Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

Custom Search
1 reviews
Ranma ½

redirected from Main.RanmaOneHalf

alt title(s): Ranma One Half; Ranma
On your marks... Get set...

The anime and manga Ranma ½ defies simple explanation, but one can approximate its general gist as "martial arts/urban low fantasy/slapstick comedy/sex farce/romance..." Yeah.

It tells the story of Ranma Saotome, a teenaged martial arts prodigy who, upon returning from a lifelong training journey with his father, finds himself engaged to marry Akane Tendo, the 16-year-old martial artist daughter of his father's best friend.

Complicating matters is the fact Ranma and his father Genma both bear shapechanging curses. Due to an accident at a magical training ground in China called Jusenkyo, Genma turns into a giant panda and Ranma turns into a short, busty girl whenever they are splashed with cold water. Splashing them with hot water restores them to their normal selves. Further complications arise in the form of other engagements arranged by Ranma's amoral father, the boys pursuing the girls so engaged, plus various other persons wanting to kill or marry Ranma in either or both of his forms. Several of these folks also bear curses from Jusenkyo. Almost all of them are world-class martial artists, which results in considerable property damage most of the time.

This is the series which brought The Unwanted Harem trope to its ridiculous extreme, creating the Love Dodecahedron trope. The core cast numbered more than a dozen persons caught up in a complex web of love, hate, duty, honor and rivalry, all of it played for laughs; and more characters joined the madness every year, making for one of the larger ensemble casts in anime and manga. The manga ran in the Shounen Sunday magazine from 1987 to 1996, drawn by the popular mangaka Rumiko Takahashi, and was collected into 38 tankoban and shinsoban volumes, condensed to fit into 36 volumes in the American version.

The anime adaptation lasted seven seasons on television and was supplemented by a series of 11 OVAs, one theatrical short (released as the 12th OVA outside Japan) and two motion pictures.

While considered a "classic" anime, it suffers from several problems. First, it was canceled before it could complete the full storyline from the manga on which it was based, ending three years before the manga concluded; what material did make it on the air became somewhat repetitious because the production team was given to inserting cookie-cutter filler episodes that were unrelated to the original manga plot (The final season had 25 episodes and only 10 were based on the manga). This reflected a change in the manga itself, which had also abandoned an overarching plot in favor of smaller arcs and episodic comedy. Finally, early in its run the artistic quality of the show began to suffer noticeably — there is a noticeable decline in quality of animation, music, and writing starting in the second season. By around the fourth or fifth season, this trait had begun to reverse itself, with the final seasons showing considerable improvement, and the OVAs and movies are of superb quality.

Even given these problems, Ranma ½ was quite popular in its time, a popularity that surprisingly carried over to North America. It was one of the first major crossover hits that ushered in the explosion of anime importation in the early-to-mid-1990s. The dub by Viz Video is thought by some to be the first decent effort in the history of English anime adaptation. It was even briefly optioned for a live action Hollywood film in the late 1990s, although nothing ever came of it.

Ranma ½ has a remarkably large and vigorous American fan community despite its age, and is still responsible for a significant fraction of the anime fanfiction on the web, including a wide variety of crossovers. In fact, Ranma ½ is probably one of the most crossed-over series on the internet: on fanfiction.net alone it has over 400 crossovers listed (with hundreds, if not thousands, listed elsewhere). To put that into perspective, while that's one-fifth the number of crossovers that Naruto has listed, Naruto also has twenty times as many stories listed as Ranma does total. One sub-type of these, the Fuku Fic, is common enough that it has its own trope entry. Predictably, its length and fanbase result in copious amounts of Fanon.

Has its own Character Sheet.

Ranma ½ provides examples of:

  • Aborted Arc: (Manga only) Ranma's attempts to conceal his curse are quietly dropped in the middle of the "Full-body Cat's Tongue" arc and the story goes from no one at school knowing about his curse to everyone (except Kuno, of course) knowing about it with hardly a comment from anybody.
    • He first reveals it in a middle of a battle where he acts like it's a magic trick. It's mentioned later several times he now has a reputation as a cross dresser rather than transforming.
  • The Abridged Series: Ranma Abridged
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: With a wooden sword, no less.
  • Abusive Parents: Staggeringly none of the parental figures in either the manga or the anime are ever considered abusive within the setting despite their actions. The sole exception is Genma, whom the Tendos call out for Jusenkyo and the Cat-Fist. Even his best friend calls him a monster for knocking his own wife unconscious to preserve his and Ranma's secret.
  • Accidental Marriage: Ranma and Shampoo; Kodachi's behavior is similar.
  • Adaptation Decay: Differences in characterization from the manga, and occasional plot alterations. It's debatable whether or not this is bad, though.
  • Adaptation Dye Job: Girl-Ranma (possibly Shampoo)
  • All Amazons Want Hercules: Shampoo towards Ranma.
  • And Call Him Charlotte: Azusa Shiratori
  • Anguished Declaration Of Love
  • Anime Theme Song
  • Armor Piercing Slap: Akane is capable of landing a slap to the cheek on anyone, regardless of how badly they may outclass her in terms of fighting skills. The catch is that they must first insult her fighting skills or general appearance. This effect is such an important part of her character that it was used in both the manga and the series to break her out of an amnesiac effect.
  • Arranged Marriage: The driving force of the series. Three times in the original manga (the Tendo promise, Ukyo, and Picolet Chardin,) plus an extra two time in the anime, once to serve as the justification for a Villain of the Week's Martial Arts and Crafts challenge and the second time as a gag at the end of the episode.
  • Arthur Dent: Nabiki
  • Asshole Victim: Given the preponderance of Jerkass characters in the cast, almost everybody deserves whatever misfortune others inflict on them.
    • Word Of God states that part of the reason Nabiki is so funny is that, unlike everyone else, she gets away with all of her evil deeds. And indeed, she almost never suffers from the local madness, choosing instead to profit from it.
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Pick any of the visiting Martial Arts And Crafts people who come by.
  • Attack Of The 50 Foot Whatever: The Orochi, Pantyhose Taro's monster form, and Happosai, Soun and Genma's Battle Aura manifestations. Not to mention the Dojo Destroyer, in the manga.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Hinako Ninomiya in child form.
  • Attractive Bent Gender: Ranma. All the guys at school cheer whenever Ranma suffers a Mode Lock as they seem to like ogling Ranma more than most of the real girls. Nyanniichuan victims in general seem to fall under this category, perhaps because it ups the embarassment factor of the curse; see the Musk Dynasty, especially their prince, Herb.
    • Ranma's popularity as an ogling target might stem less from the fact s/he is attractive (though it's undeniable that s/he is) and more from the facts that Ranma has a tendency to suffer Clothing Damage due to his opponents often wielding blades or bombs, doesn't wear bras (for obvious reasons) and, most importantly, lacks "feminine modesty" and so is far less likely to get pissy/violent at them then any of the normal girls.
  • Aw Look They Really Do Love Each Other: Ranma and Akane, all the way.
  • Badass Family: The Saotomes, most obviously, with Ranma and Genma both being martial arts masters. Shampoo and Cologne, the latter being the former's great-grandmother also count. The Tendos could theoretically count, but only two of the four members are fighters, and rather weak ones compared to the other cast members (though not to anyone else).
  • Badass Longcoat: Shinnosuke. A janitor's coat, yes, but Shinnosuke makes it very badass; Arguably Mousse (for all of three panels)... he's pretty much a subversion from then on; right clothes, right skill level, wrong antics.
    • Given that Shinnosuke is constantly stumbling into his own traps because he forgets where he put them, wouldn't he also count as a subversion like Mousse? Or would that be more an amusing character quirk?
  • The Barnum: Nabiki to an extreme degree.
  • Bash Brothers: Mikado Sanzen'in and Azusa Shiratori, the Golden Pair of Martial Arts Ice Skating.
  • Battle Aura: Pretty much every martial artist in the series. Happosai can actually shape his into a giant copy of himself, effectively becoming kaiju-sized. One episode of the anime has Happosai split into seven clones (long story) and all of them do this at once.
    • In one arc, Happosai and Genma keep one-upping each other...until they both faint from exhaustion.
  • Beach Episode
  • Beam Of Enlightenment
  • Beautiful All Along: Inverted — Mousse is first introduced as what appears to be a stoic Bishonen... and then he puts on those incredibly stupid-looking Nerd Glasses and proceeds to make an idiot of himself.
    • Arguably more-so WITHOUT the glasses.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Ranma & Akane — the trope codifiers for anime.
  • Big Bad: Pantyhose Taro, Herb, and Saffron
  • Big Damn Heroes: Quite a few times, but the best was when Ranma (who had all his strength taken away) was about to get ambushed by four of his old foes... Defenseless and pinned against a tree, Ranma closes his eyes and waits for it... But nothing happens. Looking up, he sees Ryoga, who had stepped in the way and defeated all four of the foes. First time this trooper cheered at a comic panel!
  • Big Eater: Ranma and Genma, the latter more than the former.
    • Both are put to shame by the whole Chardin family, and later by Kurumi "Tendo" in the OAV.
    • Nabiki Tendo has some traits of this, especially when she's being fed out of other peoples' wallets.
