Post by Slinky on Mar 1, 2008 19:00:42 GMT -5
Fruits Basket, or Furuba, is one of "famous five" that pretty much everyone whose into anime should know about. If you've never heard of it, I highly recommend you start reading, or watching it. I've yet to watch the anime ( I believe it differs highly from the manga ) but read the manga, and the art is gorgeous
Furuba had hundreds of wonderful charactersm and I've tried to add in all of them
And God bless Wiki for their information (pictures will come soon)
~~
Plot:
Fruits Basket follows the life of the student Tohru Honda, who was recently orphaned when her mother, Kyoko Honda, died in a car accident. After that, Tohru lived with her grandfather, but when remodelling is needed on the house, Tohru resorts to living in a tent and holds down a job to support herself. Despite suffering many hardships, Tohru remains optimistic.
One day, Tohru comes upon a house in the forest that she is temporarily living in which is the home of Shigure Sohma and fellow classmate Yuki Sohma, of the Sohma family. When the Sohmas discover that Tohru is living in a tent, they are quite surprised and let her stay with them
One thing lead to another, and soon Tohru stumbles upon the Sohma Family Curse. When ever one of the members is hugged by somebody of the opposite sex, they transform into one of the animals of the zodiac
The story follows the lives of Tohru and the Sohma family, as they deal with each other and a society where neither quite fits in, as well as the feared Akito Sohma, head of the Sohma family. Soon, after living with the Sohma family she began to like, then love all of the Sohmas
~~
Characters:
The Outsiders
Tohru, the "onigiri"
An orphaned high school student, Tohru ends up living in the same house with Shigure, Yuki and Kyo Sohma. She loves to cook, is an excellent housekeeper, and has an after school job as a custodian to help pay her tuition fees (since she doesn't want to bother her grandfather or her "house mates") She is always polite, and is extremely kind, loving, and naive; in fact, the other characters, out of brotherly concern, usually have to tell her that she needs to look out for her own interests. She wishes to understand the Sohma curse and break it if she can.
~
Kyoko, the "Red Butterfly"
The late mother of Tohru Honda. When she was young, Kyoko caused trouble and cut classes, and was disowned by her parents. She was also the leader of an all-female b¨s¨zoku gang/suicide squad called 'The Red Butterfly (Suicide Squad)', the name originating from the legend of how the tail lights on her bicycle trailed like a bright red butterfly when she rode at night. However, Kyoko later moved on and got a job. She fell in love with a student teacher named Katsuya Honda which contributed to her leaving her gang. They shortly married and had a daughter ¡ª Tohru. She died in a car crash shortly after Tohru started high school.
~
Katsuya
The late father of Tohru Honda and husband of Kyoko Honda. He met Kyoko while student teaching at her middle school. He helped her set aside her gangster lifestyle and straighten her life out. The two fell in love and were married, despite the eight-year age gap between them. Three years after Tohru was born, Katsuya died of pneumonia while on a business trip.
Katsuya is often mistaken for Kyo¡¯s father
~
Arisa, the "Fish"
Arisa is a former gang member (a "yankee"; a Japanese version of the American "thug" image) and has been one of Tohru's closest friends since Tohru's mother helped her escape from the gang (called "The Ladies") when she wanted to leave it.
Arisa is tough, brash, and sometimes violent but cries easily when it comes to her friends. She wears long skirts, carries a lead pipe, and often speaks like a man (in Japanese, different word choices can categorise a speaker as male or female). Arisa likes to play cards, protect Tohru from Yuki's fangirls, and swim.
Her "convoluted" personality stems from home problems early in her life, when her mother left Arisa and her father for another man; her father became an alcoholic after his rejection. This caused Arisa to become harsh and jaded in her views of the world until she met the kind Tohru and her mother, Kyoko. With her overprotective and rather "parental" protection of Tohru with Hana-chan, she comes off as the brash and direct "father" figure.
Arise falls in love with Kureno ( the rooster ) when they meet in a grocery store. In the manga, a fish image appears when she talks
~
Saki, the "flower"
Saki is a psychic girl with a goth-like appearance who has the ability to sense people's "auras" and send out electric waves (denpa in Japanese). Much like Arisa, Saki is extremely protective of Tohru, who was the first person in school who had truly accepted her.
She is very observant, polite, and loves to eat (and is rarely seen not eating outside of school). Her nickname is Hana-chan, and her manga symbol is a small flower (hana means "flower" in Japanese). Hanajima has a close relationship to her family who accept and even nurture her gifts (her younger brother, Megumi, looks up to Hanajima, has his own special ability). Her mother seems to resemble Tohru's protective and caring nature (maybe explaining her attachment to Tohru). In the near "parental" protection she and Arisa give Tohru, she acts as the protective "motherly" figure.
When Kazuma comes in for Kyo's parent/teacher conference, Hana notes that he is "handsome". Kyo is not too keen on the idea of Saki as his "mother".
~
The Sohma Family
Akito, "God"
Akito is the head of the Sohma clan and very frail. She often runs fevers and rarely walks out of the main house other than to greet some of the Zodiac members, such as Yuki and Shigure, that live in the outside world.
Akito has a definite mean streak, and has physically and emotionally scarred many members of the Sohma family, but Akito's rule in the Sohma clan is absolute, and none dare oppose her. When Akito's mother learned she would be born female; she threatened to kill the baby if her father didn't agree to raise Akito as a boy.
While Akito isn't cursed by any of the vengeful spirits (mononoke) of the Zodiac, she has been revealed to be the one fulfilling the role of the Jade Emperor, a character borrowed from the stories about the origins of the Chinese Zodiac.
