Yep, get deep into the Furuba fandom like I've been and unfortunately the canon that's considered main is the anime. :/ One only needs to look at the FB section in fanfiction.net to see, honestly, I think the anime's more popular because like most series, it got more exposure compared to the manga. Plus, the manga isn't even available in stores anymore while the anime is so that just means new fans that get introduced to the fandom will usually automatically start with the anime.
But honestly, yeah I get what you mean, that was also one of my main issues with the manga. While I love the Akito character and the whole extremely feminist concept behind her, her whole cross-dressing thing did seem pretty transphobic, though that's nothing to say of Ritsu's character arc which seemed completely transphobic!
Really? I've not had that experience with the Shojo I read. Natsuki Takaya actually seems one of the more anti-LBGT Shojo mangaka compared to the rest. I mean, Sailor Moon has a canon lesbian couple and several lesbian/bi characters, Clamp is well, Clamp. Fushigi Yugi also has a gay character and implied canon gay pairing and of course there's Utena and Ouran High School Host Club's constant yaoi references. XD
Maybe I haven't watched/read enough Shojo but compared to what I've seen, Takaya-san seems strangely anti-LBGT. I don't know if you recall but there's a part in the last fanbook, the Banquet fanbook I think where she has a mini-comic series at the end talking about some of the characters and she literally states that she might have had Akito and Tohru end up together if Akito was a boy! Maybe I'm oversensitive, but that really rubbed me the wrong way and seemed pretty homophobic. :/
Which is quite a shame because Takaya seems like quite the feminist, I only wish she was as sensitive to LBGT issues. I mean, it seems really unrealistic to have ALL her characters be straight without even a single gay or bi character.
lol! What's funny about that is I even heard that back when that secret was first revealed in the early days of the fandom there was quite a ruckus over it. Suddenly, fans who had absolutely adored Akito now hated her and thought she was a bitch! Glad I wasn't in the fandom when that was going on, it seemed quite ridiculous. I mean, really misogyny much?
Yeah, they probably just did that because they knew that was the ending for the anime so they wanted to go out with a dramatic bang and add more realism to Tohru's character since the manga wasn't even in its middle volumes and thus they had no idea what Tohru was really like. I guess it worked... I'm just so attached to manga Tohru that I sort of have mixed feelings about that scene, ha-ha.
Seriously! If Sailor Moon could get a more faithful adaptation, do you think Fruits Basket is next? :( Because personally, this series needs it even more than SM does, at least the Sailor Moon anime was a complete series in and of itself!
The Kyou and Kyoko thing you could kinda see coming if you squint in the earlier volumes though, also think about it: Kyo, Kyoko. Basically the same name, only Kyoko has the "ko" added to it, what does that tell you? ;)
Yeah, but while I was okay with that, there were other things that definitely seemed completely ridiculous and unrealistic. Like, take for instance the whole backstory with Ren. Sooo the only reason she hates her child and raises her as a boy was cause she was jealous because she thought her husband loved their daughter more than her? What normal parent even thinks like this, that doesn't make sense! It made more sense when they explained why the Jyuunishi mothers would reject their children, because hey that was believable!
But expecting us to believe a mother outright despising her own daughter and trying to kill her because of jealousy? No, sorry, that's not realistic. Maybe if they explained the reason WHY Ren even thought that way, since thinking that way is clearly not normal it would've been easier to swallow but they didn't even do that and so it just came off as contrived and a quick way to wrap up Akito's backstory. Shame though, Ren had so much potential as the manga's true villian/antagonist too...
That's another reason I hated that Takaya refused to include any gay characters or gay couplings in the manga, I mean when I first read through it I was seriously expecting Yuki/Kakeru to be Yuki's endgame. No joke, they're literally perfect for each other. But nooooo, Takaya had to pair up Yuki with his sister, and fit everyone into nice, neat little straight pairings. No LBGT awareness in this manga, even if the characters actually DID mesh well together!
Oh god, don't even get me started on Yuki/Kakeru! I have a ton of feelings on this pairing and its one of my Fruits Basket OTPs, I really really strongly believe they should have been canon. The whole "Kakeru had a girlfriend" storyline even kinda seemed like something that was shoved in last minute to discourage the readers from shipping Kakeru/Yuki, "because look guiz! Kakeru's totally straight, yessiree!"
