History Characters / FruitsBasket

* DudeLooksLikeALady: He gets mistaken for a girl. Justified because he crossdresses. A lot.

* NeverMyFault: Akito cannot ''fathom'' being to blame for anything. [[GoodAdulteryBadAdultery Have sex with]] [[spoiler:Kureno even though Shigure clearly loves her, and then kick Shigure off the Sohma estate when he sleeps with her mother as {{Revenge}}]]? It's her Zodiac to do with as she pleases. [[DisproportionateRetribution Lock somebody in isolation]] when [[spoiler:they try to steal a "special" box that Akito knows is clearly empty]]? It's perfectly justified and what on earth is Kureno thinking betraying Akito and freeing said person from harm? And then [[spoiler:Hatsuharu calls her out for almost killing Isuzu twice because she hates women for no good reason. Akito counters with telling him that it was really his fault that she was put in danger at all because he dated Isuzu anyway knowing that Akito hated her. Surprisingly, Hatsuharu agrees that he is partially to blame for Isuzu's suffering.]]
** A particularly vicious example can also be found when Akito attacks Hatori with what looks like a vase, blinding him in one eye, and immediately starts asking the maimed doctor "Hatori, what's wrong?" before accusing Kana, Hatori's innocent would-be fiancee, of being responsible for Hatori's pain. Kana ends up agreeing, and the whole situation goes downhill from there.
** Subverted towards the end when she and Tohru have their fateful confrontation [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone and realizes just how badly her clinging to the past and abusive behavior has destroyed the livelihoods of the other Zodiac members.]]

* {{Tsundere}}: SShe was a straightforward one in her childhood. Yuki recalls that Akito was a nice playmate and never did anything worse than occasionally yell at Yuki when impatient (like during one of his asthma coughing fits), but would quickly calm down and be nice again. Ren's abuse made her into a {{Yandere}}. She still shows shades of tsun-tsun around Shigure; it's obvious Akito has feelings for him, but she cannot forgive him for having slept with her hated mother just to get back at her for sleeping with Kureno. During a heated argument, she goes from yelling at Shigure for hurting her to abruptly seducing him.

!!!Momiji's mother is voiced by: Azusa Nakao (2001 series), Creator/TakakoHonda (2019 series) (JP), Elise Baughman (2001 series) (EN)

* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: He develops a habit of lightly tapping Tohru's head with his fist later on in the manga.

* WouldntHitAGirl:
** {{Subverted|Trope}}. He gives Tohru a harmless knock on the head as a 'Thank You' for easing him out of one of his moods Shigure put him in. However, he allows both Kagura and Uotani to assault him with no physical retaliation at all. He even worries that he roughed up a woman when [[spoiler: he learns of Akito's true gender.]]
** On his first day at Tohru's school, he puts a girl into an armbar to discourage her attention. Granted, it ''was'' a panic reaction when he was in danger of being embraced, and she ''did'' grab him first, but it being PlayedForLaughs is a little disconcerting.

* ChickMagnet: Enough that he gets his own UnwantedHarem.
** CluelessChickMagnet: Not that he noticed...

* BrokenPedestal: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zig-zagged.]] When she was in a gang Arisa idolized Kyoko as "the Red Butterfly," but when she went to meet her she was disgusted to learn she'd become a DotingParent to a NiceGirl like Tohru. However, Kyoko eventually helped her see that her anger was misplaced and gang life isn't the answer, and helped her turn her life around. Then Arisa idolized her for real.

* TeenPregnancy: She was only fifteen or sixteen years old when she gave birth to Tohru.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: He has a crush on [[spoiler:Motoko]], who similarly has an unrequited crush on [[spoiler:Yuki]].

* GreenEyedMonster: He was envious of Yuki [[spoiler:for being the object of interest of Motoko's heart]] and isn't pleasant with him as a result.

* AdaptationDyeJob: In the 2001 anime, she has reddish brown hair in contrast to the manga and 2019 anime's black.

!!Voiced by: Masashi Nogawa (JP), Josh Martin (EN)

!!Saki's father is voiced by: Creator/HirofumiNojima (JP), Creator/ChrisWehkamp (EN)
!!Saki's mother is voiced by: Creator/YumiKakazu (JP), Jenny Ledel (EN)

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: As a young girl, she was frequently mocked by her kindergarten peers. In fact, the title of the series lampshades this trope: after the kids humiliate her during a game of [[TitleDrop Fruits Basket]] (essentially a version of "Duck Duck Goose" but with fruit names) by designating her as a rice ball instead of a fruit and never calling on her during the game, Tohru thinks "there's no place for me, a rice ball, in a fruits basket." Her experiences with being bullied are what later allow her to help Kisa through her own issues with school bullying.

* InsecureLoveIInterest: He believes Tohru would be better off falling in love with anyone but him because no good can come out of becoming the girlfriend of an outcast like him. [[spoiler:He also believes himself responsible for the death of Tohru's mother, which he uses as proof that he has no right to be loved by Tohru.]]

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Her classmates bully her for her unusual hair and eye colors, which are a side effect of being the Tiger of the Zodiac.

* DidNotGetTheGirl: Loves Tohru, but knows full well that he isn't who Tohru wants, and he tells Kyo as much.

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler:He's in love with Tohru, but accepts that she loves Kyo.]]

* MoreThanMindControl: His mama readily agreed to the memory wipe because she didn't ''want'' to remember him. Even after forgetting he's her boy she still distances herself from him; for example she never smiles when she sees him, and when her daughter points out the [[StrongFamilyResemblance obvious resemblance between them]] she firmly denies that he looks anything like her. [[spoiler:Near the end of the manga though, his mother finally showed Momiji a true genuine smile once his curse was broken]].

* HonorThyAbuser: At the end of the story, all the members of the Zodiac minus Rin decide to not bear grudges against Akito for all the emotional and physical abuse she inflicted on them for years. While they recognize how Akito treated them was very wrong, they can see Akito is set on being a better person from now on and they also wish to move on with their lives.

* MyMasterRightOrWrong: All the Zodiac members feel compelled to be subservient to Akito because she's their God. Because of this, none of them ever tries to fight back her abuse nor comes to hate her no matter how much she wrongs them and other people.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: When he was much younger, [[spoiler:he was actually freed from the zodiac curse. He agreed to pretend he was still a part of the Zodiac and stay by Akito's side at all times though, because he didn't want to abandon the poor kid]]. It's implied in present times that [[spoiler:it would have been better for Akito's overall mental health if Kureno had instead broken away then and there, instead of feeding Akito's clingy dependency issues. When Kureno tries to make it better and gives Akito a very heartfelt talk about how it is better to live moving forward, Akito fully breaks down and stabs literally stabs him InTheBack.]]

* StarCrossedLovers: He's in love with [[spoiler: Arisa, but is unable to be with her or see her anymore because of Akito.]] At the end, they're finally able to be together.

!!Kyo's father is voiced by: Creator/ShinobuMatsumoto (2019 series) (JP), E. Bailey (2001 series), Aaron Roberts (2019 series) (EN)
!!Kyo's mother is voiced by: Creator/MikiNagasawa (2001 series), Creator/AtsukoYuya (2019 series) (JP), Creator/WendyPowell (EN)

!!Momiji's father is voiced by: Creator/ToshihikoSeki (2001 series), Junichi Yanagita (2019 series) (JP), E. Bailey (2001 series), Ben Bryant (2019 series) (EN)
!!Momiji's mother is voiced by: Azusa Nakao (2001 series), Creator/TakakoHonda (2019 series) (JP), Elise Baughman (2001 series) (EN)

* MindRape: Via [[spoiler:Akito. She's left in such a ''huge'' HeroicBSOD that Hatori erases her memories of their romance so she can get better. She's now HappilyMarried to someone else, and only remembers Hatori as her never-confessed FirstLove.]]

* BoyishShortHair: Had this during her middle school days.

* CoolBigSis: After lecturing to three middle school aged yankii wannabes, they start respecting her and one starts calling her OneeSama.

* GrumpyBear: Until befriending Kyoko and Tohru she was grumpy ''and'' violent. She was initially disgusted with Kyoko and Tohru's doting mother-daughter relationship and happy home life, but Kyoko eventually helped her realize that her anger was misplaced and it was mainly because she didn't have the greatest home life herself.
* JapaneseDelinquents: She used to be a sukeban before Tohru and Kyoko helped her turn her life around and quit her gang, and other characters refer to her as a yankii. Though she's no longer a delinquent, she still wears a long skirt as part of her school uniform and occasionally brings out a metal pipe whenever she feels the need to protect Tohru.
%%* TheLadette

Peek a Bangs: Her hair hides her right eye. It's possible she's trying to imitate Kyoko with this.

* PeekABangs: Shows how aloof and emotionally closed off she is to all but her closest friends and loved ones.

* AloofBigSister: Subverted. She ''seems'' aloof, but she really loves her little brother.

* BullyMagnet: Her infamy first brought her bullying at first, then almost complete isolation... until Tohru and Arisa break through her defenses.

* GoodParents: Her parents and grandmother are endlessly loving and supportive of her, especially when she was being bullied and ostracized. They also aren't too bothered by her powers. Her little brother Megumi takes after them and is pretty protective of her sometimes.

* WiseBeyondHisYears: Upon hearing the plan of the [[ClingyJealousGirl Prince Yuki Fan Club girls]], he gives them a speech about how they're being selfish by forcing their one-sided affections on Yuki and that he would come to hate them for driving away the people he allows into his life. His words even reach Saki, who had been suffering from her own mild jealousy of Tohru's friendship with the Sohma family.
** When he was even younger, he provided his ''older sister'' with comforting words.

* AdultFear: A flashback reveals a pregnant Kyoko terrified that her relationship with Tohru would go the way of hers with her own mother.

* BigOlEyebrows: Inverted -- Katsuya makes fun of Kyoko because she doesn't have eyebrows. "Miss No-eyebrows" becomes his AffectionateNickname for her.
* BrokenBird: Until Katsuya offers her a helping hand.
* BrokenPedestal: Arisa was ''not'' happy to discover that the "Red Butterfly" she'd admired had turned into a [[DotingParent Doting Mother]]. However, after she slowly warmed up to her and when she [[spoiler:helped Arisa quit her gang]], [[RebuiltPedestal she admired her again]].

* FieryRedhead: More evident in her youth.
* FormerTeenRebel: To the point that she's still famous among yankees as "The Red Butterfly."
%%* GrumpyBear: For a while.

* JapaneseDelinquents: She was a sukeban in her teenage years.
* LoveRedeems: Thanks to Katsuya, she became such a loving person.

* ParentalNeglect: Kyoko's FreudianExcuse when she was young, since the Katsunumas emotionally ignored her and were only worried about her giving them a bad rep.
** [[spoiler: When Katsuya died, Kyoko had an emotional breakdown and started neglecting Tohru for a while. Thankfully, she snapped out of it before any lasting harm could be done, but she regards it as MyGreatestFailure.]]

* RedBaron: Was known as "The Red Butterfly" during her delinquent days, since the image of the red taillight on her bicycle was said to resemble a flitting butterfly as she rode it.

* TeamMom: An almost literal case with Tohru and her friends Arisa and Saki.

* LetsHaveAnotherBaby: His last conversation with Kyoko before he died.

* TeacherStudentRomance: Just ''narrowly'' averted. Katsuya was a student-teacher at Kyoko's middle school, and she showed up so rarely that she never even actually attended a class he helped teach. Their teacher/student interactions were limited to him tutoring her for her high school entrance exams. They also didn't get together until after she was out of school and he had quit student teaching, deciding it wasn't for him.

* AbusiveParents: Machi was forced into an inheritance rivalry against her brother since a young age and didn't have time for anything else. Even after Manabe rebelled, Machi still suffered from the after effects of it.
* {{Adorkable}}: The initial stages of Machi's attempt to communicate with Yuki normally definitely qualify.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler: All Machi wanted to do was make sure her baby brother stayed warm while he slept. Her parents came in and assumed she was trying to smother him with a blanket.]]
* ParentalNeglect: Both Machi and Kakeru were forced by their parents into a bitter inheritance rivalry, the result being that she became quiet, removed from society, and despised anything she considered "perfect." Her mother then openly tells a friend that Machi is "dull" and that she prefers her new baby boy. [[spoiler:Oh, and Machi is forced to live by herself, because her parents think she'll try to murder her little brother. Even though she was putting a blanket on him while he slept.]]
%%* ShrinkingViolet

* TheUnfavourite: Between her and half-brother Kakeru and her unnamed baby brother because she's a girl (despite being the first-born legitimate child of her parents).
* {{Tsundere}}: A very mild shade of this - she chases Yuki all around the school one day just because she saw him. Why? Just to say hi, dammit!

* AbusiveParents: Look at Machi's section. He wasn't ''that'' abused in comparison, but it doesn't mean he wasn't affected and he worries quite a bit for poor Machi. Once he rebelled his mom had a change of heart.

%%* RapunzelHair
* SingleTargetSexuality: Anything she does relates to Yuki. [[spoiler:The presence of her daughter in ''Fruits Basket Another'' indicates that she ''does'' eventually move past this.]]

* TongueTied: Simply '''cannot''' tell Yuki how much she likes him.

* SingleTargetSexuality: Toward Yuki. [[spoiler:Somewhat creepily, this ends up extending to Yuki's ''son'' when he first meets him.]]

%%* UsefulNotes/JapaneseSiblingTerminology: She refers to Yuki as "ototo" a couple of times. This may have been an indicator that she and Ayame were dating.
%%* {{Meganekko}}

%%* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler:With Ayame.]]

* BirdsOfAFeather: With Ritsu for similarly being prone to tears.
* BiTheWay: WordOfGod says that she neither knows, nor cares, if Ritsu is male or female (though the reboot has her be told the truth after she has a bit of bonding time with him).
* TheChewToy: Comes with the territory of being [[BrilliantButLazy Shigure's]] editor.

[[folder:The Sohma's Head Maid]]

An OldRetainer of the Sohma. She has been working with them for more than twenty years.

* AllThatGlitters and MagicFeather: [[spoiler: She gave an empty box to a very young Akito and told her it had her recently deceased father Akira's soul, in an attempt to help her cope.]]
* NoNameGiven: Her actual name is never mentioned.
* KimonoIsTraditional: She's always seen wearing a kimono, as a sign of her being a member of a very old-fashioned environment.
* OldRetainer: She has been working in the Sohma household for decades.
* ParentalSubstitute: Sorta, towards Akito. She's pretty much the only woman Akito gets along with.
* ShippingTorpedo: She opposed quite a bit to [[spoiler: her then fellow maid]] Ren and Akira's relationship.
* StatusQuoIsGod: As she tells Akito [[spoiler: after her HeelFaceTurn]], she's much too old now to be able to accept all this drastic new change into the strictly traditional Sohma family, even saying how she ''liked the old Akito'' better.

!Main Characters

* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler:To Kyo, in the manga.]]

* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Gentle Girl to Kyo's Brooding Boy.

* ExtremeDoormat: Tends to veer into this territory due to her humble, self-effacing nature.

%%* GoldenMoment

* LikeParentLikeSpouse: Tohru falls in love with Kyo, who vaguely resembles Kyoko in that he is also a FieryRedhead with a DarkAndTroubledPast. They even have very similar-sounding names.

* TeamMom: Taking care of the Sohmas (the ones in Shigure's house at least) is technically payment for living there, but it goes deeper than that.
* TenderTears: Tohru is prone to crying.

[[folder:Yuki Sohma (The Rat)]]
!!Yuki Sohma (The Rat)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AyaHisakawa (2001 Series), Creator/NobunagaShimazaki (teen), Miyuri Shimabukuro (child) (2019 Series) (JP), Creator/EricVale (teen, both series), Creator/KateBristol (child, 2001 series), Creator/AmandaLee (child, 2019 series) (EN)

[[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yuki_sohma_2019.png]]
[[caption-width-right:180:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rat_2019.png[[/labelnote]] to see him as the Rat]]

The Rat of the Zodiac, younger brother to Ayame, and rival to Kyo. Despite being attractive, accomplished, and popular, Yuki is very reserved and possesses low self-esteem due to years of being controlled by Akito. Tohru helps him become more open with his feelings.