At a certain point in the Zodiac's lives, Akito wishes to force them to live within the Sohma compound with her for the rest of their lives in a never-ending "banquet." She even describes herself as the "master of their (the Zodiac's) souls". She hates Tohru most of all, since everyone seems to love and protect her.
In the manga, in one of the chapters, it is revealed by Kureno to Torhu that Akito is actually a female, but she was brought up as a boy. The only Sohmas who knew about this were Kureno himself and Shigure.
~
Kyo, the "Cat"
Kyo is the cat, an animal not in the zodiac, but which legend says would have been if it had not been tricked by the rat into missing the induction feast. Kyo hates Yuki and has dedicated his life to defeating him. He made a bet with Akito: if he defeats Yuki before high school ends, he'll officially be accepted along with the other Jyuunishi by the Sohmas. If he does not, however, Kyo would be forced to live "inside", the Sohma estate for the rest of his life.
Despite many months of strict training, Kyo has never managed to even land a decent blow on Yuki. Kyo runs away even from the people that want to help him, because he is ashamed of his true form (a deformed, grotesque, and larger version of his zodiac animal), which he turns into when his rosary bead bracelet is removed, when they are removed and it's raining it's at the worst. When Tohru sees his true form, however, she still accepts him and begs him stay with her, which forms a bond of sorts between the two.
Kyo is blamed for the death of his mother, who committed suicide. He blames himself for the death of Tohru's mother, who he could have saved from the car at the risk of turning into a cat. He was shaken by this, along with Kyoko's last words, "I'll never forgive you..." which he took the wrong way. He puts on a brave mask to impress the world, but only wants to be accepted. It has been revealed that Kyo is in love with Tohru, and it looks like she might fancy him as well.
~
Yuki, the "Rat"
Yuki is the rat of the zodiac. Known as "Prince Charming" or "Prince Yuki" at school, Yuki is very attractive and refined, but has a hard time being social. He wishes that he could be with people as friends, rather than admired and worshiped from afar, no thanks to his infamous PYFC (Prince Yuki Fan Club). Yuki has suffered a traumatic childhood at the hands of Akito, who ritually locked him away mentally tortured him.
Because of this, Yuki has a somewhat low sense of worth and is claustrophobic. He is secretly jealous of Kyo because he thinks Kyo can have a normal life and relationships with people, not being officially part of the Zodiac, which is something Yuki has always wanted. He has a shaky relationship with his older brother, Ayame (the snake), because he feels he was abandoned by him as a child, and that now Ayame is too carefree and obnoxious to be bothered with.
He sees a ¡®mother¡¯ in Tohru, yet tried to think of those feelings as romantic. However, as time goes on, he¡¯s unable to fall in love with her, and soon has feelings for Machi ( student body secretary )
~
Shigure, the "Dog"
Dog of the zodiac and the owner of the house where he, Tohru, Yuki and Kyo live. Shigure is extremely lazy and perverted, and, when Ayame visits, (the snake of the Zodiac) they enjoy greeting each other like lovers.
He is a writer who writes both academic books and trashy romance novels under many pen names. His most common and celebrated is "Karitani Noa" from his erotic "Summer-Colored Sky" novel. He loves to drive his editor, whom he affectionately calls "Mit-chan", to tears by feigning the non-completion of his work, sleeping in late, and smoking cigarettes.
Shigure is also very caring and admits to being the "dirtiest of all" because he is willing to use or sacrifice anyone to get what he wants. In the manga it has been revealed that Shigure has deep feelings for Akito, but was upset that Akito chose Kureno instead of him, so as revenge, he slept with Ren, Akito's mother.
At the beginning it is revealed that Shigure is using Tohru because he knows that the bond of the curse is weakening (all members of the Zodiac are alive, the rooster's curse has already been lifted, and the dragon's transformation is incomplete) and wants to use Tohru to further weaken the bond and stir things up.
~
Kagura, the "Boar"
Kagura is the boar of the zodiac. She has been in love with Kyo since they were young, although she doesn't know that Kyo is in love with her friend, Tohru Honda. Because of her "pity" of him as a child, when he was all alone because he carried the curse of the cat, she played with and took care of him. Eventually, it developed into a near-obsessive love for him.
She is convinced she will marry him, mainly because she threatened him into proposing to her, at age 7 (with knives in the manga, or a boulder in the anime to a 5-year old Kyo), and partly because she thinks that they belong together because they can hug each other without transforming into their zodiac form.
Despite this love, she often loses her head and beats him senseless when he does something to anger her or make her anxious. As one of the only three female members of the zodiac, she is able to hug any of the male members and neither she nor they transform. She lives with her mother, who is perfectly okay with Kagura's double-edged personality, and Rin. Kagura seemingly is the only female member of the zodiac that has not been personally hurt by Akito.
~
Kisa, the "Tiger"
Kisa is the tiger of the zodiac. She is very shy, cute, and withdrawn, largely because her classmates harass and ostracise her due to her naturally orange hair, a side effect of her curse of the tiger.
In Japanese society, non-black hair is considered "disrespectful" or "unnatural" and being made fun of for this reason is really quite normal.
Tohru helps her to come out of her shell, and she develops quite an attachment to Tohru, calling her "big sister", or "onee-chan". She loves omelettes and dislikes dry foods and loves an anime series called "Mogeta". Usually seen around Hiro or Momiji, she sometimes gets mad at Hiro and doesn't want to be around him because of the way he treats Tohru. Her mother is extremely protective of her and worries about her often.
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Hiro, the "Ram"
Hiro, the sheep of the zodiac, is a very intelligent but verbally aggressive and smart-mouthed sophist. He is in love with Kisa, and resents Tohru because she unwittingly monopolises Kisa's time and attention.
