Fruits Basket

Characters

The main-character of the story. A lovable, naive and cheerful girl. She is so cute, you absolutely cannot hate her. She is in a class with Yuki and Kyou and has lost her mother in a car accident, so that she temporarily lives in a tent (!!!), until she coincidentally,  is accepted by the Souma.

She makes friends with all of the Souma, and she undertakes the tasks of the household of Shigure. She is helpful, and doesn’t want to become a burden, but partly she is really naive.

Souma Yuki

Yuki is a silent, uncommunicative boy, who is afraid to open up to others. In between the 12 Chinese zodiac signs, he is possessed by the mouse (hehe… he is so cute like this!). Yuki really likes Touru, and begins to open up to her and trust her.

Not a direct member of the Souma family, therefore he fights to get accepted and acknowledged by the others. In many things he is the exact opposite of Yuki and there is no day where both of them don’t argue or fight with each other (Kyou is always the one to lose!).

Kyou is a real hothead and he reminds me a bit at Tasuki from Fushigi Yuugi. Kyou is possessed by the spirit of the cat, which has no permanent place in the Chinese horoscope.

Not until a lot of time has passed, it becomes obvious that Kyou hides something, only a few people know about. He, himself, is short-tempered, temperamental and always ready for a fight. Kyou hates leek and omelette, additional, he isn’t in a very good physical shape, when it’s raining, which has to do with his second self.

The young man is a author and the owner of the house, where Yuki, Kyou and Touru live. He is funny and almost never gets angry, actually he always is in a good mood. He has a strange character, somehow hard to define. I can make nothing of him! He transforms into a dog and it’s him who convinced Touru to move in. Shigure was in a school with Ayame and Hatori and at least Ayame and him are an absolute chaos-duo (poor Hatori *gg*). He is obliging and actually friendly, but somehow I always have the feeling that he is planning something.

The girl is possessed by the pig and by the way, by Kyou too. She really loves him and is all the time occupied by chasing him, whereas he really tries to escape her. Kagura really has a schizophrenic personality, on the one hand she is nice and friendly, on the other hand she can absolutely go mad with Kyou, if he rejects her (ouch…poor Kyou!). She rapidly makes friends with Touru and soon, she is a permanent visitor in Shigures house.

Hatori is a doctor and on of my favourites. He is a very silent character, serious and someone who rarely shows his emotions, the reasons for that behaviour is, that he lost his true love, when he asked Akito to be allowed to marry her. During this argument he lost his left eye and because of love to his girlfriend he removed her memory (an ability, he had to use very often).

The small, blonde boy transforms into a rabbit. He is very cute and even though he doesn’t look like it, he is just about one year younger than Touru and the others. He is somehow cute, friendly and he likes Touru, but sometimes he is a bit nerving. He also has a sad story to tell.

Haru-chan is as old as Moiji and transforms into a cow (you can recognize this, looking at his black/white hair). Usually he has an amiable, calm character, but there is also “black-Haru”, like he is called by the Souma, when he gets violent and vulgar. First he doesn’t like Yuki but after he gets to know him, he develops deep and honest feelings for him…I like him very much!

My absolute favourite...his manners are so…okay…Ayame is Yukis brother (o_O;) and is possessed by the spirit of the snake. He is somehow hyperactive and has always a joke to tell. When he was younger he rejected Yuki and now he tries to get along with him. He has silvery-white hair and golden eyes and sometimes he is really strange. Hatori is the only one who is able to influence him and Ayame admires Hatori because he owns something, he, himself doesn’t.

He is the head of the Souma-Clan, he is quite young but nevertheless, everybody has a deep respect for him. It’s not certain, whether he transforms into an animal too. Akito is ill most of the time and he seems to be very lonely and tends to extreme outbursts of fury. As soon as one of the 12 members falls in love, he destroys the relationship, especially if it’s one of the male members. He is very strange and is plans are not quite clear yet…but he seems to be extremely jealous, what Hatori, Haru, Kisa and Hiro get to know the hard way.

Puhh...I already wrote more, than I actually planned...but in my opinion all of the charas are important. The other persons are Souma Hiro, who transforms into a sheep and who is in love with Kisa, Souma Kisa, possessed by the spirit of the tiger, is a very calm and timid girl and Ritsu, the monkey (it’s a HIM, just to get this right!). The other two animals (rooster and horse) haven’t appeared yet. You can find more information about the charas here: 

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Blossom/7370/fbchar.html

Ri-chan, Carneol

(c) Natsuki Takaya