Kagura Sohma

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Kagura Sohma (草摩楽羅 Sōma Kagura) is a fictional character a bit older than Tohru Honda in the manga and anime series entitled Fruits Basket. Typically sweet and caring, Kagura transforms into the boar of the Chinese Zodiac whenever she is hugged by the opposite gender or her body comes under a great deal of stress. Kagura's deceptively kind, shy and sweet-looking demeanour also hides her rather violent alter-ego. Her violent temper is second only to Hatsuharu Sohma's "Black" alter-ego. She is swift to snap Kyo Sohma back in line in her violent ways and appears to be close to Yuki Sohma, whom she affectionally calls "Yun-chan"

Role in the story

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Since she and Kyo Sohma are both part of the zodiac, and they can hug without transforming, Kagura believed they are meant for each other. She can be outrageous and impulsive with her actions, so she initially is very audacious with her declarations of love for Kyo. Kagura claims that Kyo promised to marry her when he was a child, but he claims that she forced him to do so. However, Rin Sohma questions what Kagura calls "love" for Kyo and Kagura later realizes that perhaps that her feelings in the beginning were more so out of pity than true love. When she was little, Kagura began playing with Kyo because she was relieved that there was someone who was less fortunate than her. On the day when Kagura took Kyo's beads away and first discovered Kyo's "true form", she ran away in fright. She realizes now how she must have hurt Kyo's feelings very badly. She reveals to Kyo that the reason why she "loved" him was because she wanted to feel better about herself and believed she could wash away the selfishness by loving him. Kagura ends up apologizing for being so selfish and appears to accept the budding relationship between Tohru and Kyo at this point.

Kagura lives with her mother, who is rather protective of her daughter, especially since Kagura's father was less than pleased with Kagura's curse and her mother for bearing such a child and left them. Kagura's cousin Rin has also lived with them for quite sometime, though Kagura's mother has noted Rin never seems to attempt to make their home hers. While Kagura always considered Rin her friend, the two were not as close as Kagura thought. The two have since become closer after Rin began to live at the home of Kazuma Sohma as she recovered from a recent incident and Kagura frequently visits her, despite Rin's visible irritation with Kagura's chipper attitude and invitations to join the other Jyuunishi in leisure activities.

Kagura still cares for Kyo, perhaps more like a brother now. In chapter 114, after Tohru tells Rin about her feelings towards Kyo, and Kagura gets rather angry. She runs up to Tohru and slaps her so hard that Tohru is knocked unconscious. Apparently Kagura believes that Kyo deserves to know that Tohru loves him and refuses to apologize because "spoken through their fists" as she puts it. Rin, whom Kagura had been visiting when the incident occurred, attacks Kagura for slapping Tohru (likely because of Rin's own history of being abused by her parents); Kagura realizes that she has been insensitive and apologizes to Rin while explaining why she chose to hit Tohru.

Oddly enough, Kagura is one of the few members of the Jyūnishi who has never been hurt by Akito directly or indirectly (Ayame Sohma and Ritsu Sohma appear to be the only other ones). It is especially unusual because of Akito's tendencies to hurt the female members of the Jyūnishi (ie. Rin and Kisa Sohma).

Name

Kagura (楽羅) means "the Dance of the Gods". It is a Japanese word referring to a specific type of Shinto dances — the oldest known to this day. Ka is from the word kami ("god(s)") and the dance is an ancient Shinto ritual.

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