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tetsunabouquet · 1 year

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I just realized, I have a type (when it comes to husbandos). With KNB, I like Midorima but I just keep returning to Akashi for some reason. Akashi being one of the richest boys in Japan. Akashi has a white horse. Akashi is struggling with mental health issues because of the trauma of losing his mom. His dad is a dick. The anime/manga that really appealed to my YA-fried brain as a teen and got me into the husbando/waifu rabbit-hole is Vampire Knight. A problematic series with a few iconic side characters who deserve a better series (Zero also deserved a way better fate).

As the main love triangle exists of Yuki, the main heroine who turns somewhat Mary-Sue like as the series progresses- Zero, her foster brother who refuses to see her as a sister and is both a vampire and vampire hunter- And piece-of-shit Kaname, her ancestor who is posing as her dead brother, has been essentially grooming her since childhood and orchestrated the murder of Zero's parents. Zero is from one of the richest, most accomplished vampire hunting families and is basically a knight who technically becomes a prince through being with Yuki after she became vampire queen. Zero has a white horse. Zero is struggling with suicidal thoughts and self-hatred after the vampire who killed his parents turnt him into one. His parents were loving but they held some merciless views in regards of Zero's younger twin and were the kind of vampire hunters who never asked questions about the vampires they were assigned to kill (at least 1 had been innocent and framed). My first anime series, and the first series of which I also owned the manga, is Shaman King. I was like 8 or 9, when I had my heart stolen by Tao Ren. I can go on and on about the cringy things I did as a little girl, like practising how to say his last name with a proper Chinese accent to these elaborate fantasies in which I was his sidekick. Tao Ren will always have my heart, even 16-17 years later. Ren is from a rich family, considered an aristocrat with the Tao family pretty much having a gigantic historical reputation in the Chinese society of Shamans. Ren has a white horse. Ren is struggling with self-hatred and some low-key mental issues after his family basically brainwashed him to become a killing machine at a tender age and now regrets the many people he killed. His parents and grandfather, are utter shit as they literally will torture him, joke about poisining everyone and his grandpa literally holds him at gunpoint when Ren is acting like a brat. See? I clearly have a husbando type: Coming from a rich important family, owning a white horse and struggling with their mental health because of trauma linked to their family (plus being overall attractive).

I swear, fairy tales have started a certain brainrot in me as a child (in Dutch, the stereotype of Prince Charming actually is referred to as De Prins Op Het Witte Paard - The Prince On The White Horse). But why my brain prefers broken princes who have some deeply rooted trauma and coming from dysfunctional families, is a mystery to me.

#vk #sk #knb #kuroko's basketball #shaman king #vampire knight #akashi seijuro #tao ren #kiryu zero #broken princes #husbando #tetsutalk #the importance of a white horse

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harmonyprincessstuff · 2 years

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how did you start watching fruit basket how is your favant show is

Well, I started in 2018 by reading the Fruits Basket manga (after I saw the anime of 2019). I had relatively recently started in the world of manganime and I just wanted to discover new stories.

They spoke very well of this work and I wanted to give it a chance and it was an incredible discovery and I tell why: I've been reading books for many years, and when I started reading manga, I always noticed that something was missing: like that the romances were formed very quickly, toxicity or works in which there was no balance (for example that there was a lot of action and drama but lack of romance or hard moments, and if there was, it was poorly handled).

So when I started Fruits Basket, I was surprised by everything it dealt with and above all: how realistic it was at times and how balanced all the plots were. It was all spun together and it was marvelous. There is romance, drama, its pinch of action, teachings, important reflections...

Besides, obviously, how the romance is slowly and beautifully cooked. There is also very good evolution in all the characters and something I value a lot: FRIENDSHIP.

I am asexual and arromantic, so to see that the main character, had a group of friendships so consolidated and so healthy, made my heart soft. and not only with her best friends, with the others too. how she manages to help everyone with her kindness and education. Some people say that Tohru has no personality or tends to be a Marie Sue, but nothing to see. Tohru, along with Akito is the one who moves the plot along.

And once again, she makes you see that women can be strong and cool outside of an action plot where they have to use weapons. the strength is also in the mentality, and how to cope with things. And you can also have weaknesses, make mistakes and not be perfect. She is an incredibly strong protagonist.

Another thing i really liked was Kyoko's role, how hard is it to make a character that is dead, so important? because she is just another character, she is constantly in the plot, in many teachings.....

I could talk for hours about all the characters and each of their plots, I feel that who hasn't seen/read the play, is missing a real gem. Really, there are many things it teaches you and each character has THEIR world and evolution, so it is also easy to feel identified. And oh my gosh, The backstory of Yuki IS amazing.

the love relationships are beautiful and perfectly constructed, but the one between Kyo and Tohru.... the way you see the change in both of them, with how Kyo starts to open up and let the walls around him break down... how they make a perfect combo of communication, trust and respect.

And how their relationship is believable and doesn't look forced. Is that please, there are looks and looks.... but the ones from kyo to torhu???? oh my god, it's just heartwarming. They transmit the love he feels for her.

so well, that's an understatement but that's the general summary of why i like it so much ♥️

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lollreagan · 2 years

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a fruits basket review: (s1-3 finished)

so this one surprising took me a while to complete. and usually i’m the type of person that lovessss a good romantic story and will binge it all in one go, but this one was difficult for me.