  • Big Fancy House: The Tendo home, which contains separate bedrooms for all three of the daughters, Soun himself, and two guest bedrooms — one downstains used by Happosai, and another upstairs which Genma and Ranma share. It also includes a full traditional Japanese bathing area, an equally traditional dining/living room, a garden with large pond, and a dojo large enough to comfortably seat virtually every character ever seen on the show as of the series' first Christmas episode. The Kuno Estate is a massive place that almost resembles a medieval Japanese fortress — particularly in the anime, where it has a literal labyrinth of secret passages, dungeons, and deathtraps.
    • One might assume that the Tendo Dojo would have some provisions for accommodating students. It is a dojo after all.
      • It's also implied that the house is rather old, they mention the wood rotting in the anime.
  • Bishonen
  • Bishoujo
  • Bitch In Sheeps Clothing: Nabiki; Shampoo.
  • Blessed With Suck: most of the main characters with Jusenkyo curses, or other oddities, such as Ryoga's causality-bending complete lack of direction-sense. Ranma feels this way about his curse (though he does seem to get some enjoyment/use out of it), but it's fairly neutral in and of itself... compared to, say, turning into a defenseless little animal considered tasty-looking and edible by just about everyone, à la Ryoga Hibiki. Mostly, it's Blessed With Suck because of the Seppuku pledge his father and mother made, the fact he's physically weaker in that form, it results in various complications that wouldn't have happened if he didn't have it (first meeting with Akane, Shampoo trying to kill him, nightmares about having Tatewaki Kuno's children, etc.), and the fact it makes him the target of just about every pervert and degenerate to crawl out of the woodwork... including Dirty Old Man Happôsai and his fiancée's unscrupulous and money-crazed elder sister.
  • Blind Without Em: Mousse
  • Blow You Away: Ranma's most frequent Finishing Move is the Hi Ryū Shoten Ha, which creates a tornado. He's also fond of modifying it on the spot to beat the more serious enemies.
  • Blue With Shock
  • Boobs Of Steel: Played straight with Shampoo and Female-Ranma, who have generous busts and are highly skilled martial artists, as well as Miss Hinako who is one of the most powerful characters in the series since she drains power from her opponents. Possibly subverted with Ukyo, who is one of the flattest girls, but is shown to still be a highly skilled martial artist.
    • Atsuko Nakajima's OAV and movie character designs obviate the trope by making all of the girls extremely well-endowed, even the more modest ones.
  • Brainwashed And Crazy: Happens to Male Ranma when his female half is duplicated (though not split from him) and it seduces him in one anime episode. Possibly happens to Shampoo when Kiima catches her in an Imprinting Egg.
    • It's also debatable whether the Oni does this to Ryoga, Kasumi and Kuno, as although it seems to be a case of Grand Theft Me the victim seems to still be in control of his or her own thoughts.
    • No, it made them act in a way that they personally considered evil. In Kuno's case, he's such a hypocrite that he behaved exactly the way he normally does....
  • Brought Down To Normal: When Happosai used moxibustion to rob Ranma of his prodigious strength, to the point where a toddler could beat him up.
  • Brother Chuck: What the hell happened to Dr. Tofū after volume 12?
  • Bully Hunter: Ranma does this occasionally, for example when she stopped Kodachi from beating up the Fūrinkan gymnastic team further or the time he stopped a group of masked kids that were bullying Gosunkugi.
    • And again with Ryoga, most notably for defending a Brought Down to Normal Ranma from the rest of the males on the Nerima Wrecking Crew.
  • Call Back: To Akane and [male] Ranma's first encounter, twice: Shinnosuke running into Akane in the bath (confirming his identity to her) and Kiima posing as Akane walking in on Ranma in the exact same pose and angles as in the introductory chapter.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Almost entirely spoofed in the manga: nearly every attack, no matter how minor or improvised, has some sort of name. The Saotome school even has a named 'attack' that consists of running away until you can think of something else. But it's also played straight, particularly with Ranma and Ryoga's most devastating attacks.
    • Not to mention The Crouch of the Wild Tiger — a "maneuver" that has the martial artist dropping on all fours and begging for mercy from the "target".
    • Konatsu is the most extreme spoof of this. Almost everything he does, no matter how useless or unrelated to combat, is shouted out with a silly title , including coming up with multiple names for doing the same thing...
    • Don't forget the Carp on the Cutting Board...preluding the Cradle of Death.
  • Canon Foreigner: Sasuke Sarugakure, the Kunos' Ninja servant, in the anime.
  • Cant Catch Up: Akane and the Kuno siblings to Ranma.
  • Cant You Read The Sign: Has oodles of fun with this trope. Characters sit on water mains with signs that read, "Danger: Do not Sit", laugh in areas where signs read, "Do not laugh loudly in the garden", and run on fences that read "Danger: Unstable". Rumiko Takahashi has quite a bit of fun with this gag.
  • Card Carrying Villain: Happosai. However, just because he is the only character who is actually proud to be "evil", he really isn't nearly as bad as some of the others, and he always tries to be nice to little children.
  • Catch Phrase: Many, but most notably Kasumi: "Oh My", Akane: "Honestly" and "Ranma no baka!" (roughly "dummy", or "Ranma you jerk" in the dub; she even has a "Baka Song"), Happosai: "What a haul!" and "Sweeto!", Shampoo: "Nihao, Airen!" and, to a lesser extent, "Aiyaaa!" and of course Ryoga's "Ranma, prepare to die!" He never follows through on it when he wins. Akane in particular typically uses both of her catchphrases at least Once An Episode.
  • Cerebus Fandom: Despite being one of the "classic" comedy series, the fanbase is littered with angst and drama fics as all get out.
    • That's partially because the characters are so screwed up, partially because it's much harder to write intelligent comedy, and partially because the manga recurrently mixed very serious, with goofy, or even very dark gag comedy. It's a diverse mixture, and comes out particularly odd when a fanfic writer makes a serious effort to translate all of the aspects into another medium. Also, fanfic authors as a whole are not very happy people. It frequently goes so far that it has nothing to do with the original though. Ranma the nihilistic lolicon-fetishist cyberpunk pimp doesn't really work very well... and no that's not remotely an exaggeration.
  • Changing Clothes Is A Free Action: Often as part of a sight gag, such as Ranma getting into or out of a costume to fool Ryouga in the space of a single panel, or Nodoka (who is in a full dress kimono) seeing Ranma for the first time (but wearing girl's clothes,) hugging him, and suddenly standing in proper seppuku attire.
  • Chaotic Neutral: Most of the main characters swing all over the Character Alignment scale, from moments of Chaotic Good to moments of Neutral Evil to moments that are pure Chaotic Neutral; calling them Chaotic Neutral works more as an "average" alignment (particularly for the group as a whole) than anything else, especially if one isn't differentiating between the anime and the manga. Characters who are more evil in one continuity might be portrayed as more good in the other (for example, Shampoo is predominantly Neutral Evil in the manga, but the anime version appears to develop into the Chaotic Neutral section) and vice-versa. However, the degrees and frequencies of these tendencies shift wildly between them. For the few characters who don't have such a moral ambiguity... and even they have debates going on:
    • Kasumi Tendo: Neutral Good. She likes making her family happy and is the one responsible for looking after them — cooking, cleaning, she does the majority of the tasks around the household — and if making them happy means letting them run wild, she's content to sit back and watch them enjoy themselves with a smile on her face. A very cynical Alternative Character Interpretation, though, would be to consider her a sweet-natured Type 2/10/12 True Neutral. Some fans have also looked at her little jokes from the early parts of the series (like giving Akane a hammer in the Hypnotic Mushrooms arc and encouraging her to ward off Ranma with it) and speculated she may be a subtle form of Chaotic Good, who truly does like her family, but also likes the chaos that can ensue when the pot is stirred.
    • Nabiki Tendo: Anywhere from Lawful Evil to Chaotic Evil, with a few True Neutral moments wherein she doesn't mind helping her family with minor everyday tasks. Her intelligence, acerbic wit, mercenary traits, extreme talent for manipulation and play-acting, and willingness to work either within (investments, information-brokering, merchandise) or outside (life-threatening chaos-mongering, blackmail, swindling, theft, or even selling people for profit) the system to gain greater wealth, makes her more apparent as an 'average' of Neutral Evil. However, one does not have to be Stupid Evil to be Chaotic Evil, and others would argue that her constant arrangement of trouble, total lack of concern for anyone besides herself, and doing it all simply for fun and (usually) pocketmoney (threatening to expose Ranma's identity to Nodoka unless he bribed her for 500 yen equates to blackmailing, via threat of death, somebody for roughly $5), places her pretty firmly on the Chaotic side of the equation. In the anime her "worst" moments were either toned down or didn't have the time to be featured, and she showed occasional concern for her family's well-being, or gave some advise, so here she could be interpreted as a Type 5 True Neutral.
    • Happosai: Chaotic Evil. Happosai generally behaves like a self-centered, extremely attention-craving nuisance, and appears to have very limited morals or scruples. Although despite his immense power, he usually sticks to groping and peeping on women, obnoxious pranks, and stealing food or lingerie. However, when motivated this Dirty Old Man can also do stuff like contemplate murdering a baby that he thinks will become an even greater Panty Thief then himself, or cripple his heir and announce this fact to all of his potentially deadly rivals. He can also be seen as a Type 5 True Neutral: In the anime he drops the manga trait of being a Card Carrying Villain and does occasional good deeds, like trying to genuinely reform himself, or tend to what he believes to be a sick, poor woman. In the manga, he has been shown to have a soft spot for little children, such as lending them toys, making the sickly Hinako healthy, or trying to do good deeds for them, but is also fully willing to use them as accomplices in his thefts.
