole from him.

the first to leave the pool was tohru, then curious toshi, and then you after tomoe whined that she wanted to go with the other two. they all went back inside, towels covering them before pouncing on the plate of watermelon like it was the last in the world. luckily tenya preplanned and saved a couple small slices for the two of you, otherwise you would’ve missed out.

laying next to your husband on the beach chair, he let out a soft groan when your cold, wet hair and hands met his warm skin. “did you not bring out a towel? you’re really cold, love.” you let out a whine which tenya knew meant ‘no and i regret not bringing one’. he adjusted himself to put his arm around you, in attempts to warm you up.

it wasn't long before the sound of children running came close, tohru chasing toshiro angrily and tomoe slowly trailing behind them. you chuckled as tomoe climbed onto you and tenya, a watermelon seed stuck to her cheek and another in her hair. as you removed the seeds, tohru and toshiro kept running after one another.

“toshiro you took the last piece of watermelon so don’t cry when you get what you deserve!” she shrieked, and you decided you probably should no longer let her go over to bakugo’s house, because as much as his youngest boy liked to read with tohru, the rest of his kids took after him, which was probably where she learned her more aggressive behaviors.

holding tomoe in your arms, your children became background noise that lulled you to sleep. the last words you heard were “papa can we go to sanrio puroland tomorrow!?” from tohru. with tenya being puddy at the hands of his children, it was safe to say the summer fun wasn’t done just yet.

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket Manga Review , ch 111

sigh~~~ I feel that my recent posts are a bit negative towards the anime, but thats cuz the chapters I’ve read so far are either unbelievably important character depth content cut for no valid reason or content in the anime but packed with million other things that it lost its purpose or importance. Basically tohu’s ep 6 which consists of 4 chapters & now ep 5 which is a momiji ep & yup, packed with 4 chapters as well... so, I apologize for any negativity, my intention is just analyzing artistic & story-telling aspects, I love se03, but yeah it screwed up lots of important characters due to its not so thorough plot decisions & harmful character insight choices.

today.. we explore Momiji... but only before his curse breaks.

Furuba anime struggling to know how to design an episode based on various plot-heavy chapters?

so, they decided 13 eps, & decided one ep for momiji cuz motoko’s graduation & the fanclub is the core of the furuba & have already cut tons of tohru, cuz who cares? she’s kind. be like her. end of lesson. No. really, jokes aside, how to do this?

How to combine several chapters in one ep? collect small snippets from chosen chapters/content like a bee does flowers? you gotta skip some content, you gotta highlight others. The ep is only 20 min after all & you got an op & Ed that you cant always skip.... so.. furuba team decide that momoji’s ep should be true to his zodiac animal, this is the rabbits last appearance in spirit. so, they went with quick hopping from one chapter to the other like a rabbit?

No really, ep 5 is really like a rabbit in its flow, you can’t savior a moment enough before jumping to the other: we learned momiji grew up!! loves toheu romantically, challenged kyo, really meant it, wanted a fair love game, got freed, lost tohru romantically & faced momiji! but that’s not all? we still have space!! quick add akito’s moodiness & love triangle with her dog & her submissive bed partner, add a happy comedy for no reason whatever & make shigue kiss tohru & wish shes 'was his lover instead!!!!!!!!! Mind you all this happened in the anime before shigure hurt tohru with his “the truth of the zodiacs talk & them accepting & feeling consolance that kyo is doomed”talk. 

-Gets whats my biggest surprise after reading this chapter ?????????

Shigure is consistent!! He isnt a rabbit hopping here & there. The dog is loyal & is tired for good reason! Him being depressed & his weird talk with thoru makes so much sense given the manga’s order.

Kyo is consistent!! In the anime, momiji surprise him with confession he loves tohru & challenge him, then kyo la~la~la~joins them downstairs for curry. Not a single expression on his face, where is the expression? it will appear when the plot is forced to address it: by the end of the ep when momiji face hin again. Then we get kyo’s reaction.

I need someone to tell the anime that actions require a reaction. You can refrain from showing a certain reaction if you can’t address it now, but you can’t erase it, negate it, then make it appear when have to!!!! couldn’t they make kyo refuse to join them & eat together? the     other characters wont be surprised they think he’s needlessly moody. The audience will know that kyo is troubled with momiji’s challenged & it will excite them!!! having kyo just go eat & watch the momiji/hiro/haru/yuki comedy skit is weird.

The manga’s author wanted kyo to join the dinner, like the anime did. but huge difference. the author actually cares for logic reaction & understands that the audience aren’t dumb little kids that will sit & wait for kyo’s turn to...react! nope! she did this: (a) & (b) below.

-Lost Small Bits/ Panels from the chapter.. But Sadly Big Huge Chunks for Characters buildup & Growth:

(a) addressed the fact the hiro noticed kyoru is in love & dressed that shigure was right!! the cat being in love is a weird concept to the zodiacs! hiro reacted naturally & the author used hiro to flesh yuki’s (the rat), momiji’s (the rabbit) & haru’s (the cow) decision to silently watch the kyo (the cat) makes his own decisions to live!!! They won’t interfere or tell akito or remind him of his state as the doomed caged cat. So sad this moment is cut from yuki. Why must yuki only interact with kyo to beat him (all seasons)? why must yuki only think of kyo to envy him (all seasons) ? Here, yuki’s growth towards kyo as a person & his relationship with tohru is 1000 times better than all tohru is my mom’s sh!t & I envy kyo’s Sh!t we saw in the anime over & over till we memorized it.

(b) kyo didnt just go la~la~eat with momiji after knowing he loves tohru. Nope, there’s small bits missing: called logical emotional reaction. He was surprised he’s caught pining over tohru! cuz yuki, the audience representative, has told us in the previous chapter that ppl in love dont notice anything around them. Kyo thinks him being cold hid his feelings. the dummy’s feelings are as bright as the sun in the Sahara, tohru too. a child read her! such small thing that wont take much space from the ep but was cut cuz kyo only needs to be responsive at the ep’s end. & this scene of kyo & tohru looking awkwardly at each other is minor in space but so important cuz kyo is determined to let go but his decision is challenged by not only momiji, but his natural attraction to tohru. Here he knows he’s caught & exposed... here he knows momiji is a better choice for tohru cuz he wont didn’t hurt her mom... here he knows that even yuki is better cuz never had to pretend to be cold to her... here he knows the world is better than him... & here he just cant help by smile & walks towards her... T_T ... another lesson in writing slow burns by Takaya-san.

-Why would the anime team pass on this?? drawing kyoru closer after the epic tear in Cinderella ep, cuz they want empty suspense~! The anime team thinks that if kyo & tohru stand next to each other, then it means all their issues are solved & the audience are so stupid as to forget tohru’s mom, kyo’s imprisonment, kyo not confessing his sins to tohru & tohru’s need to make a choice wether to fogive hom or not.. nope! you see, they think, ppl who read mangas are smart, so the author can give this epic symbolism & pp would still be not sure kyoru is end game & tohru will forgive him or kyo even fogive himself, but ppl who watch, oh no, gotta cut all the plot worthy content, produce a graduation song for a minor character, cut all kyo/tohru interaction cuz it only means romance & not at all character depth & oh if we show yuki actually formulating deep thoughts that aren’t centered around him, the audience might forget his se02 struggles! or that might ruin yuki’s upcoming growth moment in the finale where he .. you guessed it hits kyo.. as he always do & sulk &  think abt himself cuz yuki can only do monologues when he’s directly involved.... man~it is so sad how the anime is dumped down.. Who is the target audience again? not kids as young as hiro cuz even hiro is smart!

-just look:

 Momiji talks abt kyo shouldn't give up loving tohru & the authr shows this this ghost!!! his mom! The author reminds us that kyo isnt da~~~~ forgetting anything. He’s a deeply troubled soul & hos mom wants him locked cuz she too was locked in a cage & thinks that’s safer...why oh why you dump ur own story! sh!t~

Side Notes:

I like the closeups on Kisa’s face as she interacted with kyo. It’s very rare for kisa to have a world beside the endearing parental/big protective bro/big doting sister love she has with tohru & haru & off course the romantic love with hiro which was perhaps since their birth or sth. lol.  Kisa & kyo arent much on the brotherly side as they rarely interact, but its one of those  refreshing  interactions she has that helps cast a new light on her as tiny as it is,  but its sth out of the norm around her. She sees him  around tohru & gets to perceive his true unprovoked character. “He is  nice guy”.

I really wanted to punch kureno this chapter.. like Shigure is a jerk shitty dog for sleeping with akito’s mom but kureno... dude.. you submissively sleep with the guy’s eternal love interest & still walks in on him talking to her!!! lol. you’re mentally, emotionally & physically weaker than him & yet, she puts you on her bed, not him & you, tho not wanting her at all, dont walk away. No wonder shigure is defeated & wishing for someone like tohru, lol! Even if shigure met an older tohru-like person, it wont work. shigure deserve someone like him mean, schemer & loves playing power games. Tohru is someone who values honesty & commutation, not saying she’s an angel on earth, but tohru knows who suits her.. except fate is saying: NO. .... currently. lol.

I know kureno’s weakness is part of his character & I love that such characters exits. There are ppl ike that in real life. It’s just this chapter, I felt shigure’s frustration. XD

Yuki in this ep is the best yuki. no exaggeration here, I love when yuki is calmly thoughtful of others & here its kyo of all ppl !!!! cutting this scene is sad.. without it, kyo & yuki remain a cat & rat in the anime. Only ever thinking abt each other thro envious binoculars or hateful words or yuki giving kyo comedic hitting or life’s problem-solving hitting. Why can’t anime yuki be interactive outside his self-centered issues is beyond me.

Momiji & kyo’s interactions are always the best! whether comedy or drama.

