ranma

Ranma 1/2

Summary
On a training journey in the Bayankala Mountain Range in the Qinghai Province of
China, Ranma Saotome and his father Genma fall into the cursed springs at Jusenkyo.
When someone falls into a cursed spring, they take the physical form of whatever
drowned there hundreds or thousands of years ago whenever they come into contact
with cold water. The cursed will revert when exposed to hot water until their next cold
water exposure. Genma fell into the Spring of the Drowned Panda while Ranma fell into
the Spring of Drowned Girl.

Upon returning to Japan,the pair settle in the dojo of Genma's old friend Soun Tendo, a
fellow practitioner of Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū or "Anything-Goes" martial arts which
Genma passed on to Ranma. Genma and Soun agreed years ago that their children
would marry and carry on the Tendo Dojo. Soun has three teenaged daughters: Kasumi,
Nabiki and the hot-tempered, but helpful, martial arts practicing Akane. As Akane is
Ranma's age she is appointed for bridal duty by her sisters. Although both initially
refuse the engagement, they are generally treated as betrothed and end up helping or
saving each other on numerous occasions. They are frequently found in each other's
company and are constantly arguing in their trademark awkward love-hate manner that
is a franchise focus.

Ranma goes to school with Akane at Furinkan High, where he meets his recurring
opponent Tatewaki Kuno, the kendo team captain who is aggressively pursuing Akane,
but who also falls in love with Ranma's female form without discovering his curse.
Furinkan serves as a backdrop for more martial arts mayhem with the introduction of
Ranma's regular rivals, the eternally lost Ryoga Hibiki, the nearsighted Mousse, and
Ranma's perverted grandmaster Happosai. His prospective paramours include the
martial arts rhythmic gymnastics champion Kodachi Kuno, the okonomiyaki vendor and
his second fiancée and childhood friend Ukyo Kuonji, along with the Chinese Amazon
Shampoo, supported by her great-grandmother Cologne. As the series progresses, the
school becomes more eccentric with the return of the Hawaii-obsessed Principal Kuno
and the placement of the power-leeching alternating child/adult Hinako Ninomiya as
Ranma's English teacher

Ranma

Fucking hilarious...and dumb. Both when he's male AND when he's female. Or she.

Ranma, the only son of Genma and Nodoka Saotome, was taken from his home by his
father when approximately 2 years old, to begin a 13-14-year training trip to perfect his
skills in the martial arts.

While he was still a child, he befriended Ukyo Kuonji, the daughter of a travelling
okonomiyaki chef and martial artist, although he was unaware that she was a girl.
Genma engaged Ranma to Ukyo in exchange for her father's food cart, but he
abandoned Ukyo and ran off with the cart without ever telling Ranma about the
engagement or correcting him about Ukyo's real gender.

Later, near the end of the trip, Genma took Ranma to a training ground in China named
Jusenkyo that few people used, due to the springs being cursed. Falling into them
would transform a person into whatever first fell in. Not knowing this, and not having
the patience to listen to a warning from the local guide, Genma attempted to train with
Ranma atop the bamboo poles which jutted up out of the pools. When Ranma knocked
Genma into Shonmaoniichuan/"Spring of 'Drowned' Panda", he was surprised to watch a
panda emerge from the pond and leap onto one of the poles. Genma, now cursed, was
able to hit a surprised Ranma into Nyannichuan (Niángníquán 娘溺泉), or the "Spring of
'Drowned' Girl". Thus he turns into a female version of his original form when splashed
with cold water, which is only (temporarily) reversible through contact with hot water.

Before this incident, Genma had made an arrangement with his best friend Soun Tendo
that Ranma would marry one of Soun's daughters and carry on the Tendo Dojo. After
learning of Ranma's condition, Soun's daughters Kasumi and Nabiki began to insist that
Ranma choose their younger sister Akane, and rationalised that a tomboy would be a
more appropriate fiancee for a man who transforms into a woman. Although Akane and
Ranma were initially unwilling to be engaged, they develop feelings for each other,
while generally struggling to deny or otherwise avoid openly expressing throughout
the entire series.

Genma with a young Ranma just before they began their training tripRanma and Genma
moved in as houseguests of the Tendo dojo. Since then, Ranma has endured, among
other things, Amazons, old rivals, Dojo destroyers, and even evil demons. Female
Ranma has also received a few male suitors, such as Tatewaki Kuno and Mikado
Sanzenin.

