Fruits Basket: Vol. 18 (of 23)

[timepiececlock]

I just finished reading Vol. 18 (chapter 107), which brings me to nearly where I left off the scans. I am still confused about some chronology stuff-- when in the timeline Rin was pushed out the window, and when she was locked up. And when, in between those two (or before?) she was sent by Ren to find Akito's "treasure". Although I love this series to death (it's one of the few, few manga I regularly read and the only one I dump money into), I think the anime handled chronology of events a lot better, for its part. Usually I know what's going on emotionally (PAIN!), and emotional themes are what really count for FB, but I can't always track events linearly. Which makes me feel like I'm missing subtleties in conversation.

Chapter 107 made so much more sense now that I'm reading the official version. So much more! I love it when Shigure and Rin are talking about Ren, and Shigure says she was lying and using Rin, and he says (typing quote directly):

"You don't have to believe me. But I do know Ren-san better than you do. We're good friends. Really good friends. ...Really good friends."

Shigure does "the jerk" so well. And I like how they're handling him in the translation, inasmuch as I can tell. I've rapidly fallen in fan-love with the idea of Akito/Shigure as the never ending cycle of miserable love. It's my BadLoveOTP. I almost want them to be happy, but I don't see how they possibly could be without all of them being free from the curse including Akito, and at this point I think Akito will die before being set free. And they can't even be happy now, because Akito is crazy and additionally she'll never truly forgive Shigure for sleeping with Ren and Shigure will never forgive Akito for choosing Kureno over him...and then keeping Kureno around for the next couple years and throwing it in Shigure's face. Which of course makes Shigure want to be nasty back. ::claps excitedly:: It's so terrible! I love it. I remember back in the golden early volumes of FB when I was wondering who I could ship Shigure with. Then the manga gifted us with this twisted little incestuous clusterfuck of hearts and loyalties, which is way better than trying to imagine shipping Shigure with his editor.

I am hopeful that the final volumes of FB won't take too terribly long. At this rate they should be out by the end of the year. Which seems a criminally long time, but at least its happening. Onto volume 19, which has FIVE whole new chapters I've never even seen the scans for. Huzzah!

Comments

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

(May as well comment here instead of on the other post. ^^)

Some of the chronology you're wondering about is a "take your best guess!" kinda thing, but here's my extrapolation (bearing in mind that Rin gets about 90% of my fannish analysis of this series ^^):

--Rin was pushed out the window early in vol. 7 (possibly late vol. 6, depending on when Haru found out about it), going by the assumption that Haru would not have been so casual in vol. 6 if all that had been going on behind the scenes. Shigure and Hatori are talking about it by mid-vol. 7, and then by vol. 8 she'd broken up with Haru, which happened at least a little while after she was hospitalized. YMMV on how much long she spent thinking about it; different translations give slightly different impressions.

--slightly fuzzier is when she was locked up. I believe it was shortly after New Year's, because Kureno doesn't seem the type to put off watching something like the DVD of the Cinderella play, and he calls Tohru after seeing it. Rin doesn't run into Ren immediately after seeing their conversation, because she's wearing different clothes, but the fact that she's still steaming mad about Kureno making Tohru cry when Ren finds her makes me think it was very soon after that. So, probably sometime in early January. She doesn't stop to think about what Ren tells her, immediately goes to look for the box, and is caught and locked up.

--She's locked up until at least late March, and possibly early April, because she graduates high school in absentia (and her hair is cut off at that point, so fairly late in her imprisonment). The new school year has started by the time Haru goes after Akito, unless Rin's school and Kaibara have slightly different schedules.

I can't quite go for the idea of the anime handling the chronology better, exactly (not when they broke the timeline threads so seriously at the end by taking several storylines completely out of context), but Tohru's explanatory comments on the time of year etc. certainly do help.

Other than that, Shigure and Akito's relationship is definitely an interesting one. ^^

And unfortunately, Tokyopop's site doesn't have release dates past vol. 20 yet, so it wouldn't surprise me if the series carries slightly into next year. :/ I suspect the whole series is translated by now, and possibly even adapted, but there's usually quite a gap between adaptation and publication.