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Ranma Saotome (早乙女 乱馬)

Ranma Male Form
Ranma Female Form

Male Ranma voiced by: Kappei Yamaguchi (JP), Sarah Strange (EN, Seasons 1-3, OVAS and Movies), Richard Ian Cox (EN, Seasons 4+)
Female Ranma voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (JP), Venus Terzo (EN), Brigitta Dau (EN, episodes 1-6 and OVA 1 only)

The main character of the series. A teen-aged master of Supernatural Martial Arts, generally assumed to be sixteen years old, though no official age is ever given.[1] Like most of the other cast members, a very contradictory character, possessing both positive and negative attributes: he can be sensitive and thoughtful one moment, and brash and insulting the next. Cursed to become a Gender Bender because of his father's stupidity, then bound in an Arranged Marriage he never even knew about until he was practically at the girl's doorstep, needless to say, he doesn't get on too well with his father.

When it comes to Akane, Ranma's lack of social finesse and Akane's mild dislike of men initially drives them to clash more often than not. But as the story goes on, he gets to know her better and ends up genuinely caring for her as a person.

  • Accidental Pervert: Almost never means to do things perverted, and is in fact kind of prudish, but is frequently found in highly incriminating Not What It Looks Like scenarios.
  • The Ace: Apply mostly in the manga, the anime seems to have more of a bunny ear lawyer or even idiot hero most of the time.
  • Attractive Bent Gender: He's attractive in both his forms, but his female form is considered a "babe" by pretty much any average guy who sees her, and Nabiki earns a regular profit by selling nude pictures/handkerchiefs of it.
  • Awesomeness By Analysis: Bordering on Mega Manning (specialized in combat situations).
  • Batman Gambit: Especially in the manga, really likes to show off by putting together cunning and elaborate plans. Unfortunately, (for him), his "puppets" seldom react as they're supposed to for long.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: The male half of the template's Trope Codifiers.
  • Berserk Button: Ranma's a fairly forgiving guy, considering the amount of crap he goes through on a regular basis. But if you hurt Akane or insult his masculinity, all bets are off.

"Akane is my fiancee. Lay a hand on her, and I'll kill you!"

