Arisa Uotani is a former gang member  and one of Tohru's closest friends. Arisa is depicted as tough, brash, and sometimes violent she wears long skirts, sometimes carries a lead pipe Arisa is tall for a girl, and once claims she wishes to reach 6 feet (1.8 m) in height. She is especially competitive with Kyo and bickers with him frequently. Her childhood was troubled: her father is an alcoholic and her mother left him for another man when Arisa was young; Arisa joined an all-girl gang called The Ladies in fifth grade, and idolized Kyoko Honda's reputation from her gang days. When Arisa met Kyoko's daughter Tohru in middle school, and then Kyoko herself, she was shocked by the change from gang-leader into doting mother, but became friends after Kyoko helped her escape from her gang. With Saki Hanajima, she swore on Kyoko's grave to look after Tohru, and in their "parental" protection of Tohru, noted by Kyo and Yuki, Arisa is depicted as the brash and direct father-figure