After receiving a letter from his wife, Genma revealed that he had promised that Ranma
would return "a man among men", and that if he failed, they would commit seppuku, a
suicidal ritual. Therefore, in order to meet his mother without dying, Ranma changed
into a girl during her visit, and presented himself as "Akane's cousin Ranko,"
accompanied by her pet, "Mr. Panda."

Ranma made several attempts to talk to his mother without revealing his curse, to
prove his manliness, but was generally stopped by Genma, and after being caught
cross-dressing, he had to pretend to peek on Akane taking a shower to show his
manliness. Eventually, after he saved her life, Nodoka accepted Ranma as a boy despite
the curse.

Akane

she's a tomboy and kicks ass..but otherwise she's boring.

Akane's mother died when she was very young.[1] Perhaps because of this, she
appears not to have learned many traditionally feminine skills, and her terrible cooking
is a running joke during the series. Akane may see her sister Kasumi as a surrogate
mother figure, since she helps her with more traditionally feminine chores.

Akane grows up as a tomboy, getting into fights, acting tough, and improving her
martial arts. In elementary school, her classmates thought she was so much like a boy
that she was cast to play Romeo in their production of Romeo and Juliet; Akane accepts
the role and plays a very cute Romeo, though deep down she always wanted to be cast
as Juliet, a wish that she'll have fulfilled only years later (though she would have four
different Romeos fighting for her).[2]

At the beginning of the series Akane had a crush on Dr. Tofu Ono, who patched her up
many times when she got into fights. Unfortunately for Akane, Dr. Tofu is besotted with
her older sister Kasumi. In an attempt to get his attention, Akane grew out her hair
longer like Kasumi's. However during one of the first fights between Ranma and Ryoga,
her hair is cut, a look she retains for the rest of the series.[3]

Despite her crush on Dr. Tofu, she initially claims to hate boys. It turned out that
because her original 'suitor', Tatewaki Kuno, declared that only someone who defeated
her in battle would be allowed to date her, many of the strongest male athletes at
Furinkan High School began to violently attack her en masse every morning. Akane
always beat them all without being late for class.[4]

When the series begins, Akane is engaged against her will to her father's friend's son,
Ranma Saotome, so that the Tendo dojo and the school of the Anything Goes Martial
Arts will be assured a future. At first, Ranma could've been engaged to any of the Tendo
girls, but Akane's older sisters palm Ranma off on Akane. Akane's first meeting with
Ranma does not go smoothly: when Akane first meets Ranma, he is in his girl form, and
they have a short sparring match. But as she goes to wash off the sweat from their
workout, Akane unknowingly walks in on him in the bathroom just after he's
transformed back into his boy form.[5]

Akane and Ranma often fight and insult each other. Usually, Ranma insults Akane for
being a tomboy and calls her "uncute," while Akane insults Ranma for being a pervert.
Despite their bickering, Ranma is always there to protect her, and Akane often helps
him through his fights, or saves his life. The two are also usually seen hanging out with
each other oustside of school and the dojo. Ranma's arrival heralds the end of her daily
morning fights shortly after he defeats Kuno, the school's best warrior, in combat.
Because of this and due to learning of her engagement, her daily attackers tearfully
declare that they give up on her.[6]

After Akane's hair, which she had worked hard to grow out for Dr. Tofu, was suddenly
and accidentally shorn off during Ranma's battle with his rival, Ryoga, she became
extremely angry and sad.[7] Realizing this, Ranma comforted her by telling her she
looked cute with short hair.[3] After that, Akane was able to get over her feelings for Dr.
Tofu (later making several attempts to help bring Kasumi and Dr. Tofu closer) and
began to develop affection for Ranma, although his abrasiveness sometimes
jeopardized these emotions.

The two are often seen in each other's presence when they're not fighting, and often
work together when trying to accomplish something. At the end of the series, Ranma
admits his love for Akane. He opens his mouth wide, and thinks the words, but it is
unclear if anything comes out, save her name. Regardless, Akane states that she heard
him somehow, finally knows for sure that he loves her, and is very happy about this. In
the final panel it is stated that the two will eventually marry.[8]

Nabiki

Money hungry gold digger...but for some reason I like her.

Nabiki is presented as the middle of the three Tendo sisters, and a second year student
at Furinkan High School. Even at her young age, she is gifted at methodically serving
her own interests at the expense of anyone else, including her family,[1] and has no
compunctions against emotionally wrecking,[2] manipulating,[3] tormenting,[4]
impoverishing[5] or setting up others in life-threatening situations[6] for either money,
amusement or petty pride, even if she owes them her life several times over.[7] She
encouraged Kuno to keep his infatuation with female Ranma and Akane[8] to further
her regular sales of clandestinely-taken photos,[9] which he keeps in a large album.[10]
She also regularly uses incrimination or blackmail to get what she wants.[11] In the
anime she has also taken bets on Ranma's fights.