I hated the curry cooking scene in the anime... so weirdly out of the ep’s flow.. very forced comedy... in the manga it had a purpose! not just quick add comedy cuz next shot momiji curse breaks & drama & we’ll close the ep with tears & sadness & glimpses of hope...

I love haru’s answer to hiro... so him.. “a guy can’t fall in love?”so chill.. so..simple.

[sobdasha]

been thinking about the really weird dynamics of the Honda family

and the ways they parallel with the Souma family.

Tohru's relationship with Grandpa Honda has always been really inscrutable to me. It seems like Kyouko liked him quite a lot, and the feeling was mutual, so their relationship ought to be close, right? But despite relying on Grandpa around the time of Katsuya's funeral, I get the impression that Kyouko and Grandpa aren't very close after that? He takes Tohru in after Kyouko's funeral, but doesn't provide a place for her to stay during the renovations, and they don't seem to keep in touch.

I figured this was for the convenience of the plot. If Tohru was close with her grandpa, then she wouldn't have no family, no one left, after her mom died. If Tohru had somewhere else to go, it wouldn't be so vital that she be allowed to keep living in the Souma house.

I've been thinking about Shiki, though, and about Akito and Shigure as parents within the Souma estate, and I'm wondering now if this wasn't actually a parallel playing out in brilliant Takaya fashion.

Starting with a recap, because a summary of info is always useful to me:

Kyouko grows up in a family that is very much about Keeping Up Appearances and Knowing Your Place. Her dad is verbally and emotionally abusive and isn't above slapping people either. Her mother isn't affectionate and doesn't protect her, probably because she's primarily concerned with protecting herself from the fallout when anything sets off her abusive husband. Kyouko has never had her emotional needs met and she's never been socialized to see others as real people with real feelings. Before even 7th grade she's become part of the gang scene in a cry for help and attention, and because these are the only people she can kind of understand. Her father has told her she's kicked out of the house at least once prior before he finally makes good on it and disinherits her at the end of 9th grade.

Katsuya and his younger sister grow up in a family that is also very much about Traditional Values and Keeping Up Appearances. Grandpa Honda is a teacher, and he puts a big emphasis on Proper Manners (and probably also other things like Good Grades, Fitting In, and Knowing Your Place). He's stern and pressures Katsuya to become a teacher as well. We don't know what Katsuya's mother was like, but I'm assuming she was also not particularly affectionate. It's only after her illness and passing, probably when Katsuya is somewhere around 20, that Grandpa Honda reevaluates his life and what's most important to him.

From a young age, Katsuya flew under the radar by heavily masking--ie, he made a cardboard cutout of what society expected him to be, so Polite, Quiet, Respectable, Studying To Become A Teacher, while underneath it all being filled with apathy, resentment, and loneliness. His moral compass is deeply skewed--see his teasing of people, his attitude of looking down on people, his bragging admittance to using his father's influence to get away with things, his creepy expressions that are identical to those of The Root Of All Evil (ie, Shigure). He has no real interpersonal relationships--family, friend, or romantic. He's a 23 year old TA who is fixated on and marries a 15 year old girl because she's the first person he ever recognized as human--he saw her in the middle of a violent meltdown and it was the first time he was ever really struck by the realization that someone else might feel the same feelings he does.

(Which, in addition to the dubious legality and widely-regarded ickiness, is just downright pathetic. I'm sorry, but it's true. Fruits Basket itself backs me up.)

The first parallel that jumps out at me is between the stories of Kyouko and Katsuya, and Ren and Akira:

Ren is an Outsider. We don't know what her family life was before joining the Souma clan, but based on everything about her I feel it's safe to assume it was also abusive. A large percentage of the Souma family is against the marriage, but Akira is adamant because Ren is the first person he's ever connected with. Similarly, the Honda family (save Grandpa) disapproves of Kyouko and she remains forever an outsider to them.

In Kyouko's case, Katsuya is able to ditch his family and start fresh with Kyouko. Ren, on the other hand, has to live within the toxic Souma family to be with Akira. Both husbands die, leaving a grieving widow and child behind. Kyouko treasures her daughter and finds a new reason to live in Tohru, away from the rest of the Honda family; Ren, already jealous of Akito for getting in the way of her relationship with her husband (and not dealing well with being pulled even further into the Souma family bullshit with all this curse stuff), and trapped within the toxic Souma family with no one on her side, chooses to perpetuate the cycle of abuse.

The thing I've been thinking about most is the parallels between Tohru and the Honda family and Shiki and the Souma family:

As I said before, Tohru's relationship with Grandpa Honda is very strange. It's not just me--Yuki and Kyou make comments to this effect also, I'm pretty sure. But I think I can finally make sense of it now, if I think of it in light of Shiki.

I think there are a couple chapters of FBA out there that I haven't read (the one with Akito, and were there other chapters beyond volume 3?), but Mutsuki implies--and I think we should take this at face value--that Akito and Shigure hope that Shiki will leave the Souma family. They are not kicking their child out. They want this as loving parents, who have done their best to raise their child in a good home in the midst of a very toxic environment. I like to think they will do a good job of explaining this to Shiki, explicitly and clearly. Akito could have walked away from the Souma family, but she chose to stay because she had a hand in perpetuating the toxicity and generational abuse in the Souma family and she is taking responsibility for trying to end the cycle. She has finally stepped up as the head of the family. She could have walked away, but she didn't.

Shiki had no hand in making the Souma family what it is. Shiki is not obligated in any way to put up with that bullshit. Shiki can and should walk away from that toxic environment, go somewhere new, and be happy. He and his parents and all his non-toxic relatives can visit and call each other and still maintain relationships, but in healthier places, as everyone learned to do at the end of Fruits Basket.

This, I believe, is what Grandpa is also doing for Tohru. He's just less explicit and messes it up at first.

I don't know exactly why we don't see more of Grandpa's relationship with Kyouko and Tohru after Katsuya's death. Is it because Tohru, as the narrator, is prioritizing Only Me And My Mom stories? Is it because Kyouko didn't want to be a burden (is that part of where Tohru absorbed it)? Is it because Kyouko couldn't maintain a good relationship with Grandpa with the Honda Family Toxicity in the background?

The Honda family toxicity shows up in full force again when Kyouko dies. Tohru is a riceball that doesn't belong in the Honda family fruits basket. No one, save Grandpa, will take her in.

And then he invites his daughter's family, which he knows is toxic and will abuse Tohru, in to live with the two of them.

I don't know who came up with the idea--if it's Grandpa, that's a bit cold, as he should be caring for Tohru. If it's his daughter ("Dad, you're getting older, you should be living with us so we can take care of you") that does make sense, both as a reasonable social expectation (which dad raised her to adhere to) and as a power move (the Outsider shouldn't be getting so cozy with dad, and dad's inheritance, without supervision). I'm leaning towards the daughter, as I don't think the family combining was intended to get Tohru to leave. I think the remodel, though, was something Grandpa Honda saw as a good opportunity to convince Tohru to leave the Hondas.

I think "I'm having the house remodeled and I'm staying with my daughter, but you weren't invited, I could pull my weight or maybe you could find your own accommodations with a friend?" was intended to give Tohru permission to not feel obligated to the Honda family. I think it was intended to let Tohru find someplace she would actually be happy, a found family living situation where she could flourish. I think Granpda sincerely thought Tohru would move in with Hanajima, instead of into a tent, and realize that she was so much happier and fulfilled there that she never came back to the toxic Honda family and had no regrets.

Grandpa's judgment was a little iffy there but he tried.

I'm realizing that, if everyone moved into Grandpa's house because it was bigger, and it's being remodeled specifically for that purpose...the fact that Tohru is sharing a room with her cousin is very significant. Grandpa was so confident, there is no place for Tohru in that house. Tohru was never supposed to come back after the remodel.

(I don't know that much about houses so it's possible that they just didn't have room; depending on whether that's the uncle or the son, you've got to have 4 or 5 separate bedrooms, which I guess could be a lot. But this is a manga, they aren't strictly constrained to realism, and Takaya makes every damn detail count.)

Tohru isn't supposed to come back after the remodel, but she does. She does, and the family is toxic to her, and Grandpa tells her more overtly that she is not obligated to live here out of familial loyalty. If there's somewhere else Tohru is happier, even if it's a really unconventional living situation, she should feel welcome to choose that instead.

Grandpa's a parallel to Akito here. He's been becoming aware, since his wife died, that his priorities were all wrong. That he raised his children wrong. That Katsuya appeared to have no real emotions and had never connected with anyone outside of Kyouko and their daughter. (Maybe he learned to make work friends?? But I doubt it.) That his daughter is judgmental and cares more about the appearance of being proper than about not being rude.

Don't think poorly of him, Grandpa says. Deep down, they're just evil people. But Grandpa recognizes that he had a hand in creating those evil people. And instead of being like Machi's mom, who goes "well maybe I fucked up" and then throws her out of the family, Grandpa takes responsibility for the family he made. He recognizes that he raised his kids in a way that caused them to be shallow and rude and to think of people as means to an end, and he also recognizes that it would be shitty to reject his kids for turning out exactly as he raised them. He has to live with them (and his choices), he says, but Tohru doesn't.

Looking at it like that, I respect Grandpa Honda more. He seemed a bit wishy-washy before--useful for some plot and character development points, but wishy-washy all the same. But it's a tough decision, and having to prioritize people is always shitty. Grandpa not rejecting his daughter means sacrificing a stable home for Tohru. Akito staying as the head of the Souma family so she can ensure the freedom of the former Zodiac means that her child will be subjected to the same generational abuse, no matter how loving and supportive of a home life she and Shigure provide.

But they're both trying to do a right thing in a crappy situation.

