#arisa is canonically this pretty

[daydreambonsai]

this candid that kasumi took of arisa really proves that she's more photogenic than she thinks, huh? (and that kasumi's not a half bad photographer)

[causalitylinked]

"So... uhm... It's not what it looks like." An elf, practically about five foot tall with orange hair, is standing there with a squirrel-like creature in her hands. Earlier, it looked like she was in a HEAVY debate with the little rodent, but since now Aria got noticed, she smiled sheepishly and placed the animal down on the ground. "I was just, uh... I didn't agree with his politics." What is she TALKING about?? (For Herja, from Aria)

            unprompted asks. » always accepting!

    "Er... so in other words, I was merely envisioning you arguing with a chipmunk?" Herja soon questions, allowing utter bewilderment to seep through her tone. Honestly, considering her captain had managed to learn how to talk to animals after fighting off a bear of all things, it wasn't as if she would have a hard time believing this girl might have also been proficient at communicating with other critters. The moment she tries to explain herself further, however, Herja couldn't help but sweat-drop, for her words only left more questions than answers.

    "M-My apologies, milady, but I truly have no idea what you're talking about," she then admits, because she wasn't aware chipmunks could even get into politics the same way everyone else could, let alone have intricate conversations about them with what appeared to be a female goblin. "Nevertheless, I'm glad your squabble remains of little importance?"

@glorytoclorin

[chisatowo]

Thinking abt band swap Kasumi again. Girlie with Issues <3

[transbian-hagumi]

why i think bandori isn't queerbait

i'm a bit curious about what bandori tumblr thinks abt this topic (feel free to reply etc but just don't attack anyone ofc!), i don't wanna get into really bad discourse so i will try to formulate this as subjectively as i can bare with me

i think a lot of the claims that the game/anime is queerbait kinda forget what the term means, because for a media to be queerbait it must be marketed as queer but never actually having any real payoff in media. bandori is always marketed as a cute anime girl band game/anime (afaik) n never as a yuri cute anime girl band game. the players/anime watchers saying the game/anime has queer undertones (or overtones at some points) doesn't equal marketing, they're just saying their interpretation/review.

in my opinion bandori is just queer. there's so many scenes which cannot be interpreted as anything but queer (eg. tae saying kasuari are flirting, "i-i never said love" which is about kasumi by arisa, the usage of aishiteru in "beautiful birthday" writted by PAREO to CHU², PAREO gaining her stage name being framed with lilies, the lyrics of "yakusoku" being written by lisa, "if you were a boy, i'd never let you go" said by himari to tomoe, pareo's character being a lesbian metaphor, moca and ran calling their meetups "dates", kaoru's entire character being based off of the neko/tachi lesbian trope, there's many more these just came up at the top of my head rn). just because there's no explicitly canon relationships outside of parechu doesn't mean the game is queerbaiting. as much as lots of people (including me) might wish there was more explicit representation, calling it queerbait (in my opinion) is inaccurate because the game/anime is extensively queercoded or has explicitly queer text like the examples above.

i have pretty strong opinions on this and i hope it made sense ....... let's hope i don't end up in discourse land with this. toodles!

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

When I made my "which characters read as neurodivergent" tierlist, someone pointed out in the comments that Arisa could have been put in one of the ND tiers, and I suddenly questioned why I hadn't put her there. After all, this was my response (minus the egregious typo): "Arisa I honestly tend to look at as neurodivergent. Her loneliness and being an A+ student, masking to the point of going too far with it, passionate rants, are definitely relatable in that sense."

So what possessed me to put her in the "something going on here, just not necessarily ND" tier? I've thought about it and I think I've figured it out. I like to read Arisa as physically disabled.

This is probably in the realm of headcanon, but it's the type that makes use of canon, you know? I look at her as having an invisible disability. With that in mind, I've used the fact that in the anime, she is for some reason shown sitting on a toilet a couple times (although not actually shown taking a shit, I guess she's just... sitting there...), which is very natural but just isn't the case for the other characters I feel like? That's not usually their pretty girl cute girl place to hang out... ... I've used that fact to create a metaphorical picture where she has IBS or any other sort of condition that makes it preferable for there to be a bathroom nearby at all times.

I know she's not taking a painful shit because I watched this scene, but nothing about this framing proves that she isn't.

And I genuinely think it fits her writing. Having a disability that requires regularly going to the bathroom would easily explain why she avoids going to school - not only is having to leave in the middle of class inconvenient, but it is also a difficult thing to admit to socially.

...And I know BanG Dream! is a family-friendly series with appropriately young fans, so let's get it out of the way. Haha! Poop! ...Regardless, I'd like to talk about this disability neutrally, for what it is, and speak positively about representation of it in fiction.

This is of course not mentioning the stress and fatigue that induces. So let's say Arisa has such a disability. Despite caring about being an A+ student (which she was even in her music school when she was a kid, and we know she was happy about her successes), she becomes anxious at the idea of going to school. Although her grandma isn't given much characterisation, one could infer that the knowledge that this is due to her diagnosed disability - her pain and discomfort - is why she allows her to skip school so often without questioning it. Generally, adults tend to care about that. She takes this habit from a young age and because of that, doesn't form friendships, and what little social life she has is made difficult by the anxiety she already experiences in the first place.

On top of all of this, a mix or her physical appearance and her distant behaviour has her come off as a distinguished young lady. (Not something I'm making up - Eve often mentions it, but other characters also point to her being very delicate, very well-spoken.) Keeping up that façade is made all the more stressful by knowing the social stigma that comes with having the kind of disability that affects your gastro-intestinal movements. Of course, that doesn't exist in a vacuum, and it also hides her sharp tongue. Still, why don't people know about her true personality, if not because she's extremely avoidant from the get-go? All of this explains her behaviour - avoiding social functions (from fear of being "found out"), being socially awkward (from lack of socialisation), and possibly even laying hard into the perception that she's elegant (...and that's why she's so distant, definitely no other reason...!).

And the reason I care enough to lay all of this down is that such a story is honestly very wholesome in the end. Despite her circumstances that made her avoid social life, the introverted Arisa is found by her future wife an extroverted friend who brings her out of her shell. She even ends up in a band! Despite her disability, Arisa is able to participate in social life and stand on stage, be cool, be pretty, be fun, do what she loves to do. This isn't a stress-free life... as we know, Arisa is often stressed out (see picture above). And she might even have to deal with pain and difficulties around and during concerts, but with people around her who want her to be there, the world can be made accessible, less scary and worth the effort.

I'm not against reading Arisa as another neurodivergent member of PoPiPa, especially since neurodivergent can mean many things, but something about her possessed me to think about the possibility that there's a different reason for her "being a little weird". Kasumi has to me a very clear case of ADHD, Tae is the "airhead" character which I also choose to read as a brand of ND and not just... an anime trope..., Rimi is very shy (also fits the food fixations and weird interests bill), Saaya is neurotypical as balls but her social life is impacted by external factors (her family; her mom's disability!) and I think it fits the bill that Arisa has her own reason to be isolated from the social norm. Hey, it even makes Saaya seem less like the weirdo/only neurotypical in the band! Since PoPiPa has this theme going on between the lines, I think it's interesting to look at the possibility that the factor that isolates one of them is a physical disability - because that is a genuine factor for loneliness.