  • Big Eater: Often exaggerated, but does enjoy food and is capable of packing away a considerable amount... but is usually more inclined towards frequent snacking then putting away massive meals. Somewhat a Justified Trope given the sorts of fights he gets into, and unlike his father he usually doesn't allow his appetites to lead him into danger. At least, not after it gets him his Accidental Marriage with Shampoo and zapped with the Dragon Whisker.
  • Biting the Handkerchief: In the anime as part of at least one Wounded Gazelle Gambit, the manga version is much more likely to just look tearful/fake cry without a handkerchief.
  • Blackmail: Ranma attempted to use what he thought was a love letter to blackmail Nabiki in the manga. Some of his psychological manipulations probably count as emotional blackmail, and he does search for things to use against people.
  • Blessed with Suck: His consumption of rice porridge made with stock from the hair-growing Dragon's Whisker forced him to keep his hair tied up with said Whisker or remain in girl form, otherwise his hair would grow and grow until he used up his whole life's supply. The effects wore off by the end of that story, however, so he's no longer at risk of baldness (well, unless you count all the hair he "used up" during the fighting).
  • Blue Eyes: In the anime, which lets him switch between "bluesteel", or blue-tinted grey, as a guy and deep blue as a girl.
  • Boobs of Steel: His female form is arguably the most buxom among the female cast, if you take "her" bust size in comparison to "her" relatively short stature; "she's" also arguably the physically strongest female among the regularly recurring characters. "She's" canonically got a better figure than Akane, at least: bigger breasts, trimmer waist (and in the anime completes the trifecta with bigger hips). It's still often an Informed Attribute, given that the size of all the teenage females varies quite a bit, and size differences between individuals aren't necessarily apparent in the artwork unless for some reason that aspect's getting played up in the story.
  • Braids of Action: Ranma generally has his hair in a braid, though prior to the dragon whisker he had a Badass Long Hair Tomboyish Ponytail in flashbacks, and occasionally has other hair styles such as Girlish Pigtails while in disguise or uses Hair Decorations such as Flower in Her Hair.
  • Brutally Honest: Has a tendency to be Brutally Honest which causes him far more problems than when he tells Blatant Lies (which he does almost as often).
  • The Bully: To Gosunkugi (accidentally). Also to Ryōga in Middle School.
  • Bully Hunter: Has been hired to apprehend hoodlums on occasion, and on his own time, he will put a stop to bullying he finds himself witnessing, such as Kodachi's continued brutalization of the already-defeated Furinkan gymnastic team or the masked kids that were attempting to rob Gosunkugi.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Out of everyone in the manga, including Ryōga, he has the worst case of this. Even in the few times he acknowledges his feelings for Akane via inner monologues, while she's being nice to him in turn, he can't get a single word out and is frustrated by this.
  • Catapult Nightmare: On the multiple occasions that Ranma has a nightmare, he invariably wakes up with a scream.
  • Ceiling Cling: A favorite habit of his. It's useful for purposes of escaping trouble or eavesdropping, but he's often seen doing it for no plot-related purpose, particularly in the manga. Possibly he's training, or possibly Takahashi just wants to show off his skills, or both.
  • Celibate Hero: While most members of his Unwanted Harem practically throw themselves at him, he doesn't reciprocate, unless he needs to manipulate them or he feels unattractive.
  • The Chew Toy: Frequently doesn't deserve the punishment he gets... or at least to be punished that much.
  • Chick Magnet: Has attracted a number of suitors, some but not all through Arranged Marriages. While probably not the knockout his female form is implied to be, or quite reaching Bishounen status, Ranma can be assumed to be fairly attractive, in peak physical shape, and his often cocky attitude probably doesn't hurt.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: More often than not because he was just passing through, but sometimes just because "it's a martial artist's duty" (to help those in need).
  • Combat Pragmatist: Ties in with Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty below.
  • Compliment Backfire: Due to a very bad case of foot-in-the-mouth, even when he's not trying to insult Akane she gets pissed at him.
  • Crossdresser: When dressed as a girl and turned back into a guy.
  • Curse: Multiple. There's the obvious Gender Bender curse, but he also has one based on his hair constantly growing when not controlled by a magical item, and gains (and loses) others during the series' run... being unable to stomach hot water, for example.
  • Curtains Match the Window: By the late manga, the non-canonical artwork would most commonly show Ranma's female form with red hair and red eyes.
  • Damsel in Distress/Dude in Distress: Has been in both situations due to his curse. Both situations often stem from overzealous suitors. Kodachi even once kidnapped him and placed him in an Unwilling Suspension at one point.
  • Deadly Dodging: The very basis of the Hiryū Shōten Ha (Flying Dragon Ascension Wave) is based on this. The practitioner must goad the foe into a spiral pattern while making them discharge a hot Battle Aura, all while dodging the enemy attacks and keeping a cool aura (and a clear mind) oneself. Upon reaching the nexus, the martial artist winds up and delivers a spinning uppercut: not only does this final punch release the user's cold aura in a devastating blast, but the temperature difference between the hot and cold Battle Auras creates a localized tornado that tosses the enemy high into the air, usually knocking him out in the process (not that the fall is any picnic, either). Ranma, being the martial arts savant that he is, has modified the technique so he doesn't need an opponent to follow him in a spiral: having them release ki blasts, ignite the battlefield, or even just surround Ranma in a vaguely circular pattern is enough, and he'll do the rest. He MUST dodge the enemy's assault, however.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Far more so in the manga than the anime.
  • Determinator: He does not give up and has on a number of occasions kept going on willpower alone collapsing from injury upon acquiring his objective. Example when he try to 'learned' Ryōga ki blast by getting hit by it for nearly the whole day and only collapse after Ryōga started to feel bad and left.
  • Dude Magnet: Ranma in female form attracts just as much suitors as his male form, plus load of perverts.
  • Enemy Without: In the anime, Happōsai once used a magical incense called Personality Splitter to separate Ranma's female form from his male form, in hopes that she would be so happy with being her own person, she would model underwear for him. Of course, it turned out that as an embodiment of Ranma's "yin side", it was basically Ranma's evil half come to life, trying to seduce Ranma and take control of him.
  • Enjo Kosai: Willing to accept offers of food from guys who mistake him for a real girl, which Akane disapproves of, but is also happy to crush their feelings and chase them off by revealing he's really a guy. He also purposefully goes on dates to acquire things like information or items from people (he is not that interested in money but still went on the dates to be compensated) like Tatewaki or Shampoo.
  • Enter Stage Window: Ranma doesn't seem to see any clear distinction between windows and doors.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning: His most powerful technique, the Hiryu Shoten Ha, uses circular movements to generate a powerful wind vortex. It's essential to getting back his strength after he is Brought Down to Normal, and revisions of the technique are ultimately responsible for beating his two greatest adversaries (Herb and Saffron) in the manga, as well as Prince Kirin in the anime.
  • Excuse Me While I Multitask: Ranma is seen once doing some Juggle Fu with a fishbowl (with a live eel inside) while fending off Ryōga's attacks. He's also sometimes fighting with his hands in his pockets, either against very weak opponents or while sparring with Akane to rile her up. There's also the couple of times he was reading manga while sparring one-handed with Akane.
  • Expressive Hair: His pigtail is independently mobile and responsive to his moods.
  • Fan Service: In both genders!
  • The Fettered: Comes with being a martial artist.
  • Fiery Redhead: Girl-type. In the anime, which not only gives him the right hair color but also makes him more aggressive and forthright than in the manga. Still has some of the right personality traits in the manga though.
  • Five-Finger Discount: Ranma is not averse to stealing things that he needs, although it's mostly food.
  • Flaw Exploitation: Not only will Ranma use any flaw you happen to have (such as a curse, addiction to female undergarments, or getting mad when you see breasts) he will actively seek them out (for example he searched Nabiki's room twice in the manga looking for something to use against her or give him a way to blackmail her).
  • Gender Bender: Due to his curse. Which makes Ranma one of the few male examples of Action Girl (and Hot Amazon, by proxy) out there, and a Cute Bruiser to boot.
  • Gender Bender Friendship: Subverted at first, but then played absolutely straight: in the beginning chapters, it looks like Ranma's female form will allow him to get closer to the justifiably androphobic Akane. However, the fact "she" is really a transformed "he" is revealed minutes later and Akane promptly goes ballistic, picking up the living room table one-handed and swatting him under it. However, throughout the series proper, Akane is less wary with Ranma's female form than his male, and the majority of their most comfortable and relaxed moments have occurred while Ranma was female.
  • Hair Colors: The first volume of the manga gave him black hair in either form. The anime changed it to red hair as a girl, presumably to make it easier for Ranma to be identified, and the non-canonical artworks by the author portrayed both male and female forms with a wide variety of hair and eye colors.
  • Hates Being Touched: Gets extremely nervous when girls try to do something physical to him, and, being vehemently heterosexual, he gets extremely violent if men try something on his "girl form". Part of the blame for this might be because he is inevitably battered by Akane if she sees him in something that looks compromising, while the other girls vary between aggressively flirting with him and hitting him for pretty much the same reason.
  • Healing Factor: Lampshaded and otherwise commented on by other characters in the series.
  • Hello, Nurse!: See Gender Bender above.
  • Heroic BSOD: Everything up to the Cat Fist.
  • Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Many of the mentioned things from Ranma's childhood would have gotten him either killed or taken by social services if they found out, but they're all Played for Laughs.
  • I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!: He takes full advantage of his girl form to get free (or at least cheaper) food.
  • I Have the High Ground: Fond of high places and a common means of travel for him via extraordinary leaps and Roof Hopping.
  • Impossible Thief: During the training of the Umisenken (a powerful martial art style inspired by sneaky thieves and actually intended for that), he stole the foundation of the Tendō home, and the Tendō realized it only after the deed in spite of being sitting on it! Thankfully, his honour forbids him from using the Umisenken anymore...
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Able to flick a stub-sized pencil from across the classroom into the hole of a fifty-yen coin in his teacher's hand... all while clinging to the ceiling.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Will use anything as a weapon including, but not limited to, spoons, boulders, rocks, pencils, paper fans, bos, staffs, brooms, noodles, tennis racket, water, magic items, pinwheels, explosives, his own hair, bras, P-chan and other people.
  • Indy Ploy: When a Batman Gambit fails, or he just doesn't feel he has the time/it's worth the effort to pull off, Ranma can wing it like a pro. Probably the best at it in the series.
  • Innocent Cohabitation: With Akane.
  • Interspecies Romance: Ranma was nearly forced into this by the Cursed Scribble Panda, who wanted to date him before getting sealed up again.
  • I Want to Be a Real Man: Both in the literal sense (i.e. get rid of the Curse) and the metaphorical sense... the fact he's got to commit Seppuku if his mother ever judges him to be "unmanly" doesn't make things any better.
  • Jerkass: Ranma can be really petty, spiteful, egotistic, or manipulative, especially when irritated, pushed, or just uncomfortable, but usually isn't as bad as he claims to be (or as others claim he is).
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Not as bad as other examples in the show, but Ranma can still be petty, spiteful, egotistic, or manipulative, especially when irritated, pushed, or just uncomfortable, but despite everything Ranma is shown as a generally very helpful and compassionate sort when he clearly notices that someone is in serious trouble, including people he just met if asked for assistance, and will recurrently feel extremely bad after he has gone too far. He even saved Herb's and Nabiki's lives, and felt sad for Happosai when the latter felt abandoned by his students. Exactly how he's a jerk varies between continuities. Anime Ranma is brasher and more prone to insulting or verbally harassing people, especially Akane. Manga Ranma is more of a Manipulative Bastard who enjoys messing around with peoples' heads, like his attempts to use a Love Potion or hypnotic incense to break the ice between Ryōga and Akari.
  • Kung Fu Kid: He's a teenager and one of the best martial artists around. It helps he's been training BEFORE he could evem walk.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Extremely high level of speed and stamina, high level of strength, decent endurance and great level of skill. He can punch a single spot hundreds of times so fast it looks like a single punch, on the other, even an offhand swipe with his fist to swat at an annoyance can crush a concrete roller[2] into rubble.
  • Literal Split Personality: In the anime's Living Shadow and Enemy Without episodes.
  • Living Shadow: In the anime, a Filler episode has Ranma buy some magical incense to bring his shadow to life for intense training. It's perfectly benign at first, but Ranma overdoses on the stuff, awakening his unrestrained desires in it and allowing it to act on its own until Ranma takes it down.
