Ranma ½ Primer

Version 0.99.* Last updated on 02/02/2003

Ranma ½ is based on the manga (Japanese comic book) of the same name by Ms. Rumiko Takahashi. Ms. Takahashi is the most popular female comic artist in the world, and is, at the very least, one of the most prolific/best selling manga artists. She is not only responsible for Ranma ½, but also Lum*Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, "Mermaid Saga" (includes Mermaid Forest, Mermaid's Scar, etc.), Rumic World, Rumic Theater, One-Pound Gospel, and most recently Inu-Yasha. Many of her manga have been converted into anime series, including Ranma ½, Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Mermaid's Scar, One-Pound Gospel, and Inu-Yasha.

The Ranma ½ series consists of the TV series, which has seven seasons released in the U.S. so far (actually, the seventh season, called "Ranma Forever" by Viz Video, the distributors of Ranma ½ in the US, has almost all been released), an OAV series, and two movies: Ranma ½ the Movie: Big Trouble in Nekonron, China and Ranma ½ the Movie 2: Nihao My Concubine. The movies and the OAV's are not a continuation of the story in the TV series. They are separate stories unto themselves, but are definitely worth seeing, although you should see at least a couple seasons of the TV series so you can be introduced to the characters first.

Ranma ½ is the story of Ranma Saotome, a 16-year-old boy who is a martial artist. He had been traveling in China on a training mission with his father, Genma Saotome, and they both fell in the cursed springs of Jusenkyo. Now, when he's splashed with water, he turns into a girl! His father, when splashed with water, turns into a panda. (They change back to normal when splashed with warm water.) Genma is old friends with Soun Tendo, with whom he trained as a young martial artist. Genma has promised that Ranma will marry one of Soun's daughters and take over the Tendo Dojo and carry on the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. The problem is that when Ranma and Genma finally show up at the Tendo household, Ranma is in his girl form and Genma is in his panda form. Much confusion ensues until the situation is finally explained to the Tendos. Soun has three daughters: Kasumi (19), Nabiki (17), and Akane (16). Kasumi has taken over the household duties after their mother passed away. Nabiki and Akane are both in high school. Nabiki is very conniving and money grubbing. Akane is very much into martial arts (she often wears her gi (karate outfit)), and hates boys. Kasumi and Nabiki decide that Akane should be the one that Ranma weds, not only because she's sort of tried to make friends with him/her already, but because they are the same age and Akane hates boys, and Ranma is half girl. It is thus decided that Akane will marry Ranma, despite what Akane and Ranma think.

Throughout the series, Akane and Ranma are constantly arguing, although they do agree that their being fiancees was only their parents' idea. It also turns out that Akane is not the only fiancee that Ranma has.

Genma has also promised that Ranma would marry Ukyo Kuonji, a childhood friend of Ranma's, whose father gave Genma the family okonomiyake cart as a dowry. Genma ran off with the cart and Ranma, leaving Ukyo behind. Ukyo, who dressed like a boy and spent her entire childhood acting like a boy, finally comes after Ranma for revenge. Ranma, however, thought that Ukyo's a boy still, until during their fight it is revealed that Ukyo is indeed a girl. Eventually, Ukyo settles into life in Furinkan, going to school with Ranma and Akane, and running her own okonomiyake shop. Ranma refers to Ukyo as his "cute" fiancee. This of course gets on Akane's nerves, because he's constantly referring to Akane as "uncute". Ukyo uses a giant spatula as a weapon and various cooking techniques as part of her martial art.

While in China, after visiting Jusenkyo, "girl-type" Ranma beat Shampoo, a member of the Chinese Amazon tribe, in a fight. Because of this, Shampoo promises to chase Ranma to the ends of the earth and kill her. Eventually, "boy-type" Ranma accidentally beats Shampoo in a fight, but instead of trying to kill him, Shampoo wants to marry him according to Amazon tribal law. She eventually figures out that both Ranmas are one in the same, so the situation calms down, and now Shampoo just chases after Ranma to try to get him to marry her. After being unable to defeat Ranma, she returns to China, where she is retrained at Jusenkyo, with the inevitable falling in a cursed spring. Shampoo becomes a cat when splashed with water. Unfortunately for her, Ranma is deathly afraid of cats (due to Genma's machinations). She works at the Cat Cafe, a Chinese restaurant that her great grandmother, Cologne, opened up. Shampoo either fights hand-to-hand or uses two spherical war hammers as weapons.

