#trust i WILL be posting abt her in this ep soon. yes her character was handled well and realistically and i enjoyed the shit out of her

[redding]

at least pearl thorne died how she lived. sexy as fuck

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket SE02, Ep16

i believe there are more than one foolish traveler in Furuba with varying degrees of altruism, kindness & selflessness. The core idea of the foolish traveler story wasn’t to encourage kindness but as a somber warning that such kind souls are taken advantage of by others due to their altruism. The story don’t teach you to stop foolish travelers (you can’t), but take from their kindness without “killing” them in the process. So far three foolish travelers:

Haru is healthiest example. already discussed in past posts.

Momiji: stands in the middle. His story is cruel yet he tried to find the balance between giving too much vs caring for his own self. (more on how/why in his dad’s section).

Tohru is the prime example & the real version of foolish traveler story. We’re watching her collapse under the pressure of always giving too much of herself. We saw too much in SE01, now she’s entering the lion’s den on behalf of Arisa’s lost love. Many examples with many emotional scars after each reckless decision.   

Will Tohru meet the same end as the traveler in the story? Will she give everything, gains nothing & say thank you? or will she acknowledge her own needs as rightful, stand up for her desires, not for altruistic reasons, but cuz SHE wants sth for herself & SHE acknowledges that SHE deserves to get what she selfishly wants!

The Villagers/demons in the foolish traveler story:

In the story the villagers/demons took advantage of the traveler’s kindness & killed her. In real life, these villagers aren’t strangers, they’re family & friends. They aren’t demons, they’re loved ones who truly love you. Still some take advantage of you. How many times have you seen someone kind be content with so little as long as others happy? they ask politely, the person feels obligated or too kind to say no. Until one day. they ask for too much & if the person refuses. They’re shocked/offended & hurt. All while feeling the person is okay cuz he/she never asked for more. That’s momiji’s dad. He loves his son dearly but wants his wife & daughter more. Momiji understands. He always does. He’s a mature boy. Asking momiji to pretend he isn’t his son, to live apart, to quit his hobby. Every time momiji said yes. How could he not? he loves his mom/dad, wants his sister to enjoy the family he never had (selfless desires). But he also wants his sister to know him! to perform for his family exclusively. (selfish desires). Two desires clash. Momiji is sad & broken.

How is momiji different from tohru then?

Momiji acknowledges his selfish desires. He knows he deserves them. He openly speaks when tohru asks him. Hence, he’s rewarded. His sister wants him as big brother regardless of blood relations, She seeks him thro tohru. Momiji will get his sister sooner or later despite the cruse/trauma.

What abt tohru?

Tohru embarks on a reckless adventure using Arisa as a front. She convinces herself that’s it’s purely for a friend. It isn’t. she knows it, ashamed of it, denies it. hides it. Doesn’t open up to momiji .Keeps it all inside. She breaks down seeing all these living ppl yearning for each other yet choose to stay apart. Thoru would do everything she can for one extra moment with her mom. hear her voice once more. just once. grief returns full force a year later to tohru, cuz it was never giving a chance to be acknowledged!. “my mom is with me” was the mantra she lived by. As tohru refused to acknowledge her mom’s absence, the pain grows & the loss intensifies. The void in her heart where her mom used to be while alive, is no longer filled by her mom’s memory. Why? cuz it’s been a year!!!!! it gets harder & harder living after a loved one leaves the longer time passes cuz you can no longer deceive yourself, cuz yearning becomes harder, cuz their voice, laughter, smell, presence fades as time passes & it hurts! like million knives stabbing you. How dare you feel they’re fading? How dare you NOT remember them each & every moment. How dare you let them go~ oh tohru~ I feel you. I know this feeling very well, unfortunately.

The tears of yearning & loss fall again:

The rooftop scene is another example of brilliant writing. The writer sweeps stealthily into our minds duplicating another roof scene as early SE01, Ep 4! This time the writer switches places to showcase growth! brilliant!!. The two scenes parallel each other to the smallest detail of one crawling/walking towards the other. Ep.4 rooftop scene marked the beginning of tohru breaking thro kyo’s harsh exterior, getting him to open up abt his precious master, she earned his awkward trusting smile. This time kyo broke through tohru’s mask once again, noticing the tiniest details of her dirty clothes & down spirit. He doesn’t push her too much. He gives her enough space to talk & keep the parts that she wants hidden. However, this time they’re both different ppl than when they were in Se01, ep.4.

tohru is openly down, sitting more comfortably in her pajama. She’s the one who escaped to his quiet rooftop. She didn’t apologize for taking his spot, didn’t fret abt annoying him. She was at ease in his space/place. She let her guards down & altho she kept her secrets, she tried to convey her feelings of sadness. This is a New Tohru. A tohru much more comfortable with herself around kyo to start complaining without much urging.

