#let's see how many 'I thought this was a photo' comments I get XDD | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

onceandfuturekitty · 5 years

Text

Meditation on Hatori, Snow, and Dark Backgrounds in Fruits Basket: Part 2

Part 1 < Previous Part | Next Part >

Like before, Fruits Basket angst below the cut. Unlike the previous part, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AS WELL below the cut for anime-onlys and people who haven’t read volumes 5 or 10 of the manga yet.

From last time, we know that snow set against a dark background signals Hatori/Kana angst and pain.

Here’s another example I found of Hatori’s thoughts on the situation with Kana, from volume 5 chapter 26. This lines up with season 1 episode 15 of the 2019 anime reboot, where Hatori likewise says that he doesn’t want to see Kana again, but that he simply wants (and prays for) her to be happy. (This man is SO SELFLESS, WHY??! ;_; T__T)

However, his reasoning for why he doesn’t want to see her again is also important, and does not quite line up with the anime reboot version. I know some people thought the anime explained this better, but I think the version in the manga ties way better to later events. We learn that Kana’s heart would grow ill (and that the ill condition of Kana’s heart is linked to our danger sign of white-snow-on-a-black-background), and that, similar to a sickness, that illness would spread. Stay tuned for why that’s relevant.

In the meantime, Ayame comments in the same chapter that Hatori seems to be the only one left behind, taking on all of the pain from Hatori and Kana’s ~break-up.

But Hatori’s not the only one left behind….

That’s right, my friends!

I GET TO FANGIRL ABOUT MAYU-CHAN-SENSEI THIS TIME!!!! and talk about the angst in her life. But also fangirl about my fave!!

Actually, in an interesting sort of irony compared to the scene in manga chapter 26, Shigure tells Mayuko in manga chapter 56 a) that she’s the only one left behind (of her, Kana, and Hatori) and b) that Hatori’s dating again—two intentional, calculated lies—but in doing so, really emphasizes some of her most positive qualities: her loyalty, determination, selflessness, and strength.

(Also interesting: Ayame lied unintentionally in chapter 26 by speaking a bit flamboyantly, aggressively, and perhaps carelessly [it makes me a bit sad because, come on Ayame, you and Mayu-kun are friends!! She’s the one who accidentally let slip about parent-teacher conferences, so you must talk to each other at least sometimes!], whereas Shigure lied deliberately in chapter 56, but did so very calmly and intentionally.)

But getting back to my main point, like Hatori, Mayu also feels pained at the thought of Hatori and Kana’s suffering and unhappiness: in addition to her thoughts three pictures above (”If there was a way to bring back the happiness between you two, then without a doubt, I would have tried my best…to find it,” emphases added.),

she starts crying after it hits her how happy Hatori and Kana used to be but now Kana’s forgotten it all.

Moreover…

(on top of the reminder that she just wants Kana, her best friend, to be happy,) YES, MAYU’S MEMORIES ARE ALSO OVERLAID WITH SNOW SET ON A DARK BACKGROUND. UH-OH.

Like, I love hate love how Takaya-sensei doesn’t even have to put words in that middle panel. You just know what happened off-screen at that point, between the right and left panels O.O and it wasn’t good….

On a very temporarily more optimistic note, I’m really happy that Mayu convinced Shigure to sneak her in so that she could visit her (probably really isolated and lonely and also DEVASTATINGLY guilty-feeling) best friend!! So devoted ;_;

Though, that contrast between the Kana of the right panel and the Kana of the left panel…yikes ://// It’s very clear that she’s not doing so well. (random side note: I wanna know who put the flowers next to Kana!! Was it Hatori? Aghhhhh that’s so cute and sweet but also painful)

Speaking of not doing so well…

…remember ^this?

Guess who else gets depicted with that kind of snow.

Yep, that’s right. Kana also gets shown with the fairy light-like kind of snow set against a gray background. But here, the snow looks much less like nice fairy lights.

No, here, it looks like Kana’s infected.

Kana’s covered with circular dots that look similar to chicken pox, her speech bubbles have irregular shapes, she’s looking at her hand like “How could my hand have done such a thing?” (as if she’s the one responsible for Hatori’s eye injury), her face is shadowed, she keeps breaking off her speech and repeating words…

As Hatori put it in chapter 12: “It was the curse.”

