Kisa Sohma

**Kisa Sohma** (草摩 杞紗, *Sōma Kisa*) is the Tiger of the Chinese Zodiac. When she is first introduced, Kisa had sealed her words away since she was harassed and ostracized by her classmates due to her naturally golden hair and eyes, a side effect of her curse. Tohru Honda, who understands Kisa's distress because she was once bullied herself, helps her to come out of her shell. Kisa then becomes very attached to Tohru, viewing her as an older sister.

Kisa is best friends with Hiro Sohma and is close to Yuki Sohma and Hatsuharu Sohma, viewing them as older-brother figures.

## Description

### Appearance

Kisa is a slender young girl with fair skin and large amber-colored eyes who is noted to be very cute by people around her, especially by Tohru and Hiro.

She has nape-length, straight golden-yellow hair which she wears into a bob, with a scruffy fringe and two long strands of hair framing her face.

Kisa is often depicted in her school uniform, which consists of a light-purple colored tailored sweater with dark purple sleeves, along with a yellow ribbon around the collar. It also consists of a short light-purple skirt, long white stockings, and a pair of brown loafers. On other occasions, she likes to wear feminine clothes such as dresses. She also styles her hair with ribbons, borrows Tohru's clothes from time to time and imitates her style out of adoration.

### Personality

When Kisa is first introduced, she refuses to speak since her classmates bullied her by laughing whenever she tried to say anything. She also willingly bites Tohru twice and Haru once while in her tiger form. It is implied that this is a defense mechanism and that she had developed trust issues after being bullied at school. However, after seeing Tohru's kindness, it encourages her to come out of her shell. She starts talking more often and expressing what's on her mind. Yuki also empathizes with her due to his own experiences with bullying, so both resolve to be better.

It is revealed that Kisa is a very innocent, shy, but sweet, kind-hearted, and soft-spoken girl. She dislikes conflict and prefers to sort things out with civil conversations. She is also quite sensitive and easily shaken, and can break down in tears quite easily. Despite that, she prefers to bottle up her true feelings of sadness and conflict, and chooses to show a smile outwards. She can be somewhat clueless at times, as during *Cinderella-ish*, when Hiro Sohma tells her to be careful, she says that she won't "bump into anyone", but he was really telling her that there were other boys who had their eyes on her. She didn't pick up these clues but is saved by Haru.

She is also meek, shy, withdrawn, and reserved, and is initially seen to not be very good to make her own decisions. So when she is able to greet Kyo Sohma directly instead of relying on Hiro to speak for her, Kisa feels it is a major accomplishment and is proud over herself.

## Etymology

* The name **Kisa** means 姫 (**ki)**, 姫 means "princess" and 桜 (**sa**) means "cherry blossoms". Or for the spelling 季桜, 季 means "season". 桜 means "cherry blossoms".
* The name also in Russian means kitten.

## Trivia

* According to the official *Fruits Basket Character Book*:
	+ Kisa's name is derived from the second month, ***kisa**ragi* or "changing clothes month", which is the month of the tiger of the traditional Japanese calendar.
	+ Natsuki Takaya says she likes drawing Kisa in frilly dresses, though she mentions that Kisa herself wouldn't want that. Because of that, she mostly draws Kisa in such clothes in color pictures and official artwork.
	+ Kisa dislikes flashy colors.
* According to Takaya, Kisa was originally designed as in the running for being the first or second most beautiful character.
* Kisa considers the "Mabudachi Trio" her uncles and calls them Uncle Hatori, Uncle Shigure and Uncle Ayame, even though they are actually her older "cousins".
* Kisa is the second youngest member of the Zodiacs.
* Kisa owns a stuffed tiger plushie.
* Kisa likes playing in parks.