While she comes from a martial arts school, Nabiki is not a combatant. Although she
always keeps her wits about her, she has herself stated that she's a completely
untalented fighter.[12] The only fighting skill she has shown is clobbering Kuno
unconscious with a small mallet from behind, while the latter was completely distracted,
although Akane also performed the same feat just previously.[13] She has also
occasionally manifested a variant of the standardised intimidating battle aura that is
recurrently used by various characters for comedic effect, but like Kasumi, and unlike
her father, it hasn't been shown as useful for anything else, and is only workable when
she's thoroughly mad/furious.[14] She generally ensures that the violence around her
finds other targets to occupy its attention, although she mis-planned, and briefly found
herself defenseless, when Shampoo and Kodachi decided to simply kill her.[15]

Though she is usually shown as unconcerned about other people, and has been
outright stated to have 'no maidenly feelings', be 'completely heartless', 'have no
maidenly heart', or simply 'not naive', depending on the translation,[16] Nabiki was the
one who displayed the most initial interest in Ranma when her father announced the
pending arrival of a well-travelled guy. She hoped he was cute and was initially pleased
with what she saw.[17] It was not until she learned the pigtailed martial artist was a girl
that she changed her mind.[18] She's been portrayed in her general character since
her interactions with Kuno a few chapters later.[19]

Genma

Retard. Where does he get all those signs he uses to communicate with when he turns
into a panda?

Genma Saotome is Ranma Saotome's father and the sensei of the Saotome Dojo of
Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū karate ("School of Indiscriminate Grappling", more commonly
known in the West as "Anything Goes Martial Arts"). During the time when Genma took
Ranma on a decade-long training voyage to improve their martial arts skills, he insisted
on going to Jusenkyo in China - a place which he believed to be a training ground.
However, because of Genma's ignorance of the Chinese language, he did not realize
that the ground was unfrequented because it was cursed. Genma realized all too late
the mistake he made, after his son knocked him into a cursed spring during this fateful
training session.

Genma was knocked into Shonmaoniichuan (熊猫溺泉 Xióngmāoníquán), the Spring of
Drowned Panda. Due to the nature of the Jusenkyo curse, a victim who falls into the
spring is cursed to turn into who or whatever drowned there when doused with cold
water. Thus, whenever Genma is splashed with cold water, he becomes a giant panda.
Hot water, as with the rest of the Jusenkyo-cursed characters, can change him back
into human form.

Despite the fact that he and his son were cursed, Genma still brought Ranma back to
Japan to fulfill a marriage engagement with his longtime friend and fellow martial artist
Soun Tendo, the terms of which were as follows: Ranma would marry one of Soun's
daughters and carry on the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts.

Genma and Soun decided that Soun's youngest daughter Akane would one day marry
Ranma after Akane's sisters made the ruling on their own — against their will, at least at
first. Genma currently resides in the Tendo Dojo along with Ranma, in the hopes that
one day Ranma and Akane will get married and fulfill the agreement made by the two
families. He spends most of his time playing Go or Shogi with Soun, although he briefly
had a job at Dr. Tofu's clinic.

Unlike Ryoga, Mousse and Shampoo, Genma automatically regains his clothing when
shifting back to normal, despite being too large to keep them in cursed form. The only
other characters who shares a similar trait is Pantyhose Taro. Occasionally, primarily in
the earliest stories, the top half of Genma's gi and his glasses will also remain on him
when he turns into a panda.

Shampoo

Nihao Ranma! Haha, she's funny...but she needs to get it through her head Ranma
doesn't like her and go to Cologne.

Soon after getting cursed at Jusenkyo, Ranma (as a girl) and Genma (as a panda) drop
into a contest in a village of the Joketsuzoku (Chinese: Nǚjiézú 女傑族 - "tribe of women
heroes"; "Chinese Amazons" in English versions). Half-starved, they feed on the next
available food-stuff - the feast that was to be the first prize for the contest - and are
instantly challenged by Shampoo, the village champion. He swiftly defeats her, but this
was a bad move. According to Chinese Amazon tribal laws, if a female Amazon is
defeated by a female outsider, she must give the outsider the "Kiss of Death" (死の接
吻), hunt her down to the ends of the Earth, and kill her (as Ranma tells Akane, "and
when they say 'to the ends of Earth', they mean it"). Ranma and Genma manage to elude
her and settle down in Nerima, thinking that they've lost her.