  • Manipulative Bastard: A wannabe in terms of sheer Zany Scheme silliness, and unsuitable, mostly kind, non-sociopathic personality, whereas Nabiki is the real deal, and even Shampoo seems better at it. He usually ends up thwarted by his own conscience, or by the outlandish half-baked nature, irrationality, or the sheer unpredictability of his rivals, friends, enemies and acquaintances. Basically, he's a bit manipulative, and can make fun of Ryōga or Kuno with a Paper-Thin Disguise, but he definitely isn't a bastard, and will not deliberately cause actual harm.
  • Meaningful Name: "Saotome Ranma" translates to "Swift Maiden's Wild Horse". It's also worth noting that with a different writing, "ranma" (乱麻) means "chaos".
  • Mind Control: Alongside Akane, is the most likely to get hit with it in the series. He's also perfectly willing to use it against others in the manga, most notably trying to brainwash Happōsai with "suggestion incense" to change Pantyhose Tarō's Embarrassing First Name and going to the Amazons for a Love Potion to use on Ryōga in the first Akari story.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Again, see Gender Bender above.
  • Murderous Thighs: Particularly in female form, quite adept at using his legs as rudimentary arms to grab, hold and throw others.
  • New Transfer Student: He was this in the very early series as he arrived at Furinkan High.
  • Nonchalant Dodge: Ranma does all three types at various points, including while he's asleep.
  • No Social Skills: Most animals would probably have better social skills. However, he is actually surprisingly well-adjusted, considering he was raised by Genma.
  • Not So Different: To many or even all of his rivals and fiancees: Ranma has no qualms with cheating, lying, stealing, cheap shots, outright Mind Controlling people or, well, just about anything short of actually killing someone.
  • Not What It Looks Like: Ranma gets caught in these situations roughly once per storyline. Including a few times with Ryōga. It's pretty much never what it looks like.
  • Opposite Gender Clone: From a certain point of view, Ranma's Gender Bender nature basically allows him to be his own opposite sex clone (it's stated a number of times that the two forms look enough alike to be mistaken for twins). More literally, the anime and the manga each have a Filler story where Ranma gets an independent copy of his female form made. In the manga, it's a spirit-clone created by a lonely ghost that tries to seduce him. In the anime, Happōsai creates a splinter-spirit that turns out to embody Ranma's evil side and which tries to seduce Ranma: Soun and Genma note that they seem like a perfect couple and agree that this makes sense as they are two halves of the same person.
  • Pimped-Out Dress:
    • During the Martial Arts Dining arc, female Ranma wears several of these, including accessories such as necklaces and flowers. Various other stories have her in outfits that probably fall in this trope as well, such as cheongsams and kimonos.
    • Ranma is also one of the rare examples of a male falling under this trope, as he is quite willing to dress up in fancy outfits in male form when the occasion arises.
  • Please Put Some Clothes On: Told to him several times in both forms.
  • Prehensile Hair: He has used his hair as a weapon.
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: After completing the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken training, Ranma devises his own trick based on this trope. While he never names it in the manga, the anime and video games confused its name with the speed training and it has become more or less adopted in Fanon as the actual Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken. Further training for the "Parlay du Fois Gras" honed this speed for precision through stuffing an opponent's mouth with food without being seen; and the Umisenken involves a "snake-fist" technique with open-handed spear strikes towards the weak spots of an opponent's back, or stealing things swifter than a normal eye can follow... including floorboards.
  • Real Men Hate Sugar: A subversion: he, in the anime, personally loves ice cream, but would not be caught DEAD saying he does, much less going to restaurants and ordering them (it's not manly, after all). Fortunately, his "curse" allows him to openly and gleefully order chocolate sundaes with a cherry on top in public; heck, he even delights in the fact the young and impressionable clerks will sometimes give him free scoops or even free parfaits!!
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Quite skilled at various domestic habits, particularly cooking, and hates a messy house so much he once forgot about a mission (not to mention the fact he was breaking into the flat in question) to clean someone else's flat. He even started cleaning it up again when the owner returned and promptly made a new mess. Admittedly, a lot of his domestic skills can be presumed to stem from the fact he's been taking care of himself for as long as he could remember. In the anime, he also often wears a pastel orange shirt with a dinky little red bowtie, in a more literal version of the trope.
  • Rule 63: And it's CANON.
  • Shameless Fanservice Girl: Ranma is aware of the social rules regarding nudity, but simply doesn't care if he/she is wearing clothing most of the time, even in male form (and can often be seen wearing very little clothing such as only boxer shorts).
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: In the second movie, Ranma has to save the ladies from an Harem-slash-arranged marriage to a prince who just so happens to have a potion which turns anything male. Needless to say, Ranma went all out to kill two birds with one stone.
  • She Fu: A heavy basis of his fighting style in either form, and he fought like this before becoming a Gender Bender.
  • Shipper on Deck: Actively and successfully set up Ryōga and Akari, attempted to hook up Cologne and Happōsai, willing to help others such as Mousse and his mirror clone, etc. Subverted in a time-travel episode of the anime, where he is the one to speak up the most about the possibility of Young!Happōsai and Young!Cologne possibly hooking up, then calls Akane and Shampoo out for trying to make them get together.
  • Show Some Leg: Not at all above abusing this, especially against Happōsai.
  • Sleeves Are for Wimps: His iconic clothes are short-sleeved or sleeveless Chinese shirts.
  • Slipknot Ponytail: Although his braid has resisted the massive abuse Ranma usually takes during his fights, it would come undone at the merest tug during the story arc that focused on it.
  • Slipping a Mickey: Ranma on occasion has drugged, or attempted to drug, people (for example: tried to add knockout powder to Kuno's food, got Happōsai drunk, used chloroform on Happōsai, etc). Once, it backfired; in another occasion, Ranma tried to add life-saving medicine to someone else's drink, who happened to slip Ranma a mickey at the same time.
  • Spider Sense: Like most of the major characters in the series, Ranma possesses some degree of precognition that warns him of danger.
  • Stealth Hi Bye: The manga version enjoys doing this, particularly to Akane, but has done it to others as well. The anime version gets a few cases of it in as well.
  • Super Speed: Even from the series' beginning, he demonstrated this ability, tapping an insulting translation of Kuno's name onto Kuno's forehead without anyone noticing. Then, when Kuno and Ranma had their real fight, he managed to kick every single vulnerable point on Kuno's torso while making it look like he merely swept his leg up from the ground to above Kuno's head. A bit later on, he hit Mikado Sanzenin over 500 times in less than 5 seconds. All of this before he learned any speed-boosting techniques, after which he became even faster and more precise: he was able to hit Ryōga a few hundred times so swiftly that it looked like a single strike, dispose of food so rapidly that viewers couldn't see it in the Chardin arc and, in one anime filler OAV, and learned to run so quickly he could briefly speed across water without falling in. He can basically move at around 2-4 times the speed of sound, but not run that swiftly.
  • Super Strength: A pair of early examples is Ranma, in female form supported Ryōga on her head while Ryōga pulled two artificial icebergs out of the water to crush Mikado Sanzenin between them in mid-air, and then threw at least one of them in a swift movement. Female form Ranma was also able to use Ryōga's heavy combat umbrella, which a regular person can't even budge with two hands, with apparent ease, for example being able to effortlessly leap from the ground to a treetop while carrying it. The most reliable gauge may be when female Ranma picked up a boulder that was several times her size and effortlessly swam with it swiftly enough to ram it into the mouth of the Orochi of Ryugenzawa in order to stop it from eating Akane, despite it having carried her off several seconds/panels before. Word of God states that his female form is weaker.
  • Super Toughness: Bordering on Nigh Invulnerable levels sometimes, and definitely proof to regular firearms, although Ryoga is emphasized as being considerably tougher than him after learning the Bakusai Tenketsu.
  • Sweet Tooth: In the anime, he is shown to adore ice cream, but is so afraid of looking unmanly that he always goes into girl form when he goes to buy some. The fact he can get more for less by playing on his female form's looks is all the more reason for him to shift shapes.
  • The Tease: He enjoys using his cute female form to mess with the ever-so-shy (and clueless) Ryōga Hibiki.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: He has been shown to avoid using lethal force in combat even if they show no such compunctions... such as Ryōga's ki-hardened belt and bandannas, or Kuno and Mousse regularly using blades and lethal weaponry against him. Most telling of all is the incident with Herb: despite the Chinese prince attempting to murder Ranma several times, in and out of combat, Ranma went as far as saving his life. However, he has his limits: when Akane's life is threatened by Saffron, Ranma immediately lets loose with attacks (and an enchanted Impossibly Sharp Blade of his own) that would have killed anyone else.
  • Through His Stomach: He loves food, the girls around him know that, and so they are frequently trying to use food to get some attention from him. It actually doesn't work quite as often as you might think, even when it's not Akane who's trying it.
  • Tiger Versus Dragon: He's actually both, depending on the fight. He's a tiger to Ryōga's lion but his signature technique Hiryu Shoten Ha invokes dragon imagery and he is a dragon to Saffron's phoenix.
  • Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Prefers to fight upfront in tests of martial skill, but if he's at a disadvantage (regardless if his opponent fights without trickery as a raw test of ability), Ranma only follows regulations if explicitly stated before the match, and frequently uses distractions, cheap shots, taunting, ambushes or strategy to exploit weak spots. Most likely to use Hey, Catch!, Look Behind You!, Loophole Abuse, Talk to the Fist and Trash Talk, specifically, though has used other ones on occasion such as the memorable use of Ryōga/P-chan as both Human Shield and flail. An entire story called "The Unmanliest" was devoted to showing that both he and Mousse will stoop to using lots of dirty tricks if motivated.
  • Ventriloquism: Possibly used a few times in the manga, when hiding behind someone else, although when these situations have been rendered in anime format it's not displayed as modulating voice projection, but rather as plot induced Idiot Ball.
  • Wall Crawl: Scrambling up walls, poles and other sheer surfaces is a frequent habit of his, either to escape or gain a height advantage.
  • Weak but Skilled: Comparatively speaking. Ranma is actually pretty powerful, but tends to use a combination of skill speed, strategy and power to win a fight. In battles against opponents that are clearly displayed to have more raw offensive power than himself, such as the Orochi, Happōsai, Saffron, Rouge, Herb or even Ryu Kumon, he has either won or obtained his objective because of his quick thinking,trickery, using exploitable weak spots, powerful weaponry, etc rather than by matching them outright.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Ranma isn't afraid of anything, except cats.
  • Wig, Dress, Accent: Frequently puts on a disguise to better manipulate people. However, in canon, said "disguises" literally almost always only consist of simply changing her clothes, and otherwise look exactly the same. As this is a comedy series this is explicitly used as a Running Gag in that no matter how ridiculously bad the disguises almost consistently are Ryōga will be tricked. For example, in the "waterproof soap" story, Ryōga recognises Ranma and Shampoo, but when they instantly change into swimsuits, he doesn't. When informed who they are, he says "so, your ingenious disguises fooled even me." To Ranma's surprise, this doesn't work on any of her schoolmates in the Tsubasa story, but the female form in itself can be useful against people who have never seen it before, such as Principal Kuno, even with just a swimsuit, or a dress and P-chan be enough to make tranced Happōsai see a mother and her baby. Even Akane managed to see through the by far most ambitious disguise Ranma ever donned: a wig, glasses, make-up and big dress, with the only time she was fooled being because Ryōga had just been fooled into thinking he was his non-existant sister.
  • With My Hands Tied:
    • Kodachi tries to hinder female Ranma's agility by shackling her to P-chan. It backfires spectacularly since it provides Ranma with a piggy-shaped flail.
    • Near the end of the manga, Ranma's hands and arms are held in place and encased in nigh-indestructible crystal, product of Saffron's metamorphosis. He is still able to fight almost to his full abilities, using his frozen arms as a hammer, as support while his feet do the fighting, or even wielding the spear-like Gekkaja with his toes and cut a giant Phoenix statue's neck in half that way.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Subverted: has no problems with fighting girls, and while slightly more likely to go after them as a girl himself (to avoid looking bad), won't hesitate to take them on as a guy if he deems the situation calls for it. Basically, he has stated that he strongly dislikes hitting them, and, if he has enough of an advantage, will usually try to incapacitate them without causing any damage, but if he/she clearly does not, the situation is too dangerous, or (as with Konatsu) it is proven that holding back in this way will simply cause him to lose, he stops being chivalrous/considerate.
  • Zany Scheme: Perpetrator of many. By extremely random happenstance, these ploys frequently necessitate crossdressing.

