Manga Diaries – Fruits Basket Volume 14

If you don’t know what my diaries are, please go here. Spoilers ahoy!

Otherwise, let’s go!

• Cover: This is Kureno, right? Looks like Kyo as well.
• Page 13: Big switch from Tohru and gang in Kyoto to Rin.
• 15: Tohru’s future self.
• 17: Don’t have to worry about this mother-/daughter-in-law combination getting along.
• 19: Rin’s real cheerful…not.
• 23-26: Yeah, yeah, we all know Shigure is a master manipulator.
• 29: I first thought this scene was here to hint Rin is pregnant.
• 31: Well, that’s a combination that’s sure not to please Rin.
• 35-40: Now Rin’s past. Why do Sohma family members bother to have children when they know the risk?
• 47: His expression is adorable.
• 50: Seriously, one member of the Sohma family should go into psychology. Probably would become the busiest family member.
• 52: Go Haru.
• 78: Too much Rin in this volume so far.
• 81: Somewhere, Haru felt a sudden urge to hit something.
• 83: Hatori is shocked, but he doesn’t lose his cigarettes. Also, that’s a bad habit even though you’re stressed, Tori-san.
• 87: She’s normal. She’s kind. Too much double-talk.
• 93-94: Overdosing on drama this volume.
• 101: Sure would have been less annoying.
• 104: I do like a good student council manga. Moreso when the protagonist’s main goal isn’t to get the president’s attention.
• 106: Yeah, Takaya definitely has a lot of antisocial characters.
• 109: I bet Haru and Rin will have an interesting marriage.
• 111: I’m surprised these girls haven’t tried to visit Kimi’s house in order to find her weakness. Guess they’re still scarred from visiting Hana-chan.
• 113: Haru giving Yuki away.
• 117: Machi…
• 119: Angry Yuki.
• 123: Can’t really blame Nao.
• 125: Who didn’t see this one coming. I know Takaya was kind of suggesting Machi and Kakeru were more than just friends, but it was obvious they weren’t lovers.
• 129: Yuki has been affected by the siblings.
• 134: Yuki-mama making her own progress.
• 138: No fireworks? Laaaame.
• 141: Yuki sensing the change.
• 145: I know they say hospital food sucks, but some have good food. One hospital had really good mashed potatoes. One day I went to get some, but the cafeteria closes really early. Like 2 or 3 o’clock. Come on, lots of people are still hungry then! The only other option is chips and stuff in vending machines. Boo. Fortunately, haven’t had to visit anyone else in the hospital recently.
• 147: Rin doesn’t have her sharpness like this.
• 150: Overly sensitive Tohru now.
• 152-153: Stuff we basically knew already.
• 156: Tohru hasn’t learned from last volume.
• 158: Tohru can’t identify what is the most important thing.
• 162-166: I still think it would have been more interesting like if Hana and Arisa didn’t know Kyoko, and it turned out Tohru has just been replacing her real mother with her ideal or something.
• 169: Wonder what the other ideas were.
• 171: I don’t think Kureno sounds like a German-Japanese kid.
• 173-174: Now Yuki’s giving lectures.
• 179: Makes you wonder who got second place for those roles. They should just have done a reverse-gender Cinderella. Or just draw completely random like in Cardcaptor Sakura. The filler episode with Touya was hilarious, but it kind of made Sakura as the prince less funny later on. Still, both the anime and manga were both funny with their gender swapped plays.
• 183: Wouldn’t have been easier to try to cast yourself as the lead?
• 188-189: Akito always haunt Yuki.
• 190-191: Machi and a chair makes a deadly combination.
• 196: The big reveal. Laaame.

I still don’t get the “Tohru as my mother” thing. I wish we could have seen Yuki go, “I like Tohru, but I can tell I’m not the one for her”, “She’s a ray of sunlight, but I can’t fall in love with the sun”, or something. Instead, it’s like a weirder version of pairing everyone up so that no one is left brokenhearted. It’s like Fruits Basket really isn’t a love triangle when one of the characters backs out for not even sibling-like love but a mother-like love. I just…I don’t know, I never liked this. It’s not just Yuki is going to end up with Machi, but the way Fruits Basket balances out the three main characters just to pull an, “Ooops, can’t tell mom-love from romantic-love” just comes across as Takaya wanting to focus more on Kyo but not knowing how to get Yuki out of the picture. I know Tohru acts old for her age, but so many people see her as a mother. It’s kind of bizarre.

It doesn’t help this volume overdoses on the Rin drama. We already know Rin’s words don’t match her actions or true feelings, but it’s page after page of her worrying for Haru and even Tohru. We know Sohma Zodiac members almost always have crappy lives, but Rin still suffers after finding a decent home. I know she loves Haru the most, but she doesn’t even think of Kagura, with whom Rin had lived with for years. Rin just comes across as obsessive and self-destructive here, and it’s too bad. She and Haru had a nice relationship, but Rin can’t even see him without getting mad. It’s the kind of behavior I don’t like in main or side characters.