Forum - View topicTohru is Tohru: the Onigiri Who Finds her Place
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Neverwhere
 Posts: 351 Location: socal |
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*applauds and cheers*
BLESS THIS POST <3 |
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Saeryen
 Posts: 1005 |
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Oh my goodness, I love this so much, and I find it so relatable too. It's exactly why I love Tohru.
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Oggers
 Posts: 378 Location: Ontario, Canada |
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This is a great article. When I was a lot younger I probably would have said I liked one of the male characters best, but now that I'm older I'd say Tohru is my favourite since I have a greater appreciation for her character. Reading the manga all the way through helped with that, since the 2001 anime never really explores Tohru's deeper issues.
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Matcha.8
Posts: 130 |
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A timely piece considering how Tohru's growth as a person really comes through in the latest episode of the anime. I think her invisibility is also tied to the fact that she has always tried to be someone else to keep her own desires bottled up and hence herself safe/sane, including her trying to speak like her father and being called her mom's name by the grandfather. Tohru's admission that the reason that she wanted to help Sohma family is because she doesn't want any of them to take Kyo away from her, that it's okay for her to have her own desires, is truly a big step forward for her.
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KittyEponine
ANN Staff
 Posts: 53 Location: Philippines |
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Yes. Yes. and all my yes. Probably one of the best articles I have read this year <3 Thank you, Rebecca!
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4634 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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I've always been a little confused at why the MC's of so many harem, reverse harems, and large ensemble shows always fall to like 5th place of so in popularity contests. It's not a Sleep With/Marry/Kill contest.
Occasionally the lead is quite boring and more of a vessel for others to react, but when they actually have a strong story themselves and really are the heart of a show- yes, I almost always choose the MC as a favorite. And that's certainly the case with Tohru, |
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rizuchan
 Posts: 980 Location: Kansas |
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I actually wanted to talk about this in the context of Tohru, since Rebecca brought up feminism... I can't speak for Japanese fans (who seem to like or be more okay with passive female MCs than western audiences) or even modern western audiences, but when I was a teen reading Fruits Basket, and other shoujo and/or otome reverse-harems, with my friends, the reason was a lot of internalized misogyny. I felt like western fans couldn't relate to Tohru, or didn't think they could. Like if they were in Tohru's shoes, they would just speak their mind. They'd be excited to live in a house full of cute boys, and certainly wouldn't feel pressured to give that up and go back to live with a family that didn't give a shit about them. It's not that they couldn't understand Tohru, but they didn't think they would act like Tohru if they were in her shoes. Western media usually portrays female leads with tomboyish traits, while the less cool and important female characters are the more feminine ones. So western audiences are taught to look down on feminine characters (especially ones like Tohru who seem "meek" at first). And it's interesting because I think a lot of those fans have grown up and realized that they were Tohru all along, they just couldn't admit it to themselves when they were teens. There's also the fact that the MC in a reverse harem is "competition". If a fan likes Kyo or Yuki for example, they might feel jealous seeing them in love with another girl, especially one they think is completely different than themselves. Or they're resentful that Tohru gets in the way of their Kyo/Yuki ship (I could write a book on yaoi and internalized misogyny, but won't here obviously) And even though I know it's silly, I myself must admit that I hate reverse/harem shows where all the characters are hopelessly in love with the MC. It makes me feel like I'm in high school again and all the boys have a crush on the same popular girl.  So those are a variety of reasons why a MC might not be popular with fans, with little fault of her own.
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Ggultra2764
 Subscriber Posts: 3977 Location: New York state. |
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Pretty much hit the nail on the hit regarding Tohru's character within Fruits Basket. Outside of it being the story of Tohru becoming an important presence for the cursed Sohma because of her valuing them as their own individuals instead of the "monsters" perceived by others within the Sohma clan, the series also involves Tohru coming to value her own individual needs through her time with the Sohmas because of having serious self-esteem issues stemming from how she was treated and regarded by much of the Honda family, as well as still coping with the loss of her mother. Don't often get these kinds of layers of depth within many shoujo titles, and is a reason why I've held Fruits Basket in high regard for years with both its manga source material and the series of remakes that have been out for it.
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KitKat1721
 Posts: 976 |
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It didn't matter to me that she wasn't perfectly relatable. She still had reasons for acting the way she did, and the story called out the downsides of said behavior in unique ways (like sharing parallels with other characters) that never felt disparaging. I just knew at the time I wanted to be a little more like her, particularly with how I treat other people. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2657 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Thank you, everyone - I'm really glad that you enjoyed the article. It's probably the piece that I feel the most strongly about that I've written, so it means a lot.
I'd read that book! |
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catandmouse
Posts: 221 |
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It’s weird, I can’t say I have a favorite character in Furuba, and I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed the sequel series more than even the original (blasphemous, I know). Anyway, I’m never a big fan of female characters because most are too stupid to live, too whiny and/or annoying, etc and I can never understand how anybody could fall in love with them. Tohru, oddly enough never grated on my nerves. I can’t say she’s my favorite character, she has some of those traits I hate from shojo heroines, but I don’t hate her. Her love story makes sense! I can see how she and Kyo fell in love and how they can work as a couple. He may look like a cool guy, but he’s actually kinda dorky and it matches her naivety. Natsuki Takaya definitely knew how to write a “typical” shojo heroine (dumb, nice, girly) and make her endearing instead of annoying. Actually, all her heroines are kinda like that. They tend to be more on the girly, sensitive side (except for Kotobuki, and i wasn’t a fan of that series at all). The only one of her heroines I didn’t care for at all was Sakuya, from Twinkle Stars. She’s probably the most “typical” of her heroines.
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 655 |
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A criticism I saw from people a lot concerning Tohru was that she was "too pure", that she was only there for the Somas to bounce off of. And I never liked that. This article feels very validating towards how I feel about Tohru as a character.
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KitKat1721
Posts: 976 |
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With the 2019 reboot, Tohru is often given just a surface-level character glance/dismissal from anime fandom at large and critics alike, that its really refreshing to see deeper dives like this. So thank you for writing it! haha Personally-speaking, I know manga fans have casually discussed stuff like how Tohru's views of independence clash with her habit of "needing to make herself smaller" (even going into what it means to her to prioritize Kyo while still holding onto the role of "her mother's daughter"), but reading a piece talking about those types of character traits/thematic writing with such thought and care is really validating.
I always found it super interesting that some of the lines Akito spouts about Tohru during the Beach Arc (first half of S2) were verbatim lines you'd see from her biggest critics. Like how she's "almost too perfect that its unnatural." |
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Hurricane Butterfly
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The article is well written, but why does everyone keep saying that Furuba is a reverse harem? It's not.
In reverse harems, every single male male character is in love with the heroine and the series are basically about them flirting with her. Fruits Basket is not like this. 
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Hurricane Butterfly
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Lol, no. Tohru wants to help the cursed Sohmas because they're her beloved friends and surrogate family. The "I don't want any of the Sohmas to take Kyo away from me" actually means "I don't want Akito (and all the other Sohmas who think that he 's a monster that must be locked in the Cat Room) to take Kyo away from me." |
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