* AbusiveParents: Like most of the Sohmas, his mother was mostly emotionally abusive (though not above smacking him around a little when she was upset with him). She's notable for the fact that after Yuki confronted her and told her that he wouldn't let her control him anymore, later chapters showed that she might be trying to turn over a new leaf. When she told him, "Try not to push yourself too hard," Yuki noted that it was an oddly motherly thing for her to say.
** In the manga, it was "don't use it wastefully", in regards to a cell phone he needs her permission to get.
* AllTakeAndNoGive: Has shades of this but it is never intentional on his part. He seeks Tohru's friendship, listening ear, and understanding quite often and has benefited from Hatsuharu's and Ayame's affection for him whenever he's in a tight spot he is unable to get himself out of. [[CharacterDevelopment When this trait is pointed out to him he resolves to change himself into a person who can give back to the people who care for him.]]
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Kyo has trained in martial arts longer than he has and is more dedicated but he can't reach Yuki's level no matter what.
* BadDreams: Thanks to the MindRape he suffered under Akito.
* BerserkButton: Reminders of his older brother's quirks, Kyo at his worst, being mistaken for a woman, being compared to a woman, or the mere thought of crossdressing sets him off. Being unpleasant to Tohru is a great way to piss him off, too.
* {{Bishonen}}: Enough to be mistaken for a girl. Multiple times.
* BrokenAce: He ''looks'' perfect, but due to his past Yuki is so ''terrified'' of rejection that he also is an enormous StepfordSmiler.
* CaringGardener: He has a private garden that's some distance away from Shigure's house, which he refers to as his "secret base". Revealing it to Tohru and letting her help him take care of it is a major sign that he's opening up to her.
* ChickMagnet: Enough that he gets his own UnwantedHarem.
** CluelessChickMagnet: Not that he noticed...
* CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds: [[spoiler: In the end, with his underclassman Machi.]]
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Silver in the manga and the 2019 reboot (makes sense, considering he's the Rat), purple in the first anime.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: As a young child, he was plagued with severe asthma that inhibited him from doing most things. When he was still very young, his [[AbusiveParents very selfish mother]] [[spoiler: sold him to Akito, who then proceeds to [[BreakTheCutie torment him]] physically (is shown whipping him), verbally/emotionally, and '''especially''' psychologically (locking him in a windowless, dark room for days on end, and convincing him that no one will accept him for who he is).]] A little Yuki attempts to go to his brother, Ayame, for help, but he is instantly rebuked. Such experiences in his past has left him emotionally withdrawn and exhausted. After it all, however, he manages to empathize with and forgive Akito, and he is well on his way to forming a brotherly bond with Ayame.
* {{Deuteragonist}}: Becomes one in the second half of the series as more focus is put on his student council activities and [[spoiler:his growing relationship with Machi]].
* DudeLooksLikeALady: Parodied with Kakeru telling his girlfriend Komaki that Yuki had to dress up as a boy for certain reasons. He also jokingly calls Yuki "Princess".
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Boys and girls alike swoon over him. Makoto Takei, the first StudentCouncilPresident, has a very blatant crush on him.
* TheGadfly: CharacterDevelopment has him start to become this, showing how he's more relaxed and not as worried. He particularly likes doing this to [[spoiler:his girlfriend]] [[{{Tsundere}} Machi]].
* GreenEyedMonster: Towards Kyo and a little towards Manabe due to both of them being able to be natural and liked by their peers without having to try hard like he does.
* HarmfulToMinors: [[spoiler: Flashbacks are shown of Akito whipping him.]]
* HeavySleeper: Might as well be asleep on his feet in the morning, and yet he defeats Kyo ''even quicker'' in this state. [[IAmNotLeftHanded It's because he's too drowsy to hold back like he normally does]].
* IllBoy: When he was younger he had pretty severe asthma and other unspecified health problems, but this improves as he gets older.
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: He secretly longs to have friends of his own. Part of the reason why he hates Kyo so much is because of his ability to make friends easily.
* InstantFanClub: The Prince Yuki Fan Club, which formed within a few months of his first year of high school.
* InsultedAwake:
** Kyo's voice alone is enough.
** Kakeru calling him a "spoiled little rich girl" woke him up, too.
* LethalChef: His cooking will literally make you ill.
* LovingAShadow: On the receiving end of this as plenty of girls in school like his "princely" image, but are unaware of his hidden insecurities.[[spoiler:His feelings for Tohru were later said to be him looking for the mother he never had.]]
* LuminescentBlush: When Tohru calls him by name during Haru's visit, he gets one of these as he transforms out of shock.
* MutualEnvy: He envies Kyo for being able to socialize more easily than he can, as well as not having as many restrictions placed on him by the Sohma clan since he isn't seen as a "true" member of the Zodiac due to his status as the Cat. Ironically, Kyo envies Yuki for being seemingly perfect and being accepted as one of the Zodiac.
* NobleMaleRoguishMale: Noble Male to Kyo's Roguish Male, being the charming prince of his high school.
* NoSell: [[spoiler:At one point Rin tries to get under his skin by calling him "Akito's toy." Little did she know he'd mostly grown past those issues, so her words didn't have the affect she'd hoped. She leaves in a huff.]]
* NotAMorningPerson: He's incredibly tired in the morning, but despite that he's even stronger in this state since he's too sleepy to hold back. Kyo has tried attacking him, but was unsuccessful.
* NotAfraidOfYouAnymore: Used when he tells Akito that he forgives him. Although Akito still gets mad and injures Yuki, it's obvious that Yuki doesn't fear him anymore, and since Akito controls the Zodiac through fear, it becomes clear that his power is waning.
* TheNotLoveInterest: The series seems to set him up as Tohru's love interest, but ultimately there isn't any romance between them. Yuki loves Tohru in a familial way rather than romantic, because she acts like a motherly figure towards him. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Foreshadowed]] in that, unlike Kyo, he doesn't get flustered around her (except once when she switched to FirstNameBasis).
* OddNameOut: He and Kyo are the only cursed Sohmas whose names aren't part of the others' TemporalThemeNaming.
* PrinceCharming: Parodied when his class put on a performance of ''Cinderella''. He specifically asks that he not be cast as the prince, because he feels he doesn't fit the role. The entire female population of his class disagrees. This bites him in the rear when he is instead cast as [[spoiler: the fairy godmother.]]
* PrincelyYoungMan: His fan club gives him the nickname "Prince Yuki."
* PurpleEyes: In the first anime.
* RedOniBlueOni: The calm, reserved, grey-haired Blue Oni to Kyo's temperamental, loud, red-haired Red Oni.
* RomanticFalseLead: The series makes it look like Yuki will be Tohru's main love interest when it is actually Kyo.
* SchoolIdol: He's recognized as the most popular guy in school. He has his own fan club and student council members look to him to be student council president.
* ShownTheirWork: Rodents kept in captivity can commonly develop respiratory problems [[labelnote:*]]usually due to poor bedding quality or air circulation in their cages[[/labelnote]], explaining why Yuki suffers from something similar.
* SicklyChildGrewUpStrong: He suffered from severe respiratory problems when he was young (and they occasionally come back when he's under emotional stress), but he's largely recovered from them and is an even stronger martial artist than Kyo despite being not as passionate about it.
* StepfordSmiler: Type A. Because of his DarkAndTroubledPast and his desire to have friends, he tends to hide behind a smile. He even comes clean to Tohru about secretly being a greedy and selfish person, though it isn't established if this just SelfDeprecation or if he was being honest.
* StudentCouncilPresident: He takes up this position during his second year of high school.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: At first, he's extremely sugarly kind and sweet toward Tohru, but a bit colder to other people and downright hostile to Kyo and Ayame. His CharacterDevelopment involves him actually opening up to people other than Tohru.
* TranquilFury:
** When Tohru's {{Jerkass}} cousin called her a tramp in front of him and Kyo, Yuki calmly got in the guy's face and stunned him and his equally dickish parents speechless with one sentence, said in a calm, but still clearly angry, tone:
-->'''Yuki''': Don't you ''ever'' talk about Miss Honda that way again, you lowlife.
** Also seen when Ayame admits to not only have been in the red light district with Shigure in the past, he made a complete fool of himself when sticking up for his classmates. With BishieSparkles around him, Yuki calmly tells his brother to get out of the house. It doesn't last long -- with Aya continuing, he's eventually yelling to shut up and leave until Hatori shows up.
* VitriolicBestBuds: He and Kakeru have a bit of this. Once when Yuki was depressed, Kakeru cheered him up... by throwing a soccer ball in his face. He and Kakeru also had an insult match that involved them choking each other and then walking off all happy and friendly a couple of panels later.
* TheUnFavourite: Played with. While he was technically favored by his parents because he was the Rat, they're so cold and selfish that they basically sold him for wealth and status. Meanwhile, while Ayame has technically been unfavored since Yuki was born, since the Snake is not as valuable they let him do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted growing up since they had no use for him.
* TongueTied: Especially around Tohru.

[[caption-width-right:195:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cat_2019.png[[/labelnote]] to see him as the Cat]]

* AbusiveParents:
** His father hates him, refers to him as "it", and claims his mother committed suicide from shame and disgust at having him.
** His mother wasn't outright abusive, but her behavior towards him was still extremely unhealthy. Though she often told Kyo she loved him, Kyo believes she was lying and suspects that she was overcompensating to hide how she was deeply afraid and paranoid of his true form. He remembers how she would constantly check to make sure he was wearing his [[PowerLimiter beads]], and she prevented him from leaving the house by claiming he was so adorable that she needed to keep him all to herself. Very late in the manga, it is heavily implied [[spoiler: that she ''did'' love him in her own way, and was actually DrivenToSuicide by her husband.]]

* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Brooding Boy to Tohru's Gentle Girl.

* GreenEyedMonster: The first evidence of his attraction to Tohru.

* HellishPupils: His pupils become slits when he gets extremely angry [[spoiler:and when he turns into the cat's True Form.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He ''is'' a jerk, but a nice jerk (especially later on).

* MyBelovedSmother: His mom tended to keep him sheltered and away from other people. This is implied later on to be his father's decree.

* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: With Tohru, as it slowly becomes more obvious that he has romantic feelings for her [[spoiler:until the end]].

* WhenHeSmiles: Despite being a GrumpyBear and {{Tsundere}}, he has a very cute smile. Tohru and Kagura are the first two to actually see it.

[[folder:Shigure Sohma (The Dog)]]
!!Shigure Sohma (The Dog)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/RyotaroOkiayu (2001 Series), Creator/YuuichiNakamura (adult), Mari Hino (child) (2019 Series) (JP), Creator/JohnBurgmeier (adult, both series), Apphia Yu (child, 2019 series)(EN)

[[quoteright:240:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shigure_sohma_2019.png]]
[[caption-width-right:240:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dog_2019.png[[/labelnote]] to see him as the Dog]]

The Dog of the Zodiac, and the owner of the house in which Kyo, Yuki, and Tohru live. Shigure is an author who writes both serious literature and trashy romance. While teasing and kind, he is much more manipulative than he lets on. He is good friends with Ayame and Hatori, and possesses complicated feelings for Akito.

* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: Comedic moments aside, Shigure of the first anime seems a lot more tortured in regards to involving Tohru with the Sohma family's affairs [[spoiler:(going so far as to actually stop Akito from verbally abusing Tohru in the woods and subsequently begging her to go after Kyo for everyone's sake)]] than the absolutely unrepentant Shigure of the manga.
** He also shows some degree of concern [[spoiler: when Kazuma decides to show Kyo’s true form in front of Tohru]] in the 2019 anime; he’s unsure if Tohru should be the one to burden the gamble, and he’s shown to be clearly unhappy when it happens.
* AdaptationalComicRelief: He tends to provide comic relief in the manga and 2019 anime, but he also has his shadier moments and it's later made clear that his sillier side is largely ObfuscatingStupidity. In the 2001 anime, the darker aspects of his personality are left out and he's pure comic relief.
* AffectionateNickname: Ayame calls him "Gure-san", while Kagura calls him "Shi-chan".
* BishieSparkle: When he sings about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RZUZCMFc90 high school girls.]]
* {{Bishonen}}: When he goes to Tohru's school, several of her classmates mention how good looking he is, and one of Mitsu's coworkers stated that she was attracted to his good looks as well.
* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:It's strongly implied that Shigure knew how to break the curse and started moving things into place once he found someone who could do it. He's not too proud of this, even though he did it to save them all and win Akito's love (well, it's mostly about getting Akito- the rest is a nice bonus, but it's not why he tries to break the curse). Said manipulations included sleeping with Ren (who he said looked like what Akito raised as a girl would look like) and being deliberately distant with her.]]
* ChivalrousPervert: He often jokes about liking [[MemeticMutation "high school girls!"]] ([[AmbiguousSituation and, heck, he probably means it]]), but apart from some harmless flirting he never acts on it. [[spoiler: Not even when Rin offers herself to him.]]
* {{Ephebophile}}: Flirts openly with high school aged Tohru when he first meets her, is eager to meet her friends before Kyo describes how...colorful they are, buys her a blatantly {{Fanservice}}-y {{Meido}} outfit for White Day hoping she'll clean his house in it, and goes to Tohru's high school under the pretense of retrieving her belongings when he was really going to check out the high school girls [[RefugeInAudacity (sings a little song about it, too)]]. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Isuzu when she offers her body if he tells her how to break the curse, but in full force when played for laughs, namely when he laments that Hatori didn't tell him he was going to give her a check up.
* {{Foil}}: To Hatori. Both have been important figures to Akito's life since her birth, but Shigure finds it unforgivable that Akito slept with Kureno, and even exacts his own twisted sort of revenge by sleeping with the person Akito hated the most rather than forgiving her as Hatori does for everything. Shigure is unrepentant if he ends up putting people within Akito's line of fire as long as he gets his desired results, and seems downright callous and indifferent when he hears about other zodiac members' abuse at Akito's hands. Shigure also refuses to act as one of Akito's caretakers out of a sense of duty to her as the head of the family or [[spoiler:the God of the zodiac]].
* FriendsWithBenefits: With Mayu, though it was a mutual arrangement from the start -- Shigure said "You're lonely, I'm bored -- let's date". It was never a genuine romantic relationship, they were aware of it, and in the end Mayu broke it off after a month because she just couldn't keep pretending it was.
* TheGadfly: Shigure happens to push his editor's buttons to the point where she's about a hair away from committing suicide, but he never does so out of maliciousness, he just likes pushing other people's buttons.
* GreenEyedMonster: He [[spoiler:sleeps with Ren to retaliate against Akito for sleeping with Kureno. He and Akito were not in a romantic relationship at the time.]]
* HaremNanny: Takes care of Yuki, followed by Tohru and Kyo.
* IBangedYourMom: Turns out he once slept with [[spoiler:Akito's mother, Ren. He claims this was only because she slept with Kureno (and because Ren looked like Akito would've looked like, had she been raised as a woman). Akito got so upset about this that she immediately kicked him out of the main Sohma estate.]]
* ItAmusedMe: Flirts between this and ForTheEvulz when it comes to Akito, though Kureno and Hatori note that whatever Shigure says around Akito tends to hurt more than help anything. Played completely straight whenever he and Tohru's teacher Mayuko encounter each other - he ends up attending as Tohru's parent at her parent-teacher conference, and he's more than delighted when Mayu is completely disgusted seeing him in Hatori's suit.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: At the start of the series, when Shigure and Yuki discover Tohru camping in the wilderness behind their home, Shigure reacts by pointing and laughing uproariously. He ''[[CharacterDevelopment quickly]]'' becomes protective of Tohru, to the point where Hanajima and Uotani liken him to a grandfather spoiling his granddaughter.
* KarmaHoudini: Arguably, his [[spoiler:manipulations and mind screws (''especially'' in regards to Akito, [[MindGameShip the girl he loves and yet still manipulates]])]] never got him in real trouble.
* KimonoIsTraditional: He always wears kimono when at home, which relates to the Japanese stereotype of writers always wearing traditional clothing. In one manga omake, he reveals to Tohru that he invokes this since he's well aware of the stereotype.
* LoveBeforeFirstSight: [[spoiler: He apparently fell in love with Akito the moment she was ''conceived.'' He dreamed that God had arrived, and woke up crying.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: In the manga, especially towards Rin and Akito. [[spoiler:To his credit, he didn't take Rin's [[PleaseIWillDoAnything offer]], but he still manipulated Akito.]] Shigure himself lampshades this, calling himself 'the dirtiest one of all,' because he is willing to use '''everyone''' to achieve his goals.
** It may take more than one read-through to realize it, but almost everything Shigure does, from asking Akito to allow Tohru to live in his home [[spoiler:to being decidedly 'cruel' towards Akito to telling Tohru to leave the house for an errand at exactly the same time Kureno would be out on the street waiting for her]] is actually completely planned. Seriously.
** At one point Hatsuharu notes that he can't see a wound without rubbing salt in it on purpose.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Sometimes, when conversations turn serious, he turns to this so he can keep up the facade that he knows more than he lets on. When he's not doing this, he's probably manipulating you.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Tohru knows nothing about his true nature and it scares the heck out of her to the point of driving her to tears when he honestly tells her the nature of the curse and what he (and the rest of the zodiac) really thinks about Kyo's place among them.
* PapaWolf: Shigure dotes on Tohru quite a bit, although whether or not it's for his [[ChivalrousPervert own]] [[TheChessmaster personal gain]] is another matter. It's a little more obvious in the first anime, [[spoiler:where he actually tells Akito to leave Tohru alone by the end and actually gets up to stop Akito from ripping Tohru's hair out]].
* ParentalSubstitute:
** Sorta, as Yuki's caretaker. Also present, to some extent, in his relationship with Tohru.
** Completely averted in regards to [[spoiler:Akito. When being questioned by Hatori and Kureno as to why Shigure's so cruel to Akito in the last parts of the manga, Shigure's response is that there are enough people being so 'gentle' with her and that he doesn't want to become yet another one of Akito's replacements for her "father"]].
* ThePlan: The driving plot of the manga is [[spoiler:Shigure trying to use Tohru to break Akito's ties with the zodiac so he can have her to himself.]]
* ShipperOnDeck: He was a real jerk about it, but it's his actions that ultimately lead to [[spoiler: Mayuko]] and Hatori dating.
* SmokingIsCool: He's shown smoking at some points when he's showing his actual personality in the manga. This isn't present in the 2019, where no characters are seen smoking.
* TrueCompanions: The Mabudachi Trio (with Hatori and Ayame)
* UnflappableGuardian: Invites the girl who was unknowingly living on his property in a tent to live with them immediately [[spoiler:because he's using her.]]
* UrbanLegendLoveLife: Reputedly sleeps around a lot, but the only proof this might hold some water is Mayu-Sensei [[spoiler: and Ren]].
* UsedToBeASweetKid: And then Kureno slept with Akito.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: One could argue that all his actions throughout the series amount to this: [[spoiler:his ultimate goal is having Akito to himself, and if the curse is broken along the way, great!]]! [[ManipulativeBastard However, his ideas and methods of how to get what he wants]] [[TheChessmaster are more or less harmful to at least one person involved in his schemes]].
** This even extends to short term whims [[spoiler:such as sending Hatori to Mayu's parents' bookstore in order to give the both of them another chance at romance]].

