Isuzu Sohma

, more commonly known by her nickname, is one of the recurring characters of the Fruits Basket series.

She is the Horse of the Chinese Zodiac. A cold, stubborn, proud, and fiercely independent woman who despises the way the other members of her clan submit to Akito Sohma, Rin is very closed-off as a result of her abusive and traumatic past. Since she was rejected by her parents, Rin lives with Kagura Sohma and her family.

Rin had a romantic relationship with Hatsuharu Sohma prior to the beginning of the series, but she later breaks up with him in order to protect him until she can find a way to break the curse.

In Fruits Basket Another, she is married to Hatsuharu and the mother of twin children Sora and Riku.

Appearance
Rin is a very slim young woman with a light complexion, sharp, dark-brown eyes (sometimes depicted as black), and a tall stature, who is mentioned to be very beautiful. Tohru Honda mentions that Rin has a nice and voluptuous figure.

Rin initially has straight, hip-length, jet-black hair which she wears in a hime-cut; with long, loose strands of hair freely framing her face and evenly-cut bangs covering her entire forehead and framing her thick eyelashes. She occasionally wears her hair in twin-tails or ponytails when she wants her hair out of the way. However, her hair is later cut short by Akito as a punishment, in which she now sports nape-length hair which is somewhat unevenly cut.

Rin usually likes to wear dark-colored, revealing clothes, some of which have a goth influence to them. The accessories she wears are handmade by Haru. She is at times seen in her school uniform, which consists of a white tailored sweater and yellow ribbon with a black shirt underneath, a short, white skirt, long, black stockings, and brown loafers.

She also has heavy scarring on her back, which she received from being pushed out of a window by Akito.

Personality
Rin used to be a sweet, happy, and outgoing girl when she was young. However, after suffering from abuse and abandonment from her parents, her self-worth and trust in people (aside from Haru) were destroyed. She blames herself for her own suffering and believes that her parents wouldn’t have hated and abandoned her if she wasn't “bad”. She also grew majorly depressed, but thanks to Haru, she retained her sweet and kind personality.

However, after facing Akito’s wrath, where the latter convinced her that someone damaged like herself doesn’t deserve someone like Haru to love her and threw her out of a window, Rin underwent a major change and became the aggressive, emotionally distant, jaded, sardonic, and unkind young woman she is during her debut, sharp-tongued and wielding words as a weapon to lash out at the world for the cruelty she experienced. Haru mentions that Rin doesn’t hesitate to say things that will hurt people, but she doesn’t say anything to protect herself either. Due to her traumatic past, Rin finds it incredibly difficult to open up and bond with people. She is often uncomfortable with displays of emotion; reluctant to show herself as vulnerable, as well as being cranky and self-conscious and suffering from painfully low self-esteem. She hides her vulnerability behind a rude and bad-tempered demeanor, and uses her perceptiveness to keep others from seeing her mentally and physically scarred.

Rin is also a lone wolf who prefers to depend on herself and herself only, and is determined to find a way to break the curse without the help or interference from anyone. Behind her uncaring and aloof front, however, Rin is deeply loyal and passionately emotional, and is tremendously self-sacrificing and selfless, as her entire reason to breaking the curse is to free Haru and find his true happiness, even if it would mean that she would be left with nothing in her hands. Although it initially appears that Rin dislikes kindhearted people like Tohru Honda, she, in reality, respects them deeply— but believes their compassion makes them gullible and unable to protect themselves, and thus doesn’t want them to get hurt or suffer. She also feels like kind people remind herself of how weak she is and how badly she craves acceptance from those kinds of people who she can depend on and cling to. But exactly because of that, she avoids kind people since she is unwilling to let herself become a burden.

