The Story of Ranma 1/2
By: Rumiko Takahashi - Creator of Ranma 1/2
WARNING: If you have not seen/read the series and do not want the story to be spoiled do not read this section
In the town of Furinkan in the greater Tokyo area, martial artist Soun Tendo
operates a dojo training students in the Anything-Goes Martial Arts technique.
(The dojo does not appear to be doing terribly well, as we almost never see
any students actually training there.) To ensure that his family continues
in the traditional martial arts, Soun makes plans with his old friend Genma
Saotome that Genma's son Ranma (also a practitioner of the Anything-Goes School)
marry one of his three daughters-19-year-old Kasumi, 17-year-old Nabiki, or
16-year-old Akane-and thus carry on the dojo together. Unfortunately, when
Genma and his son show up at the dojo's doorstep, it appears that they have
both fallen victim to a curse at a mysterious Chinese training ground known
as Jusenkyo. As a result of falling in one of the springs, whenever they are
splashed with cold water, they each change into the last being that drowned
in the spring ages ago. In Ranma's case, this means he turns into a busty,
red-headed young girl, while Genma transforms into a panda. Fortunately, hot
water changes them back.
The youngest daughter, Akane, is quickly nominated for bridal duty by her two elder sisters. Tomboyish and hot-tempered, Akane has no patience for the thoughtless, cocksure Ranma, and the two do not get along at all at first. But even if Ranma thinks that Akane is "uncute" (or so he says), Akane is very popular with boys in her school, much to her annoyance. In fact, they meet her at the front door of the school every morning and attempt to best her in combat as a way of proving their love. As a strong martial artist, Akane wins all of these matches, but the strongest fighter among these boys is also the most persistent-Tatewaki Kuno, a pompous, poetry-quoting teenager and kendo club champion. When he hears of Ranma and Akane's engagement, he challenges Ranma to several battles, but is soon sidetracked by the appearance of a mysterious, red-headed "pigtailed girl" (Ranma in female form), and then alternately purses both girl-type Ranma and Akane.
Akane's general dislike for boys doesn't extend to everyone, however. She has been sweet on a friendly neighborhood chiropractor known as Dr. Tofu since childhood. Tragically, though, Dr. Tofu is clearly in love with her elder sister, Kasumi. One day at school, a mysterious boy appears: Ryoga Hibiki, a super-strong martial artist with an obvious grudge against Ranma. Nabiki takes bets on the outcome as the two boys battle, but soon enough, the battling pair is separated, and Ryoga-who can't find his way around his own backyard-quickly gets lost, postponing the rematch for several days. Then, in the course of the boys' second battle, Akane's long hair falls victim to one of Ryoga's razor-sharp projectiles. Mortified, Ranma tries to apologize, which makes Akane realize that he actually likes her after all. Akane decides to keep her hair stylishly short, having originally grown it out to try to impress Dr. Tofu, as a sign of her having finally gotten over her girlish crush.
Meanwhile, Ryoga finally reveals the true reason for his grudge against Ranma-that he'd followed Ranma and his father to China and stumbled into Jusenkyo himself, transforming into a small black pig, which Akane latches onto as a pet, naming him "P-chan." Ryoga soon falls hopelessly in love with Akane, and his greatest terror is that Akane will someday discover his secret identity as the pet who sleeps in her bed at night....
At the school, the girls' gymnastic team has been tormented by a sadistic young lady from the neighboring St. Heberke school who ambushes them and defeats them mercilessly, using her own special form of "Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics." In desperation, Furinkan's team turns to Akane to fill in for them in a special martial arts rhythmic gymnastics competition between the two schools. Even though she has no experience in gymnastics whatsoever, Akane agrees. The gymnast, Kodachi Kuno, also known as "The Black Rose," hears of this and ambushes Akane in the night in her own bedroom, but is unable to catch Akane completely unawares. Escaping across the Tendo's roof, Kodachi runs into Ranma and soon develops a full-scale obsession for this young man. Irritated by Kodachi's attempts to hang all over Ranma (but not jealous, no of course not that!), Akane trains for the upcoming match will grim determination, but at the last minute she injures herself and Ranma is pushed into her place as a substitute. Fighting in girl-type form, Ranma manages to beat Kodachi, even though The Black Rose fights dirty, as one might expect from the sister of Tatewaki Kuno. Though Kodachi had promised to give up her infatuation with Ranma if she lost the match, she keeps that promise about as well as she obeys the rules of the fair play.