And Tohru, like so many of the former Zodiac, does find happiness and fulfillment in the new family she's able to make for herself. She learns to make her world bigger, and she learns that leaving doesn't have to be the same as cutting ties. And so I'm very optimistic that Shiki will find the same.

[basket-of-fruits]

yuki and kyo have shown so much growth in this most recent episode and my warm little heart wants to talk about it

@yunsoh​ beat me to it and has already made a great post about yuki’s moment of looking out the window at the group of friends here that is much more wonderfully written than i could ever achieve lol but it has everything that i thinking when i saw that moment. 

so i will talk about the flower moment with kyo instead lol

tohru asks kyo ‘what would you think if there were someone in the zodiac whose curse was already broken?’

and he kind of gives this irritated response

he isn’t mad at tohru for asking the question, he is upset because he can’t give himself the slightest bit of hope that something like that could be possible for him. he doesn’t mean to make tohru upset with his response, but then he sees that he has regardless

and he immediately feels bad and starts freaking out

saying that he isn’t mad at her for asking the question. he’s not actually sure what has made her upset but he can clearly see that he has and immediately blames himself

and apologizes directly and instantly tries to correct it by giving her the flower 

in season one when kyo is fighing with yuki at school and tohru gets in the way to stop it, he yells at her, telling her to ‘get out of his sight’

and she walks away upset, thinking kyo hates her. he knows he’s made her feel bad, but doesn’t immediately go after her, he just sits and sulks for a while and then has this conversation with shigure about not being fit to live around other people 

then he goes to pick up up from work to apologize but doesn’t actually say i’m sorry or mention the incident from earlier he just says

he’s basically saying she can do all these things that she think he’s mad at her for instead of directly saying ‘hey, i’m sorry for yelling at you earlier for getting involved’

tohru has to actually read through the lines to figure out that he’s trying to apologize to her 

in the beginning kyo knew he was to blame for making her upset but couldn’t apologize to her directly, he could only go about it in a roundabout way,

but now he can see that he has made her upset and takes action immediately 

people have tried to hurt kyo his whole life by blaming him for things that weren’t even his fault, and he blames himself for a lot of things, so i think in the beginning, when he does something wrong, he does genuinely want to apologize, but he also wants to protect himself in the process. He doesn’t know tohru very well at this point and doesn’t know how she will react to his wrong doings, but now by season 3 he knows that she never reacts poorly and always forgives him and so now he trusts her enough to actually say sorry because he knows she won’t hurt him in any way or use his apology against him

he’s learning to trust that not everyone is out there to hurt him and that when he wants to say sorry for something he can do so without being crucified for it and that’s growth baby <3

[ghostietea]

On Tohru and Akito: a long overdue analysis

As some may know, Tohru Honda and Akito Sohma from the manga Fruits Basket are pretty much my all time favorite protagonist/antagonist pair. They just work incredibly well as thematic pieces and driving forces of the story in relation to eachother. And beyond even the surface level they have a rich and layered goldmine of parallels that make them fascinating to think about. While it may make many a newbie raise an eyebrow, I think this is a fact that is to some level pretty widely acknowledged in the fandom proper. However, there is another level of their relationship that is often mostly left out of analytical conversations about them and their parallels: their eventual friendship. Something which, partly due to screentime, is often somewhat simplified down and misinterpreted. Which I think is a shame because, when you look at it, their eleventh hour friendship is deeply interwoven with their parallels and the very thematics and ending of the story. So then, what’s really going on with the girls that stand as part of the thematic core of Furuba? Beyond (most of, true analytical objectivity is impossible in interpretation) my personal sentimental feelings, let’s talk Akito and Tohru: their parallels, relationship, and role in the story overal. Read more present, this is going to be a long one but I hope you stick around 😊

One facet of Akito and Tohru’s role in relationship to eachother that I think is both interesting and imperative to understanding their purpose is their nature as eachother’s foils, especially their parallels. See, the two girls are both opposite and the same. Takaya sets them up as foils before we even properly meet Akito, as you can see in these panels: 

However, their foil relationship becomes a lot more intriguing once their similarities become more apparent later in the story. Just think about it: two girls with boy’s names whose fathers died when they were young, leaving them alone with their mothers, who both developed behavior that, according to the environment that they grew up in, would keep them from being abandoned. Akito, coming from the cultish Sohma clan where she was treated as a God to the point that she thinks she can do no wrong and has tied all of her self worth to the role, plays the part of a male ruler who must uphold tradition and keep the zodiac with her by any means. Akito is terrified of being abandoned, especially since she has no idea how to have relationships outside of the context of the bond, only exacerbated by the fact that Ren, one of the only people that openly questions her role, has constantly told her that she’s useless and will be abandoned. This is something that informs all of her (many, terrible) decisions and leads her to try desperately to keep the curse together, something which puts her in direct conflict with Tohru, who actually wants the curse broken in part so that she won’t be abandoned. Tohru may not be as obvious with her abandonment issues as miss screeches-at-people-not-to-leave-her, but they still inform a good deal of her character. Like Akito, she develops behavior around the time of her father’s passing to try to keep herself from being abandoned, mirroring her father’s proper speech because she was worried that she was losing Kyoko.  But, as she grew older in her much warmer environment, Tohru turned to kindness instead of fear to capture others, maintaining a facade of extreme positivity, politeness, and determination so as to not bother anyone. And, while she hides it, Tohru just gets worse after losing her mother. She becomes dedicated to preserving her feelings about her mother as is, refusing to move on much as Akito also refuses to move on from the curse and what her father wanted. Then comes the beach house reveal, where Tohru learns that Akito plans to take away her new family, even locking up the one most precious to her. Tohru tells herself that she’s going to break the curse for the freedom of the zodiac and cat, but she is also, in a way, doing it to keep herself from being abandoned. Later this feeling changes to become more focused on preventing the loss of Kyo himself, something which Tohru doesn’t want to admit. Tohru is a truly good and kind person and does want to help, yes, but also some part of her is doing this to keep the ones she loves by her side, understandably as she is a teen that recently lost the person she revolved her whole life around. But it comes to a point that you have to realize: Akito and Tohru are both motivated by the same thing, they just present it in wildly different ways. I don’t think that I have to explain how exactly their behavior foils eachother, the more worldly and modern Tohru acting on radical kindness and acceptance and thinking she deserves nothing while the sheltered, traditional Akito uses manipulation and fear to get what she thinks she is entitled to. It’s very apparent, but just gets even spicier in the context of how similar they are. Another parallel is in Tohru’s mom picture vs Akito’s father box, both relics of their dead and favorite parent that they are extremely protective of and treat almost like it is their deceased parent. Early in the series Tohru is seen carrying around a photo of her mom which she talks to, something which seems pretty harmless, until we consider how terrified she is every time she thinks she’s lost it, even going as far as to refer to it as if it were her mother.  Notably, it barely shows up in the second half of the series, as she reluctantly drifts away from her mom and towards Kyo. In this later part of the series, we are introduced to Akito’s box, which she (semi, it’s complicated) thinks contains her father’s soul. Akito’s box is shown in a much darker light, from how the reveal of what it us to her is framed to how cruelly she reacts when it’s being stolen. Akito’s box is to Tohru’s photo what their owners narratively are to eachother: a dark mirror.

Ok, and now for the reason that I think it was important to bring all these parallels up first: because as you cannot understand Tohru and Akito as enemies without understanding their differences, you cannot understand them as friends without knowing their similarities. While it is easy to write off Tohru reaching out to Akito as just another case of Tohru being Tohru, that does a disservice to the full picture. I’ve seen around in the fandom that a good deal of people seem to think Tohru trying to befriend her is just Tohru being overly kind and forgiving, and this is something I think ties back a bit to some early fandom misconceptions about Tohru. Bear with me for a second, this is going to be a bit of a tangent but it ties back. It’s died down some now, but in the early Furuba fandom it was very common to just think of Tohru as a pretty flat nice girl doormat character, which besides misogyny is probably partially the fault of the 01 anime, which cuts off before we get to see more of Tohru’s insecurities and tones down what we do see (also, in the case of the relationship I’m talking about, 01 ads in that God awful end confrontation that I despise for being everything that I’m about to argue the ACTUAL confrontation that I like is not). Manga Tohru is a very subtle character, she hides a lot of her feelings behind a perpetually happy front which doesn’t start to let slip until later. And, since it’s later on in the manga which went unadapted for years and is mixed in with a bunch of crazy stuff, I think Tohru’s quiet development is often somewhat overlooked. For example, early series Tohru is very well known for the speeches she gives to the zodiac when she first meets them, speeches that, importantly, always tie back to things that her mom said. Tohru’s worldview back then revolved completely around Kyoko, so it’s probably a bit of a thing that in the later story, when Tohru draws ever nearer to the realization that she must move on, she does not give her mom speeches anymore? As opposed to the early story, when it was pretty much back to back character intros, in the late story Tohru notably only gets to befriend two new Sohmas: Isuzu and Akito. Notably, she doesn’t quote her mom either time, these are both people that she can relate to on some of her more hidden issues, and she shows a more personal side of her emotions in her turning point confrontations with them than she did earlier. It is especially important to realize that, in her confrontation on the cliff, Tohru is deciding that she is willing to go against her mom. Early series Tohru was a front anyways, and is a different Tohru from the one that finally gets through to Akito. I was using it as an example, but the evolution of Tohru’s befriending confrontations will be important later. Furthermore, there is the perception of Tohru as a doormat. Listen, Tohru may be very kind and polite, but one of her defining characteristics is being very determined and strong willed when need be. This is something that is especially relevant to her interactions with Akito. From the first meeting outside the school, Tohru knows to be wary of Akito and even breaks politeness and shoves her when she senses that Akito is making Yuki uncomfortable. This sets up immediately that Tohru can and will stand up to Akito. This is driven in even farther at the beach house, when Tohru, after again physically getting between Akito and a zodiac, decides that she will directly go against all of the Sohma family’s centuries of tradition and Akito herself to break the curse.  There’s even a cute moment when, upon remembering Akito telling her not to, Tohru just decides to meddle even harder. Tohru, while polite about it, does not like Akito and puts herself in direct opposition to her. Tohru does not originally want to be Akito’s friend, or to have anything to do with her. The cliff scene is not just Tohru befriending someone because she just is over forgiving and loves everyone (an argument can be made that she still goes to easy on Akito, but it’s in line with how the narrative treats her too so that’s another conversation), there was a specific reason both that she chose to try to get through to Akito and that it actually worked. Up until their big confrontation, Tohru still thinks of Akito as a threat, and while she has gotten more information that shakes up her view of Akito, she still doesn’t understand her well enough to see her as much more than an obstacle. Then Akito barges into her yard when she’s just been rejected, crying and confessing how terrified she is of being abandoned, of things changing, and Tohru just goes still, eyes wide in shock. And she realizes: her and Akito have been afraid of the same thing the whole time.  This is when Tohru decides to try to reach out to her. Because Tohru, on a deep level, sees Akito because of their similarities.  She calls Akito out on her insecurities, and Akito reacts badly, accusing Tohru of being “dirty” and trying to condescend.  Tohru partially rebukes this, not trying to hold herself above Akito as pure and righteous, but instead confessing her own fears of abandonment and change in an attempt to empathize with Akito.