However, Shampoo eventually tracks female Ranma down and resumes her attempts at
murder. She finds Ranma, this time a male, in the Tendo household—where she
managed to enter courtesy of Kasumi, who thought Genma had invited her, when she
was actually stalking him—and declares her intent to kill Akane for hiding female Ranma
from her. Ranma stops her attack by kicking the ball off of her Chúi, which knocked her
cold when it landed on her head, accidentally defeating her a second time. However,
instead of receiving a "Kiss of Death," Ranma gets a kiss on the lips; it turns out that if
a female Amazon is defeated by a male outsider, she has to marry him. She continues
on the path of trying to marry male Ranma and kill female Ranma, until Ranma tricks her
into thinking that the male side is a disguise for the female side.

Heartbroken, Shampoo returns to China, where she undergoes re-training at the hands
of her great-grandmother Cologne and finally receives a cat curse at Jusenkyo, which
causes her father to become concerned. Realizing that Ranma had been cursed as well,
she goes back to Japan with Cologne to try to marry Ranma once more, learning in the
process that he is actually male. Unfortunately, this revelation came at a price: Ranma
has been completely phobic about cats (ailurophobic) since childhood.

Shampoo has managed to gain at least two strong rivals in the herbalists Pink and Link,
a pair of twin sisters who live in Yaokaicun, a village near Joketsuzoku. The twins and
Shampoo have held a grudge against each other since they were very little girls, and
there’s no sign of it ending anytime soon. In their latest attempt at getting back at
Shampoo, Pink and Link declared to Joketsuzoku’s local newspaper that Shampoo’s
husband (Ranma) was ugly and weak; Shampoo had previously lied to the newspaper,
stating that she was already married and living with Ranma.

Even if she has been chased by the Ghost Cat Maomolin a couple of times, Shampoo
really has only one strong suitor, her childhood friend Mousse, whom she rejected
when they were both three. Cologne has stated that this holds true by Amazon law,
regardless if he manages to beat Ranma, but he remains stubborn despite her multiple
rejections and frequent cruel and derisive treatment. In Shampoo's defense Mousse is
very clingy, often trying to glomp her and will not take no for an answer. Then again she
behaves exactly the same way towards Ranma, to an even more severe degree, and
has been repeatedly shown as far more inconsiderate towards him than Mousse is to
her. As is standard for the series, either behaviour is frequently used in a comical
manner. Shampoo generally seems annoyed and contemptuous towards Mousse, but
occasionally shows some concern when he drives himself too far. Late in the series,
when her love has been turned to hate by a magic jewel, and Mousse decides to take
advantage to approach her, she rejects him in the normal manner, which may hint that
her feelings towards him contain elements of both derision and appreciation.

At first glance, Shampoo might seem like a bimbo, due to her simplified mode of
speech, most notably rapidly switching between ignoring and using personal pronouns,
but she also had a limited amount of time to learn the Japanese language, after
pursuing Ranma to his home country. This tendency may be exaggerated in western
translations, although her vocabulary is shown to improve late in the series, and she
was presented as speaking fluent Chinese during a rooftop talk with Mousse, when
attempting to persuade him to stop using cowardly magic 'apology-glasses'. She has
repeatedly shown a devious, strategic, quite intelligent mindset, and isn't above
scheming, play-acting, misdirection or completely ruthless behavior to advance her
position towards the object of her affection. That said, she doesn't mind having fun by
making severe trouble for him in the meantime. This includes sadistically extensively
tormenting him during a forced date by tricking him that she possessed a cure for his
curse. She also casually set up the attack from Pink & Link by writing about Ranma in
her village newspaper, despite initially stating that she was aware that they'd attack,
and was wholly unconcerned/unrepentant about intentionally putting him through
severe troubles, since it gave her an opportunity to pretend to have been 'captured',
so he'd come and 'romantically rescue' her.

She has stated variations on 'obstacle is for killing' as a personal philosophy of
expediency, and has enthusiastically attempted to hold true to this towards Akane,
Ukyo, Miss Hinako, Nabiki, and presumably anyone else she'd suspect of getting too
close to her declared airen. However, even before the 'engagement', during the initial
hunt, she was willing to casually kill Akane simply for suspecting that she might hide
Ranma, so it seems more generally applicable. That said, shortly following this, after
Akane prevented Shampoo from serving her pet pig as dinner, and the latter
responded by choosing to apply the kiss of death. During the subsequent fight,
Shampoo simply opted to erase Akane’s memories of Ranma. Once these returned
Shampoo made another attempt to kill her rival, so she does not strictly limit herself to
fatal methods if alternative means can serve her better.

