Isuzu Sohma

Rin is a striking young woman of above-average height with a slender frame and fair skin. Her dark brown eyes are so deep they read as nearly black, and her jet-black hair originally spills well past her hips. A prominent scar runs down her back, the mark left when Akito, enraged by her secret relationship with Haru, hurled her from a second-story window.

Her wardrobe runs to dark, revealing, punk-influenced outfits, accented by pieces Haru makes for her by hand. At her all-girls school she wears the sailor uniform, a pale green top with a dark green stripe over a black turtleneck, a lemon-yellow ribbon, and a matching pleated skirt with black tights. After Akito confines her for trying to seize a box tied to the curse, her long hair is hacked off into an uneven, nape-length crop.

Rin was a gentle, sweet-natured girl in her early years, but relentless abuse and abandonment by her parents shattered her sense of worth and her ability to trust anyone besides Haru, the one person she grew close to. She sank into depression, blaming herself and clinging to the belief that her parents would have loved her had she only been a 'better' child. When she confessed her relationship with Haru to Akito to shield him from harm, Akito taunted her that someone so broken did not deserve love and then threw her from the window, compounding years of trauma.

The ordeal reforged her into the aggressive, emotionally guarded, and abrasive woman of her debut, quick to wield cruel words yet, as Haru notes, never to defend herself with them. She styles herself a lone wolf, refusing help and resolving to break the curse entirely on her own, and she resents Tohru's involvement, dismissing her at first as a meddling outsider. Beneath that hostility, though, Rin is intensely loyal, selfless, and self-sacrificing, willing to end up with nothing if it means freeing Haru to find happiness. She secretly reveres kind people even as she avoids them, unwilling to become a burden, and only gradually lowers her guard, growing protective of Tohru and learning to lean on others after breaking down in her arms.

Born carrying the Horse's spirit as her parents' only child, Rin was raised on constant assurances of a loving, happy home. When she innocently wondered aloud whether her parents were truly content, her mother snapped, screaming and smashing things, and the pretense collapsed. In truth both parents had come to hate their daughter and had buried the feeling for years; once it broke loose they swung between mood swings and outright abuse, yet Rin kept hoping they might return to the family they had once seemed to be. Weakened by the mistreatment, she collapsed in the street as a middle schooler and was carried to the hospital by Haru, where her mother coldly told her it would be better never to meet again. Haru's furious defense of her moved Rin to tears of gratitude, and afterward she was taken in by Kagura's family, though she could never settle among a household that was not broken.

Over the years Haru pulled her out of her isolation with walks and talks, and Rin gradually fell in love with him; upon entering high school they began a serious relationship, one she guarded fearfully against Akito's notice. A few months before the series opens, Akito discovered them, forced Rin to take the blame, and threw her from the window as Hiro secretly watched. Bleeding on the ground, Rin swore to free Haru from herself, Akito, and the curse, whatever it cost her.

Once the story begins, Rin breaks up with Haru from her hospital bed and throws herself into hunting for a way to undo the curse, even collapsing into her Horse form in the woods and threatening Yuki to keep her search secret. Her hard shell slowly cracks as she twice weeps in Tohru's arms. Manipulated by Ren into stealing a box from Akito's room, she is caught, has her hair shorn, and is locked in the Cat's Room until Kureno arranges her rescue; a delirious, escaped Rin is then found by Haru, who promises to carry her whenever she cannot walk on her own.

When her curse finally breaks, the ninth to do so, she and Haru share a bittersweet embrace. By the epilogue she still cannot forgive Akito and fears her own bitterness will drive Haru away, but he reassures her, and her last image in the series shows her curled contentedly in his arms. In Fruits Basket Another she and Haru are married with twins, Sora and Riku.