    • Saffron, Taro, and Herb: Neutral Evil. Thoroughly ruthless, egotistic, conceited, and sadistic "big villain" characters for the protagonists to square off against. Each also has some quality that keeps them from appearing Chaotic Evil; Saffron's goal is to ascend to his full power so as to provide heat and light for his subjects, Taro is willing to save/protect random women, and Herb appears to possess some ability for gratitude.
    • Tatewaki Kuno: Chaotic Stupid. Tatewaki sees himself as, and wants to be, a noble chivalrous (and pretentious) samurai, but is mostly deluded from reality or unable to comprehend the situations and reactions around him, or the troublesome pest he makes of himself, is willing to get ruthless towards men that he falsely thinks to be villains, gladly rushes into outmatched battles over and over, no matter how many times he is beaten, completely convinced of victory, and appears to be a closet pervert who sees himself as a gentleman. When an oni possessed him and made him act in a manner he considered "evil", he behaved exactly like normal, without realising it, and his potential has been shown as far greater than what he is able to use consciously. His behaviour comes across as a mixture of delusional, confused, idiotic, and masochistic.
  • Characterization Marches On: Rumiko Takahashi herself stated in an interview that she originally intended Ranma to be "a clean-cut, nice boy with frank disposition", but that he kept surprising her and "turned out to be an indecisive, stubborn, sly guy." Some fans would make a case for Nabiki, due to her apparent excitement of a possible cute well-travelled fiancé (and boys in general) in the first episode/chapter. She even wore a kimono to meet Ranma (in the anime, not the manga). However, from her interations with Kuno in the immediately following chapters it is clear that she is profiting from and encouraging the harrassment of her little sister, and her later spotlight chapters make clear that she is perfectly willing to blackmail boys with a crush on her dry of money, swindle kindergarten kids, ruin her family, frame Ranma for rape, sell him/her to Kodachi or as a casino slave, continuously sadistically lie to and manipulate anyone, casually send a rival to his death, or cause the destruction of the Saotome house for sheer entertainment value. Large numbers of fan theories have been argued over amongst fans in attempt to explain this perceived dichotomy, ranging from: "Nabiki is really in love with Ranma, but feels she can't steal him away from Akane, and so has become cold and bitter as a defensive measure" to "Nabiki sees how badly love is turning out for Akane with her engagement to Ranma and has concluded that love isn't worth it." to "Nabiki had a secret crush on Kuno that embarrassed her — then Ranma's appearance revealed that his perversion and idiocy has beyond even what Nabiki had thought possible — and so she has turned on all boys and love in general", or that she "genuinely wants a real boyfriend, but loses interest quickly and falls back on her money-grubbing ways". Others would argue that she is intended as an exaggerated parody of certain less savory amoral and hedonistic aspects of modern liberated social traits, whereas her opposite Kasumi is an exaggeration of traditional values, female co-dependence, and perceived serene perfection. Rumiko herself has consistently drawn Nabiki as a devil and Kasumi as an angel.
  • Character Development: Arguably Ryoga, who first appears as an enemy and gradually evolves into a rival, a reliable ally, and possibly a friend. (Of all the characters who crash the abortive wedding, Ryoga is the only one who is not trying to deliberately spoil the event.)
    • Akane, and to a lesser degree Mousse, also turn nicer as the story marches on.
  • Chef Of Iron: Ukyo, master of Martial Arts Okonomiyaki and wielder of giant spatulas. Cologne to a degree with ramen noodle attacks and teaching Shampoo Martial Arts Takeout Delivery.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The horn whistle Shinnosuke gave Akane during their childhood is the only thing that can pacify the Orochi and send it back to sleep.
    • The photo of Akane that Nabiki sells to Ryoga winds up playing a role in snapping Ranma out of his stupor after falling down Saffron's pit trap — and winds up alerting the Phoenix to Akane's existence and leading to her kidnapping.
  • Cherry Blossoms
  • Chick Magnet: Ranma attracts a good number of female characters in the series, even one-shot gag characters.
  • Childhood Marriage Promise: The foundation of the series, alongside Arranged Marriage — with the exception of Shampoo, all of Ranma's engagements were arranged when he was a kid.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Shampoo, Ukyo, Kodachi, and most of the male suitors.
  • Cloning Blues: The Haunted Mirror
  • Clothing Damage: Pretty much every time Ranma fights as a girl.
  • The Combat Pragmatist: Ranma and Genma. They've turned cheating, cheap shots, and taunting into an art form. Fear the mighty Crouch of the Wild Tiger! Beg for your life!
    • Saotome Ultimate Technique! A special skill that relies on withdrawal, concealment, and deliberation. In other words, run away and hide until you can come up with a better idea.
  • Combat Commentator: Happens occasionally, with the peanut gallery making quips to explain what may be missing in a single still panel shot. Of course, this happens to also give certain characters an unusual and inconsistent knowledge of the martial arts, even if it is accepted as fact that they have no interest in them. Such as Nabiki immediately commenting on the nature of Happosai's "Hermit Crab Fist" being him moving from bucket to bucket really fast. Also parodied later in the Ten-yen bet saga, where Akane and Ranma serve up some overdramatic commentary on the rather mundane happenings. One of the best examples of this trope might be the anime-exclusive episode dealing with Martial Arts Shogi, where Happosai and Nabiki (the former of which is just being a coward) take to the sidelines with Happosai explaining how Battle Shogi relates to the rules of the boardgame.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: And how...
  • Congruent Memory: Kuno's watermelon sword training.
  • Continuity Nod: Remember how Akane can't swim to save her life? Rumiko Takahashi did when she dropped her in a Jusenkyo spring.
  • Cooking Duel: Practically every third episode, at least two involved actual cooking. See Martial Arts And Crafts for some examples.
  • Counter Attack: The Hiryū Shoten Ha; almost all the techniques in the Umi-Sen Ken style are specific counters to the Yama-Sen Ken.
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: Akane Tendo. For reasons that are probably understandable only by herself, the girl seems to consider any recipe as always being in need of improvement... and her choice of extra ingredients is always deleterious. Unlike most examples of this trope, however, even she finds her concoctions to be thoroughly inedible, if she ever tastes them. Her main problem is that she never actually tastes the food before she serves it, occasionally being offended if the subject is even raised. Needless to say, nobody except Ryoga Hibiki is willing to even touch her food unless intimidated or guilted into doing so. Later in the manga she does make edible curry and tries it prior to serving it. In the anime she also learns to prepare tofu.
  • Covert Pervert: Akane Tendo has rampant, but gradually lessening, paranoia from the start of the series, due to being harrassed by a horde of attacking boys every morning, and is afraid of being raped when she first meets Ranma as a naked stranger in the bathroom, and when Ranma goes on a date with Kuno in the Wishing Sword story Akane is terrified that the same thing will happen to her/him. Most often this is used when Ranma frequently ends up in unlikely, but amusing, extremely compromising positions, such as being embraced by a naked Shampooo in the bath, or being found covered in stolen female underwear while in the girls' locker room, just before Akane inevitably enters and lashes out before listening to explanations. Similarly, to stop the chi-vampire Hinako Ranma is required to grope her breasts, and decides to do so in public; this is repeated when she finds Ranma running from Hinako's apartment and the latter comes out naked and upset from the shower, or finding them close together in Ranma's bedroom. Although Akane recurrently apologises after being shown the truth.
  • Cracking Up: Ryoga's vows of vengeance and some walnuts.
  • Crosscast Role: Akane has to play Romeo in the school play.
  • Crossdresser: Ukyo, Tsubasa, and Konatsu. Unfortunate applications of hot water tend to make male Ranma one of these, to the horror of innocent passerby (including his own mother).
  • Cross Popping Veins
  • Crowning Moment Of Funny: During the "umbrella of love" chapter of the manga, when everybody who shares this certain umbrella falls in love. This being Ranma 1/2, they end up brutally fighting over it. Eventually, the Ranma, holding the umbrella, gently floats down from the sky after the brawl is seemingly settled and lands, managing to accidentally hold the umbrella open over him and Akane. They naturally start being lovey-dovey... until the bystanders reveal they were just holding onto the umbrella-stick, and the umbrella itself is broken.
    • "Starting right now, I'm in love with... this guy!"
    • Another story shows the principal, Kuno, Happosai, and Mousse land, unconscious, in the same spot. What do the students do first? BURY THEM!!
    • The same thing happens to Genma (with extremely good reason!) during the Yama/Umi-Sen-ken arc. Raman even comments on how both scroll and creator are locked away.
  • Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: The Reawakening Memories OAV and corresponding manga story. To the point that, when the studio held a vote as to what manga story to animate next, the Japanese fans overwhelmingly replied with this arc instead of action- or humor-heavy choices.
  • Curse: The keystone and main plot driver of the series.
  • Cursed With Awesome: Ranma's Jusenkyo curse, according to some people, though he would not agree. The theory that Ranma is under some curse that makes him a Weirdness Magnet counts if you believe it- though in this case it would be an example of Ranma not minding the curse. Canonically, Pantyhose Taro and Rouge; both of them have Jusenkyo curses that cause them to transform into super powered, if bizarre, alternate forms. Taro becomes a kind of flying minotaur that later gains Combat Tentacles. Rouge sprouts four new arms and two more faces while gaining the ability to fly, hurl lightning bolts, and breath fire.
  • Cute Little Fangs: Ryoga, primarily, though Rumiko Takahashi's art-style allowed virtually every member of the cast to acquire them during at least one rant through the course of the manga.