There were too many plot and filler episodes mixed between each other. this is probably what made the show hard for me to keep watching. especially season 1 and 2 were drawn out pretty long. i even told my sister that I though all of the major arcs could have been done in a 13 episode season instead, like how seaosn 3 was done. the pacing was perfect for season 3. season 1 and 2, not so much.

petition to have added more depth to the haru+rene story arch!!!!! i’m sorry to all of the kyo+tohru fans out there, but they were my favorite ship of the whole show. and i feel like once rene was released from the hospital, her and haru were basically forgotten. i would have liked to have known more about them, and not only that, but gotten to see their relationship blossom + fan service moments ofc. i really just wanted to see more of them, but didn’t.

why did momigi grow up. there was really no explanation except for the characters blatantly saying every 5 seconds “wow he really grew.” okay. but why?? i really didn’t understand the point except to maybe show that he could have a crush on tohru, which was only addressed in 3 episodes and then totally forgotten about. wish we could have seen how momigi felt that tohru and kyo ended up growing old together, but i guess i’ll have to make it up for myself.

tohru’s character development. oh my god this one pissed me off so much. yes, sweet little tohru. except that’s exactly why i hated her. i hated that they made her a literal mary sue. her only flaws were that she loved people unconditionally? cmon now. justice for tohru. they made everything that was dark about her mom or dad, and not really about her. she didn’t really start to change until middle of season 3, at the LITERAL END OF THE SHOW.

akito’s character. her character development was SOMETHING FINALLY DONE RIGHT. i hated her so much. i hated how she got away with the abuse and the trauma she caused all of the zodiac members. but this is what made her so powerful. she was finally something right in the story that made me want to keep watching. and she finally had an epiphany when she was talking to tohru that literally led her to free all of the zodiacs from their curses. talk about development. i just really hated how she ended up with shigure at the end of the show, but it was fitting for her. me hating her, with her being the antagonist of the show, is evidence that she was a well-written character.

my favorite characters:

haru

kyo

yuki

rene

the vice president!!! ( sorry i forgot his name)!

hatori

tohru

machi

overall, the pacing was a huge factor for me. it would be much higher on my list if it weren’t so slow at points. i literally took a 2 month hiatus between season 1 and 2 because it was just so hard to continue watching at the lack of character growth and the slow slow pace of the show. overall, 7/10

#fruits basket #fruit basket #tohru honda #miss honda #tohru fruits basket #kyo soma #yuki soma #haru soma #kyo x tohru #Kyou Soma #kyo x reader #yuki x reader #yuki x machi

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beybladefanboy · 3 years

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Top 5 Favourite Beyblade Characters

Random and unasked for but I figured I would talk about my favourite characters in the Beyblade Metal Saga.

#5 A tie between Chris and Hikaru

Chris

I’m putting these two in the same spot because I wanted both of them to be on this list and a “top 6” doesn’t have as good of a ring to it as a “top 5.” Anyways, the first time I watched Metal Fury, I didn’t care much about Chris. Now however, I find his arc of being stuck in a job that brings him no joy to be incredibly relatable. His lack of passion for Beyblade makes complete sense: the fun of the sport was completely sucked out when it became an obligation for him and he wasn’t allowed to fight for himself. He was completely obligated to his employer and had little choice in the matter. That would suck away anyone’s passion, trust me, I know. So seeing the light return to his eyes as he rediscovered his passion for Beyblading was incredibly satisfying.

Hikaru

A lot of the appeal of Hikaru is admittedly that she is a female blader, and yeah, it is great having a strong female character. (We need more of those) What’s great about Hikaru however is that she isn’t just a token girl character or a mary sue: she is treated the same as any other blader and is allowed to fail and feel emotions without being degraded. I like that we even see a bit of her backstory where we learn that she is driven to be the best blader because of her likely deceased mother’s words. It’s a shame that she quit Beyblade due to her trauma but I also think it’s understandable and that it was interesting to explore that trauma. The moment that broke my heart rewatching Metal Masters was when Hikaru sees Dark Tsubasa and is paralyzed by terror, clearly remembering what Ryuga did to her. Beyblade’s most powerful scenes to me are the ones that delve into a character’s mind and allows me to see their thoughts and feelings. It allows me to understand and be more attached to the character and we got a lot of that from Hikaru and Chris.

#4 Yuki

Yuki is kind of underrated in my opinion but then again, so is the entirety of Metal Fury. Yuki was a really fresh character for the series. Nearly every character is extremely reckless: acting first, thinking later so it was really refreshing to see a character who overthinks everything to the point of anxiety. I just relate more to a character that doubts himself and has to fight to overcome not just the great evil but his own self-doubt and fear as well. Also, I love that scene where he fights Ryuga. He probably knows he doesn’t stand a chance against a guy like him but he doesn’t care because he’s fighting for his friends. I can relate to that. When I’m just doing something for myself, I tend to doubt and question myself but when I’m standing up for my friends, I show no mercy. So yeah, Yuki is a really relatable character, as well as a pure cinnamon roll that needs more love.

#3 Kyoya

If you asked who my favourite Beyblade character was two and half years ago, I would’ve answered “Kyoya” without any hesitation. While I do still really like him, I think his character was kind of fumbled in Metal Fury. I’ll talk about that separately though because I want this to be a positive post. Still, Kyoya is a great character. I like how he develops from a villain to that one liner asshole friend of Gingka’s. While I do like him unironically, Kyoya is honestly just funny to me. He is so ridiculously arrogant about his own skills but he actually is as good as he says he is. He’s also a tsundere. He’s absolutely a tsundere. He’s always helping his friends with whatever bullshit they’re doing: helping them infiltrate the Dark Nebula, going to look for Gingka when he disappears, helping them infiltrate Hades city, going with them to look for the Legendary Bladers, and on two separate occasions, staying behind to fight someone so the others can go forward. Even his determination to beat Gingka feels more like friendly competition than actual malice. And yet he insists he doesn’t care about them with lines like, “It’s not like I came to save you or anything.” It’s honestly kind of majestic. He’s also a complete badass. He always gets back up after a loss and fights to the bitter end and, sometimes to the detriment of himself but never his Beyblade. When Leone was on the verge of breaking to pieces in The Fearsome Libra, he forfeited the match to stop that from happening, risking humiliation and accepting defeat to do the right thing. That is genuinely admirable. It takes courage to fight but even more courage to admit defeat. Also, his fight against Ryuga in Metal Fusion is insane. Kyoya nearly falls so many times but keeps himself on his feet and rises up again. It takes being stabbed in the heart by the dark power for Kyoya to be defeated. Out of everyone, Kyoya came the closest to defeating Ryuga through sheer will and determination alone. What a badass.

