In the anime, Akito is male. In the manga, Akito is female but was brought up as a boy by her mother, Ren. Ren decided to raise Akito as a male because she was ashamed of giving birth to a girl who was the "god" to the Zodiac, and who was receiving more attention from her husband, Akira. Akito Sohma (草摩 慊人, Sōma Akito) is the head of the Sohma family and very frail. She often get sick and runs fevers, and Hatori Sohma claims half his doctor's work is tending to Akito, who he says "specializes in getting sick." Akito's age is not given, but she is a few years younger than Ritsu and is said to be at least twenty by Shigure. Akito is depicted as short-tempered and abusive, and has physically and emotionally scarred many Sohmas, including Hatori, Rin, Kisa, and Yuki. While part of the Sohma family curse, Akito is not possessed by a spirit of the Chinese zodiac, but rather fulfills the role of the Jade Emperor, a figure from the stories about the origins of the zodiac; she describes herself as the "god" of the zodiac, the "one who controls the Zodiac", and the "master of their souls." Kazuma Sohma tells Tohru Honda that to the rest of the zodiac, Akito is a figure of awe they cannot resist, with whom they have a "bond of blood." Akito's mother, Ren Sohma, denies that the zodiac bond is real, and Akito is obsessed with proving her wrong. Once the zodiac members are old enough, she desires to have them live within the Sohma compound for the rest of their lives in a never-ending "banquet." Akito initially allows Tohru to live with Shigure because she believes that Tohru will come to reject Yuki and Kyo because of the curse, and when instead they learn that outsiders can accept them and so grow away from her, she comes to hate Tohru most of all. In the anime, Akito and Tohru come to an accommodation centered on Akito's fears of dying young, which is an effect of the curse described only in the anime. In the manga, through Tohru's efforts to break the curse, Akito comes to realize that holding onto the bond has hurt herself as much as the others and lets it go.