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I'm rather fond of Purgatory canto 30. Here's Dante, feeling pretty good about himself: he's just walked through Hell and out the other side, then climbed a mountain as tall as the Earth's radius.* He's been purged of his sins and blessed by seven angels. He's walking around in the freakin' Garden of Eden, man. And then Beatrice, the girl he's been chasing for 8000 lines, gives him the righteous smackdown: "You think you know about being saved? You don't know nothing, boy. You've barely started getting saved." Followed by muttering under her breath, "Men!"
She doesn't actually take him by the ear and drag him into Heaven. But chibi-Beatrice would.
(I am not responsible for any images of Jack Nicholson playing Beatrice that may have popped into your head: "You want to be saved? You can't handle being saved!" is NOT MY LINE and YOU CAN'T BLAME ME.)
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This reading of Fruits Basket, I think I've figured out about half of what happened in the climax. Though my biggest questions -- such as what, exactly, did Akito think he was doing when he gave permission to let Tohru live in Shigure's house? -- remain obscure. And I have new ones, like why don't we get the full scene of Akito visiting Tohru in the hospital? and why is what we get only in flashback? Because that conversation is one of the key inputs to the climax. (I'm being somewhat coy because Tokyopop hasn't reached the end yet. Readers in Singapore and Australia, where the last volume was published in English this month, may now snicker at us Americans. Eventually, I want a spoileriffic conversation about what, exactly, happened to Hiro and Momiji.)
I am startled to realize Fruits Basket is a very low-magic fantasy. Aside from the zodiac curse itself, the more fantastic aspects of which get played down over the series,** the only paranormality is the psychic abilities of Hanajima (and her brother) -- and even she admits she plays it up for dramatic effect. I am not quite sure what to make of this, beyond pointing it out.
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Slightly disturbing pairings: Tohru's two best friends end up with older men, by 9 and 17 years, before they graduate high school. But then, Beatrice was, by Dante's account, 9 years old when he started crushing on her. In church. Precocity all around.
* Without oxygen.
** I don't think a zodiac member communicates with his or her animals after the first couple chapters, though the animals are still drawn to them: that affinity is even used as a plot point a couple times, late in the series.
---L.
She doesn't actually take him by the ear and drag him into Heaven. But chibi-Beatrice would.
(I am not responsible for any images of Jack Nicholson playing Beatrice that may have popped into your head: "You want to be saved? You can't handle being saved!" is NOT MY LINE and YOU CAN'T BLAME ME.)
This reading of Fruits Basket, I think I've figured out about half of what happened in the climax. Though my biggest questions -- such as what, exactly, did Akito think he was doing when he gave permission to let Tohru live in Shigure's house? -- remain obscure. And I have new ones, like why don't we get the full scene of Akito visiting Tohru in the hospital? and why is what we get only in flashback? Because that conversation is one of the key inputs to the climax. (I'm being somewhat coy because Tokyopop hasn't reached the end yet. Readers in Singapore and Australia, where the last volume was published in English this month, may now snicker at us Americans. Eventually, I want a spoileriffic conversation about what, exactly, happened to Hiro and Momiji.)
I am startled to realize Fruits Basket is a very low-magic fantasy. Aside from the zodiac curse itself, the more fantastic aspects of which get played down over the series,** the only paranormality is the psychic abilities of Hanajima (and her brother) -- and even she admits she plays it up for dramatic effect. I am not quite sure what to make of this, beyond pointing it out.
Slightly disturbing pairings: Tohru's two best friends end up with older men, by 9 and 17 years, before they graduate high school. But then, Beatrice was, by Dante's account, 9 years old when he started crushing on her. In church. Precocity all around.
* Without oxygen.
** I don't think a zodiac member communicates with his or her animals after the first couple chapters, though the animals are still drawn to them: that affinity is even used as a plot point a couple times, late in the series.
---L.