[deus-ex-mona]

rating as many hw anime projects as i could find bc i have no life

spoilers? spoilers~~~

the nacchan movie

it was o k. it had a pretty standard and rather unremarkable storyline tbh. but that nacchan confession montage was pretty funny. though i wish we could’ve seen more of mochiaka. easy 6/10.

the shower/bath montage was very much unnecessary though.

the hina movie

as a standalone movie by itself, 4/10. confusing characters (arisa), messy and rushed plot (the middle school flashback sequence was way too long for a 1h movie), and the main couple of the movie (koyuhina) barely interacted. heck, hina spent the majority of the movie running away from yukki. rip tbh :(

as part of the series as a whole, 2/10.

reading the heart no shuchou novel should be a pre-requisite to watching the movie, as it explains why arisa was so darned weird during her interactions with yukki. and speaking of arisa, they got their portrayal of karen completely wrong (rip). granted, otome domoyo. came out after the movie, but still—

though, while we’re on the topic of ✨continuity✨, the fact that there were lxl promos in the burger joint despite lxl having not even debuted yet at that point in the timeline is just. very questionable in hindsight.

also!!! koyuhina interactions where??? gardening club trio w h e r e ??? for a movie with koyuhina focus, this movie was remarkably not about koyuhina.

seriously, just read the ima suki ni naru. prologue manga instead. it’s p much the same story, but it flows much better (like, the setoguchi siblings’ terekakushi shishunki scene takes place at the end of the manga post-rejection instead of how it has occurred right smack in the middle of the movie with no explanation). and there’s no continuity-breaking burger joint scene either s o there—

the midosena short

it was kinda cute, but it also isn’t anything you haven’t already seen in the midosena mvs. 7/10.

the harucouple anime

it’s remarkable how unremarkable it was. the best part of the anime was tokyo winter session tbh, and that was the ending theme.

miou’s character kinda sucked in the anime ngl, with her blaming herself for chiaki’s death, distancing herself from haruki, only to slap him for wanting to give up on his dream following his existential crisis that had resulted from said distancing.

also, needs more mochiaka.

anime-haruki deserves better. 3/10.

the lxl mvm

fruity, while both remaining (kinda) canon-compliant and establishing aizo as the male protagonist of gen 3. plus, sena was really cute in the romeo mv scenes, so she gets points of her own too.

bond girl yujiro (as seen in the pic above) was pretty funny though ngl. 8/10.

the lxl movie

fruity, but canon-breaking, as it completely disregards both the romeo mvm and the romeo novel. plus, the timeline clearly wouldn’t have worked out??? i mean c’mon. you’re telling me that these two complete nobodies managed to get popular enough to fill a live arena over the span of less than half a year just from a pocky collab? if you told me it took them over a year to get that far, sure, but.. they haven’t even filmed their romeo mv yet in the movie… so?? i???? lol???

also, this only further confirmed aizo as the protag (rip yujiro; boy wanted to stand onstage to be seen for himself and his talents, only to be completely outshadowed by his own partner who dances like a 🪳). the anime had dai moments though, so that alone brings the total score up to 6/10. thanks dai. ily <3

the [redacted] anime

i think i’ve made my stance on the [redacted] anime very clear in my way too many posts. in comparison to the other anime projects though? 1/10.

at least the other anime projects kept their characters (or, at least, most of their characters *cough* harucouple anime miou *cough*) relatively close to their original counterparts, instead of completely butchering each and every single one of them. like, seriously, no one was spared. not the main leads (hiyori and lxl), not the side characters (gen 2), and even tamura, uchida, and ft4 were nerfed smh.

[mahoupup]

Identity List!

Under the cut you will find our collective fiction kin identities, although some of them have formed as introjects and we struggle to tell them apart sometimes. We are fine with doubles for all.

FAQ:

Some of these are psychological kins rather than past life kins

Some of these and our canons do link to trauma we have been through in this life

There is a color code: Core identity | Strong identity | Questioning identity | Unsure where I stand/it fluctuates | Lesser identity

Aikatsu

Aine Yuuki (୨♡୧)

Yume Nijino (୨♡୧)

Analogue Horror

Lacey (୨♡୧)

Bandori

Arisa Ichigaya (୨♡୧)

Ave Mujica (୨♡୧)

Banana Fish

Ash Lynx (୨♡୧)

Black Butler

Alois Trancy (୨♡୧)

Bungou stray dogs

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke (୨♡୧)

Atsushi Nakajima (୨♡୧)

Chuuya Nakahara (୨♡୧)

Dazai Osamu (୨♡୧)

Elsie (୨♡୧)

Fyodor Dostoevsky (୨♡୧)

Kyouka Izumi (୨♡୧)

Sigma (୨♡୧)

Cookie Run

Apple Cookie (୨♡୧)

Herb Cookie (୨♡୧)

Mango Cookie (୨♡୧)

Pond Dino Cookie (୨♡୧)

D4DJ

Aoi Miyake (୨♡୧)

Elsie (୨♡୧)

Miyu Sakurada (୨♡୧)

Neo (୨♡୧)

Sophia (୨♡୧)

Weronika (୨♡୧)

Danganronpa

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu (୨♡୧)

Peko Pekoyama (୨♡୧)

Kirumi Tojo (୨♡୧)

Ensemble Stars

Hajime Shino (୨♡୧)

Kanata Shinkai (୨♡୧)

Koga Oogami (୨♡୧)

Mayoi Ayase (୨♡୧)

Mika Kagehira (୨♡୧)

Ritsu Sakuma (୨♡୧)

Shu Itsuki (୨♡୧)

Tsumugi Aoba (୨♡୧)

Free!

Haru (୨♡୧)

Nagisa (୨♡୧)

Genshin Impact

Baizhu (୨♡୧)

Gorou (୨♡୧)

Qiqi (୨♡୧)

Yaoyao (୨♡୧)

Hello Charlotte

Charlotte Wiltshire (୨♡୧)

Love Live

Emma Verde (୨♡୧)

Honoka Kousaka (୨♡୧)

Lanzhu Zhong (୨♡୧)

Mei Yoneme (୨♡୧)

Mia Taylor (୨♡୧)

Keke Tang (୨♡୧)

Rina Tennoji (୨♡୧)

Shiki Wakana (୨♡୧)

Yohane Tsushima (୨♡୧)

Love Nikki/Shining Nikki

Bobo (୨♡୧)

Qin Yi (୨♡୧)

Literature

Alice (Alice in Wonderland) (୨♡୧)

Eva Smith (A Detective Calls) (୨♡୧)

Macbeth (Macbeth) (୨♡୧)

Vera Elizabeth Claythorne (And Then There Was None) (୨♡୧)

Magical girl raising project

Hardgore Alice (୨♡୧)

Rionetta (୨♡୧)

Tama (୨♡୧)

Magical girl site

Kosame Amagai (୨♡୧)

Milgram

Amane Momose (୨♡୧)

Mikoto Kayano (୨♡୧)

Moriarty the Patriot

William James Moriarty (୨♡୧)

Louis James Moriarty (୨♡୧)

My Little Pony

Sunset Shimmer (୨♡୧)

OC

Unnamed Fashion Dreamer OC (୨♡୧)

Pretty Cure

Cure Gelato (୨♡୧)

Cure Wonderful (୨♡୧)

Pretty Series

Myamu (୨♡୧)

Hughie (୨♡୧)

Pokemon

Rockruff (୨♡୧)

Wooloo (୨♡୧)

Puella magi madoka magica / Magia record

Madoka Kaname (୨♡୧)

Mifuyu Azusa (୨♡୧)

Touka Staomi (୨♡୧)

Yachiyo Nanami (୨♡୧)

Sanrio

My Sweet Piano (୨♡୧)

Show by Rock

Rosia (୨♡୧)

Sk8 the Infinity

Langa Hasegawa (୨♡୧)

Therian identities

Angels (୨♡୧)

Dogs (୨♡୧)

Tigers (୨♡୧)

Vocal synths / Vocal synth songs

Crown from Laughing Clown Dances with the Devil (୨♡୧)

Flower from Copyright (୨♡୧)

Gumi from Ten Faced (୨♡୧)

Luchika from Vanish (୨♡୧)

Kazehiki (୨♡୧)

MAYU (୨♡୧)

MEIKA Hime (୨♡୧)

Miku from Late Night Madness (୨♡୧)

Unnamed character from 'Leave it To Yotsuya-san' (୨♡୧)

Unnamed character from Protodisco (୨♡୧)

Unnamed character from from Spring is a Demom (୨♡୧)

Unnamed character from 'The Hedonist's Happy Dinner Table' (୨♡୧)

Unnamed Vocaloid that was Deleted from existence (୨♡୧)

[incorrectbandoriquotes]

Arisa, having read the lyrics to Light Delight: Hey, Kasumi, are you okay?

Kasumi: Ahaha, I’m fine, really! Sorry to worry you with sad lyrics, but there's nothing wrong with me. I was thinking that we should cover a happy song next, actually!

Kasumi, one week later: Hello darkness my old friend-

[insomniac-jay]

Modern!Hero OCs

What kind of jobs would our beloved heroes have in a Modern/No Quirks or Powers AU?

Stormchaser: Sorami would work as either a weatherman for a popular news station or a member of her family's company. Either way, she's a girlboss. If anyone has any other suggestions for her, please let me know.