Ranma's final major "fiancee" is Kodachi Kuno, sister of Tatewaki Kuno, and member of one of the richest families in Japan. Kodachi hates Ranma's girl half, but is in love with Ranma's boy half, never realizing that they are the same person. After "boy-type" Ranma saves Kodachi, she falls head over heals in love with him and eventually tries many things to get Ranma to marry her. Unfortunately for Kodachi, Ranma doesn't really like her, unlike his other "fiancees", all of whom he likes, but doesn't love. Throughout the series, Ranma is also revealed to have a number of other "fiancees" which Genma has conveniently forgotten to tell Ranma about. Kodachi is a member of the St. Hebereke (a private all-girl's school) Martial Arts Gymnastics team. As such, her martial art involves weapons used in rhythmic gymnastics, mainly the ribbon, but also clubs, hoops, etc.

Besides having a number of supposed fiancees, Ranma also has many enemies, due to his martial arts prowess and his big mouth. The first, Ryoga Hibiki, is an old schoolmate of Ranma's. Ryoga challenged Ranma to a fight, but due to his horrible sense of direction, never showed up (after Ranma had waited several days at the appointed spot, an empty lot behind Ryoga's house). Eventually, Ryoga followed Ranma to China to get his revenge, but ends up getting knocked into a cursed spring in Jusenkyo, and now turns into a little black potbellied pig when splashed with water. Akane finds the little pig and makes it her pet, P-chan. She never realizes that it's Ryoga, although Ranma does. Akane sleeps with P-chan and takes baths with him, which causes Ranma to get extremely jealous and angry with Ryoga. However, Ryoga, who has never had a girl treat him so nice as Akane treats P-chan, falls hopelessly in love with Akane. Ryoga is constantly challenging Ranma to fights.

Ranma's next enemy is Tatewaki Kuno, who refers to himself as "The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High". He is brother to Kodachi Kuno, and a member of one of the richest families in Japan. Kuno is in the same class as Nabiki Tendo, Akane's older sister. He is a powerful martial artist and captain of the school's kendo club. Kuno is obsessed with Akane and won't let anyone else try to date her. When he finds out that Ranma is Akane's fiancee, he immediately makes Ranma his enemy, and constantly challenges Ranma to fights. Kuno is different from Ranma's other enemies in that he is in love with Ranma's girl half. He never realizes that both Ranmas are the same person. In fact, he can't choose between Akane and "girl-type" Ranma, so he wants them both to be his. This leads to interesting situations, as Kuno's sister, Kodachi, is in love with "boy-type" Ranma, but can't stand "girl-type" Ranma. Luckily for Ranma, the two siblings usually end up fighting eachother.

Ranma's final major enemy is Mousse. Mousse is a childhood "friend" of Shampoo from China. Mousse is hopelessly in love with Shampoo, and has proposed to her many times, only to be rejected. He is very nearsighted, so he must wear thick glasses to see anything. This causes all kinds of problems, as his glasses are constantly slipping off. Mousse is a master of hidden weapons, and often tries to sneak attack Ranma, who he hates because Shampoo is in love with Ranma and not him. Mousse also changes into a duck when splashed with cold water as a result of an accident in Jusenkyo.

The final person to bring up is Happosai. He is also an enemy of Ranma, but he is more like an enemy to all humanity. Happosai is an extremely powerful martial artist who founded the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, and was master to Genma and Soun, and therefore considers himself Ranma's master. Unfortunately, he feels that Ranma doesn't treat him with the proper respect. Of course he doesn't deserve to be treated with any respect, as he is the ultimate pervert. His "hobby" is to go around stealing women's underwear to add to his collection, as well as peep in on women in the baths, look up women's dresses, and try to cop a feel whenever possible. Trying to keep Happosai in check is a constant chore for Ranma, whose only defense against Happosai seems to be to turn himself into a girl and flash some skin to get Happosai to run over to try to cop a feel or get a better look, whereupon Ranma will beat up Happosai. In fact, Happosai is constantly trying to peep on Akane and "girl-type" Ranma, and trying to get "girl-type" Ranma to wear sexy lingerie. If Happosai ever gets really serious, it is almost impossible to beat him. His favorite "finishing move" is Happo-fire burst, in which he throws big spherical bombs at his enemy.

Most of the series involves the cast getting into all kinds of "martial arts" contests, including cooking, races, etc. Depending on the contest and the participants, the prize usually is either a trip to China (so the Jusenkyo cursees can get cured), Ranma's hand in marriage, or Akane's hand in marriage. Other plot lines involve Ranma or someone else going on a training mission, usually in the mountains, in order to learn a new move or improve their martial arts. In all of the episodes, there is always an interesting (i.e. humorous) interaction between the characters because of their motivations to get eachother out of the way to achieve their ultimate goal. For more information on the cast of Ranma ½, go to the Ranma Tribe page.

*I'm doing this whole thing from memory. If some detail is wrong, gomen. Please let me know and I'll fix it.