Akane Tendō (天道 あかね)

Voiced by: Noriko Hidaka (JP), Myriam Sirois (EN)

A sixteen year old Ordinary High School Student (or at least the closest you'll get in this series), Akane Tendō is a generally pleasant, friendly girl who is compassionate, helpful and self-sacrificing even to her rivals. However, she's also hot-tempered, very insecure, finds the Arranged Marriage situation very awkward and is notoriously stubborn, which means there are times she's shown a Hair-Trigger Temper to Ranma Saotome. In general, though, they do get on well enough (although Ranma recurrently mocks her most sensitive spots, and Akane sometimes gives as good as she gets), she frequently helps him out or cheers for him, and is just as willing to make heroic sacrifices for him as he is for her. And despite her frequent denials, she is extremely possessive and jealous when it comes to Ranma and easily angers when she finds him in the arms of his other fiances.

  • A-Cup Angst: Doesn't usually make a big deal about it, but she isn't happy with her breast size at all. She is very quick to take offense at slights (real or perceived) from Ranma about her breasts, gets visibly angry in the first volume/episode when she sees Ranma's girl form naked and realizes that, yes, s/he really is bustier than Akane is, and in the "Bust Battle" manga arc, she not only suggests Nodoka bring "Ranko" bra shopping with them because she's ticked that Ranma boasted about his girl form's larger growth spurt over her own, but is shown to have a whole box full of things meant to make her breasts grow.
  • Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Is proud of her martial arts skill and being the heir to the dojo, but that gets blown out of the water with the appearance of Ranma and the others, so she falls into Can't Catch Up status. She's also very stubborn with her pride, refusing to accept help from Ranma even though she has no chance of winning a fight (i.e. Dojo Destroyer). She also falls under this in cooking, refusing to admit that a guy is better at cooking than her.
  • Badass: Occasionally, that is.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: The female half of the Takahashi Couple template's Trope Codifiers.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Do not do perverted things around her... or get caught with a naked woman in the bathtub.
    • Pointing out her small chest (at least in comparison to the other gals), tomboyish nature, or implying that she has an ugly/fat/unfeminine build is generally not a good idea either.
  • Bob Haircut
  • Born Lucky: Whenever she enters a raffle or some other competition based solely on luck, she always wins first prize.
  • Bully Hunter: Won't hesitate to stick up for her friends if they ask her for help. Even if she doesn't have the first clue about how to help them.
  • Can't Catch Up: An example of the "does improve, but is still outclassed" version. She gets much more impressive feats of strength, speed, agility and skill in the late part of the series, such as quickly making and accurately throwing a barrage of bamboo projectiles, blocking multiple arrows with a staff, jumping between the heads of the Orochi, and more importantly successfully defending against Kuno in a swordfight wherein he didn't hold back, due to believing her to be an unknown male. Of the other girls, only Ukyo is explicitly displayed to improve, in an anime episode wherein she undergoes intense training and develops a special attack. Of course, none of the girls are ever nearly a match for Ranma and other fighters around that level, and are all arguably offensively weaker even than Tatewaki. The possible exception to the rule being Mariko.
  • Character Development: Is shown as increasingly heroic, friendly, idealistic, understanding, compassionate and helpful over the course of the series, and recurrently reins in her temper towards the end. Compare the frantic paranoiac who beats up a few dozen boys every morning, with the Kasumi-ish character who played mother for the youthened Ranma and Ryōga.
    • Character Exaggeration: At the same time though, her nature as a Tsundere got majorly Flanderized as the series went on. Although that may just be her more bad-tempered reactions sitting less easily with her increasingly benevolent portrayal.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Will stop by and help anyone in distress that happens to cross her path, even her bitter enemies. And if someone goes and asks for her help, she'll never say no, whether it means stepping up for the Rhythmic Gymnastic team or venturing alone into a "monster"-filled forest. At least once, her charitable nature has come back to haunt her, when the strangers she helped out and welcomed into her home turned out to be rivals for the Tendo School's legacy.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: The battle dougi in a manga-only arc made her physically stronger than even Ranma. Parody later in the same story when the cloth by itself(operating alone with nobody wearing it) beat Ranma.
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: As much as she needs to learn to slow down and stop being so rough, learning that recipes aren't suggestions and that simply throwing in whatever she thinks might make it taste good, or cover up the mistakes she already made, would help. A lot.
  • Covert Pervert: For being such a prudish girl who freaks out at the mere sight of a naked man, Akane is also the quickest person of the cast to see the perverted potential in just about any whacky set of hijinks. Especially if it involves Ranma. A first-rate example is when Kuno was about to ask for a wish to a magical rock: while she and Ranma discussed the situation, Akane imagined Kuno asking for female!Ranma to love him, and immediately came up with the Imagine Spot of Kuno taking advantage of this to rape Ranko on the spot. She ends up giving a Big No. There's also there's her Rescue Romance fantasy from the manga, including "Glad to Be Alive" Sex and all.
  • Cute Bruiser: Until Ranma showed up, she was the second physically strongest person in Furinkan, and is still one of its most popular girls.
  • Damsel in Distress: Throughout both continuities, Akane is repeatedly captured as a hostage for some reason or another. Prominent examples include Mousse's return, Pantyhose Tarō's introductory story, Principle Kuno's introductory story, the Phoenix People arc in the manga and both of the feature films. Parodied in Mousse's return story: Mousse initially tries to kidnap her and fails because his bad eyesight makes him mistake a stuffed pig for Akane. He then tries again and succeeds halfway through the arc.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Oh yeah.
  • Deuteragonist: Being that she's the other half of the series main pairing, she receives nearly as much screentime as Ranma. Half of which is divided between their rocky relationship and constant denials, or finding herself being held hostage by other would-be suitors, such as Kunō, Prince Kirin, Prince Tōma, etc.
  • Does Not Like Men: She actually says it in so many words at the beginning of the series, and given that she's severely harassed nearly the entire male half of the student body, it's not hard to see why (thank you, Kuno). But seeing as she's later shown to be very friendly towards regular boys such as Gosunkugi, Ryōga, Mousse and even Kuno (provided he isn't trying to get romantic with her), either she got over it or was exaggerating out of frustration.
  • Domestic Abuser: One of the biggest complaints about the series.
  • Double Standard:
    • In the first chapter/volume, which is something of a Never Live It Down moment for her. When it's pointed out that she and Ranma saw each other nude because she walked in on him, she insists that all of the blame is Ranma's, as he's a boy, and she's a girl, and "it's different when a girl looks at a boy." When Ranma, in female form, unintentionally walks in on her again, she slaps him/her. Nabiki points out that it should be okay, as they were both girls, but Akane refuses to comment.
    • Perhaps similarly, she is horrified at the thought of being a worse cook than a boy when she discovers Ranma is actually quite skilled in the kitchen.
    • Upon first meeting, and sparring with, Ranma, she confesses how much she'd hate being beaten by a boy. Might not actually count though, seeing as how, at the time, she was being forced to fight off a mob of boys every school day for fear of being taken as the girlfriend by the one who beat her.
  • Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male): Is the poster child for this trope (literally - she's in the trope's page image) in the series. Other female characters may be even more nonchalant about it, but Akane is still the one most often seen hitting Ranma and, unlike her rivals for its hand, she's never made out to be a villain or unsuitable as a love interest because of it.
  • Dude Magnet: Akane is insanely popular with the opposite sex. She had several dozen male classmates step up to Tatewaki Kuno's challenge of having to beat her to date her, and those may just have been the ones who continued to face her despite her violent defeats of them: there may have been even more to begin with, given her track record. Even her temper, ineptitude at cooking, stubborn pride and violent impulses fail to deter them; not only did the aforementioned mob return to challenging Akane after they believed she was no longer engaged to Ranma (in the manga, in the anime they sincerely got over her), Kuno seems to consider Akane all the more attractive after she has finished beating on him, and Ryōga Hibiki seems oblivious to her less pleasant side. And that's not getting into the numerous minor male villains that fall for her.
  • Foe-Tossing Charge: Akane had to use one of these to fight her way to school every day... until Ranma turned out to be her fiancé, after which they backed off. She still has the ability throughout the series, and shows it off on a number of occasions.
  • Girls Are Really Scared of Horror Movies: Gets scared stiff watching horror movies or other fake scary stuff.
  • Glass Cannon: Akane is incredibly strong and can easily dish out enough strength to actually hurt the likes of Ranma, Ryōga (even after the rock-physical defense training) and even Happōsai (thought he recovers almost instantaneously). However, she does not seem to be able to take the damage anywhere near as well as she can dish it out, and also seems to lack the Healing Factor many of the other main characters have... there are two major examples of this, but her increase in skill in the later half of the series does raise the possibility that she takes some step towards mitigating this trope. Firstly, she sprains her ankle with a misstep the day before the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics match and is told it will take long enough to heal that she'll have to either drop out of the match or get someone to substitute for her. Secondly, in the Dojo Destroyer arc, she hurts her hand bad enough while punching down a wall that Dr. Tofu has to bandage it and tell her not to use it for a day or so. When she unthinkingly punches the Dojo Destroyer about an hour or two later, she hurts it so badly, she can't use it any more for the rest of the fight.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Akane can sometimes come off as this around Ranma, mainly in the earlier parts of the anime and manga.
  • Hyperspace Mallet: A gross exaggeration by Fanon, to the point she's the page image. In truth, she doesn't use a mallet any more than Ranma, or even Soun, does, not when any blunt object will do: a book, a lamp, a park bench, a stone lantern, the dinner table... ("A Honda Accord" in one of Viz Video's deliberately exaggerated liner notes).
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: She usually manages to hit Ranma with whatever she throws unless he finds a shield. Whether it's a stone, table, sink or other thrown object. She once managed to nail Gosunkugi with an apple by throwing it around a corner, and early in the manga, she made a perfect shot on an erratic Ranma with a severely-weighted arrow. He snapped it in half, but the shot was true. And then there's her accuracy at throwing hot water kettles over long distances...
  • I Owe You My Life: Akane's main motivation for staying with Shinnosuke and his grandfather to help them and care for them, at least until they found a way to heal Shinnosuke permanently... however long that took.
  • Jerkass <- -> Jerk with a Heart of Gold
  • Kid Samurai: Shown to specialize in a wide variety of archaic samurai weaponry, and be just short of Kuno in sword skills. However, strangely despite being shown as a more skilled armed than unarmed fighter, and that this (and battle auras) in fact is the family fighting specialization of her father, fanon tends to play her as a comparatively untalented karateka. Possibly because she is, surprisingly, seen training and fighting with her bare hands (or improvised weapons) more often then using the actual samurai weapons she's trained to use.
    • Moreso in the Live-Action Adaptation where she carries a bokken with her wherever she goes.
  • Lethal Chef: Has no culinary talent whatsoever despite (or rather, because of) how hard she tries. Related to her penchant for trying to "improve" recipes. Slightly better in the manga where she leaned to make edible curry. In the anime, she learned to prepare tofu during a cooking contest (which isn't saying much because tofu is PRE-MADE anyway). This may be due to her having only the ingredients she needed on hand in that contest, since she generally tries to put in stuff that's out of place, and often pays no attention to what she's adding. While her clumsiness at basic kitchen tasks is excusable (such as being ridiculously unskilled at peeling, slicing or measuring), she generally lacks the patience and discipline to take things slow and follow strict instructions before trying to leap ahead to much more complicated dishes.
  • Love At First Punch: Akane's violent tendencies chase off nobody, and Kuno actually seems to take them as a sign of affection. In the second Non-Serial Movie, Prince Toma actually seems to fall for Akane because she slaps him in the face and scolds him.
  • Master of Delusion: Beats this trope into the ground when Ryōga/P-chan is concerned. Despite the overwhelming evidence that's come her way (including Ryoga transforming and "disappearing" right beside her), she's never put it together that they are the same person. At one point, she noticed an identical mark drawn on both Ryōga and her pet, and concluded that "the same person must have drawn on both of them!".
  • My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Most notably, she somehow telepathically hears Ryōga when he almost dies fighting Lime, and is certain she heard Ranma's anguished profession of love for her, even though he insists he didn't say it aloud.
  • Oblivious to Love: In regards to Ryōga's infatuation. Sensing a trend, here? Some think her very first-hand display of how Ryōga can lose control of his strength when he gets overjoyed by being given affection from a girl may have intimidated her into pretending to not notice Ryōga's feelings for her, on the basis that, whether or not she believes Ryōga is into her specifically, she has legitimate reasons to think that Ryōga is too dangerous to be a possible love interest of hers. This theory stems from the fact that she outright declares, at the end of the Waterproof Soap story, that Ryōga is far too dangerous to be her boyfriend and he'd need to find a girl much stronger and tougher than Akane is.
  • Pervert Revenge Mode: When things are depicted seriously, Ranma outclasses her to the point that he can be reading a manga and not paying the slightest attention to a dead serious Akane, and yet he will not only dance around her every attack, but take her down in one strike (by sitting on her back). If Ranma has done anything that Akane can justify as the actions of a pervert, Akane can beat him senseless in her righteous indignation.
  • Pettanko: An odd example, in that she fits the personality type, but not so much the build. Akane's not flat-chested, but she has very low self-esteem in regards to feminine things. Worse, girl-type Ranma is much better endowed and not above teasing her about it.
  • Politically Incorrect Hero: Akane is a genuinely heroic character, make no mistake. But... especially early in the series, she does display some misandric attitudes, and then there's the time she confessed to Ranma that she thinks his curse makes him a freak... before following it up with the statement that his mind is obviously "sick" too as a result of it.
  • Selective Obliviousness: Mainly in two areas: that Ranma usually ends up in incriminating situations without helping it, and that she shouldn't trust the claims of Shampoo, Kodachi or Ukyo when Ranma is involved.
  • Shiny Midnight Black
  • Shipper on Deck: Seems quite happy for Ryōga when it appears he and Ukyo have a relationship going on, and tells Ryōga to his face that she's glad to hear he's found someone after hearing about the situation with Akari. In the anime, she makes it quite blatant that she believes Kasumi and Doctor Tofu belong together.
  • Shorttank: Fairly average in terms of height and a little on the slow side in the chest development department. That her first "official" rival and even her fiancé are bustier then she is just makes her look worse off.
  • Spider Sense: Like several protagonists, Akane has a danger-related "sixth sense" allowing her to be aware of attacks before they hit her. They are mostly set off by Kodachi or one of Ranma's suitors trying to attack her.
  • Super Drowning Skills: A reoccurring plot point is that Akane cannot swim at all. Luckily, Ranma knows a variation of CPR. Precisely why she can't swim, even she doesn't know, and it really bothers her: the manga even gives her an Idiot Ball by having her reveal in one story that she figures she just hasn't figured out how to breathe the water yet. And be startled as hell to find out that this is not what you're supposed to do in order to swim. But even then, when she realizes she has to hold her breath, she lacks any sort of natural buoyancy and sinks to the bottom of the pool, justifying the manga calling her a "hammer girl" (for her inability to float, not... yeah). The sad thing is that she STILL can't swim while wearing a LIFE PRESERVER, which caused the Principal to give up on teaching her entirely.
  • Super Strength: Not the strongest in the series, but still thousands of times stronger than a normal human. As mentioned above, capable of feats ranging from completely shattering a stone palisade in one blow, to lifting enormous weights (casually lifting stone lanterns above her head is a favorite of hers), to causing solid concrete telephone poles to wobble/suffer a fist-sized/deep dent. When angered, appears to get much stronger, and has knocked out or hospitalized Ranma, punted Ranma and Happōsai several kilometres, or casually kicked a massive iron ball taller than she is like a normal person would a football.
  • Terrible Artist
  • Traumatic Haircut: Her first big character-changing moment is accidentally getting her lovingly-grown long hair sheared off by Ryōga's flying belt-sword, which was sent flying when Ranma unthinkingly kicked it away when Ryōga attacked Ranma due to annoyance about that Ranma focused on Akane rather than their duel. In the anime, it was much more Akane's own fault. He was trying to protect her from Ryōga (and being an ass about it, but still), and she pushed him away right as another belt-sword came flying at them.
  • Tsundere: Clearly intended as a "B", especially given Kasumi's description of her in the first volume/episode ("she's really a sweet girl, she's just a violent maniac" in the manga and "she's really a very sweet girl, she's just a little... high spirited" in the anime). However, she can come across as an "A", especially early in the series, and it can be a matter of personal opinion whether she gets sufficient Character Development to become a "B" or not.
  • The Unfair Sex: Among other things, she gets mad at Ranma because Kodachi, Shampoo and Ukyo chase him, even when she knows he's not encouraging them, but has actively gone on dates or otherwise acted in a very familiar fashion around Ryōga, at least twice with the explicit purpose of making Ranma jealous as retribution for thinking that he is on a date with either Shampoo or Ukyo (she has apologized to Ryōga for dragging him into it though). The whole Shinnosuke arc then proved how unwilling she is to explain herself even when Ranma himself is being submissive and apologetic.
  • When She Smiles: Ranma freely admits that she's cute when she smiles.