#2 Tsubasa

Similar to Yuki, Tsubasa is also a pretty unique character for this series. While he is passionate about fighting like all the others, Tsubasa is much more thoughtful and cool-headed, which is appealing especially among a cast of hot-headed crazy characters. When Tsubasa is first introduced, he’s kind of a mystery. We don’t know his true intentions or alignment until we learn that he was working for the WVBA, about 15 episodes after his initial introduction. This unpredictability made him interesting to watch in Metal Fusion as I didn’t know what he was going to do next. Then in Metal Masters, he becomes even more interesting. While it was emotionally intense to watch, I think the “Dark Tsubasa” arc is one of this series’ greatest achievements. It revealed a completely new layer of personality to Tsubasa and gave him so much development.

While he was being somewhat controlled by the dark power, it is made clear through the dialogue that that side of him was always there and the dark power just enhanced and unmasked it. He did often hide his true emotions and intentions in Metal Fusion after all. The scenes where Tsubasa interacts with his dark self are very interesting and relatable to me because I often try to hide my negative emotions and avoid situations where they might come out until those feelings fester into madness, which is essentially what Tsubasa did. However, the resolution to this arc is what makes it so special to me. Tsubasa doesn’t drive out the darkness or continue to repress it: he accepts the darkness as part of who he is because everyone has darkness in them and the way to control it is to become one with it. And in the end, he becomes a stronger blader and person as a result of this arc. This is legitimately inspiring and helpful to me. It’s important to remember that we are not defined by our worst thoughts/feelings, we are defined by how we handle them and accepting ourselves, flaws and all, is important. So really that arc alone makes Tsubasa one of my favourite characters but he also has an appealing personality as well. It’s a shame he was kind of underused in Metal Fury but I love what we got from him.

#1 Ryuga

Yeah, okay, this was obvious. Take one look at my feed or even my profile picture and you could probably guess that I love Ryuga. Two and a half years ago, I hated him with a passion but after rewatching the show again, I realized I only really hated him because of what he did to Hikaru, Tsubasa, and Kyoya which yes was horrible and I don’t condone it in any way but he was under the influence of the dark power at that point and he never does anything quite that awful again. Anyways, onto the positives. Ryuga in Metal Fusion is the best villain the show ever had. He poses a significant threat and was the first person to legitimately defeat Gingka. He’s also a terrifying sadist that cackles at others’ pain. If Ryuga had stayed like that, I would probably still like him as a character but I certainly wouldn’t have developed a crush. Damn, that would’ve been nice. But alas, even in Metal Fusion, Ryuga is somewhat sympathetic when you remember that he is just a kid and was both used by Doji and not even in full control of himself because of the dark power. He is seen trying to resist its control in the final battle after all. It’s interesting to see a character who is literally corrupted by the power he sought out and actually does learn from his mistake. In Metal Masters, he realized that humans’ greed and hatred was what caused the dark power to be so harmful and decided to draw the power from its original source, before it was tainted by humans, and became super powerful. Even if you hate Ryuga, you have to admit that is awesome. And once he stopped being a sadistic villain, he became much more unpredictable as sometimes he would even help the main heroes in Metal Masters, albeit for selfish reasons. Ryuga sort of feels like a combination of traits I liked most in Tsubasa and Kyoya. He has the unpredictability and loner attitude of Tsubasa and the confidence and determination of Kyoya. Also, I don’t think I need to say that Ryuga is a badass. That’s not even an opinion: it’s something that we all know to be a fact. I mean, this is the guy who launched his Beyblade at a floating city, wrecking it enough to send it crashing into the water and causing a reactor meltdown that nearly destroyed the earth. That last part was unintentional and in all fairness, he did help stop the end of the world, but still, he is both powerful and reckless enough to do something like that. He was kind of frustrating in Metal Fury but I did like his friendship with Kenta and while his blind pursuit of power was annoying, I gotta admire the ambition. And… yeah, I cried at his death. I cried harder at that than anything else in this show at any other point I watched it, including when I was a kid even though I knew it was coming. Even though his motivations for fighting Nemesis were far from righteous, he still died trying to defeat the great evil and his final act was giving Kenta the star fragment to give the heroes the chance they needed to win. Ryuga died a hero, plain and simple. I wish he had lived so we could see him develop even more after that moment but either way, Ryuga is a great character. He’s the best villain in season one and I love his fiery personality and aesthetic in the following seasons.

#beyblade metal saga #chris #yuki mizusawa #hikaru hasama #kyoya tategami #tsubasa otori #ryuga #ryuga kishatu #yuki #hikaru #kyoya #tsubasa #metal fury is underrated #I have my problems with it #but it's just as good as the first two seasons in my opinion

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hanbereviews · 3 years

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Okazaki Kei Route Review

After an (admittedly long) hiatus we’ve returned to continue this review series and hopefully finish it off! Our third character is Okazaki Kei, my second favorite character in the game. Kei’s a well meaning security specialist who was assigned to protect Yanagi’s team, but you soon learn pretty early on he’s a glorified spy meant to report their movements back to the police. While I loved him as a person, I have a few qualms with his route. Since it’ll be harder and harder to give my honest opinions on a route without putting in spoilers, this review will start to get fairly SPOILER HEAVY. So be aware if you’re looking to play this game and spoilers will diminish your enjoyment.

Characterization

Okazaki Kei is an incredibly complex individual that is more than he seems from the get go. Considering the common advice is to play Enomoto, Sasazuka, then Okazaki’s route in that order you can view it as the game ramping up the stakes. He’s a seemingly easy going guy housing dark secrets and a host of issues that would probably be tough for a therapist to work through in real life.