At this part of the story, Tohru is fully coming into the realization that, in order to live her life, she needs to stop clinging to this idea of an “unchanging” relationship with her mom, something that scares her quite a bit. She realizes that, while she saw the flaws in Akito’s “eternity” and tried to destroy it, she had not been as perceptive with herself, clinging to that same notion. Tohru is an incredibly repressed character, especially in regards to emotions she thinks of as “dirty,” and she is showing a remarkable amount of vulnerability in this scene. Another thing to note about Tohru is that she, in her immense repression, will often process her own issues through other people. We see this throughout the story, from her showing grief over her mom by crying for Momiji and his mom to her projecting her fear of losing Kyo onto Kureno and Arisa. So then, it’s quite something to consider that the last Sohma she befriends is the one most emblematic of the issues she keeps locked up tightest? That as she’s speaking to her she’s deciding to move forward from her own fears? In a way, could accepting Akito be a symbol of Tohru accepting what she thinks are the darker parts of herself? Akito is also coming to a realization about moving on, acknowledging that the zodiac curse is coming to an end and that everything she believes is a lie, and she is absolutely distraught about it. But Tohru, in a way that nobody else does, understands Akito, and wants Akito to be her friend. Not out of pity or reverence, but a desire for solidarity. And this is the very reason why Tohru was actually able to get through to Akito. As we see with Kureno before he gets stabbed and Momiji at the beach house and when his curse breaks, it’s not like people haven’t kindly tried to get through to her before.

Of course, the reason it worked for Tohru can also be partially chalked up to the fact that Akito herself has come a long ways in personal realizations to the point that there’s just some things she can’t deny anymore, but that’s not all. Akito tends to react very negatively to what she sees as condescension, she thinks people want to try to pick her apart and see how she ticks just so they can look down on her, so they can see her as lesser. She thinks Tohru is trying to condescend too at first, especially since she perceives Tohru as this holier than thou saint wannabe. Fascinatingly, Akito’s view of Tohru is incredibly similar to that early fandom idea of Tohru as an angelic mary sue, and she hates her for it. She thinks that Tohru is trying to be like this and is seen as such, and that she (Akito) is the only who can see that Tohru is wrong somehow.

But Tohru rejects this notion of a pure her that both the fandom and her early self tried to project, presenting herself as flawed and human and purposefully trying to not put herself on a pedestal above Akito. She makes it very clear that she’s not trying to condescend, she is the same way (well, sorta) and she gets it. Notably, after this point Akito doesn’t accuse her of looking down on her, instead freaking out temporarily because of how much Tohru called her out before venting about her fears to her. And, while, partially due to outside circumstances, it does take Akito a bit longer to accept her offer of friendship, she legitimately manages to get through to her very soon after this point. If Tohru had tried one of her early series mom speeches on Akito, or just tried to blindly accept her without understanding, it would not have worked. Akito would have just written it off or reacted badly and left it there. But because Tohru tried to befriend Akito out of understanding as an equal it actually worked. You can’t separate Akito and Tohru’s parallels and their eventual friendship because one aspect is integral to the other.

A connected aspect of their relationship that I see talked of very little but is actually a pretty strong undercurrent is that of equality and power. To explain this, we have to look at Akito for a bit. Throughout her life, pretty much everyone around Akito has either put her on a pedestal or looked down on her. This is something that not only greatly damaged the way she thinks of herself and others, but has given her an intensely hierarchical view of relationships. We even see this notion clearly take form for her in the black paint scene, where she decides that Yuki, who she’d previously seen as the same as her, has to be lesser or else she will become useless.  From the moment Akito was born she was “God,” an existence above everyone else. Even her own father only seems to give her affection for being God, and when he dies and she takes his place as the head of the family she is just elevated even farther at an extremely young age. The only people (she thinks) she’s close to are the zodiac, and the curse itself puts an inherent power dynamic into that relationship that can only be overcome with its undoing. Akito clings to her power, to her rank in the hierarchy, all the while the very thing she desperately upholds has made her the real outsider. Akito, who does everything in the name of belonging, was always alone from the start. As Tohru points out, as long as she is above the group she cannot be a part of it.

Simultaneously, and almost contradictory to the pedestalization and power dynamic aspect, Akito is extensively coddled and pitied. A lot of the older adults around her treat her almost like a crotchety, spoiled child. A child who is coddled to the point of never being given any reprimand or instruction on just how to behave like a functional human being until things have gone far too far. Then you have cases like Kureno, who seems to still see Akito like a kid, pretty much just coddles her as a job, and only stays because he pities her. This leads to a strange dual sided dynamic in multiple cases, where Akito is seen as someone’s better and has more power but is also being looked down upon in a way too. Akito has never in her life been seen and treated as an equal, so it’s pretty important when it is made clear that Tohru tries to befriend her as an equal. After all this time, Tohru, an outsider that is not under Akito’s control, who can hold her ground in a challenge against her, is finally the one to meet her on the same level. There’s this page that I adore that symbolizes this idea really nicely. It opens on a panel of Akito sitting a distance away from the zodiac who are all having fun together, a motif we’ve already seen a few times, but this time Tohru sits down right next to her.

This page comes at a critical moment, when Tohru is offering her hand in friendship to Tohru, it’s Akito realization of what Tohru is trying to do. Later on, we get Akito narrating what this page was showing, which I think I just need to put in:

We also see a bit of their conversation after they reunite in the hospital later, where Tohru again denies that she is better than Akito. Now, I think both the Tokyopop and Yen Press translations of this scene are a bit weird, the Tokyopop version uses the word “pretty” (confusing) while the Yen Press uses “kind” (don’t think that’s the best word). However one time I saw like a Malaysian english release in the half price books that used “pretty on the inside” and I like that best so I’ll just pretend that’s it.

I think this scene is interesting because it could seem like they’re just talking about morality but that’s not it. This is, once again, Tohru pretty explicitly trying to stop the creation of any sort of hierarchy between her and Akito. It’s not about right or wrong, Tohru know very well that Akito’s done things wrong and actively worked to stop her, it’s about not wanting them to be put on some sort of different rank based on morality and Tohru understanding Akito enough to empathize with the fact that (wrong or no) Akito was really hurt by Tohru and they won’t get anywhere if they don’t acknowledge that. Furthermore, I’ve already talked a bit about it already, but I think the way that Tohru asserts that she gets what Akito’s feeling and thinks she herself is “dirty” during their confrontation is relevant here too. She is, again, presenting herself as someone on the same level who understands Akito and is not being nice out of pity. This then leads to the page I talked about before which is again, Akito realizing this! This is a huge moment for her, someone who has had all of her relationships messed up by inequality and has no idea how to have a normal relationship, who is having a breakdown because she thinks that because of this it’s too late for anyone to love her, to have someone who understands her and wants to meet her on the same level. Even if she tries to deny it and shift blame, at this point Akito has realized that the zodiac bond is not what she thought and that she has been acting horribly. The groundwork is already there for Akito to have a change of heart, especially considering that a lot of her horribleness stems from legitimate extreme ignorance and her obsession with the bond so once she’s snapped out of that… The main thing that’s holding her back past that is that she’s panicking and cannot see a way forward. So then when there’s someone who actually gets where she’s coming from instead of just tolerating her and is offering her the sort of friendship that she’s never gotten to have of course she’d go for it! Tohru Honda has proven Akito wrong in ever way and, in the end, she even proves her wrong on her greatest fear: that she can only be wanted because she’s God. Because of Akito’s specific issues, nothing could have been more powerful for her than someone coming to her as an equal. Again, the piece about why Tohru could get through to her. It just wouldn’t be the same if Tohru didn’t have a reason to want Akito around or if she somehow saw Akito as below her, the very core of their relationship is the destruction of hierarchies. From the beginning Tohru has been trying to destroy the hierarchy of the zodiac, and when it comes down to it she does not take Akito’s spot at the top, but decides to stand beside her and the zodiac instead. Early in the series we see Akito trying to have some power over Tohru through fear, but when the time comes and Akito is pretty much defeated Tohru does not take power as the victor, hoping that Akito joins her instead of being somehow defeated. And at the end of it all this works, and Akito dissolves the zodiac and with it most of her power and her godhood of her own accord. 

