timepiececlock

Ooh, this is so good! I love these last few volumes, and #19 is particularly tasty with the drama and the revelations and the WTF factor. You can't see my face right now but I'm smiling like a madwoman.

Kyo and Tohru! Although I'm really into the Shigure/Akito subplot right now, but heart just breaks for Tohru and Kyo. They have several moments in this volume. I loved the laundry sequence... it echoed an earlier scene that made for one of my favorite anime moments.

Everyone's figured out by now that Kyo and Tohru are falling in love, and Yuki's going insane over the awkwardness of it. That actually made for a very funny scene when he panics and has to go away because their UST is like cooties to him or something.

Tohru's started to realize and barely admit to herself that Kyo might be the most important person in her heart, which is problematic because she's put so much work into treasuring and idolizing her mother's memory and promised to love her best forever as a way to keep her memory alive. It's good that something's finally making her snap out of that... I don't know how many volumes its been since she talked to her mother's portrait like a person.

This volume also nicely showcases how Kyo has changed. One the one hand he's still angry--very angry--but another part of him seems to have given up. He's been more taciturn and yet also softer, like he doesn't want to spend all of his remaining time fighting. His conversation with Tohru's grandfather was very enlightening for Kyo's characterization.

So Ayame and Mine are living together in secret? Interesting. He appears to have handled his romantic situation better than anyone else in their family, partly because he's the least sought-after off the members by Akito. The price, of course, being that he can't be public about his relationship or he'll go through what Hatori did. I'm sure Hatori and Shigure must know, but it looks like Yuki's one of the few others to figure it out.

Akito and Shigure had more twistedness this volume. Shigure is uncharacteristically frank with Tohru in chapter 108, almost to the point of intimidation. Not that he could intimidate Tohru at this point (does anything intimidate her? Below the surface, I mean? I'm starting to think there's very little in this world that can intimidate Tohru except herself.) But he out and out states:

A) how terrible their curse makes everyday life
B) that they willfully participate in Kyo's situation even though its evil and wrong
C) that they're selfish and the curse doesn't just change their form, but exposes how willingly they'll let one suffer as a scapegoat to make the others live easier.

None of this is new information to the audience, but it's awesome to see Shigure just lay it out on the table like that, not mincing words, purely for Tohru's benefit. Shigure does plenty of lying in this series, but it seems like he thinks Tohru has come far enough along on her own that he can afford to be honest with her about their siutation.

In chapter 111, though, Shigure does this weird moment of almost seducing/hitting on Tohru that was just SO WRONG and SO DISTURBING, which makes it totally in character for Shigure. Letting Tohru into their fucked up little world means he gets to play these stupid head games with her, too, just like he does with Akito and Hatori and Rin. He's always joked about her being his little wife, but this scene was much more sinister and, well, cruel, for all that he was actually probably being honest, for once. Not serious, but honest. He probably figures it's safe to indulge in the thrill of "teasing" Tohru because he knows Tohru won't do anything in response, and he doesn't have to pretend to always be benevolent anymore, after their recent conversations about the curse. What a piece of work he is! It's a pity I'm so in love with his character, because he really is a jerk. Not evil, but a jerk all the same.

The stuff later about Kakeru was kind of interesting, but overall I don't really care about the side-story. It felt like filler. I do like Yuki's friendship circle though because we get to see him growing as a person outside the Sohma circle and even outside Tohru's circle.