[[folder:Akito Sohma (God)]]
!!Akito Sohma (God)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Murasaki Wakaba (adult), Creator/YukaImai (child) (2001 series), Creator/JunkoMinagawa (''The Last Story'' Voice Comic), Creator/MaayaSakamoto (2019 Series) (JP), Chad Cline (adult), Creator/AaronDismuke (child) (2001 series), Creator/ColleenClinkenbeard (adult), Creator/TrinaNishimura (child) (2019 series) (EN)

[[quoteright:135:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/akito_sohma_2019.png]]

The head of the Sohma family, representing the God who commands the Zodiac (known as the Jade Emperor in Chinese culture). Despite her frail health, Akito is short-tempered, controlling, and abusive as a result of her crippling abandonment issues, and is in some way responsible for many of the issues currently plaguing the family.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Most other members of the Sohma clan can't stand her. Considering the fact that she's abused them all physically and verbally at least once, one can't really blame them.
* AllThatGlitters: Akito was told that a small black box [[spoiler: contained her father's soul. It didn't.]]
* AmbiguousDisorder: She's such a textbook case of Borderline Personality Disorder watching a montage of her scenes can practically serve as an intro to it.
* AnimalMotifs: Subverted in the manga, kind of played with in the anime--early on, she's frequently shown with birds. Small birds perching on her hand/shoulder, fluttering over her estate, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick lying dead in her room with the strong implication that she killed them]] etc. Turns out these were actually ''Kureno's'' animal motif. Presumably, Akito kept them around because they reminded her of him. In the first anime, Kureno isn't present at all, but it's made very clear that Akito is ''not'' the rooster...
* AntagonisticOffspring: There are multiple occasions in the manga where she tries to harm/kill her mother, Ren. [[spoiler:Considering that Ren's abuse is the reason why she's violently possessive of the Zodiac members, it's hard not to see why Akito hates her mother.]]
* AntiVillain: By the end of the manga, it's revealed that there's not really a villain to begin with in the story (except maybe Ren), Akito fills this role because she is definitely seen as a villain to the younger Sohma family members for how she treats them.
* AttentionWhore: A very creepy and self-destructive version. Not as much as Ren, though.
* AxCrazy: While she usually manages to hide it, give her a VillainousBreakdown and a knife...
* BeautifulAllAlong: When dressed up in a female kimono, she's ''very'' beautiful. Lampshaded by Ritsu's comment when he gets to see dolled-up!Akito and is shocked by how gorgeous she looks.
* BerserkButton:
** If you're a Sohma, do ''not'' tell Akito you're leaving the family in ANY way.
** Whether you're an outsider or family member, ''don't'' get close to any of the Zodiac members. You will regret it.
* {{Bifauxnen}}: So much so that the revelation that Akito is not in fact male qualified as a ShockingSwerve.
* BigBad: Essentially the main villain of the story. Although [[GreaterScopeVillain her mother]] might be willing to steal that title from her.
* {{Bokukko}}: Aside of being a {{Bifauxnen}}, she uses "boku" to refer to herself. [[spoiler:She keeps doing so after her HeelFaceTurn.]]
* BoyishShortHair: She has short hair as a result of her masculine upbringing.
* BreakTheCutie: Attempts this on Kisa and Tohru. Has this inflicted on her as a little girl, via Ren.
* BreakTheHaughty: Begins to experience this as [[spoiler:the curse gets broken and each member goes free.]]
* BrokenBird: Manifested less as hypercompetency or great worldliness, but rather through wild mood swings and constant abuse to the family members. All of which springs from a really bad childhood with a loving DisappearedDad who died when she was a little girl, a very cruel and arguably crazy EvilMatriarch of a mother, and being forcefully raised as a boy to avoid being seen as a threat by said mother, who poisoned her with hatred and insecurity.
* CorporalPunishment: On top of being a ManipulativeBitch. Some examples are: slapping Kisa on-screen in the anime (and apparently beating her bloody in the manga), slapping Momiji (and apparently Shigure) at least once, beating Yuki and Kyo in the past, throwing ceramics at Yuki and Hatori's faces (Hatori is almost blind in one eye as a result), [[spoiler: throwing Rin out a window and later forcibly cutting her long hair before locking her up in a dark room]], [[spoiler:stabbing Kureno]] etc.
* CrashingDreams: Akito has a flashback dream where [[spoiler: she asks Shigure if he loves her. After Shigure responds, gives her a flower and kisses her, he says her name, at which point so does Kureno, causing Akito to wake up in the car.]]
* CreepyChild: As a kid, she's seen painting her room black and claiming she hates everyone, after she snaps as a product of Ren's psychological abuse.
* DaddysGirl: Akito's father loved her as much as possible while her mother rarely looked at her.
* DontYouDarePityMe:
** Tells that to [[spoiler: Tohru]] in the middle of a VillainousBreakdown in the manga.
** Several desperate variations of this are scattered throughout the last third of the manga [[spoiler:where it's revealed that Kureno's curse had already been broken a long time ago. Though it's not explicitly stated, a young Akito realizes that Kureno is looking at her differently after he is released with distant eyes - i.e. eyes that no longer understand the bond that Akito tried to hold onto so tightly and pity Akito for doing so. Akito cries for Kureno to stop looking at her like that and begs him to stay by her side. A similar instance occurs with Momiji. Really, anyone looking at her with 'those eyes' sets off this feeling in her, though she reacts in various ways - at the New Years Banquet during which Yuki tells Akito he's not going to blame Akito anymore, Akito is reminded of Kureno's look and smashes what seems to be a small sake bottle into his face.]]
* EasilyForgiven: The Sohma come to forgive, [[spoiler: while Rin doesn't, and hates herself for it. This is because they were so over her by that point (especially with the power of Tohru's healing personality, and respecting Tohru’s wishes to be Akito’s friend), that they didn't even hold a grudge against her (except Rin).]]
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: She's very sickly, but also throws out negative vibes like no tomorrow.
* ElectraComplex: She loved her father Akira but hated her mother Ren, although it's partly her EvilMatriarch Ren's fault.
* EvilPlan: Originally it was to possess the Zodiac, then it became drive Tohru away and ''then'' possess the Zodiac.
* EyeScream: Performed on Hatori [[spoiler:and very nearly on Yuki]].
* {{Fauxshadow}}: She does a [[spoiler: HeelFaceTurn about 30 chapters later]].
* FemaleMisogynist: Akito hates women despite being a woman herself. More specifically, Akito hates women who try taking the Sohmas away (even if they're Sohmas themselves), [[spoiler: due to Ren's abuse]].
* FlowerMotifs: Associated with red camellias (''benitsubaki''), which are a symbol of love in the language of flowers. [[spoiler:This is also the kind of flower Shigure gave her when she was little and he confessed his love.]]
* {{Foil}}: With Tohru Honda. Aside from their commonly boyish names, and deceased fathers; the two are said to [[LikeParentLikeChild strongly resemble a parent]] they resent. Played with in how Tohru is very little like Katsuya, aside from copying his very polite speech habits. It can be said much of Akito's personality was shaped by Ren's even worse one, they look so much alike [[spoiler: Shigure only saw Ren as an older, feminine Akito when he slept with her]], and since Akito was RaisedAsTheOppositeGender, speaks masculinely.[[spoiler: They both realize they have to let go of the memories of a parent they adored in order to move on, while reconciling with the other one. They aren't able to make verbal amends, however Katsuya's dead. Ren just refuses to talk]]. At the end, like Tohru, [[spoiler: Akito tries reaching out to someone that spent their entire life wanting things to stay the same. However, this time]] they walk away instead.
* FreakOut: Has one whenever she thinks a Zodiac member is leaving her or someone is taking them away from her.
* FreudianExcuse: ...Except it really isn't an ''excuse''. More like a "[[TraumaCongaLine List of Grievances]]". [[spoiler:After her father died, Ren made her life miserable, raised her as a boy, and constantly pounded it into her that she was alone and no one would ever love her.]]
* GenderBlenderName: "Akito" is generally a male name. Combined with her [[{{Bifauxnen}} masculine appearance]], this managed to fool readers (and some other characters) into believing she was male right up until the UnsettlingGenderReveal.
* GenderFlip: Because the first anime stopped before Volume 17 was released, the animators made Akito biologically male. They make it [[http://i.imgur.com/d9auBh3.jpg very clear]].
* GodInHumanForm: Akito is the [[spoiler: "God" of the Zodiac, who the other Zodiac members have a psychic link to. Aside from this, though, she doesn't have any kind of godlike power.]]
* HatesBeingAlone: She fears being alone/abandoned so much that she rules the Zodiac by fear to keep them from leaving. Her mother is responsible for this.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: She eventually reforms in the manga, in part due to Tohru's kindness.]]
* HomeschooledKids: She was homeschooled during her high school years, due to her frail health.
* IControlMyMinionsThrough: While not minions per se, Akito keeps the Sohma family under her thumb through fear. When Yuki forgives her and makes it clear he's no longer afraid of her, Akito [[FreakOut flips out]] since it means her power over the Zodiac is waning.
* IllGirl: More in the first anime than the manga. [[spoiler:The manga implies that Akito gets sick or at least pretends to get sick when she throws fits. After learning that Kureno freed Rin from captivity, for example, Akito refuses to eat because "her heart is in pain".]]
* KnightOfCerebus: Every time she makes a major appearance, the series gets irreversibly darker in tone and drama.
* LetMeAtHim: The older Sohma members have had to hold Akito back from continuing to beat other members of the family on numerous occasions.
* LimitedWardrobe: Almost always seen in a male kimono, but is seen in suits during functions out of the Sohma estate and a longsleeved turtleneck during the one instance at Tohru's high school. [[spoiler:Towards the end of the manga, she wears a female kimono]].
* LonelyAtTheTop: Because of her status as both the head of the Sohma clan and the Zodiac God, nobody corrected her unstable behavior growing up nor treated her as an equal rather than someone feared by all or pitied by few. This prevented her from ever learning right from wrong and isolating her from interpersonal development and understanding healthy relationships. The only people who could try to help her either catered to her whims, ignored her, or abused her; [[spoiler:Tohru was the very first person to try to empathize with her and talk her through her issues, as well as offer the “God” the chance to genuinely befriend someone outside the Zodiac. [[HeelFaceTurn It worked.]]]]
* ManipulativeBitch: She can keep the Sohma under a tight leash with mood swings and abuse.
* MindRape: Akito is both a perpetrator ''and'' a victim. [[spoiler: [[SarcasmMode Thank you, Ren]].]]
* MoodSwinger: She can be calm one moment and having a screaming tantrum the next, though this is partly done on purpose in order to keep the members of the Zodiac in line.
* NeverMyFault: Akito cannot ''fathom'' being to blame for anything. [[GoodAdulteryBadAdultery Have sex with]] [[spoiler:Kureno even though Shigure clearly loves her, and then kick Shigure off the Sohma estate when he sleeps with her mother as {{Revenge}}]]? It's her Zodiac to do with as she pleases. [[DisproportionateRetribution Lock somebody in isolation]] when [[spoiler:they try to steal a "special" box that Akito knows is clearly empty]]? It's perfectly justified and what on earth is Kureno thinking betraying Akito and freeing said person from harm? And then [[spoiler:Hatsuharu calls her out for almost killing Isuzu twice because she hates women for no good reason. Akito counters with telling him that it was really his fault that she was put in danger at all because he dated Isuzu anyway knowing that Akito hated her. Surprisingly, Hatsuharu agrees that he is partially to blame for Isuzu's suffering.]]
** A particularly vicious example can also be found when Akito attacks Hatori with what looks like a vase, blinding him in one eye, and immediately starts asking the maimed doctor "Hatori, what's wrong?" before accusing Kana, Hatori's innocent would-be fiancee, of being responsible for Hatori's pain. Kana ends up agreeing, and the whole situation goes downhill from there.
** Subverted towards the end when she and Tohru have their fateful confrontation [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone and realizes just how badly her clinging to the past and abusive behavior has destroyed the livelihoods of the other Zodiac members.]]
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler: Had she not said yes to the presence of Tohru in Shigure's household, the curse would never have been broken.]] But by then, Akito had realized her mistakes and had accepted it.
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Despite being a {{Domestic Abuse}}r towards the Zodiac members, Akito loves getting close to them, especially the boys and men.
* NotSoDifferent: Though neither seem to realize it, and they both hate each other's guts, [[LikeFatherLikeSon she's more like her mother, Ren]], than either would care to admit. If it wasn't for [[spoiler: Akito's HeelFaceTurn from Tohru's offer of friendship]], it would've [[BookEnds been her mother's story]].
* PleaseDontLeaveMe: This is said whenever a Zodiac member's curse is lifted. [[spoiler:This is a result of her mother's abuse. When Kureno's curse is lifted, she went ballistic and started screaming hysterically. Momiji's curse breaking, however, is a little calmer and she asks him to stay with her and be taken care of by her. He didn't accept her offer, though. By the time she has a chance to talk to Hiro, she's already mellowed out and doesn't ask him to stay. Plus, the curse breaks completely shortly after.]]
* PsychopathicManchild: She's essentially the same at age 19 as she was when she was little: a SpoiledBrat with a god complex and crippling fear of abandonment. All thanks to mental and emotional abuse from her mother, who's even ''worse'' in this regard.
* PsychoticSmirk: She's shown to have done this often while Yuki was her prisoner.
* RaisedAsTheOppositeGender: She has always known she's a girl and identifies as such too, but Ren demanded her to be raised as a boy ''before she was born'' because of her insane, petty jealousy, under the excuse that a "female leader" would make the Sohmas look bad.
* RedHerring: When Tohru has met twelve of the thirteen cursed Sohmas, she (and the reader) assume that Akito is the Rooster by process of elimination.
* SelfMadeOrphan: Was ''veeeeeeeery'' close to doing this, and it's implied she would have totally done it without remorse [[spoiler:if Hiro hadn't been released from the curse at that exact moment and distracted Akito from doing so]].
* SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond: Just one member of the Sohma family trying to leave is more than enough for Akito to flip her shit.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: To her mother. Shigure notes Ren looks like Akito would've looked like, had she been raised as a woman.
* TomboyishName: Akito is a masculine Japanese name. Her mother raised her as a boy under the excuse that a "female leader" would make the Sohmas look bad.
* TraumaCongaLine: Her father's death, [[spoiler:Kureno's curse breaking,]] and Ren's mental abuse did a real number on her as a child.
* TroubledAbuser: Ren made Akito's life a living hell, for just being jealous of her husband's love towards their child. Between that, a somewhat justified [[AGodAmI god complex]], and quite possibly a predisposition toward mental illness (also courtesy of Ren), it's not all that surprising Akito turned out the way she did.
* {{Tsundere}}: She was on her way to become one, until Ren's abuse ''finally'' got to her head and she became a {{Yandere}}. Yuki recalls her yelling at him once, then stopping herself and gently picking up a bowl.
* UnsettlingGenderReveal: Everyone not in the know (except Uotani) reacts like this to TheReveal about Akito's gender ''and'' identification. A good example is what happened to Tohru when she learned about it through Kureno. Apparently, she was so shocked that ''she stood in the snow for hours''.
* UnstoppableRage: Akito becomes violent when she thinks that a Zodiac member is leaving her or taking attention away from her. She blinded Hatori in one eye for trying to marry Kana, shoved Rin out of a second story window for being romantically involved with Hatsuharu, and later [[spoiler:stabs Kureno for trying to leave her]].
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Various flashbacks reveal that Akito was very kind and gentle as a child. Yuki recalls that Akito was a nice playmate and never did anything worse than occasionally yell at Yuki when impatient (like during one his asthma coughing fits), but would quickly calm down and be nice again. Then one day Akito ''snapped'' due to Ren's abuse, painted her walls black, and tortured Yuki physically and psychologically from then on. It all went downhill from there.
* VillainousBreakdown: An absolutely ''epic'' one.
* WhatHaveIBecome: [[spoiler:Towards the end of the series, she realizes what she has become and is horrified by her actions.]]
* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: A good part of Akito's ManipulativeBastard strategy.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Whether or not one can excuse her actions, Akito counts. Despite beating the living daylights out of several Zodiac members for the majority of their childhood(s) ''and'' emotionally abusing [[spoiler:''everyone'']], [[AllLovingHero Tohru]] can't help but feel sorry for her. One, she learned just how badly Akito herself was emotionally abused, and how her upbringing influenced her outlook on life. The psychological abuse heaped onto her by her mother and EvilMatriarch extraordinaire, Ren, led to a pathological fear of abandonment, driving her to do ''anything'' to make sure no one will leave her. Being told that no one loves you, everyone will abandon you, and no one even respects you, ''and'' having your ''boyfriend'' sleep with Ren to spite you for sleeping with another man (which you partly did to get back at said boyfriend, and partly to stop said man from abandoning you) will do that to you.
* {{Yandere}}: Akito is very mentally unstable and is willing to do anything to keep members the Zodiac from leaving and being loved by other people. It certainly doesn't help that [[spoiler:she's the daughter of another {{Yandere}}, one who was more than willing to abort her out of jealousy.]]
* YourDaysAreNumbered: What the curse burdens Akito with in the 2001 anime adaptation only. He[[note]](Since the anime was released before her gender reveal in the manga, it's generally assumed that this iteration of Akito is unequivocally male)[[/note]] has a shortened lifespan due to bearing what Shigure explains to Tohru as the "core" of the curse. It also serves as his FreudianExcuse in said adaptation as well.