As time goes on, Rin begins opening up more, especially after she breaks down in tears in front of both Tohru and Haru on two different occasions. Although she still doesn’t like to show herself emotionally open and her distant and hostile personality remains, she grows openly protective towards Tohru, mellows down to a slightly gentler person, has come to depend on others more, and Haru makes her promise him that she won't ever try to do everything alone again. She is also noted to be quite dishonest with her feelings, rarely shows her feelings of happiness, can have somewhat of a tsundere personality, especially towards Tohru. After the curse is broken, although she feels horrible about it, she refuses to forgive Akito Sohma for not only the pain she had inflicted on her, but everyone in the Sohma family. She also reveals that she'd hoped all of her pain and emotional issues would go away once the curse broke, but they didn't.

History
Rin was born possessed by the spirit of the Horse and as the only child to her parents. Despite being cursed, Rin’s parents would constantly assure her that they had a happy home and that they loved her very much, never arguing or getting mad at one another. During this time, Rin sometimes played with Hatsuharu Sohma, and told him that she liked his “soft white hair”. Rin also met Ren Sohma at one point, who commented that she apparently had a “happy home”— perhaps knowing that her parents were actually miserable.

Rin, who although loved her parents deeply, began thinking their behavior was similar to being in a play, and such, she innocently questioned if they really were happy and if there wasn’t anything that made them sad. This made her mother consequently begin to scream and break things all over the place, questioning her for whose sake they had been pretending for. Following this, it is revealed that both of Rin’s parents hated her; she was a burden to them, but they tried to cover it up and repressed these feelings for years before they broke. Rin blamed herself for her newly broken family, and even though her parents regularly had mood swings and abused her as well, Rin always held onto the hope that they would be able to go back to the “loving” family they once were.

One day, a middle-schooler Rin, who had grown so weak from her trauma and her parent’s abuse, downright collapsed in the streets. Haru found her and helped to bring her to the hospital. When Rin awoke in the hospital, she met Kazuma Sohma, and began to plead to be allowed to leave before her parents find out where she is, in a desperate attempt to maintain the shreds of a family life she still has. However, her mother suddenly appeared and told her that it would be better if she never saw her again, since she didn’t know how to love her anymore. This devastated Rin and as the doctor escorted her mother out, Haru delivered a tongue-lashing about her selfish actions and demanded her to apologize to Rin. After this, Rin broke down in tears and thanked Haru for standing up for her.

After this incident, Rin’s family was no more, and it was later decided that she would move in with Kagura Sohma and her family, since they are both female Zodiacs around the same age. However, Rin couldn’t bond with her foster family since she couldn’t stand being around a family that wasn’t broken. Because of this, Rin would often visit Kazuma’s home, since he is a good host and made sure to give Rin special attention. But Kyo Sohma was afraid that she would take his adoptive father away from him, so they didn’t particularly get along.

Due to her past experiences, Rin grew depressed and would often shut herself up in her room. But whenever her negative feelings overwhelmed her, Haru would appear and take her out on walks, to eat, and to talk. And when she was in the hospital, he would always visit her as well. Rin also occasionally came to check up on Yuki Sohma when he was locked up in Akito Sohma’s room along with Haru. However, she only stayed outside to protect Haru from trouble. Rin mentions that she didn’t mind any of that, since she forgot about being miserable around him. The years passed by and Rin gradually fell in love with Haru. When she began attending high school, they started a deeply emotional romantic and sexual relationship, and although there was nothing that Rin wanted more than to be with Haru, she was scared of Akito somehow finding out about their secret relationship.

At some point, Rin heard about Tohru from Haru, who told her that both of Kyo and Yuki’s auras had softened because of her. Rin wonders if she is an amazing person, but Haru simply replies that she incredibly kind, and that Rin might understand if she met her, too.

A few months before the start of the series, Akito found out that she and Haru were dating. She confronted Rin and threatened her to answer which one had seduced the other, and Rin put the blame on herself in order to protect Haru. Akito proceeded to slap Rin and emotionally preyed on her poor self-esteem and emotional scars to convince her that Haru was better off without her, unknowingly feeding into her earlier fears that her love would consume, hurt or drive him away. She was then pushed out of a window some stories above the ground by Akito, a scene which was witnessed by Hiro Sohma. As Rin lied on the ground, bleeding out, she vowed to free Haru from herself, Akito, and the curse so he could find true happiness, even if she ended up with nothing in her hands.