She is extremely vengeful. After the psychotic Pink poisoned her as a young child, and
the righteous, identical, Link saved her life, Shampoo regardless continuously struck
both of them a hundred times every time she visited their village, during a span of over
10 years. When they later attacked her with lethal Mandragora poison gas, she casually
reflected it on her Nekohanten customers, afflicting them instead.

She is unafraid to occasionally use mind control techniques to try and make her 'groom'
love her or to achieve other goals unrelated to Ranma. This includes attempting to
enslave him for life through a permanent love-inducing pill, while Mousse made a
conscious choice to free her from Kiima's mind-control when given the same
opportunity. Even if Shampoo can tolerate or even get along with Akane at times, she's
occasionally attempted to assassinate the latter, even when she was tied up, gagged
and completely defenseless, since it presented an opportunity to blame Pantyhose Taro
for the incident. At the time of her servitude to Kiima she also independently tried to
force Ranma into becoming her permanent slave, in an attempt to spare his life, by
offering to cure the helpless, doll-sized Akane in return, and othervise kill her.

When she came back to Japan with Cologne, her great-grandmother opened a Chinese
restaurant in Furinkan called the Cat Cafe. In addition to her pursuit of Ranma,
Shampoo works as a waitress and cook at the restaurant. She also has a bicycle that
she uses to make deliveries and occasionally enters scenes while riding it en route to
a customer's house with their order. If she spots Ranma in the midst of one of these
excursions, she sometimes uses it to slam down on top of him with an energetic "Ni
hao!" Otherwise, she often enters a room by punching or kicking a hole in the wall.

Shampoo in the manga, drawn in her dual innocent and calculating personality-modes.
Of all the fiancées, Shampoo is the most sexually uninhibited and the most sensual,
possibly due to her upbringing in a society including extensive warrior training for both
males and females. Nudity is also not a problem for her, as she rather enjoys being
naked and has attempted to seduce Ranma many times, even in dangerous places like
under a giant bell. Early in the series, Kasumi Tendo had a talk with her about modesty.
Although she did cease her faint-inducing habit of popping out of the tub naked
anytime Ranma tried to take a bath, the conversation has apparently had little effect on
her behavior other than that.

In "The Art of Ranma½", Shampoo is described as 'innocent and aggressive,' which is
an accurate summation of the dichotomy of her simultaneously cheerful, open,
affectionate, hard-working, spiteful, sadistic, murderous, and manipulative personality.
Despite her frequently harsh treatment of other people, and recurrently even towards
Ranma himself, her love for him seems genuine.

In the anime continuity Shampoo is occasionally shown with strongly manga-
contradicting characteristics. An early example of this is the plot line surrounding the
appearance of the Dojo Destroyer. In the manga Shampoo gleefully torments and
outsmarts Ranma on a date in return for a fake cure, and tries to prevent him from
assisting Akane in a hopeless fight, while in the anime she does relent in the end and
willingly allows him to return to help Akane.

She was also completely removed, along with Ukyo and Kodachi, from the introductory
story of Miss Hinako in the anime. Most notably, she was included to save Akane from
harm in the Phoenix egg storyline, which is in direct opposition to her manga
willingness to dispose of Akane at first opportunity she can get away with it. The
combined result of these changes seems to be to make her seem more sympathetic.

Pantyhose Taro

Damn right, Pantyhose Taro is his real name. His dad Happosai is perverted so he
named him that.

Pantyhose Taro is a young martial artist who was born in Jusenkyo. Unfortunately for
him, Happosai was visiting the cursed springs that day and decided, in a rare moment
of altruism, to help the mother out with her birthing. Once he had the newborn baby in
his hands, Happosai decided to bathe him and accidentally chose to use water from the
most accursed spring in Jusenkyo: The Niuhōmanmaorennīchuan (牛鶴鰻毛人溺泉
Níuhèmànmáorénnìquán) or spring of drowned "yeti holding an eel and crane while
riding an ox" (literally, "ox-crane-eel-hairy-man-drowned-spring"). Because of this, he
transforms into a giant, winged minotaur-like creature when splashed with cold water.
While others would consider it a tragedy, Pantyhose Taro in fact enjoys having the
massive strength and power his cursed form grants him.

