(no subject)
All right, time for some character information.
Those of you who have only seen the anime Fruits Basket, you're in for a surprisingly long read.
Uotani Arisa is a relatively minor character in the Fruits Basket series. She shows up the first chapter, but she's doesn't appear all that often. Furthermore, the focus of the entire series is on Tohru and Sohma family. Uotani doesn't know the secret of the Zodiac, so she's therefore not too close to the 'action,' even though she's one of the best friends of the main heroine.
In the anime, Uotani doesn't get much backstory. It's mentioned she was part of a gang, and that Tohru convinced her to leave it eventually with Tohru's mother's (Kyoko's) help, but it's very brief and given out in one episode in about ten seconds. And unlike Hanajima who gets a little more attention later in the season, Uotani doesn't really do all that much. (With one exception, which I'll come back to later.)
Therefore, I'd like to focus on Uotani in the manga.
Uotani's backstory:
In volume seven, Uotani gets quite a few chapters dedicated to her. Almost all of the entire volume, minus the first and last chapter. In it, Uotani's back story is revealed:
Uotani's an only child. When she was very young (about six), her mother, in her own words: found a new boyfriend and ran off. We see a flashback of her looking up at her mother walking away with a sort of hurt/defiant 'why?' expression on her face. After that, she became less and less concerned with her family life. She'd go out, steal, start fights, start fires, get chased by the police, etc. She says: "If I told you all the stuff I did, your ears would rot." By fifth grade, she had joined an all-female gang. (Similarly, all her father did after her mother left was drink.)
However, Uotani did look up to one person. An older gang member called "the Red Butterfly." (Named because of what her motorcycle taillights looked like at night.) She had morals, hated phonies, and could beat up men twice her size. Uo had a hero. Then, while still in middle school, (probably 12-14) she heard the high school she 'attended' had the Red Butterfly's daughter as a student.
Uotani went to school hoping to meet her, and imagining someone fierce, with their chest bound up and wielding a katana. But then Tohru ran into her, literally. When Uotani finds out her name, she asks if she's trying to mess with her by suggesting she's the Red Butterfly's daughter. Tohru's response: "Oh yes! That's my mother's name from when she was in a gang!"
Panel of Tohru: smiling obliviously.
Panel of Uotani: about to punch her teeth out.
Somehow, Uo is convinced to come back and actually meet her, and she discovered very quickly that her 'hero' is the most embarassing mother in the world. (She remarks to herself: "I can't believe the Red Butterfly is doing laundry.")
Eventually, Uotani yells that she can't believe the Red Butterfly of all people became such a doting mother. Kyoko replies: "What can I say? It was time to move on."
Tohru tries to keep Uotani from leaving, but Uo just tells her to fuck off, they're not friends, and her family's pathetic.
...though she says that, secretly she's asking herself why she's so bothered by them. Though she tries to put it behind her and get back to 'usual'.
Later, she's alone in unfamiliar territory, and some other girls start to beat her up. She's able to get away, but while running, she crashes right into... Tohru, carrying home groceries for dinner.
Instead of saying anything, Tohru just grabs Uo's hand and leads her to her house (to escape Uo's persuers). There, Uo discovers Tohru's father is dead.
While Tohru's making dinner, Uotani can't help thinking about her own life and comparing it to Tohru's. That even if her father came home like normal, she'd just yell at him and treat him like he's nothing. But... she begins to think maybe she's just... been lonely. And it would be nice to have a normal life with a person waiting for you to come home.
After this, Uotani starts coming to Tohru's house more and more. She talks with Kyoko all the time, and starts going to school again (so she can see more of Tohru.) But meanwhile, no one else at school can believe she and her are friends, and her gang is also starting to wonder just where Uotani is all the time. Uotani starts to think she should stay away from Tohru, because of what people are starting to say about her, but then she realizes that would only hurt Tohru...
She goes to her gang and tells her she's leaving, and she's prepared to take her punishment. She's held down and beat by at least six girls. However, it's then that Kyoko shows up.
