Ranma ½/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• In Ranma 1/2 Genma comes across as a horrendous, uncaring, selfish father and a useless sensei getting Ranma all those fiancees and complicated messes with his honour. Then I realised, Genma says everything is training. He isn't being an idiot, he's being machiavellian setting up challenges for Ranma to think himself out of and use his skills to outwit his enemies. Even the fiancees and honour messes are training just to get Ranma to think critically about honour and give him the skills to debate his way out of that Seppuku contract. Everytime Ranma reaches equilibrium, or begins to plateau in his abilities Genma "messes up" and throws in a new challenge. Even Jusenkyo has improved Ranma's physical, emotional, social and critical thinking skills in the long run. No wonder he laughs it up playing shogi all day, he is the best martial arts instructor after all.--Cryptic Mirror
• At first glance, Nodoka Saotome appears to be just another quirky character, admittedly with some Yank the Dog's Chain potential (who can forget her entry to the series, where Ranma is awestruck at the possibility of finally meeting his mother, only to discover she's dedicated to the possibility of having to kill him if he doesn't meet her standards), but then, if you think about it, she becomes a lot more unique. Parody, subversion, or just plain strange, but Nodoka Saotome manages to be, simultaneously, both the complete opposite of her Jerkass husband and a living embodiment of Ranma's ideal parent. She is kind, helpful, generous and supportive, giving Ranma the emotional and physical support that his father doesn't, yet at the same time she shares his intense belief in the "sanctity of manhood". "My life is one thing, my manhood is another story!" Was Ranma's angry rebuttal to Genma's questioning whether or not Ranma would have forsaken his life for martial arts, and though he does become more shamelessly opportunistic about it, he clings to the dream of being cured throughout the series. Nodoka is practically a living embodiment of Ranma's desire to be masculine, even if it means giving up his own life if he can't measure up.--Wandering Browser
  • YMMV because I find Nodoka herself to be one of the most reprehensible uncaring unloving piles of human filth to ever 'grace' the story with her presence. For starters, Ranma by the end of the Manga basically enjoys being a girl to some extent, Liking cross dressing is one of his embarrassing secrets in the memorial book, Secondly, that ALONE, provokes Nodoka to want to kill her son. Nodoka is no more stable than kuno, "pretending" to love Ranma but really no more interested in him than Kuno is interested in who Ranma really is, Instead she threatens to kill him all the time. Thirdly, Ranma actually does NOT share Nodoka's opinion at _all_ hence his desire to remain hidden from her and not die. The only thing provoking Ranma here is his desire to prove himself to his mother because he wants his mothers love, but, and finally his mother is crazy, abusive, selfish, unhelpful, and unsupported of Ranma's own desires, and it was only through dumb chance that they managed to come together peacefully and Nodoka constantly wavers in her decision whenever shes present afterwards. It's entirely likely that if Ranma had come clean from the very beginning Nodoka would have attempted to murder her son rather than do what a loving, caring, and supportive parent would do; Burn that contract and be with her child. This character really belongs in fridge horror.
• Akane is such a violent sleeper that she basically attacks anyone who may be in bed with her. Ranma, meanwhile, is capable of effortlessly dodging in his sleep. It's a perfect match.
  • Ryoga is also made of iron even more than most of the rest of the characters after the Bakusai Tenketsu arc (to the point that in an exaggerated fanfic, a bullet doesn't even wake him up). He could take the hits and get a good night's sleep despite them.
• Akane clearly has the capabilities to be regarded as a Kid Samurai, and it's heavily implied that the Tendo Dojo specialises in using samurai weaponry -- and yet Akane only ever uses her bare hands or improvised weapons if she can help it. Why? Because she does not like the comparisons, if only in her mind, between her using samurai weapons and her "arch enemy" before Ranma Saotome arrived -- the Jerk Jock Kid Samurai Lord Error-Prone Tatewaki Kuno.
  • In fact, Akane may have caused Kuno to first "fall in love with her" because of her skill with samurai weaponry. Thusly, she doesn't use it any more because she wants to try and convince him to fall in love with somebody else and leave her alone.
• Sometimes you wonder why Ranma and Genma didn't dump themselves in the right spring as soon as Ranma had cooled off for getting cursed... Then you realize why: while Ranma was cooling off, Genma and the guide tried to boil a piglet that was actually Ryoga. Considering his super-strenght and that he had good reasons to kill the two idiots, can you blame them for running away, taking Ranma with them?

Fridge Horror

• Ryoga Hibiki's combined curses in Ranma ½. Being eternally lost is bad enough on its own, and Ryoga is known to frequently find himself alone deep in forest and jungle. Forest and jungle filled with dangerous animals. Luckily, Ryoga, being a martial artist of nearly unmatched skill, has nothing to worry abo--oh, wait, every time it rains, he needs to cross a river, or he accidentally falls in a puddle, he turns into a tiny, defenseless, extremely edible piglet. And, like the other Jusenkyo cursed, the entire universe is actively conspiring to soak him whenever possible. Good luck finding hot water to turn back when you're miles from civilization, five inches tall, have no thumbs, and are surrounded by hungry predators.
  • Another one for poor Ryoga, or anyone unlucky enough to visit the cursed springs: when Ryoga first turned into a pig from falling into Jusenkyo, the tour guide nearly ate him. He seemed to consider the possibility of someone having fallen into the spring, but laughed it off as he threw P-chan into the boiling pot. There's the distinct possibility that some other poor unlucky fool fell into one of the springs, transformed into an animal, and was then killed, cooked, and eaten by someone.
• Because the series is a comedy, who could believe that Nodoka Saotome would actually be so Honor Before Reason as to call Ranma in on the Seppuku contract. The fact is, she is serious about doing it if Ranma ever proves himself unmanly, but that's not the Fridge Horror. The Fridge Horror is that she is not only a genuinely loving mother in every other area, but this is actually an extension of that love. She sincerely believes that Ranma must be a man, and that if he is even the slightest bit "unmanly", then the most loving thing she can do is make him commit suicide to atone for it.
• In another story involving Kuno, Ranma has to get Kuno to compliment his bathing suit or it will drag him to the bottom of the ocean. While Kuno eventually compliments it at the last minute, its heavily implied that there were other girls who were drowned by it.
• In one of the final manga stories, a Jusenkyo spring that turns into people a replica of Akane is created. Imagine in one thousand years the Spring of Akane will still be the Spring of Akane. It's still highly probable someone will fall into the spring, possessing Ranma's personality, completely nonchalant about preserving her modesty. Akane proved it's now entirely possible to have someone run around destroying your reputation whilst you are still alive...
• Ranma's situation in how he was raised, most particularly the Cat Fist, is portrayed as comedic, given the silliness of acting like a cat and so on. But the depths of Genma's child abuses becomes increasingly more disturbing with each storyline.