Second Year Arc
Rin is eventually hospitalized from her injuries. After Haru had visited her a couple of times, she breaks up with him by claiming that she doesn’t need him anymore and that she is “sick” of him. This greatly upsets Haru, but he doesn’t want to give up on her. At another point, Hiro Sohma visits her and mentions that he is glad she’s getting discharged soon, but Rin quickly changes the topic by telling him that Shigure Sohma is her only hope to break the curse, and says that she will never give up.

After getting discharged from the hospital and breaking up with Haru, Rin decides to visit Shigure at his house for answers regarding the curse, but she is surprised to only see Tohru there. Rin admits that Tohru is the kind of person who makes her want to break down and cry in her lap, like a crying child who goes back to her mother, and complain about how unfair her circumstances are and how weak she is, even feeling like she would let her. However, it is implied that Rin fled the scene because she didn’t want to cling to Tohru and burden her. Thus, she visits Shigure at another occasion when it’s just the two of them, and desperately yet coldly pleads for the answer to her questions, and even offers to have sex with him in exchange for information about the curse, but Shigure declines the offer. During summer vacation, Rin decides to go to the Sohma vacation house where Shigure, the Sohmas and Tohru Honda were. When she secretly arrives at the vacation home, Hiro takes notice of her, but does not say anything to the others.

While wandering around to find Shigure, Rin collapses due to her weak body and transforms into her Horse form. Tohru finds Rin in her possessed form of a horse in the woods. Yuki then arrives and recognizes the horse as Rin. Tohru attempts to call on Hatori Sohma, but Rin kicks her though she is saved by Yuki. She transforms back into her human form and becomes completely naked in the process, which causes an embarrassed Tohru to panic and covers her with a sheet. Rin yells at Yuki that what she does is none of his business, and threatens that she will kill him if he tells anyone that she was there. She even tries to get under his skin by calling him “Akito’s toy”, but realizing that it made no effect, runs away. She is later seen taking out her frustrations at the beach by wrecking a sandcastle.

After summer vacation, Rin runs into Tohru on her way to Kazuma’s home. Rin rejects all of her friendly advances and tells her to stop hanging around the Sohma family. When Rin later arrives at Kazuma’s, she realizes that Tohru is also searching for a way to break the curse and states that she will not let her interfere.

At a later date, Yuki finds Rin and tries to question her about Haru and her motivations, but Rin sees no point in telling him and instead reveals that it was thanks to Haru’s help that he was able to move out from the Sohma estate, berates him for being an idiot, and yells at him to never bug her again. Haru then appears and kisses her on the spot. Haru asks her if he actually never truly understood her and the kind of emotions she was feeling, and wonders if she is unable to stand up on her own just as she was in the past, which leads to Rin slapping him and quickly running away. Yuki, who witnessed the scene, suggests running after her, but Haru says that it is nearly impossible for him to catch up to her when she’s in determined mode.

Rin is later seen struggling her way to different places in the Sohma estate in order to gather more information about the curse. She feels dejected when she oversees Hiro and his mother Satsuki Sohma sharing a loving family moment. When Hiro later sees her and asks her about her well-being, Rin tells him to stop feeling responsible about her incident with Akito, and that he should go back to his loving parents. When Rin then arrives at Shigure’s house and sees Tohru and a vision of her mother behind her, it triggers her childhood trauma, whereupon she completely breaks down in tears and hysteria and screams for her parents to not get mad at her. Tohru comforts her and watches over her while she is resting on the bed while crying. When Rin wakes up, she mistakes Tohru for her mother again and is upset since she apparently doesn’t like her. Rin briefly tries to run away when Hatori attempts to take her to the hospital, but she is convinced to continue resting. Yuki comes by and reassures her that Haru still loves her very much.