Uotani regains consciousness as she's getting carried home. Kyoko tells her one of the older gang members came and got her, explaining she thought Uotani should be able to live how she wanted. And that all she had to do was "beat up some kids and run away." Uo starts the cry, but Kyoko says that in order to really learn, you have to get hurt a little. Even if you make mistakes, it makes what you should do more obvious. "Like... fertilizer may feel like crap... but it'll help you grow!"
Uotani says that... more than anything, she wants to be Tohru's friend. Someone Tohru could be proud of.
Uo never sees the older gang member who helped her again.
They meet Hanajima in their second year of middle school.
And then... during the first year of high school, Kyoko dies in a car crash.
Next to Tohru, Uotani was probably the most affected by Kyoko's death. She always says Kyoko treated her like one of the family, that they'd trade stories, share advice, etc.
After that, she continues high school with Tohru and Hanajima, and we get hints her own family life is improving: Uotani making dinner for her and her father, and her yelling at him not to go off his diet and to stay away from drinking.
When Tohru starts living with the Sohma family, Uotani at first doesn't know about it, thinking Tohru is staying with other family first. Eventually the truth comes out, and after an overnight visit, both Uotani and Hanajima conclude the Sohma family is a good place for Tohru to stay. Later on, they also sorta acknowledge that Kyou and Yuki are starting to fall for Tohru, but as long as they're both there, it's likely neither will make any moves.
That concludes Uotani's backstory with Tohru for the most part. Uotani does meet a man while working at her part time job, and is reminded of Tohru by his politeness and starts to develop a crush on him, but she doesn't see him again. (In actuality, the man is Sohma Kureno, the Rooster from the Zodiac, though Uotani doesn't know this.) [This is in volume nine also. I couldn't really see anything added to the rp by Uotani knowing about Kureno, so I've been rping her from a point she's not met/isn't aware of him. (Because I doubt he'll ever show up as a counselor, though of course I would rethink it if he did.)]
Two last things about Uotani's backstory.
Hanajima:
Tohru plays a much larger role in Hanajima's backstory than Uo, but still worth mentioning. Hanajima meets Tohru when she's serving lunch to people, and as she walks back, Uotani spots her. Uotani just outright tells her that she should sit with them, because new kids sitting all by themselves and making themselves a target pisses her off. She does sit down, though she tries to say that if they become her friends, she'll only bring them misery.
Tohru starts self-consciously wondering if anyone's life is made better by knowing her...
While Uotani laughs, and says if that's true, she'd bring down TWICE the misery on anyone who knows her.
Hanajima muses that regarding Tohru and Uotani's waves, they both seemed to be hiding voices that were crying inside, no matter how happy they seemed. (Doesn't go into much detail, though at the time Tohru's mother was still alive, so if Uotani was sad about her history, Tohru was likely sad about her father.)
Later when Hanajima says it'd be better if she avoided Tohru and Uo from now on... Uotani tells her: "Don't say that because it's what people tell you you should do. What do YOU think?" ...at which Hanajima admits she wants to be with them.
Uotani's also usually the person who tells Hana: "Hey Hana... just frighten them, don't actually shock them." When Hanajima threatens someone with her power. It should be noted the one time Hanajima does shock a group of girls for teasing Tohru, Uotani isn't there.
On a side note, Uotani is also sorta friends with Megumi, Hanajima's younger brother. At the very least, he doesn't mind telling her he thinks she looks attractive in a miniskirt.
The Anime:
The Fruits Basket anime is actually very similar to the manga. With rare exceptions, it follows it up to volume six or so completely faithfully (one of those exceptions is that Uotani's backstory gets cut down to about thirty seconds, from what was almost an entire volume of manga). One exception, is the last few episodes of the season, when Tohru learns about Kyou's 'true form', where several scenes are added.
There's a scene in which Uotani and Hanajima are walking late at night to Kyoko's grave. Uotani doesn't understand why Hanajima wanted to walk there, at such a late time, but Hanajima says the waves told her they should be there, and Uotani doesn't object.
There, they meet Tohru. Soaked through because of the rain and looking VERY traumatized, resting at Kyoko's grave. Uotani at first yells at her for being out alone so late and obviously not dressed for the weather, and then tries to help Tohru stand up. Hanajima stops her.
