Fruits Basket makes no qualms about it—a love triangle is in full swing from the beginning of the series. Tohru hasn’t demonstrated any sort of particular romantic interest in either Kyo or Yuki, as per the course for the main characters of romcoms and series featuring harems or reverse harems, but Kyo and Yuki are certainly both affected by her, blushing like school girls when she shows them attention, and taking her words to heart and changing for the better.
As one who never finished the manga series, and a romantic at heart, I’ve been looking forward to seeing how the triangle plays out. But then this weekend, a pretty heavy spoiler popped up on my Tumblr feed. I was not at all ready for it as I hadn’t seen anything Fruits Basket-related on my dashboard in years. But, there it was, a manga cap that was pretty spoilerific.
I was a little mad at first. Didn’t this person know that the series has relaunched? It’s basically brand-new. The rules of spoilers apply like in any other currently-running series.
But after some consideration, I wondered…are there really any spoiler rules at all? Generally, with a TV show, you give folks, what, 24-48 hours before going hog wild with spoilers? And with on-going shows, you at least mark spoilers that are from the source material. But as social media continues to expand, spoilers become more and more inevitable—not everyone considers the impact of spoilers and a lot of people just don’t care. And ultimately, we’re talking about etiquette and suggestions for social media users when it comes to posing spoilers—it’s my own my responsibility if I want to avoid them. I control my own actions.
And maybe that’s what made me angriest. I’m an expert when it comes to browsing with eyes half-open when I know spoilers might be lurking. But I led my guard down in this case. I failed. And it’s harder to live with that admission than with blaming someone else for posting reactions to their favorite show, spoilers or not.
What are your thoughts on spoilers? Are there certain rules you think others should follow when posting them?
If I write a post that contains spoilers, I try to give an indication up front. Same thing with Tweets (though the character limit can be an issue). I even hesitate to post a spoiler without warning if the show is years old. There are series I’ve been meaning to watch for years, and I know I’m not alone; so I try to be courteous.
Failure’s real! But I try not to ruin anyone’s enjoyment.
You’re so nice! 😆
I’m question how much spoilers really affect one’s enjoyment of a story. I often read the spoiler-loaded TV Tropes for an anime (or the manga or light / visual novel it’s based on) to get a sense of a show’s content and whether it’s something I want to watch. For anime where I did so versus anime where I did not do so, I can’t honestly say there was much difference in how much I enjoyed the shows. I’m inclined to believe that aside from some Agatha Christie novels, the works of fiction where “spoilers” can really ruin one’s enjoyment are quite rare. I halfway suspect that being anti-spoiler is a sort of internet fad, where it’s fashionable to fancy oneself as a defender of courtesy and a connoisseur of the “pure” show/movie/book experience. But perhaps that’s unfair and there really are people who find stories vastly more enjoyable when they’re spoiler-free.
Let me ask: do you honestly believe your enjoyment of Fruits Basket will be noticeably diminished because of this spoiler you encountered?
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