Fruits Basket Love Post, part 3
Aug. 30th, 2009 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ingvildIn the last post, I talked about Tohru's hat, and how its story is picked up at different in the story. Today I mention something similar, but with many other things. Spoilers abound.
Here's the thing that vowed me so thoroughly about Fruits Basket and made me wonder how Natsuki Takaya's brain actually works: There are no loose ends in this story. Nothing is ever introduced without getting an explanation later, and few things are introduced without having been foreshadowed earlier.
Listing examples might take all night, so I'll stick with things that are foreshadowed in the first volume.
1. Tohru admires Shigure's Zodiac figures, and mentions that he doesn't have the cat. At the school trip to Kyoto in volume 13, Tohru buys a Zodiac set for herself, and makes a cat out of papier-mache.
2. Tohru likes the cat the best - guess who she ends up with?
3. Hanajima detects strange "waves" from Yuki - explained later, when he transforms.
4. The Yuki fanclub won't let anyone near him - this shows up several times later, and we also learn that one of Yuki's biggest issues is loneliness.
5. "You make your own luck" - breaking the curse seemed to be about making opportunities for people.
6. The Zodiac people attract the animal they're cursed by - shows up several times, but seems like just a cute gimmick until we see that the birds fly away from Kureno.
7. The hat.
8. Yuki wonders what kind of person Tohru's mother was - we find out she was a former gang member.
9. Mention of memories getting erased, and how Yuki and everyone can't go against Akito.
10. "Do you get that much enjoyment out of playing with people's lives!?" - to Shigure, and yes, he really does.
11. If Kyo was training in the mountains, why is his guard so bad - why can't he hold his own at all? But in volume 21:"Yeah. I sure as hell wasn't training up there."
12. Shigure: "What would you do if a girl told you she liked you?" Kyo: "I guess I'd ask her if she was sane." Kyo does ask Kagura why she likes him, and Tohru if she's stupid.
13. Hints that both Yuki and Kyo are envious of one another. This is explored later on, but comes to a head in volume 21, when they both yell "I wanted to be you!"
14. Three girls in the Zodiac.
15. Kagura mentions Kyo's "true form" - he stops her before she can say anything more. Also, heartbreakingly, Kagura says she'll stay by him if he turns into his true form - but she didn't, back when they were kids.
16. Kyo tells Tohru to complain, once in a while. This is a common thing with them, where he tries to get her to share her burdens (and she eventually does).
17. Oh, and I forgot, because it's so subtle: Kyo's prayer beads around his wrist. He's never drawn without them, but we don't learn what they're for until volume 6.
And that was the first volume of manga. What all of these things are foreshadowings of is revealed at different parts of the narrative - Yuki's strange waves are explained later in the same chapter, Kyo's lack of skills despite supposedly having spent four months training is explained very near the end - and other mysteries are introduced along the way, but they're all explained in the end.
Here's the thing that vowed me so thoroughly about Fruits Basket and made me wonder how Natsuki Takaya's brain actually works: There are no loose ends in this story. Nothing is ever introduced without getting an explanation later, and few things are introduced without having been foreshadowed earlier.
Listing examples might take all night, so I'll stick with things that are foreshadowed in the first volume.
1. Tohru admires Shigure's Zodiac figures, and mentions that he doesn't have the cat. At the school trip to Kyoto in volume 13, Tohru buys a Zodiac set for herself, and makes a cat out of papier-mache.
2. Tohru likes the cat the best - guess who she ends up with?
3. Hanajima detects strange "waves" from Yuki - explained later, when he transforms.
4. The Yuki fanclub won't let anyone near him - this shows up several times later, and we also learn that one of Yuki's biggest issues is loneliness.
5. "You make your own luck" - breaking the curse seemed to be about making opportunities for people.
6. The Zodiac people attract the animal they're cursed by - shows up several times, but seems like just a cute gimmick until we see that the birds fly away from Kureno.
7. The hat.
8. Yuki wonders what kind of person Tohru's mother was - we find out she was a former gang member.
9. Mention of memories getting erased, and how Yuki and everyone can't go against Akito.
10. "Do you get that much enjoyment out of playing with people's lives!?" - to Shigure, and yes, he really does.
11. If Kyo was training in the mountains, why is his guard so bad - why can't he hold his own at all? But in volume 21:"Yeah. I sure as hell wasn't training up there."
12. Shigure: "What would you do if a girl told you she liked you?" Kyo: "I guess I'd ask her if she was sane." Kyo does ask Kagura why she likes him, and Tohru if she's stupid.
13. Hints that both Yuki and Kyo are envious of one another. This is explored later on, but comes to a head in volume 21, when they both yell "I wanted to be you!"
14. Three girls in the Zodiac.
15. Kagura mentions Kyo's "true form" - he stops her before she can say anything more. Also, heartbreakingly, Kagura says she'll stay by him if he turns into his true form - but she didn't, back when they were kids.
16. Kyo tells Tohru to complain, once in a while. This is a common thing with them, where he tries to get her to share her burdens (and she eventually does).
17. Oh, and I forgot, because it's so subtle: Kyo's prayer beads around his wrist. He's never drawn without them, but we don't learn what they're for until volume 6.
And that was the first volume of manga. What all of these things are foreshadowings of is revealed at different parts of the narrative - Yuki's strange waves are explained later in the same chapter, Kyo's lack of skills despite supposedly having spent four months training is explained very near the end - and other mysteries are introduced along the way, but they're all explained in the end.