And I think the game does a very interesting job of portraying them! Kei balances a lot of charming moments with the more intense ones just enough to get you invested in him and wanting more. His infatuation with Ichika, and by consequence the issues of an insane martyr complex and a possessive streak crops up slowly enough and is properly explained enough that you don’t feel like it’s a case of her being a mary sue. Okazaki is insanely affectionate, and it feels natural to his character in such a way that you think he’d behave this way with anyone. Which makes genuinely becoming closer to him in the story so much more satisfying!

Okay I know I’m seriously gushing about him and his route certainly has its flaws, but I honestly suspended a lot of my disbelief for those flaws. That is to say, the whole way he solves his martyr complex kind of does rest on the power of heterosexual love. But the average otome enjoyer isn’t coming to the genre to see a plotline happen where a man gets six months of therapy.

Plot Relevance

Following up on Sasazuka dealing with a member of Adonis, Okazaki does the same thing. While a lot of his conflict is primarily focused inward, the game doesn’t deprive you of a glimpse into the greater narrative and in fact connects the two fairly easily.

On Ichika’s end, I have to say she did a fair bit of detective work here, most of it actually. Kei is firmly categorized as the brawn, a security guard, so a lot of times Ichika is bouncing ideas off him and taking initiative in the case. A breath of fresh air after dealing with her kind of being made out to be a bumbling idiot in Sasazuka’s route.

Now the greater plot, is um, a piece of work. Okazaki’s route connects his internal conflict with Adonis. We’re shown a flashback of an assassination attempt on the prime minister, and Okazaki mistakenly attempted to save someone instead of committing himself to the job. The consequences were drastic, his partner dying to keep him safe. Except he finds out soon after that same partner was a mole for Adonis, and had a big hand in the assassination attempt. Kei is so traumatized that he develops the martyr complex that I mentioned just a few paragraphs earlier! He latches onto Ichika, because he projects a standard that she’s worth dying for. The narrative makes it clear it’s not because it’s Ichika, but rather because she was in the right place at the right time.

So you expect a lot of the plot to be devoted to this right? Well, yes! But also no. Kei’s Adonis pair is a man who’s part of organized crime and was a former police officer. He grew increasingly dissatisfied with his job, being abused by his superior and constantly having his accomplishments stolen from him by said superior. As a result he grew so discontent with the police force he turned to crime. This is a very touchy and nuanced subject don’t you think? Exposing that police as an institution is rife with the ability for cops to be crooked, combined with them lording their authority over others.

Well the game handles that with all the gentleness of taking a bat to someone’s window. The greater plotline plays out like such a weird pro-cop PSA that I felt kind of disoriented over it. You obviously can’t easily forget that this game is about the police as much as it as about dating guys. But I felt like I was getting slapped in the face over and over with “You NEED cops to protect you. Cops must ALWAYS be there. Corruption is only a few bad apples. Cops are IMPORTANT.” Like, I thought I was playing an otome game. Not debating the police’s general usefulness. And its especially stupid because Kei isn’t even a sterotypical cop! He’s specifically trained in security detail, you know, GUARDING people. Not chasing down criminals! Why was I getting this force fed to me on his route of all places?!

Character Interaction

This is where no exaggeration, the route was saved for me. Kei was accompanied by a junior officer named Hideaki Yoshinari who is effectively his right hand man, and their interactions are as funny as they are endearing. This also gives Ichika a handy outside character to talk to. This, combined with her speaking to her friends in the police force means she gets a wealth of outside interaction until the narrative closes her off a bit. However there’s actually a good explanation this time! I mean, if you can take Kei effectively being the game’s yandere as a good explanation.

Kei and Ichika’s interactions evolve in such a way that are incredibly interesting and pretty well written to me. Kei starts out infatuated with the idea of her, and with the idea of dying for her. He flirts, he gets touchy feely, and he makes her heart flutter. But it’s all in service to himself, and his inner monologues don’t really shy away from that fact. I mean, eventually they do truly fall in love. But Ichika growing to like him and thus not checking out of their potential relationship when she does catch wind of his freaky martyr complex, instead helping him work through it is super nice. And just to mention, the CG below the plot relevance header is an awesome and tension filled moment. Definitely surprised me a little bit.

This is a side note, since I have nowhere else to put this but Kei’s um. Incredibly horny. I don’t know how else to put it, but we ramped up from rather vague innuendos and CGs that didn’t amount to much, to Kei openly talking about having sex with Ichika before the route’s climax (joke completely unintentional I swear). I mean this game is for adults, and every character is in their mid to late 20s, but still with how strong he came on I was shocked. I don’t think it helped that I’ve played pretty much every popular game Yuki Kaji has been in, and hearing the voice of the quintessential guy you call when you want him to play either screaming asshole or normal dude talk about how much he wants to have straight sex with you is crazy.

Final Thoughts

I am being completely serious when I say even though I am giving this route a low score that Kei is still perhaps one of my favorite characters in the game. It’s too bad that the greater plot that intersected with his internal conflict was 5+ hours of having copaganda shoved down my throat. I indicated when I started this review that I don’t have good opinions of the police due to the aforementioned issue of my being black, and police in every country have a very very dark history of abusing their power. So I’m not going to act like that didn’t severely lower my enjoyment.

I’m giving this route a 6.5/10.

But like I said, Kei’s an extremely compelling character. So if you include my completely loving him, maybe you can inflate that rating by about 2 points.

#hantome review

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lemonfezt · 4 years

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tohru, kyo and yuki analysis

my two cents (warning: dramatic post and analysis coming thru...) *I reread the manga for the 4th time and I still have feels to share.

I know how overrated this post is but this is the only manga wherein the trio: Tohru, Kyo and Yuki are absolute favorites of mine (when I read shoujo, I always have this habit of liking the secondary characters more than the mcs coz they can be annoying sometimes) but not once have I felt annoyed or bored by this three. (this is also one of the rare mangas wherein I love almost all the characters except ren and the abusive parents in this series and im forever neutral with akito).