It’s a very interesting way of depicting the effects of the curse and who’s gotten infected by this particular manifestation of it. In the above picture, we see that Kana continues to be infected by it.

But we see that Mayu, too, gets transferred some of that hurt and pain (right hand panels—and why wouldn’t she? Her best friend is miserable, and she doesn’t know how to fix that, and she just wanted her to be happy, but that’s not happening), and that the effects in fact expand to take on their surroundings as well, despite their being inside a building.

Hmmmm. Let’s look back at Hatori’s thoughts from the first picture: “Regret and self-pity won’t leave, slowly spreading bigger, like a stain[...]it would tire Kana’s heart,” (emphases added).

That is exactly what is happening above.

And that is why I think the manga version did it better, and why I really admire Hatori-san’s ability to read situations and people. (He can see through many of Shigure’s shenanigans, he advises Ayame on how to get through to Yuki but also to be patient, he brilliantly and succinctly explains what the heck was up with Hiro acting like an irritating bratty punk to Tohru, and so on and so forth.)

Connecting back to my original conception of those circles set against gray backgrounds as snow, perhaps what Hatori thought about being willing to be surrounded by snow for the rest of his life makes more sense now. He doesn’t want anyone else to be turned into snow or be frozen by surrounding snow like he is/has been. But if Kana’s condition had continued deteriorating, like it was above, he would not have been able to stop that freezing infection from continuing to spread. (I can see why he decided to erase her memories of him. Even though that thought really hurts.)

And geez, how sadly ironically fitting that the snow take on an illness-type quality, when both Hatori and Kana, probably the two main victims of it in the manga, are in the medical field. As Hatori’s character description in the Tokyopop manga translations reads: “The only thing he can’t cure is his broken heart.” (Ow. Whyyyyy.)

This reminds me of another Tumblr post someone made about how the Sohma curse negatively affected so many people’s lives, not just those of the Sohma’s, and these pictures (the one above and the one below) give some of the best proof of that.

Snow. Taking over almost everything.

What struck me most about this page is how the snow wasn’t just in the center dark black panel, but how it was dotted all over the right-hand lighter background panels as well, showing how the curse and the resultant unhappiness of Kana and Hatori have infected and affected others’ lives as well. Mayu and Shigure are suffering, too—they want their best friends to be happy, which evidently isn’t happening at this point. Memory-Shigure even looks mildly concerned for Mayu in the bottom-most panel on the right, which is when you know things are really bad.

However, the left-hand panel is brighter again. The memory erasure’s happened, then. And as present-day Shigure helpfully reminds Mayu later in chapter 56, the temporary fix [for Kana at least] gets a more permanent one now that she’s married to someone who definitively is not Hatori.

Shigure then tells Mayu that Hatori’s also moved on and healed—which, though it’s not true, does encourage her to reflect upon what she wants (not someone else—herself, being selfish for once; huh, it’s like a meaner version of when Kyo told Tohru it was fine for her to be selfish every once in a while too), and seems to help her decide that, yes, she does want to search for her own happiness now, and no, it won’t be with Shigure or out of loneliness this time.

(Mayu, you’re so strong. You go, girl.)

Actually, the scenes with Mayu and Kana and the infectious snow/sign of curse-unhappiness were the reasons why I wanted to make this series of posts in the first place. I noticed after like my tenth reread of chapters 56 and 57 how similar some of those scenes were to those in chapters 10 and 12…and the rest, my friends, is history. xD If this wasn’t too angsty for you, there’ll be more next time (and probably the time after that, too)!

Finally, I was floored by the sheer amount of Mayu love and support for my previous long photo-prolific Mayu post, so I decided to make another plz-just-help-Mayu+others-already meta analysis post. xDD Thank you all for your support. *bows* Hope to see you for part 3 as well! (That part should probably hopefully have more Hatori in it as well....Mayu kinda took over this one, but I’m totally fine with that! ^-^)

45 notes · View notes

icypantherwrites · 6 years

Text

Voltron Season Seven: Thoughts and Reactions

As you can see, I am out of hibernation mode ;p Just finished up a bit ago.

My thoughts in no particular order on season seven. Prepare for a few unintelligible spazzes and random questions that like, why were these not answered? Oh Voltron writers, you and your plot holes. Tagged with all of my previously mentioned ones so here goes!

