Kyo Sohma

* Current
* Future

## Voices

**Kyo Sohma** (草摩 夾, *Sōma Kyō*) is one of the deuteragonists of the series. He is the adoptive son of Kazuma Sohma, whom he was taken in by after the death of his mother and the rejection from his biological father.

Kyo is cursed by the spirit of the Cat, an animal who would have been part of the Chinese Zodiac had the Rat not tricked him into missing the ceremony. An irregular member of the Zodiac, not only is Kyo discriminated against, disrespected, and has a future of confinement, he also has a true form which is a grotesque and foul-smelling monster— which he turns into when his Juzu bead bracelet is removed. He has blamed all of his misfortunes on his greatest enemy, the Rat, Yuki Sohma, and has dedicated his life to defeat him.

## Appearance

Kyo is a very handsome teenage boy with a rather tall and muscular build. He has nape-length, bright orange hair with cowlicks sticking out of his head and soft spikes, along with long bangs that hang over his matching orange eyes. His eyes are quite sharp and will occasionally become slit-like.

Kyo wears the standard Kaibara High uniform for males, which consists of a blue sweater (white during summertime) with a white color around the collar and edges, and a yellow shirt underneath (white in the anime). Unlike other students, Kyo wears his school uniform unbuttoned without a necktie, since he hates clothes that are tight around the neck. On other occasions, he mainly dresses in loose clothes and V-shirts. He also seems to like colors like red, orange, and yellow, and often wears clothes in such colors.

He wears a set of Juzu beads, or Buddhist prayer beads, on his left wrist that are red and white (black and white in the 2001 anime) in color, all the way around and every other turn.

Kyo's full appearance.Cat form.
## Personality

Kyo is a very short-tempered, stubborn, brash, and sharp-tongued person. He is also viewed as charismatic and wears his emotions on his sleeves, which causes people to gather around him, and it also allows Kyo to socialize with outsiders with ease. However, he rarely displays this ability, and rough actions and insensitive remarks are sometimes the only things that come out. Kyo is also quite violent and self-sacrificing, and will frequently end up shouting at people, even people he cares about. This behavior of his is a defensive mechanism to hide the pain he has suffered, and he also doesn't want to hurt people and is afraid of making people unhappy if they get close to him. He tries to keep people at arm's length and even resorts to hurting them so they leave him alone because almost everyone in his life has hurt and pitied him so much that he is tired of it. At one point, he even denied that Kazuma was his father because he didn't want Kazuma to get hurt.

However, thanks to Tohru's influence, who reaches out to him with a patient and genuine understanding instead of force or pity, Kyo gradually grows into a calmer, gentler, and emotionally mature person. Little by little, his heart heals by finding true love in Tohru, and he can, in turn, help Tohru with her self-doubt. Underneath his tough personality, Kyo is very sensitive and vulnerable and cares a great deal about the people he loves. Evident by his interactions with Tohru, Kyo is a very empathizing, affectionate, patient, supportive, and selfless person who openly encourages her happiness, even if he isn't a part of it. He has a soft side that he doesn't like people seeing, and gets embarrassed quickly. He becomes easily flustered when people cry especially people he cares about, but will work through his discomfort to try and help them. He will prioritize their emotional well-being over his own as seen with his interactions with Kagura, Kazuma, and Tohru. He is not very good at expressing his feelings, and therefore occasionally comes off as a *tsundere*. Kyo is also passionate and determined if he puts his mind to something, most notably martial arts, which he eventually makes his livelihood.

Kyo harbors a strong hatred towards Yuki Sohma, the Rat, in which he is seen to be a very competitive, tough, no-manners, and always-wanting-to-fight boy. At the same time Kyo carries immense self-loathing and guilt, mostly as a result of all the scorn he has received from being exluded from the zodiac as the cat, and what he perceives is his own hand in causing his mother's suicide and the death of Kyoko Honda. As a result his deep hatred towards Yuki is not cemented on the person himself, but on making a scapegoat, a "bad guy" that could make him feel better about himself, serving as a coping mechanism to keep from mentally falling apart. His inclination to ultimately protect himself despite the consequences (i.e. not saving Kyoko Honda to avoid transforming into a cat in public, and subquently forgetting the car accident and direct the blame towards Yuki) adds to his already piled disgust towards himself, which has at times lead to suicidal thoughts.