Chargeman: Shukara would definitely still be a wrestler. Still full of pride, still full of confidence. That is simply the life for the God of Fighting. But when he's not wrestling, he is a celebrity personal trainer.

Demoman: Akio is a construction worker because that's the most fitting for him. While he tries to stay focused and do his job, he sometimes gets lost because of an alluring woman named Kuroneko.

Splendor: It should be obvious. Joou is obviously a businesswoman and a powerful one at that. Running two of the country's most successful businesses and having plans to expand her family name into other fields can be quite stressful on Mrs. CEO, but luckily she has her husband to soothe her.

Power Lady: When she's not training for or competing in the Olympics, Chikara is a fitness instructor and part time personal trainer. Hell, she might even be a semi popular fitness influencer (mostly bc wlw are attracted to buff women and she happens to be one).

Jack Frost: I could honestly see Yukito working as a private investigator. He probably specializes in investigating organized crimes and criminal enterprises.

Superstar: Hibana keeps the same secondary careers she has in canon. I imagine she's a frequent guest on Present Mic's radio show and maybe opens up her own nightclub so she can perform her new songs there.

Phoenix Knight: I see Lancelot either being a blacksmith, an engineer, or a mechanic. Anything that has to do with tools and building since that's a huge hobby of his. Or he can be an art teacher at an elementary school, maybe even the one his children go to.

BeatSonic: Another who gets to keep their canon secondary career. Kokoro is more of a freelance DJ, but that doesn't mean they're cheap. Pay them a pretty penny and they'll put together the most stim inducing track you'll ever hear.

Persephone: Sakura does two things: she manages her family's flower shop chain and she's a successful restaurateur that specializes in plant based dining. Her restaurants are very popular among vegans.

Queen Amazonia: Merida is a gym teacher. Yes it does bring back PTSD flashbacks bc her asshole of a dad was a gym teacher but she's not going to repeat history. Yes someone has mistaken her for a bodybuilder and yes she gets hit on by milfs during parent teacher conferences.

Helios: Sol is either a lawyer or Yukito's partner. Either way, it's something in the field of law that isn't a police officer (unless it's a police themed stripper lol).

Selen: I could see Phoebe as the following: an online influencer, podcast host, and TV show host. Idk it just fits her and I would listen to her podcast.

Eos: Akemi is definitely a criminologist who is tired of capitalism and people trying to hit on them even after they've stated their aroace.

Miss Order: Arisa is also a criminologist who wants to make the world a better place and wants to help others as best as she can.

@floof-ghostie @calciumcryptid @labgoth @pizzolisnacks @elflynns-horde-of-stuff

[sobdasha]

had a few more thoughts about the Honda family

and all the Souma parallels.

(and by “a few” I apparently meant “a lot”, I did not mean to write this many pages)

In the other post I’d made a comment about how Katsuya’s romance with Kyouko, severe age difference issues aside, is just plain pathetic, a point which I believe to be Upheld by canon. And I wanted to talk more about that, the implications of that, and how that further builds the Akito and Tohru parallel. And also, Why Tohru Can’t Love Her Mom And Kyou At The Same Time.

The ideal, in Fruits Basket, is that when you make a connection with one person who loves you and sees you, this will enable you to make further connections with the people around you. Tohru does a whole heck of a lot of this; for one example, see Yuki explaining this to Kisa in the liking-yourself speech. Yuki does some of this for bitty Haru and later for Machi. Kazuma does this for Kyou. And so on and so forth. The positive experiences are meant to have a ripple effect.

It’s important to be grateful for what you have (Yuki and Machi’s “just one person would be enough” scene), but it’s human to crave more than that (Kyouko telling Saki that it’s probably normal to want other people to accept you even if you already have a loving and supportive family). It is important to crave more than that.

This was, in fact, the entire point of the curse. God meets cat. Cat’s companionship allows god to form connections with other animals. Cat is dying and god decides that 13 friends is the perfect number of friends and starts the reincarnation cycle. Cat says, “god you never once left your house. I wanted to see you go down and make friends with the humans. I wanted to see you experience the world and laugh in the sunlight. God you made 13 new friends but you’re still lonely and closing yourself off to the world forever, this is wrong and I am sad.” The banquets were supposed to be the gateway drug of friendship and meaningful connections, not the place where 14 souls stagnated alone and isolated until it became a curse.

That same wrongness happens in Ren and Akira’s relationship, where finally making a connection with one person who loves you and sees you made their world smaller and smaller. It wasn’t healthy, probably because 1) they remained in a toxic environment, 2) Kureno implies that Ren has mental health issues and I assume those existed prior to Akira’s death and were exacerbated, rather than created by, her grief; also I can’t imagine she actually came from a non-toxic family herself, and 3) Akira’s “you’re going to die an early death and the only thing we need from you first is a successor” trauma. Akira never found anyone other than Ren who understood how upset he was. Ren never formed a relationship with anyone other than Akira, partly because she was now trapped in a toxic family that despised everything about her and she refused to Prove Them Right by leaving. They both viewed their child as an object rather than a person; Akira seeing proof that he and Ren were definitely OTP and the Souma could go shove it, and Ren seeing a Rival.

I have a memory that I said at some point—probably in a Talking About Shigure post—that Kyouko helps Katsuya connect with other people. But this, I think, is not really true. I was thinking of how Kyouko helps bridge the non-relationship between Katsuya and his father. But that’s just one person.

Really, Katsuya and Kyouko are more like Akira and Ren.

Marrying-someone-who-just-graduated-ninth-grade aside, the fact that Katsuya and Kyouko meet is genuinely a good thing. Katsuya finally connects with the humanity in another person. Kyouko is finally cared about as a person. Their misanthropic-jackass-and-abandoned-cat relationship improves both of them, probably. Their connection is definitely the reason Kyouko decides to go to high school and quit her gang. It’s harder to tell with Katsuya, but you could argue that seeing Kyouko struggling and fighting and screaming against the world, as honest about her joy as she is about her loneliness-channeled-into-rage, causes Katsuya to say screw it and pursue the career in pharmacy that he’s interested in, instead of fake-politely submitting to the world’s expectations and internally resenting and disdaining everyone around him.

Katsuya softens in his relationship with his father. Both Katsuya and Kyouko see their child as a person in her own right, Tohru, rather than an object. Katsuya, in fact, is adamant about that fact when Kyouko is terrified of her pregnancy—that they can treat their baby as her own person, and if they aren’t perfect parents and they hurt their child, they’ll apologize—because Tohru is a person and an equal—and admit that what they did was wrong and why it’s wrong. They’ll treat Tohru with the respect they should have gotten all along.

But I don’t think it ever goes any farther than that. Like god, the Honda family becomes more and more isolated.

Does Katsuya make any work friends? We don’t really get a complete view of their lives, because Takaya is one person who can only do so much and space is very precious, so we only see what’s crucial to the story. But I would be really surprised to find that Katsuya had made any close friends outside of Kyouko. I honestly doubt that he has anything more than casual work acquaintances. (In contrast, we repeatedly see Kyou together with the two guys who got names in the anime that I forgot in his class; his friendship with them doesn’t get explored much in the manga, presumably because it doesn’t do any heavy lifting for his character development, but Kyou clearly has casual friends who seek him out and whom he doesn’t mind being with. See also the way Saki and Arisa also interact with those guys as a part of the group, while Tohru really only interacts with Saki and Arisa or the Souma.)

And I don’t think Kyouko fares any better. Does she have any close friends, other than her husband and daughter? Does she make friends at work? I don’t know what kind of work Kyouko does, and if she would have the opportunity to take her breaks socializing with coworkers. But it appears she spends her work breaks in an abandoned area socializing with a first or second grader. Kyou is the only person, as far as we know, that mid-twenties Kyouko can start to open up to. She doesn’t get all the way there—Kyou doesn’t connect the dots until much later—but it’s the closest she comes to talking about how she hurt Tohru after Katsuya died.

Where are the family friends? It doesn’t strike me as weird that the Honda family doesn’t have them, because I have also grown up in a poorly socialized household, but even I am used to running into unfamiliar people in public who explain that they know my mom or dad. I’m pretty sure family friends are a normal thing, and that’s how you get aunts and uncles that aren’t related to you, much in the same way that I’m pretty sure it’s normal to be friends with your cousins (especially if they’re in a similar age range and live nearby) and it is very common for grandparents to bring grandchildren with them to the grocery store because the grandchildren are staying over and they’re having a relationship.