!Other Zodiac Members

[[folder:General Zodiac Tropes]]
The other cursed members of the Sohma family.

* AbusiveParents: More often than not, the curse causes their parents to treat them badly, with indifference at best and physical, mental, and emotional abuse at worst. Hiro, Kisa, Haru, and Ritsu seem to be on good terms with their parents, but that doesn't preclude not getting mistreated by ''other'' members of the family.
* {{Animorphism}}: They change into animals when hugged by a person of the opposite sex who isn't cursed, or when they're very physically weak. Ayame is a special case since he also transforms when he gets too cold, due to being the Snake (since snakes are reptiles and thus cold-blooded).
* TheBeastmaster: They have the ability to speak to, and control to some degree, whichever animal they're possessed by.
* EasternZodiac: Thirteen individuals turn into the twelve animals of the Zodiac [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and the cat]]; they are then [[AnimalMotifs greatly associated with said animals]] in appearance, personality, and relationships.
* HereditaryCurse: They are cursed to turn into animals of the EasternZodiac when they are hugged by someone of the opposite sex that is not also subject to the curse. It's later revealed that there's another part to the curse: each cursed member finds it [[spoiler:impossible to act in any way that isn't subservient to the family member cursed to be the reincarnation of the God of the Zodiac when in their presence]].
* ImplausibleHairColor: Some of the cursed Sohmas have hair and eye colors that aren't considered normal InUniverse by Japanese standards, as a side effect of the animals they're possessed by. Some of them are even [[MistakenForDyed suspected to dye their hair]] by those outside the family, even though their hair colors are completely natural. Kisa in particular is bullied by her classmates for having blonde hair and golden eyes.
* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: They can't control the transition from animal to person and vice versa.
* KissingCousins: Romantic relationships between them aren't frowned down upon despite all being related; it's implied that the Sohma family is just ''[[TheClan that big]]'' that it's probably inconsequential in terms of genetics.
** It's a given that the Sohmas are a ''[[TheClan clan]]'', not simply one big family, so the current generation of cursed Sohmas aren't necessarily cousins by blood and merely refer to each other as such out of formality and kinship.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Whenever a Sohma gets inadvertently transformed into animal in front of a person, they resort to erasing the victim's memories. This is currently done by Hatori, whose family line has had this ability for generations.
* MistakenForDyed: Most of them have rare or unusual hair colors by Japanese standards, which has them subjected to being bullied over their hair. Kisa is shown to get the worst of it.
* PinocchioSyndrome: The curse greatly restricts the social freedom of the afflicted and binds them to the head of the Sohma family. This is emphasized more later on in the story, which the 2001 anime doesn't cover.
* ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: Their clothes don't change with them when they transform, so they're always naked whenever they change back, which is often [[NakedPeopleAreFunny played for comedy]].
* TemporalThemeNaming: Their names (excluding Yuki and Kyo) are derived from archaic Japanese names for the months based off the lunisolar calendar. Each member (besides Momiji and Kureno) is named for the month associated with their animal.
** Shigure is from the tenth month "'''Shigure'''zuki"[[note]]autumn showers month[[/note]], the month of the Dog.
** Kagura is from the eleventh month "'''Kagura'''zuki" [[note]]month of Shinto song and dance[[/note]], the month of the Boar.
** Momiji was mistakenly mixed up with Kureno and named after the ninth month "'''Momiji'''zuki"[[note]]autumn leaves month[[/note]], the month of the Rooster.
** Hatori is from the fourth month "Kono'''hatori'''zuki"[[note]]month of taking leaves [to silkworms][[/note]], the month of the Dragon.
** Hatsuharu is from the first month "'''Hatsuharu'''"[[note]]early spring[[/note]], the month of the Ox.
** Ayame is from the fifth month "'''Ayame'''zuki"[[note]]month of irises[[/note]], the month of the Snake.
** Kisa is from the second month "'''Kisa'''ragi"[[note]]changing clothes month[[/note]], the month of the Tiger.
** Hiro is from the seventh month "Fumi'''hiro'''getsuki"[[note]]month of publication[[/note]], the month of the Sheep.
** Ritsu is from the eighth month "Odaka'''ritsu'''ki"[[note]]rice harvest month[[/note]], the month of the monkey.
** Isuzu is from the sixth month "'''Isuzu'''kuretsuki"[[note]]month of the last cool spring days[[/note]], the month of the Horse.
** Kureno was mistakenly mixed up with Momiji and named after the third month "'''Kureno'''haru"[[note]]late spring[[/note]], the month of the Rabbit.

[[folder:Kagura Sohma (The Boar)]]
!!Kagura Sohma (The Boar)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YuriShiratori (Drama CD), Creator/KotonoMitsuishi (2001 Series), Creator/RieKugimiya (2019 Series) (JP), Meredith [=McCoy=] (2001 Series), Creator/TiaBallard (2019 Series) (EN)

[[quoteright:145:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kagura_sohma_2019.png]]
[[caption-width-right:145:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boar_2019.png[[/labelnote]] to see her as the Boar]]

The Boar of the Zodiac. A strong-willed, impulsive young woman who has deep feelings for Kyo; despite constantly beating him up and berating him she insists they're engaged.

* AdaptationDyeJob: The 2001 anime gave her gray eyes. This also goes for the dress she usually wears; in the manga and 2019 anime her dress is yellow, but in the 2001 anime it's green.
* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Just after [[spoiler: she gives up on Kyo]], she has a LoveEpiphany that is followed by this.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: She wants this with Kyo, considering they've known each other since they were children.
* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: Kagura claims Kyo promised to marry her when they were children. Actually, Kagura forced him to. [[spoiler:She eventually stops holding him to it]].
* ClingyJealousGirl: At first, she wasn't okay with Tohru being around Kyo. She quickly mellows out around her and [[spoiler:even accepts Tohru and Kyo's relationship.]]
* CoolBigSis: Was described as one by Creator/NatsukiTakaya herself.
* ConstantlyCurious: In the BackStory, during her first meeting with Kyo.
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Brown hair and eyes in the manga and the 2019 reboot. The AdaptationDyeJob gives her gray eyes in the first anime.
* TheCutie: She tries to invoke this trope, but fails because she can't resist beating up Kyo.
* DoggedNiceGirl: She kept forcing herself on Kyo, even though he clearly doesn't like her and is terrified of her.
* DontYouDarePityMe: [[spoiler:After being rejected by Kyo definitely, when her mom asks her what's wrong, she says she's just realized how self-centered she was and rejects her pity.]]
* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Her beating the tar out of Kyo nearly every scene they're in is entirely PlayedForLaughs.
* TheDreaded: Is this to Kyo. His gut reaction when he realizes that she's coming for a visit is to attempt to run for the hills.
* FullBoarAction: As the boar of the Zodiac. In the beginning she is quite aggressive as well.
* GenkiGirl: Extremely energetic about her feelings for Kyo.
* TheGlomp: Tries to do this to Kyo at one point when he opens the front door, but he immediately slams it shut.
* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: She's very girly for the most part, but she knows martial arts and is prone to violent outbursts.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Tohru.
* HypocriticalHumor: Happens a lot in her first appearance, like when she beats the tar out of Kyo in a fit of passion, snaps out of it, sees him beat up, and cries "My love! Who could have done this to you?!" Also when she tells Kyo she would forgive him if he cheated on her, but when she believes Tohru loves him she instantly beats the stuffing out of him for being "unfaithful." Lampshaded frequently by Shigure and Yuki.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler:She eventually realizes that Kyo doesn't love her in the same way and openly accepts his relationship with Tohru.]]
* ItsAllAboutMe: [[spoiler: Took Kyo's beads against his protests when they were small children, then ran away when she saw his true form, which caused his mother to stop letting him out, till the pressure of hiding her "monstrous" son to drove her to commit suicide. Rather than acknowledge how much pain this caused Kyo, she instead focused on and tried to hide her own guilt by convincing herself that she loved him, and tried to force him to love her back.]] By the time we find this out, it's through a confession that reveals she's moved beyond that.
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: She is very clingy with Kyo, but she's also been shown to hug other members like Yuki. Her clinginess with Kyo is because of her belief that since they're both members of the Zodiac and thus don't transform when they hug, it means they're meant for each other.
* ObliviousToHatred: Kyo makes it clear multiple times that he hates her, but she can't seem to take the hint.
* OlderThanSheLooks: She's 18 at the beginning of the story and a 20-year-old college student by the end, but she both looks and acts like a high schooler.
* ProperlyParanoid: In her first appearance, she [[spoiler:worries about Kyo living in a house with Tohru lest he eventually fall for her. She's right.]]
* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: Receives a swift but brutal one from Rin, regarding her feelings toward Kyo. "How sad that you keep forcing yourself on him and calling it love." This eventually forces Kagura to acknowledge and correct this.
* SelfProclaimedLoveInterest: She claims that she and Kyo are engaged due to a ChildhoodMarriagePromise, but it's only because she threatened him to agree when they were kids.
* {{Tsundere}}: Type B. She's uber sweet around her friends and family, but ''very'' aggressive when around Kyo.
* {{Yandere}}: At worst, she's this when around Kyo. Unlike [[BigBad Akito]], though, her violence is played more for laughs and she doesn't cause any physical damage.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Momiji Sohma (The Rabbit)]]
!!Momiji Sohma (The Rabbit)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MikiNagasawa (Drama CD), Creator/KoukiMiyata (''The Last Story'' Voice Comic), Creator/AyakaSaitou (2001 Series), Creator/MegumiHan (2019 Series) (JP), Kimberly Grant (2001 Series), Creator/MikaelaKrantz (2019 Series) (EN)

[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/momiji_sohma_2019.png]]
[[caption-width-right:200:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rabbit_2019.png[[/labelnote]] to see him as the Rabbit]]

The Rabbit of the Zodiac, and the son of one of the richest members of the Sohma clan. His German mother was horrified by the Sohma curse and had all memories of him erased. Momiji is androgynous, childish, and likes dressing in women's clothing, but possesses great empathy and intuition about others. He is very fond of Tohru.
----

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: He truly does love Tohru, but he never confesses because he knows she doesn't love him back, at least not in the relationship sense.

* {{Bishonen}}: Once he has a growth spurt in the manga.

* WhamLine: [''smiling''] "Oh, Mama doesn't know I exist."

[[caption-width-right:140:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dragon_2019.png[[/labelnote]] to see him as the Dragon]]

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: After Akito flipped out over Hatori's engagement to Kana and hurt his eye, Kana blamed herself for his injury and eventually became sick from the traumatic incident. To free Kana from her guilt and pain, Hatori erased her memories.

[[folder:Hatsuharu Sohma (The Ox)]]
!!Hatsuharu Sohma (The Ox)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Akio Suyama (teen), Creator/AkemiOkamura (child) (2001 Series), Creator/MakotoFurukawa (teen), Mariko Higashiuchi (child) (2019 Series) (JP), Creator/JustinCook (teen, both series), Joshua Huber (child, 2001 series), Morgan Berry (child, 2019 series) (EN)

[[quoteright:195:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hatsuharu_sohma_2019.png]]
[[caption-width-right:195:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ox_2019.png[[/labelnote]] to see him as the Ox]]

The Ox of the Zodiac, who possesses something of a SplitPersonality. "White Haru" is a soft-spoken, spacey young man, but "Black Haru" is perverted and short-tempered. He is protective of the younger members of the Zodiac.

* AngerBornOfWorry: Downplayed when he sternly lectures Kisa for running away and not telling anyone she was being bullied, a rarity for White Haru.
* BerserkButton:
** He does not like being called dumb, since while growing up a lot of people joked about his being "the dumb ox" of the zodiac.
** His biggest button is abusing Rin. He told off ''her mother'' when they were little children because she didn't care that Rin had been hospitalised. It only got bigger as he and Rin grew up.
* BigBrotherInstinct: To Kisa. After she ran away from home, he ventured out into the rain looking for her, not caring if he got sick in the process. He also hangs around Shigure's house (where Kisa temporarily stays), making sure that she's doing alright. He even hugs her after she speaks for the first time in a while.
* BigBrotherMentor: To Hiro. He's hilariously unaware of it.
* {{Bishonen}}: He's handsome like the rest of his family members.
* BiTheWay: Tells Tohru that Yuki was his first love, and he's currently in love with Rin.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: With Rin. They used to play together as kids, even before her parents disowned her.
* CloudCuckoolander: Says odd, almost random things some times, and other times says things in such a way that people don't understand him.
-->"A teacher said he didn't like my hair, so now I have to get my ears pierced."
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: When he becomes Black Haru.
* DualityMotif: He has hair that's white with black roots, making it look white on top and black toward the bottom. Hence, his [[SplitPersonality Split Personalities]] are known as [[CloudCuckoolander White Haru]] and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Black Haru]].
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: A couple of girls on the street gush about how handsome and badass he looks in all that biker leather, thinking he must be a [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys bad boy]] off to a club. Just when they decide to go talk to him, he puts on his biker gloves and goggles and gets dramatically onto his bike... which turns out to be a common bicycle, complete with a dinging bell. The scene establishes how hardass he looks outside, but how young and spacey he is inside.
* FreakyFashionMildMind: Played with. At first glance he looks like a delinquent, with his tendency to dress in a punk-inspired style along with having piercings and MulticoloredHair, but his hair colors are actually natural and his default personality is rather soft-spoken and somewhat [[CloudCuckooLander odd]]. However, as Black Haru he has a violent and perverted personality that's much more fitting of a delinquent.
* HellBentForLeather: A look he shares with Rin.
* HeroicBSOD: Hits one when he realized how much he contributed to Rin's pain.
* InSeriesNickname: Many of the other Sohmas shorten his name to "Haru".
* ItsAllMyFault: As mad as he is [[spoiler:at Akito for hurting Rin]], he also admits to himself that he's also at fault for her pain. Deep down, [[spoiler:he knew how Akito would hurt the girls who came between her and the male Zodiac members. But he wanted Rin so badly, that he pushed away those worries and pursued her anyway.]]
* LikesOlderWomen: In the manga, he's involved with Isuzu, who is two years older than him. There's also the implication that he (or at least Black Haru) is attracted to Tohru who is a year older than him.
* ALoadOfBull: He does transform into an ox.
* MulticoloredHair: Part white, part black. Since it's a side effect of the curse, it's actually natural despite most people thinking it's dyed. This prompts a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} when he drags the student council president into the men's room to prove it's natural, and it's heavily implied that Hatsuharu's "proof" was showing the president his pubic hair.
* NoSenseOfDirection: When they were kids, Kyo had to hold his hand and lead him to the bathroom. At his introduction he states he was 'lost in the dark heart of the urban jungle' for three days.
* PuppyLove: While heading to the main house [[spoiler:to confront Akito over what she did to Rin]], his internal monologue reveals that he was always in love with Rin ever since they were children. Seeing her hurt by [[spoiler:her own parents]] just made him want to protect her more.
* SlasherSmile: Black Haru delivers these often, specifically when he wants to fight Kyo.
* SplitPersonality: [[RuleOfThree Black Haru.]] Normal (White) Haru is soft-spoken and relaxed. Black Haru is lecherous, violent, and very short-tempered.
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: [[OverlyLongGag You guessed it, Black Haru]].
* UnstoppableRage: Black Haru can express himself as a a teasing, provocative bastard most of the time, but the first moment he genuinely snaps out of rage rather than just petty irritation makes it clear that things can become dangerous if you're in a room with him when he does. In the manga, he destroys his classroom when [[spoiler:Rin dumps him, unbeknownst to him, for his own safety]].
** Played straight and then averted when he confronts [[spoiler:Akito over what happened to Rin. He's pretty close to wrecking Akito until Kureno manages to tell him where Rin is, which is the moment he turns around and seeks Rin out]].
* WhatTheHellHero: Black Haru isn't just PlayedForLaughs. He called out Rin's parents when they put her in the hospital and abandoned her, and later calls out [[spoiler:Akito for what she did to Rin]].
* YoungerThanTheyLook: He looks like he's in college, but he's actually 15.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Ayame Sohma (The Snake)]]
!!Ayame Sohma (The Snake)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TakehitoKoyasu (Drama CD), Creator/MitsuruMiyamoto (2001 Series), Creator/TakahiroSakurai (2019 Series) (JP), Creator/ChristopherSabat (EN)

