Genma, Soun and so on... 

As you may have noticed, my fave character is Hibiki Ryoga. Lost Boy. P-chan. The Fanged Sweetie. Bandanna Man. I could go on and on. (Though the unchallenged winner is RPM's excellent insult of "Geographically Impaired Dental Disaster"). But there's also a small section for the other characters I love, namely Tendo Soun, Saotome Genma and Kuno Tatewaki.

Yeah, what can I say? I just haven't found enough worthwhile female characters in Ranma 1/2 that any of them make my top favorites (except maybe Nabiki, who just runs in on fifth), although Shampoo the Amazon is both funny and clearly has some potential and some hidden deeper sides (for her sake I hope so!), Kuonji Ukyo is very sweet, friendly, smart, soulful, talented and a nice match for Ryoga, Nabiki Tendo is deliciously wicked, sly, self-sufficient, resourceful, confident, very interesting and has the best name and hairdo of all the gals, and Cologne is a 3000-year-old (that can't be right?!) intriguing mystery. I could also mention that Happosai is a neat character, but he's not female, so...still, all my fave characters are male, and here they are.

Tendo Soun & Saotome Genma

Like Jessica Rabbit said when she was asked why she loved Roger Rabbit: "He makes me laugh." That goes for both of these middle-aged martial artists. They make me laugh, and they are some of the more flawed characters in the series, which is always a good basis for lovability and for the more complex characters. It's nearly always the sidekicks that are the most interesting, in my opinion. Too bad Soun and Genma don't get more on-time.
 

Tendo Soun is a rather handsome older man, (ignore the moustache, ladies) and though he is indeniably as spineless and meddlesome as his friend, he is more honest, polite and honorable than Genma (not that this takes much, but...), treats his children better, and he's managed to get a good house, a dojo and three lovely (um...) daughters, even though we (or I, at least) don't know how much of the good influence and upbringing he did himself and what of this is the work of his late wife. I don't know what his wife was like, but I think he's capable of landing someone pretty decent, nice, fairly smart and beautiful. She must've been a good woman. Soun indesputely means well in what he does, but unfortunately he is as clumsy and mostly as oblivious as Genma.

I simply adore his Full Tendo Soun Wail (tm). He is obviously easily moved. If he was a real life person, I wish Soun could teach me that cool battle-aura-head-growing-huge-thingie. It's great when he dresses up in his Samurai outfits, too.  One question arises, however-- when do Soun and Genma actually teach anyone martial arts? Never seen 'em do it, except to Ranma, although it's supposedly called a School Of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. The "Nabiki Is The Sole Income Of The Family" theory must hold some truth.

And how did a fairly good guy like him end up with Happosai and Genma, anyways? I think Soun's personality improves when he's not around Genma (just a feeling), and I speculate why he keeps him around. For the sake of their old friendship? Just because of the engagement between Ranma and Akane? I don't know. I also think that Soun is one of those characters who has potential of being more secure of himself and powerful-- in more than one aspect of the word-- but who will never realize this until it's too late. Or maybe never.
 

Saotome Genma! Now there's a funny character, and cute in his own weird way! The man who makes me wonder if Ranma's gonna go bald and near-sighted as well (heehee, that'd be funny)! In a way, Genma's only inches away from being a villain, but he's too lazy to put down the work it takes to be one, and he's not evil, just selfish and cowardly, really. However, he does do things every once in a while that help to make Ranma's everyday life just a little harder.

I wonder what he was thinking that time when he pushed little Ranma into the cat pit with fishcakes tied all over him, and if his mistakes comes from ignorance, stupidity or simply laziness, since I know of two at least two incidents where he caused a horrible accident-- the cat pit and of course Jusenkyo-- because he didn't bother to read the manual/guide. While Genma admittedly is kinda cool when he's a panda, waving around those signs all the time, he's much funnier as a human, and it's kinda odd that he chooses to stay in panda form most of the time. Probably because he thinks people expect less of him when he is a panda, but the Tendoes and Ranma and most of the others know he's a panda anyway, so why? Perhaps it's simply because he can eat more as a panda?

Genma must have some redeeming traits besides being hilariously funny, but I truly don't have the energy to think of any, especially since I have never seen him interact with his wife Nodoka, which could've given me some ideas about good points in his personality if he was nice to her.
All I've heard is that he's afraid of her and tries to avoid her because he promised they would all commit seppuku (an "honorable", but very painful suicide) if he couldn't bring up Ranma to be a manly man-- and we all know just how "manly" Ranma is nowadays ^_^;. Yet, unless Nodoka is bonkers, there must be something to him that made her choose him. Or maybe it's true what they say about women falling for the complete jerks.