Where is anyone but the Honda family at at Kyouko’s funeral? Kyouko made friends with Arisa and Saki, but did she ever make friends with Saki’s parents? Where are Saki’s loving and supportive mother and father and grandmother when the Honda family is arguing about who has to take on the burden of Tohru? Where are they, if they knew of the bad blood between Kyouko and the Honda family (and the disinheritance between Kyouko and the Katsunuma family), to sweep over Tohru’s protestations and tell her that it will all be fine, they’ll make it work out (they packed up and moved house for Saki, after all), it’s not Tohru’s job to worry about being a burden, it’s the job of people who love her to take care of her?

It can be both “because of the necessity of the plot” and “because they didn’t know.”

Tohru inherits this small, isolated world. And because of the trauma of being abandoned by her grieving, depressed, absolutely-not-coping mother, Tohru picks up on that Souma curse mentality. Tohru’s dad left, and Tohru’s dad tried to take her mom with her, leaving her with no one but Grandpa (who is not intimately part of their world but is not fully outside it either). Tohru’s dad is now a Rival. Tohru’s dad is now an Outsider. Clearly, a bond with an Outsider weakens the True Bond that Tohru had with Kyouko. Clearly, Tohru’s dad is Not Needed (because the other alternative is that Tohru is Not Needed). Clearly, only one of them can have Kyouko.

And it’s going to be Tohru.

Tohru picks up Katsuya’s fake-polite speech, equally disingenuously but from the opposite direction (ie, Katsuya was fake-polite to be an asshole, and Tohru is genuinely polite but faking the words). Tohru is pretty sure this is a form of wicked manipulation (much like Yuki is convinced that “be kind unto others as you would have them be kind unto you” is a form of wicked manipulation). Tohru keeps up with it anyway. Kyouko, as Kyou suggests, was probably comforted by this; rather than going full Akira “you exist to prove that I lived and loved a woman”, seeing Katsuya’s mannerisms in Tohru reminds her that her husband did exist without having to erase Tohru as a person. Kyouko does a lot of growing on her own, but with no support system and no friends outside the family and being fresh-out-of-college age, it’s not surprising that she fails to talk with Tohru about this, and tell Tohru that she knows why Tohru’s doing this, she knows how she hurt Tohru and it was wrong, you don’t have to do this anymore. This is a hurt between them, a grief, that they never talk about, even though they both know it’s there and Kyouko tries to smother it with love and affection and Tohru tries to shut it up in a box of denial.

Tohru’s world is now just Tohru and Kyouko. Tohru doesn’t make any friends until middle school. We know she gets bullied and doesn’t fit in throughout her entire school life. She is a riceball in a fruits basket and probably just manages to scrape by in conformity culture. When she does make her first friends, Arisa and Saki don’t count as Outsiders who compromise Tohru’s bond with her mom because Arisa and Saki are also misfits on the fringe. They are outcasts Tohru can bring into the circle. They are all monsters together, like the cursed Soumas (the only reason no one refers to Akito as a monster to her face, the way they do the rest of the Zodiac, probably has less to do with the fact that Akito doesn’t transform and more to do with the fact that Akito being in a position of power is useful for their own ends, so best not to undermine the head of the family by pointing the whole monster thing out).

And then Tohru’s mom dies.

Tohru isn’t god and she can’t make an eternal banquet. Tohru doesn’t know how to process her grief and how not to fall to pieces. Tohru knows how to empathize with other people, but she doesn’t know how to be vulnerable. Did she remember Kyouko wanting to follow Katsuya, and think about doing the same? But Tohru also wants to keep living, somehow.

So she makes her mom not be gone. Her mom is dead, Tohru knows that, just like Akito knows that Akira’s soul isn’t in the box choosing her over Ren and showing her the way to happiness. But maybe. So she talks to the portrait of her mom. She tries to rescue her mom from suffocating inside a mudslide. She takes her mom on holiday to the onsen. Her mom gets kidnapped once by Hiro. Tohru’s mom is definitely not gone. Tohru and her mom definitely still have an eternal bond. Tohru’s mom will always be first in her heart, so that Tohru will always be first in her mother’s heart. Tohru will never abandon her. Tohru will never leave her behind.

(Tohru will never be left behind.)

Tohru’s world is just Tohru and her mom.

Tohru has two best friends, Arisa and Saki, but she won’t let them in. She won’t depend on them. She won’t tell that that her grief is crushing her and that she’s living in a tent because she’s terrified of being abandoned. Tohru makes a lot of new friends in the Souma family, and she’s very happy, but she won’t let them in either. Tohru can’t open up to any of them freely.

I don’t think I saved it anywhere the survived the computer death, but I saw at least one post in the fandom talking about the growing disappointment of the reboot anime, and they had a valid point, so I’ll bring that in now.

I really like the reboot, but I am losing my passion in the final season. Adapting a story from one media to another is hard, and at the beginning I thought they were doing a good job. Small things were being cut, scenes were being rearranged and stitched together, but there was a definite purpose behind it. Instead of literally following each chapter, each episode tried to be a self-contained theme in the same way a manga chapter would be. Because themes repeat again and again in Fruits Basket in a slow build, this was working well. But small things that didn’t quite fit got cut. Scenes I liked and was sad not to see, but that I accepted had to be left out to make the episodes stronger.

But they’ve been piling up and piling up. Small holes have accumulated into big plot holes that the third season is tripping over. I’m sad that we don’t see the small progressions of Yuki and Machi’s relationship, the quiet scenes that show Machi is trying to pay attention to Yuki the way he has paid attention to her, and also all the Mogetas. I’m sad Komaki is the new manga-only character. If we don’t get Kyouko’s full backstory, we lose a lot of the context that’s in this post. I could go on and on.

But most importantly, as that someone else pointed out, we missed out on the progression of Kyou and Tohru’s flirting. It’s too late to cram all of that into a montage episode, and so now we’ve been given episode after episode of Mom Tohru, and hardly any Tohru Struggling With Romance In Addition To Struggling With Grief before suddenly everyone is confessing their love and I’m not as into it in the anime as I am in the manga.

So many of the Souma love and accept Tohru, but Tohru remains an Outsider—not because of the curse, but because she hasn’t formed close friendships with them. Tohru has a lot of people among the Souma she likes who like her, but she’s always a Mom to them. Tohru shares some of her own pain with them, but it’s shared for their benefit, not for Tohru’s own catharsis. Tohru shares so she will be loved, not so that she will be accepted.

Except Kyou.

Kyou, who looks at Tohru and thinks, “I’m pretty sure she’s that lonely person even now, even while she’s smiling and genuinely enjoying every moment with us.” Kyou, who’s falling in love with Tohru. Kyou, whom Tohru’s falling in love with.

Kyou is the only one that Tohru takes a desperate risk with. Kyou is the only one Tohru ~disillusions~ and ~disappoints~ in the hope that he’ll accept her regardless.

Kyou is the only one Tohru tells, “I don’t talk about my dad because I kicked him out of the family. I know my dad loved us and I loved him back, but I pretend to talk like him so my mom will forget about him and love me instead. He came between me and my mom and now I pretend he doesn’t exist. And I know I’m an awful person for behaving like that, so I keep his picture and pretend I don’t, and I pretend he’s the Bad Guy who earned it.”

The idea that Tohru can’t love both her mom and Kyou is, in a way, true. (I think that same post I’ve been referencing also talked about how dropping the budding romance also dropped a lot of the clues that this is Tohru unable to process her grief? Which is also very true. But if Tohru has the Souma mindset, then actually she has a legit point about not being able to love two people at once despite being a very loving person. Both can be true. Multitudes.)

Kyou is an Outsider to the world of Tohru and her mom. And if Tohru chooses to love him, it will weaken her bond with her mom, which is predicated on loving her mom more than anyone else. If she expands her world to include him in it, she will be betraying her mom. Tohru will be the Bad Guy who left her mom behind and abandoned her. Tohru will be her own villain, condemned for the same crimes she pinned on her dad.

Kyou 100% gets where she’s coming from with this, because he turns this exact argument on her when she confesses to him and he panics (akin to when Tohru chases him down in his true form and he slashes her and, in the reboot, yeets her into the lake, so that she will be hurt so bad she’ll never pity/love him again). He asks her if her love for her mom—her bond—was just a lie.