He starts out hostile to Tohru, but eventually eases his initial attitude through a combination of grudging admiration for Tohru and Kisa telling him to let up. He is sarcastic and pessimistic. In the manga, Hiro's annoyance with Tohru might result from her resemblance to his pregnant mother in her forgetfulness and childlike happy personality.
~
Hatori, the "Dragon"
"Haa-san" The dragon of the Zodiac and the private doctor to the Sohma clan, Hatori is serious, and often without a sense of humour. It is his job to erase the memories of those who discover the Sohma clan secret, though it is not entirely clear if this is simply a form of hypnosis, or more of a supernatural power.
When his curse activates, he turns into a seahorse rather than an actual dragon, because the Chinese consider the seahorse to be baby dragons and the actual name in Japanese translates to it. He is very self-conscious about his transformation in the fact that he is the "great and powerful dragon" but appears as a "seahorse".
He has had a bad experience in love with his "Spring", a woman named Kana who was the assistant in his doctor's office. The relationship ended when Hatori asked Akito to give him permission to marry Kana. In response, Akito threw a nearby vase at Hatori and left him almost blind in his left eye. Kana felt so guilty about the incident and blamed herself so completely that she was driven insane with depression. Hatori was forced to erase her memory to ease her suffering.
Like Shigure and Ayame, he is very tall, and he is really a nice guy upon deeper inspection. It is unsure whether he is dating Tohru's teacher and Kana's best friend, Mayuko Shiraki.
~
Ayame, the "Snake"
"Ayaa-chan" The snake of the zodiac, and big brother to Yuki, Ayame is vivacious, garrulous, and has a knack for making Yuki and Kyo angry. He runs a business that makes women's clothing, which men apparently wear as well, and he often wears women's clothing himself. He named his shop after himself and runs it with Mine, who is later revealed to be Ayame's girlfriend and the seamstress of the store. Ayame designs the dresses, erotic as some or all of them may be.
Vain and somewhat self-conscious, he is really a thoughtful person underneath his "selective" skin. He has gorgeous gold eyes, and silver hair in a startling contrast to Yuki's violet and grey. His fear, coincidentally, is a fear of being totally alone. Much to Yuki's chagrin and surprise, he was actually the student body president in high school. When Ayame was young, he did not care for Yuki at all until he realised that when he got older; he would be totally alone without Yuki, spurring his new obsession to gaining Yuki's love shown in the series. Yuki has slowly started to accept Ayame as a brother.
~
Hatsuharu, the "Ox"
The ox of the Zodiac, Haru has something of a Yin and Yang personality related to the Ox's personality. He is usually calm, placid, and otherwise an all-around nice guy, but can be goaded into "stampeding", where he's edgy and mean and slightly oversexed.
"White" Haru is conscious during his "black" transformation, but is unable to do anything about it. He just either apologises or doesn't care. Additionally, Haru has a rather bad sense of direction; he had become lost for three days in another town after trying to find Kyo so he could challenge him. He likes to make fun of Kyo passively and wants to fight with him on a regular basis. He is in love with Rin Sohma and tried having a relationship with her, behind Akito¡¯s back
~
Momiji, the "Rabbit"
A cute and seemingly happy teenager with a sad family life that he hides behind his cheery demeanour. His endless whining and crying often annoys Kyo. He is older than he looks, much to Tohru's surprise. Momiji is the rabbit of the Zodiac and is the son of one of the richer members of the Sohma family. His father is Japanese while Momiji's mother is
German.¡¡(She speaks German in the original. She cannot speak German in the anime.)
Tohru unwittingly cleans Momiji's father's building for her job. He has a younger sister, Momo. Momo is unaware of the fact that she has an older brother. Her mom's memory of Momiji was erased because otherwise she might slip into utter madness. Momiji is actually very insightful and emotionally strong despite his upbringing. He took to Tohru very quickly, even ignoring the fact that he was a Zodiac and hugged her when they were formally introduced.
Much to Kyo's horror, Momiji likes to wear the girl's version of their high school uniform, albeit with short shorts and not a skirt. Momiji also develops feelings for Tohru
~
Ritsu, the "Monkey"
The monkey of the zodiac, "Rit-chan" has very, very low self-esteem and is often seen apologising for everything. He takes after his mother, the hostess of a hot spring that the Sohmas own. He dresses like a woman because he feels less pressure from society, and is often mistaken as a woman because of his long hair and unusually convincing beauty for a man.
Ritsu often blames things on himself that have nothing to do with him, and occasionally becomes suicidal. In addition to this, he has an even odder quirk of having some sort of "special" spot on his side that, when pressed, makes him keel over and faint. Shigure likes to play with his odd personality and mess with Ritsu's insecurities on a regular basis. Most Sohmas call him "Rit-chan" and to Shigure's amusement, Tohru calls him "Rit-chan-san" because in the third book tankoubon Momiji referred to Ritsu as "Rit-chan-san". Apparently, the nickname stuck. Interestingly enough, in the manga, when Ritsu shows up, we see that he may develop a romantic relationship with Shigure's editor Mii-chan.
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Isuzu "Rin", the "Horse"
Isuzu is the horse of the Chinese Zodiac (Jyuunishi). She is often called Rin by a few members of the family because 'suzu' translates to "small bell" in Japanese, and 'Rin' is the sound a small bell makes. Apparently, she and Hatsuharu used to have a close sexual relationship together, until Akito found out about it and injured Rin severely by pushing her out of a window, causing her to be admitted to the hospital for some time. Hatsuharu visited her while she was in the hospital, but Rin broke up with Hatsuharu, not giving a reason why, though it is later known that she didn't want him to be hurt by Akito if they continued the relationship.