Okay, so Adam? As much as I didn’t care for how he wasn’t supporting Shiro, I was excited by his role and inclusion in the story! Also, haha, I laughed because I named the one character in my Keith and Shiro backstory Adam and he’s a pilot too, haha. They definitely aren’t the same one because mine was a jerk, but I love that somehow I still got that name. (or maybe that’s how he and Shiro got to talking after Shiro confronts him for what he said to Keith? hehe. Look at me ;p)

But then. When they were mobilizing to fight the first wave I’m like, is Adam a pilot? And then we saw him and then his ship blinked out… gosh. Shiro at the wall with his name broke my heart. There’s a lot of regret there. Definitely something I wish had been further explored, but I’m not surprised they didn’t. There’s a lot that has been skipped over already.

So… Shiro has a disease that gets brought up once, never impacted him at all in the first six seasons and… never mentioned again? Er… what was the point of that exactly? (clone body not have the illness?)

Oh baby Keef. I cheered when he punched Griffin. Glad to see Griffin has grown up since then. But uh, can someone confirm for me the new cadet pilot with the glasses. Is her name… Wasabi? Usagi? And while I adore my Keith backstory this one was endearing too. And his dad died in a fire? Gosh. I had a feeling after the fireman refs but to hear it confirmed. Sad.

Where did Axca go? Like, she left the base with the Paladins and they have no resources to provide her a ship. So…? I’m curious with her popping up at the end behind Krolia and Keith at the grave… interesting. Once it was disproved that she wasn’t Keith’s twin I thought she might be Krolia’s sister but no mention when they met so… hmm. Curious and curioser. (does she like Keith? Hehe ♥ I admit I think they’re pretty asthecially pleasing together and I love Axca’s new design.)

Veronica is a fucking badass. As soon as she showed up on screen I’m like, that’s Lance’s sister. My sister was like, no, and I’m like, uh, her name is Veronica, coloring is the same including the blue eyes and in that really crappy family projection photo from season one there was a relative in a military uniform. Damn, I love her so much. Almost cried when I thought she died (twice xD). Also, her teasing Lance about Allura and her little smirk smile there? I died. So fucking cute.

This is my personal preference but I did not care for the game show episode at all, nor the “reason” behind it. There were a couple cute moments in it (all of them choosing each other to leave and I winced when Lance kept being called the dumb one and could taste the angst) but overall, my least favorite filler. And this coming from someone who adores game shows xD

The “lost in space” episode also wasn’t high on my list. I loved the idea of it and them forming a circle (that was so flipping cute) to stay together with the check ins (and a note to Keith and Krolia’s time together) but the words exchanged? I get it and didn’t mind but they never *really* resolved it. Not really. And some pretty hurtful things were said. Also, the fact they have almost fatal oxygen depletion based upon Keith’s indicator and their weary lines under their eyes, but then they literally bounce back full power to fight? Just throw the realism out the window. Just like the castle of lions losing all oxygen in a matter of hours two seasons ago xDD

How have we ever survived without the space wolf? Seriously? I’m bummed his name is not Yorak but I’ll take Cosmo. Very cute! Love how keith is waiting for the wolf to name himself. Oh, sweetie.

The Blade of Marmora luring with the Druids was delicious. Loved that bit. Glad Kolivan made it out. Wasn’t surprised when Krolia left the main cast; it was getting crowded and given that the writers have difficulty managing characters on a regular basis at times the more the less merrier.

On that note, loved Romelle in the first episode but she practically disappeared for the rest of the season. Disappointed. Thought her and Hunk were hilarious.

Same token bummed Matt was offscreen for most of it. But again, see above.

The three year time gap was interesting. Never really explained well either; pretty much I think a way for earth to get completely overrun by Galra. On that note, loved all of the Sam episodes, think the new pilots are pretty neat additions. Particularly love… Usagi? Wasabi? Kinkade too; a man of few words and I adore his name. Iverson too was a pleasant surprise and I loved his apology to Keith later and his constant backing of Sam. Also, Collen is a badass too. I do have to give credit to the writers; they make some amazingly strong female characters and it’s such a breath of fresh air (from watching YYH it was a stark reminder how things have changed over the years in terms of representation across the board on many things).

