Tohru Honda is the central protagonist of the 23-volume manga ‘Fruits Basket‘ by Natsuki Takaya. The story follows Tohru, a orphaned high-school student, who crosses paths with the Sohma family who accidentally reveal their curse: they are possessed by the animals of the Chinese zodiac and turn into their animal forms whenever they hug someone from the opposite gender, or whenever they’re weak or stressed.
Fruits Basket was one of the very first mangas I read and Tohru had a lasting impact on me as a child. She embodied the type of person I wanted to become: caring, optimistic, compassionate and strong in the face of adversity. Her desire to continually see the good in others and to defend those who were unable to do that for themselves, inspired me to do the same. Significantly, Tohru’s understanding and compassion for Ritsu Sohma, one of the first times I would encounter drag, when others would cruelly criticise him, moved me deeply as a child. Ritsu being queer-coded and Tohru’s gentle and unprejudiced embrace of him warmed me, and seeing such a tenderness expressed to someone like Ritsu hit something deep in me as a child which I only understand now as a queer woman.