When Tohru later comes to check up on her again, Rin begins yelling at her to stop meddling in the Sohma family’s business regarding the curse, but Tohru yells that she won’t. Rin eventually breaks down from the frustration of being unable to find a way to break the curse. Rin thinks back to the first time she saw Tohru and how she doesn’t want to cling to kind people like her, but she eventually gives in to her impulses and cries herself out in Tohru’s arms, all while confessing that she has no idea what she should do. Tohru hugs her back and comforts her. The two of them sit like that for a long time, and when Hatori later comes by to take Rin to the hospital, she doesn’t protest but does look embarrassed over what she had done. Yuki realizes that both he and Rin had been yearning for the same thing in Tohru (as in, a “mother-figure”).

After this, Tohru begins visiting Rin quite often in the hospital, even bringing her gelatin, the only food she likes. Rin decides to tell Tohru about the true nature of the curse, as well as a little about Kureno Sohma. After seeing Tohru’s kind and cheerful personality herself, Rin wonders if she won't “break” being like that and questions her motives for breaking the curse as well as who the most important person to her is, but Tohru is unable to answer. Rin changes the subject by telling her to not do anything dangerous on her own again. When Tohru tells her the same and excitedly looks forward to their new “partnership”, Rin bashfully rejects this. During the nighttime, Rin is convinced that Tohru is quietly falling apart, and wishes that someone will be there for Tohru, just like Haru is for her.

During New Year’s, Rin decides to stay at Kazuma’s house instead of attending the banquet. Tohru and Kyo come as well and Tohru is very happy to see Rin again, but she is annoyed by Tohru’s sudden appearance and decides to be by herself— quickly falling asleep sitting on the floor. Haru later comes by and hugs her in her sleep. The next day, Rin is suspicious by the fact that she woke up lying down, since she knows that she would have woken up had anyone touched her. Tohru accidentally mentions Haru which angers Rin, but she lets it pass and reveals to Tohru that they have broken up and that she doesn’t want to hear his name again.

At some point, Rin spots Tohru talking to Kureno and crying; he had just explained to Tohru that Akito is a woman living as a man. Even though Rin couldn’t hear their talk, she decides to chase after Kureno to, in her own words, “give him an earful” for whatever he did to Tohru. However, Ren Sohma shows up and speaks to Rin, telling her to go get a box that Akito keeps in her room and bring it to her; in exchange, she promises to give Rin information about how to break the curse. Rin sneaks into Akito’s quarters and finds the box, but is so caught up in her excitement over finding “leads” for her purpose that she misses Akito’s arrival and is easily captured by her. Akito gets so angry that she personally cuts Rin’s hair and then threatens to attack Hatsuharu and blind him, but Rin says she’ll stay as long as Haru isn't harmed. As such, she's locked up in the Cat's Room.

Rin spends what’s implied to be several weeks in the room, and everyone else believes she’s been hospitalized instead. However, Kureno catches a maid going near the Room itself and speaks to her; she tells him that Rin is locked inside, that she’s stopped eating and might even die, and then begs him to save her. Kureno has Rin actually brought to the Sohma General Hospital behind Akito’s back. After a while in the hospital, Rin escapes again. She’s borderline delirious and collapses on the streets; she’s then found by Haru, who was told about the truth of her injuries by Hiro and then tried to confront Akito himself, but was stopped by Kureno. Haru tells her that everyone is worried for her, that she’s not a burden, and that he’ll always be by her side and carry her the times she can’t walk forward herself. Rin breaks down in tears in Haru’s arms and exclaims that she’s “home”.

After her confinement, Rin stays at Kazuma’s house. She is visited by Tohru, Yuki, and Haru, and she decides to not tell anything regarding her confinement or about her hair to Tohru, but the latter does not mind, as she is happy to just have Rin by her side. Before her visitors depart, Haru tells Rin that Tohru was more worried about her than most of the Sohma family; that he wants to thank Kureno for rescuing Rin; and he also makes her promise to never do anything on her own again. Rin agrees due to her experiences with Ren and Akito and lets herself be embraced by Haru. Later, Shigure visits Rin as well, and reveals that the promise Rin had made with Ren was a lie, and that the curse will eventually be lifted all on its own. Tohru suddenly arrives and wonders when “eventually” is, but Rin tells her that it should not matter when the curse breaks, as long as the Zodiacs can eventually obtain their freedom. But Tohru yells that it has to be broken before spring so Kyo doesn’t have to be confined. She then quickly walks away and Rin is left to wonder why Tohru would choose Kyo of all people.