Despite their relative lack of page time, Tohru and Akito’s relationship has always been something that I come back to. Sure, a lot of that is just sentiment as they meant a lot to me when I was younger, but I think there’s something there. They work amazingly as protagonist and antagonist, contrasting nicely and working as symbols of both sides of the thematic conflict. There’s a palpable tension to their early interactions that makes you both scared and interested to see what happens when these two inevitably have to go head to head. But then, as the story goes on, it seems more and more like they are a tragedy, so similar yet on different sides of the story, fated to have one of them stuck with an unhappy ending brought on by the other.

But, even as dark as it gets, that wouldn’t really be Fruits Basket, would it? In the end, Tohru and Akito’s similarities win out, not their differences. I think it would have been so easy to just make this a story where the sweet heroine “saves” the villain just because, but that is so blatantly not what’s going on. Tohru simply sees herself in Akito, she’s not trying to somehow fix her and nor should she have to, she just wants to be her friend. And then the two manage to overcome their driving fear of moving on, forging new bonds and inspired by their interaction with the other. It’s not like Tohru somehow fixes Akito’s problems, Akito has to do things herself and in fact independence is a big theme of her endgame arc. Tohru simply offered her friendship, and that was enough. There’s a distinction to be made between how Tohru inspires Akito and Tohru somehow “saving” her, because Akito very much has to learn to save herself in the end after a lifetime of pushing her issues onto others. And, as a side note, all this is sort of why it bugs me when people act like Tohru would be like a mom to Akito. First off, Tohru shouldn’t have to be the mom to everyone. And, kind as she is, Tohru is also not a Kureno, she sees and interacts with Akito in a completely different way and their relationships with Akito are one of the big points were Tohru and Kureno differ. Second off, Akito has spent her life coddled and clinging onto anything that she can hold onto as a resemblance of parental affection to a toxic degree. Part of her arc is that she needs to grow out of this, become more independent, and have more balanced relationships. Akito at this point does not want or need to make a mommy figure out of one of her peers, and doing so may in fact be regressive. Sure, she will definitely need a level of guidance going forward, but it would be more beneficial for her to learn from example and under more of a friendly, balanced context coming from multiple people, not one person holding her hand. For all the reasons I’ve gone over in this entire post, I think it is much more meaningful for Akito to have Tohru as what she was canonically presented as in text: someone who sees her as an equal. The whole point of their relationship is, again, the defiance of hierarchies, something which I think is often sorely overlooked even though it is very openly there in text. And that, in part, is why I think their relationship is so powerful to me. Beyond hero and villain, right or wrong, or any story roles, it’s about two girls finding solidarity and friendship on a very personal, human level. This is Akito for the first time being seen not as this distant, untouchable male deity or some pitiful being, but as a flawed, hurt human girl who is nonetheless capable of change and being loved. This is Tohru coming out of hiding, presenting her flawed, terrified human self to someone she saw as an enemy. Fruits basket is, in part, a story about friendship and defeating systems of power and abuse. Even in a messy third act that muddles its themes at times by weighing character endings too heavily on het romantic love, especially in regards to the women (Hello Rin, Machi, Uo, ect.), Tohru and Akito stand out as a friendship that is given a huge amount of narrative weight. It just feels nice that, in a story that often focused on the power of relationships between women only to ditch all that and focus primarily on their relationships with men, these two girls are one of the driving forces of the endgame. The curse didn’t get broken by romantic love, but by the friendships everyone made along the way, including Tohru and Akito. Tohru has gotten it to this point, and now Akito just needs to bring it to a close and finally end things. At the very beggining, before this all started, all the cat wanted was for the God was to move forward and live as a person among the humans, and, finally, a long time later that wish was granted. The tale of the zodiac gets its happy ending not by a villain being defeated, but by the power of friendship and solidarity between women.

[xthe-writing-vampirex]

So uhh can you do a g/t story with Yuki finding a tiny!Toru and scaring her unintentionally, but then comforting her. I've always felt like Yuki would be a very gentle and sweet giant if not somewhat awkward. Shigure or Kyo could also be in the story too.

So the best way I could think to write something like this was by doing Yuki finding a borrower Tohru. I hope you like it💕

Yuki x Borrower! Tohru

Word Count: 1,052

Warnings: None

Fandom: Fruits Basket, G/T

Pairings: Platonic

————————

Tohru makes her way through the dew-covered forest around the Sohma family home. She'd been living here now for a few years, unfortunate circumstances having caused her to strike out on her own. For any normal person simply getting a job and figuring it out from there would be the answer. In Tohru's case though, she wasn't exactly normal. Tohru is a borrower. A tiny humanoid being that lives off of the scraps they borrow from humans. 

Tohru had to stay close to a human residence to live and choosing the Sohma home wasn't fully intentional. It just seemed like the easiest place to stay hidden. After all it was surrounded by a forest and she could use said forest as cover. One thing she hadn't counted on though was a certain secret the men in the house had. She had witnessed them change into animals a few times and simply couldn't figure out how that was possible. On one of her borrowing sessions she heard the dark haired, older giant mention something about the zodiacs. Odd to say the least.

Today was another borrowing day for Tohru, seeing as she'd run out of quite a few essentials. As she ran towards the Sohma house she noticed that the door was open. Odd…..maybe they were simply trying to cool down? It was a rather hot day after all. Usually they weren't home around this time so leaving the door open made little sense. She carefully climbs up the wooden structure, making her way to the cracked door. As she looks inside she notices someone immediately, the white haired giant seemed to have stayed home today.

Her heart sank as she realized this would be a lot harder than it needed to be. Sadly for her she wouldn't exactly get much time to think. She's too absorbed in coming up with a plan that she doesn't hear the loud footsteps of someone approaching until the wood creaks under his weight. Tohru turned at the sound, looking up at a red headed human. Her heart stops, his almost red eyes looking back down at her. She'd been caught.

Without thinking the borrower shoots into the house as fast as she can, catching the attention of the white haired giant in the process. She can hear the redhead grumbling behind her as he tries to slide the door to get in and go after her. Thankfully for her it's stuck, giving her some time. She rushes into the kitchen, trying to find a place to hide in the darkness. She doesn't count on the white headed guy following her though. He turns on the light and looks down, spotting her rather quickly. Her heart practically stops and she backs herself up against the nearby counters.

"Wait! Please don't run." She hears from above. Her eyes widen in fear as she tries to come up with a plan. The giant doesn't give her time though. He carefully gets down on his stomach so he's at her level, or as at her level as someone this big can be. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." He states, eyes watching her for a reaction. She simply trembles in fear, hearing the other giant finally make it into the house with an irritated grumble.

"Yuki! What is it?" She hears the other say. The one called Yuki sighs in response before carefully picking up the borrower.

"Sorry about this but I don't want that idiot getting his hands on you." Yuki states, carefully standing with a very scared Tohru in his grasp.

"A person?" The redhead states, eyes wide in surprise. This was definitely the response Tohru expected but being touched by one of these humans wasn't a good thing. She was completely at their mercy and that was the last thing a borrower should let happen.

"I think." Yuki responds. He carefully brings his hand closer to his chest, opening it so that Tohru can stand on her own but also be safe while doing so. Tohru however doesn't move. The poor girl simply trembles under the gaze of the two beings around her. "Easy little one. You're safe here. I'm Yuki Sohma. That's Kyo." She hears a voice from above say. She glances up at Yuki, unsure if what he says is actually true or just bait.

"W-What do you want with me?" She finally asks, small voice trembling. Yuki's face fills with worry at this statement, unsure of what she means but knowing her past experiences with people were probably not that good.

"Nothing…...we just didn't know what you were. You're safe I promise. It's okay." Yuki states, trying to calm down their still terrified guest.

"So what are you pipsqueak?" Kyo says, earning a glare from Yuki. 

"A-A Borrower." Tohru replies. Upon seeing their confused reactions she decides to explain. "We're kinda like humans…..but we're usually only a few inches tall. We borrow things from humans to stay alive. Just little things. Food, water. Necessities." She explains, expecting to see anger. Thankfully neither of them show any signs of it.

"Why not just ask? I'm happy to get you things you need." Yuki replies with a smile. Tohru couldn't believe her ears. Asking for things or interacting with humans in general was basically a death sentence for her kind.

"Because humans kill and hurt us. We can't trust them." She explains, trying to stay strong though her heart rate gives away her fear. She had memories of borrowers simply being crushed or played with until they died. No. Humans simply couldn't be trusted.

"Why would they do that? You can't exactly fight back. Why hurt something so vulnerable?" Yuki replies. Tohru shrugs, no one could really explain it. People were just….evil sometimes for no reason other than they wanted to be.

"Well…..you're safe here and we'll make sure no one hurts you. What's your name, little one?" Yuki asks, keeping his voice low and gentle to try and calm his new companion. The girl thinks for a moment. Telling them her name couldn't be that bad right? And what if they were telling the truth. Maybe it's worth a try. After all, she would be hurt by now if that was their intention.

"Tohru. My name is Tohru."

————————

[sstwins]

Femslash Feb Day 19 - Isolation - Akito/Tohru

AYO LONG FIC ALERT

why did i write so much??? idk i was just inspired thinking about them

akito actually means a lot to me. i might be in love with her

but i think that her contrast with Tohru has so much room to be explored more

Brief Summary: Everything had changed once Tohru started coming around.

Word Count: 805

I’m still accepting ships for femslash feb!!! Send me your fave fem pairs and I’ll write you a fic sometime this month!! (2 spots left)

Akito had always had a tendency to isolate. She would trap herself in a room for days on end, not letting anyone in or, sometimes, anyone out. She would often refuse food and paint dark marks with ink on the walls or floors that servants later had to scrub off. She didn’t envy their job, but then again, at least they got to go home to happy families. At least they could relieve their burden at the end of the day. She had to live it every moment, awake or asleep.

