Sohma Isuzu ('Rin') is the Jyuunishi's Horse in Fruits Basket--one of the two key Sohmas who didn't make an appearance in the animated version of the series. This page was originally created at a time when many fans of Furuba had only seen the anime and thus knew nothing about Rin, or hadn't read far enough in the manga to get past her sharp tongue, choices in clothing, and strange behavior. These days, the manga is far more widely-read, and there're fewer cases of fans being totally uninformed (and often nasty) about her.

At this point, I've been writing Fruits Basket fanfiction for a few years, and most of it centers around Rin and/or Sohma Hatsuharu; exploring the tangle of their relationship isn't something I've become tired of yet. This page continues to exist and be updated because Rin is still my favorite character in any work of fiction, with Haru running a very close second. (For additional information on Haru, please visit my page about him.)

Her vital stats and basic information are listed below. For more details and spoilers, visit either the list of her appearances by manga chapter or the analysis page. This page includes information from the entire run of the Fruits Basket manga, which was completed in November 2006.

All content on these pages © 2004-2008 Ysabet MacFarlane. All rights reserved. Please refrain from unauthorized copying or redistribution (partial or complete) of my text. Artwork © Takaya Natsuki; banners and graphics created by Flamika. Special thanks go out to Shadow for her translation work on the series, without which a lot of the subtlety of the story would be lost.

Given name:
Isuzu. (依鈴) The two kanji that make up the name mean "dependable" ("i") and "bell" ("suzu"). (In vol. 14 it was revealed that all of the Jyuunishi's names but Yuki's were derived from poetic names for the months of the year. Hers comes from "Isuzukure tsuki" / "Month of cool closings", the name for June.)
Nickname:
Rin (the sound made by a bell; since it's onomatopoeic, it's written in katakana). The origin of the nickname is unknown; it is used by Haru, Yuki, Shigure, and Hiro. Her parents, Kagura, Kyo, Hatori, Kazuma, Kisa, and Tohru all use her given name. (My personal theory is that Shigure was the first to call her 'Rin' and it caught on, but there's no proof of that.)
Age:
Two years older than Haru, so she's 17 or 18 when she first appears, and 18 or 19 by the end of the series. This information comes from a between-chapters panel in volume 14, and she graduates from high school in volume 18. The Neko Fanbook released in 2005 claims that she's in her first year of high school, but the manga evidence contradicts it strongly.
Jyuunishi (Zodiac) form:
Cursed by the spirit of the Horse.
Distinguishing features:
The trademark Sohma/Jyuunishi beauty; a prominent scar across her right shoulder blade, courtesy of Akito.
Family:
An only child, estranged from her parents since late childhood/early adolescence.
First appearance:
Chapter 48, volume 8.
Seiyuu/voice actor:
N/A. Rin doesn't appear in either the animated Fruits Basket series or on any drama cds.

Rin is a mystery for a long time after her first appearance--she is one of the last main characters to be introduced (which is why she doesn't appear at all in the anime), and unlike most of the other Sohmas, her backstory isn't immediately revealed. She seems like something of a wild creature: she dresses in very revealing clothing (at least partly as a reaction to the cute clothes she was dressed in as a child, according to the Neko Fanbook), comes and goes as she pleases, and lashes out or retreats when faced with interacting with other people.

But before she even appears in the manga, we learn that she is Hatsuharu's ex-girlfriend, and that her breaking up with him came as a shock to him. Rin as we meet her is an angry, closed-off girl who clearly has an agenda, but Haru tells Yuki that she changed suddenly after being badly hurt. As the manga progresses, there are frequent hints about the things that are driving her, and the differences between what she does and what she wants.

Early on, it becomes obvious that Rin is very unhealthy: she is first shown just as she is about to be discharged from the hospital after a severe injury, and she never seems really well afterwards. Her obvious weakness and spells of dizziness/nausea led fans to incorrectly theorize that she might be pregnant, but her official diagnosis is "complications from an ulcer" and other stress-related problems. It doesn't help that she simply doesn't eat (or sleep) enough--she has very little interest in food, is a picky eater, and hates eating in front of other people (except Haru); she's lived with Kagura's family for years, but has never felt comfortable eating with them. In the Neko Fanbook, Takaya says that Rin essentially doesn't have enough strength or desire to live. She's also deeply afraid of hospitals and has spent too much time in them, which makes it hard to treat her when she does become particularly ill. She was discharged from an extended hospitalization shortly after her first appearance in the manga, and despite her fear, has since been readmitted twice.

There are two occasions where she gets sick and weakens enough to transform (she's never been shown transforming from the usual cause of 'hugging' an uncursed male), and on the second occasion she was so sick that she became delirious. On the other hand, her physical weakness isn't reflected in her strength of mind: she is the only member of the Jyuunishi ever shown transforming back to human form by sheer force of will (ch. 61), which Yuki finds fairly impressive.

In addition to the straightforward pain and weakness she experiences when sick, Rin also seems to hallucinate when things are particularly bad--it manifests as uncertainty about whether what she's seeing is real (ch. 78), mistaking one person for another (ch. 79), and under extreme circumstances, being unable to recognize where she is or that the conversation she's having isn't a dream (ch. 106). However, she never seems to lose touch with reality to the point of completely imagining things.

Fairly late in the series (chapter 114), Rin is shown drawing (quite well) in a sketchbook. However, she seems very private about it, and her artistic leanings haven't been addressed at any other time.

Visit the Analysis page for a more detailed (and spoilery) overview of Rin's character and relationships with other characters.