  • Damsel Scrappy: Akane has moments where she could be seen this way, all the way to the end of the manga, but whether she truly is a bonified example is very much a matter of Your Mileage May Vary.
  • Deadly Dodging: Makes up a large component of Ranma's fighting style.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Nabiki of course, though most of the cast have their moments in occasion.
  • Death By Materialism: Nabiki fights a boy whose style of "martial arts" is based on sticking other people with the debts he incurs.
  • Defence Mechanism Superpower: The Neko-Ken.
  • Demon Head: Soun, whenever he needs to jolt Ranma into doing something that he wanted, usually involving swallowing his pride and being nice to Akane.
    • Kasumi and Nabiki also pulled a Demon Head during the Chardin arc.
  • The Determinator: Just about every martial artist in the main cast has pulled this act off at least once.
  • Die For Our Ship: Pick a pairing, any pairing.
  • Different For Girls: Explicitly lampshaded.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Many characters have done this on whim, usually Played For Laughs. The worst offenders are Ryoga, Ranma and Akane. However, Nabiki's use of this trope to one of her suitors was the most epic.
  • Dirty Old Man: Happosai
  • Does Not Know His Own Strength: Ryoga, through and through. It's played up much more in the original manga, but in either version when his mind wanders, he tends to destroy everything he's touching. It's possible that Shampoo might also be an example of this... or simply that she gets a kick out of proving how strong she is by demolishing everything in her path.
  • Domestic Abuse: all of the girls who claim to want Ranma routinely beat the shit out of him. This is part of the comedy. Another example, definitely not played for laughs, is Genma being willing to knock his own wife out to steal from her.
  • Double Standard: Astoundingly so. When Ranma's female suitors go after him, they're pests (apart from Ukyo). However, when male suitors go after him (being in girl form, of course), s/he gets very annoyed and usually pummels them. One notable example by knocking a person out by striking him over 500 times, after he kissed his female form. This has more to do with the fact that he's a man and would be ostracized for hitting girls.
    • No double standard at work, since Ranma isn't a girl. It has more to do with Ranma being a man and not wanting other men to hit on him (whereas he has been shown to get a confidence boost from Ukyo or Shampoo). Especially since these one-shot men are just as insistent as the regular-character female suitors. Also, Ranma never pummels anyone until they start acting like a pervert towards his female side — when the girls act perversely towards his male half (Shampoo glomping him in the bath, Kodachi drugging him to kiss him) he runs away because he, personally, doesn't like to hit girls, not because of a manga-wide Double Standard or fear of being ostracized.
    • It's okay for a girl to see a guy nude but not for a guy to see a girl nude.
    • The fanbase generally will always be swift to point how Ranma 1/2 is a comedy, but the vast majority of the Fan Fics put out by those same fans will undoubtedly be heavy handed drama and angst fics.
    • Another fan favorite double standard is the actions of x character are the worst atrocities ever while the actions of y character are ignored or outright denied.
  • Draco In Leather Pants: The entire cast really — it doesn't matter which one you choose, someone somewhere in the fandom will fashion some nice leather pants for them.
    • Nabiki in particular, since she's the most extreme makeover, and it involves virtually every single fanfiction story she's been prominently featured in.
  • Dramatic Wind
  • Dropped A Bridget On Him: Subverted with Hiroshi and Daisuke, at least in the manga. Their response to discovering that cute redheaded girl they've been crushing on is, in fact, their male best friend? "We don't care, she's still hot." Tsubasa also drops a Bridget on Ranma at the end of his introductory (and sole, in the manga) story, and Konatsu drops it on Ukyo at the end of his.
  • Easy Amnesia: Shinnosuke, guardian of the Forest of Ryûgenzawa. There's a pressure point technique that can not only erase certain facts from the victim's memory, but also prevents the victim from re-learning the fact in the future.
  • Efficient Displacement: The surprising amount of detail on the character-shaped holes or impressions is part of the fun.
  • The Electric Slide: Pick your poison; everyone does it as they're all martial artists of some form or another.
  • Embarrassing First Name: Quite obviously, Pantyhose Taro. "Pantyhose Taro" is his full name, but he only wants to change the first half of it into something less embarrassing, such as "Awesome Taro."
  • Enemy Mine
  • Energy Absorption: English teacher Hinako Ninomiya.
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: Two of the guys lose their clothing after a transformation; and Ranma's tends to get torn up during the same. Even Kuno and the reveal of the two Male-to-Female crossdressers.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: everybody in this series is a Jerk Ass at some point, yet excepting Nabiki and Kodachi, even the most malicious of the regular cast members considers something too much even for them.
    • Actually, Nabiki has had one canonical moment of this. When Soun reveals that he's stolen Ranma's cure and is going to blackmail him into marrying Akane for it, Nabiki comments that at least she only steals money. Some fans also think her motive in the "Nabiki, Ranma's New Fiancee" story arc was teaching Akane to appreciate what she had in Ranma.
    • It doesn't count, as she's done far worse things in the same vein. Selling Ranma to be married to/enslaved by Kodachi boils down to a more extreme version of the same thing. At least Soun knew that Akane and Ranma actually cared for each other, but were too shy to ever take the step themselves. Going by in-story explanation, she did not do it to teach anyone a lesson, simply to make cash, have fun tormenting Akane's overactive compassion, manipulate Ranma by feigning affection, and dropped the engagement when she suspected that Ranma was turning affectionate, since it would be too much trouble.
  • Even The Guys Want Him: During the Koi Rod arc Ranma (in both his male and female forms) falls in love with Ryoga, causing much fan rejoice from the shippers.
    • Technically this also applies to Ranma himself as a lot of the male students lust after Ranma (in his female form), knowing full well that he is in actuality a guy.
      • Dunno if that really applies. Guys have been known to lust after pictures. Onna-Ranma is actually more real by virtue of being physically present.
  • Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Anything-Goes insert-what-have-you-here.
  • Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: The Dojo Destroyer, Principal Kuno, (Kuno Kocho in Japanese) whose given name was never revealed. The Jusenkyo Guide is only ever called "Mr. Guide" by the cast and "Father" by his daughter.
  • Everythings Better With Pandas: Or so Genma would like you to believe.
    • In the earlier arcs of the manga, he even had a tendency to appear out of nowhere and randomly save Ranma's from having people discover his curse. This is part of the Aborted Arc to keep Ranma's curse a secret.
  • Evil Feels Good: Nabiki, Shampoo, Pink, to a lesser degree Happosai, as he is even more upbeat, but not quite as malevolent. A running theme of the show is that several of the most Jerkass-y characters tend to be extremely serene and happy about it, whereas people with a strong conscience tend to get depressed far more easily, much like the real world tends to work, rather than sticking to the corrupt story convention that pain equals evil and happiness equals goodness. It is most overtly displayed with Pink and Link, the former physically identical twin is a happy casual sadist, and the latter an altruist who gets victimized for her sister's misdeeds.
  • Evilly Affable: Nabiki, Shampoo, Taro.
  • Evil Twin: Kiima, after she used the Akaneniichuan., Pink.
  • Extreme Doormat: Konatsu
  • Extreme Omnivore: Kurumi in the OAVs can eat six-course meals prepared by Akane and ask for seconds. Ranma supposedly gained this ability from a "noodle of strength" (which would come in handy with Akane), but it was never mentioned again.
  • Face Fault
  • Failure Is The Only Option: Ranma never escapes the curse (and the ways in which it comes crashing down sometimes meanders into Yank The Dogs Chain), and his Unwanted Harem never loses any members.
  • Fan Dumb: Mostly related to the shipping wars, but a surprising amount due to people insisting on putting serious interpretations on Rule Of Funny plot developments or visual gags and slapstick. On the other hand, several of the instances this is claimed for are in context parts of an entire story circling around a certain theme, and the same argument can easily be made about the fans who go to lengths to ignore anything, no matter how repeatedly and consistently a certain behaviour happens.
  • Fanon: So, so much of it, mostly stemming from the rather uncoordinated release of English dubbed material and a huge Fan Fic base with more crossovers than is sane.
  • Fanservice: And how. Ranma spends at least half the time female, and much of that time topless...
    • And on the flipside, Ryoga and Mousse are often stark naked when they transform back into men.
  • Female Gaze
  • Feminine Women Can Cook: Kasumi's defining trait and a source of major angst for Akane; this is also Ukyo's primary advantage over Akane in the fiancée sweepstakes, and one she lampshades constantly.
  • Festival Episode
  • Fetish Fuel: This is show is practically a Drinking Game of fetish points.
  • Filler: Both the manga and anime alike are full of minor stories designed to take up one episode or chapter and not really be of any importance. The anime gets more attention paid to its filler, however, because it created its own minor stories as well as adapting others from the original manga, making it appear far less connected to the manga, which consequently had fewer gaps between its story arcs.
  • First Girl Wins: Manages to subvert this and play it straight... simultaneously. Word Of God is that Akane Tendo, the first fiancée introduced to the series, is the girl who Ranma will marry, but chronologically, she's actually one of the last girls Ranma meets — he met Ukyô Kuonji as a little kid, Shampoo before he returned from China, and technically met Akane's elder sisters Nabiki and Kasumi before he saw her.
    • Played straight since Akane is the first girl extensively introduced, unless you count you count Ranma himself.
  • First Kiss
  • Flanderization: Nabiki and Kasumi; Akane to a lesser extent.
  • Flung Clothing: Kodachi, more than once, changing to her leotard.