...Or rather, Hanajima FLYING TACKLES her to the ground, screaming that Uotani CANNOT embrace Tohru right now. That's what the waves are telling her.
Uotani this time refuses to listen, and tries to help Tohru again, only to get TACKLED, AGAIN. This time, Uotani gets up, and looks for a minute like she's about to fight Hanajima over it. Hanajima holds her arms, and tells Tohru she needs to go. "Go to where you're needed!" ...which she eventually does.
Uotani doesn't get it, but as Tohru gets up she stops resisting and just watches her go, crying. Hanajima similarly starts crying. In the end, Uotani can only scream: "Why... WHY?!"
...it's perhaps the most bizarre scene in the series, but it shows something about both Uotani and Hanajima's characters: they always do what they can to help Tohru.
(As for whether Camp!Uo is manga or anime, all of the furuba characters have sorta reached a consensus that we're going with some sorta mutant version where both the anime and manga scenes all happened except where they conflict.)
Uotani's development:
Of course, when Uotani's young and starting out in the world, she's a shameless yankee gang member who'll fight people for looking at her funny, and wants nothing to do with her father. She bleaches her hair, wears long skirts, thins her eyebrows, wears a flu mask most of the time and all of the 'normal' middle school students are easily intimidated by her. (even the boys.)
After she meets Tohru, she wears a bandage covering the marks she got in her fight on her face for a while. She redyes her hair to its natural color as part of 'rehabilitating', but she still wears a long skirt.
By high school, her hair is a bit longer and back to being bleached. Why? There's really only one reason: Uotani wants to exploit her 'yankee' status as a way of getting people to leave Tohru alone. In high school, Tohru becomes a target of the Yuki Fan Club, and they berate her for just talking to him. At least they do, until Uotani and Hanajima come along and frighten them away. It's easier to frighten people as a 'yankee', so that's why I think Uotani went back to it. (Another possibility is she just likes the color, probably both.) She also wears a flu mask occasionally, but when she does, she says it's to counter her hay fever.
Other girls (in the manga) also come to Uotani, saying that they can't believe she left her gang, and that they'll create an army of delinquents to be feared, after putting her in her place. Uo barely has to raise two fingers to them to get them to stop, and she tells them they need to do something about that anger, but if they need someone to scold them... come talk to her. After that, they start going back to school and hanging around Uo at bad times.
Motivations and characteristics:
Of course, being a good friend to Tohru is her prime motivation. That includes protecting her from anyone who'd take advantage of her or otherwise make her feel bad. She tells Tohru: "If anyone's making you feel bad, just come to me." Hanajima is definitely on that list too, but they have a bit easier relationship with each other.
Her second motivation: maintaining her yankee persona. One thing that doesn't get translated very well in English is that Uotani always speaks with this very impolite dialect. Her whole aura of speech is just 'nasty'. (It's also worth noting that when Uotani is speaking about Tohru or Hanajima, she uses language usually reserved for flirting.) It's beyond talking like a guy, it's connected to her being a yankee. A 'yankee' in Japan is someone who dyes their hair blond, and generally acts tough... like a gang member (as the case may be), or a westerner. Uotani I think continues to do this (even if she's left her gang) from habit and the fact people who'd otherwise give her unwanted attention will just leave her alone.
Also: Uotani is a character who doesn't get excited too often. (Unless it's something about Tohru.) She gives the impression that she has no shame, which is probably true. (For example: there's one point Uotani drags Kyou and Yuki off, and when kyou asks: "What are we, your slaves?!" She simply nods.) One of the few things she doesn't like talking about is her relationship with Kyoko, but she does consider her adolescene as 'embarassing'.
Uotani's very laid back. But there's one exception: when she's hungry. At such a time, she get's easily snippy. aggressive, and harder to deal with. (It's not surprising she describes what she was like before as 'kinda like a lion who hasn't been fed'.
Another exception is at certain situations, she'll just... cry. And not always involving Tohru.