[[quoteright:215:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ayame_sohma_2019.png]]
[[caption-width-right:215:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/snake_2019.png[[/labelnote]] to see him as the Snake]]

The Snake of the Zodiac, and older brother to Yuki. Gregarious, flirtatious, flamboyant, and self-centered, Ayame runs a shop that sells custom-made costumes. He has a complicated relationship with his younger brother, and is good friends with Shigure and Hatori.
----

[[folder:Kisa Sohma (The Tiger)]]
!!Kisa Sohma (The Tiger)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/KaoriNazuka (2001 Series), Creator/ReinaUeda (2019 Series) (JP), Creator/KateBristol (EN)

[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kisasohma2019_1.png]]
[[caption-width-right:200:Click [[labelnote:Here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kisatiger_8.png[[/labelnote]] to see her as the Tiger]]

The Tiger of the Zodiac. Kisa is very shy, sensitive, and withdrawn, and suffers school bullying as a result of her curse. After Tohru helps her through it, she starts looking up to her as a big sister figure.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Her classmates bully her for her unusual hair and eye colors, which are a side effect of being the Tiger of the Zodiac.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: When she's first introduced in tiger form, she willingly bites Tohru twice and Haru once. It's not quite played for laughs, since she'd likely developed trust issues after being bullied at school.
* BigSisterWorship: She adores Tohru and refers to her as "Nee-chan/Sissy".
* BreakTheCutie: Courtesy of her classmates bullying her for her unusual hair and eye colors, laughing whenever she tried to speak and then ultimately ignoring her.
* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Gentle Girl to Hiro's Brooding Boy.
* CassandraTruth: According to Haru, Kisa tried to tell her classmates that her hair and eye colors were natural, but none of them believed her and they just bullied her even more.
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Blonde hair and gold eyes. Since neither of these hair or eye colors are viewed as normal for a Japanese girl in this story, though, she ends up being bullied for it.
* CuteKitten: Her curse has her turn into an adorable tiger cub, and she's already cute as a button as a human girl. When Tohru first meets Kisa in her tiger form, she mistakes Kisa for a cat while proclaiming how cute she is.
* ElectiveMute: When she's first introduced, she refuses to speak since her classmates bullied her by laughing whenever she tried to say anything. After Tohru's kind treatment encourages her to come out of her shell, she starts talking more often. Yuki also emphasizes with her due to his own experiences with bullying, so both resolve to be better.
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: One of the most innocent characters in the series. Unfortunately, her golden hair is part of what causes her to be bullied.
* HeroWorship: She completely adores Tohru.
* MoralityChain: When it comes to Tohru, she plays this role for Hiro.
* PuppyLove: With Hiro.
%%* SheIsAllGrownUp
* TheRunaway: When she's first introduced, she's run away from home due to being bullied at school and being too ashamed to tell her mother about it, with Hatsuharu having found her in her tiger form. After staying at Shigure's house for a few days, she goes back to live with her mother.
* TheShutIn: As a result of being bullied, she briefly stopped going to school.
* SproutingEars: Occasionally sprouts tiger ears and a tail in relation to her curse.
* StockShoujoBullyingTactics: A victim of the "ignoring" one. Her classmates would eventually just laugh whenever she tried to speak up after standing up for herself, which leads to her refusing to speak at all.
* SupernaturalGoldEyes: She has golden eyes as a side effect of the Sohma family curse. Her unusual eye color (along with having naturally blonde hair) is what leads her to be bullied by her classmates.
%%* ZettaiRyouiki

[[caption-width-right:190:Click [[labelnote:Here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hirosheep.png[[/labelnote]] to see him as the Sheep]]

* BrattyHalfPint: Especially when he first appears. He thankfully gets better as the manga goes on.

* CrazyJealousGuy: Gets jealous at Tohru because of her close relationship with Kisa.
* FailureKnight: [[spoiler: Thinks he failed to protect Kisa from Akito's fury and that's why she was hurt; he fears staying close to Kisa will draw Akito's wrath to her again. Later, he blames himself for not being able to aid Rin, having witnessed how Akito threw her off the second story of a building from a window and being too paralyzed to react in time.]]

* GreenEyedMonster: Lashes out against Tohru for her [[OneeSama close friendship]] with Kisa because she comforted her when he couldn't. [[OhCrap Realizes this was a dumb move]] when Kisa [[WhatTheHellHero warns him to back off.]]
%%* HairTriggerTemper
* HypocriticalHumor: "I can't stand people who complain all the time." He also points out that Tohru's a mama's girl when it turns out he's just as fond of his own mom.

* MommasBoy: Yes. Even if he can be exasperated with his mother's antics, he is very fond of her.

* PuppyLove: He's in love with Kisa, but she's oblivious to him.
* SecretKeeper: For most of the manga, [[spoiler: the truth about Rin's injuries]]. [[KeepingSecretsSucks It weighs heavily on him.]] [[spoiler: And he breaks down in tears when he can't hold back anymore and explains the truth to Haru.]]

* {{Tsundere}}: To Kisa. Eventually acts this way to a degree with Tohru as well; while Hiro is never as effusively affectionate toward Tohru as most of the other cursed Sohmas, he does show genuine concern for her and her well-being.

* AdaptationDyeJob: His hair is a peach color in the manga illustrations, but light brown in both 2001 and 2019 anime.

* AmbiguousGender: In-Universe; he's a boy, but due to being a WholesomeCrossdresser, Tohru mistakes him for a girl. WordOfGod also reveals that his ''own girlfriend'' Mitsuru can't tell if he's male or female ([[BiTheWay not that she cares]]), though in the 2019 anime she does learn that Ritsu is male towards the end of his debut episode.

* CharacterExaggeration: Played with for laughs.
* DemotedToExtra: The number of chapters in which he appears, including his introduction, can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

* InterruptedSuicide: Thankfully, Tohru manages to convince him not to jump off the roof after he accidentally ruins a few pages of Shigure's story draft.

* LargeHam: Because he apologizes ''that'' loudly and repeatedly. The reboot's episode 19 title is literally him apologizing in this manner.
* LongHairedPrettyBoy: You may be noticing a pattern in the Sohma family being good-looking.

* ProneToTears: Nearly anything can set off the tears and frantic apologies.
* ShrinkingViolet: Even more so than his mother.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: He frequently wears women's kimono, which is one of the solutions he tried to not remain quite so insecure. The jokes made about this [[SocietyMarchesOn are pretty much eliminated from the reboot]], though Shigure realistically points out that it may not help him get a job.

[[folder:Isuzu "Rin" Sohma (The Horse)]]
!!Isuzu "Rin" Sohma (The Horse)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/HoukoKuwashima (''The Last Story'' Voice Comic), Creator/AkiToyosaki (2019 Series) (JP), Creator/BrinaPalencia (EN)

[[quoteright:194:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/isuzurinsohma.png]]
[[caption-width-right:195:Click [[labelnote:Here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rinhorse.png[[/labelnote]] to see her as the Horse]]

The Horse of the Zodiac. Cold, stubborn, and fiercely independent, Rin is very closed-off as a result of her very abusive and traumatic past. She is determined to find a way to break the Sohma family curse.

* AbusiveParents: Mom and Dad [[spoiler: ''pretended'' to love her, until she noticed their love was fake. They became ''horribly'' abusive afterwards, until Kagura and her parents found out and took Rin into their custody; she was so badly damaged, though, that she simply couldn't bond with them despite their good intentions.]]
* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Unlike the other Sohmas, she doesn't quickly warm up to Tohru. And when she broke up with Haru, she simply told him that she was "tired" of him.
* AngerBornOfWorry: Often acts irritable with Tohru because she worries about her.
* BadDreams: Thanks to her AbusiveParents and Akito.
* BirdsOfAFeather: She and Haru understand each other's volatility.
* BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: She dumps Haru by saying that she was "tired" of him, because Akito had beaten her up for dating him and she wanted to find a way to free him from the Zodiac curse.
* BrokenBird: Her AbusiveParents damaged her so badly that she finds it incredibly difficult to open up and bond with people.
* BrutalHonesty: Rin does not mince words.
* DestinationDefenestration: When Akito [[spoiler: confronts her in regards to her and Haru, Rin says she's the one who started their relationship. An enraged Akito throws her out the second floor window. She survives, but is seriously injured.]]
* DontYouDarePityMe: When she meets Tohru and is awed by her kindness and warmth, Isuzu hates herself for wanting to confide in her and cry on her shoulder.
* ElegantGothicLolita: Some of her clothes had a Goth influence to them.
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Tohru's reaction after seeing her naked (post-transformation).
* HimeCut: This hairstyle (long length, even and straight bangs, and sidelocks) fits her ElegantGothicLolita theme. The personality traits are more of a mixed bag due to her parent's abuse.
* IllGirl: She has stomach ulcers from all the stress and trauma she's been through.
** Her traumatic past cause her health problems more than once. Specifically, she has stomach ulcerae and often is bed-ridden due to them.
** She also has a few psychological problems, indicated by her hallucinating that Tohru is her mother whom she is begging not to be angry with her.
* {{Irony}}: Her favorite food is gelatin, which is famously made by boiling animal products like horse hooves.
* LonersAreFreaks: She never made many friends due to her parents' abuse, her health problems putting her in and out of the hospital, and her own distant personality. The only people she really bonds with are [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Hatsuharu]], and later [[OddFriendship Tohru]].
* MsFanservice: By WordOfGod, "she's the character in charge of sexiness." Thankfully, she has enough of a complex personality that this isn't all there is to her.
* MoralityPet: To Black Haru, enough that [[spoiler: when Akito throws her out of a window, he goes ''[[UnstoppableRage ballistic]]'' and tries to kill her.]]
* OddFriendship: Eventually develops this with Tohru, since she's still aloof and stand-offish, while Tohru is... well, [[AllLovingHero Tohru]].
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: In-series she's called more often by her nickname "Rin" than by her given name "Isuzu". Her nickname is tied to her real name in two ways; "Rin" is an alternate reading of the second kanji of "Isuzu" (鈴) and the kanji in question means "bell", while "rin" would refer to a bell's "ring".
* PickyEater: Due to her stomach ulcer. She only really likes gelatin.
* PleaseIWillDoAnything: She [[spoiler: offers herself to Shigure to get him to tell her how to break the curse. Thankfully, [[ChivalrousPervert Shigure]] declines.]]
* RavenHairIvorySkin: She's considered beautiful in-universe and was intended to be this according to WordOfGod.
* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler: Rin had hoped that ending the curse would also end her pain. It doesn't. She's upset to learn that ending the curse doesn't magically end a lifetime of horrific emotional scars.]]
* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives a swift but brutal one to Kagura during her EstablishingCharacterMoment.
-->'''Rin:''' It's sad how you force yourself on him and call it love.\\
'''Kagura:''' (''stunned and hurt'') ... How could you say that?\\
'''Rin:''' Well, it's true, isn't it?
* ScarsAreForever: [[spoiler: Has heavy scars on her back, thanks to her evil parents.]]
* ScrewDestiny: She actively tries to break the curse.
* SingleIssuePsychology: Defied. [[spoiler:After the curse is finally broken, Rin reveals that she'd hoped all of her pain and emotional issues would go away, but they didn't. It turns out, a lifetime of horrific abuse that the curse brought her (her parents, Akito, etc) doesn't magically end with said curse.]]
* TraumaticHaircut: [[spoiler:Courtesy of Akito, as punishment for following Akito's evil mother, Ren's, orders.]]
* {{Tsundere}}: Towards Tohru, after they become friends and towards Hatsuharu after she breaks up with him.
* WhatTheHellHero: Delivers a shockingly direct one to Kagura, after the latter slaps Tohru across the face and yells at her that she needs to confess her feelings properly to Kyo. Despite all of Rin's aloof behavior towards Tohru, she ''flips her shit'', physically grabs Kagura, and ''screams in her face'' that she has no right to raise a hand to Tohru. God only knows what she might have done if Kagura hadn't been shocked into realizing she'd crossed the line and given Rin a CooldownHug and a sincere "I'm sorry".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Kureno Sohma (The Rooster)]]
!!Kureno Sohma (The Rooster)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/SusumuChiba (JP, ''The Last Story'' Voice Comic)

[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kureno_sohma.jpg]]

The Rooster of the Zodiac. A polite and selfless young man whom Akito is very attached to.
----

!!Other Sohmas

[[folder:Kazuma Sohma]]
!!Kazuma Sohma
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Norihiro Inoue (adult), Miki Machii (child) (2001 series), Creator/ToshiyukiMorikawa (2019 series) (JP), Creator/DameonClarke (adult, both series), Heaven Tubbs (child, 2001 series), Emily Fajardo (child, 2019 series) (EN)

[[quoteright:195:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kazumasohma.png]]

Kyo's martial arts teacher and foster father. His grandfather was the previous Cat, and Kazuma regrets his cruel words towards his grandfather during the one time they met. After Kyo's mother died, he took Kyo in as a way to atone, but over time he came to love Kyo like his own son.

* AdaptationDyeJob: In the manga and 2019 anime he has brown hair, but the 2001 anime gives him grey hair.
* TheAtoner: As a child, Kazuma treated the former Cat (his grandfather) quite badly. Upon meeting the new Cat, Kyo, he takes him in, having never been able to forgive himself for that.
* BareFistedMonk: The martial arts instructor of Kyo, Yuki, Haru, and Kagura.
* {{Bishonen}}: He's very good-looking for being ''39''.
* ForYourOwnGood: When he first appears in the manga and 2019 anime he purposefully [[spoiler:removes Kyo's beads in front of Tohru, revealing his true form to her, because he wanted Kyo to confront the possibility that someone wouldn't reject him for it.]]
* LethalChef: He can't even prepare decent ''tea''.
* OlderThanHeLooks: He's 39 during his first appearance. At the end of the series, he should be about 41. You wouldn't guess any of this just by looking at him. Even [[WordofGod Takaya]] [[LampshadeHanging admits she draws him very young looking.]]
* PapaWolf: He will ''not'' allow anyone to mistreat Kyo. He even calls out Kyo's biological father when the man tries to enlist Kazuma's support in locking Kyo up once he's out of school.
* ParentalSubstitute: He's Kyo's foster father, and has been seen taking care of Rin in lieu of their terrible biological parents.