  • Foe Yay: Ryoga/Male!Ranma tend to get a lot of this.
    • Hell, Ryoga/Female!Ranma works too, given how many times Ranma resorted to the "dress as a cute girl and flirt with Ryoga mercilessly" tactic whenever he needed a strategic advantage.
    • Takahashi decisively punctured and made fun of this interpretation with the "Fishing Rod of Love" story. Ranma turns into a murderously obsessive stalker, and eventually pushes Ryoga into considering killing him/her in extreme disgust. Ditto for Ranma's reaction at the end, free of the influence, when Ryoga tries to hug Akane and proclaim his love... but got the wrong target. They're both completely heterosexual.
  • Freaky Is Cool: "So, when is Ranma gonna turn back into a guy?" "Hey, fine by me if he stays a girl."
  • Fridge Logic: Oh, so much. The most glaringly obvious example is Ranma and his father deciding to leave the Jyusenkyou springs after being cursed, when they seem to be aware that there is a Spring of Drowned Man that they could jump into to reverse the curse.
  • Friendly Enemy: Ranma and Ryoga, after the first few stories. Much as Ryoga is fixated on beating Ranma (which becomes more simply being the Arrogant Kung Fu Guy then revenge pretty quick), he is perfectly willing to help Ranma out, Ranma has no qualms about helping Ryoga, and the two are generally quick to make alliances of convenience. Of course, they're equally quick to fall out again, but what do you expect? Shampoo and Ukyo have some elements of this... in the manga, this usually results in one of their more villainous moments.
  • Fruit of the Loon: The loon is Principal Kuno, the fruit is pineapples. Any questions?
  • Furo Scene: Many, given the role hot water plays in the series.
  • The Gadfly: Nabiki towards Akane and Ranma, Ranma often acts that way towards Ryouga too.
  • Gainaxing: And in the OAV, they have independent mobility.
  • Gateway Series: Possibly the gateway anime, along with Sailor Moon, in the 1990s.
  • Gender Bender: Making Ranma both Ms Fanservice and Estrogen Brigade Bait at the same time.
  • Gender Vocabulary Slip: Ranma routinely uses the masculine pronoun of "ore" to refer to himself, even in his female form.
  • Ghibli Hills: Anywhere in Japan that isn't Nerima tends to be presented as such. At least until Ranma and co have finished trashing it over a Martial Arts tiddlywinks challenge or some such.
  • Ghostly Goals: The anime has a cute ghost girl named Kogane who wants somebody to find her lost tanuki doll. The manga has an ugly old ghost matron who places a death curse on Happosai that won't lift unless he swipes her old-fashioned bloomers.
  • The Glasses Gotta Go: Inverted; Mousse looks like a handsome Bishonen... until his terrible eyesight forces him to put on a hideous set of Nerd Glasses.
  • The Glomp: Trope popularizer, if not outright Trope Namer. It's Shampoo's signature move towards Ranma, although Ryoga has also been glomped by Akane once (while she was brainwashed — by Shampoo, natch).
    • Akane has also glomped Ranma once, when he returned to the Tendo home after his fight with Herb.
    • Ryoga was also glomped by Male form Ranma during the Koi Rod arc (and the shippers rejoiced).
    • During the Do-chan (Battlesuit of Armor) arc, Ranma glomped Akane the best he freaking could without fainting on the spot... They are a Takahashi Pairing after all.
    • The most extreme glomping-series was the chapter wherein Shampoo used a magical "shiryaki mushroom spice" that gave anyone a hypnotic command to perform over and over. An awful amount of glomping was going on there. Ranma later used a suggestion incense to get Ryoga to hug anyone that said pig since Akari really liked pigs, with similar goofy results.
  • Goldfish Scooping Game
  • Gosh Hornet: Ranma's father tosses a beehive at his son as Training from Hell... with fairly mixed results.
  • Grand Theft Me: The Vengeful Spirit Doll, Mao Mo Lin, the Oni...
  • Hair Colors: Mostly a consequence of the animated adaptation, which gave the characters distinctive colors that remained fixed throughout the production. The first chapter of the manga was in color and portrayed Ranma with black hair in both forms. The fact the rest of the manga was in black and white, coupled with the greater availability of the anime, means that Girl-Ranma's hair is red in the public perception, to the extent that referring to her with black hair usually confuses most fans. Takahashi herself fueled this by publishing promotional pictures of "Ranma-chan" with various hair colors.
  • Half Human Hybrids: While not half-humans themselves, the people of the Musk Dynasty have inherited the blood of powerful animal and mythological creatures by throwing them in "The Spring of Drowned Girl" and mating with them. The Phoenix Kingdom, on the other hand, became Winged Humanoids through centuries of consuming Jusenkyo-cursed water (bird curses, natch) for pretty much every aspect of their lives (drinking, bathing, washing...) throughout generations.
  • Hammerspace: Used by nearly everyone in the cast in the name of comedy. Hammers are but a fraction of the items pulled out.
    • Usually it's a shinai, bokken, spatula, chui, kettles, tables, miscellaneous so-called-weapons, heavy blunt objects in general...
  • Hand Behind Head
  • Harmful To Minors: The whole point of the Neko-Ken, a technique officially banned by all right-thinking martial artists due to the fact it revolves around traumatizing a young child physically and mentally to induce a Berserk Mode. Not just Training From Hell, but also fundamentally flawed as well. Unfortunately, Genma Saotome is not a right-thinking martial artist.
  • Heavy Sleeper: Ranma, who can dodge attacks without waking up. Arguably this is yet another sign of Ranma and Akane's status as the Official Couple since Akane is a very active (bordering on violent) sleeper
  • Heel Face Turn: Ryoga, who goes from someone who is blindly fixated on brutalizing someone for a deed he doesn't even know they were actually responsible for to a Friendly Enemy who has saved Ranma's or/and Akane's lives on various occasions. Of course, some would argue that Ryoga was never a Heel to begin with.
  • Henohenomoheji: Ranma often wears one as mask.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Though they haven't seen each other for a long time by the time the series starts, in the anime Genma and Soun are usually shown hanging out together, playing shogi, go, or enjoying the countryside. In the manga they don't spend much time together on screen. However, in both canons, Soun considers Genma to be morally reprehensible and gets mad at him for his various Jerkass deeds, although it never has any serious consequences.
  • Here We Go Again: The end of the "Invincible" Phoenix Sword saga.
  • Heroic BSOD: Ranma, upon Akane's Disney Death at Jusendo. Not even a Get A Hold Of Yourself Man punch from Ryoga phases him, nor is the prospect of being eaten alive by Saffron's egg.
  • Hey You: Ranma as "Boy".
  • High School Hustler: Nabiki, in fanon — in canon, she's more of The Barnum.
  • Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Ranma especially, but many secondary characters also have some form of trauma that's typically played for laughs (Ryoga unintentionally abandoned by his family at a young age, Mousse's constant beatdowns from Shampoo, Principal Kuno's treatment of his children).
  • Hoist By His Own Petard: Herb was ultimately defeated by gathering all the energy he had released into one big, mountain-crushing bomb.
    • Kuno's Watermelon Sword attack is defeated when Ranma places a watermelon on his head, causing him to knock himself out.
      • The Hiryo Shoten Ha technique works by turning an opponent's own strength and rage against them, and is usually a one-hit-KO. The aforementioned mountain-crushing bomb, as well as the method that defeated Saffron, were variations on this technique and worked on the same principle.
  • Hot Amazon: Shampoo
  • Hulkspeak: Shampoo, but only in the English and German dubs.
  • Hyperspace Mallet: In fanon this is Akane's signature weapon. However, while she occasionally does use some form of mallet in both the anime and manga, she usually uses any available blunt object, most frequently shinai, and various other characters have used them in either medium.
  • Hypno Fool: Ranma and Akane are frequently the victims of mind-influencing magic, spells and poisons. Ranma is more frequently the victim in the anime (a hypnotic technique from Sasuke to make him go on a date with Kuno, being controlled by his evil side come to life courtesy of Happosai), while Akane tends to be the victim of choice in the manga (Happosai uses a magical incense that causes her to fall asleep until spring).
  • Identity Amnesia: After bonking himself hard on the head during the Watermelon Island story, Kuno went from grabby-but-harmless buffoon to a crazed stalker whose skill actually allowed him to terrorize Ranma.
    • In one anime episode, Ranma, when he got whacked upside the head hard enough, thought he really was a girl. However, that was a case of Loss Of Identity rather then Identity Amnesia — she remembered being "Ranma" perfectly, her personality was just twisted into an entirely new format.
  • Idiot Crows
  • The Idiot From Osaka: Ukyo; although she isn't an idiot, is often depicted as a bit moneygrubbing, another stereotypical Osakan trait.
  • I Do Not Drink Wine: The Seven Lucky Gods from Nekonron, China.
  • Important Haircut: Akane
  • Improbable Weapon User: Lots of minor characters, but the main crew isn't too far behind.
  • Improvised Weapon: Akane is very good at using anything at hand to bash Ranma.
    • Ranma, particularly in the manga, is very good at improvising weapons and has done so with a large variety of objects things like pinweels, rocks, sticks, clothesline poles, his hair, tennis rackets, paper fans, Ryoga, etc.
  • Indy Ploy: Every. Single. Fight.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Ranma does not seem to comprehend that being topless as a girl is not always appropriate. He honestly isn't much better at staying clothed as a guy, either.