Rin and Hatsuharu end up getting back together later on in the story. Rin's character is cold and angst-ridden. She thinks of Tohru Honda as an annoyance to the Sohmas, but eventually warms up to her little by little because of the kindness Tohru gives in return. She grows as protective to Tohru as the others and quickly becomes angry when someone upsets Tohru.
She only appears in the manga. Famous for her tough and independent nature and darkly exquisite sexiness within the Sohma family. Also, she is known for a trait of her zodiac animal: sheer stubbornness and independence. Anyone who usually tries to go against those feelings usually get a taste of Rin's stiletto-heel boots. Since she missed school Tohru seems to be her first friend. Unfortunately she doesn't know how to respond to that.
~
Kureno, the "Rooster"
The rooster of the Jyuunishi. He does not like others to see his animal form, which looks more like a swallow than a rooster. He has somehow lost the curse of the Jyuunishi. He was Akito's constant companion after Yuki. Akito likes to keep him away from the other members of the Zodiac, and Kureno is actually the only person Akito somehow trusts.
When he went to a convenience store, for the first time at the age of 26, he met Arisa. She developed a crush on him, but he stays away from her because he feels it is better if he does not love her back. At one time though in vol.17 Arisa hints out that she wants to see Kureno as she screamed for him to see her again during the Cinderella play in vol.15. When Kureno saw the DVD of it and saw Arisa as she screamed this he touched the screen of his computer as a sign of affection to Arisa as he also wants to see her too but cannot due to the fact that he has pledged loyalty forever to Akito.
He only appears in the manga. Was described by Arisa as a "male-version of Tohru" with his over-the-top politeness and scatterbrained idiosyncrasies. Kureno seems to be described as "broken-in" by some members of the Sohma family.
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Kazuma, the "Shishou"
When he was a child, Kazuma was mean to his grandfather, who was then the member of the Sohma family possessed by the cat of the Chinese Zodiac, during their first and only meeting simply because his grandfather was cursed by the cat.
Hoping to make amends for how he had treated his grandfather, he decided to take care of the young Kyo Sohma after Kyo's mother had committed suicide. He is Kyo's martial arts teacher, but is also an adoptive father to him. Kazuma thinks well of Tohru and hopes that her love for Kyo is sincere and that her relationship with Kyo will not mirror that of his grandfather and grandmother.
Kyo calls him Shishou which means "master". Kazuma has taught many of the other Sohmas martial arts, including Kagura, Yuki and Haru. He is also the one who showed Tohru Honda Kyo's true form
~
Ren
Akito's mother who only appears in the manga. She was originally a maid in the Sohma household who won Akira's heart by being the only one to notice his great loneliness and treat him with kindness instead of as just the head of the household. When she learned she was pregnant, however, she was afraid the baby would replace her in Akira's heart and demanded it be raised as a male. Before his death, Akira told Akito that he'd always wanted Ren to be the happiest about her birth because it was proof that his and Ren's relationship was special. His death further deepened the rift between Ren and Akito.
Ren and Akito are extremely antagonistic towards each other. When Akito slept with Kureno, Ren told Shigure and seduced him to infuriate Akito.
Ren continually claims that Akito's bond with the Jyuunishi is fake, rather than the true love Akito claims it to be in order to feed Akito's fear of being abandoned. Her cruel attitude towards Akito may explain Akito's fears of being unwanted and unloved and her tendency to lash out at the Jyuunishi at the slightest sign they may leave her.
~
School Board
Kakeru, "Black"
He is Machi Kuragi's half-brother. He is also on the Student Council President Board as Vice President and is very much like a younger version of Ayame Sohma. Rather lazy and charismatic, Manabe is a loveable person.
Manabe has since become good friends with Yuki and has proven to be very overprotective of Machi, especially when it comes to Yuki. He often loses control and starts yelling and throttling Yuki, not taking the time to think about what Yuki is really trying to say.
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Machi, "Red"
Kakeru's half-sister. Unlike most girls at school, she doesn't see Yuki as anything more than just another boy. Her refreshingly different attitude catches the eye of Yuki, and he makes multiple attempts at befriending her. She also appears to have a crush on Yuki, but is not obsessive about him like other girls. She seems to have difficulty expressing herself directly, which usually results in Kakeru making decisions for her.
Due to the intense pressure her mother placed on her to be perfect, Machi finds perfection extremely disturbing to the point of having to mar anything that could be considered perfect, such as walking through new-fallen snow and breaking pieces of chalk from a new box.
~
Kimi, "Pink"
She is one of the two student council secretaries and is a very manipulative yet interesting character. She appears at first as a very obviously deceiving girl who over-confidently tries to trick Yuki into sharing his chocolate, which was given to him by the Prince Yuki Fan Club members as a summer gift, with her.
Completely noticing Kimi's true intentions, Yuki suggests to Kimi to stop the way she is acting, and slowly, though hardly noticeable, begins to change. She is detested by the Prince Yuki Fanclub members for being such a deceiver, though not much has been seen of her and them since the chocolate incident. She is rather active in the student council. She appears to have a very strong sisterly relationship with the student council vice president, Kakeru Manabe.
Kimi refers to herself in the third person
~
Naohito, "Yellow"
Claiming to be Yuki's "rival", due to the fact that he has a secret crush on Motoko Minagawa who is the president of the Prince Yuki fan club, Naohito Sakuragi is the second of the two student council secretaries.
An utterly no-nonsense and rather arrogant young man, Naohito takes his job as secretary, as well as his general involvement in the student council, which he absolutely refuses to call "The School Defence Force", very proudly and seriously. Always angry and rather cold, as well as determined to defeat Yuki at almost everything, he could be described as similar to Kyo, though considerably less violent.
