Kakeru Manabe

is one of the recurring characters of the Fruits Basket series. He is the older half-brother of Machi Kuragi by their mutual father's mistress.

He serves as the vice president of the student council during Yuki Sohma's presidency. Kakeru has an energetic character and sometimes claims the student council is a super-sentai–style "School Defense Force". He was the one who made up the nickname "Yunyun" for Yuki.

Although he was initially disliked by Yuki due to reminding him of both his older brother and Kyo Sohma, the pair soon become best friends. Kakeru also has a girlfriend named Komaki Nakao, and they practically live together as their mothers are both busy with work.

In Fruits Basket Another, he is married to Komaki and is the father of Michi Manabe and Kou Manabe.

Appearance
Kakeru is a young man of average build and height and a pair of light brown eyes. He has short, slightly spiked dark brown hair reaching down to his nape. Additionally, he has two cowlicks sticking up from the top of his head. He also has one piercing in his right ear. He is often depicted in his Kaibara High school uniform with a sweater on top.

Personality
According to Komaki, Kakeru used to be a withdrawn, unapproachable person due to the pressure of the inheritance rivalry. He was forced into a perfectionist role as a child, which made him angry and cold; he was self-centered in his perspective and struggled to understand how anyone could see differently than him, especially people he loved. However, when Kakeru finally called it quits and found the courage to stand for himself, he suddenly became the character Yuki meets.

He is depicted as alternately lazy and charismatically energetic, strongly reminding Yuki of his older brother, Ayame Sohma, whom Kakeru refers to as "commander". Yuki also compares Kakeru's social personality and ability to make friends to Kyo Sohma's. Kakeru is expressive and wears his emotions on his sleeve. He is always restless, bold, very laid-back and cheerful, always looking for a laugh and loves napping and messing around when he should be doing council work. He is convinced that the student council is "School Defense Force; protecting students from the forces of evil". He constantly teases other people, such as calling Yuki for "Yunyun" and a "princess", as well as teasing Machi's crush on Yuki. Kakeru is also quite eccentric and as noted by Yuki, he can say baffling things with a straight face on which shocks people around him.

Although he appears to constantly be happy and joyous on the outside, Kakeru actually has strong emotional insights, and at times looks down on himself, and can often get serious if he sees the need to. He tries his best for the people he cares about, but the way he expresses himself can come off as rude and ignorant. This is the case when he thought that Tohru Honda was the only one affected by the car accident that killed her mother and Komaki's father, and confronted her and said that she was nauseating. However, thanks to Komaki's influence, Kakeru got around to see his mistakes. This is proved as, despite his comical and goofy personality, Kakeru is understanding of and always helps people out. He tells Yuki that the reason he came to the point where he is now is only that he stood up for himself, and through learning gentleness and understanding from other people. His open-minded personality and willingness to always stand at the same ground as other people so they can view things from the same perspective is a factor of why Yuki is later able to confide in him and why they are able to become best friends.

History
Kakeru was illegitimately born to his father's former partner, while Machi was the younger child and born to their father's legal wife. Since their father is very wealthy, their mothers constantly argued over whose child would become the heir to the family fortune. Kakeru was forced into an inheritance rivalry against Machi by his mother since a young age, and thus didn't have time for anything else. This resulted in Kakeru becoming very cold, aloof, brash, and angry, a stark contrast to his usual self. This behavior was most noticeable in middle school, as Komaki remarks on how Kakeru was introverted and very hard to approach. Komaki was also in love with Kakeru during this time period, but didn't make her feelings known.

However, it suddenly hit Kakeru how stupid the inheritance dispute was, and told his mother that he would not take part in it. Kakeru's mother came to understand his reasoning, so both of them withdrew from the competition. Around that time, Kakeru regained his old, cheerful and goofy self, much to the shock of his classmates and teachers. During this time, he also realized he loved Komaki and that their feelings were mutual, so they became a couple not long after Kakeru's family dispute was resolved. However, as Machi was brushed aside due to the competition, Kakeru feels he needs to take care of his younger sister given that he feels she has been treated unfairly and she has become unloved.

Pre-Fruits Basket
In middle school, Kakeru confessed his feelings to Komaki, a meat-loving girl, and they started dating since then. It happened after his personality has changed drastically to become more outgoing. Despite attending different high schools, they are still in a relationship and support each other.

Kakeru‘s first encounter with Tohru is when he and Komaki visit the grandfather’s house to burn incense after Kyoko’s funeral. He says mean things to Tohru when he’s left alone with her outside the house, later Hanajima happens to see him briefly walking out the house with Komaki. He makes Komaki sad with his behavior to Tohru and apologizes to her, thinking that he wants to understand her from now on. He and Tohru are in different classes but seeing her smiling sometimes pisses him off.

He takes multiple part-time jobs, but later is instructed by the student president Makoto Takei to take them less since he’s selected to be the next student vice president.

Second Year Arc
Kakeru and Machi begin to take interest in Yuki since he’s selected to be the next student president, but admits that it’s Tohru whom he’s interested the most because of her relationship with Yuki. At the start of the summer vacation, he and Machi first meet Yuki when the new members of student council take over the tasks at the student council room. Yuki thinks that his personality reminds him of Ayame. As they are leaving the student council office after the small introduction, Kakeru calls him a princess, which results in Yuki half-exploding, saying that he apologizes "for looking like a girl”. Kakeru quickly apologizes, calling himself an idiot. He also tells Yuki that he is "an interesting guy", which makes Yuki happy.