[[folder:Ren Sohma]]

Akito's mother.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: She has even fewer supporters in the Sohma family than Akito.
* AbusiveMom: She raised Akito as a man and constantly told her that she was worthless and no one would ever love her.
* AmbiguousDisorder: There's clearly something up with her, especially with her intense fixation on her deceased husband Akira that goes beyond regular devotion and into co-dependency. The most anyone says about her is that she's "a little sick, both mentally and physically", and no specifics are given.
* AxCrazy: [[spoiler: She stumbles deliriously into Akito's room with a knife to demand the box Akira gave to Akito (that's not even his)]] as Ren needs [[AllThatGlitters his possessions]] to reassure herself of their love together. Especially after Ren's [[spoiler: [[DespairEventHorizon mortified realization]] that her deep connection with Akira was little more than talk on her part]].
* ChildHater: She once said that she hated how [[spoiler: then-tiny Ayame, Hatori, Kureno and Shigure]] swarmed to her and cried. [[spoiler: Their tears were because they sensed she was pregnant with Akito, the future God of the Zodiac]]. Akito remembers her as a cold mother and as noted by Ren herself, has always hated Rin; up to the point that she tricked a young Rin into questioning her parents's love, knowing what the horrible outcome would be.
* ClingyJealousGirl: She absolutely hated the idea that Akira could love another woman more than her, even if that woman was their own daughter.
* DramaticIrony: Her destined deep connection with Akira is NotSoDifferent than the eternal bond Akito says she has with the Zodiac that Ren always ridicules. It's revealed [[spoiler: that neither are true; the Zodiac curse is waning and Ren slept with Shigure in the past]].
** Ren unknowingly despises what Akira believed truly symbolized how special their love was together: [[spoiler: Akito being born as God of the Zodiac]]. She obsesses over [[spoiler: whatever's in a box of his]] as [[MagicFeather evidence of his love]] that she says is hers by right, that was left to Akito [[spoiler: but, in truth, prepared by the Sohma's Head Maid in order to console her over her father's death. It did very little to once she opened it. It's empty]]. After [[BreakThemByTalking what Shigure said to her beforehand]], Ren's left an EmptyShell of a mess once she sees what's inside.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Her daughter inherited her looks, and she's very unstable.
* ElectraComplex: Inverted. [[spoiler:Rather than being the daughter who wants to kill the mother to have the father all to herself, Ren is a mother who wants to kill her own daughter to have her husband all to herself.]]
* EvilIsPetty: She more or less singlehandledly screws up the family by abusing Akito to insanity, all because she was jealous that her husband would love their child more than her, and that her daughter would receive more male attention once she grew up (being beautiful, female, ''and'' the head of the family) than she did. [[spoiler:At one point, she tries to ''kill'' Akito over a ''box'', which she believes holds some treasure left behind by her husband. The reveal that the box was empty just emphasized how obsessively twisted Ren was.]]
* EvilMatriarch: She is above Akito and arguably the BiggerBad of the series.
* FemaleMisogynist: She had Akito raised as a boy under the excuse that the Sohma family having a female head would look bad, but it was really because of her petty jealousy over Akira and Akito's close relationship, and her fear that her daughter would receive more male attention once she grew up than she did. Her misogynist tendencies eventually rubbed off on Akito.
* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Ren originally worked as a maid in the Sohma state, then she was the first person who took care of IllBoy [[LonelyRichKid Akira]] and reached out to him.
* {{Foil}}: For Kyoko Honda - Ren lived at the [[BigFancyHouse Sohma estate]] as a proper maid, while Kyoko was a part of a gang and had a rough upbringing. Kyoko was disowned by her family, the Sohma's being unable to dismiss Ren due to her position. When their husbands made their marriage proposals, both families were in shocked due to their belief one partner unfit for the other; the Katsunuma wondering why such a respectable person would want to marry their daughter, while Ren was apparently an unsuitable choice. Both were young mothers who lost their husbands when their only daughter was a toddler. However, while Kyoko was able to move on with just the memory of Katsuya, and the love she shared with Tohru ultimately proved to be the redeeming factor in the entire series; Ren stayed fixated about Akira's love for her, yet needing a box of Akira's for proof of it, and was swallowed by her grief to the point [[LoveMakesYouEvil that she fueled the angst of the main series]].
** Their relationship with their husbands and daughters. Ren cared for Akira who was [[YourDaysAreNumbered terminally ill]] and reached out to him when she saw how lonely he was. Katsuya was a student teacher who worried about a troubled Kyoko and his death from a flu was very sudden. Ren threatened to abort Akito unless [[spoiler: she was raised as a boy]] out of fear Akira could love her more. They went irreconcilable over their child until very the end. Kyoko was happy to have Katsuya’s baby but worried that their child's life would be miserable because of her, but they were still a happy family upon Katsuya's death.
** The opinions they have about children in general. Kyoko forms a few [[IntergenerationalFriendship Intergenerational Friendships]] and was even [[LetsHaveAnotherBaby thinking of having another baby]] with Katsuya. Unless she's able to use a child for her schemes, Ren believes them to be useless and [[JealousParent refused to even hold her own child after they were born]].
* GreaterScopeVillain: She's more or less responsible for shaping [[BigBad Akito's]] personality.
* HateSink: Unlike her daughter, she has no tragic backstory or excuses for her actions and she's to be blamed for how horrible Akito is now. The most that can be said is that the rest of the Sohma family treated her poorly when Akira showed interest in her and she's clearly mentally ill to some degree.
* {{Hypocrite}}: After all her talk of how a man is destined for one woman and that Akira loved no one else but her, she brushes off any authenticity to the relationship between Shigure and Akito and easily starts one up with him herself. It's possibly due to the similarities she sees he has with Akira: belief he's suffering from the Zodiac Bond and only she can ease his pain, falling in love with him as she believes [[LongingLook he secretly desires her]]. She [[VillainousBreakdown snaps]] when [[MindRape Shigure tells her how he only slept with her as she looked like Akito if she'd raised female, and mocks her over how ''only'' she would need a box to prove Akira's love for her]].
* ItIsDehumanizing: When discussing making Akito the head of the family, Ren outright referred to her as "that."
* JealousParent: She couldn't stand the attention that her husband, Akira, gave to their child Akito. In fact, she was so jealous that she did her best to ruin Akito's life.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Ren notes that the outside world will ultimately prove too attractive an alternative to Akito's presence for the Zodiac.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: Her FaceHeelTurn came when she got pregnant and became obsessed with the idea that Akira would care more for their then-unborn child than for her... and you know what came next.
* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: While Akira's death proved to be the tipping point, the rest of the Sohma clan and attendants did their best to marginalize Ren as soon as Akira started showing interest in her. It eventually got to the point where Akira's support for her was the only positive influence in her life. And when she lost that... well, see the other tropes for her.
%%* ManipulativeBastard
* MeddlingParents: To some degree. She doesn't believe in the bond but she doesn't do anything about it except trying to use it against Akito.
* NotSoDifferent: If it hadn't been for Akito's [[spoiler: HeelFaceTurn]], it would've been a complete BookEnds to the story. Ren's constant mental abuse of Akito that she'd be abandoned led to Akito ruling mostly through fear to keep the Zodiac from leaving her. There are two bets running throughout the series; Akito with Kyo that he'd be allowed to join the Zodiac if he could beat Yuki within the year to prove himself, otherwise he'd be confined; Ren with Akito that if the Zodiac didn't return to her side after being allowed into the outside world with a stranger among them, Akito would admit defeat, and leave the Sohma house.
** They hit their lowest about the same time when they realize the bond they believed in so much [[spoiler: was a lie]]. However, Ren broke hers by her own hands [[spoiler: sleeping with Shigure]]; while there's no real explanation why the curse started breaking, Tohru's healing personality definitely helped. Ren is completely willing to [[spoiler: [[OffingOnesOffspring kill Akito over a box Akira left to her (that was actually given to Akito by the Head Sohma Maid)]] she believes is hers by right and does receive, Akito stopped herself from becoming a SelfMadeOrphan when she feels Hiro's bond break]]. She's able to calmly let it go.
** Ren's pregnancy with the next God of the Zodiac and threat to abort Akito if she wasn't RaisedAsTheOppositeGender was start of her FaceHeelTurn. [[spoiler: Akito's HeelFaceTurn is when she's about to kill Tohru over the curse breaking, though Tohru convinces her they should start over; however the cliff crumbled out from under her before they can]]. Luckily, she wasn't seriously injuried.
* PsychopathicManchild: Not only is her reason for abusing Akito ultimately very bratty (being jealous of her just because Akira was happy to be a father, and because she couldn't stand the idea of her daughter growing up receiving more male attention than she did), she tries to [[spoiler: outright murder Akito over an empty box that belonged to Akira, believing that all of Akira's belongings are hers by right]].
* RapunzelHair: It goes all the way down to her ''knees''.
* SmugSnake: Beautiful, evil, sly, manipulative, and not just despicable, but in the end, very ''incompetent''. [[spoiler: She has to manipulate her desperate niece Rin to get her late husband Akira's box (Rin then fails and is horrifyingly "punished" by Akito), is humiliated by Shigure when he tells her he only had sex with her because she looks like an older Akito, and once her plans crumble she's left as an EmptyShell of her former self.]]
* WantedASonInstead: She wishes Akito was born a man. She claims it's because a female family head is unfitting, but it's actually because she was afraid that her husband could love another woman more than her (even if she's ''their daughter'').
* {{Yandere}}: Even ''more'' than Akito! She initially wanted to ''abort'' Akito because of her fear of losing her husband's love to their daughter. When Akira passed away, though, she turned into an AbusiveParent and got worse from there.

[[folder:Akira Sohma]]

The former head of the Sohma family and Akito's father.

* {{Bishonen}}: He had an "unearthly beauty", according to people.
* DisappearedDad: He died when Akito was a child.
* DotingParent: He adored his child Akito, because he believed [[spoiler:her being the God of the Zodiac proved that his love with his beloved wife Ren was special]].
* IllBoy: It was said that he was born with a weak body and succumbed to illness before the story started.
* LonelyRichKid: As head of the Sohma family, people could seldom approach him. Not helped by his horrible health.
* PoorCommunicationKills: If he had TOLD Ren [[spoiler:that the reason he adored their daughter was because he felt their child being "God" of the Zodiac was proof that their love was special]], maybe she would have been... ''less'' destructively jealous and spiteful throughout the series. Maybe.
* PosthumousCharacter: He died long before the start of the series and is only seen in flashbacks.
* UptownGuy: When they first met, Akira was the leader of the Sohma household while Ren worked as a maid in the Sohma state. They fell in love and got married.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: He was terminally ill for a very long time.

[[folder:Kana Sohma]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/HaruhiTerada (2001 anime), Creator/MinamiTsuda (2019 anime) (JP), Libby Smith (2001 anime), Creator/KaraEdwards (2019 anime) (EN)

Hatori's ex-fiancée.

* BreakTheCutie: She is the first of many examples of Akito's mental abuse.
* HospitalHottie: Was Hatori's assistant.
* MindRape: Via [[spoiler:Akito. She's left in such a ''huge'' HeroicBSOD that Hatori erases her memories of their romance so she can get better. She's now HappilyMarried to someone else, and only remembers Hatori as her never-confessed FirstLove.]]
* NaiveEverygirl: As one of the 'outer' Sohmas, she had little awareness of the influence Akito held over the family and was so devastated after Hatori was nearly blinded that she has to have her memories erased to even begin to recover from the mental trauma that the incident caused.

[[folder:Satsuki Sohma]]

Hiro Sohma's mother, she makes relatively few appearances late in the manga. Gives birth in the manga to a non-Zodiac daughter, Hinata, making Hiro a big brother.

* ChildrenRaiseYou: Hiro acts like a concerned but exasperated parent to her most of the time. She remarks in one panel how her son always scolds her. In another panel, Satsuki responds with a "Yes, sir!" when he tells her to be more careful [[spoiler: while she's still pregnant]]. (Though her lighthearted tone of voice could mean she just humors him all of the time.)
* CuteClumsyGirl: Such a klutz that Hiro is paranoid she's bound to trip down a flight of stairs. He's especially freaked out [[spoiler:when she's pregnant.]]
* DotingParent: Aside from Kagura's mother, she's the only mother of a Zodiac child we see who neither rejected him nor became overprotective.
%%* GenkiGirl
* GoodParents: Satsuki is one of the only parents of Zodiac members who openly loves her kid.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: She's a lot more aware of Hiro's emotional sore spots than he realizes.
* OpenMindedParent: Unperturbed that [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting her son turns into a sheep]]. When he transformed when she held him for the very first time, her reaction was, "I love sheep!"
* ShipperOnDeck: Openly anticipates gaining Kisa as a daughter-in-law, much to [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents Hiro's horror]].
* SoProudOfYou: Honestly is very proud of Hiro being her child without being overprotective or ashamed of him.
* WackyParentSeriousChild: She indulges her son Hiro's strictness often.
* WomanChild: She's very loopy and clumsy, which stresses out her son.

[[folder:Meshou Sohma]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Junko Yamamoto (2001 series), Sachiko Kojima (2019 series) (JP), Julie Mayfield (EN)

Ritsu's mother, and the manager of a hot springs owned by the clan.

* ApologizesALot: Most of her lines are apologies.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette
* KimonoIsTraditional: Wears one all the time.
* LikeParentLikeChild: Ritsu didn't get his emotional side from thin air.
%%* MyBelovedSmother: Sympathetic example, because...
* ParentsAsPeople: For all of her faults, she adores Ritsu.
* StringyHairedGhostGirl: Not a ghost, and certainly not a young girl, but has the looks and she ''has'' been mistaken as a ghost.
* {{Transplant}}: She apparently appeared in one of Natsuki Takaya's earlier stories.

!!Tohru's Friends

[[folder:In General]]
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Non-romantically, towards Tohru. Although late in the manga there is some implication that [[LesYay Saki may have harbored something deeper]].
* MamaBear: Took over for Kyoko after she passed away, and have Tohru's legion of would-be tormentors too terrified to get near her.
* NiceMeanAndInBetween: Tohru is nice, Arisa was formally mean then is now in-between, Saki is in-between, nice towards her friends, (slightly) mean towards anyone who bothers Tohru.
* OddFriendship: People certainly find it odd that NiceGirl Tohru is best friends with Uotani the former delinquent and Hanajima the stoic {{Goth}} with PsychicPowers. Despite how incredibly different they all are, they're still very close, likely because all three of them were [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer ostracized at some point in their lives]] and found solace in each other.
* ThreeAmigos: With Tohru.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Arisa Uotani]]
!!Arisa Uotani
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YukaImai (2001 Series), Creator/AtsumiTanezaki (2019 Series) (JP), Parisa Fakhri (2001 Series), Creator/ElizabethMaxwell (2019 Series) (EN)

[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arisa_uotani_2019.png]]

One of Tohru's closest friends and a former gang member. While still a bit rough around the edges due to her delinquent past and her troubled home life, she's a loyal friend to Tohru after she and Kyoko helped her quit her gang and clean up her act during middle school.

* AffectionateNickname: Tohru calls her "Uo-chan".
* {{Bokukko}}: Uses "boku," and has an aggressive, boyish personality.
* BoyishShortHair: Had this during her middle school days.
* BrokenPedestal: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zig-zagged.]] When she was in a gang Arisa idolized Kyoko as "the Red Butterfly," but when she went to meet her she was disgusted to learn she'd become a DotingParent to a NiceGirl like Tohru. However, Kyoko eventually helped her see that her anger was misplaced and gang life isn't the answer, and helped her turn her life around. Then Arisa idolized her for real.
* CoolBigSis: After lecturing to three middle school aged yankii wannabes, they start respecting her and one starts calling her OneeSama.
* FreudianExcuse: Her parents divorced when she was little, her mother walked out on her with her new boyfriend and her father spent most of his time drinking. The absence of her parents' love resulted in her joining a gang.
* GenerationXerox: To Kyoko, who isn't even her mother. Like Kyoko, she developed anger issues due to emotional ParentalAbandonment from a young age and joined a gang by middle school, was healed by ThePowerOfLove during middle school, and fell for a (seemingly) ordinary NiceGuy. The only difference is she's healed by friendly love first (from Tohru and Kyoko) and then fell for [[spoiler:Kureno]] later. [[spoiler:Then there's The Zodiac Curse.]]
* GrumpyBear: Until befriending Kyoko and Tohru she was grumpy ''and'' violent. She was initially disgusted with Kyoko and Tohru's doting mother-daughter relationship and happy home life, but Kyoko eventually helped her realize that her anger was misplaced and it was mainly because she didn't have the greatest home life herself.
* JapaneseDelinquents: She used to be a sukeban before Tohru and Kyoko helped her turn her life around and quit her gang, and other characters refer to her as a yankii. Though she's no longer a delinquent, she still wears a long skirt as part of her school uniform and occasionally brings out a metal pipe whenever she feels the need to protect Tohru.
%%* TheLadette
* NewJobEpisode: Does various part time jobs.
* ParentalAbandonment: When she was very young, her mother left her and her father to marry another man.
* PeekABangs: Shows how aloof and emotionally closed off she is to all but her closest friends and loved ones.
* StarCrossedLovers: She and [[spoiler:Kureno fell in love with each other over the course of two meetings. However, due to Kureno's obligation to Akito he decided to never see her again even after learning that she wanted to. They are reunited at the end of the series.]]
* SugarAndIcePersonality: She's warm and friendly towards her friends, but frigid and hostile towards anyone that gets on her nerves, primarily the Prince Yuki Fan Club.
* TearsOfRemorse: In her backstory, when she admits to Kyoko she was dumb and wanted to be friends with Tohru.
%%* VolleyingInsults: With Kyo.

[[folder:Saki Hanajima]]
!!Saki Hanajima
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/ReikoYasuhara (2001 Series), Creator/SatomiSato (2019 Series) (JP), Daphne Gere (2001 Series), Creator/JadSaxton (2019 Series) (EN)

[[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/saki_hanajima_2019.png]]

One of Tohru's closest friends and a psychic. She was ostracized as a child due to her powers, but was able to come to terms with her abilities after befriending Tohru and Uotani in middle school. While very stoic and intimidating at first glance, she's a devoted friend to Tohru and isn't without her own eccentricities.

