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I'm leisurely viewing Fruits Basket the anime, having read vol 1 of the manga in the three (only) languages I can read, which is something of a record. What's more I've seen eps 1-12 in order, also something of a record if you know how I used to get my anime.
Bref: my sister's trader would tape anything he thought might interest her including reruns, and send her the tapes at random. Thus I saw chunks of Escaflowne in pick-up-sticks order (aka the I Ching method: drop the eps on the floor and start with whichever is uppermost) until Greer sent me it properly; and chunks of Evangelion ditto. My sister has no interest in Eva but Shuzo obviously thought she should, and would send her duplicate eps from different reruns. I formed no desire to see the whole thing, which struck me as ridiculously overrated. Yes, even though I saw the final episodes. Mecha and insecure males and what's so ground-breaking about *that*?
However the rental place is missing vols 3 & 4 of FB, so I shall now switch into my usual WTF's going on mode. Which is also fine by me. I hope to go from the present pleasant comedy into the extreme nastiness everyone talks about. If I were younger I'd be itching to write the Sohma household, if only because of the house itself. (Well, and for all the other reasons. Dysfunctional families rule OK.) I don't keep up with the fandom so I've no idea what's transpired manga-wise since the Awful Revelation. One doesn't see much of Akito in eps 1-12, but myself I think if I'd been a fan I might have cheered at the news. Or cheered until a little cold reflection suggested that vestigial secondary sexual characteristics are not conclusive proof of what a character has between their legs, let alone which chromosomes they have. (And from the scan, man, they looked *very* vestigial. Couldn't understand what the fuss was about until someone said aloud what they were supposed to be.)
Tohru is so eminently likable though, that one expects her to triumph even in the face of extreme nastiness. I've no idea why she isn't insupportable except that the manga has its tongue slightly but affectionately in its cheek when it regards her genkiness and enthusiasm and determination to ganbaru despite all. I never get the impression that the series intends Tohru to be prescriptive or a role-model. She's more Mother Theresa-ish: someone you admire but wouldn't think of emulating except in minor ways, because she's basically... a different order of person from us. (Except that it's hard to like Mother Theresa and very easy to like Tohru.) Tohru's one of those talismanic people that congenital melancholics and malcontents (and realists too I suppose) like to have around because they demonstrate that, however gloomy the world looks like to us, for some people the sun still shines, and so sunshine is possible.
Bref: my sister's trader would tape anything he thought might interest her including reruns, and send her the tapes at random. Thus I saw chunks of Escaflowne in pick-up-sticks order (aka the I Ching method: drop the eps on the floor and start with whichever is uppermost) until Greer sent me it properly; and chunks of Evangelion ditto. My sister has no interest in Eva but Shuzo obviously thought she should, and would send her duplicate eps from different reruns. I formed no desire to see the whole thing, which struck me as ridiculously overrated. Yes, even though I saw the final episodes. Mecha and insecure males and what's so ground-breaking about *that*?
However the rental place is missing vols 3 & 4 of FB, so I shall now switch into my usual WTF's going on mode. Which is also fine by me. I hope to go from the present pleasant comedy into the extreme nastiness everyone talks about. If I were younger I'd be itching to write the Sohma household, if only because of the house itself. (Well, and for all the other reasons. Dysfunctional families rule OK.) I don't keep up with the fandom so I've no idea what's transpired manga-wise since the Awful Revelation. One doesn't see much of Akito in eps 1-12, but myself I think if I'd been a fan I might have cheered at the news. Or cheered until a little cold reflection suggested that vestigial secondary sexual characteristics are not conclusive proof of what a character has between their legs, let alone which chromosomes they have. (And from the scan, man, they looked *very* vestigial. Couldn't understand what the fuss was about until someone said aloud what they were supposed to be.)
Tohru is so eminently likable though, that one expects her to triumph even in the face of extreme nastiness. I've no idea why she isn't insupportable except that the manga has its tongue slightly but affectionately in its cheek when it regards her genkiness and enthusiasm and determination to ganbaru despite all. I never get the impression that the series intends Tohru to be prescriptive or a role-model. She's more Mother Theresa-ish: someone you admire but wouldn't think of emulating except in minor ways, because she's basically... a different order of person from us. (Except that it's hard to like Mother Theresa and very easy to like Tohru.) Tohru's one of those talismanic people that congenital melancholics and malcontents (and realists too I suppose) like to have around because they demonstrate that, however gloomy the world looks like to us, for some people the sun still shines, and so sunshine is possible.
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In retrospect Evangelion is overrated, if only because it's pretty much been canonized, when anyone who thinks they can get the so-called symbolism or indeed plot to make logical sense is deluding themselves. But at the time there was nothing like it to mess with one's head, especially in the Western anime fandom. One had to wait two years for Utena to come along.
(Also the final episodes are awful, a complete joke.)
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