  • Instant Cosplay Surprise
  • Insulted Awake
  • I Am Not Shazam: The Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire is a TRAINING technique, not an actual attack. It is basically composed of removing several chestnuts from on open fire by hand without getting burned, success means that the trainee is now not only very fast, but accurate. The anime usually has Ranma shouting this when he uses his Rapid Fire Fisticuffs, however.
  • I Want My Beloved To Be Happy: Akane tries to pass off Kuno's obsession with her onto Ranma this way, though it doesn't actually work. Because he wants both of them. Aside from that, the only person in the entire series who comes close to playing this straight is Konatsu towards Ukyo.
  • I Was Just Passing Through: Ryoga comes to Ranma's aid a lot, especially during the moxibustion storyline. Due to his horrible directional sense, he's also one of the few people who can legitimately claim he was "just passing through."
    • Which makes it rather funny that he seldom tries to claim this disingenuously — he was fairly open about seeing weakened Ranma a loss of a great warrior.
    • Ryoga basically doesn't know what to do, and gets confused or depressed, whenever he's pushed out of Ranma's league in one way or another.
  • Japanese Architecture: The Tendo home and dojo, to the point where many of its traditional features are essential to the plot. Much if not most of the progress in Ranma and Akane's relationship takes place on the engawa overlooking the koi pond.
  • Jerkass: Most of the cast, but turned up to eleven for Genma. Mostly due to immaturity.
  • Jerkass Woobie: most if not all of the teen characters who are sympathetic. Ryoga during his inital appearances, before his Heel Face Turn, is the best example.
  • Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Ranma, by default, and Ryoga softens into this from his initial Jerkass state.
  • Kamehame Hadoken: the Shi Shi Hokodan and Moko Takabisha Ki Attacks. This is more notable in the anime, where they're shown as sustained energy beams in the second Non Serial Movie (normally, they're Hadoken-style fireballs). Herb's Ki Attacks are also like this once he gets out of Mode Lock. The anime has Natsume & Kurumi's "Ryūka Ringu", or "Ring of Dragon Fire", which is one part this to one part Everythings Better With Spinning. Though based on magic instead of ki, Saffron has a variety of fiery projectiles, all the way up to a super-blast of flame the name of which roughly translates as "Empire Instant Annihilation Blast".
  • Kawaiiko: Azusa Shiratori
  • Kansai Regional Accent: Ukyo
  • Karma Houdini: Nabiki Tendo despite her callous actions has never received any sort of comeppuance in the entire show. Rumiko Takahashi however, likes this character and considers her sociopathic actions within the family dynamic as the reason why she's funny.
  • Keeping Secrets Sucks
  • Kendo Team Captain: Tatewaki Kuno
  • Ki Attacks
  • Kid Samurai: Tatewaki Kuno
  • Kill It With Fire: Saffron's attacks.
  • Kill It With Water: Quite a number of martial artists are transformed into (relatively) harmless animals when hit with water. Once, an entire mountain was rigged so as to eliminate all enemies this way.
    • In the first movie, Ranma realizes how to get past the Big Bads perfect defense. He kicks up water in the flooding room, and punches it blazingly fast at his opponent. As he blocks punches by grabbing them with his chopsticks, this technique obviously does not work on the water punches.
  • Lamarck Was Right: The Musk Dynasty. To some extent, the Phoenix Kingdom. Superpowerful Genetics play a large role in these cultures' development.
    • Well the Musk don't really fit this mold since their animalistic abilities come from ancestors who were actually magically transformed animals. The Phoenix clan does kinda fit the bill here though.
  • Larynx Dissonance: In the European Spanish dub, the same actress dubs female and male Ranma. Spot-on performance for the former, while the latter sounds ten years old.
  • Laser Guided Amnesia: Or Bokken Guided Amnesia as it were...
  • Left Hanging: The Anime series ends nowhere near the manga's climax, whose own open ending may be just as bad depending on your perspective —though by that point both the manga and the anime had evolved into an ensemble comedy and any semblence of an overall plot arc had long-since been abandoned. Takahashi likely took one look at the Love Dodecahedron and simply gave up resolving it.
    • It's worth a mention, however, that Ranma and Akane made a lot of progress in their relationship, as compared to the earlier volumes. Ranma was even able to confess his love to her in the final volume.
      • Yeah, after he thought that she had died because he'd taken too long to beat Saffron. He couldn't bring himself to say anything like that in the relatively calmer moments after they got back to Japan — he even denied saying something like that out loud when Akane asked if he had said he loved her. (To be fair, it's unclear in the manga whether he actually said anything other than her name out loud.) And the only time Akane openly admitted her love for Ranma was during the contrary jewel arc, when her actions were suspect.
  • Les Yay: Fanon is all over the place, but Shampoo certainly doesn't hesitate to Glomp Ranma in either form, and many of Ranma and Akane's most comfortable and relaxed moments have occurred while Ranma was female.
    • Akane's impassioned rantings about how she hates boys certainly don't help matters — or possibly do help depending on the ship you prefer.
    • That's usually blown completely out of proportion. She only said that right at the start, and only about the ones that kept attacking/stalking her every morning. After they stopped she was usually shown being friendly and helpful towards boys as well as girls. She really doesn't like Kuno or Happosai though, but still always helps them out when they seem to need it.
    • Though not directed at anyone really noticeable, Nabiki has some really weird habits for a presumably boy-crazy girl. Like fondling female Ranma to determine that her breasts have grown. Or all the pictures of female Ranma in various states of undress she keeps around her room.
    • Well, she does sell them to an awful lot of people.
  • Lethal Chef: Akane, at least initially; her cooking eventually improves slightly in the manga. However, this gets ridiculously flanderized in Fan Fic.
    • She makes acceptable curry once, but attempts to cook anything else still give her trouble (even during the same story arc as the curry.)
  • The Little Shop That Wasnt There Yesterday
  • Loads And Loads Of Characters
  • Lord Error Prone: Tatewaki Kuno.
  • Lost In Translation: See Punny Name below. All they had to do was adjust the pronounciation of the dub (or the spelling of the subtitles) a bit...
  • Loudspeaker Truck
  • Love At First Punch: just about everyone who falls for Ranma or Akane seems to do so after being pounded on by them.
  • Love Dodecahedron: The term was coined just to describe Ranma's relationships
  • Love Makes You Dumb: Dr. Tofū around Kasumi. "And he was such a good doctor".
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Pick a suitor.
  • Love Potion: Not actual potions as such, but otherwise a common feature. Between the anime and manga, we've seen, among other things, a literal Together Umbrella and Red String Of Fate, mushrooms that become a love potion when stewed, bracelet "jewels" that are taken as love potion pills, "compatability testing" sakura-mochi, a box of aphrodesiac-soaked bandaids, and a "heart fishing pole". Thanks to his Unwanted Harem, and the general lack of scruples on the parts of... well... everyone... Ranma Saotome tends to be the one who gets whammied with these the most.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Happosai, not so much lovable, but is a sex maniac. Kuno, on the other hand, is that and a masochist.
  • Mad Love: Tatewaki and Kodachi are madly and unrequitedly in love with alternate halves of Ranma. Kuno is deluded from reality, and wants to court several disinterested women at once; whereas Kodachi is extremely flamboyant, psychotic, and tries to use paralysis potions in her aim to gain Ranma as an enamoured servant. Shampoo's personally stated motto centers around her willingness to kill any "obstacle" in her path if it is convenient. She is also a sadistic bully and manipulator, will gladly brainwash others if possible, and even force Ranma into loving her. Mousse, meanwhile, has been stalking the utterly disinterested (to the point of wanting him to die) and recurrently violent Shampoo since they were three, and is so fixated on her that his initial purpose in the series is basically defined as Murder The Hypotenuse. However, Mousse turns more conflicted, is far more loyal, and usually less calculated than she is, and settles down to simply wanting Ranma to get married to Akane, to leave Shampoo for himself.
  • Making A Splash: Cologne's Shark Fist and various other water-manipulation techniques. Also Ranma himself in the climax of the first movie.
  • Martial Arts And Crafts: The Trope Codifier, if not Trope Maker. Some of them include:
    • Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics
    • Martial Arts Pairs Figure Skating
    • Martial Arts Takeout Food Delivery
    • Martial Arts Tea Ceremony
    • Martial Arts Cheerleading
    • Martial Arts Calligraphy
    • Martial Arts Shogi
    • Martial Arts Dining
  • Master Apprentice Chain: Happosai > Genma & Soun > Ranma & Akane
  • Master Of Disguise: Tsubasa Kurenai, who is just as likely to crossdress as a pretty girl as charge into scene disguised as a very convincing tree. Kiima claims that her people have regularly used Jusenkyo to transform into humans other than Akane when they to spy on or mingle with them.
  • Megaton Punch: Akane to Ranma, but most of the martial artists do this at one time or another.
  • Megumi Hayashibara: Girl-type Ranma, theme songs, member of DoCo supergroup.
  • Mind Control Device: quite a few, which are usually used on (and even by) Ranma Saotome.
  • Mind Control Eyes: Happens to Ranma quite a bit and usually his male half.
  • The Mind Is A Plaything Of The Body: Animal-curse characters can fly or run on all fours instants after being cursed. Pantyhose Taro's octopus tentacles burdened him with octopus instincts. Rouge goes Ax Crazy when transforming into Asura. Hinako acts childish as a young girl, but cold as woman. Ranma normally acts the same whatever his form but will react in a feminine manner whenever Rule Of Funny requires it.
