Not That Alike

"I swore I'd be by her side until the day she no longer needed me."

Kureno is described as being similar to Tohru by Uo. She sees Kureno as being clumsy and kind and its part of what makes her fall for him. That being said beyond that incident the two don't seem similar at all in my opinion. What they have in common are a few small personality traits, isolation, and a taste in significant others.

I mentioned before that I think of Kureno as being more mature and reserved than Tohru. He is often quiet and task oriented because of his duties to Akito. While Tohru is also task oriented (she always tries her hardest to reach her goals no matter how silly they seem) she does it with a look of determination on her face and lots of conversation. She's surrounded by people where Kureno is isolated.

When you look closer you may see that while their situations and the faces they show to the world are different their stories similar. The manga is called fruits basket because when Tohru was a child they played a game where everyone was a fruit. She had very few friends and was told she could be an onigiri (rice ball). Since rice balls don't belong in a fruit basket she wasn't invited to be part of the game. Kureno became isolated from the other members of the zodiac when his curse was broken.

In terms of their romantic endeavors, Uo is described as being a fearsome former gang member who only lets her closest friends see her soft side. She is drawn to Kureno's kindness. Likewise, Kyo Sohma was drawn to Tohru because of her acceptance and commitment to be kind to him even when he tried to push her away.

Do these parallels really make them all that similar though? I don't see it. Sharing certain traits does not make them alike and really, almost any character in the series will share at least one trait with another character in the same series. Kureno and Tohru are very different characters and a few similar personality traits don't change that.