To give a (paraphrased) direct quote: "It's like when I see the old man who works nearby coming into the convenience store where I work at, still needing to BUY his lunch! Then I can't help but feel sorry on his behalf, and before I know it, I cry! That's right, the person ringing up his lunch and crying her eyes out is ME!" ...so Uotani easily emphathizes with other people in certain situations, sometimes to the point she can't control herself. (She doesn't try to hide this, of course.)
However at the same time, Uotani can also come off as heartless. When the younger girls who want to start a gang tell her they're going to create an army to be feared, Uotani basically says: "Yeah, good luck with that." The difference being that the first reaction, crying, is something usually triggered when Uotani sees someone suffering for some selfless reason. (Ie, she cries when Tohru says she's happy, or in the other example the man just buying lunch and being okay with it.) That and she's a relatively good judge of character and whether people need a pat on the back or to just ignore 'em.
As another example, both Hanajima and Uotani can see there's *something* weird with the Sohma family, but they don't really investigate. Hanajima just talks mysteriously about how all of the Sohma have weird 'waves,' while Uotani just says: "Ah, it's none of my business, really." when she notices something weird about them. Why?
Maybe it's some sort of subconscious acknowledgement that only Tohru could really help them, or maybe she just really figures it's none of her business, and if they really wanted people knowing, she'd already know. (Why bother prying?)
Overall:
Uotani is overall a very interesting character. Next to Tohru, she's arguably the most 'normal' main character in Fruits Basket, and her backstory outlines all of the themes of the series and what Tohru's trying to accomplish with the Sohma family. She's not close to many people besides Tohru and Hanajima, but that's because she knows they all look weird. She's a tough person, but kindhearted and cares a lot about her friends.
Post script:
A note about Uotani's name: 'Uotani' is spelled with the kanji for 'fish' (Uo) and 'valley' (tani). When she met her, Kyoko called Uotani "Uo-chan," which is literally "Fish-chan", and it stuck with her between Tohru and Uo since. That's why in the manga and anime, Uotani is represented by a fish.
'Arisa' in contrast though, is spelled only with hiragana, no kanji. (So no idea what it could mean.)
Those of you who have only seen the anime Fruits Basket, you're in for a surprisingly long read.
Uotani Arisa is a relatively minor character in the Fruits Basket series. She shows up the first chapter, but she's doesn't appear all that often. Furthermore, the focus of the entire series is on Tohru and Sohma family. Uotani doesn't know the secret of the Zodiac, so she's therefore not too close to the 'action,' even though she's one of the best friends of the main heroine.
In the anime, Uotani doesn't get much backstory. It's mentioned she was part of a gang, and that Tohru convinced her to leave it eventually with Tohru's mother's (Kyoko's) help, but it's very brief and given out in one episode in about ten seconds. And unlike Hanajima who gets a little more attention later in the season, Uotani doesn't really do all that much. (With one exception, which I'll come back to later.)
Therefore, I'd like to focus on Uotani in the manga.
Uotani's backstory:
In volume seven, Uotani gets quite a few chapters dedicated to her. Almost all of the entire volume, minus the first and last chapter. In it, Uotani's back story is revealed:
Uotani's an only child. When she was very young (about six), her mother, in her own words: found a new boyfriend and ran off. We see a flashback of her looking up at her mother walking away with a sort of hurt/defiant 'why?' expression on her face. After that, she became less and less concerned with her family life. She'd go out, steal, start fights, start fires, get chased by the police, etc. She says: "If I told you all the stuff I did, your ears would rot." By fifth grade, she had joined an all-female gang. (Similarly, all her father did after her mother left was drink.)
However, Uotani did look up to one person. An older gang member called "the Red Butterfly." (Named because of what her motorcycle taillights looked like at night.) She had morals, hated phonies, and could beat up men twice her size. Uo had a hero. Then, while still in middle school, (probably 12-14) she heard the high school she 'attended' had the Red Butterfly's daughter as a student.
Uotani went to school hoping to meet her, and imagining someone fierce, with their chest bound up and wielding a katana. But then Tohru ran into her, literally. When Uotani finds out her name, she asks if she's trying to mess with her by suggesting she's the Red Butterfly's daughter. Tohru's response: "Oh yes! That's my mother's name from when she was in a gang!"