He would probably be an excellent cook if he was forced to cook for himself because he'd put a lot of energy into it if it was solely to his benefit. Can't exactly call that a compliment, but it's as close to one as I can get right now. Okay, okay... here's a few: He's good at enjoying life; has a talent for feeling at home almost everywhere, has come up with some pretty colorful martial arts attacks, doesn't get upset/excited very easily (unlike Soun), and he, too, basically means well in his engagement-plots. But all in all, he's a pretty rotten character, and lovable as hell. Go Genma!
 

Kuno Tatewaki

Might seem a bit illogical that I like this doofus, but I do. For one, he's incredibly entertaining in all his poetry-spouting, snobbish, full-of-himself oblivious stupidity that can make your eyes go white and your head hit the ground in shock, and second...well, he's the most handsome character in Ranma 1/2, simple as that.
Call me superficial, but he is. I guess I just have a thing for tall guys, and ya can't say he's not tall. I love that kendoist outfit, his hair, his eyes and his slender face. He's got grace. Um, when he's not being beaten into the ground by Ranma, that is.
Sure, sure, Ryoga is snacksy as hell...but while the word for Ryoga is more in the direction of "cute"-- he's mostly a nervous bundle or has got a puppy-eyed, depressed look about him-- the word for Tatewaki is "handsome". He's downright pretty. But Ryoga's got a personality on his side that's a million times better than Kuno's, and unlike Kuno, you have compassion for him.  Besides, while I admit Kuno holds a fascination with me (you gotta wonder sometimes if there's more to the guy), I have always liked rugged good looks better than sleek handsomeness.

The Kuno Tatewaki/Nabiki Tendo Pairing

He is undoubtedly very photogenically compatable with Nabiki Tendo-- who would have had no trouble with adjusting to upper-class life-- and shares her good self-confidence, but unless Kuno Tatewaki suddenly turned out not to be a half-mad idiot after all, it just wouldnt work. She would probably be nice to him even so, because he can be quite charming and would most likely shower her with gifts and give her all she wanted, but still, the ultimate worst-case scenario would be that Nabiki had her fun with him, ripped off his money and sent him to an overdue stay at the nuthouse for a long time of therapy (along with his sister).
If Nabiki developed any feelings for him at all, it wouldn't be likely to be love. I believe she needs someone on her own wavelenght, and Kuno would just be frustrating for her.

Of course, there's the possibility that she's so independent that she wouldn't need someone to connect with and relate to, and would be content with a little boy-toy like Kuno. Knowing him, he'd have a battle between his romantic side and his so-called perverted, lustful side over what to do about her treatment of him.  Don't ask me which side that would've won. On the other hand, Nabiki-- being as smart as she is-- wouldn't have let him know that she was only playing with him.

Then there's that other theory floating around on the net; Kuno Tatewaki turns out to be a conniving bastard, who controls and maybe even rapes poor Nabiki Tendo, or just plain plays her over or ruins her financially. I don't know what to make of this, but it's a scary possibility. He's sure as hell got the fundings to make it happen. Who really knows what's going on in Kuno's head and how he'll turn out as an adult? You'd have to ask Takahashi-san, and perhaps even she wouldn't know.

Then again, if he somehow turned out not to be a stupid loony...it could work, right? Well...the couples in Nerima do have a tendency to argue, and these two do. They are the ones who are teamed up when Ranma is teamed up with Akane, Shampoo with Mousse etc etc. All I know is that Nabiki calls him Kuno-baby (though it may just be to annoy him) and she is the one who takes him to the school nurse when he's hurt. The thing that makes it all uncertain is basically whether we should believe if Kuno really is that stupid or not. He can probably be nice, he is polite at least, but if he really is that stupid (or should I call it oblivious?) then Nabiki is just too damn smart for him. In my opinion, she is the smartest girl in the manga. 

Then there is the question if the Tendos would want to be in-laws to the Kunos. The money would be a plus and a chance to expand the Tendo dojo and the Anything-goes school, but the Kunos are pretty nuts, so that could mean trouble. Luckily for Nabiki, if she should ever choose to date him, Tatewaki is at least the most sane person of the family. "Tatewaki and Nabiki" sounds nice, anyway, and they pose pretty good together on that picture. Perhaps Nabiki could have some potential in the martial arts? She'd look kind of cool as a Kendoist, if Kuno would teach her; unless that's only for men, I don't know. Another thing is that I feel that Kuno is kind of gone, there's just something wrong with him, he seems almost in denial over Akane and his "pig-tailed girl". He seems more in denial, oblivious and slightly mad than stupid, actually. So if he could be taken into therapy, I feel there's some sort of switch in his mind that could be pulled so he'd become more normal. With a father like that, he's bound to be a little bonkers.