  • Miniature Senior Citizens: Cologne; Happosai; Rakkyosai; Chingensai; Sentaro's grandmother; others.
  • Misplaced Wildlife: Lampshaded and justified with the forest of Ryūgenzawa.
  • Mistaken For Cheating: Multiple times, and almost always over-the-top.
  • Mix And Match Critters: Pantyhose Taro's monster form; he later augments it himself with extra body parts.
  • Mode Lock: Depending on the mode, either the method of curing the curses or a reason to look for an antidote.
  • Moment Killer: All the time, whenever Ranma and Akane are making any real progress in their relationship.
  • Money Fetish: Nabiki Tendo, without a shadow of a doubt. There's almost literally nothing she won't do to make a few yen. Ukyo has a tiny bit of it as well.
  • Mood Whiplash: The Ryû Kumon storyline. While still crammed with the usual Takahashi humor, his backstory is surprisingly somber (at least initially), and his relationship with Nodoka Saotome has layers upon layers of meaning.
  • Morality Pet: Inverted. Being the pet, and his subsequent falling in love with Akane, is part of what sets Ryoga on the path to his eventual Heel Face Turn.
  • Morally Ambiguous Ducktorate: Mousse; he's an antagonist often enough to qualify.
  • Most Common Superpower: particularly in the anime, all of the girls are fairly buxom. Nihao! My Concubine took it even further.
  • The Mourning After: Soun Tendo, never quite got over his wife's death, as painfully illustrated in the end of the manga Hinako arc.
  • MST 3 K Mantra: Invoked by the author regarding the technicalities of Ranma's shapeshifting.
  • Murder The Hypotenuse: Pretty much every crazed suitor in the entire series. Shampoo is willing to pull this on Akane and Ukyo if she thinks she can get away with it, as is Kodachi, while Mousse tries to dispatch Ranma in the same way. Its not clear whether early-series Ryoga would kill Ranma, but he definitely wants to severely beat him him/her.
    • Ranma, under the Koi Rod of Love's spell, viciously attacks Akane, believing her to be the Hypotenuse.
  • My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Several times; most notably Akane and Ranma sensing Ryoga being killed by Lime in the manga, but there are other examples.
  • My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: Obvious here.
  • Neck Lift
  • Nerd Glasses: Mousse
  • Ninja: Subversion: Sasuke. Played straight: Konatsu the Genius Kunoichi, who lives up to the "Genius" part but not so much the "kunôichi" part
  • Noblewomans Laugh: Kodachi Kuno, and it's really exaggerated, played up to the point of absurdity.
    • This may have to do with the fact pretty much everything about Kodachi is absurd.
    • Once done in an area where a sign read, "Please do not laugh loudly in the garden".
  • Nobody Calls Me Chicken: Ranma, moreso in the anime than the manga
  • Non Fatal Explosions: Happosai regularly throws around homemade gunpowder hand grenades. It's usually Ranma himself that gets left charred, smoking and pissed off, but otherwise unharmed. In one episode of the anime he also uses Abnormal Ammo, altering this move from the "Happo Daikarin" to the "Happo Daikabin", or "Happo Mold Burst". That's right, as in the nasty fuzzy stuff that grows on spoiled food.
  • The Nose Bleed: Ryoga, mainly.
  • No Sense Of Direction: Ryoga is the king of this trope.
  • Oblivious To Love: Akane seems perpetually ignorant of the fact Ryoga is head-over-heels for her. Prior to the "Waterproof Soap" story, this seems to be because Ryoga Cannot Spit It Out, while afterwards, it seems more like Akane is faking obliviousness out of fear of Ryoga's reaction when it appears Akane is reciprocating his feelings.
  • Ocular Gushers
  • Off Model: You can tell which Season 4, 5, and 6 episodes were outsourced to low-budget studios.
  • One Hour Work Week: Soun Tendo's seat on the neighborhood council seems to give him an inordinate amount of free time (enough for a few training trips and playing Shogi all day with Genma), yet yields enough cash to pay the taxes and bills on his Big Fancy House and attatched dojo, plus cost of Martial Artist induced repairs, support his daughters, and still fit in family holidays to the seaside or mountains. He does complain about the bills, but it's only been twice in the entire anime and manga that they've ever been a problem. Also, the Tendo Dojo doesn't appear to have any actual students.
    • He does rent out the dojo for social gatherings, seen in one saga, and gets paid to take monster- or hoodlum-hunting missions though.
  • Old Master: Cologne and Happosai, each of whom is 100+ years old (300+ years old in the anime) and can kick the asses of the rest of the cast combined.
  • One Of The Boys: Ukyo gets this treatment a lot.
  • One Winged Angel: Subverted by Saffron's transformation, which only turns him into a more adult version of himself. Possibly played straight with Taro's Monster Form.
  • The Only One Allowed To Defeat You: All of Ranma's recurring rivals to some extent, leading to plenty of Rivals Team Up situations.
  • Oracular Urchin: Miyo, a classmate of Akane's who appears in an anime Filler episode.
  • Orochi: a giant monster from Japanese mythology. Its Ranma incarnation is unique in that, rather than an eight-headed serpent, its eighth head is actually its body, with seven independent heads trailing behind it from their necks.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: In the beginning, Akane and the Kuno siblings were hot stuff. Then Ranma Saotome rolled into town, and Akane became a definate second-stringer, due to being completely unable to touch Ranma unless he let her. Kuno and his sister were still a credible threat... but then Ryôga Hibiki arrived... and then Shampoo showed up... and soon the original "best martial artists in Nerima" were at the bottom of the totem pole.
  • Overtook The Manga: this resulted in the anime needing a number of unique episodes, many created homebrew, a few actually extensions of manga Filler stories (such as the "Japanese Nanniichuan" story, which took up one or two chapters in the manga and three episodes in the anime).
  • Pair the Spares: Played with and postulated, but not actually done. However, there are enough unattached red strings left around for some rather nifty strangling to be done.
  • Panty Thief: Happosai
  • Paper Fan Of Doom
  • Paper Thin Disguise: All the time. Akane and Ranma seem to be the only ones able to see through it (poor, poor Ryoga...) although Soun has a moment during the Hinako home-visit arc.
  • Parental Abandonment: Half-way done to Ranma by Genma, who takes him away from his mother before he can even walk. Genetically-induced in the case of Ryoga, whose parents' sense of direction is as bad as his; whenever he manages to get home, he finds out they've been absent for weeks.
  • Pastel Chalked Freeze Frame
  • Pay Evil Unto Evil
  • Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Ranma & Akane
  • Person Of Mass Destruction: Phoenix King Saffron; Dragon Prince Herb; Battle Aura Happosai; Asura Cursed Rouge; Ultimate Shishi Hokodan Ryoga;
  • The Pirates Who Dont Do Anything: Despite being shown attending school and having a few scenes set in school, they don't seem to be doing that much academic work. Ryoga appears to have dropped out in Jr. High to follow Ranma. Shampoo and Mousse are implied to be around the crew's age yet have never been shown going to school.
  • Playboy Bunny: Several times.
  • Playing With Fire: Saffron, "a flamethrower without a safety valve".
  • Poster Gallery Bedroom: Tatewaki Kuno, with his giant posters of Akane and female Ranma, possibly to help him "meditate" and choose one of them. Also, Mariko Konjo, but she probably changes her poster each time a cute guy comes along.
  • Powered Armor: Do-chan the sentient Battle Dogi and Gosunkugi's mail-order Power Suit.
  • Punny Name: In the original Japanese the names of the Joketsuzoku characters were Bilingual Bonus Punny Names — Shanpū, Koron and Mūsu had Chinese-sounding names that coincidentally sounded like the English words for hygiene products; similarly, the Musk Dynasty warriors Haabu, Raimu, and Minto, whose Theme Naming revolves around food ("herb", "lime", and "mint".) The English and Spanish translations play the pun straight by spelling out the English words.
  • Puppy Dog Eyes
  • Quivering Eyes
  • Rain Aura
  • Raised By Wolves: Ranma
  • Rapid Fire Fisticuffs: the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken. Fans argue over whether this is an actual technique or not, but it does allow the trainee to pull this feat off.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Ranma Saotome is skilled enough at cooking that his mother is impressed, at least passably skilled at sewing, good at tea ceremony and gymnastics, and seems to take pride in his ability to wind guys up by acting cute when in girl form.
    • This is more of a result of him spending most of his life on the road. He and his father had to know how to cook and sew just to get along. The teasing is just a variation of what Genma does. Instead of outright lying and stealing, he just manipulates people.
    • In a nearly literal interpretation of the trope, Ranma can make a pastel orange shirt and little red bowtie look kinda badass.
  • The Red Sonja: Shampoo, and indeed, all of the Chinese Amazons.
  • Red String Of Fate: a literal one of these shows up in the anime, whereupon Shampoo promptly tries to use it on Ranma
  • The Rival: Ryoga, primarily, but truckloads of guest-rivals filled out an awful lot of story arcs. Ukyo and Shampoo have this relationship in the anime.
  • Ron The Death Eater: Happens to everyone in the cast at some point, but if you see a fic not pairing Ranma with Akane, be prepared for the absolute worse.
    • Akane is easily the most frequent and extreme shift in this direction, just like Nabiki is the most frequent and extreme Draco In Leather Pants.