* AffectionateNickname: Tohru calls her "Hana-chan".
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Her infamy first brought her bullying at first, then almost complete isolation... until Tohru and Arisa break through her defenses.
* AloofBigSister: Subverted. She ''seems'' aloof, but she really loves her little brother.
* AmbiguouslyBi: While it's hinted that she may have deep feelings for Tohru, she also gets a crush on Kazuma Sohma [[spoiler:and in ''Another'' is revealed to have married a foreigner and now has a son]].
* BigEater: She plays her role in "Cinderella" like this, trying to wish for yakiniku instead of a carriage to the ball.
* BrilliantButLazy: She fails school tests on purpose because the makeup tests are easier.
* BookDumb: She's not really, but she pretends to be because the make-up tests are easier. However, she does become motivated enough to pass her exams before summer vacation, because otherwise she'd be stuck taking make-up exams in a school building with no air conditioning.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: If her feelings for Tohru are romantic after all.
* TheComicallySerious: It's sometimes shown that her thought processes can be kind of odd, like how she purposefully fails tests because makeup tests are easier or how she insists that she and her brother Megumi look nothing alike even though they're very obviously related. Combined with her stoic nature, she tends to fall into this trope.
* TheDreaded: To the Yuki Fan Club: while they're certainly intimidated by Arisa, it's Saki they're truly ''terrified'' of.
* ElegantGothicLolita: When in casual clothes, she breaks out the black, the parasols and lace if possible. She seems to prefer long skirts rather than the classic Lolita bell silhouette. She always has an elegant mien about her.
%%* ExpressiveHair
* {{Goth}}: She toes the line between this trope and ElegantGothicLolita. She's very [[TheStoic stoic]], was a loner before befriending Tohru due to her PsychicPowers alienating her from her peers, and only ever wears black clothing outside of school (and she always wears black nail polish). She originally started wearing black as a way of punishing herself for almost killing a boy who bullied her in elementary school, but by now she's simply gotten used to it.
* GoodParents: Her parents and grandmother are endlessly loving and supportive of her, especially when she was being bullied and ostracized. They also aren't too bothered by her powers. Her little brother Megumi takes after them and is pretty protective of her sometimes.
* HiddenDepths: The Yuki Fan Club is surprised to discover she likes to read shojo manga. She also takes an interest in Shigure's romance novel series ''Summer Sigh'', and is later shown to have bought the first three volumes.
* InvisibleToNormals: Hanajima's denpa waves are something only she can see.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: She's so guilt-ridden over putting a little boy who bullied her into a coma that she spent the rest of her childhood punishing herself, believing she deserved to be bullied and ostracized for what she did. She only forgave herself after meeting Tohru, Arisa, and Kyoko.
* PowerIncontinence: Her abilities were implied to be controlled by her emotions and couldn't be turned off when she was growing up. Nowadays, she has a much better handle on them.
* ProfessionalSlacker: To the point that her plan for life after high school is just to muster up the motivation to ''actually pass high school''. Her teacher is not amused.
* PsychicPowers: She reads auras and can potentially kill with her "denpa waves". [[spoiler: That almost happened in her backstory, where she loses it after being brutally bullied by a boy and wishing for his death... then her powers go haywire and he almost dies.]]
* RavenHairIvorySkin
* ShipTease: She falls for Kyo's foster father, who finds her very charming. While there are some hints late in the manga that they're developing a relationship, it's ultimately left ambiguous. However, she isn't shown to be with him in ''Another,'' [[spoiler: and Megumi mentions that she is married to a foreigner and she had a son named Rio, who is friends with Shiki and Chizuru]].
* TheStoic: Always monotone, rarely emotional.
* WhenSheSmiles: Only those closest to her get to see her smile.

[[folder:Megumi Hanajima]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/OmiMinami (2001 series), Creator/YukiyoFujii (2019 series) (JP), Hollie Townson (2001 series), Creator/LeahClark (2019 series) (EN)

Saki's younger brother. Like his sister, he is a psychic.

* BigSisterWorship: He's especially doting to Hana and wishes for her happiness with the knowledge of how much she suffered as a child.
* LikesOlderWomen: He's pretty subtle about it, but he mentions once how "interesting" it is for him to be the only boy amongst three women (Saki, Tohru, and Arisa). Then there was his forward comment about visiting Arisa at work to see her in a miniskirt...
* {{Goth}}: To support his sister, he also started wearing black. Hana encouraged him to move on from it, but admits people would think it weird if he swiched to pastel colors.
* IKnowYourTrueName: His curses work when he knows someone's name.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: He looks like a younger, male version of Hana. However, he and his sister deny it.
* WhenHeSmiles: Like his older sister, he has a charming smile, but he hides it.
* WiseBeyondHisYears: Upon hearing the plan of the [[ClingyJealousGirl Prince Yuki Fan Club girls]], he gives them a speech about how they're being selfish by forcing their one-sided affections on Yuki and that he would come to hate them for driving away the people he allows into his life. His words even reach Saki, who had been suffering from her own mild jealousy of Tohru's friendship with the Sohma family.
** When he was even younger, he provided his ''older sister'' with comforting words.

!!Tohru's Parents

[[folder:In General]]
* AgeGapRomance: Kyoko was just out of middle school (16) and Katsuya was in his early twenties when they met and got married. The age difference is commented on a lot.
* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: Tohru quotes Kyoko's words quite a few times in the manga; also Kyoko helping [[spoiler:Kyo and Arisa]] in the {{flashback}}s.
** Subverted in regards to Tohru's feelings for her father, as she has few memories of him and [[spoiler:after Katsuya died, Kyoko became catatonic with grief to the point of ignoring Tohru. A young Tohru believed back then that in a way, Kyoko's grief meant that her father was taking her mother away also. Years later, the thought still haunts her because she knows Katsuya was a good person and Tohru can't believe she ever thought that way to begin with. It's also the reason why she adopted what few of his speech patterns she could remember - she was trying to remind Kyoko of Katsuya]].
* HappilyMarried: The two of them were very close, doted on their daughter, and were planning to have another child.
* OppositesAttract: Kyoko was brash and excitable while Katsuya was calm and polite to a fault.
* MalignedMixedMarriage: Pretty much no one but Katsuya's father approved of their marriage, due to Kyoko's age and gang history.
* PosthumousCharacter: Both of them are dead by the beginning of the series, but their influence is felt through secondary and tertiary connections to other characters.
* TeacherStudentRomance: Katsuya was a student teacher and counselor when he met Kyoko (who in turn almost never showed up to school and never attended a class he helped teach), but he started working for a pharmaceutical company shortly before they got married. [[spoiler: He was actually going to her house to ask her parents if he could marry her... and quite in time, since he did it right when the Katsunumas were kicking Kyoko out of the house. He gives them a WhatTheHellHero speech and takes Kyoko in.]]

[[folder:Kyoko Honda]]
!!Kyoko Honda, née Katsunuma
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/ReikoYasuhara (2001 Series), Creator/MiyukiSawashiro (2019 Series) (JP), Julie Mayfield (2001 Series), Creator/LydiaMackay (2019 Series) (EN)

[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kyoko_honda_2019.png]]

Tohru's mother, who died from being hit by a car a few months before the story begins. Despite her rough past as a former gang member and losing her husband Katsuya to illness, she still did her best to be a good mother to Tohru, and much of Tohru's worldview was shaped by Kyoko's wisdom.

* AdultFear: A flashback reveals a pregnant Kyoko terrified that her relationship with Tohru would go the way of hers with her own mother.
** Also, when little Tohru got lost, Kyouko went ''ballistic'' on the police because it was very hard to find her.
* AlliterativeName: Prior to marrying Katsuya, her name was '''K'''yoko '''K'''atsunuma.
* BigOlEyebrows: Inverted -- Katsuya makes fun of Kyoko because she doesn't have eyebrows. "Miss No-eyebrows" becomes his AffectionateNickname for her.
* BrokenBird: Until Katsuya offers her a helping hand.
* BrokenPedestal: Arisa was ''not'' happy to discover that the "Red Butterfly" she'd admired had turned into a [[DotingParent Doting Mother]]. However, after she slowly warmed up to her and when she [[spoiler:helped Arisa quit her gang]], [[RebuiltPedestal she admired her again]].
* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: Tohru has nothing but fond memories of her. Arisa and Saki both also see her in a good light and remember her fondly as well.
* DotingParent: Despite being a single mother who didn't have much of an income, Kyoko is still shown to have doted on Tohru and tried to make her as happy as she could. She would frequently hug Tohru while proclaiming how cute she was, and wasn't shy about bragging about her to Uotani.
* FamousLastWords: "I will never forgive you". As she looked at him while saying this, Kyo interpreted this as her cursing him for not saving her despite being able to and developed a guilt for the rest of his life. [[spoiler:In fact, Kyoko actually meant to say along the lines of "I will never forgive you if you do not your keep your promise to protect Tohru". Alas, her death throes prevented her from saying this in full.]]
* FieryRedhead: More evident in her youth.
* FormerTeenRebel: To the point that she's still famous among yankees as "The Red Butterfly."
%%* GrumpyBear: For a while.
* HappilyFailedSuicide: After Katsuya dies and the rest of her family abandons her, she decides to throw herself into the sea. Hearing a mother and child talking reminds her of Tohru and snaps her back from the brink, and after that she vows never to abandon Tohru again, considering the attempted suicide [[MyGreatestFailure her greatest failure]].
* IntergenerationalFriendship: She was friends with a young Kyo enough for her to share the story of her life.
* InterruptedSuicide: An accidental example. After Katsuya's death, she was prepared to drown herself in the sea to rejoin him. Then she saw a mother and her young son passing by and Kyoko realized that if she were to die, Tohru would be left completely alone. She changed her mind, returned home, and became Tohru's saintlike mother as we know today.
* JapaneseDelinquents: She was a sukeban in her teenage years.
* LoveRedeems: Thanks to Katsuya, she became such a loving person.
* MissingMom: Her mother was emotionally distant with her, and after Katsuya died she was so suicidally depressed that she neglected Tohru for a long while, and ''almost'' left her to commit suicide.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: She tries to leave the gang she was a part of and clean up her act; as a result, said gang puts her in the hospital, and when she gets out, she loses her chance of getting into high school and is disowned by her AbusiveParents.
* OpenMindedParent: Knowing she wanted her child to grow up happy was pretty much her mindset throughout her years as Tohru's mother. The only thing she really wanted Tohru to do for her was to graduate high school, since she never went to high school herself.
* ParentalNeglect: Kyoko's FreudianExcuse when she was young, since the Katsunumas emotionally ignored her and were only worried about her giving them a bad rep.
** [[spoiler: When Katsuya died, Kyoko had an emotional breakdown and started neglecting Tohru for a while. Thankfully, she snapped out of it before any lasting harm could be done, but she regards it as MyGreatestFailure.]]
* PlotTriggeringDeath: Kyoko's death essentially kicks off the whole plot, since many of the story's events would never have happened otherwise.
* PosthumousCharacter: She was killed in a road accident a few months before the story starts.
* RedBaron: Was known as "The Red Butterfly" during her delinquent days, since the image of the red taillight on her bicycle was said to resemble a flitting butterfly as she rode it.
* RetiredBadass: As Arisa's origin story shows us, she still possessed the skills she learned during her delinquent years while saving Arisa from being attacked by her gang members.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: She's dead by the time the story starts and only appears in flashbacks, but Tohru's entire outlook in life, and by extension her resolve to help the Sohma through kindness, is rooted in her mother's loving upbringing.
* SourOutsideSadInside: In her delinquent days, she acted out because she was so lonely and unhappy. Katsuya was the first person to recognize this, and helped her grow out of it.
* TeamMom: An almost literal case with Tohru and her friends Arisa and Saki.
* TeenPregnancy: She was only fifteen or sixteen years old when she gave birth to Tohru.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Her last words to Kyo end up [[spoiler:preventing him from acting up on his feelings for Tohru and to reject her when she confesses. The latter indirectly contributes to Tohru's landslide accident]].
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Although she dies still as a young woman, she has a great deal of kindness and patience with struggling people-- most of it earned [[MiseryBuildsCharacter the hard way]]. After her death, Tohru relies on her mother's wisdom greatly.
* YamatoNadeshiko: After marrying Katsuya, she is happy to be a loving mother and HouseWife and finally experience living in a happy family... and then, in Uotani's backstory, we see that she [[MamaBear beats the tar out of a group of]] delinquents to save Arisa. In [[spoiler: Yuki]]'s flashback to when little Tohru went missing, we also see her threaten to "rain death upon [the police's] miserable souls" if they don't find her baby. That's the kind of inner iron that separates the pushover ExtremeDoormat HouseWife from YamatoNadeshiko.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Katsuya's belief that she was more than just a violent delinquent helped her become just that. Likewise, her assertion that he was much nicer than he gave himself credit for helped him open up too.

[[folder:Katsuya Honda]]

Tohru's father.

* AffectionateNickname: Calls Kyoko "Ms. No-Eyebrows" because it was her "look" early on--even after she lets her brows grow out, he sticks with the name.
* BigBrotherMentor: He was this to Kyoko, before they fell in love.
* BirdsOfAFeather: It's eventually revealed that Katsuya was secretly lonely and unhappy with his life just like Kyoko was, and he also came from a cold and distant family, so they found solace together.
%%* {{Bishonen}}
* DefrostingIceKing: Flashbacks reveal that while he was an extremely polite speaker, Katsuya was very cold and distant with everyone before he met Kyoko. Falling in love with her helped defrost him.
* DisappearedDad: Died of a flu when Tohru was a toddler.
* HotTeacher: He was Kyoko's student teacher when they met, but he ultimately decided that it wasn't for him. It's implied that falling in love with Kyoko was part of the reason he decided not to become a teacher.
* DeathByIrony: A pharmaceutical company employee died of a badly-treated cold.
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Katsuya died of a badly-treated flu.
* {{Keigo}}: He's said to have been an extremely polite speaker.
* LetsHaveAnotherBaby: His last conversation with Kyoko before he died.
* LoveRedeems: Twice. He and his father didn't start getting along until his mother died of an illness and they subsequently turned to each other for support. His father thanks Kyoko for the second time love changes Katsuya, noting that Katsuya hardly showed interest in anyone or anything in his daily life and he didn't think he'd see Katsuya living a genuinely happy life with the experience of having his own family.
* NiceGuy: Not actually a straight-up example of him at first when he's introduced as polite but reserved until meeting Kyoko which he then becomes much happier around her, had the guts to call out on her callous parents for disowning her for being a 'delinquent' and genuinely loves Tohru until his death.
* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives a swift but fantastic one to Kyoko's AbusiveParents when they disowned her for daring to need help after she got beaten up badly enough to be hospitalized (because she was trying to quit her gang and turn her life around).
* TheStoic: Flashbacks reveal that one of the reasons he fell for Kyoko was because she was able to express her emotions so openly and honestly, while he'd suppressed his emotions for so long he no longer knew ''how'' to express them. Falling for Kyoko and parenting Tohru helped bring out his warmer, loving side.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: When he first met Kyoko, he was polite but cold and reserved around everyone but her. Their marriage helped him grow past this, to the point that his father was delighted to see him so openly and honestly in love, and happy with his family.
* TeacherStudentRomance: Just ''narrowly'' averted. Katsuya was a student-teacher at Kyoko's middle school, and she showed up so rarely that she never even actually attended a class he helped teach. Their teacher/student interactions were limited to him tutoring her for her high school entrance exams. They also didn't get together until after she was out of school and he had quit student teaching, deciding it wasn't for him.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Kyoko and Katsuya both had this opinion of each other. He saw her as more than just a violent delinquent, and she thought he was much nicer than he gave himself credit for. They both grew from each other's mutual love and support.
* YoureInsane: Kyoko's father's reaction when he told him he wanted to marry Kyoko.

!The Student Council

[[folder:Machi Kuragi]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YukiKaida (CD dramas), Creator/AiKakuma (2019 Series) (JP), Creator/CaitlinGlass (EN)

The student council treasurer during Yuki's presidency. She is Hatsuharu and Momiji's classmate, and Kakeru's half-sister.

* AbusiveParents: Machi was forced into an inheritance rivalry against her brother since a young age and didn't have time for anything else. Even after Manabe rebelled, Machi still suffered from the after effects of it.
* {{Adorkable}}: The initial stages of Machi's attempt to communicate with Yuki normally definitely qualify.
* AmbiguousDisorder: She initially has no friends aside from her half-brother, has dangerously low self-esteem, and trouble communicating with people in general. She also feels compelled to ruin things whenever they're too "perfect", either methodically or in fits of violence. While this could be due to some kind of disorder, her flashbacks reveal that it's mainly because of all the stress she accumulated from being pushed to be perfect by her parents.
* BirdsOfAFeather: With [[spoiler:Yuki]], due to their AbusiveParents and being pushed towards perfection.
* ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe: To [[spoiler:Yuki]].
* {{Irony}}: She was introduced as the girl who had the least interest in Yuki [[spoiler:to falling in love with him, and the only girl he truely falls in love with]].
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler: All Machi wanted to do was make sure her baby brother stayed warm while he slept. Her parents came in and assumed she was trying to smother him with a blanket.]]
* ParentalNeglect: Both Machi and Kakeru were forced by their parents into a bitter inheritance rivalry, the result being that she became quiet, removed from society, and despised anything she considered "perfect." Her mother then openly tells a friend that Machi is "dull" and that she prefers her new baby boy. [[spoiler:Oh, and Machi is forced to live by herself, because her parents think she'll try to murder her little brother. Even though she was putting a blanket on him while he slept.]]
%%* ShrinkingViolet
* SiblingYinYang: With Kakeru, even though they are only half siblings.
* TheUnfavourite: Between her and half-brother Kakeru and her unnamed baby brother because she's a girl (despite being the first-born legitimate child of her parents).
* {{Tsundere}}: A very mild shade of this - she chases Yuki all around the school one day just because she saw him. Why? Just to say hi, dammit!

[[folder:Kakeru Manabe]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/KenichiSuzumura (CD dramas), Creator/TakuyaEguchi (2019 Series) (JP), Creator/AaronDismuke (EN)

Vice president of the student council during Yuki's presidency. He is Machi's older half-brother.