They meet again when the second term starts with complete members of student council. He and Kimi Toudou, a new secretary of student council, start to call Yuki "Yun-Yun" as a nickname since then. Kakeru often does unexpected things that make Yuki and Naohito Sakuragi, the other new secretary, feel irritated with his actions, even assigning each member to associate with each sentai member. One day he sees Yuki talking with Tohru, later he asks Yuki what kind of his relationship with her, and tells him that she looks like happier with Kyo. Yuki gets angry with him if that makes him happy to compare things. Kakeru suddenly remembers that Komaki said the same thing before, and has a fight with Yuki. He then regrets and says sorry to Yuki because he brings his own problem to him. Since then, they become close friends, even Kakeru calls Yuki’s older brother Ayame ‘a commander’ after parent-teacher conference.

During the school trip in Kyoto, Yuki feels irritated about they way Kakeru waking him up, but Hanajima vaguely remembers that she saw him before with Tohru. Yuki then brings up the conversation about Tohru to Kakeru, to which he replies that he takes an interest with her. After Yuki’s attempted threat fails and he finally knows Kakeru already has a girlfriend, Kakeru only says that he will tell Yuki later when the time comes.

The disruption caused by Machi at the student council room prompts Kakeru to help her and tell the others to attend the meeting without him and Machi. He later reveals to Yuki during cleaning the room that Machi is his half younger sister from the same father, as well as his own family problem and how he becomes the person he is now.

The student council members are busy preparing for the cultural festival. A small accident happen to Yuki as he is locked in the small room, and after he is able to get out, he sits outside to calm his anxiety, then vaguely tells Kakeru some of his past after recurrences of memories from when he lived with Akito, and how he thinks of Tohru as a mother figure.

After the Cinderella-ish play, Kakeru stops Yuki from interfering the clash between Yuki’s fan club members and Machi, and he tries to help her before things get worse by announcing a small event of taking a photo with Yuki.

Third Year Arc
Kakeru coincidentally meets Mine one day during Golden Week, and he’s invited to Ayame’s shop to find Yuki also there. He tells Ayame and Mine about Machi and teases Yuki by calling her using Yuki’s cellphone, causing Machi to feel suffered with the constant teasing by Ayame and Mine. Kakeru slowly notices that as an older brother, he doesn’t pay attention that much to what Machi really likes while Yuki is able to recognize it first, and thinks that change is not a bad thing.

Kakeru finally meets Tohru face to face when he wants to borrow textbook from his friend at Tohru’s class, but she doesn’t remember until she looks at him again, and says sorry she doesn’t notice him immediately. Kakeru tells her he’s sorry for hurting her and feels regretful since then even Komaki scolded him. Tohru smiles at him saying he makes Yuki look happier now, and he feels like he wants to cry, as he recognizes the same smile from his girlfriend before: It’s the smile for the sake of the others, not for herself. Yuki sees them as Tohru walks away from the scene. Kakeru tells him the truth that the person who accidentally hit Kyoko Honda by a car was Komaki's father, and he also died instantly. He then informs about his meeting with Tohru to Komaki after going home, and reassures her he didn’t say mean things to Tohru again.

The next day after school, Kakeru wants to introduce Komaki as his Meat Angel to Yuki, and he asks Yuki about Tohru since they last met, which Yuki replies that she smiles as usual. Kakeru already understands the meaning behind her smiles at this point and mentions that it’s because he has ‘a good teacher’ now. After meeting with Yuki, Komaki feels happy that he’s a person just like Kakeru described for her, and can’t wait to see him again along with Machi.

When Tohru is hospitalized, Kakeru asks Yuki if it’s true, and he plans to visit her at the hospital on behalf of Komaki. He buys the gift for Tohru along with Yuki, and decides to give her the CD album with rock music which he likes.

During summer vacation, Yuki visits Kakeru and Komaki and share things about the plans after they graduate from the high school, and Kakeru says he goes to the university to succeed a laundry business run by Komaki’s family in the future.

Fruits Basket Another
Kakeru is revealed to have married Komaki as is now the father of two children, Michi and Kou. They live together in town, and it is mentioned that their family has a tradition of eating meat from morning until night on the 29th of every month.

Trivia

 * Kakeru is sometimes called "True Pot Flies" because of the kanji that make up his name.
 * Kakeru, with his face covered by his books, makes his first cameo appearance in the last two pages of Volume 7 (or Episode 25) along with Machi. He makes his official appearance in Volume 9 when he meets Yuki.
 * Kakeru is always fascinated by the Sohma family's beauty, as he is occasionally seen asking different Sohma family members their secret to their handsomeness.
 * Kakeru adores Ayame Sohma and Mine Kuramae, and calls Ayame for "Commander" and Mine for "Deputy Commander".
 * As Yuki noted, Kakeru and Machi are similar in the way that whenever they don’t know what to give someone as a present, they pick out something they would like.
 * Kakeru likes to listen to rock music, and even gave Tohru a CD when she was in the hospital.

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