Continuing the FB re-read. Up to somewhere in volume 19 right now. As before, plenty of spoilers behind the cut, including what I remember of later volumes as well.


- After volume 15 there was a long gap in new volumes from Tokyopop. Finally fed up with waiting, plus feeling a need to brush up on my French, I started ordering volumes from France where the pace was quicker. Thus, I only know volumes 16-23 in their French versions.

- Akito/Kureno never fails to squick me out. Though Shigure/Akito certainly has a level of squickiness, if not quite to the same amount. Particularly the Super-Important Flashback where the young teen (or nearly teen) Shigure declares his love to the young child Akito.

- I really love how utterly, utterly clear the manga is on no matter how terrible Kyo's background is, and how horrible his possible future seems to be, that still doesn't mean his hatred of Yuki is anywhere near justified - and how very, very wrong he is when he tells Yuki he couldn't possible understand, "You had a mother and father! Everyone liked you and told you what a great guy you were!". As we readers well know by then, Yuki's background was just as horrible and traumatising as Kyo, and in fact Kyo did have several things Yuki lacked, with the most important a loving parental substitute in Kazuma. (His future isn't that bright at that point either (in volume 15), should Akito make good on his statement that Yuki will return to the Sohma mansion and live there "on the inside" after graduating college.)

Moreover, it is also abundantly clear how Kyo's fixation on hating Yuki has actively hurt Yuki an awful lot ever since he was a terribly lonely, psychologically abused little boy. The way I see it, the story goes out of its way - but never in a preachy way - to underline that it's really easy to resent someone for seemingly having it easy, but we don't know their pain.

At the same time, though, the manga also makes it clear that intellectually Kyo has probably known most of this already, but emotionally he just isn't able to truly accept it and to change for the longest time. Because if he didn't have his hatred of Yuki and his belief in the privileged Prince Yuki that he's completely justified in resenting and hating, he wouldn't have any place to stand on at all*. He hates himself too much for that.

- I still feel a little disappointed with the way Rin's storyline played out, all her brave determined attempts to find out how to break the curse just ending up in Akito's punishment by imprisoning her. And it wasn't even Tohru who found her and released her (as, somehow, I secretly hoped), but Kureno, who I'm just not all that fond of in the end.

But at the same time, Rin being kept a prisoner in the cat's house means that one could say she ended up carrying a part of what would have been Kyo's suffering. Which is interesting since everyone points out that Tohru takes everyone's problems onto her own shoulders, but here it's Rin who is put into Kyo's place, in a way - willingly, too, as Akito made her choose between accepting that fate and letting Hatsuharu be blinded. Due to her medical problems, Rin fares a lot worse during this period - a couple of weeks, perhaps - than I think Kyo would have in the same time, at least physically. However, for Kyo it would have been his whole life. Yet it never actually happened, to him. The only one within the story to suffer part of the cat's punishment is Rin, the horse. For... whatever reason. (fails at insight)

- In volume 18, when Kyo and Tohru talk about Rin maybe settling in Kazuma's home, Kyo comments that he thinks it's good for Kazuma to get a few other people there, and lets slip, "then he won't be so alone" as he walks past Tohru. Re-reading this, I think Takaya did this chilling moment brilliantly, letting the readers feel it as Tohru does, taken aback unawares. Of course, Kyo doesn't know that Akito told Tohru Kyo would be put in confinement; but Tohru sees this remark as Kyo being resigned to his fate by then. Certainly it does seem like he's given up on beating Yuki at this point. And maybe realising he's in love with Tohru has made him paradoxically more amenable to captivity, as he still thinks of himself as a monster who's liable to hurt and destroy those who come near him. Especially with his guilt over Kyoko.

- In volume 19, Kyo thinks back to the very first time he saw Tohru, through the window of her and her mother's house when she was a little girl. He thinks that "she was just like she is today... so sad!" ("si triste!" in French.) Re-reading this, it reminds me of Kureno's emphatic words on Akito in volume 17, "Akito is such a sad girl" ("Akito est une fille si triste!") Interesting.

- Jumping forward: so in the end, are promises to stay together forever a good or bad thing, in the story? The curse breaks, and Tohru ends up choosing Kyo over her mother. But then again marrying Kyo is just another version of that promise, and the same can be said for all the other official couples in the show, particularly Hatsuharu/Rin and Shigure/Akito. Maybe such a promise is only a good thing as long as both partners are alive? When the other one dies, you shouldn't feel bound by a promise any more, unless doing so will help you be stronger. But don't let the old bond stand in the way of connecting to the living people around you, who might otherwise be able to share joy with you. Perhaps the underlying message is something like that...?

- Let's see if I have anything new to add when I've finished all the volumes.

Huh. Writing this out, it occurs to me only now that this reminds me just a bit of Ryoga's sentiments vis-à-vis Ranma in Ranma 1/2. Ryoga is, like Kyo, a favourite of mine - I wonder if I have a hitherto unrealised thing for vulnerable guys with grudges?