Kyo’s entire demeanor is relaxed & chill. from the way he walks, until how he sits so close to her to the way he extended his hand & wiped her tears. While kyo initially misunderstood that tohru had boyfriend, he wasn’t wrong at all in associating her words with romantic love. “you want to be with someone you like, want to be near them” That’s him!! despite deciding to not pursue tohru, being near her is the entire purpose of him still existing in this house. The uneasiness he feels with time running fast before graduation/confinement is all due to him feeling not enough time to be near her! Altho kyo believed tohrun not having a boyfriend, realizing that tohru might have one eventually hurt him deep. Yet, he’s determined to be The New Foolish Traveler in Tohru’s Story. I’ll give my life in return for your happiness. I don’t mind dying in a cell if you you could smile. even if you love another man. I don’t matter. I’ll wish for YOUR tears to stop. He tells her that but with kinder words. “i’ll support u if you have one”. Tohru got it. She got the true meaning mixed with a hint of misunderstanding that stems from her inferiority complex: (I won’t be with you. You’ll loose me. I’ll soon disappear from your life. This quiet moment together will soon be a memory. I’ll die in a cell & you won’t be with me = truth). Misunderstanding: (I don’t love you romantically, I’m just kind to you = tohru’s low self worth will hinder her from seeing the obvious that could be seen from the moon! this boy is melting for her). ~~Tow foolish travelers on the rooftop~~

Side Notes:

The anime disappoints me again with the tohru’s over-dramatic animation.I wanna ask the director: are we reading the same story? Tohru’s pain breaks thro my laptop screen & suffocates me. You don’t need to add this over exaggerated convulsive movement to her. Why only her?? You can’t extract extra tears from us with such addition. it backfires. it makes us laugh/go wth! be annoyed. Am i the only one who feels weirded out by tohru’s animation during emotional moments? Take out tohru’s convulsive 5sec movement & you’ll get 10 out of 10 heartbreaking scene!.

Kureno.. i duno.. sth is off abt him & i can’t figure out what! like.. i don’t feel he’s bad/evil or anything.. he feels like nothing, which is the weirdest feeling I’ve ever had abt a character. I’ll hold on talking more abt him for now until I see more of him.

Who is this blind lady? Her red bright nail polish reminded me of kyoko’s.

Tohru’s voice over on top of shots of momo/momiji/ kureno is epic! cuz her words have already been established in the scenes we saw in the ep. It didn’t ruin or foretell anything we haven’t explored within the ep. Add violin music that is actually played by a character within the ep, add moonlight light that all characters look at now, add the fact that her words describe her current situation with kyo & add kyo’s response! Brilliant! I’ll give the Director the credit he deserves in this scene. It was one of the best visual scenes in furuba & it works more cuz it was given space to play out naturally. nothing seems forced or consciously inserted or inconsistent or overplayed. slowly moving the camera to the sky above shigure’s rooftop & close the ep with one last callback to ep, 4. old scene ended with kyo smiling, now we hear tohru’s small laugh, . subtly telling you~hey, we went full circle with these two & you didn’t even realized when & how~10 out of 10! 

[lexicals]

Okay okay okay (penumbra spoilers below):

RITA REDACTED I LOVE YOU

I WAS EXPECTING BUDDY HONESTLY BUT RITA REDACTED I LOVE YOU X2 COMBO

I love the setup here so much. Everyone is fine, physically at least, the ship is getting repaired and progress is being made. It's all chill (well, kind of). Kabert thank you for my life this is everything I didn’t know I needed

They always manage to really surprise me with these episode concepts tbh it's always something different and I love that

Jet is so protective of the ruby? Amazing subtlety of voice acting there tbh, the difference in tone when jet is talking about not letting the ruby go/not having let it get this damaged before is only barely noticeable but there's a lot of emotion behind it

Speaking of which what the Hale is up with it?? I did wonder at the end of last ep whether it would have been able to save everyone while still tied down and it seems like?? Maybe it did?? Somehow???

Idk if this ties in with what rita was talking about with the book being the closest thing humanity has to a true AI cause like the ruby is definitely not Just A Car

Vespa doesn't seem to be doing okay huh ;; I had hoped that maybe she'd be feeling a bit better about herself after the end of last ep but this makes sense, I still hope she manages to work through this soon though....... I hope buddy is doing okay too oh god she must be hurting

Peter like "yes come in! Oh..... you're not juno ):"

Is he playing an instrument like the one from the square on new kinshasa do you think..... oof. Love that though. Rita calling it his depressing instrument made me snort out loud

I'm SO GLAD that the dynamic between rita & nureyev is this one. I rbed a post last week talking about that dynamic of a character who's obviously an idiot (not that I would ever rly call rita an idiot) and one who seems sane, but is actually just as bad and joked that this was the forbidden dynamic but LITTLE DID I KNOW

Anyway they're both terrible and I love them

"Here's the lady of the hour" I am healed. I have ascended to a higher plane, forever.

