Machi Kuragi

Encyclopedia : M : MA : MAC : Machi Kuragi

Machi Kuragi (倉伎真知 Kuragi Machi) is a fictional character and the school treasurer of Kaibara High School in the manga entitled Fruits Basket. Machi is a quiet and shy character, and seems to be sensitive and quite nervous. She only appears in the Fruits Basket manga.

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

Role in the story

Machi makes her second appearance in Chapter 49 (Volume 9) of the Fruits Basket manga. When Yuki Sohma attends his first meeting as the school president of Kaibara High, he enters the school president's office only to find it trashed horribly, with a young girl sitting miserably on the floor in the middle of the mess. Yuki struggles to approach her, but she suddenly violently stands up and apologises somewhat coldly, stating that she will clean the mess up immediately. Yuki, not knowing what to say, is then abruptly "introduced" to Kakeru Manabe, the new school vice president. After saying a few things about himself, Manabe then introduces the previously mysterious girl to Yuki. Her name is Machi Kuragi and she is the new student treasurer.

Machi is a very quiet character and, as of yet, has hardly ever spoken more than a sentence in each of the chapters she has been in, though, she later begins to show her more stubborn side. She also appears to be quite humble towards Yuki and the other council members, often doing what ever they say and rarely speaking up for her own wishes—that is, if she has any. Despite all such things, however, Machi is a deeply kind and caring girl on the inside, as shown by her heartwarming reaction to when Yuki gives her a momiji leaf as a gift after he returns from his class trip to Kyoto. It also seems that after that, she may most likely become an important character in the future.

After a brief outing with the other student council members, we find the reason why she trashed the student council room was that she hates perfection. It scares her, and she feels threatened by it. This was caused by her maternal complex after her mother pressed her to be perfect for so long, yet after the birth of her younger brother and the matter of inheritance was settled, her mother deemed her "boring". She tells him even a sheet of fresh snow bothers her, and she feels driven to ruin it by making footprints. Yuki tells her that the next time it snows, they'll make footprints together, and for the first time, she wishes it to snow. Yuki proves that he cares about her and her fear the next day when they are sitting together at a school council meeting. A box of new chalk is placed between them, but before Machi has the chance to push it off the table, Yuki snaps one of the pieces in half so the box is no longer perfect.

When visiting Ayame's shop, Ayame and Mine insist on putting dresses on Machi. Meanwhile, she seems to take great interest in the large Mogeta charm which Ayame scribbled on. As an apology for the embarrassing visit, Yuki gives her a Mogeta paperweight which is much smaller. Manabe is unsure of whether Machi likes it or not, but is sure that she enjoys it when he sees her carry it around even with her normal expression. Machi says to herself that the gift is something to be treasured. Hoping to give Yuki a return gift, she asks him what he wants, to which he replies, "Fertilizer?" as he is unaware of Machi's intentions. Taking this literally, she does give him fertilizer when buying a present for Tohru (which she asked Yuki to deliver as it would be awkward). This is when Tohru is hospitalized after the incident with Akito.

In one of the latest chapters, Yuki resolves to admit his true feelings for Machi and goes to find her.

Relationships

Machi is the half-sister of Kakeru Manabe. Manabe is very protective of her and can often be seen ordering her around, though rather out of love than sibling superiority. It has also been hinted from her reaction to Yuki's gift to her from the class trip, that she may not only feel humble to Yuki, but is starting to really like him.

In Chapter 125, Machi is able to tell Yuki of her feelings. They are last seen holding hands.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.