One of my great frustrations with Fruits Basket – and something that will always keep me from unreservedly embracing it – is that I feel almost nothing for Yuki. Nothing much positive, anyway. And that’s a problem, because he’s one of the three main characters and in terms of focus, probably second only to Tohru. It feels to me as if he’s even more omnipresent in this version (and thus the manga) than he was in Akitarou’s version and that may well be the case, but he’s always been a central figure. And no matter what Takaya writes for him, it doesn’t resonate with me.
I wonder if she’d put the stuff we got in this week’s episode, which mostly explains how Yuki got to be the way he is, closer to the beginning of the series it would have moved the needle more. By this point my feelings about the character are pretty calcified, after all. But in truth I don’t think so, because insufferable is insufferable and I just find teenaged Yuki insufferable. His navel gazing bores me and his relentless self-obsession (which is what this episode was, really) annoys me. And it has for 20 years.
This, more than anything, is what grates on me about Furuba – the untapped potential. Takaya has elements of a really powerful story here and when she chooses to utilize them, that’s exactly what this series is. But she chooses to utilize them so rarely, and that’s the rub. Either she’s too in love with all her characters to edit herself as she should, or she simply doesn’t believe that she has better raw materials to work with than she usually chooses to. It’s her series and a popular one at that, so she’s certainly justified in developing the narrative however she likes. But I’ve never had a show so distinctly run hot and cold with me as this one.
Did we learn anything new here? Well, we certainly already knew Akito was a sadistic bastard. That character can get a little repetitive but it certainly helps to have a virtuoso actor like Sakamoto Maaya voicing Akito, because she gets every ounce of menace and even nuance out of the character that’s there to be got. The final dots being connected with the cap story is probably the only real new information. And there’s a lot of irony to that, Yuki’s precious secret memory of Tohru being built around Kyou’s cap. I get that Yuki’s arc in this story is more self-oriented than connected with Tohru the way Kyou’s is – I just wish I could push a button and make myself care more about it…
Ressie
August 25, 2020 at 10:54 pmSo yuki should just be the princely archetype that everyone preserves him as and have no depth to him whatsoever? The 2001 anime while good only scratched the surface of the story. Atleast takaya is getting the story she wants told. However I will admit that the staff should build things up more and they are skipping a lot of kyo x tohru scenes. I’m not saying you’re wrong or anything just the whole hate yuki thing is beating a dead horse at this point.
Guardian Enzo
August 26, 2020 at 6:32 amNo, I’m just saying I don’t care about it – she can do what she wants. I do wish she’d given him more depth earlier in the story, and II do with the anime wasn’t skipping the Kyou-Tohru stuff because to me, that’s more important and far more engaging than Yuki’s repetitive arc.
smoso
August 26, 2020 at 2:02 amWhat do you see as the untapped potential with Yuki?
Guardian Enzo
August 26, 2020 at 6:33 amI don’t. The untapped potential is the stuff with the better characters that gets starved out of the narrative by the obsession with Yuki, and second-tier characters who don’t really matter one way or the other.
Princess Usagi
August 26, 2020 at 5:45 amI understand not liking Yuki for being self-absorbed, but perhaps it’s not entirely his fault; couldn’t a lot be attributed to trauma from being isolated with Akito for so long and repeatedly told how everyone hates him? Kyo had the benefit of having a caring adoptive father for support before Tohru came along, while Yuki didn’t really have anyone. Granted, Kyo also had a lot of horrible treatment from the family, but he opened himself up to changing as a character and becoming emotionally in tune with Tohru, in contrast to Yuki. I guess if anything, Yuki serves as a good foil to Kyo, highlighting Kyo’s capability for emotional depth through Yuki’s lack of that. (I’m definitely Team Kyo, but I still feel really sorry for Yuki).
Guardian Enzo
August 26, 2020 at 6:35 amI wish I could feel sorry for him, but I just can’t get there. I’m not a good enough person I guess, ROFL.
Yuki’s role should be as a foil, but that’s the problem – he’s written more as the protagonist than the foil. As I’ve noted about Suetsugu and Arata, I think Takaya writes Yuki as if she’s in love with him herself.
Lis
August 26, 2020 at 3:20 pmGoing by comments Takaya has made over the years in other material (like the fanbook), Tohru, Yuki and Akito are definitively the characters she loved to write the most. And while she likes Kyo, she isn’t anywhere near as invested in him as his fanbase is. Take that for what you will.
Guardian Enzo
August 26, 2020 at 3:35 pmYes, that definitely shows through.
As I’ve said ad nauseam, she’s entitled to write her series however she wants to. And I think Furuba is a case where, as with Chihayafuru (though that’s certainly the better overall series), I fundamentally disagree with the mangaka as to how they view their own characters. I could make an argument based on the gulf between the author and so many fans that we have a valid point in both cases, but it’s a fight you can’t win. It’s their creation – it’s up to them.