He works incredibly hard in the student council and often chooses to stay to work after school than do other fun things. He is sometimes referred to as 'Chibi-Suke'-'Chibi' meaning small or shrimpy, and 'suke' being a common masculine name-ending- by Kakeru Manabe and Kimi Toudou because he appears short and weak. The nickname literally means "Shrimpy Man".
Furuba had hundreds of wonderful charactersm and I've tried to add in all of them
And God bless Wiki for their information (pictures will come soon)
~~
Plot:
Fruits Basket follows the life of the student Tohru Honda, who was recently orphaned when her mother, Kyoko Honda, died in a car accident. After that, Tohru lived with her grandfather, but when remodelling is needed on the house, Tohru resorts to living in a tent and holds down a job to support herself. Despite suffering many hardships, Tohru remains optimistic.
One day, Tohru comes upon a house in the forest that she is temporarily living in which is the home of Shigure Sohma and fellow classmate Yuki Sohma, of the Sohma family. When the Sohmas discover that Tohru is living in a tent, they are quite surprised and let her stay with them
One thing lead to another, and soon Tohru stumbles upon the Sohma Family Curse. When ever one of the members is hugged by somebody of the opposite sex, they transform into one of the animals of the zodiac
The story follows the lives of Tohru and the Sohma family, as they deal with each other and a society where neither quite fits in, as well as the feared Akito Sohma, head of the Sohma family. Soon, after living with the Sohma family she began to like, then love all of the Sohmas
~~
Characters:
The Outsiders
Tohru, the "onigiri"
An orphaned high school student, Tohru ends up living in the same house with Shigure, Yuki and Kyo Sohma. She loves to cook, is an excellent housekeeper, and has an after school job as a custodian to help pay her tuition fees (since she doesn't want to bother her grandfather or her "house mates") She is always polite, and is extremely kind, loving, and naive; in fact, the other characters, out of brotherly concern, usually have to tell her that she needs to look out for her own interests. She wishes to understand the Sohma curse and break it if she can.
~
Kyoko, the "Red Butterfly"
The late mother of Tohru Honda. When she was young, Kyoko caused trouble and cut classes, and was disowned by her parents. She was also the leader of an all-female b¨s¨zoku gang/suicide squad called 'The Red Butterfly (Suicide Squad)', the name originating from the legend of how the tail lights on her bicycle trailed like a bright red butterfly when she rode at night. However, Kyoko later moved on and got a job. She fell in love with a student teacher named Katsuya Honda which contributed to her leaving her gang. They shortly married and had a daughter ¡ª Tohru. She died in a car crash shortly after Tohru started high school.
~
Katsuya
The late father of Tohru Honda and husband of Kyoko Honda. He met Kyoko while student teaching at her middle school. He helped her set aside her gangster lifestyle and straighten her life out. The two fell in love and were married, despite the eight-year age gap between them. Three years after Tohru was born, Katsuya died of pneumonia while on a business trip.
Katsuya is often mistaken for Kyo¡¯s father
~
Arisa, the "Fish"
Arisa is a former gang member (a "yankee"; a Japanese version of the American "thug" image) and has been one of Tohru's closest friends since Tohru's mother helped her escape from the gang (called "The Ladies") when she wanted to leave it.
Arisa is tough, brash, and sometimes violent but cries easily when it comes to her friends. She wears long skirts, carries a lead pipe, and often speaks like a man (in Japanese, different word choices can categorise a speaker as male or female). Arisa likes to play cards, protect Tohru from Yuki's fangirls, and swim.
Her "convoluted" personality stems from home problems early in her life, when her mother left Arisa and her father for another man; her father became an alcoholic after his rejection. This caused Arisa to become harsh and jaded in her views of the world until she met the kind Tohru and her mother, Kyoko. With her overprotective and rather "parental" protection of Tohru with Hana-chan, she comes off as the brash and direct "father" figure.
Arise falls in love with Kureno ( the rooster ) when they meet in a grocery store. In the manga, a fish image appears when she talks
~
Saki, the "flower"
Saki is a psychic girl with a goth-like appearance who has the ability to sense people's "auras" and send out electric waves (denpa in Japanese). Much like Arisa, Saki is extremely protective of Tohru, who was the first person in school who had truly accepted her.
She is very observant, polite, and loves to eat (and is rarely seen not eating outside of school). Her nickname is Hana-chan, and her manga symbol is a small flower (hana means "flower" in Japanese). Hanajima has a close relationship to her family who accept and even nurture her gifts (her younger brother, Megumi, looks up to Hanajima, has his own special ability). Her mother seems to resemble Tohru's protective and caring nature (maybe explaining her attachment to Tohru). In the near "parental" protection she and Arisa give Tohru, she acts as the protective "motherly" figure.
When Kazuma comes in for Kyo's parent/teacher conference, Hana notes that he is "handsome". Kyo is not too keen on the idea of Saki as his "mother".
~
The Sohma Family
Akito, "God"
Akito is the head of the Sohma clan and very frail. She often runs fevers and rarely walks out of the main house other than to greet some of the Zodiac members, such as Yuki and Shigure, that live in the outside world.
Akito has a definite mean streak, and has physically and emotionally scarred many members of the Sohma family, but Akito's rule in the Sohma clan is absolute, and none dare oppose her. When Akito's mother learned she would be born female; she threatened to kill the baby if her father didn't agree to raise Akito as a boy.
While Akito isn't cursed by any of the vengeful spirits (mononoke) of the Zodiac, she has been revealed to be the one fulfilling the role of the Jade Emperor, a character borrowed from the stories about the origins of the Chinese Zodiac.
At a certain point in the Zodiac's lives, Akito wishes to force them to live within the Sohma compound with her for the rest of their lives in a never-ending "banquet." She even describes herself as the "master of their (the Zodiac's) souls". She hates Tohru most of all, since everyone seems to love and protect her.