Panel of Tohru: smiling obliviously.
Panel of Uotani: about to punch her teeth out.
Somehow, Uo is convinced to come back and actually meet her, and she discovered very quickly that her 'hero' is the most embarassing mother in the world. (She remarks to herself: "I can't believe the Red Butterfly is doing laundry.")
Eventually, Uotani yells that she can't believe the Red Butterfly of all people became such a doting mother. Kyoko replies: "What can I say? It was time to move on."
Tohru tries to keep Uotani from leaving, but Uo just tells her to fuck off, they're not friends, and her family's pathetic.
...though she says that, secretly she's asking herself why she's so bothered by them. Though she tries to put it behind her and get back to 'usual'.
Later, she's alone in unfamiliar territory, and some other girls start to beat her up. She's able to get away, but while running, she crashes right into... Tohru, carrying home groceries for dinner.
Instead of saying anything, Tohru just grabs Uo's hand and leads her to her house (to escape Uo's persuers). There, Uo discovers Tohru's father is dead.
While Tohru's making dinner, Uotani can't help thinking about her own life and comparing it to Tohru's. That even if her father came home like normal, she'd just yell at him and treat him like he's nothing. But... she begins to think maybe she's just... been lonely. And it would be nice to have a normal life with a person waiting for you to come home.
After this, Uotani starts coming to Tohru's house more and more. She talks with Kyoko all the time, and starts going to school again (so she can see more of Tohru.) But meanwhile, no one else at school can believe she and her are friends, and her gang is also starting to wonder just where Uotani is all the time. Uotani starts to think she should stay away from Tohru, because of what people are starting to say about her, but then she realizes that would only hurt Tohru...
She goes to her gang and tells her she's leaving, and she's prepared to take her punishment. She's held down and beat by at least six girls. However, it's then that Kyoko shows up.
Uotani regains consciousness as she's getting carried home. Kyoko tells her one of the older gang members came and got her, explaining she thought Uotani should be able to live how she wanted. And that all she had to do was "beat up some kids and run away." Uo starts the cry, but Kyoko says that in order to really learn, you have to get hurt a little. Even if you make mistakes, it makes what you should do more obvious. "Like... fertilizer may feel like crap... but it'll help you grow!"
Uotani says that... more than anything, she wants to be Tohru's friend. Someone Tohru could be proud of.
Uo never sees the older gang member who helped her again.
They meet Hanajima in their second year of middle school.
And then... during the first year of high school, Kyoko dies in a car crash.
Next to Tohru, Uotani was probably the most affected by Kyoko's death. She always says Kyoko treated her like one of the family, that they'd trade stories, share advice, etc.
After that, she continues high school with Tohru and Hanajima, and we get hints her own family life is improving: Uotani making dinner for her and her father, and her yelling at him not to go off his diet and to stay away from drinking.
When Tohru starts living with the Sohma family, Uotani at first doesn't know about it, thinking Tohru is staying with other family first. Eventually the truth comes out, and after an overnight visit, both Uotani and Hanajima conclude the Sohma family is a good place for Tohru to stay. Later on, they also sorta acknowledge that Kyou and Yuki are starting to fall for Tohru, but as long as they're both there, it's likely neither will make any moves.
That concludes Uotani's backstory with Tohru for the most part. Uotani does meet a man while working at her part time job, and is reminded of Tohru by his politeness and starts to develop a crush on him, but she doesn't see him again. (In actuality, the man is Sohma Kureno, the Rooster from the Zodiac, though Uotani doesn't know this.) [This is in volume nine also. I couldn't really see anything added to the rp by Uotani knowing about Kureno, so I've been rping her from a point she's not met/isn't aware of him. (Because I doubt he'll ever show up as a counselor, though of course I would rethink it if he did.)]
Two last things about Uotani's backstory.
