Fruits Basket Characters

A sixteen-year-old high-school student whose mother, Kyoko, died in a car accident a few months before the story begins. Not wanting to be a burden, she pitches a tent on land that turns out to belong to the Sohmas, and after a landslide flattens it, Shigure takes her in as housekeeper. Kind, endlessly polite and slow to think of herself, she resolves to break the Sohma curse once she sees what it costs her friends. Her very formal way of speaking is a habit she picked up from her late father, Katsuya.

Possessed by the Cat, the animal left out of the zodiac, Kyo is shunned by much of his family and has spent his life trying to beat Yuki, the Rat. He is hot-tempered and awkward with people but kind underneath, and he moves into Shigure's house and Tohru's class at the start of the story. His mother died when he was small, and his martial-arts master, Kazuma, raised him as a son. Without the bead bracelet on his wrist he takes a monstrous 'true form', which Tohru sees and refuses to run from.

The Rat of the zodiac and Tohru's classmate, admired at school as 'Prince Yuki' and persuaded to become student council president. As a child he was kept apart from the other Sohmas at Akito's side and grew up convinced that nobody wanted him, which left him polite, guarded and lonely. Tohru's friendship slowly draws him out, and he turns out to be the boy who once led her home when she was lost as a little girl. Through the student council he grows close to its treasurer, Machi Kuragi.

The Dog of the zodiac, a novelist who owns the house that Tohru, Yuki and Kyo share. He is idle and teasing, dodges his editor, Mitsuru, at every deadline, and likes to play at being a couple with his old school friend Ayame. Behind the jokes he is a schemer who admits to Hatori that he is using Tohru for his own ends, and his deepest attachment is to Akito. He, Hatori and Ayame have been best friends since high school.

The head of the Sohma family and the 'God' of the zodiac, to whom every cursed Sohma feels bound. Frail and often ill, Akito is also volatile, has hurt several of the zodiac members, and sees Tohru as a threat to the family's eternal bond. Late in the second season it is revealed that Akito is a woman, raised as a man on the orders of her mother, Ren. As the curse weakens, she finally accepts Tohru's offer of friendship.

The Rabbit of the zodiac: half German, irrepressibly cheerful, and only a year younger than Tohru, though he looks much younger. His mother could not accept his curse, so Hatori erased her memories of him, and his little sister, Momo, does not know he is her brother. He plays the violin and wants to become a violinist. In the final season his curse is the first to break, apart from Kureno's.

The Dragon of the zodiac, though the curse turns him into a seahorse. As the family doctor he also suppresses the memories of outsiders who discover the secret. Two years before the story he hoped to marry his assistant, Kana; after Akito injured his left eye in a rage and blamed her, he had to erase her memories of their relationship. Stern and serious, he warns Tohru to keep her distance, and he later grows close to Kana's best friend, Mayuko Shiraki.

The Ox of the zodiac, usually called Haru, who joins Tohru's school a year below her. Calm and placid most of the time, he has a furious 'Black Haru' side when provoked, and his hair is white with black roots. As a child he resented Yuki, but he has adored him ever since, and he acts as an older brother to the younger zodiac members. He loves Rin, the Horse, and stands by her through everything.

The Snake of the zodiac and Yuki's older brother, a flamboyant, self-assured man with long silver hair. He runs a shop of made-to-order costumes and dresses with his seamstress, Mine Kuramae. Having ignored Yuki when they were young, he now tries far too hard to win his brother over, and Yuki gradually comes to accept him. He was student council president in his own school days and is one of a lifelong trio of friends with Shigure and Hatori.

The Boar of the zodiac, two years older than Kyo, who has insisted since childhood that she will marry him. She is sweet one moment and wildly overexcited the next, usually at Kyo's expense. In the second season she admits that her feelings began partly in guilt and pity, and Kyo tells her he can only see her as family, which gives them both closure. She studies at a local college.

One of Tohru's two best friends: tall, blunt and fiercely protective. As a girl she joined an all-girl gang and idolised Tohru's mother, Kyoko, a legend from her own gang days; Kyoko later helped Arisa get out, and Arisa and Tohru have been inseparable since middle school. She bickers constantly with Kyo and works part-time jobs, at one of which, a convenience store, she meets Kureno Sohma and falls for him.

Tohru's other best friend, a calm, deadpan girl who dresses in black and can sense people's 'waves' and send out electric waves of her own. She was bullied as a child because of her powers, found real friends in Tohru and Arisa, and with their support learned to control her gift. She uses her reputation for 'poison waves' to keep Yuki's fan club away from Tohru. Her younger brother, Megumi, shares her ability.