Tohru Honda

Tohru Honda is the main protagonist of Natsuki Takaya's manga Fruits Basket, its 2001 anime adaptation, and the 2019-2021 remake which follows the manga more closely. A kind, empathic, and polite person, Tohru is a recently orphaned high school student who lives by herself in a tent and finds an unlikely home under the Sohma cousins Kyo, Yuki, and Shigure. She discovers that the Sohma family is cursed with transforming into animals of the Zodiac, which is triggered by several factors such as hugging humans of the opposite sex.

Although Fruits Basket is one of the most popular manga published in shoujo magazines, with its characters regarded as one of the story's strong points, they do not perform well in saimoe tournaments because their main demographic does not actively participate in these events as much as other people. Tohru was a competitor in the original 2002 Saimoe tournament in 2channel, her only appearance for many years.

Fruits Basket would resurface 17 years later when the anime remake was released in 2019 to critical acclaim, which garnered comparisons to Fullmetal Alchemist, another manga that was re-adapted faithfully to completion under the Brotherhood subtitle. As a result, Tohru became eligible to compete in the seasonal contests of /r/anime and ISML. While the riceball girl has made the Best Girl and Character brackets since then, in ISML she is yet to either appear in the main tournament or win a single match.

Icons

ISML
Seasonal & Exhibition

r/anime
Prior to the 2019 remake, Fruits Basket  was little-known in the /r/anime subreddit because of its dated status, and the fact that the original 2001 anime deviated from the manga's storyline. Of course, that changed after the remake was released, which brought much-needed discussion and renewed interest to the manga. This newfound attention has enabled Tohru to enter the seasonal contests because her anime's previous adaptation happened more than 15 years ago.

As a competitor however, Tohru doesn't really perform well in the /r/anime brackets simply because she's from a shoujo manga in a subreddit with a male majority. She's also a character many people wouldn't consider their waifu due to her role as a female protagonist, while the main love interests are likely to be called their husbandos in comparison (e.g. Kyo and Yuki). Moreover, her initial impression is mixed because of her apparent "doormat" traits, and her main strengths as a character isn't easily seen by casual anime fans because it requires reading / watching the entire story to understand the reasons behind her personality.

Tohru first appeared in the Spring 2019 contest and advanced into the quarter-finals, losing to everyone's favorite pet demon girl Nezuko. She later competed in the ensuing yearly contest where she lost to Fall winner Ristarte. Tohru later made her proper debut in 2019's Best Girl 6 and has made every major appearance ever since. The riceball girl finally progressed to round 3 in Best Girl 8, in which the anime's final season aired during the contest. With recency bias in her favor, she was expected to pull off an upset against Kaguya-sama's Kei Shirogane. Unfortunately, the Kaguya-sama bias and the apparent stigma against shoujo  characters still prevailed as she lost out by more than 100 votes, much to the disappointment of many users in the threads.

Seasonal Salt + Best Girl

Best Character

Anime Saimoe Tournament
Saimoe 2002


 * Tohru Honda > Nanaka Nakatomi > Juli Bahana (83-19-16)
 * Christine Hanakomachi > Tohru Honda > Teletha Testarossa (206-200-31)

Honours
Wins (4)


 * 1) Arimul Omi Winter-Spring 2021 Best Waifu (FB link)
 * 2) Anime Empire Fam - Favorite Brown Hair Female Competition (FB link)
 * 3) FB @Anime Fans Kagome Torneo de Chicas 2021 (FB link)
 * 4) Anime Empire Fam - Female of the Year 2021 (FB link)

Navigation
References

Beware of spoilers and pop-ups.
 * Wikipedia
 * Fruits Basket Wikia
 * MyAnimeList
 * Baike Baidu (Chinese)
 * NamuWiki (Korean)