Genma Saotome (早乙女 玄馬)

Voiced by: Kenichi Ogata (JP), Robert O. Smith (EN)

Ranma Saotome's father and sole parental figure for most of his life, Genma is a genuinely talented martial artist, but also a man of many faults, including laziness, greed and self-centeredness. He does genuinely love his son and want what's best for him, but he is capable of being extremely childish and often doesn't realize that "best for Ranma" and "makes Genma happy" are not necessarily the same thing.

  • Abusive Parents: Frequently considered the worst parent in the series. He hauled Ranma all over the country all of his childhood (causing Ranma to forget he even had a mother), subjected him to harsh martial arts training, is known to have stolen food from Ranma on several occasions, seems incapable of speaking to Ranma without insulting him, forced Ranma to undergo the Nekoken training, made at least two Arranged Marriages without telling Ranma until the last moment, and gave Ranma his Gender Bender curse because of his own stupidity. Inversion at the end when he save Ranma from his Mother who saw Ranma being unmanly and was preparing to force Ranma to commit suicide. So his wife is even worst...
  • Calling Your Attacks: A variation: Genma rarely outright calls his attacks, but he does name all of them.
    • Spoofed in that most of Genma's techniques have flamboyant names, but are actually pathetic displays of groveling or cowardice. Some of the most well-known are "Crouch of the Wild Tiger" (down on all fours, repeatedly bowing one's head to the ground whilst groveling for mercy), "Carp On A Cutting Board" (lay on your side and assume a position like a fish to show your abject surrender, in hopes your opponent will take pity on you), "Howl of the Demon Dog" (run away whilst shouting insults) and "Saotome Final Attack" (shout the name to startle the opponent, then run away and think of a better strategy). The "Mark of the Gods" story reveals Genma has a whole scroll full of fancily-named dirty tricks, with such techniques as "The Croak of the Croaked Frog".
    • Played straight with the Yamasenken, where shouting to disorientate your enemy is a big part of it, and subverts it with the Umisenken, which emphasizes absolute stealth.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Whilst we see much more of the "moron" side throughout the series, thinking about it reveals that Genma is actually also kind of badass. He did, after all, create the Yamasenken and Umisenken, two of the most powerful martial arts styles in the series. Plus, he survived traipsing all of Japan and the trip to China whilst he was training Ranma.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Yamasenken and Umisenken. The first is far too violent for general usage, with attacks explicitly designed to be lethal and including the likes of a fan-hand thrust to the solar plexus and a spine-snapping bearhug. The Umisenken isn't quite so violent, but was designed primarily to counter the Yamasenken. Both of them are also very embarrassing, as they were modelled after different methods of burglary and, strictly speaking, intended to be used to help steal stuff.
  • Domestic Abuse: While his treatment of Ranma doesn't quite fit the trope definition, it's pretty close. In the manga, he's also shown as willing to beat up on Nodoka, doing things like knocking her out cold to steal something worth 20 yen from her and Flipping the Table at her while shouting "Wrath of the Angry Father". Once, after knocking her out and stuffing her in a sack to prevent her from seeing the Ranma vs. Ryu duel, an appalled Soun went so far as asking "What kind of monster are you?".
  • Five-Finger Discount: Genma is a thief and has stolen things (most noticeably Ukyo's family cart). He is even shown to be able to open safes and invented two martial arts style based on differing philosophies of theft. The Yamasenken is based on the brash mugger who smashes through the front door, tears the place apart, and pummels the owner into submission, while the Umisenken is based on the quiet thief who sneaks in, rapidly and stealthily takes everything that isn't nailed down, then vanishes before being seen. The item in question being nailed down doesn't seem to stop the Umisenken, as Ranma (while training in the style) stole the foundation of the Tendo home. In other words, Genma could probably steal anything that exists, if he felt like it.
  • The Glomp: The horrible secret behind the ultimate technique "Cradle of Hell". Come, Ranma, let Daddy hug you lovingly!
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: With Soun in the anime, though it's a rather rocky relationship.
  • Hidden Depths: This apparently lazy incompetent, who seems to have little idea how to teach martial arts outside of "throw student into fire, see if they can figure a way to survive", actually managed to create the Umisenken, which completely hides your presence even from experienced martial artists, and the Yamasenken, which not only lets you throw a Razor Wind attack that can cut effortlessly through a nine meter tall Buddha statue but also lets you Beam Spam it.
  • Hot Girl's Ugly Dad: Sort of fits for this trope: after becoming a Gender Bender, Ranma is regularly considered one of the best looking girls in the series when in female form, while before that and when in male form is considered handsome enough to pass as a Spear Counterpart for the titular "hot daughter" of the trope. Genma, meanwhile, isn't exactly good-looking... and turning into a panda doesn't improve his looks in the slightest (a female panda proclaimed he was "fat, old and ugly" even by panda standards).
  • Impossible Thief: See Five Fingers Discount above for what he can steal.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: He was quite nice-looking when younger and still with hair, according to Word of God.
    • He lost his looks shortly after he left his wife, judging by the flashback. Karmic Retribution?
  • Jerkass: A self-centered loudmouth who refuses to accept any responsibility for his wrongdoings and frequently tries to make pitiful excuses for the horrible things he does.
  • Lovable Coward: Or Dirty Coward.
  • Magic Pants: Of all the Jusenkyo victims with animal transformations, he's the one most likely to revert with his clothes (and glasses) back on.
  • My Greatest Failure: Openly considers the Yamasenken and Umisenken to be this, since he knows how the former "destroyed an entire school" once (or because he considers it shameful that he developed both techniques as tools for theft). Because of this, he's absolutely, resolutely unwilling to teach Ranma anything about them even when his son's current rival nearly kills him with the Yamasenken. He'll only go as far as using the Umisenken on Ranma once, and it's up to the pigtailed martial artist to pick it up from experience.
  • Never My Fault: Of an especially amusing variety that avoids responsibility by accusing other people of avoiding responsibility every single time he's criticized about his misbehavior. For example, he repeatedly makes promises to others on Ranma's behalf and gets Ranma into a great deal of trouble, and when Ranma calls him on it, how does he respond? Why, that Ranma should fight "his own" battles (that Genma caused), of course.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: Played straight in the anime.
  • Shipper on Deck: With Soun. Who do you think engaged Ranma and Akane in the first place? He also ships Ryoga and Akane when he plans on making him his successor.
  • Sink or Swim Mentor: While not his sole method of training, a lot of his flashbacks seem to revolve around "Get Ranma in trouble and wait for him to save himself."
  • Stout Strength: His reputation as being fat is actually greatly exaggerated, he's more stocky than anything, but his panda-form is rather bloated looking (particularly in the manga) and, in either form, he is quite strong.
  • Talking with Signs: Initially, he can't communicate at all while in Panda form, but he learns to use signs around Ryōga's appearance.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Why did Nodoka marry him again?
  • Willfully Weak: If he would actually take his fights seriously instead of running away and expecting others to do it for him, he'd get a lot more respect. Also created two extremely dangerous martial arts styles, and purposefully sealed them away: no one knows why, but the two most common Fan Wanks are "he was too embarrassed by the fact they were based off of burglary" and "He considered them far too lethal to use/teach." Made explicit when he proclaims that he's unable to defeat Ranma anymore, and has to come up with a nasty new technique to overcome him again... but several volumes later he reveals he can still knock out Ranma before the latter can blink thanks to the Umisenken, which means that Ranma had only surpassed him because Genma chose to let him.

Soun Tendō (天道 早雲)

Voiced by: Ryusuke Ohbayashi (JP), David Kaye (EN)

Akane's father is a widower who lost his wife about a decade ago to some unknown fate. Though he tries to present himself as the stoic, dignified, traditional sort of person, he is really very emotional and frequently prone to fits of dramatics. It's unknown whether the Tendō Dojo is a business dojo or a family dojo. Soun's own job is left unclear in the original manga (the best evidence he even has one is that he once tries to use "going on a business trip" as an excuse when he thought Kasumi was angry, and it's possible that was just a gag, and he's actually unemployed), but the anime shows him to be a member of the town council. Even though his source of income isn't very clear, he nevertheless manages to support himself, his three daughters, his three houseguests and the frequent repairs with only occasional bouts of tight finances.