Juno like :>!!! No I can help what do you need!!! God BLESS

I love him so much every line is music to my ears he's doing so WELL

Rita being like I love you and I'm glad you love each other but please god you're such a technophobe please this is not the mission for you

Jupeter excessive pda confirmed? Anyway cute

COMPUTER CAVE......

Idiot squad is on the CASE. Mama buddy is gonna be so mad when she finds out though fhsgfjfhd

DRIFT COMPATIBILITY

I mean not really but god that would've been fun though

I have one single complaint about this episode and that is that I found the robot voices really hard to understand/listen to...... I had to turn my audio all the way up to make out what anyone was saying and at that point the volume was making my ears hurt ):

Anyway I love this concept though & it's so fucking funny

I had been wondering about rita's episode, specifically what flaw of hers her episode would be addressing? Seeing as that seems to be the pattern here, with nureyev's self-isolation, jet's struggling with/repressing his past, and vespa's struggle to trust people/come to terms with her new way of life. So far it seems like the issue is that she's just straight up out of touch with the others and maybe a little selfish? She's more focused on how she thinks things should go than on what would be practical as evidenced with the robots in particular, idk maybe these eps rly are gonna be just pure comedy relief but I'm interested to see how that develops

Especially with her saying it's better to ask forgiveness than permission, idk I think maybe rita knows how smart she is perhaps a little too much? I love her but they've kind of gone in half-cocked here

I wonder if this ties back to her mother in any way, too..... cause we know rita's mother was, if nothing else, someone who used to make homemade bombs, idk what kind of lessons she was teaching her kid lmao

Dark matters back again oh boy..... and isn't agent g the same one that was in charge when they killed m'tendere? Interesting that they seem to be going after the same marks here

Anyway this ep was such a nice change of pace I loved it I'm so excited for the next one although I'm more than a little worried about what buddy is going to have to say about this when it's all over lmao

Second listen:

Okay SERIOUSLY though what the hell is up with the ruby 7. What is she!!!

Buddy talking about how catastrophising means you put yourself through a thousand disasters..... after last ep & considering how vespa thinks..... oh dear

"Not /supposed/ to know much about mistah ransom" RITA?? HELLO??? What does she KNOW....... is this gonna come up next ep aaaa

"Juno.... dear......" I LOVE THEM THOUGH

Also though I was talking abt this w a couple of people but I rly hope we haven't missed All of the canon development for juno & peter....... after 2 seasons of build-up having the emotional climax to their relationship arc happen offscreen would be a little frustrating so I hope they're saving some stuff,,,

Anyway this whole concept is so ridiculous but so good...... the robots.... the Names........ I love it sm. Rita redacted I LOVE YOU

[randomfandoms2004]

rYU SOO COOL screaming abt eps 33 to 39 (MASS Post)

another mass post for the holiday szn haha

I have a ryu so cool planned for the movie if i can find it, but I’ll keep that separate!

Episode 33 Highlights

Ah yes, Uden... the silent killer (He’s totally judging Boat Man pft)

Bambs... how long have yall been going on w/ this ping pong stuff??? u’re sweatin a storm (not that I mind... hehe ^^)

pFT setoh popping up at an uncalled time rofl

WHOO! Nada getting his official role call!!

Aw man, WHY’D HAVE TO BE RIGHT? I would’ve loved if Nada could’ve been apart of the line up.... Kou’s emotion as Nada was disappearing was gorgeous.

The Max suit looks fuckin bomb holy shit

Oh... Kou don’t cry... you’re hurting my heart (the way Asuna just weakly asks “Kou?” HHHHH MY HEART)

The goodbye tape... im in shambles

Overall Thoughts: I’m a little bitter that Nada couldn’t stay, but I’m satisfied with his sendoff. Sure, plenty of people will say he was a shitty character, but imo he will be a driving force for the rest of the team’s development, his death shows that. I’m a littttleee pissed at the writers for pulling a death after redemption so soon, especially since this one didn’t have that much weight or reason(e.x. Rio and Mele’s deaths. That had a lot of weight on the main team who’ve been fighting with Rio only to have him sacrifice himself. Mele passed first, and she drove Rio forwards because they loved one another). The only reason I felt so sad is because we got to see Kou cry so hard (YOU’D THINK BAMBA WOULD BE IN SHAMBLES, BUT NOPE!) and that lil honorary salute.

