Fruit Basket and cats' places in religion

[thistlechaser]

(The first part is muchly about anime, but in the third paragraph it wanders off into the land of cat-hating gods and men.)

Funny how you can fall in love with a series so quickly. Though the version of Fruit Basket I have is dubbed (which is usually enough to keep me from watching something) I loved it. I even love the dubbed voices!

Unfortunately I have only the first 12 of the 24 (26?) eps. I looked into buying the rest, but man! $30 for a 4 ep CD? That's insane! ...or I could get it on eBay. Hello land of Hong Kong bootlegs! Blech, no thanks! Luckily it looks as if anime-4ever might be getting the rest BTed at some point.

Since these are .ogm files, I have to watch them on one of my lesser players... this is too bad as I totally love Kyo (the cat boy). I wish I could make some screenshots so I could whip up an icon or two.

Another reason I love Fruit Basket is the backstory -- about the cat being left out. One of my favorite books is The Cat Who Went to Heaven. I was obsessed with this story when I was a kid: It tells the tale of why no cat will never go to heaven (because long ago one was too independent to pay homage to Buddha), and a painter who had to choose between doing what he's ordered to do and the love for his pet cat (letting her die happily). It's partially responsible for my current feelings towards religion -- it made me question a lot of things... but it made me really sad about humanity in general, too. (How could anyone make someone act against the best interests of their beloved pet? How could a religion ask that of someone? And how in the world could a religion claim that (if there is a heaven at all) that the animals we love won't be there? Do these people not understand how much someone can love a pet? That it could be just as strong as the love you feel for another human?)

So anyway, I got that connection with the Fruit Basket cat character right off the bat: BOOM! My heart went out to him. (The anime explained that back when the world was new, Rat tricked Cat and told him the wrong day for God's big party, thus Cat missed out and will never become a member of the Chinese zodiac.) The main characters/family in Fruit Basket are cursed to turn into the animals from the zodiac, so of course the guy who turns into a cat is always left out and angsts left and right.

If you're interested in the first 12 eps, leave a comment and I'll try to hunt down the BT link again. Both the anime series and The Cat Who Went to Heaven are muchly recommended! The anime had me giggling through very ep (all three that I've seen so far) and the book made me cry lots.

Comments

[morinotokei.livejournal.com]

*grins* We really do have similar tastes in anime (except, um, you don't like the weird stuff). ^^ Apparently you can get the entire series here (http://www.boxtorrents.com/torrents-browse.php?page=10), but I have no idea about the quality. The copy I have is on VHS, and I'd been considering downloading it from here so I could have it on cd-r. I love Kyou to death, and I really like Haru too.

[sociofemme.livejournal.com]

That book! I cried so much. Buckets!

Loved it. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! I tried to check boxtorrents for it earlier, but they were down or something was wrong with my ISP. Cool! Downloading it now, yay!

*grins* We really do have similar tastes in anime (except, um, you don't like the weird stuff). ^^

*laughs* Yeah, but think about how spooky it would be if we liked exactly the same stuff! So maybe it's good I don't like the weird things so much. ;)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah! Now that I've dug it out of my bookcase, I'll probably end up reading it again... sobbing, here I come!

:)

[ze-dragon.livejournal.com]

Fruits Basket! I love that anime so much, and just had to pop in here and show my icon. :)

Kyo is my absolute favorite of that age group. Hatori for the older, and Kisa for the younger. :) Do tell what you think of the rest of the series when you're done. I just finished rewatching it a few days ago myself.

/relurks

[babycakesin.livejournal.com]

I love Fruits Basket - although I'm reading the manga rather than watching the anime... I've seen the anime though.

I love Kyo (so sad! so funny! I just love his moves, his behavior, everything). Bad fangirling mode, sorry lol

just how far along in the series are you?

[hamburger.livejournal.com]

I actually bought the first volume of the Fruits Basket manga when out in Illinois, and did find it rather amusing. I'm not sure how much I like it yet, so I'm probably going to have to give it one or two more volumes to win me over. It'd odd, but I really seem to swing in the direction of older stuff. Ah, well. (Under one month 'til Anime Boston! Woo!)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The manga is that old? I believe the anime was from 2002, so that's pretty new-ish. Well, hope you do end up liking it!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*laughs* No such thing as 'bad fangirling mode'! It's all good! :)

just how far along in the series are you?

Not too far yet, Kyo just went to school for the first time.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Eee! Love the icon! And I will! :)

[babycakesin.livejournal.com]

so you haven't met Hatori and Ayame yet - they're really cool, but totally different - you'll know them when you meet them lol

[hamburger.livejournal.com]

Uh... I should have mentioned I was in Illinois early last month. ;)