Tohru making friends after Kyouko’s death has been a lot like Akito letting Yuki and Kyou out into the world, certain that it would drive them back to the bond. Yuki getting character development is a huge betrayal. Tohru wanting to be together with Kyou, when she should only want to be together with her mom, is a huge betrayal.

Tohru has no model for expanding her world. She’s good at loving people, but bad at letting them in (Kyouko was bad at that too—like Mom Tohru, she was very good at sharing anecdotes about her violent youth, but very bad about sharing how she’d failed Tohru as a mom). Like Akito, she only really knows the bond—the certainty that her mom would love her. She’s been so terrified of not being loved that she’s acted this entire time like her mom is still around. When Kyou’s love is a possibility, she can only conceptualize it as a betrayal of her relationship with her mother.

It always seemed a bit too abrupt that Tohru looked at Akito with the knife and went “oh shit we’re literally the same”, but now that I’ve thought this all out, it makes eloquent sense. The whole time Tohru’s been working against the curse, she’s been in denial about her own blessing-burden-curse. Now that she’s just admitted it and had it thrown back in her face, she can look at Akito and see another person in an insular little world, isolated and lonely and walled-off from the world. Of course Tohru desperately wants to make friends with knife-wielding Akito—she just decided to let go of her ties to her mother that were suffocating her, and take her first steps into the world, and got immediately dumped by the person she loves. Of course she wants to make friends with someone who knows exactly where Tohru’s coming from and how terrifying what Tohru just did is and how awful it is to be rejected even though she’s got other friends she loves out here in this world she’s decided to finally step into.

Tohru is so damn lonely, and Akito is there, also lonely and screaming and crying and undeniably human.

(Smile, Tohru tells herself in the hospital. Smile and tell Kyou you were happy to meet him and just let him go. Don’t be a curse. Smile and let him find his own happiness. Which is more or less the same struggle Akito is also going through. But maybe they’re going through it together. Maybe they used their words, together, when they couldn’t confide in anyone else. Although it feels a bit unlikely that Tohru let herself break down about Kyou in front of Akito, and Akito already had one pity-party in front of Momiji and may not have wanted to burden Tohru with a second.)

One thing I really love about Fruits Basket Another is that Hajime alludes to the fact that Kyou probably won’t inherit Kazuma’s dojo after all.

Kyou inheriting the dojo is something both Kyou and Kazuma have wanted, and it gives me many warm fuzzies. It is very narratively satisfying. The dojo, while Souma property, is not actually part of the main estate.

What I love is that Kyou probably won’t take over the dojo specifically because he and Tohru have made so many friends in their new town that they don’t want to pick up and leave. Kyou finally succeeds in freeing Tohru from that small, lonely world, much like he’s been freed from the fate of the Cat Room. Their relationship enriches them personally and also enables them to make so many new connections. Kyou has friends at the dojo! Tohru has friends at work maybe! Friends where they buy groceries, friends among the parents of their children’s classmates, friends outside of their extended Souma family! They’ve kept ties that don’t hold them back and made new ties that don’t weaken or steal away any of their old ties!

When they left Tokyo, Tohru was prepared to go anywhere as long as it was with Kyou. Now, she and Kyou both don’t want to leave because their world is so much larger than just their nuclear family and they’ve put down roots. They’ve seen each other not only lonely in the moonlight and worn thin by death and loss, but they’ve gotten up and gone down the mountain to where the people live and made friends among them, laughing in the sunlight. Just like the cat always uggghhhhh I’m not crying I’m just so damn happy for them I can’t

[sexygure]

Making my 30 yr old bf watch Fruits Basket part 3:

We finished season one!

Before we started he typed out his list of ships he guessed would become canon/ships he wanted to happen LOL

Yuki/Hatsuharu

Tohru - single! She don't need no man!

Kyo/Arisa

Mitchan/Ritsu

Hatori/that nice lady (Mayu)

I was like ok... some of these are better and/or more accurate than others...

He didn't have much commentary on the episodes about Kisa, Ritsu, and Hiro. He laughed his ass off during Ritsu's episode which surprised me, I think Ritsu reminded him of some people in his life that apologize too much. Like me, however, he hated the back half of that episode and thought it was a little over the top, and he wished Ritsu was actually a trans woman character instead of treated kinda like a joke... He thought Tohru would be the one to get Kisa to speak again and was surprised when it was Yuki. He didn't like Hiro much LOL

The 2 episodes about Hanajima he was interested in and at this point remarked on how it seems like every character has been bullied in this series to the point its getting just a little ridiculous. But he still liked her story and was like "WTF so she's the most powerful character in the anime???" Yes. Respect her.

When Kyo told Tohru to go to bed and rest, he said "huh, maybe she does need one of these more dominant men to help push her to take care of herself" and he thought the whole scene of Kyo giving her the food and worrying about her was, and I quote, "pretty sweet"!

He was super curious about Kazuma and thought he would be the last zodiac member he hasn't seen yet. (He knows Shigure, Hatori, Ayame, Yuki, Kagura, Momiji, Hatsuharu, Ritsu, Kisa, and Hiro... and he thinks Akito is one of the main 12, so hes under the impression theres just one more left, but we know theres 2!)

As soon as Kazuma and Shigure were talking about Tohru being the one to "open Kyo's heart" he went "OK alright I see. I see. Ok. I guess this romance makes sense."

He did not expect the true form thing at ALL and was totally speechless while watching lol. I naturally started crying because that part always makes me cry and he only teased me a little! I think Kyo's backstory kinda got him a little misty eyed too. He didn't make much commentary on it and I think he was pretty invested in the story.

He also keeps referring to Akito as "Taquito"

So that's that! He said he's enjoying it and is eager to see more in season 2. I'm worried the student council arc will bore him but on the flip side, he seems pretty invested in Yuki's character growth specifically (he has good taste) so hopefully he'll be able to see Kakeru and everyone for how important they are to Yuki.

[furubabes]

Okay. Somebody Asked. @shoujobell and @cryptidaicat, y’all encouraged this. I’m gonna tag this #long post if you wanna filter.

So here. I got the urge to write and so I ranked the Fruits Basket couples from my favorite to least favorite. These aren’t my complete thoughts because I could honestly do multiple full meta posts on each pairing, but I tried to justify and explain all my choices. Standard disclaimer, this is subjective and we can agree to disagree.

Part 1: Just the reasonably popular ones

1. Kyoru: Someone’s gonna call me unoriginal for this but it’s fine. Kyoru is the main romance of Fruits Basket! They bring out the best in each other and build each other up as characters. Kyoru is basically my gold standard take on Sunshine Girl x Grouchy Dude, and I’m not even usually into that trope otherwise. Their romance is one of the few that feels so genuinely necessary to the story. They love each other and like each other. Kyo understands Tohru in a way no one else in the narrative does, and vice versa. They’re in love like soulmates and also like awkward teenagers. Kyoru invented romance. If it’s boring to like healthy romances with realistic development, I’ll be boring.

2. Tohrin: If Tohru didn’t end up with Kyo I would only want her to be with Rin. I guess they have some of the same appeal as Kyoru for me - Rin reads Tohru in a way a lot of people don’t. I also like how honest and raw they are with each other. They yell! They fight! Rin is down to just straight up knock Tohru over to keep her from rushing off. Also, they’re both absolute fashion icons. Goth x Prep rights. I firmly believe Tohru Honda is bisexual.

3. Yukeru: This is my favorite Yuki pairing. I followed @yunsoh way back when the reboot first started and her blog has got me absolutely hooked on Yukeru. I think Yuki’s arc would have just made a ridiculous amount of sense if he was gay. It screams comphet. Kakeru is an excellent complement to Yuki, and their bond feels incredibly natural. Honestly I feel like it’s the most organic romantic development outside of Kyoru. I think realistically they wouldn’t have gotten together until post-canon and frankly Yuki shines in his friendships much more than romances, so I’m not absolutely dying for them to be together, but if Yuki’s going to date anyone Kakeru is my pick.

4. Arisaki: Man... I just like them. They strike me as less of an epic love and more of a comfortable partnership. I also read them both as lesbians anyway lol. Honestly I think they both had feelings for Tohru at one point and bonded over it. The way I picture them happening is honestly just Arisa at 25 frantically googling “is it gay to hold hands with my girl roommate who I spend all my time with and also we never date men“ because Saki bought them rings that look like wedding bands but they could just be super close friendship rings and oh god she’s in too deep. They’re dating for four years before they notice.