However, Pantyhose Taro’s real misfortune was that according to the laws of his
village, the person who gave him his first bath was also the one in charge of naming
him. Having learned this Happosai deliberated for several days and eventually named
him “Pantyhose Taro”, a name the old pervert believed everyone would love.
Pantyhose Taro hates his name and has made his goal in life to somehow have it
changed. The laws of his village, unfortunately, state that only the person who named
him has the right to do this. Because of this, Pantyhose Taro has held a grudge against
Happosai, who plainly refuses to give him a new name.

When Pantyhose Taro first tried to force Happosai to change his name, he stole the
Jusenkyo visitor registry and then searched for him by attacking the people who had
visited the cursed springs. This, however, eventually put him into a direct conflict with
Ranma and his friends. After a brief fight, Pantyhose Taro kidnapped Akane in order to
lure Happosai to his lair. Eventually, Ranma managed to defeat Pantyhose Taro’s
monster form and to deliver Happosai to him. Unfortunately, the old man didn’t grant his
request.

Later, Pantyhose Taro returned with a jar of water he thought was from the cursed
spring of the drowned Samaritan. He planned to use that water to turn Happosai into a
gentle old man who would be more than pleased to grant his wish of a new name. The
water, however, was from the spring of drowned twins, which would have split
Happosai in two. This mistake once again placed Pantyhose Taro at odds with Ranma,
with the fight ending once Pantyhose Taro realized he had water from the wrong cursed
spring. When they met again, Pantyhose Taro had added octopus tentacles on his back
using one of the other cursed springs of Jusenkyo.

Pantyhose Taro was to cross paths with Ranma yet again. Only now he was not
searching for a way to change his name, but to somehow end his conflict with Rouge, a
Chinese girl who was also cursed in Jusenkyo and now transforms into the powerful
Hindu Goddess Asura when splashed with cold water. In the end, Ranma got involved
in the fight and Pantyhose Taro, who was by now attempting to steal Rouge’s source of
power, was defeated one more time.

Taro only had one appearance in the anime, but three in the manga. He thus made more
appearances than any other non-regular cast member.

Mousse

Blind idiot. Keep your glasses on.

Mousse is a male Chinese Amazon and a master of the Hidden Weapons fighting style
who is desperately in love with his childhood friend Shampoo. He has been in love with
her since they were both three and sees Ranma Saotome as the rival he needs to
either defeat, surpass, or kill in order to win Shampoo's affection. According to Cologne
however, Shampoo's rejection of his proposal at that time will still hold true regardless
if he manages to overcome Ranma.

He has extremely bad eyesight which requires him to wear Coke-bottle glasses, but he
usually has them concealed within his robes (manga) or propped up on his forehead
(anime), leading him to sometimes mistake people (or animals, sometimes even
inanimate objects) for other people (usually Shampoo or Ranma).

Mousse fights using hidden weapons (Anki 暗器), which includes roped hooks, rope
darts, iron balls, hidden knives, bombs, and even training toilets, all hidden in his long
sleeves and robe. The reasoning for this is supposedly dark magic which in the
Ranmaverse is hiding things where it is dark. Mousse has been shown though to not
have an infinite supply of weapons in his cloak. Additionally, he's quite crafty, and is
able to make complex fireworks or actually plan traps to defeat Ranma.

He was cursed at Jusenkyo to turn into a duck, having accidentally walked into the
Spring of Drowned Duck due to his poor eyesight. According to the Jusenkyo Guide, he
is the first person to ever fall into a spring after taking only one step. Even in the form
of a duck Mousse can still make use of many of his projectile weapons, such as knives
and bombs. Somehow he manages to hide the weapons in his feathers while his duck
form, making him one of the very few cursed characters who is not completely
defenseless while in his cursed form.

Mousse's vision appears to improve greatly while he is a duck, but this may be because
when he is in his cursed form, he has to always wear his glasses, with which he can
actually see well enough in both forms. However when a jizou statue blatantly
disguised itself as either Shampoo or Ranma, Mousse failed to see any difference from
the originals even while wearing them, (however lack of sleep could have contributed
to this). Unfortunately for him - either on reflex or to appear cooler when making an
important statement - he tends to take off his glasses and thus embarrasses himself
when he talks to the wrong addressee.

Ryoga

Directionally challenged, but you'd be good for Akane. He's more committed to her than
Ranma is.