One of the reasons that made me drawn to the manga is how Ms. Takaya gave us these ensemble of characters suffering and trying to cope the trauma that had developed (whether the inhumane and disturbing living experiences of the Sohmas; being bullied by classmates; losing a parent; abusive households; etc.) . Focusing on the two zodiac mcs, Yuki never experienced love from anyone before. He was isolated, abused, and tortured multiple times. The thing that gave him hope was when he helped Tohru on her way home. And even though he somehow lived away from the main house, the isolation caused him the scare to reveal his real self and has the tendency to mingle with others coz he’s ashamed so he put on this princely act. Similar to that, Kyo was given the false kind of love from his mother (whom I also felt sorry for because she was also a victim of abuse) and was estranged from his father. While he began to experience love from kazuma and briefly from kyoko, he was still isolated and treated poorly by others. To add fuel to the fire, the guilt he experienced when he saw an old companion of his died before his eyes became too much for him. Because of these, both guys hold a tremendous amount of self-hatred. I applaud the mangaka for putting two characters who hated each other but share a similar burden despite the different root of their suffering. Maybe that’s why I kinda get sad when some compare kyo and yuki. No, I’m not pertaining to who is their favorite character or who they relate more or who’s the best boi etc. coz that’s completely fine and normal. What I’m disappointed is when they compare the two to the extent of downgrading the other’s problems (I remember a post years ago that he hates Kyo coz he was a contributer to yuki’s trauma during childhood and the recent one was when my friend thinks that yuki’s too cagey considering that kyo experienced suffering a lot more so he thinks that yuki’s a bit of a drama queen...in which I happen to find incredulous and quite shallow tbh. Both of these characters have such brilliant and realistic character development with the help of their support systems.

Now, Tohru. For me, she’s a hit or miss character to many readers/viewers (she's not particularly a favorite by many) coz when I read posts on her character analysis, the majority loved her but some say she’s flat or too selfless to the point of being unrealistic, boring or too weak to stand up for herself and the infamous “Mary Sue”. I know everyone has opinions but I really felt the need to defend her coz I really have strong opinions about her. It takes a tremendous amount of bravery and courage to be able to smile like that and be positive when the most important person in your life is gone. Yes, you may look at her like she’s too much of those kind airheaded chicks you commonly see in shoujo manga but some fail to realize how much of a broken character she is. I feel like we're so used to a character with a tragic past to be represented as angsty or dark that will take a few chapter or arcs to thaw the ice but it's so refreshing to see a protagonist who chose a different approach and always looks at the bright side of things, which can be both inspiring and destructive. Behind that smile hides a deep sadness. She has that deep obsession with her mother to the point of copying her father’s language and antagonizing him because she thinks he will take away his mom (which hit me so hard). So while some think how unrealistic Tohru moved on with such a carefree and positive outlook, if you look at the entire manga, Tohru’s development is not just a “girl who has fallen in love”, or like her kindness came out of nowhere like some deredere characters. She, too is still dealing with a lot of grief and pain to the extent of having developed her fear of abandonment and after losing her mother, she made a vow to always keep her as a priority to avoid losing her in her memories. Her grieving process did not end at the start of the manga, in fact, you can see how she still hasn’t moved on from her mother (she’s still treated her like someone who is alive despite acknowledging that she died) Her kindness was due to her upbringing and not just she was designed that way. Tohru's approach of bringing hope to the Sohmas is because of the way she grew up in a loving environment and has so much love to give. It's also a way to keep the memory of her mother alive (some subtle hints that were overlooked was when she advises them with the wisdom kyoko taught her). Tohru's high emotional intelligence is her best asset and something that I applaud for throughout the whole manga. There was never a time wherein I thought that Tohru being the light to others was overdramatic and unrealistic. It speaks how she was raised with so much love and she spreads this unconditional love to them. So yeah, she’s not your typical shojo girl who is automatically an angel sent from above, she is just as broken as the Sohmas and other characters and the way how she developed to be more confident and sure of herself while remaining that shining tohru that we all love made her earn the spot as best shojo girl for me. I'm really emotional when I talk about Tohru or even other characters coz they speak such a personal level to me.

I also might do analysis on some characters but for now these three deserve love. Words won’t suffice how these three and fruits basket made an impact to me and I always re-read this during the lowest points of my life.

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#furuba spoilers #furuba #fruits basket #fruits basket 2020 #fruits basket spoilers #fruits basket 2019 #tohru honda #kyo sohma #yuki sohma #fruits basket analysis #furuba analysis

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from-the-shallows · 4 years

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Frozen and Fruits Basket: Love

EDIT: Some bits deleted when I was making edits to this post...sorry if the beginning didn’t make sense! Should be fixed now.

(lol I titled this like I’m pretending to write a legit essay I promise it’s all over the place lol)

I don’t really care for Frozen (although as narratively flawed as it is, I adore Frozen 2. It makes me so happy <3) for a lot of reasons. A big one is one of Elsa’s lines: “Love will thaw...Love. Of course! Love!” It always has rubbed me the wrong way, especially since Frozen tried to delve into the topics of anxiety, depression, isolation, etc. and the real traumatic effects they can have on people. Anna being isolated for most of her life without choice and so desperate for love and affection of any kind wants to marry the first man she meets. Elsa, afraid of herself and hurting others so much that she locks herself away, living in constant fear. Kristoff who, while he has a found family, is so lonely and out of touch that his only companion is a reindeer who he makes up thoughts for. Even Hans, who grew up practically unnoticed and unloved because he had so many older brothers (I really wish I could have learned more about his backstory tbh). They all had some serious stuff to work through. So this idea of her saying this, so on the nose, “OF COURSE! Love!! How could I not have known?!” Or the trolls: Kristoff is messed up in all sorts of ways but just love him and it’ll be fine! It’s such a simplified version of love. Like, here’s the thing. Love doesn’t fix things like anxiety, depression, and isolation. It doesn’t cure our traumas and erase all the mistrust from toxic relationships in our past. Love helps. Love is a tool to begin and sustain healing. But we also need to process feelings (talk to friends, get therapy if needed), reflect upon ourselves and our actions, forgive if that’s what we need to do in order to heal, the list goes on. And love can be a huge part of that. But, “Hey, I love you! Everything’s better!” just…it feels like a lie, you know? I wish we could have seen more development between Elsa and Anna and how they grew from their traumas. Which is probably why I like Frozen 2 so much. It’s not perfect, but they feel more like people I guess? I digress.