It is for these reasons, that he feels undeserving of Tohru's love and excessively rejects her when she confesses to him. However, Kyo eventually come to realize how unfair and self-serving his way of thinking was, and properly apologizes to Tohru. He also reconciles with Yuki, even developing a budding friendship with him. Kyo decides to never repeat his past mistakes again and keep living on despite his regrets and guilt. He openly anticipates a bright future and wants to live like a normal person by challenging himself and getting involved with the world around him, something he had never done or wanted before. He also becomes kinder, more sensitive, affectionate, level-headed and laidback, smiles more often, and has much less of a temper, which Tohru describes the way the original Kyo was like, untainted by hatred.

## Trivia

* + Kyo and Yuki are the only cursed Sohmas whose names aren't part of the poetic names for the months of the year.
		- Instead, the kanji used for Kyo's name (夾) means "to squeeze/wedge in between," representing his wish to find a place inside the Zodiac circle.
	+ Kyo looks the best in V-neck shirts.
	+ He likes rough clothes that are easy to move around in and don't need looking after.
	+ He absolutely hates clothes that are tight around the neck.
	+ He never wears any accessories except for his beads, which he only wears because he is required to.
	+ He dislikes wearing things that feel oppressive; he even hates wearing socks or shoes.
	+ He really liked the pants he was wearing when he first appeared, but since they are all torn up now, he can't wear them anymore.
	+ Kyo is not very picky about food, but he absolutely hates leeks, green onions, and miso. He hates the smell of leeks and the taste of onions, and while he can tolerate miso soup, he can't stand miso dengaku.
	+ Because Kazuma is so appallingly bad at cooking, Kyo became good at it to survive. He also has a knack for forming onigiri.
* According to Natsuki Takaya's Twitter:
	+ Kyo dislikes Chinese Chive.
	+ Had Kazuma not picked Kyo up on that day when other Sohmas were berating Kazuma for taking in the Cat, Kyo's life would already "have met a bad end before he even met Tohru". That is why Kazuma is a destined person for Kyo.
	+ Kyo is naturally good at cooking.
	+ Within the Fruits Basket timeline Kyo stills calls Kazuma "Shishou" (Master), but a while after the main series' event, Kyo has begun calling Kazuma "father".
		- Takaya also says that Kyo calling Kazuma "father" for the first time would make Kazuma say "What an honor...", and "fall over at a 90 degree angle. Backwards."
	+ In Chapter 62 (Season 2, Episode 9 in the anime), there was a scene showing Kyo recalling his various memories of Tohru. According to Takaya, it just goes to show that all along he has been unconsciously thinking "I love her", each time he looked at her.
	+ Kyo's alcohol tolerance is pretty weak.
	+ Takaya says that Kagura and Kyo aren’t given many chances to communicate within the Fruits Basket manga, but the two of them convey a very particular feeling within the story that is limited to the two of them alone.
	+ Even after the curse broke, Kyo still feels a bit down on rainy days, and thus seeks comfort in Tohru via hugs.
	+ The things Kyo says to Tohru in front of her parents’ grave on chapter 134 are essentially a marriage proposal. It’s already stated before on the official fanbook ‘Banquet’.
* Kyo is actually quite air-headed. When he was complaining about having to transfer to the same school as Yuki at the beginning of the series, and Yuki told him he could have just failed his tests on purpose, Kyo was left dumbfounded.
* Because he was isolated when he was young, he is very ignorant about the world. He had never heard about Jason (which he stills get teased about by his children's friends), and didn't know what DVDs were.
* In the anime, Kyo is occasionally seen with a fang sticking out from his mouth (a popular trope in anime for "tsundere" characters). Additionally, cat ears sometimes sprout out from his hair.
* Kyo develops a habit of lightly tapping Tohru's head with his fist, showing that he cares about her in his own way.
* The only known characters that know about his true form are his mother, Kagura, Akito, Shigure, Kazuma, Tohru, and Yuki.
* In the official character popularity polls held by Hana to Yume magazine in Japan, Kyo won the 1st place by a landslide three times in a row.

1. ↑ Natsuki Takaya's Twitter