5. AyaMine: But Jessie! You literally never post about this pairing! Yeah, you’re right. I never think about them actively. But when ranking the canon ships I realized that I like the two of them together because they’re chill and understated. They’re huge loud personalities on their own but as a couple, they just feel like two people who are happy together and like spending time with one another. No drama, no mess, very understated. No plot contrivances driving their relationship. Good for them.

6. YukiKyo: Okay, so I can be convinced to put on my YukiKyo goggles more often than not. It feels iffy because there’s debate about how closely related all the Sohmas are and these two are called “cousins” a lot in school, but since half of the Sohmas are dating each other anyway, I err on the side of them being more of a clan than a proper blood family. Anyway, YukiKyo is my designated angst fuel. I think it would realistically be pretty one-sided from Yuki’s side, since we see him wanting Kyo’s approval from a very young age, but I like exploring the what-ifs of their lives if they’d been friends instead of rivals. In canon, I like to think that after high school they’re not best friends in the traditional sense, but either one could show up with a dead body and the other would help them bury it, no questions asked.

7. Yuchi: Really? Yuki’s wife is my third favorite pairing for him? Look, I adore Machi, and I still like Yuchi. But as I’ve been watching the reboot and reading others’ metas, I think I agree that their relationship could have been very powerful as a platonic one, sort of running parallel to Yuki and Tohru. I like them together but I think there wasn’t quite time for a complete character arc for Machi and her growth sort of begins and ends with Yuki. I don’t object to them being a couple in canon and I think they’re genuinely very sweet, but once again, I think Yuki stands out in his friendships more than anything. I would have liked to see Machi strike out on her own a little more.

8. Haru x Yuki: I don’t have any particular feelings towards them but I love their dynamic already and I think as a couple they’d both be really easygoing and comfortable with each other. I think a childhood crush turned close friendship is honestly the narrative that works best for them so I have no need for the two to date canonically, but every time they interact in the anime it gets a laugh out of me. They’re cool. They’d make a very pretty pair.

9. Mayutori: I’m Mayutori-neutral. I think they suffer from Fruits Basket’s pair the spare syndrome, but out of the side pairings that don’t have too much impact, they’re one I enjoy. Mayu’s fun as a character, and painfully relatable, and I like that Hatori’s eventual romance isn’t with someone who reminds him of Kana or something like that. I also want good things for Hatori. Mayutori has serious heterosexual energy though. I’m not saying this as a pro or con, they’re just very straight.

10. Hatsuzu: Okay, Haru and Rin aren’t this far down because I hate them. I’m perfectly fine with them being together in canon. But I think their romance almost... functions better as individual motivation for their character arcs than it does as an actual relationship, if that makes sense? Rin’s backstory episode is heartbreaking and her motivation to protect Haru is compelling and sympathetic, but their actual scenes together just don’t move me that much. Their romance is the least interesting part of either character for me.

11. Hiro x Kisa: Yeah I never got into it that much. It’s cute, it’s a sweet depiction of childhood crushes, but I’m not a fan of the idea of them ending up together. Kisa’s a cutie and Hiro is entertaining but the two of them together don’t actually do much for me. The dynamic between them is almost like if someone did Kyoru with none of the nuance. Ultimately though, they’re kids. I don’t expect them to have a deep and complex romance.

12. Yukiru: I think it would be a disservice to their characters if they were a couple. People far more eloquent than me have already written plenty of meta on why Yuki and Tohru aren’t what the other needs romantically, so I won’t get into it, but basically I just think their canon friendship is so beautiful and meaningful that I wouldn’t want to change it. Yuki and Tohru support my thesis that not all soulmates are romantic.

13. Tohru x Momiji: Welcome to the subjective dislike corner! This pairing is reasonably popular among people theorizing who Tohru would be with if not Kyo, but for some reason it just sits poorly with me. I can’t rank it any lower because there’s nothing evil or morally wrong about it! I just really don’t like it. I’ve quit a few fics because this pairing came up and I just can’t enjoy it.

14. Kakeru x Komaki: Idk, I just think Kakeru latching onto the one girl who was nice to him and put up with his bullshit and then being with her forever isn’t compelling. Komaki’s also probably his beard. She’s likable as an individual though.

15. Akigure: There’s plenty to say about the age gap, Shigure being in love with Akito since she was a fetus because of The Dream, the implications of a 15-18 year old knowing he’d one day want to be with a then-10-year-old... yeah, you get it. But even if I was able to put all that aside because Soulmate Destiny Logic, I still don’t think I’d like Akigure. I think they’re interesting as bitter, codependent exes, but I don’t like the idea of Akito ending up with anyone who she abused or who abused her. I think she has so much growing to do as a character and staying in a relationship within the Sohma family to do it can’t be healthy for her. I can’t see them living happily ever after, nor do I really want to.

16. Kurisa: I think what frustrates me the most here is that I want to like Kureno and everything about this romance is written to dull his most interesting traits. First of all, the age gap. Yeah, it’s gross, I don’t like it. But even past that, the love at first sight, instant fixation with each other, and lack of actual chemistry just kills me. Arisa’s stated reason to like Kureno is that he reminds her of Tohru, basically piggybacking off the chemistry she and Tohru already have, and his total lack of agency means the plot just sort of carries him along. It frustrates me that Takaya could have done something pretty cool by making them simply friends who have a chance encounter and then build a friendship from there that parallels Kureno’s abusive dynamic with Akito. It would be neat if a stranger’s kindness was the push Kureno needed to get himself out of the Sohmas’ grasp, without all the nonsensical drama about them being in love. It would also be less of a disservice to Arisa, who basically just spends the whole series pining for Kureno after they meet and I hate it. I could write a whole post about this. Maybe I will sometime.

17. Kyoko x Katsuya: I don’t think their story is romantic. I think it’s tragic for Kyoko, and if it were framed that way within the narrative, I wouldn’t object so much to its existence. But... Takaya just really likes age gaps with a younger woman and an older man, so the narrative romanticizes this man marrying his student. Katsuya can be depicted as well-meaning as you want, but he’s still got a ridiculous amount of power over Kyoko. She was also still pretty young when she had Tohru, which doesn’t make things any better because it’s clear that the relationship turned physical when Kyoko was a teen, thus dashing the idea of Katsuya legally marrying her to save her but not actually doing anything creepy. I wish Fruits Basket framed this as a story of Kyoko escaping one dangerous situation by entering a relationship with a huge power imbalance, because that happens to girls all the time and it’s tragic and compelling. The events of the story could stay the exact same and if the framing changed I would be fine with it. But this is not that. This is just a really romanticized teacher/student age gap. I’m not into it.

Part 2: Rarepairs, weird shit, and others (oh my!)

1. Yuki x Kakeru x Kimi: OT3. I’m enamored with the idea of this hot mess polycule.

2. Momiji x Kimi: Chaos meets chaos. This couple would say uwu without any irony and also steal your car keys. They’re both perceptive and smart hidden under a layer of cute and I’d wanna watch them play 4D chess with each other.

3. Kazuma x Kunimitsu: Idk how old Kunimitsu is so if he’s like 20, strike this one from the record. But I saw one post once that was like Kyo slowly realizing Kazuma and Kunimitsu were gay and had been dating for years and it was funny as hell.

4. AyaTori: It’s cute. Opposites attract, black and white hair, and Aya only listens to Hatori anyway. It’s just fun to think about.

5. Megumi x Hiro: They don’t interact in canon I just think Goth x Punk-Ass Bitch is a great concept.

6. Motoko x Nao: They’re both loud as hell and Nao having a gf that towers over him is funny. Maybe Yuki would finally get some peace.

7. Machi x Kimi: I don’t see them actually being compatible in canon but I think they could have a really homoerotic college friendship.

8. Hajime x Mutsuki: This is just YukiKyo, the non angst version.

9. Akito x Hanajima: I’m so wary of shipping Akito with anyone but this is kind of fun. The two are friends in canon and Hana isn’t remotely afraid of Akito. Plus Akito never abused Hana. I can sort of see it.

10. Hiroshi x Yusuke: Makes no sense, wouldn’t be relevant, but if those two just never spent any time apart and continued being a pair for life it would be a really good bit.

