Wow, there is so much to say, so much to say, and this was such an awesome post!
I think this is story-telling at its best. Takaya makes us feel sympathetically for each and every one of her characters (I mean, even the bad guy in Mogeta has his own set of issues). They are all real people, living in a real world, and they all have very real issues to contend with (it makes me wonder if Takaya is a psychology major, or something such. Her grasp on people is amazing).
Shigure is what drew me to Furuba. I started researching about Fruits Basket because it was one of the only manga series my library carried, and when I saw Shigure's picture, I thought "hmmm... I like him," and then I read about his relationship with Akito and went, "HMMM, I like this!" and decided to give it a shot (very unconventional way of coming across a manga series, I know), and I have loved him/them from the start.
Shigure is very manly and brave in a way that none of the other characters is. He knows who he is, though, sometimes, through his own skewered, biased magnifying glass through which he looks at himself, I think he misses some good within. It's easier to think of yourself as rotten and evil and twisted and the worst, because it makes it easier to do what you have to do, what nobody else will do, and that's how I view Shigure most of the time (though I'm afraid I'm probably misreading him and giving him too much credit). He has done some terrible things, and even he himself is surprised that "everything is coming through so cleanly," but everything he is doing works (but, does the end justify the means? In his mind, it seems so. What is the reader supposed to think?)
I tend to go with the theory that Akito sleeping with Kureno is what finally "turned him to the dark side" (*loves using StarWars phrases in random conversation*) Child!Shigure seems so tender and sweet, so gentle yet beyond sharp for his years. How did that child become the man we know? The why is easy to answer: he wanted Akito, and he couldn't fully have her, not when he had to share her with all those people, not when she didn't see herself as who she really was, so he had to find a way to make that happen.
Akito had been deceived so many times and, for all the cruelty directed at her by several people, she was sheltered from many truths and, mostly, from the truth of what her actions were doing, to others, and to herself. When Akira died and they gave her that box, they lost an amazing chance of making her face the truth. Then it happened again with Kureno (and it happened over and over again when her whims were met at other people's expense. It was the bond doing it, most of the times, but how could Shigure fight her like he did? And this thought has just occurred to me. He actively fought her, maybe because he had a greater wish. Maybe that's what the others needed to break the curse, too? Please, excuse the crazyness in my thread of thought... It's early and I'm watching makeup commercials on TV ;-) ) When Kureno decided to stay with her and conceal his release from the others, when he slept with her, he destroyed a priceless chance of making Akito snap out of it. He did just what everybody else had done, for all of her life: keep her from facing the music. And Shigure retaliated. Yes, because this time it wasn't just sheltering her; Akito was going away. Away from him, and into another man's arms, and that was more than he could bear. And, oh, what a vengeance! Everything became very twisted from then on.
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I think this is story-telling at its best. Takaya makes us feel sympathetically for each and every one of her characters (I mean, even the bad guy in Mogeta has his own set of issues). They are all real people, living in a real world, and they all have very real issues to contend with (it makes me wonder if Takaya is a psychology major, or something such. Her grasp on people is amazing).
Shigure is what drew me to Furuba. I started researching about Fruits Basket because it was one of the only manga series my library carried, and when I saw Shigure's picture, I thought "hmmm... I like him," and then I read about his relationship with Akito and went, "HMMM, I like this!" and decided to give it a shot (very unconventional way of coming across a manga series, I know), and I have loved him/them from the start.
Shigure is very manly and brave in a way that none of the other characters is. He knows who he is, though, sometimes, through his own skewered, biased magnifying glass through which he looks at himself, I think he misses some good within. It's easier to think of yourself as rotten and evil and twisted and the worst, because it makes it easier to do what you have to do, what nobody else will do, and that's how I view Shigure most of the time (though I'm afraid I'm probably misreading him and giving him too much credit). He has done some terrible things, and even he himself is surprised that "everything is coming through so cleanly," but everything he is doing works (but, does the end justify the means? In his mind, it seems so. What is the reader supposed to think?)
I tend to go with the theory that Akito sleeping with Kureno is what finally "turned him to the dark side" (*loves using StarWars phrases in random conversation*) Child!Shigure seems so tender and sweet, so gentle yet beyond sharp for his years. How did that child become the man we know? The why is easy to answer: he wanted Akito, and he couldn't fully have her, not when he had to share her with all those people, not when she didn't see herself as who she really was, so he had to find a way to make that happen.
Akito had been deceived so many times and, for all the cruelty directed at her by several people, she was sheltered from many truths and, mostly, from the truth of what her actions were doing, to others, and to herself. When Akira died and they gave her that box, they lost an amazing chance of making her face the truth. Then it happened again with Kureno (and it happened over and over again when her whims were met at other people's expense. It was the bond doing it, most of the times, but how could Shigure fight her like he did? And this thought has just occurred to me. He actively fought her, maybe because he had a greater wish. Maybe that's what the others needed to break the curse, too? Please, excuse the crazyness in my thread of thought... It's early and I'm watching makeup commercials on TV ;-) ) When Kureno decided to stay with her and conceal his release from the others, when he slept with her, he destroyed a priceless chance of making Akito snap out of it. He did just what everybody else had done, for all of her life: keep her from facing the music. And Shigure retaliated. Yes, because this time it wasn't just sheltering her; Akito was going away. Away from him, and into another man's arms, and that was more than he could bear. And, oh, what a vengeance! Everything became very twisted from then on.