The heroine of the story, Tohru ends up in the Sohma household after her mother dies and she sets up tent on their property. She forges friendships with Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure, and eventually comes to befriend the rest of the Sohmas as well.
Badass Pacifist: This non-Action Girl teenager manages to calm down Kyo when he reverts to his true form and then she also speaks gently to Akito even when she's screaming and swinging a knife around.
To add to the first point, Kyo's true from is not only hideous and reeking of dead human flesh but also super strong and super agile. Kyo, in blind fear of being rejected by her slashes her arm which noticeably hurts her a lot. Not to mention she doespuke at some point due to the dead human flesh stink.
And to add to the second: Akito is the God of the Zodiac. A terrifying mix of Manipulative Bitch, Broken Bird and Yandere, who is in a state of complete terror and anger since the Jyuunishi are being released of the curse one by one, which she sees as them abandoning her... and it's her biggest fear coming true. So after stabbing Kureno, Akito is at the lowest point of her life, screaming and swinging the knife she used on him. And yet Tohru manages to not run away, and even offer her kindness... which would eventually kickstart Akito's Heel Face Turn.
Care Bear Stare: Hiro thinks she can do this because she can love and tolerate the shit out of anyone.
Cloud Cuckoolander: She can be this on occasion but on the most part she's level headed.
Crash into Hello: Kyo falls through the roof, shouts at Yuki, and then Tohru trips and falls on him.
Conveniently an Orphan: Averted, actually. She has a living grandfather and other relatives, but lived in a tent because she didn't want to burden them. Considering how badly her aunt and cousins treat her when she has to move back with the grandpa, she can't be blamed.
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Invoked; Tohru is warned by Kagura not to claim she loves Kyo because she pities him.
Easily Forgiven: Tohru does not hold grudges against anyone.
Face Fault: Truly, out of ALL the characters, she makes the MOST face faults out of ANYONE. Makes sense though, being the normal person among a family of people who can transform into talking animals.
Heroic BSOD: After Kureno tells her that he has no desire to see Arisa again as well as the truth about Akito, Tohru stays in the same spot for hours, until Hanajima comes to save her.
Not so Different: In the manga's climax, parallels are drawn between how Tohru's devotion to her dead mother ties her down emotionally and the Sohma clan's curse. Specifically their 'bonds' to Akito, who does all of her evil and bitchy deals to not be abandoned by them.
Plucky Girl: Eternally optimistic but never delusional. As for the bravery, see her entry on Badass Pacifist.
The Pollyanna: In the anime, where nothing at all gets her down, unlike in the manga.
Yamato Nadeshiko: A more child-like, clumsier version. All the politeness and domestic talent, and so much inner iron she overwhelms everyone she nicely confronts. Also good at cooking Japanese style dishes. In fact, she once had an Imagine Spot about being a Japanese princess.
Abusive Parents: 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.
Berserk Button: Reminders of his older brother's quirks, Kyo at his worst, being mistaken for a woman, or the mere thought of crossdressing sets him of. Being unpleasant to Tohru is a great way to piss him off, too.
Bishōnen: Enough to be mistaken for a girl. Multiple times.
Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: In the end, with his underclassman Machi. Not as sudden as other examples in that got quite a lot of foreshadowing.
He's one himself 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.
Surprisingly averted as Kyo and Tohru's relationship develops. Yuki does nothing to break them apart and even tries to help push things along.
Heavy Sleeper: Might as well be sleep on his feet in the morning.
Ill Boy: When he was younger he had pretty severe asthma and other unspecified health problems, but this improves as he gets older.
Informed Flaw: Supposedly weak and prone to illness, but he can easily beat down Kyo — who's been training in martial arts all his life — any time he wants.
Prince Charming: His fan club gives him the nickname "Prince Yuki."
Princely Young Man: Subverted, because he looks perfect, but due to his past Yuki is so terrified of rejection that he also is an enormous Stepford Smiler.
Abusive Parents: His father hates him and claims his mother committed suicide from shame and disgust at having him. Very late in the manga, it is heavily implied she loved him, and was actually Driven to Suicide by her husband.
All of the Other Reindeer: Despised by more than one member of the Sohma clan since he's the cat. Specially by Akito, and to a smaller degree Yuki.
Does Not Like Shoes: Goes barefoot at nearly every possible moment, even during a footrace!
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: He fears people getting close to him, since he has difficulty to know if they genuinely love him or just pity him for his curse.
Dude, She's Like, In a Coma!: Near the end of the manga, 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.
Fiery Redhead: Usually shouting, or breaking something.
Involuntary Shapeshifting: Aside from the 'cat if hugged' thing, he has a second one. Those beads? They keep him from transforming into a monstrous, car-sized, stinking monstrosity.
Sitting on the Roof: Shigure lampshades it. "Sulking on the roof is how he shows he cares." He also has a touching moment at that spot with Tohru where he talks about his adoptive father.
Beautiful All Along: 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.
Berserk Button: If you're a Sohma, do NOT tell Akito you're leaving the family in ANY way.
Bifauxnen: So much so that the revelation that Akito is not in fact male qualified as a Shocking Swerve.