That had all changed when Tohru entered the picture.

The girl seemed to have no idea about what was proper. Her bumbling presence was laughable… though in some ways, captivating. She said and did foolish things. She attracted people. And like it or not, she’d attracted Akito.

It was humiliating. She considered herself better than the rest of those fools. Kyo, Yuki, Momiji. Wasn’t she above them? Wasn’t that her right, no, her duty, as their god? She didn’t have human failings like the rest of them. And what she wanted, she took.

But she found herself having strange emotions when she watched Tohru skipping around the estate. Or on the few occasions when they’d made contact. She felt more nervous… more feminine. It was awful. She hated it. Love was a womanly emotion, and she’d spent years of her life suppressing that. What she needed was possessive desire. Rage and anger. But in some way, she didn’t want to possess Tohru. Because what Akito possessed, she blackened. She ruined the best in people. She didn’t want to take away Tohru’s bright spirit.

The girl had been coming over more and more, spending time close by, noticing things that Akito never would have wanted her to notice. Like when Akito shut herself away.

It was when she was alone in the dark that she heard a faint knock on the screen in her room separating her from the outside. Everyone knew to leave her alone when she got like this. Still, someone had dared to knock. Of course, Akito ignored them. Whatever they had to tell her, they could wait or they would knock again. Then she could slam open the screen and release her rage, ensuring that such a misstep would never occur again.

But it was strange for someone to be trying to connect with her from the outside. Anyone working for her would be trying to get in through the inside of her room. And, as it often did, curiosity bit the cat. Sometime after the knock, perhaps a dozen minutes or a few hours, Akito got up, pulled her kimono around her, and opened the screen.

No one was there. Looking around, Akito didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just someone disturbing the peace for no reason. But as she was pulling the screen closed again, Akito glanced down and saw something. It was a little bundle of flowers, bright yellow buttercups. 

She couldn’t think of anyone who would disturb her to bring her flowers. No one even disturbed her to bring her food unless she asked for it. The bright colors were grating on her eyes. Akito slammed the screen shut, retreating to her dark corner. However, she found herself unable to take her mind off of the present. It was so cheery and uncharacteristic. Not to mention that no one had ever brought Akito flowers like this before. Was it embarrassing that the gesture made her heart beat a little, thinking that they might be from her?

Everything had changed since Tohru had come. Loyalties once carved in stone were being tested. Relationships were being formed without Akito’s approval. Even though she would never admit it, it was frightening.

As the sun set outside of her room, Akito made up her mind. She would bring the flowers into the room, inviting color into the space. But when she opened the screen, she found that they were gone, likely removed by a maid who had noticed that they were certainly out of place. 

Closing the door, Akito sat down with her head in her hands. Perhaps the flowers had only been a dream after all. Wishful thinking for something that could never be. She could never fall in love, and certainly she would never have someone love her back. Not outside of the family. That was her place in the world, and some silly fool like Tohru Honda wouldn’t be able to change that. She couldn’t change what was in Akito’s DNA. The things she’d been taught ever since she was born. It was just the way things were.

When she went to sleep that night, though, Akito’s thoughts were tinted by yellow flowers and a girl dancing in a field with clumsy steps and a big smile.

[gracielitamargarita]

Thoughts on Kyoru in Fruits Basket: The Final as a manga reader

(and bad metaphors about lava cake)

So with next week's impending shit storm of a Furuba episode next week, I've been doing some reflecting on our favorite Mutual Pining Idiots, Kyoru--and thinking about how the anime adaptation's choices in rearranging or removing content has impacted things, specifically with Se3E6.

And just to preface, I think the anime adaptation has been terrific overall. I also think loving something and critiquing something aren't mutually exclusive either. The goal of what I'm about to write is not to incite negativity, just to get some feelings out about my favorite pairing from my favorite manga series and provoke some deeper thought, I guess.

ALSO, I hope you don't mind metaphors--specifically ones about chocolate-raspberry lava cake, because that's what I've decided works best for explaining Kyoru. So FASTEN THOSE SEATBELTS PEOPLE 

MANGA SPOILERS regarding previously omitted content as well as VAGUE ANIME SPOILERS that can be implied/inferred from the ending of Se3E7 under the cut.

I think one of the (many) reasons I find Kyoru to be such a satisfying ship is because of the slow-burn element. Come season 2 through the beach arc, their chemistry is palpable, natural, and growing stronger and stronger with each episode. When Kyo finally admits to himself that he's in love with Tohru in Se2E9, it feels like we've been rewarded with a chocolate lava cake topped with raspberry sauce--it's delicious, complex, and full of gooey and satisfying substance.

Now like many, I'm a sucker for the pining idiot trope--let alone the MUTUAL pining idiot trope--and we do get to see this through the end of season 2 as Tohru's feelings for Kyo become more apparent to everyone BUT her. It's like we're LOOKING at the chocolate-raspberry lava cake, so close that we can ALMOST touch it, but we as viewers aren't allowed to cut into it yet--which makes every little encounter between the two of them all the more exciting, because we wonder what's finally going to allow us to ravish this goddamn lava cake (sorry).

Which is why I realized I'm actually struggling more than I initially thought in the final season. As it's been widely speculated, discussed, and now officially confirmed, we're getting 13 episodes this season. And while like most everyone else, I'd be thrilled with two cours, I don't know the ins and outs of anime production, AND, while I'm bummed, I've accepted that it is what it is--and that it isn't the reason I'm writing this post.

Of course not every panel or fleeting moment can be adapted from the manga to the anime. There were small little cuts here and there over the course of the first two seasons, but nothing in my opinion that's really SO substantial that it drained the lava cake of its filling--maybe some of that raspberry topping, but generally, the good stuff is all there. (Though I do love this moment below from chapter 82, which was skipped over in Se2E19)

The final season has been different, though. As we know in the manga, the inner turmoil for Kyo--and Tohru to an extent--really starts escalating immediately after Cinderella-ish with Kyoko's backstory and Kyo's nightmare from chapters 90-93. I also understand that Cinderella-ish was Se2E23, and with only 2 episodes left in the season, it made sense from a directorial standpoint to end with the Kureno/Akito reveal versus Kyoko's backstory and Kyo realizing he needs to know his place.

But without this context, it leaves moments like the flower scene from Se3E2 less impactful--like a lava cake made by someone who skimped on the filling. To an anime-only (and even as a manga reader), it's likely still a satisfying moment to watch: we know that Tohru clearly has a lot of inner turmoil following her conversation with Kureno. Kyo's turmoil following his nightmare, however--and overall, the sentiment of him thinking he needs to stay away from Tohru, yet still finding himself drawn to her above all odds--is deeply diminished.

Which leads me to the main reason (finally, sorry) that I wrote this post--Se3E6, or the episode when Tohru finally admits to herself AND to Rin that Kyo has taken the place of her mother as the most precious person to her. 

In the manga, Se3E6 is made up of chapters 107, 108, 109, AND 114, spanning the end of volume 18 through the beginning of volume 20 of the TokyoPop mangas. Volume 19 in particular is one of my all time favorite mangas in the entire series for one clear reason: just as we've seen Kyo get to do in season 2, we finally get to see Tohru slowly own her feelings for Kyo, and MY GOD, is cutting into that lava cake and enjoying that delicious filling satisfying AF. The Mutual Pining Idiots are in full swing here, both dealing with inner turmoil but also being unable to stay away from one another either. In addition, they're dealing with normal teenage awkwardness too, which feels like a bonus topping (would nuts go well, do we think? LOL) to the Kyoru lava cake.

But between the producers adapting Momiji's arc prior to episode 6 AND the producers ending episode 6 with a 2-minute horror movie essentially--AND, lest we forget, none of the Kyoko backstory at this point--we lost essentially all of that satisfying filling. 

And again, I understand, only 13 episodes and the producers are trying to make shit work and I do see why they made some of these changes in the overall big picture of things, but I wish it weren't at the expense of Tohru's character development and also for Kyoru, which had been so thoughtfully and delightfully well-developed in the first two seasons.

My biggest issue BY FAR with episode 6 is Tohru's confession to Rin happening before the sheets scene. The producers combined 109 and 114 for the second half of episode 6. In the manga, Tohru is able to openly admit that Kyo is the most important person to her BECAUSE of how he accepts her after she "opens the lid" to reveal the ugly feelings she's been harboring for years about her father. And in the manga, since we have the context of Kyoko's backstory and can see how she nearly committed suicide and left Tohru alone for days, it is gut-wrenching to finally hear Tohru confront and express her trauma in her own words. 

The sheets scene is arguably my favorite scene in the entire series. The anime portrayed it beautifully. Jerry and Laura ripped my heart out with their performances. It was a deeply moving scene (even with all of the changes) and the romance and pining was there--but, I hate to admit it, the feeling of cutting into that delicious lava cake to reveal that even more satisfying filling was not.

And now, come the end of Se3E7, we're approaching the climax of the series that we've been salivating for for so long now, the result of all of this inner turmoil and secrets and deep, deep longing for one another--and it almost feels now like the cake was baked too quickly, in addition to being drained of much of its filling. 

I was debating waiting to write this until next week after we see how Se3E8 goes, but my thoughts have been swirling about and this clown couldn’t help herself. I'd like to end this post on a hopeful and more forward-thinking note, though, if you've made it this far into my novel LOL.

There is definitely the potential to add a little more about Kyoko's backstory in next week's episode. I also expect that we'll hear more of Tohru's inner narrative and thoughts, which I’m really looking forward to. As several others have speculated as well, I predict that we'll be getting chapters 119-122 next week. Despite it being 4 chapters, everything should happen in sequence (versus with episode 6) and there's a lot of action, so I do feel like it won't feel rushed or disjointed. And while I could see them possibly ending with 121, 122 would be my preferred ending for many reasons (manga readers know where I'm going with this ;P) and I honestly see it fitting best there.