In the manga, in one of the chapters, it is revealed by Kureno to Torhu that Akito is actually a female, but she was brought up as a boy. The only Sohmas who knew about this were Kureno himself and Shigure.
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Kyo, the "Cat"
Kyo is the cat, an animal not in the zodiac, but which legend says would have been if it had not been tricked by the rat into missing the induction feast. Kyo hates Yuki and has dedicated his life to defeating him. He made a bet with Akito: if he defeats Yuki before high school ends, he'll officially be accepted along with the other Jyuunishi by the Sohmas. If he does not, however, Kyo would be forced to live "inside", the Sohma estate for the rest of his life.
Despite many months of strict training, Kyo has never managed to even land a decent blow on Yuki. Kyo runs away even from the people that want to help him, because he is ashamed of his true form (a deformed, grotesque, and larger version of his zodiac animal), which he turns into when his rosary bead bracelet is removed, when they are removed and it's raining it's at the worst. When Tohru sees his true form, however, she still accepts him and begs him stay with her, which forms a bond of sorts between the two.
Kyo is blamed for the death of his mother, who committed suicide. He blames himself for the death of Tohru's mother, who he could have saved from the car at the risk of turning into a cat. He was shaken by this, along with Kyoko's last words, "I'll never forgive you..." which he took the wrong way. He puts on a brave mask to impress the world, but only wants to be accepted. It has been revealed that Kyo is in love with Tohru, and it looks like she might fancy him as well.
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Yuki, the "Rat"
Yuki is the rat of the zodiac. Known as "Prince Charming" or "Prince Yuki" at school, Yuki is very attractive and refined, but has a hard time being social. He wishes that he could be with people as friends, rather than admired and worshiped from afar, no thanks to his infamous PYFC (Prince Yuki Fan Club). Yuki has suffered a traumatic childhood at the hands of Akito, who ritually locked him away mentally tortured him.
Because of this, Yuki has a somewhat low sense of worth and is claustrophobic. He is secretly jealous of Kyo because he thinks Kyo can have a normal life and relationships with people, not being officially part of the Zodiac, which is something Yuki has always wanted. He has a shaky relationship with his older brother, Ayame (the snake), because he feels he was abandoned by him as a child, and that now Ayame is too carefree and obnoxious to be bothered with.
He sees a ¡®mother¡¯ in Tohru, yet tried to think of those feelings as romantic. However, as time goes on, he¡¯s unable to fall in love with her, and soon has feelings for Machi ( student body secretary )
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Shigure, the "Dog"
Dog of the zodiac and the owner of the house where he, Tohru, Yuki and Kyo live. Shigure is extremely lazy and perverted, and, when Ayame visits, (the snake of the Zodiac) they enjoy greeting each other like lovers.
He is a writer who writes both academic books and trashy romance novels under many pen names. His most common and celebrated is "Karitani Noa" from his erotic "Summer-Colored Sky" novel. He loves to drive his editor, whom he affectionately calls "Mit-chan", to tears by feigning the non-completion of his work, sleeping in late, and smoking cigarettes.
Shigure is also very caring and admits to being the "dirtiest of all" because he is willing to use or sacrifice anyone to get what he wants. In the manga it has been revealed that Shigure has deep feelings for Akito, but was upset that Akito chose Kureno instead of him, so as revenge, he slept with Ren, Akito's mother.
At the beginning it is revealed that Shigure is using Tohru because he knows that the bond of the curse is weakening (all members of the Zodiac are alive, the rooster's curse has already been lifted, and the dragon's transformation is incomplete) and wants to use Tohru to further weaken the bond and stir things up.
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Kagura, the "Boar"
Kagura is the boar of the zodiac. She has been in love with Kyo since they were young, although she doesn't know that Kyo is in love with her friend, Tohru Honda. Because of her "pity" of him as a child, when he was all alone because he carried the curse of the cat, she played with and took care of him. Eventually, it developed into a near-obsessive love for him.
She is convinced she will marry him, mainly because she threatened him into proposing to her, at age 7 (with knives in the manga, or a boulder in the anime to a 5-year old Kyo), and partly because she thinks that they belong together because they can hug each other without transforming into their zodiac form.
Despite this love, she often loses her head and beats him senseless when he does something to anger her or make her anxious. As one of the only three female members of the zodiac, she is able to hug any of the male members and neither she nor they transform. She lives with her mother, who is perfectly okay with Kagura's double-edged personality, and Rin. Kagura seemingly is the only female member of the zodiac that has not been personally hurt by Akito.
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Kisa, the "Tiger"
Kisa is the tiger of the zodiac. She is very shy, cute, and withdrawn, largely because her classmates harass and ostracise her due to her naturally orange hair, a side effect of her curse of the tiger.
In Japanese society, non-black hair is considered "disrespectful" or "unnatural" and being made fun of for this reason is really quite normal.
Tohru helps her to come out of her shell, and she develops quite an attachment to Tohru, calling her "big sister", or "onee-chan". She loves omelettes and dislikes dry foods and loves an anime series called "Mogeta". Usually seen around Hiro or Momiji, she sometimes gets mad at Hiro and doesn't want to be around him because of the way he treats Tohru. Her mother is extremely protective of her and worries about her often.
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Hiro, the "Ram"
Hiro, the sheep of the zodiac, is a very intelligent but verbally aggressive and smart-mouthed sophist. He is in love with Kisa, and resents Tohru because she unwittingly monopolises Kisa's time and attention.
He starts out hostile to Tohru, but eventually eases his initial attitude through a combination of grudging admiration for Tohru and Kisa telling him to let up. He is sarcastic and pessimistic. In the manga, Hiro's annoyance with Tohru might result from her resemblance to his pregnant mother in her forgetfulness and childlike happy personality.