  • Bumbling Dad: Truly loves his girls, but is frequently over his head in dealing with them, usually more likely to cause them problems then help them.
  • Demon Head: Probably his most fearsome technique... if not his only technique.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: With Genma in the anime, although this can get as rocky a relationship as for Ranma and Akane. In the manga, they are not seen doing much together, and Soun here recurrently finds Genma morally detestable.
  • It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": Soun's name is not Romanized in a way that easily shows how it should be pronounced. The hirigana spelling is そううん, which is pronounced in English as "soh-oon". "Sō'un", "Sou'un" or "So'un" would be more accurate.
  • Land Poor: So how does a martial arts sensei with no job (and no students) afford that big fancy house on a nice-sized plot of land in Nerima, a very urbanized part of Tokyo?
    • He is shown to make money from renting out the dojo for social clubs, and regularly taking specialist missions catching criminals. Kasumi is shown to help him with the first, and Akane and Ranma with the second. He may or may not take martial arts students in the manga, though the anime is explicit that he has no regular students currently, but is quite willing to accept them.
    • Japanese property ownership laws are incredibly complex and make little sense to Western sensibilities; inheritance laws are even worse. In either case, if you own land in Japan, it's virtually impossible to lose your property, even to foreclosure: foreclosure DOES happen, but mainly to businesses and not residences, and there's no indication that the Tendō Dojo is mortgaged in any case. As to how Soun could afford the property in the first place? Chances are he didn't. Most likely, it's an inherited estate... especially given its obvious antiquity; it's probably been in the Tendō family since at least the Meiji period.
    • A better question would be how can he afford the constant repairs to the place?
  • Meaningful Name: One reading of his name in English would be "Heavenly Path's Swift Cloud": he's one of the two most ardent supporters of the Official Couple, and he's incredibly quick to burst into tears. More directly translated, "Soun" means "Fast Cloud", which is either a nod to his tendency to burst into tears at the slightest provocation, or else a reference to his willingness to dump any problems that arrive on Ranma's shoulders. "Tendō", meanwhile, means "The Laws of Heaven and Nature", a reference to how his commands are always obeyed by Ranma.
  • The Mourning After: He is deeply devoted to his dead wife.
  • Papa Wolf: While he generally lets Akane and Nabiki solve their own problems, he goes berserk on the off chance Kasumi could be harmed.
  • Parental Abandonment: Subverted. He does care for his three girls more than Genma cares for Ranma, but despite his good intentions, he still isn't the best father due to Values Dissonance.
  • Stacys Dad: Hinako is attracted to him.
  • Shipper on Deck: With Genma, though their schemes typically backfire.


Nabiki Tendō (天道 なびき)

Voiced by: Minami Takayama (JP), Angela Costain (EN, Seasons 1-5, 7), Elaina Wotten-Costain (EN, Season 6)

The second of the three Tendō daughters, this seventeen year old is a happy, popular girl, and quite at peace with herself, as well as extremely avaricious, Manipulative Bitch and completely amoral. Essentially, she owns a PHD in The Art Of Being A Bitch. There are no apparent limits to how low she will stoop, nor to whom she will backstab when it comes to making money. Nabiki is a completely untalented fighter, but is able to quickly set up traps when necessary. Thus, she mostly stays out of the line of fire and watches the chaos like it's her own personal floorshow, but occasionally she deliberately sets up life-threatening situations... for her own amusement, or for the opportunity to make a profit.

  • The Barnum: See above. If she never heard "There's a sucker born every minute", she would have invented the saying herself.
  • Big Eater: Frequently snacking, and enjoys eating large meals at the expense of others.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Happy-tempered, humorous and apparently harmless, but is thoroughly selfish, greedy and absolutely ruthless.
  • Bob Haircut
  • Bookie
  • Breakout Character
  • Comedic Sociopathy: And how. Rumiko Takahashi allegedly likes the character and considers her in-control sociopathic behaviour the reason she is funny.
  • Damsel in Distress: Having no fighting skills of her own, Nabiki coasts solely on manipulation, embezzlement and blackmail to get by. The one time she was directly challenged to a physical fight, she stood completely defenseless before Shampoo and Kodachi, with Ranma as the only one able to defend her.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Often calls out people for their stupidity in a very insulting way.
  • Enjo Kosai: Variation: Nabiki will often accept date offers and invitations from classmates who don't know any better, fleece them for all they're worth during the date, and then blackmail them with their own love letters to her. As it is, she's feared by all who have dated her, and she comes out much, much richer from the experience.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Highly arguable, as she has done things considerably worse than what she "objects" to, and is an unflappable actress and habitual liar. Still, she seems dumbfounded when hearing about the idiotic and dangerous Nekoken training, or Genma's routine stealing of Ranma's food during his childhood upbringing. She also mentions that "she only steals money" (not true) after hearing that Soun intended to blackmail Ranma and Akane into agreeing with wedding each other.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Completely at peace with herself about her attitude and behaviour, generally pleasant and easy to get along with (so long as you aren't the one she's scamming), there is usually a certain flair and mean sense of humour to her villainy, as she genuinely enjoys being a bitch and "outsmarting" any patsy, and can actually be amusing to watch in action (again, so long as you aren't the victim).
  • Femme Fatale: In the manga, it's shown that she exploits her attractiveness to lure boys into dating her, during which time she bleeds them dry of money and then discards them when they can't pay for her any more.
  • Gold Digger: She will fleece and blackmail you dry if you ever have a crush on her. Even if you don't have a crush on her, she'll still flirt with you for her own amusement and use you for all the goods she can get.
  • Greed: Pretty much defines who she is; making money or enjoying luxuries is all that she ever really thinks about.
  • The Hedonist: Think a never-ending "My Super Sweet 16" as performed by a highly talented huckster.
  • High School Hustler: A rare female example, but mostly Fanon; she's more The Barnum in Canon.
  • Honest John's Dealership: She is quick to sell unreliable items, services and information whenever she gets a chance, including swindling kindergarten children, and runs a small franchise of selling softcore prints and other images of female Ranma. In the anime, she has set up betting rings if a suitable opportunity arises on Furinkan's grounds.
  • Karma Houdini: Arguably the biggest in the series. No matter how ridiculously far she goes, she will get away with it, and be loved for it by many fans, regardless of whether they consider her a misunderstood altruist or a hilariously overblown satire of genuine, real-world style selfishness, and materialism.
  • Kudzu Plot: Nabiki has explicitly witnessed memory-altering shampoo, mind-controlling items, varied multi-purpose magical herbs, handy temporary shapeshifting powders, age-adjusting mushrooms (pseudo-immortality), a magic mirror that creates instant clones, and even (in the anime) another that allows time-travel. Given what someone with her manipulative interests, acting skills, quick thinking, and overall ruthlessly hedonistic personality could do with that kind of arsenal, it seems odd that she hasn't tried to grab as many items as she can get, as long as they don't seem too dangerous and hard to control. Even in her much less malevolent anime interpretation, setting up a one-woman-modelling agency would probably be a job that she would find extremely cushy. On the other hand, that Hand Wave is necessary to avoid a Genre Shift.
    • Not to mention that there probably hasn't been a single item that was both useful out of combat and easy to handle without almost always backfiring.
  • Manipulative Bitch: She is an extremely talented actress, an unflappable liar and more than willing to take advantage of the feelings of her family and her besotted suitors, all for personal profit and entertainment.
  • Money Fetish: Loves money above all else. In one instance, it almost backfired, when Shampoo and Kodachi decided to kill her instead of paying her, but Ranma ended up saving her.
  • Narcissist: A common interpretation at the very least, but debatable.
  • Only Sane Woman: Relatively speaking... She does her own share of crazy things for the sake of money, particularly later in the manga, but she never acts quite as ridiculously as the main cast.
  • Pet the Dog: A literal example: in the below mentioned OAV opening, she's seen stopping to pet a puppy.
  • Plot Armor: She's constantly and consistently protected from any and all consequences of her actions. She one of the few non-combatants in the cast: if anyone tried to retaliate against her physically, they'd either come out looking worse or Ranma or Akane would protect her from it. Her temper, indolence and complete and utter lack of guilty conscience also make any and all verbal backlash ineffective against her. And when she does screw up, the consequences tend to fall on her friends and family instead of her.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Sometimes pretends to not know what's going on, or to know less then she really does, in order to either make money or avoid getting blamed.
  • Oral Fixation Fixation: Frequently seen working on pocky, popsicles, etc...
  • Ship Tease: Often with Kuno in the anime. Kuno constantly pops up beside her in the second set of dubbed OAV openings (the one called "Where Do We Go From Here (You and Me)"), he comes to Nabiki's rescue in the second Non-Serial Movie (admittedly by chance, as he was looking for Akane, and he stays due to wounded pride against Wonton), and the man she's with in one of the DOCO music videos seems to be Kuno.
  • The Sociopath: One of very few characters who is played as an extreme textbook case. Then again, this very much is an anime populated by superstrong Jerkasses that fight amongst themselves and try to kill one another with little to no provocation, often damaging their surroundings (to include her house)... and she still manages to nearly top them all with her sheer unrelenting greed.
  • Sweet Tooth: Nabiki is frequently seen eating ice cream or similarly sweet things. In an anime Filler episode involving Dr. Tofu's mother coming to town, she is quick to order (on Tofu's money) a dish of pudding a la mode, a chocolate parfait, a serve of cheesecake, a strawberry tart and a slice of pumpkin pie... not only is it implied she intends to eat them all in one sitting, but also that wasn't all she planned on ordering.
  • Ungrateful Bitch: No matter what you might do for her, whether it's Ranma saving her life after his fiancées attempt to kill her for being engaged to him, rather than outbid each other when she attempts to auction him off, or Akane constantly believing the best of her, she'll never cut you any slack for it.
  • Ventriloquism: Along with her rival Kinnosuke, she is the only character who has definitely done this, as they both spoke through the same wooden puppet. It's unknown if she managed to mimic the voice as well, since the episode was not rendered in anime format.
  • Who Wears Short Shorts?

Kasumi Tendō (天道 かすみ)

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (JP), Willow Johnson (EN)

The eldest Tendō girl, Kasumi gave up any ambitions she might have had to become a homemaker after her mother died. This gentle, quiet, self-sacrificing girl does her best to ignore the chaos that now surrounds her and focuses on keeping the house clean and its residents fed. She is the object of Dr. Tofu's desires, but it's never clear in the actual manga/anime if she reciprocates or even if she's aware of his feelings, with the memorial book finally clearing things up and saying that Dr. Tofu's love is one-sided.