11. Akitohru: I don’t think it’s healthy to date anyone who’s previously stabbed you.

12. Kazuma x Hanajima: Stop. Go to jail. Hana’s one-sided crush is funny though.

[chisatowo]

Also thinking abt sci fantasy Arisa again because Im predictable. She's just an incredibly fun character to put myself in the head of, and I just have a lot of fun playing through poppin'party's origin story but in the sci fantasy au in my head, tbh it's not that different aside from Tae getting to be a part of the friend group a bit sooner and some Kasumi helping Arisa out with the constant mind reading dealio, but it's still very fun to think abt for me :]

[machikuragii]

Rank the Sohmas and explain your ranking?

Anon, this got really long, so I’ve put everything under the cut. Also I don’t have solid rankings beyond my top 2 so I went into ‘tiers’ that aren’t necessarily ordered by how much I like a character. TLDR; I love all the zodiacs for different reasons, see readmore for more in-depth thoughts.

1. Yuki Sohma

Yuki as a character is really, really important to me. I think about him so much, and how he goes from a neglected, unwanted child with no support network to a confident young adult who is so comfortable with himself and free to be happy and at ease and surrounded by those who love him. I think about how important it is that Takaya displays this journey as incremental, and not necessarily linear. I think about how Yuki’s strength comes not only from himself and his desire to improve step by step, but from the support he gradually starts to receive from the people around him. I think about just how important it is when Takaya says that it’s ok to be weak, to reach out for help, and that for some people, it is only when they DO receive the needed support from others that they are able to get better. I think about just how much it means for a boy with so little self-worth to gradually find himself in the company of people who enjoy his presence and like him for who he is, and I think about how he is able to reach out and help others after receiving the warm and foundation he himself needs, when he is emotionally ready. I think about then, how SIGNIFICANT it is to show a character who had absolutely NOTHING in his childhood go on to make sure that his own child has everything he longed for in a home in his childhood. 

There’s a little bit of Yuki in everyone. Every bit of his internal monologue hits like a truck for anyone who struggles with insecurity and low self-esteem, and his drive and aspiration to find his own purpose and happiness, can be a source of inspiration to so many. Yuki Sohma is one of the best, if not THE definitely best written Fruits Basket characters, and I really wish more people recognised this. As sensei once said herself, I know that Yuki will always have his fans, but I wished that more people realised and appreciated his importance in the story and carrying the themes of Fruits Basket.

2. Hatori Sohma

This is more a remnant of a past phase, but Hatori is here because he was my first anime crush ksksksasoksks . Jokes aside though, I love Hatori because of his kindness and selfless nature that is masked by a cold exterior. As an adult I realise that Hatori’s actions are not always perfect or enough, but I still really think that he is someone who truly cares. There are so many instances that improve his character in my eyes. Can you imagine going through what he goes through with Kana, and learning of her marriage, and not feeling bitterness, but relief that she is happy? And yet he values his own happiness so little that it really breaks my heart. Or the way that he doesn’t avoid Momiji after the ordeal with his mother, but checks up on him and in a way helps raise him? Dude is more of a father figure to Momiji than his own dad. Narratively, Hatori’s backstory is such an effective introduction to the darker, more mature themes of Fruits Basket, and yeah you can bet it worked on kid me. 

TIER: “These are great characters, I love their complexity but I’m also just fond of them as well” (no particular order)

Isuzu Sohma

Someone who definitely grew on me this time round. When I was a child I found it hard to understand what she was going through and didn’t really relate to her either. But oh my god, this girl goes through so much. She’s such a kindhearted character at heart, but struggles with connecting with others and receiving their kindness because of what she went through as a child. It’s so hard to watch her struggle, because we know she deserves the world. 

Akito Sohma

Controversial to say I love Akito just after I said I love Rin, lol. I’ve never had an overly negative impression of Akito throughout Fruits Basket (this is partially because my friends used to call me Akito when we were little.....because I was an Asian girl... and Akito is also an Asian girl????? idk now that I’m thinking back over it...gee thanks guys), so it was relatively easier for me to accept her redemption when it came. Akito’s actions are not defensible, but I find it much more interesting to explore where she is coming from, rather than just mindlessly spew hate and wish violent things for her like some people prefer to do. Akito’s character is a tragedy, and I feel like people are way less willing to emphasise when the victim is not “perfect”, per se. Akito went through the same “broken home” parental abuse that a lot of the characters in Fruits Basket went through, but somehow people are unwilling even to extend the tiniest amount of baseline empathy towards her just because he trauma manifested in a way that hurts others. Guys, she’s a tragic character!!! A tragic character isn’t always “a perfect person who has bad things happen to them”, it can also mean “a character who becomes antagonistic because of circumstances.” Her actions are inexcusable, but there is a lot to learn when we explore WHY she became this way.

Shigure Sohma

Gonna try make this short. Shigure is a controversial character but I like him because I like characters that demonstrate moral ambiguity. The point of Shigure is NOT to be a good person, and he doesn’t have to be one to justify liking him. Once again, you can like Shigure and still know that he’s a piece of shit. The whole idea of “he genuinely cares for Tohru but will hurt her if it means achieving his own goals” is a fascinating one to me, because it shows that the idea of “good people” and “bad people” is vast oversimplification of how actual people think and behave. Still though, I’m really not fond of how Akigure was executed in canon. I think the two could have potentially had a fascinating relationship but it ended up being more disturbing and swept under the rug&uncomfortable than interesting.

Momiji Sohma

On the opposite end of the spectrum we have Momiji who is just genuinely such a good person. I like the dichotomy between his outwardly ‘childish’ and ‘immature’ appearance and behaviors, versus what we gradually learn about him: that he has had to be mature and selfless at a very young age, and that he is also very emotionally intelligent and empathetic. Watching him gradually grow up before our eyes (we were ROBBED of it in the anime) but at the same time feeling more and more lost broke my freaking heart. When his curse breaks and he realises that even though he is now ‘free’, that nothing has changed and the damage was already done -  absolutely heartwrenching. He’s someone I would have loved explore more of what happened post-canon, because I just want good things for him and Momo, screw whatever the hell their asshole dad thinks. 

TIER: “I love these characters but don’t focus on them as much as I think the fandom does”

Kyo Sohma

I’m a self-professed “probably don’t think about Kyo that much” person haha. I know I know, sue me. I think its because out of the main 3, I love Yuki and Tohru so much that I don’t tend to focus on Kyo. I still like him a whole lot though!! I’m a big fan of the way he matures and changes throughout the series, and much like how Yuki does too, becomes a much happier person. When I compare early-series Kyo with later-series Kyo, one thing that always sticks out to me is how much more he smiles. The way he smiles at Tohru is so full of genuine warmth and happiness that it makes my heart melt, especially when I think about how this is a boy who has so much baggage, and has to gradually accept the fact that he deserves happiness before he allows himself finally to accept it. 

Hatsuharu Sohma

Most of my love for Haru comes from the relationship he has with Yuki. It takes so much maturity to accept that your prejudices may be unfair, and Haru did so at such a young age. Sometimes I just think about how much Haru did and continues to do for Yuki without the need for reciprocation or even recognition and it just hits me how much of a good person Haru is. He was Yuki’s ONLY friend at a time he had NO ONE, and is the reason Yuki was able to move out of the estate and become the person we know and love. Haha sorry for making this about Yuki again, but I think their relationship also says a lot about Haru as a person.

TIER: “I like Kureno and am tired of making a thousand disclaimers every time I want to say I like him, Takaya-sensei whyyyy”

Kureno Sohma

I really like Kureno. This is again pretty controversial, but let me try to explain. I like Kureno because he’s an example of someone who wants to do the right thing that causes the least amount of harm to everyone, but inevitably ends up making the decision that causes much more damage. It’s a classic “good intentions, bad outcome” scenario and I freaking love it. I love that it’s absolutely not what he wants, but Kureno ends up doing a lot of wrong things and destroying not only Akito, but also his own life in the process. I just find the idea of an adult of his age who is so isolated from all of society that even a shopping trip is something foreign and out-of-the-ordinary, really, really sad. 