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Hatori, the "Dragon"
"Haa-san" The dragon of the Zodiac and the private doctor to the Sohma clan, Hatori is serious, and often without a sense of humour. It is his job to erase the memories of those who discover the Sohma clan secret, though it is not entirely clear if this is simply a form of hypnosis, or more of a supernatural power.
When his curse activates, he turns into a seahorse rather than an actual dragon, because the Chinese consider the seahorse to be baby dragons and the actual name in Japanese translates to it. He is very self-conscious about his transformation in the fact that he is the "great and powerful dragon" but appears as a "seahorse".
He has had a bad experience in love with his "Spring", a woman named Kana who was the assistant in his doctor's office. The relationship ended when Hatori asked Akito to give him permission to marry Kana. In response, Akito threw a nearby vase at Hatori and left him almost blind in his left eye. Kana felt so guilty about the incident and blamed herself so completely that she was driven insane with depression. Hatori was forced to erase her memory to ease her suffering.
Like Shigure and Ayame, he is very tall, and he is really a nice guy upon deeper inspection. It is unsure whether he is dating Tohru's teacher and Kana's best friend, Mayuko Shiraki.
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Ayame, the "Snake"
"Ayaa-chan" The snake of the zodiac, and big brother to Yuki, Ayame is vivacious, garrulous, and has a knack for making Yuki and Kyo angry. He runs a business that makes women's clothing, which men apparently wear as well, and he often wears women's clothing himself. He named his shop after himself and runs it with Mine, who is later revealed to be Ayame's girlfriend and the seamstress of the store. Ayame designs the dresses, erotic as some or all of them may be.
Vain and somewhat self-conscious, he is really a thoughtful person underneath his "selective" skin. He has gorgeous gold eyes, and silver hair in a startling contrast to Yuki's violet and grey. His fear, coincidentally, is a fear of being totally alone. Much to Yuki's chagrin and surprise, he was actually the student body president in high school. When Ayame was young, he did not care for Yuki at all until he realised that when he got older; he would be totally alone without Yuki, spurring his new obsession to gaining Yuki's love shown in the series. Yuki has slowly started to accept Ayame as a brother.
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Hatsuharu, the "Ox"
The ox of the Zodiac, Haru has something of a Yin and Yang personality related to the Ox's personality. He is usually calm, placid, and otherwise an all-around nice guy, but can be goaded into "stampeding", where he's edgy and mean and slightly oversexed.
"White" Haru is conscious during his "black" transformation, but is unable to do anything about it. He just either apologises or doesn't care. Additionally, Haru has a rather bad sense of direction; he had become lost for three days in another town after trying to find Kyo so he could challenge him. He likes to make fun of Kyo passively and wants to fight with him on a regular basis. He is in love with Rin Sohma and tried having a relationship with her, behind Akito¡¯s back
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Momiji, the "Rabbit"
A cute and seemingly happy teenager with a sad family life that he hides behind his cheery demeanour. His endless whining and crying often annoys Kyo. He is older than he looks, much to Tohru's surprise. Momiji is the rabbit of the Zodiac and is the son of one of the richer members of the Sohma family. His father is Japanese while Momiji's mother is
German.¡¡(She speaks German in the original. She cannot speak German in the anime.)
Tohru unwittingly cleans Momiji's father's building for her job. He has a younger sister, Momo. Momo is unaware of the fact that she has an older brother. Her mom's memory of Momiji was erased because otherwise she might slip into utter madness. Momiji is actually very insightful and emotionally strong despite his upbringing. He took to Tohru very quickly, even ignoring the fact that he was a Zodiac and hugged her when they were formally introduced.
Much to Kyo's horror, Momiji likes to wear the girl's version of their high school uniform, albeit with short shorts and not a skirt. Momiji also develops feelings for Tohru
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Ritsu, the "Monkey"
The monkey of the zodiac, "Rit-chan" has very, very low self-esteem and is often seen apologising for everything. He takes after his mother, the hostess of a hot spring that the Sohmas own. He dresses like a woman because he feels less pressure from society, and is often mistaken as a woman because of his long hair and unusually convincing beauty for a man.
Ritsu often blames things on himself that have nothing to do with him, and occasionally becomes suicidal. In addition to this, he has an even odder quirk of having some sort of "special" spot on his side that, when pressed, makes him keel over and faint. Shigure likes to play with his odd personality and mess with Ritsu's insecurities on a regular basis. Most Sohmas call him "Rit-chan" and to Shigure's amusement, Tohru calls him "Rit-chan-san" because in the third book tankoubon Momiji referred to Ritsu as "Rit-chan-san". Apparently, the nickname stuck. Interestingly enough, in the manga, when Ritsu shows up, we see that he may develop a romantic relationship with Shigure's editor Mii-chan.
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Isuzu "Rin", the "Horse"
Isuzu is the horse of the Chinese Zodiac (Jyuunishi). She is often called Rin by a few members of the family because 'suzu' translates to "small bell" in Japanese, and 'Rin' is the sound a small bell makes. Apparently, she and Hatsuharu used to have a close sexual relationship together, until Akito found out about it and injured Rin severely by pushing her out of a window, causing her to be admitted to the hospital for some time. Hatsuharu visited her while she was in the hospital, but Rin broke up with Hatsuharu, not giving a reason why, though it is later known that she didn't want him to be hurt by Akito if they continued the relationship.
Rin and Hatsuharu end up getting back together later on in the story. Rin's character is cold and angst-ridden. She thinks of Tohru Honda as an annoyance to the Sohmas, but eventually warms up to her little by little because of the kindness Tohru gives in return. She grows as protective to Tohru as the others and quickly becomes angry when someone upsets Tohru.