  • Born Lucky: Kind of. Never getting involved or hurt by any of the devious schemes that surrounds the house certainly counts as being lucky.
  • Cool Big Sis: To Akane, who adores her.
  • Flanderization: Latter episodes/chapters turned her into The Pollyanna who responded to everything with "Oh My!".
  • Friend to All Living Things: First displayed when she summons an army of cats to help Ranma get over the trauma induced by his Cat-Fu training just by saying "Here, kitty kitty".
  • I Feel Angry: To further highlight just how sweet and unfamiliar with negative emotions she is.
  • Karmic Protection: Out of all the household's residents, she's the most pleasant, polite, affable and well-intentioned. She's also the least exposed to having unpleasant things happen to her and, even in times of big trouble, she remains mostly spared from the violence and zaniness that surrounds her.
  • Meaningful Name: "Misty Heavenly Path", which highlights both her status as "The Nice One" of the cast and her somewhat oblivious antics. Specifically, "Kasumi" means "Haze or Mist", whilst "Tendō" means "The Laws of Heaven and Nature". It also shares the theme of weather-related names with her father, a sign of how close they are.
  • Promotion to Parent: For all intents and purposes, after her mom died.
  • Selective Obliviousness: A number of fans believe she is either so sweet-natured she is genuinely unaware of the nastier aspects of... well, everyone, or that she is purposefully ignoring a large amount of the unpleasantness in order to keep her own grip on things.
  • Team Chef: Of Supreme Chef quality.
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Mostly a parody: there are plenty of times when she either comes off as so sweet she's oblivious to reality, or times when she actually makes things worse by making some thoughtless but well-meant comment (for example, suggesting that Ranma might try something if he and Akane are alone together and giving her a mallet for protection). There are also times when she does make some very keen observations, though she's usually too ineffective to put them to any good use. For example, she had no doubts at all about the fact that Nabiki was just messing with Ranma's head during her brief stint as his fiancée, and warned Nabiki that playing with Ranma's heart could get her hurt.

Ryōga Hibiki (響 良牙)/P-Chan (P-チャン)

Voiced by: Koichi Yamadera (JP), Michael Donovan (EN)

Ranma Saotome's most persistent rival, a boy with a notoriously bad sense of direction who he met in junior high school. Initially, Ryōga was angry with Ranma for consistently taking his lunch, and not staying for a duel despite knowing about his handicap of always getting lost (Ranma waited three days, Ryōga showed up on the fourth). It's worth noting that the venue was directly behind Ryōga's house. For this, he started to chase him and ended up in China... then he genuinely started to despise him after Ranma accidentally pushed him into the "Spring of Drowned Piglet". After finding out that Ranma actually was directly responsible, things briefly got even more heated, but their relationship soon becomes that of romantic and "professional" rivalry along with an annoyance on Ryōga's part for Ranma manipulating and making fun of him. As the series develops, the two gradually work out their differences. Ryōga's curse allows him to masquerade as the pet of Akane Tendō, whom Ryōga swiftly develops a massive crush on. Ryōga has a noble heart and usually means well, but he is also driven almost entirely by his whims and emotions; he can just as easily beat Ranma up as he can save his life.

  • Adorkable: He's just so awkward and insecure around other people that his pitifulness becomes endearing. Also, contrasting Ranma, whilst Ranma is very brash and arrogant (especially by Japanese values), Ryōga is far politer and more reserved.
  • Angst Nuke: His signature technique, the "Shishi Hokodan", gets more powerful the more depressed he is. Normal levels are a basic ki blast, but when he's truly depressed a giant ball of energy crashes down from the sky.
  • Baleful Polymorph: Is completely and utterly helpless as P-Chan (outside of one chapter). He met Cologne when she chucked him into a pot of boiling water, and Shampoo tried to serve him (still alive, thankfully) on a plate to Ranma.
  • Berserk Button: Do not hurt defenceless women while Ryōga is nearby, or you should probably start making funeral arrangements. Sure, Ranma will turn furious if kissed by a male, but it doesn't come close to this level.
  • Beta Couple: With Akari, notable in that it's the only other pairing outside of Ranma/Akane to get labeled mutually affectionate on Takahashi's relationship chart.
  • Born Unlucky
  • Breakout Character: Ryōga's moral and character complexity, along with being one of the first characters who could actually provide Ranma with a challenge, pole-vaulted him to fan-favorite status, after his introductory arc. He ends up becoming the third most important character after Ranma and Akane, and continues to be one of the series' most popular characters, years after its run.
  • Bromantic Foil: To Ranma.
  • Bully Hunter: He has stated a distinct disdain for those who pick on those weaker than them on several occasions, and is quick to put a stop to any bandits, bullies, or rampaging monsters he runs into during his travels (most notably the giant wild boar tearing up Shikoku in his first appearance, and sticking around to help Farmer Brown and Anna in the anime). This is further amplified during the Hiryu Shoten Ha story arc, when Happosai cursed Ranma to lose all of his strength. Not only does Ryōga save Ranma from Kuno and Mousse, and admonishes them for attacking a weak person, but he actually helps Ranma while he's training to master the Hiryu Shoten Ha technique.
  • Character Development: Probably the most in the series, believe it or not. Starts out as a petty-minded vengeful jerk (albeit with a genuine reason to hold a serious grudge). Finishes as a shy, well-meaning, noble, pitiable figure who is arguably more of a hero then Ranma is.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Basically the same as Ranma. Generally due to stumbling across situations in progress rather than seeking them out, but similarly helps out since "it's a martial artist's duty" (to protect those in need).
  • Courtly Love: How he tries to act towards Akane.
  • Cute Little Fangs: His name actually means "Good Fang".
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: His Shi Shi Hokodan requires him to get more and more depressed to make it more powerful. The downside is that it basically requires the user to be suicidally depressed in order to reach its maximum potential.
  • Determinator: Acknowledged and justified in-universe: Ryōga's total lack of direction sense means that he typically has to spend hours or even days at a time walking without rest to get anywhere. As a consequence, he basically won't give up. Ever. This is even the fundamental basis of his fighting style: keep on fighting, no matter what, and try to wear his opponent down with sheer endurance. His iconic technique can be argued as being not the flashier Shishi Hokodan, but the humble Bakusai Tenketsu, which renders him so immune to pain that his opponents can literally exhaust themselves trying to hit Ryōga hard enough to actually hurt him.
  • Does Not Know His Own Strength: Whenever he gets the least bit distracted or overemotional, he breaks stuff. This may be why Akane refuses to acknowledge his feelings for her: the one time they actually did go on a fairly successful date, Shampoo mind-controlled Akane to get affectionate, and when he got overjoyed and tried to respond, she was afraid that he would crush her to death in his excitement, and he then renders female Ranma unconscious and almost crushes her ribs after being tricked that she is Akane.
  • The Eeyore: Sensitive and melancholic... The flipside of course is that his life really is Nightmare Fuel level terrible (at least until he meets Akari), and he still perseveres.
  • Fan Service: He's frequently nude when he changes back into human form.
  • Friendly Enemy: His bark occasionally sounds an awful lot worse than his bite. He has saved Ranma or Akane's lives on more occasions than the reverse. By the end of the series, he and Ranma are probably the closest thing either one has to a best friend.
  • Hidden Depths: In the anime, he's portrayed as a beautiful calligraphist, and in either continuity, he occasionally quotes poetry appropriate to the situation.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: For example, able to throw an elephant-sized boulder to perfectly intercept Herb's blast from an over 100-metre distance, can swiftly find the weakest point of inert objects, and always hits the more nimble Ranma with his force-blasts.
  • I Was Just Passing Through: A rare example of someone who can claim this, and actually be believed because there's a very real possibility that he truly was. He tends to unexpectedly pop up whenever someone he knows/the plot has need of him.
  • Kudzu Plot: Akari + Ryōga's lack of control when emotional + Ryōga's Super Strength = ...Let's all hope that Akari is the toughest female in the series.
  • Lightning Bruiser: As impossibly strong and durable as he is, he still manages to be fairly fast.
  • Love Makes You Dumb: Ryōga's romantic desires sometimes run away with his common sense. There have been several occasions when he's actually gotten a chance to take Akane on a date, only for him to ruin things because he got so overexcited: he once contemplated staying in a Kimodameshi forever because Akane was asking him for protection while they were there, and he only allows Akane to think of him as P-chan because he's got a crush on her and he believes he can use it to protect her... despite being more or less harmless in piglet form.
  • Meaningful Name: "Noisy Good Fang", which references his loud-mouthed antics when around Ranma (and the noise he makes when breaking stuff), his visually iconic Cute Little Fangs, and the fact he's really a good guy at heart.
  • Messy Pig: He's actually pretty clean as a pig, but he certainly makes things more complicated.
  • Morality Pet: Inverted: being Akane's pet, and the resulting crush he develops, contributes both directly and indirectly to his Heel Face Turn.
  • Nice Hat: His bandanas.
  • Nigh Invulnerable: Originally just Made of Iron, then he undergoes Training from Hell to become even more durable...
  • Nosebleed: Scarcely a story goes by where he doesn't get at least one.
  • No Sense of Direction: He is practically the Trope Codifier. He seems to always either take the wrong direction (when given the choice between three roads, one of which he's told is right and one of which he's told is wrong, he takes the third road), or take directions too literally (when told to go "straight down the road" to the Seikan Tunnel from Hokkaido, he did just that... despite the fact the road curved and his route caused him to leap off of the road). His absurd levels of stamina, which lets him run at top speed for literally hours or even days without stopping, as well as being able to plow right through everything in his path, makes this worse, as he can cover distances far sooner than direction-givers might expect and, particularly after learning the Breaking Point, there's literally nothing that can force him to change directions. He's so predictably late that everyone schedules their meetings with him a week early to allow for a week of him finding his way. A big part of his backstory is that he missed a fight with Ranma because he got lost for three days despite the place they were supposed to meet was behind Ryōga's house.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Very much his attitude towards Ranma, leading to a truly badass Go Through Me moment during the moxibustion arc.
  • Parasol of Pain: His primary weapon of choice, and it's so heavy that ordinary people can't even pick it up.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Between his Super Strength (which allows him to destroy giant boulders without even noticing), his Bakusai Tenketsu (which allows him to cause inanimate matter to explode with a finger-poke), and his willingness to just blow through walls and buildings rather than detour from his path (including burrowing underground or right through mountains after he learned the Bakusai Tenketsu), Ryōga can quite easily make a mess out of any area he's passing through. He becomes even more destructive after learning the Shishi Hokodan.
  • Power Incontinence: Between his prodigious strength, and the ease with which he'll let his emotions get the best of him, getting Ryōga overly emotional about something often leads to him breaking things. Besides regularly tearing through walls, knocking over power poles and poking holes through concrete walls when his mind wanders, he's also done stunts like send Ranma (disguised as Ryōga's fictious sister) flying across the room with a gentle poke to the forehead from his index finger due to Ranma's teasing Ryōga about him and Akane being a couple.
  • Pressure Points: His Bakusai Tenketsu is basically this, but applied to inanimate objects. Touching rock (and wood, and possibly metal, depending on the continuity) at just the right spot lets him cause it to explode violently, or just crumble into fine dust.
  • Required Secondary Powers: He has monstrous endurance and survival ability due to his terrible sense of direction leaving him in the wilderness 99% of the time. This only increases after he learns the Bakusai Tenketsu.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: P-chan.
  • The Rival: To Ranma.
  • Romantic Runner-Up: Akane mentions on several occasions that she thinks Ryōga is a much more gentle and reliable than Ranma, seriously considers him when she thinks he is her "destined love" in one shared continuity Filler story, and the two really do have similar personalities, but ultimately he never gets anywhere with her.
  • Ryu and Ken: Ranma and Ryōga. You can't have one of them without the other. Each feels incomplete without the other to compete against, and Ryōga has even turned sad if he has too much of an advantage over Ranma. Ryōga even has a similar personality to Ryu, and Ranma to Ken.
  • Ship Tease: With Ukyo Kuonji, sometimes, but ultimately subjected to Ship Sinking in the Tunnel of Lost Love story. They still remain a Fan-Preferred Couple though, which may be because the anime version of the aforementioned story is less blatant about its sinking and Ryōga ends up saving Ukyo in the second Non-Serial Movie (though he has to be bartered into it, as at first he wants to save Akane, and is quite fine with the idea of leaving Ukyo to having an apparently innocent romantic dinner with Sarutoru).
  • Stalker with a Crush: If you think about it, he comes off as a quite subtle version. He's head over heels for a girl who seems to be unaware of his feelings, only thinks of him as a good friend, and is also in an Arranged Marriage, and thus he is constantly sending her presents, daydreaming about her, trying to ask her out (failing, due to being so very shy), and trying to get her to dump her fiancee. He even pretends to be her pet so he can get close to her, saying that by doing this he can protect her. His antics are ultimately harmless and he is treated as something of an idiot for doing them, but they could be played as creepy and unsettling in a less comedic series.
  • The Stoic: Ryōga aspires to be this, but he isn't really that good at it. He's invariably overwhelmed by his emotions.
  • Super Speed: He's shown as slower than Ranma, somewhat swifter than Mousse (able to avoid all of dangerous weaponry, but taking some time), and effortlessly able to parry all of Genma's strikes while looking in another direction, but does not always use it efficiently (sometimes plows right ahead rather than listen to his reflexes), especially when in a rage.
  • Super Strength: Often assumed to be the physically strongest of the Nerima Wrecking Crew. His feats include throwing an incredibly huge ice boulder across the length of an ice-skating rink with a single arm, accidentally shattering a stone platform wide enough for him and Ranma to spar on it simply by prostrating on it, almost breaking Ranma's ribs with a hug (each form on separate occasions), repeatedly handling female Ranma like a small baby when she pretended to be his sister "Yoiko Hibiki", including a strong implication that he can literally outpower her with a single finger, effortlessly throwing a grappling male Ranma to the ground in the anime, was paired against Lime in a fight, and so onwards.
  • Tender Tears: Despite his physical strength, Ryōga is very emotional, and can start to cry just for feeling sorry even for Ranma.
  • There Was a Door: Perfectly willing to just plow through anything in his way when he wants to get somewhere enough. Considering it's Ryōga, he probably couldn't find the door.
  • Tritagonist: As a Breakout Character, he kept getting increased importance until he eventually became the third most important character in the series, just after Ranma and Akane. He constantly gets arcs centered around him and is the only one in the Love Dodecahedron aside from the Official Couple that had a happy ending with his own Beta Couple relationship.
  • Tunnel King: Once he learns the Bakusai Tenketsu (which lets him destroy inanimate matter with a finger poke, and makes him Nigh Invulnerable as a side-effect of the training), he's recurrently shown as using it to tunnel underground or through mountains to get to places. Precisely why is never explained, although during his first date with Akari he apparently believes that there is less chance to get confused by landmarks and go the wrong way if he starts with his eyes in the right direction.
  • Walking the Earth: Due to the aforementioned lack of directional sense.
  • You ALL Share My Story: There certainly are times when Ryōga clearly arrives in Nerima by accident. However, there are definitely other times when he appears at a coincidentally perfect time to take part in the adventure.

