Tohru Honda

Lore & Background

After her mother Kyoko died in a car accident shortly after Tohru entered high school, she lived with her grandfather until his house needed remodeling. She moved into a tent on land belonging to the Sohma family. During a rainstorm, her tent was buried in a landslide, prompting Shigure Sohma to invite her to live as their housekeeper. There, she accidentally embraced Kyo Sohma, revealing that thirteen members of the Sohma family are possessed by Chinese zodiac spirits and transform into their animal forms when hugged by the opposite sex or when their body is weak or under great stress. The curse includes the cat, which legend says would have been in the zodiac had the Rat not tricked it into missing the induction feast. Tohru promises to keep their secret under the threat of having her memories of them erased, a compromise agreed to by Akito Sohma.

Reader's Guide

Tohru is defined by her polite, optimistic, and selfless nature, though friends like Kyo, Rin, and Hanajima warn her not to shoulder everyone's burdens. She avoids staying with friends Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima to avoid being a burden. Her formal speech habit stems from trying to replace her dead father in her mother's eyes after he died of pneumonia when she was three; this was exacerbated by statements that she might be the daughter of an affair.

She treasures her mother's photograph and vowed to keep Kyoko as the most important person, feeling distressed if she felt "unfaithful," such as when getting failing marks or falling in love with Kyo. Eventually, she realizes this vow is clinging to the past. After confronting Akito about the curse weakening the family bonds, Tohru fell down a cliff during a rainstorm but survived. As she recovers, Akito accepts Tohru's friendship and comes to accept herself as the person she is, rather than the god she believed her father wished her to be.

Did You Know?

• Tohru's name is normally used only for men; her father Katsuya is said to have chosen it because "it brought out her hidden flavor, like adding salt to sweet things".
• She is so kind-hearted that she could not make herself say mean things while playing a wicked stepsister in a class production of Cinderella.