Ryoga is introduced in chapter 10 of the manga, titled "The Hunter," in which he
casually stops a giant boar from attacking rural villagers. He politely asked for
directions to Furinkan High School, but overshot the distance by 500 miles south, and
again shortly thereafter by 500 miles north. A week later, he finally managed to reach
his destination and promptly attacked Ranma. The latter had to think hard to remember
him, but was glad to see him when he remembered Ryoga as a friend from his old boys'
school. At first, it seemed like he simply has a grudge because the latter "ran away"
from their scheduled fight, at a vacant lot located 500 yards from his own house. His
bad sense of direction forced him to wander all over Japan for four days looking for his
destination, while Ranma only waited three days before leaving with his father for their
training trip to China. Ranma recalls the motivation as consistently beating Ryoga to the
last bread at lunchtime, slowly building up the latter's resentment towards him.

Ryoga ends up a week late travelling to their next duel. During their confrontation, he
discovers Ranma's curse, and the latter accidentally cuts off part of Akane's hair, by
kicking away Ryoga's belt-slash, leading both boys to profusely apologise.

After another fight takes place in a rainstorm, female Ranma finds out that Ryoga
tracked her to China, and concludes that the reason for his anger lies in being cursed
by the springs of Jusenkyo. Ranma finds a dog on the scene which she assumes to be
Ryoga and allows it into the house, while Akane finds a suspicious small black piglet in
her room and tends to it. Akane tells Ranma to bathe the pig, but when he puts it the
hot bath Ryoga appears. Female Ranma almost manages to convince him that he should
be mad at the girl who pushed him into the spring, leading him to almost be cooked and
eaten, but it turns out to have been herself, during a chase for Genma-panda,
aggravating Ryoga once again. Akane decides to adopt the pig, naming him P-chan[1]
("cute pig"; the "P" is actually derived from the English word "pig"), completely
unaware of his dual identity and that he has become utterly enamoured with her.

Afterwards, Ryoga frequently finds himself back in Nerima, whether to challenge
Ranma, search for a cure for his Jusenkyo curse, bring pastries and gifts to Akane as
awkward shows of affection, or simply become entangled in the schemes and chaos
that seem to follow his rival. His antagonism towards Ranma gradually lessens with
time. It starts out as a fierce rivalry, then shifts back and forth between tense
competition, uneasy alliances or non-serious conflicts and, after a brief lapse,
progresses to friendly enough terms to repeatedly risk his life to help Ranma. However,
they remain highly competitive. Ranma himself considers Ryoga as "generally a friend"
[2] and as his only true rival/equal.[3]

Ryoga has collaborated with Mousse on a few sparse occasions, to get a cure for
themselves during the Musk arc, and considered competing together during an onsen
race. He and Kuno also made two very brief accidental team-ups against Ranma, when
independently simultaneously entering after seeing a photograph where he kissed
Akane, and for 1 second during a 3-way food fight. In the anime continuity, they both
attacked Ranma in the episode "Ukyo's Skirt! The Great Girly-Girl Gambit!". They also
allied in the episode "Pick-a-Peck o' Happosai" and to stop Ranma and Akane from
getting together in the episode "Let's Go to the Mushroom Temple". They also both
beat up Ranma in the OVA "Curse of the Contrary Jewel". Regardless, Ryoga is not
remotely friends with either in the manga storyline, and is here on better terms with
Ranma himself.

Kodachi

The roses are not necessary, and she's just as dumb as her brother.

Kodachi, known as "The Black Rose" in the gymnastics community, is presented as
Tatewaki Kuno's sister and a student at St. Hebereke School for Girls (St. Bacchus
School for Girls in the manga). This is in contrast to several members of the regular
cast, who attend Furinkan's mixed gender assemblage. As a master of "Martial Arts
Rhythmic Gymnastics" and captain of the school's team, she often preemptively attacks
her opponents with various weapons, including swords or a giant mallet to cripple
them, thus winning by default. She calls it "fighting in all fairness before the match."
Kodachi had seldom, if ever, lost a match before battling Ranma, a result of this
practice. When these failed, she has also resorted to the use of more devious
methods, once attempting to shake her foe's hand with thumbtacks between her
fingers. She is especially fond of using paralysis gas and sleeping powders on people,
even when she has no apparent motivation to do so.

Kodachi becomes enamoured with male Ranma after the latter acts as her 'knight in
shining armour' by saving her from falling off the roof of the Tendo Dojo. Therefore, she
is the only one of his suitors without some official or semi-official claim to him. Despite
this, she considers him her lover and wants to make him her own through any means
necessary. She and her brother have 'opposite' perspectives regarding this matter,
since he despises Ranma's male form due to the latter's engagement to Akane and for
'enslaving' the mysterious 'pigtailed girl.' Correspondingly, Kodachi dislikes Ranma's
female form, whom she believes to be a romantic rival. Regardless of his dislike for
Ranma, Tatewaki has enthusiastically given them his blessing to go steady since this
would free Akane for himself. He secretly imagines that they would have a miserable
life together.