Bokukko: Aside of being a Bifauxnen, she uses "boku" to refer to herself. She keeps doing so after her Heel Face Turn.
Break the Cutie: Attempts this on Kisa and Tohru. Has this inflicted on her as a little girl, via Ren.
Broken Bird: Manifested less as hypercompetency or great worldliness, but rather through wild mood swings, from crying at the fear of abandonment, to physically abusing family members, including blinding Hatori in one eye, pushing Rin out a window, repeatedly thrashing Kisa, and stabbing Kureno (one of her lovers). All of which springs from a really bad childhood with a loving Disappeared Dad who died when she was a little girl, a very cruel and arguably crazy Evil Matriarch 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.
Crashing Dreams: Akito has a flashback dream where 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.
Creepy Child: 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.
Does Not Like Men: Inverted; Akito hates women. Despite being one in the manga. Or, more than hating women as a whole, Akito hates those who try taking the Sohmas away (even if they're Sohmas themselves), due to Ren's abuse.
Easily Forgiven: The Sohma come to forgive, while Rin doesn't, and hates herself for it. This is due to the fact that they were so over her by that point (especially with the power of Tohru's healing personality), that they didn't even hold a grudge against her (except Rin).
Flower Motifs: Associated with red camellias, which are a symbol of love in the language of flowers. This is also the kind of flower Shigure gave her when she was little and he confessed his love.
Tsundere: She was in 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.
Bishōnen: 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.
The Chessmaster: 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. 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.
Dirty Old Man: Flirts openly with high school aged Tohru when he first meets her, is eager to meet her friends before Kyou describes how...colorful they are, buys her a blatantly Fanservice-yMeido 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 (sings a little song about it, too). 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.
Harem Nanny: Takes care of Yuki, followed by Tohru and Kyo.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: 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 quickly becomes protective of Tohru, to the point where Hanajima and Uotani liken him to a grandfather spoiling his granddaughter. Shigure also 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.
Manipulative Bastard: In the manga, especially towards Rin and Akito. To his credit, he didn't take Rin's offer, but he still manipulated Akito like hell.
Papa Wolf: Shigure dotes on Tohru quite a bit, although whether or not it's for his ownpersonal gain is another matter.
Parental Substitute: Sorta, as Yuki's caretaker. Also present, to some extent, in his relationship with Tohru.
Temporary Love Interest: Mayu, though it was a mutual arrangement from the start — Shigure basically said "You're lonely, I'm bored — let's date". It was never a genuine romantic relationship and in the end Mayu broke it off because she just couldn't keep pretending it was.
Your Cheating Heart: Turns out he once slept with 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 that she immediately kicked him out of the main Sohma estate for this.
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: 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.
Full Boar Action: as the boar of the Zodiac. In the beginning she is quite aggressive as well.
Genki Girl: Extremely energetic about her feelings for Kyo.
Love Redeems: Subverted; she tries to invoke this, but realizes in due course that it was as selfish as the behavior she was trying to redeem herself from.
Cuddle Bug: Loves hugging people, especially Tohru, even though it means he'll transform.
Dramatic Irony: His mother had her memory of him erased and only knows him as a random Sohma child, and his little sister Momo doesn't know he exists, but his mother expresses concern that "his mother" will worry, and his sister asks to act as her big brother.
Berserk Button: A more emotionally subdued version but he's very self-conscious about his zodiac form.
Bilingual Bonus: Hatori turns into a seahorse instead of a dragon. A Japanese word for seahorse is 竜の落し子 (tatsu no otoshigo), which literally translates to "dragon's baby."
Bishōnen: Similar to the other members of the Zodiac and the Sohma in general. Kakaeru asks if there's something he eats to be so good looking.
Not so Above It All: Has a few of moments of not being completely mature and poised. He tricked Yuki and Kyo into taking a photo of them seemingly smiling together only to playfully give the camera to Tohru by putting on her head. He gave Shigure more injections than necessary because the latter was being annoying. He also threatened to tell Shigure's colleagues every embarrassing story he knew about him since he was four if he told Tohru the secret of his zodiac form.
Only Sane Man: Compared to his best friends Shigure and Ayame.
Multicolored Hair: Part white, part black. Prompts a Crowning Moment of Funny when he drags the student council president into the men's room to "prove" it's natural.
No Sense of Direction: When they were kids, Kyo had to hold his hand and led him to school. At his introduction he states he was 'lost in the dark heart of the urban jungle' for three days.
Large Ham: It's refered to as "steamrolling people with his personality."
No Sense of Personal Space: Justified when he's in snake form, as he's extremely susceptible to the cold and needs to rely on another person's body heat. Not that this explains him from getting into bed with Kyo (fully clothed) in the middle of the night and snuggling close, mind you.
Shipper on Deck: Seems to support Yuki/Tohru and Kyo/Kagura judging by how he wants to embroider "I live for Kagura" on Kyo's clothing and "I live for Yuki" on Tohru's clothing.
Big Brother Instinct: Invoked in the manga after the birth of his younger sister, Hinata. Present to an extent in his desire to protect Kisa and Rin, although he's younger than both of them.
Failure Knight: 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 a window and being paralyzed at that.
