Momiji Sohma

## Voices

**Momiji Sohma** (草摩 紅葉, *Sōma Momiji*) is one of the recurring characters of the series. He is half-Japanese from his father's side and half-German from his mother's side.

He is the Rabbit of the Chinese Zodiac. Momiji is depicted as a cute, cheerful, and childlike boy, who is easily mistaken as an elementary school student when he, in reality, is as old as Hatsuharu Sohma and one year younger than Tohru Honda. He later begins attending Kaibara High along with Hatsuharu as first-year students.

Despite his cheerful attitude, he hides a sad family life behind his smile. He lives alone inside the Sohma house since his mother completely rejected him when she first held him. She regretted giving birth to Momiji and begged for Hatori to erase her memories. Because of this, his sister Momo is unaware he is her older brother.

## Appearance

At the start of the series, Momiji is a very short boy with a small frame who is considered to be very cute. He has short, wavy blonde hair with messy bangs which frame his face, along with a pair of round light-brown goldenish eyes; all of these traits being inherited from his mother.

Momiji is initially seen wearing outfits with feminine patterns, frills, and cute accessories. He also wore the girls' uniform at school with shorts instead of a skirt. He has been seen with painted fingernails, and studs in his ears. Momiji also wears hats, and carries around his trademark rabbit backpack almost all the time.

When he enters his second year of high school, Momiji enters his growth spurts and in the process changes drastically. As noted by many people at school, Momiji has grown into a very handsome and tall young man, to the point where they couldn't recognize him at first. He also starts wearing the boys' uniform, and while he does look more mature and masculine, his love for cute things hasn't changed much. He is also seen to have slightly longer hair and messier bangs.

## Personality

Momiji is an extremely bubbly, cheerful, and fun-loving boy who is always seen with a smile. He sometimes acts like a wild child since he has no real adult supervision aside from Hatori. But he is also shown to be a nice, caring, and helpful person who easily gets along with others. He is very affectionate, loves hugging people, and has little sense of personal space, especially towards Tohru, as his excitement at meeting a female outside of the zodiac has led him to hug her in public places, carefree to the fact that people might see his transformation.

At the same time, Momiji possesses great empathy and intuition about others. He is emotionally strong and wise beyond his years, evidenced when he told the story of the foolish traveler and about his family situation to Tohru. He occasionally displays seriousness, though it is usually quickly followed with childish antics. It is implied that he is more mature and somber than he looks, and puts on a cheerful, childish facade to hide the emotional turmoil he has over his mother rejecting him and his father essentially abandoning him in favor of his sister. He is also shown to be courageous and able to stand up for the people he loves. He was the only one who was able to defy Akito's wishes and stand up to her, even though he is afraid of her, when he thought that she was in the wrong. He even let himself receive a punch to the face as a means to protect Tohru.

When Momiji enters his growth spurt, he admits that he is happy that he grew up, since although he got to enjoy or get away with some things that he could only do when he was smaller, he is also a guy and wants to be taken seriously by Tohru― who he had fallen in love with. Momiji also grows more confident and sly, such as telling Kyo that if he doesn't confess to Tohru soon, he would take her for himself. He also took a photo of Kagura hugging Kyo while accusing him for cheating on Tohru. Momiji is shown to have become more emotionally strong and level-headed and can display coldness if needed; when he finds out his curse is broken, he immediately makes it clear that he will never let Akito control him anymore and that he won't stay by her side anymore, opting to find a bright life for himself in the future instead. However, he is kind-hearted and empathizing enough to 'forgive' Akito and even urges her to visit Tohru in the hospital by telling her the story of the foolish tr