History Characters / FruitsBasketMainCharacters

* BigBrotherInstinct: When they were younger, he was the one who frequently looked after [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Haru]] especially since they both trained together under Kazuma. He even accompanies Haru to the restroom because he often gets lost trying to find it.

* BigBrotherInstinct: When they were younger, he was the one who frequently looked after [[{{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Haru]] especially since they both trained together under Kazuma. He even accompanies Haru to the restroom because he often gets lost trying to find it.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Goes barefoot at nearly every possible moment, even during a footrace! In one case it works to his advantage, as he takes off his shoes when going inside the Hondas' house.

* 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.]]

** Although "best buds" may be a stretch, [[spoiler: he and Kyo]] do develop this sort of friendship by the end of the manga. They joke around much more, tease and mock each other without getting hostile or violent, and [[spoiler: in ''Another'' it's revealed that their children grew up together, almost like siblings, suggesting that their relationship has remained close and friendly.]]

** By the end of the series, he and [[spoiler:Yuki]] have a similar relationship. While calling them "best buds" might be an exaggeration, their teasing and bickering is shown to be much lighter and friendlier.

* FlowerMotifs: Bamboo in the 2019 anime's fourth ending; the way the bamboo stalks frame him look almost like prison bars, symbolizing how Kyo is trapped by his own issues as well as his fate of being locked away after he graduates due to his status as the Cat.

* HeyYou: Due to his brash personality, he rarely calls anyone by name. The fact that he starts addressing Tohru by her name after she accepts him in his true form is a big step in their relationship.

* InsecureLoveInterest: Even after he realizes he's in love with Tohru, Kyo avoids getting too close to her because [[spoiler:he knows his fate as the Cat is to spend the rest of his life after high school locked up in a cage]], so he believes pursuing a romance with Tohru will only cause her pain. He views himself as a monster who will never deserve real love from anyone, especially an amazingly good person like Tohru. [[spoiler:He also blames himself for the death of Tohru's mother and sees this as proof that he has no right to be loved by Tohru.]]

* VitriolicBestBuds: With Uo. They bicker and fight, yet he always hangs with her when they're on break in school.
** By the end of the series, he and [[spoiler:Yuki]] have a similar relationship. While calling them "best buds" might be a mild exaggeration, their teasing and bickering is shown to be much lighter and friendlier.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: He speaks with an echoing, scary voice when he turns into his monstrous 'true' form.

* BirdsOfAFeather: For all their differences, Kyo and Tohru can be pretty similar in certain ways as well. They're both outcasts in their respective abusive families for reasons beyond their control, resulting in severe emotional baggage. Neither of them can face their respective issues without the other one being there, supplying comfort and support.

* DontLookAtMe: Kyo absolutely doesn't want anyone to see his "true form" because it's so hideous.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Kyo resents Yuki for being the Rat, the first of the Zodiac animals and the one closest to God, whereas he's been unfairly ostracized and abused for being the Cat his entire life. What Kyo doesn't realize is that being accepted by the Zodiac isn't necessarily a good thing; his greedy mother saw him as nothing but a TrophyChild and sold him to Akito, who used him as a punching bag, his parents and older brother abandoned him to such a fate, and he couldn't make friends because of [[LonelyAtTheTop his higher status in the Zodiac and curse alienating him from the other kids]].
* DudeShesLikeInAComa: [[spoiler: Near the end of the series, Tohru falls off a cliff. While she's lying on the ground unconscious, Kyo kisses her. To be fair, Tohru regained consciousness for a bit when she noticed Kyo was crying. She said some comforting words to him, then lost consciousness again, and ''then'' he kissed her. He also wasn't exactly sure whether she was fully conscious or not, as he even confirms that she wasn't after their second kiss when she acts completely shocked that it's their second and not their first.]]

* FailureToSaveMurder: Kyo blames himself for [[spoiler: Kyoko]]'s death. He could have gotten her out of harm's way, but he would have transformed in the middle of a busy street, so he did nothing. Nobody else seems to know about it (except possibly Kazuma), but he heavily associates it with his mother's death, which many people do blame him for. It doesn't help that he (mistakenly) believes [[spoiler: Kyoko]] died hating him for his inaction, either.

* FirstNameBasis: At the start of the series, he called Tohru "you." After the conclusion of [[spoiler: the true form arc]], he switches to "Tohru."

* FriendlessBackground: Despite Yuki's beliefs, Kyo never made any more real friends than him. The only one who was willing to play with him was Kagura and Kyo wants to stay away from her because she beats the crap out of him at the slightest provocation. While people act more naturally around him than with Yuki, Kyo's bad temper made him push people away until he becomes close with Tohru.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: During moments of high emotion Kyo's pupils become cat-like slits. When he gets extremely excited his eyes will start glowing, too. [[spoiler: Especially prominent at the start of his PainfulTransformation in the 2019 anime]]

* GuiltComplex: He has a strange mix of both this and NeverMyFault tendencies. Being ostracized and treated like a monster all his life, not to mention people blaming him for everything, even things he had no control over (like his mother's suicide and ''his own existence'') meant that Kyo is quick to blame himself when something goes wrong and believes himself capable of hurting his loved ones just by being close to them. He carries around a ''lot'' of guilt, which he tries to cope with by [[TheScapegoat pushing the blame on Yuki]].

