Kyoko Honda

## Voices

**Kyoko Honda** (本田 今日子, *Honda Kyōko*) is the wife of Katsuya Honda and is the mother of Tohru Honda, and the main protagonist of *Fruits Basket -prelude-*.

Kyoko used to be a lonely, troubled, and violent teenager who was also an infamous gang leader called "The Red Butterfly". However, after she met Katsuya, they worked through difficulties in a joint effort, and he helped her leave the gang and her own abusive household. After Katsuya's death and due to her own experiences, Kyoko lovingly raises Tohru and shaped much of her character by the wisdom she shared with her.

Kyoko died a few months before the start of the series when she is struck by a car. Despite that, Tohru clings to her mother's memory and calls her the most important person in her life, and repeats bits of her mother's emotional wisdom throughout the series.

## Appearance

Kyoko is an adult woman with fair skin and a rather slender build. She has short, bobbed, and strawberry blonde hair which appears to grow darker the further down it went. Her bangs are long and “M-shaped”, and usually covers her right eye and frames her face. In flashbacks, she was also seen to have longer hair. She had a pair of light-brown eyes with long eyelashes, and is often seen with earrings and pink nail polish.

Kyoko's usual outfit consists of a yellow long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and a pair of pink heels. However, she would also wear a black shirt and a blue skirt along with her trademark red coat from her gang days as well.

When Kyoko was young, she had mid-back-length hair with straight bangs covering her entire forehead. She also used to draw her eyebrows in, prompting Katsuya to call her “Ms. No Eyebrows”. During her gang days, she was often seen with bandages on top of her chest, along with black shorts. She would also wear her trademark coat as well. In school, she was seen with several plasters and dressed rather modestly; such as long-sleeved, long black dresses.

## Personality

In her teenage years, Kyoko was an abrasive, grumpy, ill-tempered, and violent delinquent who blamed everyone for her sadness and took her anger out on those around her. This was largely caused by her incredibly self-centered parents, who made Kyoko hate the entire world and desperate for someone who would make her feel loved and needed. After she met Katsuya, who treated her with the love and understanding no one ever gave her before, made Kyoko quit the life of a delinquent, and her personality greatly improved thanks to his influence. As a result, Kyoko became self-conscious about her past mistakes, but also a more lively and optimistic woman who was always smiling. On the other hand, when Katsuya passed away, Kyoko lost all hope, abandoned Tohru for a while, and even attempted suicide. But when she remembered she had a daughter who needed her love and care, Kyoko swore to live for Tohru's sake; eventually becoming the incredibly kind, supportive, hardworking, doting, patient, loving, and gentle mother seen in Tohru's flashbacks.

Kyoko is also a very wise woman who extended and shared this wisdom with others around her, including Arisa Uotani, Saki Hanajima, and Kyo Sohma. Even after her death, Tohru relies on Kyoko's wisdom greatly, as she was responsible for shaping Tohru's entire outlook in life. She was incredibly emotionally intelligent and strong-willed; firmly believing that people often can't mature and become emotionally strong until they have expressed lots of pain and hardships. Exactly because of her own upbringing, she was quick to sense other people's loneliness, such as Kyo’s and Arisa’s, and thus could easily empathize with others and accept them without any hesitation. Aside from her wisdom, Kyoko is a very cheerful, loud, open, inviting, and social woman with a noticeable sassy side to her, who could get along with anyone, even if it was a child decades younger than her.