Hanajima:
Tohru plays a much larger role in Hanajima's backstory than Uo, but still worth mentioning. Hanajima meets Tohru when she's serving lunch to people, and as she walks back, Uotani spots her. Uotani just outright tells her that she should sit with them, because new kids sitting all by themselves and making themselves a target pisses her off. She does sit down, though she tries to say that if they become her friends, she'll only bring them misery.
Tohru starts self-consciously wondering if anyone's life is made better by knowing her...
While Uotani laughs, and says if that's true, she'd bring down TWICE the misery on anyone who knows her.
Hanajima muses that regarding Tohru and Uotani's waves, they both seemed to be hiding voices that were crying inside, no matter how happy they seemed. (Doesn't go into much detail, though at the time Tohru's mother was still alive, so if Uotani was sad about her history, Tohru was likely sad about her father.)
Later when Hanajima says it'd be better if she avoided Tohru and Uo from now on... Uotani tells her: "Don't say that because it's what people tell you you should do. What do YOU think?" ...at which Hanajima admits she wants to be with them.
Uotani's also usually the person who tells Hana: "Hey Hana... just frighten them, don't actually shock them." When Hanajima threatens someone with her power. It should be noted the one time Hanajima does shock a group of girls for teasing Tohru, Uotani isn't there.
On a side note, Uotani is also sorta friends with Megumi, Hanajima's younger brother. At the very least, he doesn't mind telling her he thinks she looks attractive in a miniskirt.
The Anime:
The Fruits Basket anime is actually very similar to the manga. With rare exceptions, it follows it up to volume six or so completely faithfully (one of those exceptions is that Uotani's backstory gets cut down to about thirty seconds, from what was almost an entire volume of manga). One exception, is the last few episodes of the season, when Tohru learns about Kyou's 'true form', where several scenes are added.
There's a scene in which Uotani and Hanajima are walking late at night to Kyoko's grave. Uotani doesn't understand why Hanajima wanted to walk there, at such a late time, but Hanajima says the waves told her they should be there, and Uotani doesn't object.
There, they meet Tohru. Soaked through because of the rain and looking VERY traumatized, resting at Kyoko's grave. Uotani at first yells at her for being out alone so late and obviously not dressed for the weather, and then tries to help Tohru stand up. Hanajima stops her.
...Or rather, Hanajima FLYING TACKLES her to the ground, screaming that Uotani CANNOT embrace Tohru right now. That's what the waves are telling her.
Uotani this time refuses to listen, and tries to help Tohru again, only to get TACKLED, AGAIN. This time, Uotani gets up, and looks for a minute like she's about to fight Hanajima over it. Hanajima holds her arms, and tells Tohru she needs to go. "Go to where you're needed!" ...which she eventually does.
Uotani doesn't get it, but as Tohru gets up she stops resisting and just watches her go, crying. Hanajima similarly starts crying. In the end, Uotani can only scream: "Why... WHY?!"
...it's perhaps the most bizarre scene in the series, but it shows something about both Uotani and Hanajima's characters: they always do what they can to help Tohru.
(As for whether Camp!Uo is manga or anime, all of the furuba characters have sorta reached a consensus that we're going with some sorta mutant version where both the anime and manga scenes all happened except where they conflict.)
Uotani's development:
Of course, when Uotani's young and starting out in the world, she's a shameless yankee gang member who'll fight people for looking at her funny, and wants nothing to do with her father. She bleaches her hair, wears long skirts, thins her eyebrows, wears a flu mask most of the time and all of the 'normal' middle school students are easily intimidated by her. (even the boys.)
After she meets Tohru, she wears a bandage covering the marks she got in her fight on her face for a while. She redyes her hair to its natural color as part of 'rehabilitating', but she still wears a long skirt.
By high school, her hair is a bit longer and back to being bleached. Why? There's really only one reason: Uotani wants to exploit her 'yankee' status as a way of getting people to leave Tohru alone. In high school, Tohru becomes a target of the Yuki Fan Club, and they berate her for just talking to him. At least they do, until Uotani and Hanajima come along and frighten them away. It's easier to frighten people as a 'yankee', so that's why I think Uotani went back to it. (Another possibility is she just likes the color, probably both.) She also wears a flu mask occasionally, but when she does, she says it's to counter her hay fever.