Here’s where Fruits Basket comes in. Spoilers under the cut if you haven’t read the manga.

A lot of people think Tohru is this godsend, the only person who can help the Sohma’s in their path to break away from the toxic family structure that’s filled with abuse and trauma. That she’s the only one who is destined to break this curse. And like…I was thinking about this. What the Sohma’s needed was an outside influence. A person not in the family circle who is open, kind, and accepting to break the cycle and begin the process of healing. There are lots of people in the world who possess these qualities that could have filled that role. She is not special in that regard. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Torhu, and she should be protected at all costs!! But we also shouldn’t put her on a pedestal, because then we fail to see that she is a good, loving person who will do anything for anyone—but who also as her own traumas. Her own heartbreak. Her own needs that she neglects. That she’s a whole, beautifully kind and beautifully flawed person. Not a miracle. Shigure, Momiji, Kyou, Rin, and Hiro are some of the few that recognize this. She is NOT the “Love fixes everything!” character. She is the character who listens. Who gives support and advice when needed. Who tells Kyou that it’s okay to hate Yuki because she knows that’s all he can handle right now. The character who also hates her dead father because he almost took her mother from her when he died. She’s nuanced. And after that kindness that some of the Sohma’s had never experienced before, after they were able to open up and see that there was a way to live better, a way to break free…They realized they could be loved and grow as people with the support they receive and the work that they choose to put in (another thing that bugs me, “Oh Tohru made Yuki grow!” Like yeah she did help but Yuki has been working his ass off to get where he is!). Tohru is special because she is the first for so many Sohma’s to give them any sort of kindness, comfort, love, empathy, etc. And she is treasured for that, as she should be. But there is so much more involved, you know? She is a catalyst. A piece. Not the whole puzzle.

I kind of lost track of this post, haha. Just some thoughts that have been on my mind recently. I guess it bums me out when people talk about Tohru like she’s a Mary Sue because she’s perfect, or like she’s the one responsible for breaking the curse (that would be time, it was already breaking before she even showed up), that she single-handedly healed every Sohma from their trauma, because she’s kind. It’s just not that simple. I don’t mean to downplay Tohru at all, kindness and love and support are vital parts of healing, I just think that it defeats the purpose of her character to treat her like a superhero or something. You know?

tl;dr Fruits Basket did healing from trauma better than Frozen. I know as a series Fruits Basket had more time but just conceptually it’s better and more satisfying.

#fruits basket #fruits basket spoilers #me #be kind to me #i'm tired and i ramble a whole bunch #sometimes it's hard for me to gather my own thoughts so #i hope this made a modicum of sense

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ffamranxii · 4 years

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I’m reading Fushigi Yuugi for the first time ever (my eternal love and obsession had always been based on the anime) and guys. I have two amazing observations.

1. Miaka Yuki is nowhere NEAR the annoying airheaded, dumbass, stupid Mary Sue the anime made her into her (so again, she’s still exactly like Usagi Tsukino lol)

2. I bought the new 3-in-1 omnibus volumes, so I just read one book, which was volumes 1-3 and ohhhhh my gooood Hotohori is even more heartbreakingly in love with Miaka in the manga than he is in the anime and I am already questioning who my OC Suzuka gets with (Tasuki) because Hotohori is just so good and pure and deserves all the good things T^T

#fushigi yuugi #oh my kokoro #my kokoro goes doki doki

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fandomshatewomen · 5 years

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People(who am I kidding, it's men) srsly think that Tohru frm Fruit Baskets is a "Mary Sue"? She doesn't have any powers per se, save for her kind attitude and hard background(losing her parents in tragic ways), plus isn't the entire Manga about breaking a curse with a rather adorable love story in it?

Fruits Basket is the cutest manga ever!!! I have to admit that as a young’un internalized sexism prevented me from reading it for a long time, but once I started I fell in love. The entire idea of a Mary Sue is ridiculous in general, but when a female main character is bashed as a Mary Sue for traits that in a male character wouldn’t cause anyone to blink an eye it just becomes too much.

Tohru Honda’s main characteristics are being Kind and Hardworking, this attracts people to her, but the thing is, the people who are attracted to her are those who typically haven’t know kindness in their lives, The Sohma’s live in an abusive and repressive environment and were taught to fear the outside world because they think any non-Sohma would turn them in or hurt them. Tohru shows that this is false, so of course Yuki and Kyo gravitate towards her. She’s also very determined.

How is this any different from Naruto? One of the most popular Manga characters of all time. He is kind, funny, and hardworking. Hinata fell in love with him because he never backed down. He made Gaara a nice person by showing him how alike they were, by being kind to him.

Luffy is a naturally kind, somewhat innocent person. His crew gathered around him because of this. He literally walked up to a TALKING SKELETON and was like “Join my crew” with zero hesitation. How is this any different from Tohru befriending her friends?

Friendly Female Characters are great, you guys are just mean- Mod C

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cvrsecaster · 5 years

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OOC

Alright. So I’m going to write a view on the newest episode. Bare with me here, and apologies in advance if it offends.

So, what I liked about today’s episode, Kyo. We got to see a lot of him, we get a feel of what he’s been going through, and how he wants acceptance. The flashbacks of him as a kid were tear jerking, and I’m glad he found people to love him, for him ((Ultimatley Tohru, and Kazuma))! I love how they had his true form talking! The original we just heard his thoughts in his head, but they gave his true form a voice! The Kyorhu moments were 👌🏻 A+ in this episode as well. It broke me when he sent Tohru flying, not once but twice! But she held on super strong, and I got super happy that we got to see how badass Tohru actually Is! That look of confidence she gives, just shows how much she cares for Kyo, and how she isn’t just your average Mary-sue type of characters in animes! The girl has guts.

