From the moment Tohru saw the guys change into their zodiac forms to the moment when Kyo transformed into his true form in front of Tohru, Fruits Basket holds a special place in my heart. I absolutely feel in love with this anime and it was actually the first anime that made me fall in love with anime (which sounds a bit nerdy) but its true. You can’t help but feel a strong connection of wanting to be JUST like Tohru, such a sweet, innocent, caring person, who is loved by everyone! She deals with the most craziest people ever, and never looses her cool, well most of the time. If I haven’t already given away the plot to this story, this anime/manga is about a school girl named Tohru Honda who recently lost her mother in a car accident and ends up living in a tent in the woods (on Sohma property if I may add). The Sohma’s have been cursed with the burden of transforming into the 12 zodiac animals + the cat (never forget Kyo) whenever they hug the opposite sex, or when their bodies come under any kind of stress. As the story begins to unfold, Tohru runs into Yuki Sohma, the prince and idol of Tohru’s school and his cousin Shigure (who is apart of the zodiac like Yuki). Not to long after, Yuki and Shigure discover Tohru out in the woods living in a tent with what seemed to be the beginng of a fever. To keep her safe from landslides, and to nurse her back to health, they ask her to move in with them. However, Tohru still unaware of the Sohma’s secret, she agrees to move in with them as long as she does her share of the cleaning. She soon discovers the Sohma secret when she accidently hugs Kyo Sohma to prevent him and Yuki from fighting. I can go on and on about how this story unveils but I wouldn’t want to spoil ANYTHING that happens through out this anime, ESPECIALLY in the manga! To those of you who have read the manga, I would love to hear your thoughts on it because its a huge twist to the anime that I find extremely fascinating! Overall I love that there’s a good amount of humor and romance, with a touch of awkwardness to it. Natsuki Takaya really out did her self with everything. I laughed, I cried and I even shared those moments of bursting out mad when ever I finished a book and didn’t have the next one ready to read. This sounds so chessy! I know, I know. I would give this anime a 9/10 rice ball rating. Let me know if you guys have any thoughts on this! :D
The fact that they’re so pissed about what I was told, and the fact that they are supporting me 100% makes me feel so grateful for these amazing people.
On the importance of Magical Girl Heroines & Weaponized Femininity:
Let me start by saying that officially speaking, Sailor Moon is older than I am. I started watching while living in Singapore while I was four, so I definitely came in around the end of Sailor Moon R and watched Sailor Moon S despite the fact that it was played in Japanese with Chinese subtitles. When I moved back to the States, Sailor Moon started being released and aired in sub and dub form and being young and happy to actually hear a language I understood with a show I already liked, I watched the dubs. They’re not the shining star of any animated dub, but I went back several times as I got older, and rewatched the series, in dubs, in subs, all 200 episodes. I changed my self-identified scout, I understood what got cut out of the show, what was censored, I went back and relived my crush on Tuxedo Mask again…and again. In terms of “formative media” Sailor Moon is probably near the top of the list. I still have the sticker book I had when I was 5/6 that has a page dedicated to these magical girls, and they’ve been with me a lot longer than almost anything else, including Harry Potter, Avatar: the Last Airbender, and most other narratives, superhero, fantasy, or otherwise.
When I got the chance last year, I showed one of my girl cousins (who was twelve) the first episode of Sailor Moon. She came back to me about a week or so later and was maybe thirty episodes into the series, bursting with excitement over everything and every one.
I stopped to think about how much that meant to me. Then I thought a little harder. One of my best friends gave me an opportunity to cosplay as Sailor Scouts, and I leapt at the chance. I accidentally stumbled across the newer series Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and marathoned all twelve episodes. Then I made my best friend watch it.
Why does Mahou Shoujo stick with us? The show I loved when I was six is something I love when I’m twenty, and something my cousin who is a tween also loves. For that matter, Puella Magi is, essentially, an update of the classic Magical Girl story, with some genre subversions thrown in. What makes magical girls so important?