Ukyo

Stick to cooking.

Ukyo Kuonji is an okonomiyaki chef who is Ranma Saotome's oldest known friend. She
apparently hails from Osaka, as she speaks in the Kansai-ben dialect of Japanese.
When he was 6 years old, during his at least 13 year long training trip, Ranma met Ukyo,
who was with her father, an okonomiyaki vendor. During the time they lived in the same
neighborhood, they had a game in which they play-fought every day. If Ranma won, he
got a free okonomiyaki from Ukyo's father. Needless to say, he managed to defeat her
every time.

Eventually, Ukyo's father suggested to Genma Saotome to engage her to Ranma, and to
throw his okonomiyaki cart in as a dowry. Genma agreed. Unwilling to let go of the
okonomiyaki cart, but not wanting to break the conflicting promise he made to his
friend Soun, Genma asked little Ranma which he liked better, Ukyo or okonomiyaki. The
young boy, eating an okonomiyaki at the time and unaware that his friend was a girl,
quickly chose the food. Thus, Genma stole the cart and left a furious Ukyo behind. The
other girls at her school mocked her for not being feminine enough to keep her fiancé
with her. Because of that, she decided to give up on her feminity and learned to act as
a boy. She then spent the next ten years training in the martial art of okonomiyaki to
prepare for her revenge against the Saotomes.

Ukyo caught up with Genma and Ranma ten years later, at Furinkan High school. Ukyo,
still posing as a boy, beat up Genma, and then transferred into Ranma's school. Ranma
remembered 'him' immediately, and had a hard time understanding 'he' wanted
revenge. Akane believed that Ukyo was Ranma's brother for a while after hearing and
misinterpreting a yelling match between Ukyo and Genma. Finally, Ranma and Ukyo
dueled on an enormous okonomiyaki grill. During the bout, Ranma discovered that Ukyo
was a woman and why she hated him. Ukyo finally stopped fighting when Ranma said
she was "cute." However, this in turn angered Akane Tendo, the daughter of Soun
engaged to Ranma. Upon seeing the two quarrel and Akane "congratulating" Ranma on
his "cute" fiancee, Ukyo forgave Ranma and re-established their engagement the next
day.

Later, Ukyo made a plot to have Ryoga date Akane. Ranma tries to break her plot,
turning into a girl and disguising himself as Ryoga's "fiancee". Ukyo gets angry for
interfering and removes Ranma's wig. Afterwards, she discovers Ranma's curse but
thinks it is amusing and keeps pouring cold and hot water on Ranma to change him
back and forth from boy to girl.

Near the end of the series, Ukyo meets Konatsu, a crossdressing young ninja who falls
in love with her. While Ukyo has no actual feelings of love towards Konatsu, she still
allows him to live and work (for only 10 Yen an hour) as a waiter in "Ucchan's", the
okonomiyaki restaurant she owns, but she was very annoyed when his naivete caused
great losses for her business.

Kuno

Dumbest dude ever. When is he gonna realize that Ranma and "the pigtailed girl" are
the same goddamn person??? And choose between her and Akane, even though both
of then hate you! Retard.

A master of kendo, Kuno is a senior at Furinkan High School and a classmate of Nabiki
Tendo. He is also the older brother of Kodachi Kuno, who attends St. Hebereke School
for Girls (called St. Bacchus in the manga) instead of Furinkan High.

He had long been interested in Akane Tendo, and had made a decree—given as his
entry for a school speech contest—stating he would punish anyone who tried to date
her without first defeating her in combat, thus resulting on Akane having to fight a
barrage of boys every morning when she arrived at school. When he learned of her
engagement to Ranma Saotome, he immediately assumed that Ranma was hounding
Akane and challenged the pigtailed newcomer. It ended when both of them landed in a
swimming pool and Ranma changed into his girl form. After being defeated, Kuno fell in
love with her as well, though he continued to lust after Akane.

As the story progress, he attempts to make Ranma his girlfriend more than he does with
Akane. Since Ranma is actually a man, he has no feelings for Kuno at all and has shown
extreme disgust at the concept, although he has taken advantage of Kuno's lust when
it suited his purposes. Blown up photographs of Akane and the Pigtailed Girl, courtesy
of Nabiki, adorn the walls of his bedroom.