But one woman I did not care for was the Admiral. Boo hiss. I also hate that I called her turning on them as she was adamant throughout the entire thing about protecting earth in “her way” and I was waiting for this move. She did save the Paladins lives but she endangered them in the first place so… I acknowledge her desire to protect earth but am disappointed in how her character was played out. (and honestly, why the fuck would she trust Sendak to keep up his end of the deal? Why? Bit of weaker writing there).

Speaking of characters… where’s Haggar? At the end with the giant robot my sister and I were arguing who was driving it; I was Team Lotor and she was Team Haggar. Nada to both of us. Very interesting with that result too; how was one Altean doing all that? Hmmm. And with the colony missing something is definitely up.

The Hunk family feels I was not expecting and loved them. I was glad he didn’t endanger the team anymore after he found his parents were not accessible, but dios I felt so bad. It’s hard especially to see Lnace and Pidge with their families and he with none. Loved his and Keith’s moment too. ♥ Keith was particularly awkwardly sweet and I loved it.

And Lance’s family! Gosh. Him hugging his niece and nephew broke my heart and then his being mobbed by his family stomped it into the ground with love. So. Beautiful. My boy has his family and I am so so happy.

Speaking of the families! Haha, I’m excited that I was write in that both Lance and Hunk’s families are stateside and I am going with my headcanon of Arizona (Garrison location) given how they were *right there* to be rescued. My childhood besties idea for Lance and Hunk when Lance immigrated over is still well and strong!!!

Back to Lance. I was so so so excited to see him getting some really nice shots and pieces in this season. The sword (c’mon broadsword, let’s see you come back too), the giant cannon gun, the amazing sniper shots (hoshit don’t get me started on that part, I love good sniper cover and damnnn ♥) his attempts to seat everyone in Lions (whoops xD), his stepping up to really support Keith and be second in command... just so much good stuff for my boy ♥ I was freaking out when Red didn’t come right away in the summoning thing after he and Veronica went under fire, but I’m like, Red always does things differently. And then she came in like ajdfkajfklda right when Lance was closing his eyes and thinking it was the end and just, so good. Great timing on that part.

Shiro’s new arm… loved the angst and pain as first one didn’t calibrate xD I’m terrible. I will admit I’m not sold on the design; very bulky and I dislike that it’s not attached; that’s not a proper hug! But I am happy he has one so will go with that.

Er, this is getting long. Last few.

How was Shiro breathing in space in fight against sendak? Someone, please tell me. But also yesss, loved that the two of them had a final fight. Brings back memories. When Keith saved him I really wanted a throwback to the “as many times as it takes” but alas, no go.

On Sendak… is he the main big bad? He sure has quite the Galra fleet. How do Ezor and Zethrid’s turn to piracy factor in? Was expecting something else with Lotor given their mentions of him early on. Is space just one giant war out there right now? We never really found out any details and here I was expecting Axca to fill us in.

The Atlas turning into its own Voltron was super cool. Loved all of the fight scenes although I admit I get bored with all the constant blasts so would have liked those shortened down and more character stuff, but it is a show geared for little kids so… boom boom pow.

The very end speech via Shiro had me on my toes as I didn’t think any of our team died but I was legit slowly starting to panic that somehow the new cadets were going to be the new Voltron pilots because ours were unavailable Phew, not the case! Loved the little hospital scenes popping around, particularly Lance’s nephew wearing his helmet and then Keith waking up to Krolia there. Oh, and Matt getting a hug from his mom! (and that ponytail! ♥ I love guys with a nice ponytail, mm, weakness).

Overall giving this season a 7/10 rating. Not my lowest, definitely not my highest. Very much appreciated though having a longer season to watch.

If you have thoughts feel free to comment on the post! I will not be posting any asks with spoilers in the ask until next Saturday though so best way to get a response is comment here. What did you all think of the season?

#Voltron #VLD #Season Seven #Voltron Spoilers #VLD7 #Voltron7 #Voltron 7 #VLD Season 7 #Reaction #Thoughts #This is a giant wall of thoughts #I feel like I'm missing some but that's what I get for writing it all once I finished #I miss my chromebook #Lance #The Lance parts made me very happy #Lance Lance Lance

72 notes · View notes