Third Year Arc
Rin, at another point, arrives at Kazuma’s house only to find Kagura there, irritating her. It is revealed that Haru had invited Rin to Shigure’s house to have dinner with him and the other younger Sohmas, but she declined, though she tells Kagura she should have gone did she know she would see Kagura again.

A few days later, Rin continues spending her time at Kazuma’s home where Tohru suddenly sees her drawing. She later questions Tohru about her emotional outburst regarding Kyo the last time they met, and wonders that the reason she cares about him is because she pities him. However, Tohru ends up confessing that she loves Kyo most of all to a much surprised Rin. Kagura then arrives at the scene and slaps Tohru unconscious and yells at her that she needs to confess her feelings properly to Kyo himself. This enrages Rin; she physically grabs Kagura and screams in her face that she has no right to hit Tohru. Kagura realizes that she crossed the line and gives Rin a hug and apologizes to her, which seems to calm her down. After Tohru is sent home, Kagura admits her true feelings to Rin, Kazuma, and Kunimitsu Tomoda, though Rin does not want to comfort Kagura and bashfully tells her that she is annoying.

After Tohru falls off a cliff and is hospitalized, Rin is seen huddled on the floor. Haru mentions that Rin went “from pale to really pale to like a cadaver” when he telling her about the accident. Haru also tells Yuki that Rin’s bust has apparently gotten “bigger again”.

When Rin’s curse breaks, she is seen spending time with Haru and begins crying over having it broken. She reaches out to Haru who confirms that his curse has broken too and that it feels quite bittersweet. Rin and Haru then share an emotional hug over having their curses broken. Rin and Haru later goes to Kazuma’s place where they see Kyo, Tohru, and Kazuma himself after they all realize that the curse has broken for everyone; Rin hangs back from the others at first, until Haru makes her come into the room with them.

After all the Zodiacs’ curse breaks, Rin is invited to the final banquet of all by Akito. She attends the event with Haru and is seen to be jealous when Haru confesses to Yuki that he will always love him, though Haru makes sure to comfort her later. When Akito later reveals herself to be a woman, Rin is very shocked. Akito tries to apologize for everything she has done, but without success. However, she explains that she would now move forward, continue living as a Sohma and the head of the family, and that she would be giving Rin and the rest of the Zodiacs their freedom.

A few days later, Rin calls Kazuma, Tohru, and Kyo all idiots for taking the new situation so calmly. She then admits to Tohru that she can’t forgive Akito for everything that she has done—to herself, Tohru and the other Sohmas—and that she’s scared that it’s her fault for being unable to deal with it as well as everyone else is. She also worries that Haru might stop loving her if she’s always so negative and afraid. Tohru, however, reassures her by telling her that she is happy that Rin is feeling her pain in her stead, and says that it’s impossible for Haru to dislike her, and offers to go call him to prove it. Rin yells at her to stop her, but Haru coincidentally comes over at the end, embarrassing her.

Epilogue
Rin is last seen at Kazuma’s house with Momiji and Hatsuharu, where they are catching up in one another lives. Rin listens when the two boys talk about how everything managed to work out regarding the curse, Kyo and Tohru’s eventual department, and when Momiji says he wishes to find his own love one day. While Momiji only yearns for Tohru’s happiness, Rin tells them that she thinks that Tohru should break up with Kyo. Momiji and Haru interpret this as Rin sulking over Tohru moving away, but Rin bashfully tries to deny this. The final image of her in the series shows her curled up contentedly in Haru’s arms.

The Three Musketeers Arc 2
Around graduation time, Rin, Haru, and Momiji stop by a store to get lunch together, where they find Shigure, Hatori, and Ayame Sohma having a soba party. However, Rin doesn’t want to get involved with Shigure and Ayame so she holds her distance, all while giving Ayame a complete face of disgust to convey that she does not want him to talk to her.