Next what I didn’t like about the episode. Again this is just in my opinion! But, it was much too short for my liking. It felt like a 10 minute episode, and not 24 minutes! The original had a lot more to it, and yes I know the reboot follows the manga. But the 2001 series had a few parts that I absolutely miss! Akito in the original, gave me the chills, when he talked with Tohru on that giant tree, mentioning how she couldn’t save them, that she’d suffer with them. (( We also got to see Shigure break down)) Not to mention, Hanajima, and Uo supporting Tohru to go find Kyo? That part was heartbreaking, watching Hana just cry, and yell at Tohru to go to him, while Uo held her back! Last but not least Yuki, showing up at the end. To stop Kyo from running from this problem . Yuki showed some courage at the end, to help Tohru out on catching up to release her feels to Kyo.

Anywho, the series is amazing! I can’t wait for new animated content! The episode gets a 8/10 for me. This has been my review ❤️

#furuba #fruits basket #;ooc post #cvrsecaster #review

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murasaki-murasame · 5 years

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Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 Episode 11: “This Is A Wonderful Inn”

Funnily enough, an episode involving the characters literally soaking in a warm bath is exactly what I needed to watch after yesterday’s episode of Sarazanmai, lmao.

But this episode isn’t JUST pure fluff or anything. There’s a bit more going on with it.

Thoughts under the cut. [And spoiler warning for the whole manga]

Even though this episode ends at the same spot that episode 12 of the 2001 anime did, it ended up being a fair bit different in practice, as a natural consequence of how the last episode differed from it’s equivalent episode from the 2001 anime.

This episode adapted chapters 17 and 18 of the manga, whereas episode 12 of the 2001 anime just covered chapter 18, since it covered [parts of] chapters 15-17 in the episode before it. So instead of the hot springs trip being padded out into an entire episode, it only takes up the back half of this episode, and instead of being in the Valentine’s Day episode, Momiji’s story about the Foolish Traveler is in this episode. Which might be a bit odd to some people who just watched the 2001 anime, but this is a lot more faithful to the manga, and in terms of pacing I think it works a lot better.

For one thing, Valentine’s Day and White Day are a month apart, so the 2001 anime had to basically have a month-long time-skip in the middle of an episode since they crammed those two parts together, whereas in the reboot they’re separate episodes, so the jump forward in time is a lot more natural. And I feel like Momiji’s story has a bit more weight when it doesn’t get brought up in the exact same episode as Tohru buying everyone chocolate.

But even more than that, when I watched the 2001 anime for the first time a while back to prepare for the reboot, I thought that the hot springs episode was one of the slowest and most dull episodes of them all. It’s not a very eventful chapter to begin with, and padding it out into an entire episode was just . . . not great, especially since it involved them giving Ritsu’s mum like a thousand times more screen-time which pushed her way over the line into being obnoxious. Even in the reboot her whole brand of comedy still bugs me a bit, but at least there’s only, like, two scenes of it this time around.

And on the note of Ritsu’s mum, this episode reminded me that it’s kinda weird, in hindsight, how the English translation of the manga just has her straight up go ‘I hope you can meet my son one day, he’s a nice boy :)’, or something like that, considering that one way or another Ritsu’s gender is meant to be ambiguous. They even had Momiji refer to Ritsu with he/him pronouns in the scene afterward. I actually looked through both my English edition and my Japanese edition to make sure, and yeah the English version just adds in gendered pronouns and stuff that aren’t really meant to be there, and it leads to this really awkward situation later on where Tohru’s genuinely surprised to find out that Ritsu is a boy later on, which doesn’t make sense if you’re reading that translation, lol.

But anyway Ritsu as a character is a whooooole can of worms that I’ll get into when he comes up later on. If I remember right, I think the hint we got at the outline of season 1 from that one video Funimation posted implies that Ritsu’s intro will be in episode 17, so I guess that’ll be when that happens.

Anyway, even before the hot springs stuff, the first half of this episode is all about the Foolish Traveler story and how it relates to Tohru “self-sacrifice is my middle name :)” Honda.

It’s really funny watching so many new viewers be really thrown off by how dark the whole story is, and how it just ends with the traveler being a disembodied head with empty eye sockets. Though I think it feels especially creepy in this version of the story since it has such a unique and vivid animation style that really makes it feel like a dark fairy tale, which I loved.

Momiji pretty much spells it all out for the audience, but the whole point of the story, as it exists within the manga as a whole, is that while Tohru’s habit for self-sacrifice and selflessness is genuinely a character flaw that hurts her at times, it’s not something that should be exploited and belittled. It’s all about respecting how other people choose to express their kindness, and about pointing out how the people who choose to treat her badly are the ones who are in the wrong, not her.

I think the reboot in particular has been pretty good at portraying Tohru’s maturity and depth, but I hope this episode in particular makes it clear to new viewers that she’s not some cliche Mary Sue who’s super perfect and has nothing wrong with her. If anything, I’d say that part of the story as it goes on, even if it’s a small part, is about interrogating the way that we think about conventionally kind and feminine heroines in these sorts of stories. There’s a whole list of characters who have their opinion toward Tohru evolve as they get to know her and understand how she really is as a person, and the story also slowly peels back the layers on all of her repressed trauma and complexes that lead to her being this way in the first place.

It’s been really interesting how this reboot has inspired a lot of discussion from people who’ve been fans of the series for a decade or more, and how their feelings toward the series as a whole and Tohru as a character have evolved over the years. I’ve seen a lot of people talk about how they disliked Tohru when they were younger, because they thought she was stupid and annoying and overly perfect, but as they got older and looked back on the series with a more mature perspective, they realized how much of a genuinely good person she is. It’s kinda funny that stuff like this shows how different types of kindness can be misunderstood and disrespected by people [especially when it intersects with stuff like misogyny], considering that one of the first scenes that really shows Tohru’s true colours is when she talks about how her mother always told her that everyone has their own different type of kindness that they grow inside their hearts, and that those differences can lead to misunderstandings and conflict.

