Awkward Gentleness
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For the Sohma Kyou and Honda Tohru fanlisting, I wanted both a new name and a new look — I had started the fanlisting when I had already watched the Japanese animation Fruits Basket but have only started on reading the manga, hence while I knew a bit about the relationship between the characters Kyou and Tohru, by the time the manga ended I knew a lot more and was “with them” for a longer time. Plus, since the manga had just ended, I thought it was an appropriate time for a makeover; the shrine’s look had not been updated since its opening!
I wanted to focus more on the manga art this time around as the manga storyline was more developed than the anime storyline, plus I felt that the greyscale tones of the manga lent itself well to a bit more leeway with the look that I wanted, which was to highlight the interplay between shadows and light: Kyou’s shadowed past and future with Tohru who was optimistic and served as inspiration to almost all who met her.
Hence I used two manga images as the main layout image: Kyou half-hidden in the shadows, and Tohru clear and well-defined in the light. To further emphasize their difference, I added a curly brace for Tohru and sharp, jagged polygons for Kyou. A few small manga scenes of Tohru and Kyou looking at each other completed the header image. Various juunishi/onigiri GIFs lifted from various Fruits Basket artbooks also peppered the layout headings and footers.
Screenshots
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