Mitchan - Creation and Conception

Creation and Conception

According to Natsuki Takaya in interviews, Tohru Honda was the first character she created for the series, with Yuki and Kyo Sohma soon after. When asked how she came up with Tohru's personality and background, she said:

I thought that for a girl to accept other people's feelings so wholeheartedly, she'd have to have a slightly unusual way of looking at things so that she wouldn't be crushed by having so much empathy. But I still worried that I needed something else to flesh her out. And then the thought, "Oh, yeah—I'll make her use super-polite language, and use it incorrectly!" came to me all at once. After that, her character was completed in no time.

Takaya gave Tohru a name normally used only for men because she likes to give masculine names to female characters "to balance them out." In addition, Takaya chose to have other characters address her as "Tohru-kun", using an honorific typically used for boys, because she thought it was "a more dignified form of address."

The next characters Takaya developed were Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure Sohma, and of these Kyo was "the first character whose personality and looks really hit me...without any hesitation." According to the Fruits Basket Character Book, she had Yuki dress in Chinese-style clothes because she likes them. She added that she believes they suit his androgynous nature, and that she deliberately gave Yuki and Kyo different tastes to distinguish them.

Takaya described these four characters, Tohru, Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure, as the main cast. The first character she developed after them was Kisa Sohma, whom she described as "in competition to be the first or second most beautiful character."

Takaya named most of the Sohmas affected by the curse after the month in the former Japanese lunisolar calendar that corresponds to their zodiac animal. The exceptions are Kureno and Momiji, whose names were swapped by mistake; Kyo, who as the cat is not part of the official zodiac; and Yuki. According to the author, no other names have meanings.