On the romance side though,  I hate that Takaya-sensei decided that Arisa would be his romantic interest, but I do like the idea of romance being a part of his arc. (I actually think their interactions are somewhat cute but that the overarching age gap ruins everything - i keep thinking about if Arisa was older or Kureno was younger, but touching their ages at all would affect the plot so I would rather it wasn’t Arisa at all). Just the idea of Kureno by Akito’s side, playing the part of what he thinks is her “lover” (god sensei why are u liek dis), when he meets someone on one of his rare trips outside the Sohma estate that causes him to realise that what he and Akito have is not at all what a healthy relationship should feel like - and it causes him to reevaluate the harm he is doing to them both, and take steps to leave her. That is...not exactly what Sensei did, but I always remember how much I felt for Kureno when he said in the upcoming anime chapter how it was the first time he had felt like he loved someone out of his own choice...I just felt like that one “choice” could have lead him to the realisation that he can start to make more of his own, healthier choices in life. But yeah. Wish it wasn’t Arisa because it didn’t do anything good to her character arc, and it’s creepy. 

TIER: “I really like these characters but don’t go out of my way to think about them”

Kagura Sohma

Ok I lied, I do go out of my way to think about Kagura. I love her too, despite common opinion. I think her reflection of her relationship with Kyo was so wonderful. Her confession that she started to like him out of pity, but that over time they became genuine feelings. But that Kyo can’t reciprocate her feelings so she’s accepting of that, and thankful that he gave her time to express herself, although she will still go on loving Kyo. Kagura is one of those characters where Takaya-sensei once again demonstrates her ability to take a “trope” of a character and actually delve into their psyche and explains why they feel this way. 

Ayame Sohma

I love Ayame because he’s genuinely so much fun! I appreciate the arc of him rejecting Yuki, but how he is now reaching out to help him, and I feel like we don’t get a good insight into just how significant this rejection was until we see it from Yuki’s perspective. I also admire how he is able to recognise his own shortcomings, and respects Hatori because of his sensitivity to other people’s feelings. He’s a character who could definitely have been explored more if desired, but isn’t underexplored or incomplete as is.

Ritsu Sohma

My poor Ritsu. In contrast to Ayame, Ritsu was definitely underexplored. Such a great potential to explore confidence, identity, and assertiveness. Ritsu as it stands though, is largely a minor character who wasn’t given the time they needed to be fully fleshed out. I would have loved to see them gradually gain more confidence over the series!!

Kisa Sohma

Love love love Kisa, she’s such a cutie pie. But I feel like there wasn’t much more to say about her that wasn’t said in her arc. Kisa is more a character who is used to show the messed-up state of the Sohma house/Akito more than she herself is a complex character, I think. I love her arc and her parallels to Yuki though, it gave us such a great quote about needing to be loved by others before learning to love yourself. 

Hiro Sohma

Hiro is known to be an unlikeable brat but I love him as well!!! I think it’s really important to have characters who aren’t just lovely and receptive to Tohru’s kindness, and his character served to show an important flaw in Tohru’s character, and the way that her kindness could be taken advantage of. For Hiro himself though, I think his brattiness is alright because he’s very young, and I really appreciate his efforts to become a more mature person when he recognises his own flaws! 

[kyosohmastan]

What do you picture when you think of Kyo and Tohru’s wedding day? Would it be eastern or western style? How much of their friends and families will be there?

Ahhh isn’t that a wholesome thing to think about. I wish we had official information on their wedding. I like to think that they went with a western style because I can’t imagine Tohru not wanting to dress up in a princess gown. So I think they went with that. Takaya has stated in the banquet book that their wedding was a “modest affair”. So it’s canon that it was pretty small. They probably invited the zodiacs, Akito, Kazuma, Arisa, Saki, and grandpa.

I can’t remember who said it because it was a while ago but a tumblr post mentioned how weddings in Japan can be very expensive so Kyo and Tohru probably signed the marriage certificate then saved up for their wedding that they had a couple years later. Somehow that seems so romantic. 💞

[i-write-fanfics-to-procrastinate]

Ohhh the Ask thingy for 001: Fairy tail and if we can ask for a second Fruits basket (I've been so into it and wonder if you are too.) P.s. I admire your writing and your blog soooooo much! You are a blessing. 😇🙏🏻💛

Gah you are SO SWEET! ahhhhh!!! Yes, I’ll do both! I’m not caught up with FB, because it was the new anime that got me into it, but I’ll try my best!!! Under the cut because this is gonna be long, I think LOL

Fairy Tail: 

1. Favorite Character: hahaha crying Laxus Dreyar

2. Least Favorite Character: Ivan Dreyar, but! I love him as a villain and honestly we were robbed—could have had an amazing arc completely dedicated to him. 

3. Five Favorite Ships (Canon or Non-Canon): 

a. Laxui

b. Lyvia

c. Jerza

d. Mirafreed 

e. MesCana or LoLu or okay maybe Gruvia 

4. Character I Find Most Attractive: Laxus

5. Character I Would Marry: Laxus

6. Character I Would be Best Friends With: Ooh! Maybe Lucy! She writes like me, and she’s so sweet! Or maybe Cana cuz sometimes I just wanna be petty and she’d listen to me being petty. 

7. Random Thought: something I wanna write an essay about: A continuing theme throughout FT is that there is strength in humility. 

8. An Unpopular Opinion: I could do without the Alvarez Arc. idk if that’s unpopular, let me try again. People really out there shipping Hisui and Arcadios when he’s like 20 years older than her. Is that unpopular. Wait, let me try one more time. I don’t think Gray’s that impressive. There, I said it. Love the dude, but y’all.... just... it’s okay—breathe. 

9. My Canon OTP: There are canon ships in FT? Oh wait, I guess Gajevy! They’re cute! :D

10. Non-Canon OTP: Laxui. 

11. Most Badass Character: Laxus, Erza, and Jellal are all pretty high up there, Erza and Laxus a little higher than Jellal. 

12. Most Epic Villain: We were really robbed cuz Ivan could have been AMAZING. It’s weird because my favorite arcs the villains eventually became good...? So like... Tartaros—that was pretty good. Oof, everything kinda melds together in my memory. Hades was a good villain. That’s the arc Laxus came back, bless. 

13. Pairing I am not a fan of: Honestly I like a lot of pairings. I think though like any pairing where the age gap is #gross. See: Mest x Wendy, Arcadios x Hisui, Lyon x Chelia. 

14. Characters I Feel the Writer Screwed Up: Ivan. But only because I wanted a bigger arc. 

15. Favorite Friendship: Natsu and Lucy, Natsu and Gray, Gray and Natsu and Erza. All the kids who grew up in the guild together. 

16. Character I Most Identify With: Hmm... probably Lucy, because she has the dream of becoming a published author! She’s also a romantic Hahaha. But also Levy because of her love of books. 

17. Character I Wish I Could Be: Omg... um... which character would get me closest to Laxus... XD jkjkjk I’m not sure actually! I’d prefer to be myself in the FT world! 

Fruits Basket: I’m not going to be able to answer all of these because I have a feeling based on spoilers that I haven’t met all the characters, and we don’t know a lot about the characters yet! So I’ll just do the ones I know I can answer!

Favorite Character: Tohru! She’s soooo pure, and I really admire her and look up to her. I want to be more like her, kind to everyone and so sweet. She offers really good advice and she really helps people. 

Character I would want to be best friends with: Tohru again so she can teach me her ways. Also probably Shigure—he’s *narrows eyes*... something. But he makes me laugh. 

Random Thought: No like seriously, I love Shigure. Also, like, I remember when I first got into FB I was really excited but there are sOME FANS who have been fans since the first anime, or even before that, who are RUDE. I know I don’t have a lot of knowledge about the series yet because I haven’t read the manga. So please be patient, and be patient with all the other new fans too, please! 

OTPs: idk about canon/non-canon or anything really besides the spoilers I have which are ofc Kyoru is canon. but I’ll tell u what I ship. Kyoru ofc, cuties. how can u not? Recently seen that episode with Kureno and Arisa. Idk what that’s about but let me tell u... i can see it. Though... I remember her saying something about their age gap being pretty big. 

Favorite Friendship: Tohru with EVERYONE. Tohru is the sweetest and can successfully make friends with anyone and i love that. Tohru with Yuki, Tohru with Kisa, Tohru with Arisa and Hana, Tohru with EVERYONE. 

Character I Most Identify With: I really want to answer this question because I feel like I should have one. I want to say Tohru, but I can’t because I’m not like Tohru at all, but I aspire to be like her! 

Thank you so much for the ask! I’m sorry I couldn’t answer all the questions for Fruits Basket, I’m very new! I hope you don’t mind!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3