So, finished Fruits Basket. All in all, it was excruciatingly adorable and I teared up in several places (although my heart is somewhat stony, so I never actually cried).

Let's do the usual round-up of the good, the bad, and the in-between.

( Spoilers for the whole series under the cut. )

So in all the animu fuss in my last entry, I forgot to talk about Fruits Basket. I'm up to the middle of volume 15. ( Snipped. )

For those of you who've worked with fabric and specifically with marking fabric: what kind of fabric chalk or marker do you recommend? I definitely need to mark out the lines for the paint beforehand, but I'm unsure what would be best for that purpose, especially considering the material is lycra. (I'll also be marking them off with masking tape and sticky paper that's been cut into circles, although first I'll test to see if the fabric paint I'm getting doesn't wind up gluing the tape or paper to the fabric.) So far I'm looking at this or something like this.

It's strange, but the more I read Fruits Basket, the more I like Tohru. I didn't expect it, because she's such a straightforward yamato nadeshiko in so many ways--gentle, cute, domestic, non-threatening. I like to see female characters break from their assigned roles, and she in no way breaks from her role.

But there's such a sincerity to her. Her nature is not assumed as how she has to be because she's a girl; we see her struggle for it, we feel the convictions that lead her to be this way. She's so human, and I'm not used to seeing this type of character be that human and sympathetic. They're usually cute prizes for the boys to win, or mothers to nurture somebody. Tohru is Tohru, and she's trying her hardest.

( On the pairings... )

I've finished through volume 11, and I'm taking a bit of a break from the series now to start Octavia Butler's Wild Seed. The characters are really engaging, and the way the theme is gearing up to address issues of power dynamics intrigues me.

I've been playing a lot of silly point-and-click webgames lately, and I've found a couple favorites:

♦ The games of Minoto. For the most part they're not very difficult, which is good for me because I always need to resort to a walkthrough for the difficult ones. The important thing is that they're adorable.
♦ Hoshi Saga. You have to find a star in every level, and the methods you use to find or create it vary every time. It's hard to describe, but creative and interesting.

I'm going to answer my Everything Fandom Questions soon, so if you haven't asked me something and you're still curious, do so now.

Because I want to at least get something on my list done before I go to sleep for the night.

On Milk: I liked it. ( Er, spoilers? Ish? )

Now, with a jarring lack of segue, I'm going to talk about the manga I've been reading: Fruits Basket. Yes, one of the most famous and cheesiest shoujo out there.

I actually kind of like it. ( More spoilers, but only for the first six volumes. )

Edit: Oh yeah, and I absolutely adore Hanajima and Uotani. They're so tough and quirky and protective of Tohru, and badass in their own ways.