Happōsai (八宝斎)

Voiced by: Ichiro Nagai (JP), Paul Dobson (EN)

Soun and Genma's abusive master and the founder of Anything Goes Martial Arts (the anime, at least, goes to the extent of having him refer to his moves as "Founding School Anything Goes"), this ancient pervert is the by far most powerful fighter in the series and lives solely to sate his own desires, usually getting away with it due to the powerhouse he is, and is a frequent source of trouble. Soun and Genma got away from him by getting him blind drunk, chaining him in a barrel, throwing it (and a bundle of lit dynamite) into a cave, and then sealing it with a boulder covered by a Zigzag Paper Tassel, but he finally managed to free himself and forced himself into Soun's home. He claims to intend to train Ranma as his heir, but has never actually done any training.

  • Abnormal Ammo: In the anime, one late episode is set during the rainy season and the constant damp renders Happōsai's favored Happo Fire Burst technique useless. So, he sets to trying to come up with new variants, creating several failures (resulting in explosions of garbage, creepy-crawlies, banners and pigeons/doves) before he comes up with the Happo Mold Burst, which makes his bombs unleash paralyzing, suffocating clouds of mold.
  • Badass Boast: You're the one who's got it coming! How dare you use that tone. I won't allow it. For the sake of all mankind I promimsed I'd never again use this technique, but... By the power invested in me as Master of the founding School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, I Happosai do hereby invoke my most powerful and mighty Technique. Happo Fire Burst!
  • Big Bad: Of the series as a whole. To prove the point, Ranma in the author information book declares him his ARCHRIVAL. While he consider Ryōga and the others as only sparring partners. Also the only one character other than Saffron that Ranma has actually outright(without feeling ashamed) tried to get killed in the manga.
  • The Bully: Probably one of the worst characters on this point. His combination of Cologne-level skill and kaiju-sized battle-aura arguably make him the most formidable fighter in the series when serious, possibly eclipsing even Saffron. However, despite this, he is more than willing to use his powers to terrorize others into doing his bidding or even for his amusement, most notably once crippling Ranma and then revealing his weakened state to his worst enemies because he explicitly hoped they'd hurt Ranma badly. The only exemptions he has are that he will never deliberately harm children and seems to avoid bothering pretty women who treat him kindly, such as Kasumi.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: In the manga, where he once hurt himself trying to think of a possible good deed he may have ever done, and also once declared he would be "evil until his dying days." Not in the anime though, where he always tries to pass himself off as innocent and once even tried to reform for a pretty woman, going so far that he almost died of withdrawal from his perverse deeds.
  • Dirty Old Man: Will do anything for a piece of lingerie or a peek at nude women, not to mention a grope, fondle or feel of female flesh.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: In the Moxibustion arc in particular: damn you for distracting me, Ranma! I'll turn you into a weakling forever, and tell all your rivals and enemies about it so they can gang up on you, beat you up and possibly kill you!
  • Fair Weather Mentor: Was very much like this for Soun and Genma: all of their flashbacks/recollections of their training consist of Happosai abusing them and using them as scapegoats for his own misdeeds, rather then actually training them. Could be considered to be doing the same thing to Ranma, even though he claims to actually want to train him.
  • Five-Finger Discount: Besides panties, Happōsai will and has stolen other items (forced Soun and Genma to help as well).
  • Jerkass: Big time: Happōsai just causes havoc because he loves doing so.
  • Kaiju: When using his Battle Aura to its fullest potential. Even at lower settings, the mere projection can stun Ranma.
  • Kill It with Fire: Once he digs it up again, his favorite technique is the Happo Fire Burst, which is basically slinging ridiculously powerful homemade bombs around. While they are invariably Non-Fatal Explosions, the blast is still powerful enough to render Pantyhose Taro's monster-form unconscious in one hit.
  • Large Ham: Foolish mortals! How dare you show such insolence!
  • Mad Bomber: The Happo Fire Burst quickly starts to suffer from I Thought It Was Forbidden and becomes his response to every irritation, then becomes a Spam Attack with the Happo Rapid-Fire Burst.
  • Meaningful Name: The word happousai translates to "chop suey", although this meaning uses a different last character (八宝菜 instead of 八宝斎). The characters in his name roughly translate to "eight treasure purification".
  • Miniature Senior Citizens: Although it's implied (in the manga; it's explicit in the anime) that he didn't shrink due to age: he was always small and simply grew old.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: To be precise, he knows what it is, he just couldn't give a damn that women don't like having an ancient midget groping their breasts and butts.
  • Old Master: One of the two by-far most skilled characters in the series, and likely easily the most powerful chi-user. Subverted in that he's very easily distracted, seldom serious, and pretty much anyone can defeat him by throwing female lingerie in his path.
  • Panty Thief: And HOW. The guy ran out on a duel he was on the verge of winning, and which would have had Ranma's female form modelling a bra for him, to go after a Furinkan girl sports team so he could take their gym shorts! He does draw the line at granny-style bloomers though, even if his life is at stake.
  • Pet the Dog: In both canons, Happōsai has a very strong soft spot for children and will happily play with them or otherwise try and help them if he meets them. However, due to his selfish and twisted nature, he's not above using them for his own gains, such as tricking two kids who believe he is Santa Claus into assisting him on his panty raids, or even "helping" them in ways that ends up causing more harm than good. For example, his usage of Hinako as a weapon against the nurses may have helped her get well, but may have also caused her to turn out... well, the way she is now. And then there's the matter of Natsume and Kurumi, where he gave them the martial arts skills they needed to survive... and told them they were Soun Tendo's daughters and that they should grow up, become strong, and then come and take over the Tendō dojo.
  • Poke the Poodle: Most of his crimes are "so silly that it is hard to begrudge him", as Nabiki put it, like filling a random Tendō girl's shoes with tacks or drawing on people's faces (both of the above were because he was angry at Ranma for giving back all of the underwear he had stolen).
  • The Scottish Trope: Before he actually broke free from confinement, Soun and Genma were terrified of even mentioning his name on the off chance it might bring him back.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Spent an ambiguous amount of time sealed in a cave, possibly since Soun and Genma's youth. They try to box him up and mail him to the North Pole when he's weakened by a "woman-repellant" incense that deprived him of his source of power (groping women), but Ranma thought this was too cruel.
  • Soap Opera Disease: At one point in the anime, Happōsai takes to his bed and doesn't respond to any stimuli, wasting away to death. He gets better.
  • Story-Breaker Power: Because Happōsai is one of the greatest martial artists in the entire series (and is the grandmaster of Anything Goes, to boot), it's difficult to enjoy episodes/chapters involving him because, since he can't be beaten in a serious match, there's virtually no way to disrupt the status quo.
  • Trickster Mentor: He's supposed to be Ranma's master, but will annoy him to no end, foist all his troubles onto him, and generally treat him like dirt for as long as he can get away with. Ranma never learns anything from him, directly, but by having to come up with ways to thwart him.
  1. ↑ The primary evidence for Ranma's age is that he is in the same class as Akane, who is stated to be 16.
  2. ↑ The kind used to flatten the ground of sports fields.
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