Arisa Uotani

**Arisa Uotani** (魚谷 ありさ, *Uotani Arisa*), also known by her nickname **Uo** (魚, *****Uo*****) is one of Tohru Honda's best friends. A former gang member who joined an all-girls gang called ”The Ladies” in fifth grade, Arisa idolized Kyoko Honda's reputation from her gang days. When she personally met Kyoko and Tohru in middle school, she was shocked by Kyoko's change from a gang-leader into a doting mother. However, they became friends after Kyoko helped her escape from her gang. With her other best friend Saki Hanajima, Arisa swore on Kyoko's grave to look after Tohru, and in their "parental" protection of Tohru, noted by Kyo Sohma and Yuki Sohma, Arisa is depicted as the brash and direct father-figure.

When Arisa meets Kureno Sohma, she is instantly attracted to him. After their second meeting, he refuses to see her again because of his promise to stay with Akito Sohma. When Kureno leaves Akito, Arisa helps him move out from the Sohma compound, telling him that she has been waiting for him all this time. It is later revealed that she is now preparing to move in with him.

## Description

### Appearance

Arisa is a fair-skinned teenage girl of average build and above average height, who has a pair of brown eyes. She is known for her tall stature, yet wishes to be even taller. She has straight, upper back-length, blonde hair, which she either leaves untied or into a low ponytail at the back. She has long, "M-shaped" bangs which frame her face and occasionally cover her right eye. Sometimes, she wears hairclips to clear her bangs from her face. It is mentioned how if she grew a bit taller she could be a model, implying she is good-looking.

Arisa is often depicted in her standard school uniform, with a purple shirt underneath and a rather long skirt which goes down to her ankles. Outside of school, she likes wearing purple nail polish, 3/4 sleeves, as well as Kyoko's former Red Butterfly uniform, which she received from the latter herself in the past.

A few years later, Arisa has cut her hair short as it now reaches her shoulders. She also has shorter, free-falling bangs which no longer cover her eyes.

### Personality

As a young, troubled teenager, Arisa used to be very grumpy and violent, and developed anger issues from a young age. She hated the terms "peaceful" and "kind", to such an extent that the happy home life of Kyoko and Tohru sickened her because she herself had been abandoned by her mother and neglected by her father. However, after Kyoko and Tohru helped her turn her life around and quit her gang, Arisa went through a significant change which made her the person she is today.

Arisa is now a fun-loving, cool, tough, and stand-offish former gang-member who always tries to get some fun out of something, even when things seem to get rough. While she can be short-tempered and aggressive, traits she shares with Kyo, she is surprisingly very emotional and cries easily about things most people wouldn't; such as Tohru showing up in her old swimsuit from middle school (despite it being a matter of practicality), and again when she thinks about old people buying their meals at a convenience store (even though she admits they must think nothing of it). According to Kureno, Arisa is a very honest and expressive girl who wears her emotions on the sleeve; she cries when she's sad, laughs when she's happy, and yells when she's mad.

While she is occasionally aloof and emotionally closed off, she is warm, friendly, and deeply loyal towards her friends and loved ones. Arisa also acts like a big sister figure, and while she has moved on from her past, she never forgot what it taught her. She uses her own experience being a gang-member to help other people, such as lecturing three middle school-aged yankee wannabes. This proved to be effective, as they began respecting Arisa and even began calling her "Ane-sama". On the other hand, she is frigid and hostile towards anyone that gets on her nerves, primarily the Prince Yuki Fan Club, and even occasionally brings out a metal pipe whenever she feels the need to protect Tohru.

Arisa is noted to be very direct, tomboyish, as she even the pronoun "boku" (which is normally a masculine pronoun in Japanese). She is brash, headstrong, never beats around the bush, and isn't easily shamed. For instance, she casually says things the other characters become embarrassed at; such as when Kyo yells at her for mentioning underwear when they were shopping for a swimsuit for Tohru.

## Etymology

* The name **Arisa** is written in hiragana (ありさ), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (有沙 or 有紗), it could possibly mean:
	+ 有沙 - "exist" (有) (**ari**) and "sand" (沙) (**sa**).
	+ 有紗 - "exist" (有) (**ari**) and "thread, silk" (紗) (**sa**).
* Arisa's surname **Uotani** means "fish" (魚) (**uo**) and "valley" (谷) (**tani**).

## Trivia

* Arisa likes tight clothes. When she was in the gang, she covered her skin completely, but since her "reform", she's started wearing things that are more revealing.
* Arisa's style is heavily influenced by Kyoko Honda, but she still prefers long skirts.
	+ Natsuki Takaya thinks it's too bad, since she mentions that Arisa has "great legs".
* Arisa lives with her father in a one-room apartment with a dining and kitchen area.
* Arisa was affected by Kyoko and Tohru in a away she never expected.
	+ She ends up just like Kyoko by falling in love with someone nearly a decade older than herself; with a personality like Tohru's. Implying the happiness she felt from being around them subconsciously made her desire to find a lover with the qualities that matched what made her feel at peace; hence why she felt an immediate attraction to Kureno Sohma.
* Arisa's manga symbol is a fish, the meaning of the first kanji (魚) of her family name.
* In Fruits Basket Another, Hajime is seen wearing Kyoko's Crimson Butterfly jacket, implying that Arisa returned it back so that it could be a family heirloom.
* Arisa claims that she took too many drugs when she was younger, so medications have no effect on her.
* Arisa wishes to reach 180 cm (6 feet) in height.
	+ Because of her tall stature, Tohru thinks she could become a model.
* Arisa uses the pronoun "boku", which is normally a masculine pronoun in Japanese (see *Gender differences in spoken Japanese*).