* AbusiveParents: Look at Machi's section. He wasn't ''that'' abused in comparison, but it doesn't mean he wasn't affected and he worries quite a bit for poor Machi. Once he rebelled his mom had a change of heart.
* ACertainPointOfView: [[spoiler:In his point of view, Komaki also lost her parent in the same incident that killed Kyoko and he thinks that Tohru is being self-centered when she openly grieved for her mother, unaware that Tohru is essentially orphaned with Kyoko's passing]].
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Kakeru teases his girlfriend a lot, but they really do love each other.
%%* {{Bishonen}}
* HeroicBastard: He's the son of his father's mistress.
* HeyYou: Claims this is one of his nicknames.
* HiddenDepths: His headstrong approach to his daily life continually wears out Yuki and most everyone around him, but the quiet moments between him and Yuki show that he's capable of being empathetic as a friend to Yuki and brother to Machi. [[spoiler:He also feels incredible guilt towards what he said to Tohru at her mother's funeral years ago, and it weighs on his mind until he and Tohru talk about it]].
* JerkassRealization: He gets hit by this in response to the KickTheDog moment below, especially after [[spoiler: Komaki threatened to dump him in disgust, and it weighs on his mind for years afterwards.]]
* KickTheDog: He had the gall to [[spoiler: tell Tohru to her face, ''right in the middle of her mother's funeral'', that she wasn't the only one who lost a parent in the accident and [[QuitYourWhining that she was whiny and disgusting for openly grieving]]. Komaki was so furious with him when she found out that she nearly broke up with him.]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Manabe may act like the local joker most of the time, but he also show signs to be much more observant than he lets on.
* QuitYourWhining: As established under KickTheDog above, [[spoiler: he told Tohru to her face that she wasn't the only one to lose a parent in the accident and she was whiny and disgusting for openly grieving over it.]]
%%* SiblingYinYang: With Machi.

[[folder:Kimi Todou]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YukariTamura (CD dramas)

One of the student council secretaries during Yuki's presidency.

* AttentionWhore: For men, at least.
* BrainlessBeauty: Admits to it, and is completely unbothered by it.
* {{Kawaiiko}}
* GoldDigger: A rare good-hearted version, as she doesn't use the gifts she gets for her own benefit but for the council's.
* InsultBackfire: In middle school, some female bullies tried to shame her into humility by calling her a BrainlessBeauty who could [[GoldDigger only get by on her looks]]. Kimi thought that was a brilliant idea, and Yuki secretly muses that her former bullies are probably still kicking themselves for giving her the idea to this day.
* LovableAlphaBitch: Cute, vain, spoiled, popular with the boys, and [[KickTheSonOfABitch intentionally antagonizes the Prince Yuki Fanclub]] but is otherwise pretty harmless to everyone else.
* PluckyComicRelief: WordOfGod is that Kimi was a character specifically created to have absolutely no connection to the dramatic parts of the story. Specifically, [[BigScrewedUpFamily the Sohma Family]].
* YourCheatingHeart: She dates lots of guys, whether or not they have girlfriends.
* ThirdPersonPerson: Does not refer to herself by a Japanese honorific.

[[folder:Naohito Sakuragi]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JunFukuyama (CD dramas)

One of the student council secretaries during Yuki's presidency. He considers Yuki his rival, as he crushes on the president of Yuki's fan club, Motoko Minagawa.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: He has a crush on [[spoiler:Motoko]], who similarly has an unrequited crush on [[spoiler:Yuki]].
%%* ChewToy
%%* TheComicallySerious
* GreenEyedMonster: He was envious of Yuki [[spoiler:for being the object of interest of Motoko's heart]] and isn't pleasant with him as a result.
* HairTriggerTemper: He's generally annoyed by default, so it doesn't take much to get him screaming.
* TheNapoleon: And it doesn't help that Manabe's nickname for him is "Chibisuke."
* OnlySaneMan: In his eyes, at least.
* OutnumberedSibling: Has two older sisters.
* PerpetualFrowner: Never seen smiling.

[[folder:Prince Yuki's Fanclub (Minami Kinoshita, Mio Yamagishi, Mai Gotou, and Rika Aida)]]
->'''Minami voiced by:''' Hiromi Asai (2001 anime), Creator/ShizukaIshigami (2019 anime) (JP), Libby Smith (2001 anime), Creator/NatalieHoover (2019 anime) (EN)
->'''Mio voiced by:''' Yuuki Kajita (2001 anime) (JP), Kasey Buckley (2001 anime), Creator/EmilyNeves (2019 anime) (EN)
->'''Mai voiced by:''' Kaoru Suzuki (2001 anime) (JP), Meredith [=McCoy=] (2001 anime), Kristen [=McGuire=] (2019 anime) (EN)
->'''Rika voiced by:''' Miwa Matsumoto (2001 anime), Chika Anzai (2019 anime) (JP), Elise Baughman (2001 anime), Creator/AmberLeeConnors (2019 anime) (EN)

A group of girls devoted to adoring Yuki Sohma and keeping him single.

* BetaBitch: Minami, serving as the Vice President and thus one level below Motoko.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Minami, Mio, and Mai were interchangeable from one another in the 2001 anime during their early appearances. It was around their ADayInTheLimelight episode where they were given names and distinctions between their personalities began to show. Minami and Mio tend to squabble between one another with Minami taking the lead whenever Motoko wasn't around, while Mai was sort of a harmless CloudCuckoolander who didn't seem to have any genuine ill will towards Tohru other than being jealous of her hanging around Yuki.
* ClingyJealousGirl: If you're a girl and you're anywhere near Yuki, then be ready to be jumped by these girls.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: When Motoko is about to graduate, Minami is all set to take over leadership of the fanclub next year, while Mio comments that she'll take over after ''her''. The author notes in an aside that she still hasn't realized ''Yuki's'' going to be gone, too.
%%* GirlPosse
* HarmlessVillain: They constantly plot against Tohru, but they're never really able to carry out any of their harassment, since they're terrified of Arisa and Saki. They also try it on Kimi but she just blows them off. Machi has a little more trouble with them until Kakeru and Yuki intervene.
* MurderTheHypotenuse: Their attitude towards whoever they perceive as a threat to Yuki: Tohru and later Kimi, specifically.
* RomanticRunnerUp: All of them, for Yuki, who has zero interest in them.
* SpoiledBrat: All of them are so attracted to Yuki, that they enjoy bothering other in his life.
* StalkerWithACrush: Definitely. In one of her spacier moments, Mai is appalled at Rika Aida not properly utilizing her lock picking skills... because they could use them to ''sneak into Yuki's house''.
* TokenGoodTeammate: In the 2001 anime, Mai Gotou seemed to become the least offensive of the group while still showing jealousy towards Tohru for hanging around Yuki. She at one point even cheerfully waves goodbye to Tohru's group as Mokoto starts screaming at Hana for Megumi possibly placing a curse on them.
%%* UnwantedHarem: To Yuki.

[[folder:Motoko Minagawa]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/KaoriShimizu (2001 anime), Creator/MaoIchimichi (2019 anime) (JP), Creator/JamieMarchi (EN)

The president of the Prince Yuki Fan Club and Yuki's senpai.

* AdaptationDyeJob: In the 2001 anime, she has reddish brown hair in contrast to the manga and 2019 anime's black.
* AlphaBitch: The leader of the group who hates the kindhearted Tohru and plans to be rid of her.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Maybe the reason why she's hooked on Yuki so much.
* ClingyJealousGirl: She gets jealous over any girl giving Yuki attention. She gets better later, though.
%%* CryCute
* HairDecorations: Two butterfly bows.
* {{Hypocrite}}: She makes a passionate, jealousy-fueled outburst telling Tohru (who was not even present) to stay away from Yuki. She leaves to clear her head and [[HeelRealization realizes that the selfish fangirls she despises who want Yuki all to themselves]] [[YouAreWhatYouHate have negative qualities that she sees in herself]].
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: The anime shows in her ADayInTheLimelight episode that, beneath her haughty attitude, she doesn't view herself as special or interesting and focuses all her energy on Yuki. She tearfully breaks down when she shows Yuki her "ugly" side, mentioning that she hates herself.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler:She decides to let Yuki go after she confesses to him on her graduation day.]]
* LargeHam: And is passionate about it.
%%* RapunzelHair
* SingleTargetSexuality: Anything she does relates to Yuki. [[spoiler:The presence of her daughter in ''Fruits Basket Another'' indicates that she ''does'' eventually move past this.]]
* SomethingAboutARose: Often appear in the background when she's talking.
* SpoiledBrat: Obviously the most spoiled of the whole fan club.
* TongueTied: Simply '''cannot''' tell Yuki how much she likes him.

[[folder:Makoto Takei]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YujiUeda (2001 series), Creator/JunFukushima (2019 series) (JP), Creator/KyleHebert (EN)

The former StudentCouncilPresident.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Is head over heels for Yuki, much to the latter's dismay.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's obnoxious and full of himself, but he's not a ''bad'' guy by any stretch of the imagination.
* LargeHam: It's incredibly rare to see him not bellowing dramatically about something.
* {{Pride}}: Something Haru calls him out on--he's a bit too obsessed with enforcing the rules and generally has a "my way or the high way" attitude.
* ScaryShinyGlasses: His glasses are ''always'' like this, to the point that his eyes are almost never visible.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Toward Yuki. [[spoiler:Somewhat creepily, this ends up extending to Yuki's ''son'' when he first meets him.]]
* StraightGay: He's as enamored with Yuki as the female students are, and even gets into a fight with Motoko about it, but he shows no "camp" or stereotypical qualities.
* StudentCouncilPresident: And a particularly obnoxious one too, considering how strict and arrogant he is.

!Other characters

[[folder:Komaki Nakao]]

Kakeru's girlfriend.

* DisappearedDad: Who died in a car crash. [[spoiler: And he actually was the driver who killed Kyoko, by accidentally hitting her with his car before crashing and perishing. He might have had a heart attack at the steering wheel, even.]]
%%* GenkiGirl
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Meat!
* {{Tsundere}}: Lightly, to Kakeru. With an attitude like his, can you blame her?
* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler: To Kakeru, who told Tohru ''[[KickTheDog during Kyoko's funeral]]'' that she wasn't the only one who had lost a parent in the accident and [[QuitYourWhining that she was whiny and disgusting for openly grieving.]] Komaki was ''very'' pissed off when she found out and almost broke up with him, forcing him to apologize.]]

[[folder:Mine Kuramae]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Miki Takahashi (JP), Amber Cotton (EN)

A clothing designer who works in Ayame's store.

%%* {{Adorkable}}
* CosplayOtakuGirl: Is passionate with making clothes for cosplay.
* ElegantGothicLolita: Loves the style and in the 2019 reboot, she has a gothic lolita styled umbrella.
* EarlyBirdCameo: She appears in the second opening of the 2019 reboot as the woman standing next to Ayame behind the gothic lolita umbrella.
%%* UsefulNotes/JapaneseSiblingTerminology: She refers to Yuki as "ototo" a couple of times. This may have been an indicator that she and Ayame were dating.
%%* {{Meganekko}}
* {{Meido}}: One of the many things she wore is a maid uniform.
%%* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler:With Ayame.]]
* PerpetualSmiler: Very few scenes show her not smiling.
* SecretKeeper: Implied to have known about the curse, though not explicitly stated. During a somber conversation with Ayame, Yuki asks Ayame if Mine knows about the curse, and Ayame not-so-subtly (Yuki even lampshades it) changes the topic of conversation to something else. Yuki notes that he wouldn't be surprised if Mine did know - because he doesn't think that Ayame would have been capable of keeping it a secret from her for so long.
* TenderTears: She cries [[spoiler:when the newly-released Ayame is finally able to hug her in the manga.]]

[[folder:Mayuko Shiraki]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/HitomiNabatame (JP), Anastasia Munoz (EN)

Tohru, Arisa, Saki, Yuki, and Kyo's homeroom teacher.

* ACupAngst: When Hatori suggests going to the beach together very late in the manga, she angsts briefly about wearing a swim suit.
* AdaptedOut: The first anime version of the classroom teacher is male.
* CoolBigSis: Sometimes she seems more like this to her students than their teacher.
* EarlyBirdCameo: In the second anime, she appears at the end of episode 4 to tell Tohru about her grandpa's call.
* HeWillNotCrySoICryForHim: [[spoiler:For Hatori's sake.]]
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: She loved Hatori from the beginning, but she also was Kana's closest friend. She was a ShipperOnDeck [[MatchmakerCrush for him and Kana]], and was genuinely grief-stricken when it went to hell.
* SecondLove: [[spoiler:For Hatori. In fact, Mayu even felt guilty for "taking Kana's place" in his heart at first.]]
* SenseiChan: After some of her female students address her as Mayu-chan-sensei, she demands (jokingly) that they call her [[Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka Great Teacher]] Mayuko (some translated it as Mayuko-daisensei-sama). Despite this, she's actually more of a downplayed example of this trope, acting more like a usually-stern CoolBigSis towards her students than an immature {{Womanchild}} like most examples.
* SternTeacher: But also CoolTeacher.
* TheStoic: In front of her students, which makes sense considering their antics, but...
** NotSoStoic: ...when it comes to dealing with [[ManipulativeBastard Shigure]] and [[SecondLove Hatori]], she spazzes quite a bit.

[[folder:Mitsuru]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AkemiOkamura (2001 series), Creator/ChinatsuAkasaki (2019 series) (JP), Creator/CynthiaCranz (EN)

Shigure's editor.

* AdaptationDyeJob: Her hair is brown in the 2001 series, but a light gray in the 2019 reboot.
* BeleagueredAssistant: Well, editor, but Shigure still drives the poor woman crazy.
* BirdsOfAFeather: With Ritsu for similarly being prone to tears.
* BiTheWay: WordOfGod says that she neither knows, nor cares, if Ritsu is male or female (though the reboot has her be told the truth after she has a bit of bonding time with him).
* TheChewToy: Comes with the territory of being [[BrilliantButLazy Shigure's]] editor.
* SuicideAsComedy: When Tohru meets her, she's on the verge of killing herself with a box cutter because Shigure has run off without meeting his deadlines again. Later, we see her writing a suicide note to her parents for the exact same reason. Shigure thinks it's funny.

[[folder:Tohru's paternal grandfather]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Hiroshi Masuoka (JP), Brice Armstrong (2001 anime), Doug Jackson (2019 anime) (EN)

* AccidentalMisnaming: He typically calls Tohru "Kyoko-san" after Kyoko's death. While at first it seems like it's due to being a ScatterbrainedSenior, he's actually doing it on purpose since he wants to let Tohru know that there's at least one other person besides her who remembers Kyoko after her death.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: He's quiet flighty. To say the least. PlayedWith though, as he isn't as flighty as he seems at times.
* GoodParents: To Katsuya and later Kyoko when she becomes a part of Katsuya's life. He later becomes the best grandparent he can be to Tohru, even if that means letting her live with another family since he knows his own family won't treat her well.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Subverted. He begins habitually calling Tohru "Kyoko-san" after Kyoko passes away, which everyone seems to write off as a result of his age, but Kyo points out that it's a bit insensitive for him to do so. Then Tohru's grandfather admits he's aware he does it, and says that he started doing it because after Kyoko's funeral, it looked like Tohru was going to fall apart if there wasn't some sort of reminder every so often that her mother was once alive and that other people think of her as well.
** Played straight when he throws his back out and Tohru comes to visit him. He's reminiscing about Katsuya and Kyoko, telling Tohru that it would be nice to see them again, even as ghosts, before he died. What he doesn't know is that the phrase "I want to see them again," triggers a painful memory for Tohru - one where after Katsuya's death, Kyoko left her alone in the house to wander aimlessly without thinking of Tohru.
* LoveRedeems: When his son was alive, their relationship suffered from a strain. When his wife passed away, he changed and became the kind-hearted man Tohru knew.
* MiniatureSeniorCitizens
* NiceGuy: He was the only person in the Honda family who didn't ostracize Kyoko, and later he remains kind to Tohru even when all of her other relatives treat her like crap.
* NoNameGiven: We never get to know what his given name is.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: As Katsuya says in a flashback, "He's lost his edge." However, there are infrequent instances in the manga that suggest he's capable of being just as disagreeable as his son was, but doesn't act on it until he feels he needs to.
* PapaWolf: Do not make any crude comments about his granddaughter. Even if you're family, he ''will'' hit you.
* ScatterbrainedSenior: Subverted; his odd behavior makes him seem as though his mind is declining from old age, but it's later made clear that much of this is ObfuscatingStupidity.
* YourFavorite: The food which he brings to Kyoko's grave.

[[folder:The Sohma's Head Maid]]

An OldRetainer of the Sohma. She has been working with them for more than twenty years.

* AllThatGlitters and MagicFeather: [[spoiler: She gave an empty box to a very young Akito and told her it had her recently deceased father Akira's soul, in an attempt to help her cope.]]
* NoNameGiven: Her actual name is never mentioned.
* KimonoIsTraditional: She's always seen wearing a kimono, as a sign of her being a member of a very old-fashioned environment.
* OldRetainer: She has been working in the Sohma household for decades.
* ParentalSubstitute: Sorta, towards Akito. She's pretty much the only woman Akito gets along with.
* ShippingTorpedo: She opposed quite a bit to [[spoiler: her then fellow maid]] Ren and Akira's relationship.
* StatusQuoIsGod: As she tells Akito [[spoiler: after her HeelFaceTurn]], she's much too old now to be able to accept all this drastic new change into the strictly traditional Sohma family, even saying how she ''liked the old Akito'' better.