The next woman to (re) enter Ranma's life is Shampoo, an Amazon from a remote village in China. As they traveled across China, Ranma and Genma happened upon the village in the midst of a tournament. Hungry from their journey, the two quickly tear into the banquet table earmarked for "first prize" for the victor, and in payment, Ranma is forced to challenge the tournament's angry champion, Shampoo, to a match. When Ranma wins, a furious Shampoo marks (girl-type) Ranma with the "Kiss of Death"-a promise to chase her to the end of the Earth and kill her. Finally, Shampoo has caught up with Ranma in Japan. Unaware of Ranma's gender-switching, she doesn't recognize boy-type Ranma, but when Shampoo tries to attack Akane for hiding girl-type Ranma, the "boy" side defeats her in combat as well. Surprisingly, though, Shampoo reacts not with anger, but with a declaration of love!
According to Amazon law, a woman who defeats an Amazon must die, but if it is a man who defeats her, she must marry him. Shampoo's persistence soon aggravates Akane beyond all reason, and the two girls face off. After the fight, Akane's memory of Ranma has vanished, thanks to a special Chinese shiatsu technique and rare herbal shampoo used on her by Shampoo in the match. Ranma tries every trick in the book to get the cure from Shampoo, but Akane finally cures herself when goaded by Ranma with a long string of his signature curses (You're built like a brick! You talk like a hick! You can't even kick, etc., etc.). Ranma finally confesses his secret (that he and girl-type Ranma are the same person) to Shampoo, and she leaves, heartbroken. After several adventures, including Ranma and Akane's match against Azusa Shiratori and Mikado Sanzenin, the "Golden Pair" of martial arts figure skating (during which Ranma declares Akane to behis fiancée in front of the entire crowd of onlookers!) and a martial arts food delivery race, Kuno and his ninja henchman Sasuke discover Ranma's secret weakness-a pathological fear of cats, brought about by one of Genma's less successful training methods. Hot on the heels of this revelation, Shampoo returns from China with an all-new problem-it seems she went to train at Jusenkyo herself, and wouldn't you know?-now she turns into a cat. Shampoo has also brought her great-grandmother Cologne to Japan as an enforcer of the Amazon marriage clause.
Cologne inflicts Ranma with the "full-body cat-tongue" technique, making his body unable to bear hot water (which he needs to change back into a guy). To get the cure, Ranma has to master the awesome "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" technique shown to him by Cologne. But then Shampoo's scorned suitor from childhood, Mousse, the "master of hidden weapons," appears and challenges Ranma, while he is yet in the grip of the "full-body cat tongue." Somehow, girl-type Ranma manages to defeat Mousse.
Ranma finally masters the attack, and gets the cure, but during this time, Ryoga has been training in the wilds, and returns to challenge Ranma again. To his horror, he is easily defeated by Ranma, newly trained by Cologne. To even the odds, Cologne trains Ryoga in the dreaded "Breaking Point" technique, which creates explosions by touching a certain, crucial spot-the "breaking point." Cologne's purpose in getting Ranma and Ryoga to fight is to use Akane as the prize (having quickly realized Ryoga's infatuation for her), but Ranma manages to win the match. No sooner is this over than Mousse returns (with a Jusenkyo curse of his own). These battles are no more successful than the previous one, but Shampoo takes some pity on the poor boy, and Mousse stays to help out at the Cat Cafe ramen house that Shampoo and Cologne have opened.
Things really get out of hand when Soun and Genma's long lost martial arts master Happosai reappears. This panty-stealing, girl-watching dirty old man has returned to train his heir to the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts, and Soun and Genma quickly nominate Ranma. Though Happosai's obsession for seeing Ranma in his girl-type form doesn't much help the two get along very well, under Happosai's training, Ranma's skill does greatly improve.
After several more adventures, including a false alarm about a Japanese "spring of drowned man," a cookie bake-off between Akane and Kodachi, and a turn playing Shakespeare in a Furinkan High drama production, yet another face from Ranma's past appears-Ukyo Kuonji, a spatula-weilding okonomiyaki chef who, it turns out, is yet another of Ranma's fiancées due to Genma's trading her hand for her father's okonomiyaki cart. Originally furious about being abandoned in childhood by Genma and Ranma, she falls back in love with Ranma when he points out how "cute" she is (as opposed to Akane, who's still "uncute"). But Ukyo has her own admirers, and one quickly catches up with her-Tsubasa Kurenai, who enjoys dressing up as inanimate objects, such as soda machines, trees and mailboxes. Tsubasa it appears, also has a fickle heart, as both Akane and girl-type Ranma also draw attention.
A few more adventures later, including Akane's turn at being super-strong from eating magic noodles, Ranma getting hit on the head and believing that he's a real girl after all and Happosai playing with love with three magic love potion pills, Ranma's troubles are going to double once again, when Shampoo's Chinese Amazon "sisters" Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung show up on the Dojo doorstep to see why Shampoo hasn't carried out the "kiss of death" on the girl who defeated her in China...and maybe take matters into their own hands....
And that's only the beginning...!