* HellishPupils: His pupils become slits like a cat's when he gets extremely angry [[spoiler: and when he turns into the cat's True Form.]]
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler: Kyo didn't disappear to the mountains for four months to train. After he did nothing to save Kyoko from being hit by a car, Kyo completely shut down out of guilt. He only snapped out of it when he decided to cope with his guilt by blaming Kyoko's death on Yuki.]]

* IAmAMonster: The Cat is viewed like a monster by the Sohma clan and Kyo's own father treats him like an abomination. Because of this and his repulsive cursed form, Kyo thinks of himself as nothing but a hideous thing.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: He tells Tohru he will support her when she gets a boyfriend. Since he will be locked away for the rest of his life after he finishes high school, Kyo doesn't believe he has a future with Tohru and wants her to find someone who can give her a happy, normal life. However, Tohru wants to be with no one but Kyo.
* InconvenientAttraction: The more he falls in love with Tohru, the worse he feels about himself because [[spoiler: he's falling for the daughter of the woman he left to die]].
* InsecureLoveInterest: Even after he realizes he's in love with Tohru, Kyo avoids getting too close to her because he knows his fate as the Cat is to spend the rest of his life after high school locked up in a cage, so he believes pursuing a romance with Tohru will only cause her pain. He views himself as a monster who will never deserve real love from anyone, especially an amazingly good person like Tohru. [[spoiler: He also blames himself for the death of Tohru's mother and sees this as proof that he has no right to be loved by Tohru.]]
* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: Aside from the 'cat if hugged' thing, he has a second one. Those beads? They [[spoiler: keep him from transforming into a hideous, car-sized, stinking monstrosity]].
* IrrationalHatred: He's hated Yuki from the moment they first met and blames him for all of his problems, like his [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer unfair treatment at the hands of the rest of the Sohma family]], simply because Yuki is the Rat of the Zodiac, the one closest to God, and the Rat's trickery in the legend is the entire reason the Cat is the pariah of the Zodiac in the first place. Eventually, Kyo acknowledges that he never actually hated Yuki for who he was, but was so miserable that he felt he needed ''somebody'' to blame.
* ItIsDehumanizing: His asshole dad hated him so much that he called Kyo an "it" [[spoiler: during his mother's funeral]], and continues to do so during the present day.

* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Whenever Tohru is afraid or needs to let out her bottled up issues, Kyo is there to calm her down and give her the courage to face her fears and keep going. Tohru feels the happiest when she's with Kyo, so she can't stand the mere thought of never seeing him again if he's locked up in the Cat's Room.

* LoveEpiphany: During his confrontation with Akito in the beach arc, Kyo realizes he has fallen hopelessly in love with Tohru and wants her badly. However, Akito's cruel words and the fact Kyo is going to be imprisoned after high school force Kyo to suppress his desires and decide he should be happy to spend the little freedom he has left with Tohru.

* ManlyTears: [[spoiler: When his curse finally breaks.]]

* MurderByInaction: Near the end of the series, he reveals that [[spoiler:he holds himself responsible for the death of Tohru's mother. He was there the day of the accident and could have pushed her out of the way, but doing so would have led to him [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting transforming]] in a busy street and exposing the Sohma curse, so he stood by and did nothing. The grief and guilt over his role in the accident haunts him to this day, especially since he mistakenly believes Kyoko [[DyingDeclarationOfHate died hating him]] for it.]]

* NeverMyFault: Deconstructed. Kyo always wanted to blame Yuki for all his problems, particularly him being excluded from the Zodiac, his mother's suicide [[spoiler: and Kyo choosing not to save Kyoko for fear of his curse becoming public]], because thinking of himself as the victim of a bad guy made him feel better about himself. Given he had been blamed by literally ''everyone'' for things completely beyond his control, like his own existence, it was more of a coping mechanism to keep from mentally falling apart. Towards the end of the series, Kyo acknowledges how unfair and self-serving this way of thinking was.

* SuperReflexes: His insane reflexes are constantly brought up by his classmates and Takaya's occasional reminder to the reader of his reflexes [[spoiler: actually make it very believable that he could have saved Kyoko before the accident, a fact that weighs heavily in Kyo's mind]].

* TooMuchAlike: Although they seem like [[RedOniBlueOni complete opposites]] at first, Kyo and Yuki are more alike than they think and their mutual antagonism is a result of taking out their problems on each other. Both of them have undergone abuse during their childhoods, especially at their parents' hands, that have left them with serious psychological issues and low self-esteem, they both have a difficult time in social situations and they struggle to let others see their real selves under the masks they wear. What set them apart was how they chose to deal with everything, Kyo by [[SourOutsideSadInside keeping people at a distance through his anger]], and Yuki by [[StepfordSmiler hiding his true feelings behind a smile]]. Recognizing their similarities, and realizing that they both [[MutualEnvy envy and admire each other]] is what allows them to move on from their hostility and have a friendlier relationship.

** By the end of the series, he and [[spoiler: Yuki]] have a similar relationship. While calling them "best buds" might be a mild exaggeration, their teasing and bickering is shown to be much lighter and friendlier.

* {{Bishonen}}: He's prettier than several girls in the series.

* {{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.