Fruits Basket Another
At some point, Rin married Haru, having twin children Sora Sohma and Riku Sohma between them. The family are mentioned to live in the Sohma estate, and their children sometimes have dinner at Hinata Sohma’s house when they are out on date nights.

The Horse of the Zodiac
Rin is cursed by the spirit of the Horse of the Zodiac. Whenever she is hugged by the opposite sex, or if her body goes through a great deal of stress, Rin transforms into her Chinese Zodiac form. Like all the Cursed Sohmas, their respective animals are drawn to them, and in Rin's case; horses. The Horse is the seventh of all zodiac animals.

Rin has black hair and brown eyes due to sharing similar traits with her animal, the Horse. Another trait she got from the spirit is that she can run very fast. According to Haru, it is impossible to catch up to her when she is determined. Rin is also depicted as stubborn and independent, to the point she cannot stand being dependent on someone else, which are traits associated with those born in her Zodiac year. In Chinese culture, Horses are free spirits who need space to be themselves, which applies to Rin very well.

When Rin’s curse breaks, she is subconsciously aware of it, begins crying, and seeks comfort in Haru who was beside her, both of them describing it as a bittersweet experience. Rin’s curse was the overall ninth to break.

Trivia

 * Ironically she and Haru are also a match in the fact they are the only ones whose transformation destroys their clothes.
 * According to the official Fruits Basket Character Book:
 * The name Isuzu is derived from the sixth month, Isuzukuretsuki or "month of the last cool spring days", which is the month of the Horse of the traditional Japanese calendar.
 * Rin's flashy way dressing is partially a rejection of the cute outfits she wore as a child.
 * Natsuki Takaya also mentions that after her hair was hacked off, and after she overcame one of her major emotional hurdles, her tastes in clothing may start to change a little.
 * She dislikes eating in front of people.
 * She doesn't like sleep, and never seems to want to sleep either.
 * She hates most food and has a very little appetite.
 * According to Natsuki Takaya’s Twitter:
 * Rin and Haru gave each other their nicknames “Rin” and “Haru”, when their were children out of affection.
 * Ever since Rin started to spend time in Kagura’s house, she slowly gained an interest in fashion as a hobby; not because of Haru’s influence, but because those two gradually rubbed off on one another.
 * Rin does not have piercings, because she is afraid of it being painful. But she doesn’t have any negative feelings towards Haru’s piercings.
 * Haru was thinking about confessing to Rin after his height surpassed her, something that used to confuse Rin.
 * Her given name, “Isuzu” is a rare name. When written as two kanji characters, it means “dependable bell“, which many consider represents her personality and appearance quite well.
 * Her nickname is “Rin”, because that is an alternate reading of 鈴 (suzu), the second kanji of her given name; suzu translates to “small bell” in Japanese, and “rin” resembles the sound a small bell makes.
 * Rin hates hospitals and escapes every time she’s sent to one, since it reminds her of the time her mother told her, in a hospital, that she and Rin’s father didn't want her anymore.
 * Rin is a very talented artist but doesn’t have much confidence in her artistic abilities.
 * She often has nightmares caused by the traumas her abusive parents and Akito gave her.
 * Haru is the only one who can be close to her while she is sleeping without waking her, since he is used to waking her from nightmares.
 * Rin suffers from stomach ulcers, and her eating habits are sparse, probably due to her stress and trauma. The only food she likes is gelatin.
 * According to Kazuma, Rin rarely raises her voice and only does so when she’s excited (like when Tohru visits her).
 * Rin gets restless when she has to sit still and often wants to move around and do chores like sweeping the floors.
 * Rin goes to an all-girls private school.
 * According to Natsuki Takaya, she had actually wanted to give Rin short hair. However, thinking that she represents the Horse, she ends up giving Rin long hair, later in the story having it cut short by Akito.
 * In a now deleted tweet, Natsuki Takaya stated that Rin suffers from Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Isuzu Sohma Isuzu Soma Isuzu Soma Isuzu Soma Isuzu Sohma pt-br:Isuzu Sohma 相馬いすゞ