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2012-10-29 09:29 am (UTC)But honestly, yeah I get what you mean, that was also one of my main issues with the manga. While I love the Akito character and the whole extremely feminist concept behind her, her whole cross-dressing thing did seem pretty transphobic, though that's nothing to say of Ritsu's character arc which seemed completely transphobic!
Really? I've not had that experience with the Shojo I read. Natsuki Takaya actually seems one of the more anti-LBGT Shojo mangaka compared to the rest. I mean, Sailor Moon has a canon lesbian couple and several lesbian/bi characters, Clamp is well, Clamp. Fushigi Yugi also has a gay character and implied canon gay pairing and of course there's Utena and Ouran High School Host Club's constant yaoi references. XD
Maybe I haven't watched/read enough Shojo but compared to what I've seen, Takaya-san seems strangely anti-LBGT. I don't know if you recall but there's a part in the last fanbook, the Banquet fanbook I think where she has a mini-comic series at the end talking about some of the characters and she literally states that she might have had Akito and Tohru end up together if Akito was a boy! Maybe I'm oversensitive, but that really rubbed me the wrong way and seemed pretty homophobic. :/
Which is quite a shame because Takaya seems like quite the feminist, I only wish she was as sensitive to LBGT issues. I mean, it seems really unrealistic to have ALL her characters be straight without even a single gay or bi character.
lol! What's funny about that is I even heard that back when that secret was first revealed in the early days of the fandom there was quite a ruckus over it. Suddenly, fans who had absolutely adored Akito now hated her and thought she was a bitch! Glad I wasn't in the fandom when that was going on, it seemed quite ridiculous. I mean, really misogyny much?
Yeah, they probably just did that because they knew that was the ending for the anime so they wanted to go out with a dramatic bang and add more realism to Tohru's character since the manga wasn't even in its middle volumes and thus they had no idea what Tohru was really like. I guess it worked... I'm just so attached to manga Tohru that I sort of have mixed feelings about that scene, ha-ha.
Seriously! If Sailor Moon could get a more faithful adaptation, do you think Fruits Basket is next? :( Because personally, this series needs it even more than SM does, at least the Sailor Moon anime was a complete series in and of itself!
The Kyou and Kyoko thing you could kinda see coming if you squint in the earlier volumes though, also think about it: Kyo, Kyoko. Basically the same name, only Kyoko has the "ko" added to it, what does that tell you? ;)
Yeah, but while I was okay with that, there were other things that definitely seemed completely ridiculous and unrealistic. Like, take for instance the whole backstory with Ren. Sooo the only reason she hates her child and raises her as a boy was cause she was jealous because she thought her husband loved their daughter more than her? What normal parent even thinks like this, that doesn't make sense! It made more sense when they explained why the Jyuunishi mothers would reject their children, because hey that was believable!
But expecting us to believe a mother outright despising her own daughter and trying to kill her because of jealousy? No, sorry, that's not realistic. Maybe if they explained the reason WHY Ren even thought that way, since thinking that way is clearly not normal it would've been easier to swallow but they didn't even do that and so it just came off as contrived and a quick way to wrap up Akito's backstory. Shame though, Ren had so much potential as the manga's true villian/antagonist too...
That's another reason I hated that Takaya refused to include any gay characters or gay couplings in the manga, I mean when I first read through it I was seriously expecting Yuki/Kakeru to be Yuki's endgame. No joke, they're literally perfect for each other. But nooooo, Takaya had to pair up Yuki with his sister, and fit everyone into nice, neat little straight pairings. No LBGT awareness in this manga, even if the characters actually DID mesh well together!
Oh god, don't even get me started on Yuki/Kakeru! I have a ton of feelings on this pairing and its one of my Fruits Basket OTPs, I really really strongly believe they should have been canon. The whole "Kakeru had a girlfriend" storyline even kinda seemed like something that was shoved in last minute to discourage the readers from shipping Kakeru/Yuki, "because look guiz! Kakeru's totally straight, yessiree!"
Ugh!