There also seem to be a lot of people who didn’t understand the point behind Momiji’s story when they were kids, and that’s basically the same thing. When you’re a kid, it’s easy to look at a person whose kindness is exploited by people with bad intentions, and to go ‘well they’re just an idiot who deserves what they get’. But that’s not really how it works.

It’s worth noting that in an interview you can find in the last volume of Yen Press’ collector’s edition of the manga, Takaya pointed out that after hearing Momiji’s story, Kyo decided to stop calling Tohru an idiot. It’s a really subtle detail that I know I definitely didn’t notice the first time around, but it makes sense, and it’s really cute. He’s such an incredibly Good Boy [tm] who’s trying his best to slowly improve himself and be kinder in his own ways.

Also the scene with them on the balcony with the sheets flying in the air and the neat direction trick where the shot of Tohru gets covered up by one of the sheets blowing in the wind and then when it moves away it shows Kyo was CINEMATIC POETRY and I am not emotionally prepared for when a very similarly framed scene is gonna happen way way later in the reboot.

The inn sequence was really fun and cute, but I’m really glad it was just half the episode rather than the entire thing. It’s not really enough material to carry an entire episode on it’s own.

It’s fun to watch new viewers get into legit shipping wars with the whole Tohru/Kyo/Yuki love triangle, lol. These early episodes are really leaning into the Tohru/Yuki ship-tease. I guess it goes to show how much they’re getting invested in the reboot, at least. I wonder how many new Tohru/Yuki shippers are gonna get disappointed over how their whole deal develops, especially after this episode.

I have a loooot of thoughts about the whole Tohru/Yuki situation in general, and it’s a bit too early to really bother getting into it, but I at least wanna say that it’s kinda funny seeing some Tohru/Yuki shippers who’ve read the manga be like ‘I’ll never be able to accept the idea that he just saw her as a mother figure! He was definitely crushing on her!’, since my opinion on the matter is somehow both more or less the same and also the exact opposite of that. Let’s just say that I have a lot of thoughts about Yuki’s performative attraction toward Tohru.

Anyway, I think that’s about all there is to say. Though I still think I ended up saying a lot more than I expected to. This wasn’t exactly the most eventful episode ever, but it was really fun and relaxing. It was a pretty necessary breather episode to have between episode 10, which was a fair bit heavier on the dark and worrying foreshadowing than most new fans probably expected, and the upcoming episode 12, which is probably gonna REALLY catch people off guard with how dark it’ll be, considering how well the reboot’s handled it’s more dramatic moments.

#murasaki rambles #fruits basket #this has been your weekly reminder that Tohru is the bestest of girls :)

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uten4 · 6 years

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Oh my god. I just realized that Akise is a Mary Sue. The pattern of him being perfect is only really broken in the Redial anime-- too bad it was done so poorly. :/

Edit: Actually I forgot two things!

1. Sometime Akise goes yandere for Yukiteru. For instance, in the manga he allowed Mao and Kousaka to be killed so Yuki (THEIR KILLER) would live.

2. His level of apathy is truly incredible. He wasn’t planning on turning in Hinata’s dad (a serial killer). Not to mention that he just collaborated with a known terrorist for convenience. And in Mosaic we learn that when he first met Minene, he knew she was a terrorist but he didn’t turn her in because he pitied her and, more importantly, he wanted to make her admit that festivals are fun. It was easy to forget this one because Mirai Nikki treats terrorism and mass murder like a ~Quirky Hobby~ :)

#i love my flawless son!#mirai nikki #akise aru #op

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rosalind-hawkins · 6 years

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Anime questions ask: 8, 9, 20, 22, 25, 26, 34, 35, 37

I answered 9, 22, and 35 previously, so I’ll only answer the others here.

8: Who is your favorite anime character?8: You’re asking way too much of me..... I have so many favorites... Okay, I’ll answer who my favorite female anime character is, because I’m very picky with female characters. Juliet from Romeo x Juliet. She’s a strong character while still being vulnerable; she’s likable, but not perfect; she’s empathetic and seeks to understand people, and knows that the answers in life don’t come easily; she’s undergoes some really great development, struggles with some really significant moral/philosophical questions, questions that anybody would struggle with; as an MC, she’s neither a Mary Sue nor OP; she’s relatable, but at the same time, feels like her own distinct person; everything from her design to her voice acting to her character arc(s) was done exceptionally well with her. I have no problems with her as a character. 1000% approval from me (and I never do that for female characters, so you know she must be pretty great).

20: What is your favorite adventure anime?20: ... Depends on what counts as an adventure anime?

25: What is an anime you regret watching?25: The one I regret most is one that I have decided to forget about entirely, because I will never admit to having watched both parts of that horrific thing. *ahem* Having said that, Kirepapa was trash. Horrible, awful, trash from every perspective. It was mildly enjoyable from an ironic/sarcastic standpoint, but I’m not rushing to rewatch it anytime soon. I feel like there should be something else that I regret watching, but I can’t remember it right now...?

26: You get to have [1] anime character as your waifu/husbando in real life, who do you choose?26: I could legitimately choose any of a couple dozen different characters; this is cruel and unusual punishment.

34: Have you ever watched an anime only because you liked a specific character?34: Yes, actually. Vampire Knight was something I only watched because I adored Zero. I couldn’t stand Yuki and I gradually came to detest Kaname, but I loved Zero and he deserves better! That said, the world-building and aesthetics and music in that show are all really good; I just take issue with some of the characters and the ending of the manga.

37: Name a popular anime you love37: That depends on your definition of popular. Yu-Gi-Oh! is probably the only true answer to that question, though. ;P

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