Geek Out Challenge: Day 2

Like I mentioned yesterday, I’m joining Megan over at A Geeky Gal with her Geek Out challenge and so we’re here with the Day 2 prompt.

Day 2 – What is your most recent fandom?

Oh, that’s really hard. I can’t say Young Justice because I liked it before. I only recently decided to go back and get to season three because it’s currently being released. Megan’s answer, you can find out here.

I mean, I guess I could say the Fruits Basket Reboot. I loved the original manga and I recently wrote about how I binge read the whole thing in about 12 hours again. I’m just a few episodes behind in the reboot but I have been trying to remain as up to date as possible. Why do I love it? There’s so much I could say but let’s start with the basics.

The Cast

I originally watched this dubbed. The first version of the anime, I mean. I was a huge fan of dub actors at the time and I wanted to support them. While this show didn’t feature my ultimate dub actor (Travis Willingham), it did feature Laura Bailey, whom I already appreciated for her work as Lust in FMA. The fact they kept announcing comebacks for the dubbed version of the new series filled me with such emotion, I knew that I was only going to watch the dubbed version.

The Story and Its Characters

Tohru as a heroine to me was someone I could relate to. I too am extremely spaced out and derpy. Sometimes what seems super obvious sails over my head too. It’s not all of it though. This story, these characters, were all wonderful. They had depth, they grew, they ached, and their development was an amazing journey to witness. I remember how Momiji disappeared for a couple of chapters and then he was all grown up.

Kisa from being all quiet and hiding to slowly being able to open up to the world. Ayame and Yuki bonding as brothers in their strange way, Kagura realizing that she was selfishly putting on a band-aid on the real problem she had with Kyo. Shigure being of course, a master manipulator for one purpose alone.

The Art

Honestly, one of the things that made Fruits Basket stand out to teen me in Borders with that birthday money I was trying to burn was that it involved the Chinese Zodiac. I was really invested in that at the time. As I started looking through the pages, wondering what to take the art struck me second. I thought it was amazing.

Then over the years as I kept buying volumes regularly before Borders closed, I saw Natsuki Takaya’s art improve. When Borders closed, I wept and moved to reading the series online after I realized it had ended and people were sharing links to read it. When I saw the art for the new series was more towards the manga’s style than the original, I remember squealing in joy as I saw the art coming out.

That image from the trailer just made me well up in tears and I couldn’t wait for it to begin. This show has held onto my thirty one year old self and hasn’t let go. I can’t wait for the show to continue forward…but I have to definitely get more tissues for what’s coming next.

Anyone wanna share?