Other girls (in the manga) also come to Uotani, saying that they can't believe she left her gang, and that they'll create an army of delinquents to be feared, after putting her in her place. Uo barely has to raise two fingers to them to get them to stop, and she tells them they need to do something about that anger, but if they need someone to scold them... come talk to her. After that, they start going back to school and hanging around Uo at bad times.
Motivations and characteristics:
Of course, being a good friend to Tohru is her prime motivation. That includes protecting her from anyone who'd take advantage of her or otherwise make her feel bad. She tells Tohru: "If anyone's making you feel bad, just come to me." Hanajima is definitely on that list too, but they have a bit easier relationship with each other.
Her second motivation: maintaining her yankee persona. One thing that doesn't get translated very well in English is that Uotani always speaks with this very impolite dialect. Her whole aura of speech is just 'nasty'. (It's also worth noting that when Uotani is speaking about Tohru or Hanajima, she uses language usually reserved for flirting.) It's beyond talking like a guy, it's connected to her being a yankee. A 'yankee' in Japan is someone who dyes their hair blond, and generally acts tough... like a gang member (as the case may be), or a westerner. Uotani I think continues to do this (even if she's left her gang) from habit and the fact people who'd otherwise give her unwanted attention will just leave her alone.
Also: Uotani is a character who doesn't get excited too often. (Unless it's something about Tohru.) She gives the impression that she has no shame, which is probably true. (For example: there's one point Uotani drags Kyou and Yuki off, and when kyou asks: "What are we, your slaves?!" She simply nods.) One of the few things she doesn't like talking about is her relationship with Kyoko, but she does consider her adolescene as 'embarassing'.
Uotani's very laid back. But there's one exception: when she's hungry. At such a time, she get's easily snippy. aggressive, and harder to deal with. (It's not surprising she describes what she was like before as 'kinda like a lion who hasn't been fed'.
Another exception is at certain situations, she'll just... cry. And not always involving Tohru.
To give a (paraphrased) direct quote: "It's like when I see the old man who works nearby coming into the convenience store where I work at, still needing to BUY his lunch! Then I can't help but feel sorry on his behalf, and before I know it, I cry! That's right, the person ringing up his lunch and crying her eyes out is ME!" ...so Uotani easily emphathizes with other people in certain situations, sometimes to the point she can't control herself. (She doesn't try to hide this, of course.)
However at the same time, Uotani can also come off as heartless. When the younger girls who want to start a gang tell her they're going to create an army to be feared, Uotani basically says: "Yeah, good luck with that." The difference being that the first reaction, crying, is something usually triggered when Uotani sees someone suffering for some selfless reason. (Ie, she cries when Tohru says she's happy, or in the other example the man just buying lunch and being okay with it.) That and she's a relatively good judge of character and whether people need a pat on the back or to just ignore 'em.
As another example, both Hanajima and Uotani can see there's *something* weird with the Sohma family, but they don't really investigate. Hanajima just talks mysteriously about how all of the Sohma have weird 'waves,' while Uotani just says: "Ah, it's none of my business, really." when she notices something weird about them. Why?
Maybe it's some sort of subconscious acknowledgement that only Tohru could really help them, or maybe she just really figures it's none of her business, and if they really wanted people knowing, she'd already know. (Why bother prying?)
Overall:
Uotani is overall a very interesting character. Next to Tohru, she's arguably the most 'normal' main character in Fruits Basket, and her backstory outlines all of the themes of the series and what Tohru's trying to accomplish with the Sohma family. She's not close to many people besides Tohru and Hanajima, but that's because she knows they all look weird. She's a tough person, but kindhearted and cares a lot about her friends.
Post script:
A note about Uotani's name: 'Uotani' is spelled with the kanji for 'fish' (Uo) and 'valley' (tani). When she met her, Kyoko called Uotani "Uo-chan," which is literally "Fish-chan", and it stuck with her between Tohru and Uo since. That's why in the manga and anime, Uotani is represented by a fish.
'Arisa' in contrast though, is spelled only with hiragana, no kanji. (So no idea what it could mean.)