She only appears in the manga. Famous for her tough and independent nature and darkly exquisite sexiness within the Sohma family. Also, she is known for a trait of her zodiac animal: sheer stubbornness and independence. Anyone who usually tries to go against those feelings usually get a taste of Rin's stiletto-heel boots. Since she missed school Tohru seems to be her first friend. Unfortunately she doesn't know how to respond to that.
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Kureno, the "Rooster"
The rooster of the Jyuunishi. He does not like others to see his animal form, which looks more like a swallow than a rooster. He has somehow lost the curse of the Jyuunishi. He was Akito's constant companion after Yuki. Akito likes to keep him away from the other members of the Zodiac, and Kureno is actually the only person Akito somehow trusts.
When he went to a convenience store, for the first time at the age of 26, he met Arisa. She developed a crush on him, but he stays away from her because he feels it is better if he does not love her back. At one time though in vol.17 Arisa hints out that she wants to see Kureno as she screamed for him to see her again during the Cinderella play in vol.15. When Kureno saw the DVD of it and saw Arisa as she screamed this he touched the screen of his computer as a sign of affection to Arisa as he also wants to see her too but cannot due to the fact that he has pledged loyalty forever to Akito.
He only appears in the manga. Was described by Arisa as a "male-version of Tohru" with his over-the-top politeness and scatterbrained idiosyncrasies. Kureno seems to be described as "broken-in" by some members of the Sohma family.
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Kazuma, the "Shishou"
When he was a child, Kazuma was mean to his grandfather, who was then the member of the Sohma family possessed by the cat of the Chinese Zodiac, during their first and only meeting simply because his grandfather was cursed by the cat.
Hoping to make amends for how he had treated his grandfather, he decided to take care of the young Kyo Sohma after Kyo's mother had committed suicide. He is Kyo's martial arts teacher, but is also an adoptive father to him. Kazuma thinks well of Tohru and hopes that her love for Kyo is sincere and that her relationship with Kyo will not mirror that of his grandfather and grandmother.
Kyo calls him Shishou which means "master". Kazuma has taught many of the other Sohmas martial arts, including Kagura, Yuki and Haru. He is also the one who showed Tohru Honda Kyo's true form
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Ren
Akito's mother who only appears in the manga. She was originally a maid in the Sohma household who won Akira's heart by being the only one to notice his great loneliness and treat him with kindness instead of as just the head of the household. When she learned she was pregnant, however, she was afraid the baby would replace her in Akira's heart and demanded it be raised as a male. Before his death, Akira told Akito that he'd always wanted Ren to be the happiest about her birth because it was proof that his and Ren's relationship was special. His death further deepened the rift between Ren and Akito.
Ren and Akito are extremely antagonistic towards each other. When Akito slept with Kureno, Ren told Shigure and seduced him to infuriate Akito.
Ren continually claims that Akito's bond with the Jyuunishi is fake, rather than the true love Akito claims it to be in order to feed Akito's fear of being abandoned. Her cruel attitude towards Akito may explain Akito's fears of being unwanted and unloved and her tendency to lash out at the Jyuunishi at the slightest sign they may leave her.
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School Board
Kakeru, "Black"
He is Machi Kuragi's half-brother. He is also on the Student Council President Board as Vice President and is very much like a younger version of Ayame Sohma. Rather lazy and charismatic, Manabe is a loveable person.
Manabe has since become good friends with Yuki and has proven to be very overprotective of Machi, especially when it comes to Yuki. He often loses control and starts yelling and throttling Yuki, not taking the time to think about what Yuki is really trying to say.
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Machi, "Red"
Kakeru's half-sister. Unlike most girls at school, she doesn't see Yuki as anything more than just another boy. Her refreshingly different attitude catches the eye of Yuki, and he makes multiple attempts at befriending her. She also appears to have a crush on Yuki, but is not obsessive about him like other girls. She seems to have difficulty expressing herself directly, which usually results in Kakeru making decisions for her.
Due to the intense pressure her mother placed on her to be perfect, Machi finds perfection extremely disturbing to the point of having to mar anything that could be considered perfect, such as walking through new-fallen snow and breaking pieces of chalk from a new box.
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Kimi, "Pink"
She is one of the two student council secretaries and is a very manipulative yet interesting character. She appears at first as a very obviously deceiving girl who over-confidently tries to trick Yuki into sharing his chocolate, which was given to him by the Prince Yuki Fan Club members as a summer gift, with her.
Completely noticing Kimi's true intentions, Yuki suggests to Kimi to stop the way she is acting, and slowly, though hardly noticeable, begins to change. She is detested by the Prince Yuki Fanclub members for being such a deceiver, though not much has been seen of her and them since the chocolate incident. She is rather active in the student council. She appears to have a very strong sisterly relationship with the student council vice president, Kakeru Manabe.
Kimi refers to herself in the third person
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Naohito, "Yellow"
Claiming to be Yuki's "rival", due to the fact that he has a secret crush on Motoko Minagawa who is the president of the Prince Yuki fan club, Naohito Sakuragi is the second of the two student council secretaries.
An utterly no-nonsense and rather arrogant young man, Naohito takes his job as secretary, as well as his general involvement in the student council, which he absolutely refuses to call "The School Defence Force", very proudly and seriously. Always angry and rather cold, as well as determined to defeat Yuki at almost everything, he could be described as similar to Kyo, though considerably less violent.
He works incredibly hard in the student council and often chooses to stay to work after school than do other fun things. He is sometimes referred to as 'Chibi-Suke'-'Chibi' meaning small or shrimpy, and 'suke' being a common masculine name-ending- by Kakeru Manabe and Kimi Toudou because he appears short and weak. The nickname literally means "Shrimpy Man".