Tohru's Grandfather

He is a minor character of the Fruits Basket series. He is the widowed father of Katsuya Honda and an unnamed daughter, as well the parental grandfather of Tohru Honda. He was the only person in the Honda family who didn't ostracize Kyoko Honda, and later he remains kind to Tohru even when all of her other relatives treat her unwell.

Appearance
Tohru's grandfather is short with gray hair on the sides. His eyes are squinted and he usually has a smile.

Personality
He is a kind-hearted man. He admitted that he did not have a very good relationship with Katsuya until Kyoko came into his life. He is understanding when it came to Tohru coming to live with him after the renovations were done. He understood that Tohru missed the Sohmas and that she wasn't happy living under his roof but he was still loved by Tohru. He is also very tolerant when it comes to his family when his daughter, his grandson and granddaughter coming to live with him and they are always noisy, mean and suspicious of others as when the aunt did a detective search on Tohru.

However, he is very defensive of his granddaughter Tohru, as when his grandson made a snide remark on Tohru's living with "other men" (the Sohmas), he slapped him in the face and told him off for his attitude, then apologizing to Tohru and admitting that his daughter's family were evil people deep down, much to their chagrin.

It's possible that his manga counterpart is senile in the present state of the story. Aparentally, since he has called his granddaughter "Kyoko-san" a lot, she has gotten used to him saying that. Though its revealed in chapter 122 he calls her that to tie her and Tohru together since Tohru looked like she would fall apart after Kyoko's death and because he himself wanted to remember since he kept losing people important to him (his son and Kyoko).

History
Mr. Honda was a teacher at the same school as his son Katsuya would be a student teacher many years later. He was the husband of Mrs. Honda and father to Katsuya Honda and an unnamed daughter. Mr. Honda and his son Katsuya's relationship was never close. He was a strict man who expected good etiquette from his children.

He and his (then teenage) son Katsuya then became estranged and didn't talk for many years. When his wife died from illness, his personality changed and he became a kind-hearted man. As Katsuya told Kyoko his father "lost his edge" when his wife died. When Katsuya then brought his future wife Kyoko to meet him many years later, he gave them his blessing instead of being opposed to the relationship like all the other Honda family members.

He would later lose Katsuya to pneumonia and be there for his daughter-in-law and granddaughter, Tohru. Mr. Honda then took in his orphaned 16-year-old granddaughter, Tohru Honda, when Kyoko died in a road accident.

Plot
Tohru lived with him for 4 months until his house needed remodeling and he went to stay with his daughter and her family. When the house was done and his daughter moved in with him along with her family, he took Tohru back in.

However, Tohru was always made to feel like a burden on her aunt and cousins. Sensing this, Mr. Honda came to his granddaughter's defense by telling off his daughter's family for their rude remarks to her and then apologized to Tohru. He then told Tohru that she didn't need to put up with their behavior and that she should live where she would be happy. Thus, when Yuki and Kyo Sohma arrived for Tohru, he allowed his granddaughter to leave with them.

He later left Kyoko a packet of her favorite food at her grave on the first anniversary of her death.

When he sprained his back, Tohru visited him and he then tells her that he dreamed of Katsuya and Kyoko and wished that he could see them again, even if they were ghosts.

He was then seen when he visited Kyoko's grave on the second anniversary of her death.

He was seen for the last time at the hospital when Tohru was injured after falling off a landslide.

Katsuya Honda
Katsuya was Mr. Honda's son and the two had a strained relationship until Mrs. Honda died of illness. Mr. Honda admits to Kyoko that he was not a good father to Katsuya, saying that he caused a lot of pain, and it implied that he pushed Katsuya to become what he wanted him to be. He feared that because his son would not show his true self to him, that he would never find someone to love.

Katsuya implies that they use to compete with one another, and only went into a teaching career because his father pushed him to. He realized later he had moulded himself to 'satisfy the expections of his father' and had built a wall around his 'true self' as a result. And even though they had solved their differences after his mother's death, Katsuya still claimed there was a 'wall' between him and his father, one that Mr. Honda apparent saw as well.

Trivia

 * In the manga & 2019 anime, Mr. Honda incorrectly addresses Tohru by her mother's name Kyoko. In the 2001 anime, he addresses his granddaughter by her correct name.

Abuelo de Tohru Grand-père de Tohru 徹の祖父