Episode 34 Highlights

First female villain??? maybe??? Genderfluid??? Young?? I can’t tell but i love Pricious’s design holy moly *oh nvm Wyzl addressed them as a female*

Oh the Elder! We haven’t heard from him in a bit.

HELL YEAH TRAINING MONTAGE!

Hm, good the trials are associated with their weaknesses (Towa definitely only works alongside the team, so a lone trial will do him well)

I totally thought that card w/ Everlasting Claw would make a monster but meh!

Yeah... Kou normally gets through things with sheer willpower. When someone stops him, it outta feel frustrating

Overall Thoughts: Kou may develop mentally alongside Bamba and Towa physically, given the trial cliffs. Kanaro may also take the trial, but it seems like he’s need here. I hope that the rest of the team get powerups eventually, it’s been a running theme of Red getting the good shit and... im not really fond of it.

Episode 35 Highlights

The Dragon seems to absorb power through it’s horn...

A zord made up of the Land, Sea and Air???

Hm... Mosa Rex probably got traumatized for wrecking shit and that’s where his grudge stems from?

Aw damn, I thought we’d get a little montage... but that’s okay, everyone else has their trials

But I was right! Kou has a mental trial for himself.

Me @ the rest of the team slicing through grunts like butter: YO THAT’S KINDA DOPE!

Aw... Master Red returning Kou’s inspirations, so glad they got to meet up again.

Overall Thoughts: So happy to see Master Red after such a while. This episode was a nice easy way to get the cast to level up, but I wish the trial was a bit more difficult. But who’s to say we won’t see the trial cliff be used again?

Episode 36 Highlights

TOWA?? GETTING SOME?? REALLY??

This is literally a minasaur based off the speed soul *ha good try Wyzl, but she’d never give up your heart that fast

Wha... was that Saki’s Grandfather? Is she being stalked by loansharks?

Oh nope, just her racing company.

Towa brings out hope in others, I like that about him

AH! THE SHIRT GRABBBBB

LOWKEY I WAS ABOUT TO THINK SAKI WOULD KISS HIM!!

But a hug is cute too ^^, besides he’s practically a teenager in Tribe terms.

Overall Thoughts: I genuinely think after the war with the Druidons is over, Towa will want to settle down with Saki. (maybe ten years after???) They look cute together! Sorta like Rin and Souji from Kyouryuger. But yeah, I liked this episode, we got to see a softer side of Towa who’s warm at heart.

Episode 37 Highlights

(Sidenote: WHERE IS PRICIOUS’S NOSE?)

I was kinda shocked to see Tyramigo biting someone

My guy normally doesn’t do that, good that I got proved wrong

Aw yeah, Bamba and Kou moments, out here teaching kids the line between trust and control

Kou in Max Red, riding Tyramigo? Hell yes, fuckin steed action!

A temple? New power ups?

Overall Thoughts: More Tyramigo time! He’s such a good boy. I’m excited to see what lies ahead in the temple. Sounds to me like we’ll be getting another Dinoknight or a new form/mode power up!

Episode 38 Highlights

The temple... floats? and by the looks of it they don’t call it the temple of beginnings for nothing. It looks super old af

Yuno... I’ll have to watch the summer movie for context.

Riceballs and Soy milk... I’m, still hungry.

Damn Trial Cliffs Pt2 lmao

Kreon bullying Boat Man is the reason why I always say this: Ryusoulger humor, everybody.

THE SWORD IS FUCKING RAINBOWWWWWWW!!! So cool!

“Smooth sailing, I really am a genius.”? Something... doesn’t feel right.

Overall Thoughts: Pricious is planning something. But dope! We get a new sword!

Episode 39 Highlights

ok first off, cHRISTMAS EPISODE!!!

Bamba being soft for...kids? the lady? well, maybe for kids.

“She’s very pretty...” SGHJDGH MELT HUSH HUSH YOU’RE EMBARRASSING HIM!

Yup, weak for kids.

Oh no never mind! He’s weak for the teacher

Melt, you’ve been sandwiched by the brothers...

Asuna looks so cute in that Santa outfit (❁´◡`❁)

dhjskjak Bamba fighting in a Santa suit also... who ever wrote this episode, I hate you for putting my mind in the gutter

ah. Bamba~~ hehehehe *sigh* He really is popular with the ladies.

Overall Thoughts: Soft and wholesome! We’ll probably get more serious after the new years episode... I personally agree with Kou, I’ve got a bad feeling.

Preview Time~

Master... Eras? I wonder who he is. Looks like we’ll be confronting the team’s fears, maybe this is a good segway into seeing their traumas? ALSO SPOTTED A CHILD!MELT?????