And regardless of what happens, I'm looking forward to eating whatever variety of lava cake is served to us next week.

And at the end of the day, we'll always have the manga, which will probably always be my favorite lava cake of all.

(and now I'm hungry for an actual lava cake)

[tardytothepardy]

Fruits Basket - Vol 23

It's the final banquet babyyyy

(i hate how blurry that picture is but my camera just wouldn't fucking focus)(also yeah i colored in the speech bubbles, they were kinda confusing without context and didn't have anything to do with this specific frame)

So everyone's gathered in the main Sohma house, and no one really knows what's going on. They have no idea what to expect. Hiro notes that the grown-ups are "the ones who can't sit still today". Some miscellaneous stuff happens but I'm not sure if it's worth talking about? After the miscellaneous stuff, it is announced that Akito is ready for everyone to see, and out she steps in a kimono (I bet it's red; she'd look great in red, I think) and asks where Shigure is, because he apparently dipped out. Ritsu is in complete awe, does Akito partake in the same hobby he does? No, Ritsu, this is who she is.

There's a brief flashback to the previous book, where Shigure gave her something, and said "I guess you could call it a farewell present." Akito did not take kindly to that at all, and lashed out, accusing him of being the first to abandon her. He asks where she got that idea, he meant that she's finally becoming her own person, rather than the person her father wanted her to be, and his gift was something to commemorate that. Welcome in the new Akito, and all that.

Back to the present, Akito explains that the rest of the Juunishi were able to become their true selves, beyond the curse, and so she decided to as well. She tries to apologize, but she can't-- she knows that won't make up for anything that she did, at all.

It goes back to that memory with Shigure (this chapter is just a series of flashbacks and flashpresents) and he teases her, saying that he didn't know he was so important to her, and Akito insists that wasn't the case, that he was the one that she was most afraid of, the one that strayed the furtherest from her, bond or not. He says he had to keep his cool, be nonchalant, because otherwise he'd explode (ka-blooey). He says that he's childish, and doesn't like getting hurt, he hates losing, and he can't stand sharing things. This causes Akito to basically go Ó///Ò in realization, and he confirms that realization (the realization being that he likes her as well, in case you didn't catch it. It kinda took me a second on first reading, and I'm not exactly explaining this the best), and says that if Akito wants to reject him, now's the time, that if she comes to him again, it'll become a Thing. They'll become a Thing.

Back to the meeting, Akito says that she still wants to live with the Sohma family, because there are still things she feels she needs to do. She still is, at the end of the day, the head of the family, it's her duty (probably). She plans on talking to Ren, which I imagine will go well. After the meeting (I think, I don't think it's before, though timey wimey stuff is difficult), Akito is with Shigure, and he's asking if she wants him to stay at the main Sohma house, and she asks if he's angry about it. The vibe I get from him is "yesn't", honestly, but hey if they're happy, I guess it's fine.

Next chapter!

So there are two exposition characters (I'm sorry but that's really all they are) at school, and one of them sees Kyo. She gets excited, maybe she can go talk to him, and the other thinks he's waiting for Tohru, his girlfriend, to finish up with her tests. The first girl goes, "Whaaa?? When did that happen??", and the second says that it happened shortly after Tohru came back from the hospital. The first girl's hopes and dreams are apparently destroyed, I guess she liked Kyo.

It pans back to Tohru, now finished with her test, and the teacher, Mayu, wishing her a good summer vacation, it'll be her last. She also asks if something happened in the Sohma family, because a certain He seemed a little happier when she saw him yesterday. Tohru took "he" to mean Kyo and Yuki, and was basically like "yeah I guess so". Mayu played it off, yeah yeah those two that's definitely who she meant yeah totally see you next school term byeeee.

At the house (Shigure's house), Kyo, Yuki, and Tohru are talking about the meeting, and how it felt like it came out of nowhere. They were surprised that Tohru already knew about Akito, but she had to pretend she didn't for Akito's privacy (you don't just out people, that's rude). She asks if it was that much of a shock, and Yuki says he's mostly dumbfounded, though there has been a lot going on lately, a lot to think about. Kyo says he feels weird about it, simply because now he knows he's been violent with a woman all this time, but also says something about if Akito was a man, Kyo would be in trouble if there was another guy who liked Tohru. I'm not really sure where he got that idea, but Yuki thought it was pretty funny. It made Tohru realize that the air between Kyo and Yuki had cooled off significantly, and they seemed to be more at ease with each other than they ever had before (i mean in the beginning yuki would sneeze and kyo would be like "and i took that personally", so yeah they've changed a lot). She asked Kyo what had caused that change, and he told her that Yuki beat the crap out of him, and knocked some screws loose, but it was okay. They needed to be loosened.

Later, it seems that Kyo and Tohru went to Kazuma's house, where Kazuma said "I have no regrets. At this point, I'm prepared for death at any time.", because he's happy, y'know? But Tohru and (that other guy whose name completely escapes me wtf) protest at that, saying that you can't say things like that, it's not true! The other whispers to Kazuma that he can't die yet, because when they get married and have kids, he'll be a grandparent, which he seems to like the idea of. He tells Tohru that he eagerly awaits that time, but since Tohru didn't overhear it, she just awkwardly agrees that she also can't wait. (Kyo kinda caught on though)

Izusu comes in, says, "This is stupid, by the way", then walks out before anyone can respond. Tohru follows after her, and Kyo asks what Izusu was saying. Kazuma says that a lot has happened recently, and not everyone is going through the same thing.

Going with Tohru, she finds Izusu in another room, saying that she doesn't get it, how can he (Kyo, presumably) act like nothing's wrong, after all that's happened, and how Tohru can do the same, after she got so hurt?! Those kinds of hurt don't go away easily. Izusu continues, and says that if she had to choose to forgive Akito or not, she wouldn't, because she can't. She doesn't want Akito to apologize, and she can't help but feel like she's doing something wrong, because she can't make herself accept everything and move on. Tohru reassures her that there's nothing wrong with her, she didn't do anything wrong. Izusu wonders if her demeanor will turn Haru away, if it will disappoint him. Tohru says that there's no way that Haru could hate her.

The scene changes to Akito, who is talking to that one old lady who pops up every now and then, but I've never seen her name, who says that Akito went to see Ren again, but heard that she wasn't able to really talk to her. She says it would be faster to chase her out of the house, but it's also possible that Akito complicated things by staying at the house. She continues, saying how it must be nice being young, and being able to change your life so easily. She notes that she was born with the Sohma family, and raised with them, and has lived at the house for sixty years, she couldn't change her life now. Akito says that no one can change every thing, and no one would be asking her to. Maybe all she needs is a helping hand. In the end, the maid simply walks away, but y'know, not everyone wants to change, or feels like they can, it's fine.

In the next chapter, it seems like it's the date with Tohru and Kyo that Uotani and Hanajima decided to tag along with. Kyo is thinking back to that moment when he tore off his bracelet, and how afterward, Tohru picked up all the beads. She put them in a little bowl in her room, next to the picture of her mom. In the moment, he could only watch as she did it, and in all honesty he wouldn't have minded if she had tossed them into a fire, but it also occurred to him that he might regret not having them. As he watched Tohru pick up the beads, he thought of it like she was "protecting both the me of now and the me of the future". Alternatively, and this one is a bit spoopy, she was gathering the memories of the people over the (many, many, many) years that had worn that bracelet. Either way, he realized that loving someone isn't just about loving the person as they currently are, but as they were, and as they will be.

That's what he thinks anyway.

I mentioned the date but I didn't talk about it at all. They went to a zoo, Uotani got excited about seeing elephants, and they went to a place with cats, and the cats did not care either way about Kyo. It was neat. By the end of the day, Tohru went off to use the bathroom, leaving Kyo with Hanajima and Uotani. This is when Hanajima asks Kyo if he's going to take Tohru away with him. She knew the time would come, eventually, when she, Uotani, and Tohru, would part ways, but it still hurts to think about. Uotani says that, despite how they might act, they do like Kyo, even if they think he's a bit of a dumbass (Uotani's words, btw), and it's because they both think he's a good guy. He just has to take care of Tohru, because she's like family to them, so he'd best not fuck up.

When Tohru comes back, Kyo says there's a place that he wants to take Tohru before going home. Can we go see what Yuki's up to first? Okay yeah we're going to do that now, we'll get back to Tohru and Kyo, don't worry.

So Yuki's at Kakeru's place, and it seems that they're talking about their college plans. Apparently Yuki's going to a college pretty far away from where they're currently at, but if they have subjects that he's interested in, it's fine. (I don't think it's ever said what exactly those subjects are. Like, what's his major? Do I really care? Eh. But it's still nice to know. Same thing for Kakeru, what is he doing?) When Yuki says he'll be living on his own, Kakeru asks if he can manage, he doesn't want to go for a visit and see an emaciated Yuki (living on like,, partially-cooked instant ramen noodles, and several scattered half-empty water bottles in a nest of laundry and schoolwork). Yuki is more optimistic, saying he's going to learn by doing (so that means those cups of instant ramen will be completely cooked). Apparently he told Machi about it and she's fine with it, though she would not be fine if she heard Kakeru saying that anyone is "climbing the stairway to adulthood" which honestly I wouldn't be fine with that either, that just sounds stupid.

Komaki asks how Yuki's going to get the money to live somewhere, and Yuki says that he considered asking his parents, but in the end he asked Ayame to help. Ayame was overjoyed to help, and went nuts to find a place that would suit Yuki's needs (Or be the foundation of his "empire", as he phrased it).

