Fruits Basket.
1. The first character I first fell in love with: Kyou, right from the beginning. My love for Tohru would grow over the course of the series, as she faced challenges and we saw more of her inner strength and how amazing she was, but Kyou had my heart from the beginning for clearly being unable to express his feelings other than through crankiness and biting commentary, which, well, I related to that a lot when I was younger.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Yuki, I think. I had my ups and downs with the character, I struggled at times to like him, when the fandom was so insistent on he was soooo much better for Tohru, plus the lack of seeing that Yuki was pretty terrible to Kyou, too. Not that Kyou was nice, either, but I felt like his terrible attitude was often remarked on, while I didn’t see it as much for Yuki. But, eventually, I understood more of what a crap life Yuki lived as well, that you can’t compare one person’s pain to another, and came to like him for his own struggles and motivations.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don’t: I feel like there’s an obvious answer to this that’s just out of reach, a popular character that I just didn’t take to… but I can’t think of who it would be. I feel like I love everyone in the Sohma family for various, different reasons?
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: Rin. OMG I LOVE RIN. While I don’t think there’s a lot of actual hate for her, I often felt like she came along at sort of a bad time, when fandom was kind of getting ticked at all the queer baiting Takaya did but, oh, hey, here, Hatsuharu’s not REALLY in love with Yuki, he’s actually in love with this girl! But I really loved her, because, again, I could relate to not being able to show your feelings very well and she lived her life in utter TERROR of what Akito would do to the people she cared about if she stepped out of line or became too important to Hatsuharu. How could I not feel for her?
5. The character I used to love but don’t any longer: I guess maybe Kureno? He’s one of those characters that I had a lot of really intense feelings for while I was reading the manga, I loved Takaya’s way of getting the emotions across, but looking back… I can’t really say why any of that was. Or why I felt attachment to the character.
6. The character I would totally smooch: SO MANY OF THEM. Kyouko and Katsuya probably most of all. And Hatori and OMG MAYUKO YES.
7. The character I’d want to be like: Tohru. Tohru, Tohru, Tohru, no questions asked. She felt other people’s pain so much and loved them all, she had room in her heart for everyone, while still having her special person. She was kind and caring, she wanted to help everyone, she loved. She loved life, her friends, her special person, all the little things and comforts of life. That always gets to me.
8. The character I’d slap: Kazuma, maybe. DO NOT START A RELATIONSHIP WITH A TEENAGE GIRL, THAT IS GROSS. I love him dearly otherwise, but, no, that’s g r o s s.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Yuki, I think. I had my ups and downs with the character, I struggled at times to like him, when the fandom was so insistent on he was soooo much better for Tohru, plus the lack of seeing that Yuki was pretty terrible to Kyou, too. Not that Kyou was nice, either, but I felt like his terrible attitude was often remarked on, while I didn’t see it as much for Yuki. But, eventually, I understood more of what a crap life Yuki lived as well, that you can’t compare one person’s pain to another, and came to like him for his own struggles and motivations.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don’t: I feel like there’s an obvious answer to this that’s just out of reach, a popular character that I just didn’t take to… but I can’t think of who it would be. I feel like I love everyone in the Sohma family for various, different reasons?
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: Rin. OMG I LOVE RIN. While I don’t think there’s a lot of actual hate for her, I often felt like she came along at sort of a bad time, when fandom was kind of getting ticked at all the queer baiting Takaya did but, oh, hey, here, Hatsuharu’s not REALLY in love with Yuki, he’s actually in love with this girl! But I really loved her, because, again, I could relate to not being able to show your feelings very well and she lived her life in utter TERROR of what Akito would do to the people she cared about if she stepped out of line or became too important to Hatsuharu. How could I not feel for her?
5. The character I used to love but don’t any longer: I guess maybe Kureno? He’s one of those characters that I had a lot of really intense feelings for while I was reading the manga, I loved Takaya’s way of getting the emotions across, but looking back… I can’t really say why any of that was. Or why I felt attachment to the character.
6. The character I would totally smooch: SO MANY OF THEM. Kyouko and Katsuya probably most of all. And Hatori and OMG MAYUKO YES.
7. The character I’d want to be like: Tohru. Tohru, Tohru, Tohru, no questions asked. She felt other people’s pain so much and loved them all, she had room in her heart for everyone, while still having her special person. She was kind and caring, she wanted to help everyone, she loved. She loved life, her friends, her special person, all the little things and comforts of life. That always gets to me.
8. The character I’d slap: Kazuma, maybe. DO NOT START A RELATIONSHIP WITH A TEENAGE GIRL, THAT IS GROSS. I love him dearly otherwise, but, no, that’s g r o s s.
9. A pairing that I love: KYOU/TOHRU OTP FOREVER. FOREVERRRRRR. They loved each other so much and they were so sweet together and they had such intense feelings and UGH I WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY FOREVER OMG IMAGINE KYOU AS A FATHER AND TOHRU AS A MOTHER UGH FEELINGS. I shipped a lot of Furuba pairings (Yuki/Machi, Kakeru/Yuki, Shigure/Akito, Hatsuharu/Rin, Hatori/Mayuko, more I’m forgetting), but I always had a special fondness for Hatori/Ayame, too. Cheerful, chattering Ayame with the most inane babble plus stoic Hatori who was so very put upon but never showed it, yet they had all that intense history together and Ayame was so in love with him? I was all over that.
10. A pairing that I despise: Ayame/Mine. I imagine a good author could do more with it, but that pairing just came out of nowhere and really felt like a slap in the face after all the queer baiting Takaya did. Like, no way can you tell me that Ayame was IN LOVE WITH Hatori! She did the same thing with Hatsuharu/Rin, but there she gave the reader time to fall in love with Rin as a character and the relationship between those characters. Ayame and Mine only came with the flimsiest of excuses, like, oh, they were hiding it because of Akito, but, no, really, they were in love this whole time! No, you have to show your work better than that for me, Takaya.
