Honda Tohru is a high school girl who recently lost her mother Kyoko to a car accident. Her mother, a very strong and different individual, had raised Tohru on her own. She believed in paving her own way in life, not adopting someone else's. Tohru had absorbed this attitude as her own, and after her mother's death, worked as hard as she could to not let her down. Never had Tohru imagined that her mother, as powerful and bright as she is, would lose her life in a car accident.

After her mother's death, Tohru went to live with her dad's father, her paternal grandfather. Since he was living off of his savings, she promised that she'd pay her tuition by herself in order not to burden him. However, it was later decided that her grandfather would live with his daughter's family. He had asked Tohru if she had any friends she could live with while the renovations were being done to the new house. Tohru's friend Uo lived in a one-room apartment, while her friend Hana was from a five-member family, so those two options were out. It was then and there that Tohru decided she was to live alone. She paved her own way of doing things by setting up and living in a tent in the middle of the nearby woods.

Being a hard-worker to the extreme, Tohru never gave up nor lost her spirit. It was a very lonely way of living, not to mention rather dangerous for a high school student. "It's not very comfortable," Tohru said, "But that's okay! Since one of my mottos is, 'Never quit under any circumstances!'" Every day before she left to school, she greeted her mother's framed picture. Every afternoon she had a part-time job as a maid in a company inside the city. She came home very late at night, tired and exhausted, but did her homework. This was because her mother never got a high school education, and always told Tohru that she would like to see her be different and have the high school education that she never did. So Tohru stuck with her work and kept going, her smile unwavering, determined to graduate.

One day, a week and a half after she'd started living in her tent, Tohru was walking to school and she stumbled upon a large house in the woods, one that she'd never seen before. Outside on the porch were small snacks in the shape of the Juunishi, the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. Her curiosity sparked, she came closer to look, when a man named Souma Shigure came out. The two ended up discussing the folktale of the Juunishi as Tohru looked at the snacks, which went like this:

In the folktale of the Chinese zodiac, God told all the animals, "I invite all of you to a party tomorrow. And on no account be late." When the mischievous mouse heard these words, he told a lie to his neighbor the cat, telling him that the party was to take place the day after tomorrow. The next day, the mouse rode on the ox's back and arrived at the meeting place. After him the ox, the tiger, and so forth, all arrived and had a fun time until morning.

All except for the cat that was fooled.

As the cat missed the party, it was not included in the Juuniichi, the twelve signs. And yet it still tried to be friends with the other animals, even though the mouse had tricked him.

Tohru explained to Shigure that each time she heard this folktale as a child, she'd cry. Her mother would ask, "Why are you crying, Tohru?" and she would reply, "Because that's so sad! I feel so sorry for the cat!" She had decided at that point what she wanted to do. Holding a determined fist in the air she had declared and stuck with her idea, "Instead of a dog, I want to become a cat!"

Shigure found this very amusing. He mentioned to her that since she was born in the year of the dog, they have good chemistry. Their conversation was interrupted when Tohru found to her surprise that Shigure lived with his cousin, Souma Yuki, who went to Tohru's school and whom she called "her high school prince." It seemed she had been idolizing Yuki from afar. And truly he was like a prince, for he even had his "LOVE ME YUKI!" fan club among the girls. When Tohru explained to Shigure and Yuki that her house was nearby, they were baffled, for all the property around the house belonged to the Souma family, and they knew of no one who lived in the vicinity. But they let this detail pass as Tohru skillfully changed the conversation and Yuki offered to walk her to school, which she was thrilled to accept.

That afternoon, the two met after school by coincidence and ended up walking back home together. Yuki brought up the subject of the Chinese zodiac, and said that he believed the cat to be very stupid. Tohru asked him if he hated cats. He didn't reply but instead said to her, "I thought so from this morning, but you seem somewhat pallid. You should take care of yourself. I'll see you tomorrow." And he left. Tohru mentioned that he truly was a very secretive person, then left for her part-time job.

Later that evening, Yuki and Shigure were walking back from dinner through the woods. They were arguing about cooking. Finally Shigure said, "Hey, don't you think we need a housekeeper?" to which Yuki replied, "A female would just cause more trouble." Just then, as if on cue, they saw Tohru going into her tent.

She was looking feverish and exhausted, but opened up the tent flap and said, "I'm home," to the picture of her mother with a tired smile on her face. When she came out of the tent with a towel in one hand to wash her face from the lake nearby, she found Yuki and Shigure in front of her, looking very confused. They ended up taking her back to their house and she explained to them about her secret tent.

Shigure informed her that the ground in the area was weak, dangerous, and that perverts came out, so it was impossible for a girl to live alone in a tent. He snapped up to attention when he heard a wolf howling, "Hear that? There's definitely been a landslide somewhere." Tohru asked him how he knew, and he replied, "You can say it's a natural instinct." And sure enough, a landslide had happened right over the tent, destroying it. Tohru ended up spending the night at their house.

The next morning Yuki offered for her to live together with them until the construction was done in her grandfather's house. She refused until Shigure asked her whether she liked to cook and clean. When she replied that she did, it was an instant deal. With the extremely filthy house and the lack of well-cooked food, Yuki and Shigure were more than happy to include Tohru in their home.

Living with the Souma family was going to be a very interesting experience, and this was proven true the first day that Tohru lived there. She met Kyou, who had a large dislike towards Yuki, and soon found out why this was so. Because through a clumsy, twisted trick of fate, she uncovered the curse of the Souma family:

The members of the Souma family are cursed by vengeful spirits, and have been for over a few hundred years. These are the vengeful spirits of the Juunishi. Each person born in the year of a certain animal transforms into that animal whenever they're hugged by the opposite sex or their bodies get nervous. After a little while they return to normal. However, this amount of time is uncertain and varies from each transformation. To top it off, when they transform back, they're naked! Tohru found these facts out quite unexpectedly and to everyone's as well as her own shock, as Kyou turned into an orange cat, Yuki into a gray mouse, and Shigure into a large, black dog in front of her eyes. For Kyou was cursed by the vengeful spirit of the cat, and Yuki was born in the year of the mouse, Shigure in the year of the dog.

That explained the distance Yuki put around himself, why he always pushed girls away when they tried to hug him. It also explained how Shigure was able to tell the landslide, and why Kyou and Yuki hated each other so much and fought all the time.

But no outsiders were allowed to know this secret curse of the Souma household. In fact, everyone who accidentally finds out get their memories erased. But this wasn't the case for Tohru. For some reason, she was able to keep her memories. Akito, the master of the Souma family, chose to let her know about the curse and live with Yuki, Kyou, and Shigure. Eventually, a strong bond forms between the four.

The series focuses on the effect that Tohru has on the people of the Souma family that come in contact with her, as well as her life and the hardships that she goes through. But on top of all is the secret of the Souma family's curse. Is there a way to heal it? Will Tohru be the one to do so? Or will her heart and everyone else's who got in contact with her be broken in the end, like many before her? The Souma family is very dark and very secretive. Tohru is warned on a few occasions to not get involved, but it seems she's too deeply involved already.

- - - - - - - - - ->  Back to Info