When asked about college, Kakeru said he'd go, not because he really wants to, but mostly because people keep telling him to. He was planning on taking over Komaki's family business (they run a laundry service), but he supposes he'll go anyway.

Later, Machi shows up with a package of meat, which Komaki was very excited about. Kakeru trotted out his "stairway to adulthood" line on Machi, and Machi punched him in the face along with the meat, she somehow balanced the meat on her fist to smash into Kakeru's face, much to Komaki's distress (over the meat, not Kakeru).

Anyway, let's go back to Tohru and Kyo.

Kyo took Tohru to the graveyard, and they're standing at the Honda's family tombstone(memorial? thingie? idk), and he says that after he graduates, he wants to leave, because he's spent his whole life up until pretty recently avoiding life, and not letting himself get involved in things. But now that he's a normal person, he wants to live in the world as a normal person, with Tohru, and because of all of this, he wants to go outside of this place that he's been his whole life. Tohru asks where he's planning to go, and he says that Kazuma knows someone with a dojo, but it's really far from where they presently live. He says he's planning on going there first, attending the dojo while he works, and then one day, he'll inherit Kazuma's dojo, using the experience from the first dojo. He hesitates on asking Tohru to break away from everything and everyone she's known to go off with him, but Tohru agrees, and says she wants to go with him, as soon as possible.

There is one thing that Tohru wants to tell Kyo, and it's that she's sure that her mom never hated him. Even if she did say that she would never forgive him, Tohru is confident that she didn't say it out of hate, she knows it. She will go along with Kyo, even if it hurts to leave everyone else, because it would hurt her more to be apart from him (🥺). To end this section, Kyo says that he'll keep the promise he made to Kyoko about Tohru, all that while back, and he'll keep it for his whole life.

(don't mind me i'm just screeching and wheezing simultaneously this shit is too much i'm gonna die)

Onto the next section, it actually has to do with Kyoko and Katsuya. Mostly Kyoko, and her last thoughts before she died. At first, it was weird. What's going on? She can't hear anything, she doesn't even really hurt. Why is it so dark? Oh crap, Tohru! She can't leave yet, she doesn't want to leave Tohru alone, she only just got into high school. She hopes that she loved her enough, and that Tohru knew that, though she wished she could have had more time to love Tohru. She finally understands, though, that leaving people behind and being left behind, they're both so hard. She hopes that someone can be there for Tohru, to protect her, stay with her as she cries.

She then sees Kyo, and recognizes him as the little orange-haired kiddo she used to talk to sometimes, and hopes that even if he forgets about her, that the next time Tohru gets lost, Kyoko wants him to find her, even just once. If he doesn't do that, she'll never forgive him(that's what she meant, out of what he heard, by the way). She hopes that he can somehow take her place, and protect Tohru, and let her be happy, let her be loved by lots of people. Even if she gets lost or makes a mistake, Kyoko wants Tohru to be proud of the life she lived.

Then she wakes up in a place. I don't really know what the place looks like, but I imagine it as a light blue shimmery place, and she can see someone walking towards her, from a distance. Katsuya. Suddenly she's young again, with her long hair and uniform, and she can be with the man she loves again. (🥺😭 dissolves in my tears)

There's a time skip, now Tohru, Yuki, Kyo, Hanajima, and Uotani have graduated, and it soon after shows Tohru and Kyo cleaning up their rooms, and reminiscing about when Tohru first arrived. A lot has changed in that time, it's incredible. Tohru thinks on how she will miss everyone, and all the things that have happened (in the span of a year, right? This all mostly happened within a year or two?). Kyo then says that everyone loves and appreciates her, and it's not like she'll never see any of them again, it's just the start of something new. Then Tohru's stomach grumbles and she gets embarrassed (oh no im hungry how embarrassing 😖)

We then jump to Yuki and Machi, and Yuki gives Machi a key to his new place, because he doesn't want her to think that he's cheating on her (why would she think that???) and then nearly fuckin yeets it out the window when she says that she's not worried that he'd do that. (So he does want her to have trust issues? Yuki, dude, you're confusing me on this) I think that Machi is a year behind Yuki, so she won't be starting college the same time as he will, but she promises that she'll follow after him and be back with him as soon as she can, which is very sweet.

This whole section is mostly jumping from one group of people to the next, so I think I'll try to summarize:

Ritsu and Kagura are talking, it seems that Ritsu is giving Kagura his old kimonos. He's cut his hair shorter, and he mentions how Shigure apparently has quit being an author, much to the relief of his editor, Mitsuru. Kagura asks if Ritsu is going to marry Mitsuru, which leaves him very flustered. Kagura still is hung up on Kyo, and says that she'll see Kyo and Tohru go just to see Kyo. She won't well wish them, because she knows that they'll be happy regardless.

Hiro and Kisa are walking past Shigure's old house, speculating on what is going to happen to it. Hiro says he thinks it will stay as it is for a while, which makes Kisa happy. She hopes that it can stay up and that a new household can live in it. She then starts crying, thinking about Kyo and Tohru leaving, but she says that she will smile when she sees them go, on the next day. Hiro tells her to not be upset over crying, that she can cry as much as she wants, because he knows how much Tohru means to Kisa.

Haru, Izusu, and Momiji are talking, and Haru mentions how Hatori said that eventually, Shigure's gonna get punched in the face, but he never did. Momiji says that it didn't happen because they are all more mature than Shigure. He says as an aside that he doesn't think it should be allowed that Kyo is "taking away" Tohru, because he's being selfish, and that he wants to pinch Kyo. Haru asks why he shouldn't do it tomorrow, and Momiji says that he can't do it in front of Tohru, but this whole thing has given Momiji a new sense of motivation, to find the best girlfriend in the world, and then he'll show her off to Kyo (not the best motivation to find a partner but okay). Izusu pops up by saying that she thinks Tohru should break up with Kyo. I'm not sure why though.

It's shown that Hanajima is working at Kazuma's place as a cook, which is something that Kyo was not pleased to find out, but despite his best efforts, The Guy Who is Also There at the Dojo Whose Name I Cannot Remember can't figure out how to get her to leave. Kazuma says that he will miss Kyo, but he won't worry about him. He's in good hands now.

Uotani is on the phone with Kureno, saying that she'll send his regards to Tohru and Kyo. She also says that she will miss Tohru, but she's also excited for her, for the both of them. She asks if the cherry blossoms are blooming yet, and that she'll have to make her way out to see them (and Kureno) soon.

Ayame and Mine are sending well wishes gifts in the form of big flouncy dresses, for Tohru (who I imagine would be flattered but I doubt she would wear them). Mine says that now that the time has come, she finds this sensation of "children leaving the nest" to be lonely, and Ayame agrees, and says that's exactly why adults put obnoxious amounts of love into cardboard boxes with instant ramen, socks, maid outfits, what have you. (They then say that they're going to send similarly flouncy dresses to Yuki, who I doubt will respond kindly)

Mayu and Hatori are on a date, and he offers to take her with him on a summer vacation to Okinawa. He says he's never been on a "decent" vacation, and that he wants to see the country. Mayu starts cracking up at the idea of Hatori in a swimsuit, then sobers quickly at the idea of herself in one, saying that her figure isn't ideal for a swimsuit (from the way she talked about herself I think she'd be all the rage in early 2000's Western fashion).

Akito says that she's not going to see Tohru and Kyo leave, saying that if she wants to visit Tohru, she'll go and see her, but I imagine it's also for the sake of everyone else that would be there.

Finally, we end with Yuki going to talk to Tohru. He tells her that he's happy about all that has happened, and that he's glad that he has gotten to this point. He says that he was weak, that he couldn't handle being around people, but he wanted to be loved, and be needed. All he ever did, he says, is want. But during that crucial time, Tohru appeared, and fulfilled that wish without even trying. He learned so much from her, and she gave him what he needed, and that's how he is able to be the person he presently is. And he also finally says that she was basically his mother, in a way. He wonders if she was like that to everyone, with how warm, welcome, and gentle she is to everyone she meets. He goes on to say that in this time, when everyone is parting ways, everyone is thinking of Tohru, wondering if she's happy, if she's crying, if she's doing well. Finally, he thanks her, and says that he's so glad that he got to meet her, and that she was there for him, and for all of them. (He also actually says her name, which he's never done, I don't think. It's always been "Honda-san", but never "Tohru", but now he's said it. There's really not an English version of that, as far as I'm aware, but from what I know, it is a pretty significant thing.)

There's a little bit of an epilogue, showing a child walking into a house, asking where Tohru and Kyo are. A woman replies saying, "That's Grandma and Grandpa to you!", but the child pouts and says that Grandma said she could call her by her name, and that they left her behind again on their walk. The woman tells her to not get in the way of their "lovey-dovey alone time", and there's a final establishing shot of Tohru and Kyo walking together, holding hands, with Kyoko's words: "Repeat the good, and the bad. Do it all, and pile on the years."

And that's the end!

I think I'm heartless, because I didn't cry at the end. I wanted to, but I didn't. Overall, I really liked this series! It was a lot of fun to read, a lot of shit goes down, it was a rollercoaster. Thinking back on how the story started, knowing some of the events that occurred before the story started, it all kinda leaves a bitter taste in my mouth (mainly the teasing that Kyo gets about him "training in the mountains", and knowing what was actually going on, it's kinda hard to laugh now 😬). One thing that I was kinda expecting the story to mention, but never did, was Izusu's mark on her back. It looks like some kinda of scar, but I never saw anything addressing it. Now that I think about it, it could have been from a number of things, but it was never said explicitly, which I think is weird. I think I'm gonna leave it here (I'm typing this last portion on my phone at 3:45am so it could be better).