Secret Keeper: For most of the manga, the truth about Rin's injuries.It weighs heavily on him. And he pretty much breaks down in tears when he can't hold back anymore and explains the truth to Haru.
Straight Man: Becomes this a few times in the Beach arc after he decides to cool his hostility towards Tohru compared to Cloudcuckoolander Tohru and occasionally Kisa.
Too Clever by Half: Very smart for his age and knows it. This usually doesn't keep his mouth from getting him in trouble or give him the emotional maturity to handle difficult situations.
Tsundere: With 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.
What Could Have Been: Word Of God states that there were chapters written to develop a relationship between Ritsu and Mitchan, but Takaya couldn't find a good spot to use them.
Isuzu "Rin" Sohma (The Horse)
Rin
Abusive Parents: Mom and Dad 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.
Destination Defenestration: When Akito 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.
Ill Girl: Her traumatic past cause her health problems more than once. Specifically, she has stomach ulcerae.
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.
Important Haircut/Traumatic Haircut: Courtesy of Akito, as punishment for following Akito's evil mother Ren's orders and with the added bonus of how she and Ren looked a LOT alike when Rin wore with her long hair down.
The Atoner: As a teen, 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.
Papa Wolf: He will not allow anyone to mistreat Kyo.
Ren Sohma
Child Hater: She once said that she hated how the then-tiny Ayame, Hatori, Kureno and Shigure swarmed to her and cried. She didn't know it, but their tears were because they sensed she was pregnant with Akito, the future God of the Zodiac. She also notes that she has always hated Rin, and Akito remembers her as a cold mother.
Love Makes You Evil: Ren originally worked as a maid in the Sohma state, then she was the first person who took care of Ill BoyAkira and reached out to him. Her Face Heel Turn 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.
Meddling Parents: 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.
Smug Snake: Beautiful, evil, sly, manipulative, and not just despicable, but in the end, very incompetent. 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 pretty much as an Empty Shell of her former self.
Mind Rape: Via Akito. She's left in such a hugeHeroic BSOD that Hatori erases her memories of their romance so she can get better. She's now Happily Married to someone else, and only remembers Hatori as her never-confessed first love.
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.
Children Raise You: 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, she responds with a "Yes, sir!" when he tells her to be more careful while she's still pregnant. (Though her lighthearted tone of voice could mean she just humors him all of the time.)
Dojikko: Such a klutz that Hiro is paranoid she's bound to trip down a flight of stairs. He's especially freaked out when she's pregnant.
Doting Parent: Aside from Kagura's mother, she's the only mother of a Zodiac child we see who neither rejected him nor became overprotective.
Starcrossed Lovers: She and 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.
All of the Other Reindeer: Her Strange Girl infamy first brought her bullying at first, then almost complete isolation... until Tohru and Arisa break through her defenses.
Book Dumb: She's not really, but she fails her tests because the make-up ones are easier.
Good Parents: 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. Heck, her little brother Megumi takes after them and is pretty protective of her sometimes.
Psychic Powers: She reads auras and can potentially kill with her "denpa waves". 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.
Likes Older Women: 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...
Wise Beyond Their Years: Upon hearing the plan of the 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 friendships with the Sohmas.
Adult Fear: 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.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: Inverted — Katsuya makes fun of Kyoko because she doesn't have eyebrows.
Broken Bird: Until Katsuya offers her a helping hand.
Broken Pedestal: Arisa was not happy to discover that the "Red Butterfly" she'd admired had turned into a Doting Mother. However, after she slowly warmed up to her and when she helped Arisa quit her gang, she admired her again.
We Have No Daughter: What her father pretty much says to her face when Kazuma asks them if he has their permission to marry her. Kazuya then takes Kyoko in, and they're soon married.
Parental Neglect: Kyoko's Freudian Excuse when she was young, since the Katsunumas emotionally ignored her and were only worried about her giving them a bad rep.
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 My Greatest Failure.
The Red Baron: 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.
Yamato Nadeshiko: After marrying Katsuya, she is happy to be a loving mother and House Wife and finally experience living in a happy family... and then, in Uotani's backstory, we see that she beats the tar out of a group of delinquents to save Arisa. In 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 seperates the docile House Wife pushover Extreme Doormat from Yamato Nadeshiko.
Hot for Student: Katsuya was Kyoko's student teacher and counselor before they got married. 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 What the Hell, Hero? speech and takes Kyoko in.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: 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.
Parental Neglect: 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. 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.
Abusive Parents: Look at Machi's section. He wasn't that abused in comparison, but it doesn't mean he wasn't affected. Once he rebelled his mom had a change of heart.
Tongue Tied: Simply cannot tell Yuki how much she likes him.
Other characters
Komaki Nakao
Disappeared Dad: Who died in a car crash. And he actually was the driver who killed Kyoko, by accidentally hitting her with his car before crashing and perishing.
Tsundere: Lightly, to Kakeru. With an attitude like his, can you blame her?
What the Hell, Hero?: To Kakeru, who told Tohru during Kyoko's funeral that she wasn't the only one who had lost a parent in the accident and 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.
Suicide As Comedy: 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.
