Kyo Sohma

Grew up… in a family that didn’t want him. The Sohma family has a hereditary curse, where members turn into the animals of the zodiac when hugged by a member of the opposite sex. Kyo is the Cat. Don’t remember a cat in the zodiac? That’s because the cat didn’t make it into the official one. Hence Kyo is the outcast member, pitied and despised. His mother committed suicide when he was little and his father blamed Kyo, and eventually abandoned him.

Living… in Shigure Sohma’s house. Kyo doesn’t want to live in the Sohma family complex, so the only option is to live with a member of the family who has a home outside it. But unfortunately, Kyo’s rival, Yuki, also lives with Shigure. Suffice to say there’s not going to be a lot of quiet time if they’re both home.

Profession… student. Kyo attends public school with Yuki, and with Tohru, a local girl who’s also come to live at Shigure’s house. Kyo isn’t really good at school – he tries, but he ends up studying the wrong things. For some reason, his classmates seem to like him. Weird.

Interests… martial arts. Kyo lives for the day he can defeat Yuki in one-on-one combat. He even went into the mountains for four months to train. His frequent attempts – and failures – to beat Yuki often cause a lot of damage to the house.

Relationship Status… single, and likely to stay that way for a while. Kyo doesn’t understand why anyone would like him, especially since his entire family has always looked down on him because of the curse.

Challenge… living with the curse. All his life, Kyo has resented being treated like garbage, but secretly, he’s accepted that it’s true. If he’s ever going to be happy, he needs to learn some way to like himself. Tohru, his new housemate, seems confident that someday she can break the curse. But that won’t undo years of psychological torment.

Personality… stubborn, short-tempered, and self-sacrificing. Kyo has a hair-trigger temper, and he’ll frequently end up shouting at people, even people he cares about – and the people he doesn’t care about will end up subject to violence. He’s rude and antisocial. Some of this, though, is because he doesn’t want to hurt people, and he’s afraid of making people unhappy if they get close to him.