  • Roofless Renovation
  • Say My Name: "Ranmaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
  • Selective Obliviousness: Just about everyone in the series at some point. Most notably: Kuno's apparent refusal to understand either that Ranma and "the pigtailed girl" are one and the same, or that neither "the pigtailed girl" nor Akane Tendo are at all attracted to him, seems to be one part this, one part massive ego; Also, Akane Tendo either remains unaware of Ryoga's attraction to her, no matter how obvious it turns, or immediately forgets it. She also tends to believe the worst of Ranma even when he doesn't deserve it, or in other cases, want to believe the best of characters when they don't deserve it, such as Nabiki, Shampoo, Ryoga, or in Ranma's case the battle-dougi story.
  • Sensitive Guy And Manly Man: Soun and Genma, and to a lesser extent Ryoga & Ranma.
    • Ranma filling the "Manly Man" half being of course rather ironic.
  • The Scottish Trope: Happosai, in Fanon, though Soun and Genma have made jokes referring to similar superstitions.
  • Second Love: Akane ending up with Ranma after getting over her first love, Dr. Tofū.
  • Seppuku: Genma promised Ranma's mother that he and Ranma would commit seppuku if he didn't raise Ranma to be "a man among men".
  • Shipper on Deck: Oh, where to start? While just about every member of the Love Duodecahedron ships their rivals at some point (in an attempt to Pair The Spares), Soun & Genma stand out by shipping Ranma and Akane in nearly every episode. Then again, they did engage the two of them in the first place.
  • Ship Sinking: Most of the teased ships are ruthlessly sunk right in the harbor before they can truly sail.
  • Ship Tease: Takahashi has teased a wide variety of the ships found in the yard, even going so far as to tease a Rival Ship (Ranma/Ryoga) during the Koi Rod of Love arc. But nearly all of them are followed by Ship Sinking.
  • Ship To Ship Combat: One of earliest shipping wars to break out on the Internet, mostly among die-hard partisans of the three "official" fiancées.
  • The Ship Yard: Most, if not all, varieties of Shipping described here have shown up in both canon and Fan Fic — most notably the Ghost Ship, when in the anime Gosunkugi acquires a girlfriend who is an actual ghost.
  • Shorttank: Akane
  • Sibling Team: The OAVs' Natsumi and Kurumi.
  • Sign Language: Genma-Panda
  • Sitting On The Roof
  • Single Minded Twins: the anime has Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung, the manga has Pink and Link.
  • Slap Slap Kiss: Subverted — Ranma and Akane bicker constantly but never quite succeed at kissing, despite their obvious growing attraction to each other.
    • It doesn't count when you use tape.
  • Sleeves Are For Wimps: Many of Ranma's Chinese outfits, and also Pantyhose Taro and Ryū Kumon's entire look.
  • Smashing Watermelons: Used as part of one of the early storylines. Tatewaki Kuno also turns this into a inverted form of Training From Hell.
  • Snapback
  • Snot Bubble
  • Smoke Out
  • Sobbin Women: Once to female Ranma in the manga, once to Akane in the first movie, and every female but Cologne in the second movie.
    • Given all the "female counterpart" rescues in that story (inverted when Kuno is too incompetent, and Nabiki rescues him instead), it would have been particularly funny to have seen one for Happosai and Cologne.
    • Female Ranma was also kidnapped for this purpose, and very nearly bewitched with a Love Potion in the Toraware no Hanayome PC Engine video game. Akane had to rescue her from being married to a bear prince.
  • Social Services Does Not Exist: How Genma could pull off the Cat-fist training and not get jailed for child abuse is a wonder to everyone, in the show and out.
  • Spell My Name With An S: "Tendō" vs. "Tendou" vs "Tendo". Repeat for any name with an "oh" sound in their name. Fan Fic is split on the latter two, with both seeing a large amount of usage in stories.
    • It doesn't help that the video games and certain official materials with romanized names take it one step further and spell it "Kunoh."
    • In a more specific example, the character officially romanized as "Rakkyosai" is often spelled "Lukkosai" due to early fan scripts and the character's own nickname, "Lucky."  *
  • Spider Sense: Most of the martial artists have this.
  • Spoiled Brat: The Kuno siblings, most obviously, but some of the minor villains like Picolet Chardin the 3rd, Azusa Shiratori, or Asuka the White Lily also fit. Saffron may be the most extreme example.
    • The Kuno siblings were harrassed by their crazy father and then left alone without parents for three years. That's not exactly spoiled. Kodachi is psychotic, and Kuno is extremely delusional though.
  • Squeaky Eyes
  • Stalker With A Crush: Both of the Kunos, and Mousse too.
    • Tsubasa would also qualify.
    • Shampoo. Probably most characters in the unwanted harem would count since both Ranma and Akane rejects all their suitors yet those suitors still hang around. She also seems to enjoy dropping onto Ranma's head on her magical flying bike in the manga.
  • Standing In The Hall
  • Status Quo Is God: No one ages, no one graduates, and Ranma and Akane's relationship develops at a positively glacial pace.
  • Stealth Clothes
  • Stout Strength: Genma. Yeah, he's a fat, old, lazy part-time panda, but he's still able to go toe-to-toe with Ranma and often comes out on top. Arguably the Dojo Destroyer too, but that is more a case of an Informed Attribute (at least in the manga; the anime version is definitely portrayed as formidable).
  • Supernatural Martial Arts
  • Super Speed: While none of the characters travel at 'standard super speed', Ranma is capable of punching dozens, or even hundreds of times at such speeds that not even those attacked noticed. At least until they realize that they can't be hurting that much from one punch.
    • When so inclined, the characters can actually run (or cycle, or row, or swim, or whatever) at greater-then-human speed, even if they don't quite hit the "run 100 miles in a second" pace typically associated with Super Speed.
  • Surrogate Soliloquy: Subverted — Akane talks to P-Chan, who's actually Ryoga.
  • The Sweat Drop
  • Sweetheart Sipping: Kuno and Girl-type Ranma (yeah, it's a long story). Also Girl-type Ranma and Harumaki (one part softheartedness to one part blackmail — the old lecher won't stop haunting her dreams unless she gives him a date). Come to think of it, doesn't it happen with Girl-type Ranma and Densuke too?
  • Sweet Polly Oliver: Ukyo, for all of one episode.
  • Sweet Tooth: Ranma takes advantage of his much-hated girl form at any opportunity to get ice cream.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: Azuza Shiratori
  • Taste The Rainbow: A martial art for every interest.
  • The Tease: Girl-Ranma; Nabiki; to a small extent Hinako;
  • Thanks For The Mammary: And he just freezes in shock and dread, forgetting to let go!
  • Theme Naming: Pretty much every regular that is part of a group or family: The Tendos, all Chinese characters, the Kunos, the Saotomes...
  • The Thing That Goes Doink
  • Those Two Guys: Hiroshi and Daisuke for Ranma and their Distaff Counterparts Yuka and Sayuri for Akane. These are filler characters in the anime. Lime and Mint and Koruma and Masara act like this towards their respective lords. In the anime, Nabiki gets two unnamed extras usually helping her run her gambling pools.
  • Through His Stomach: Over and over again. It gets to the point that even Akane realizes Ranma is more like to succumb to temptation by Through His Stomach instead of Show Some Leg. A Running Gag is that Akane constanty tries to invoke this trope despite being a Lethal Chef.
  • Thundering Herd: Used many times, most notably in the opening of the first movie.
  • Time To Unlock More True Potential: Which then involves Training From Hell.
  • Time Travel: The Nanban Mirror, only in the anime.
  • Tomboy: Akane; Ukyo. Ironically, Wholesome Crossdresser Ukyo is actually less of a Tomboy than Real Women Wear Dresses Akane.
  • Took A Level In Badass: It is never explained how Nodoka went from being hideously clumsy with a sword (such as accidentally flinging it at people while unsheathing it), which is very very bad for a kaishakunin, to handling it with skill perhaps equivalent to Tatewaki shortly before becoming a permanent member of the Tendo Dojo.
    • In the OAVs, Akane specifically trained to take back the Tendo Dojo from Natsume and Kurumi.
    • Inverted with Tatewake Kuno, who, upon his introduction, demonstrated enough martial prowess to slip through Ranma's guard and mark his neck and was portrayed as a possible serious rival, only to devolve into a gag character in subsequent appearances, displaying next to none of the ability he originally showed. Not a case of Badass Decay as he was never badass, but of course, Your Mileage May Vary
  • Training From Hell: seems to be the only way any of the higher-grade special techniques can be learned. Also inverted in one storyline; training on Watermelon Island is Training From Hell... that's actually useless in battle. It's Training From Hell for the Smashing Watermelons game.
    • Soun and Genma spent years with Happosai, supposedly training. Of course, the training is implied (they are strong martial artists, Overshadowed By Awesome not withstanding), we are only shown the hell.
  • Transformation Ray: Jusenkyo
  • Trash Talk: It's an integral part of Ranma's fighting style.
  • Trickster Mentor: Happosai again. He really IS that annoying. Cologne also qualifies.
  • Trying To Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Ranma; Genma
  • Tsundere: Akane; precisely which type is heavily debated, but perhaps the most reasonable explanation is that she's intended to be a Type B (mainly from Kasumi's description of her as a "very sweet girl, she's just a violent maniac/little high-spirited), and becomes one after a particularly rocky start that makes her seem more of a Type A. [[Broken Base Of course], you have a lot of argument over which canon makes her lean more towards one type or another.
  • Tug Lover War
  • Tunnel King: Ryoga
  • The Unfair Sex
  • Unfortunate Implications: Ranma's female form is practically a Kryptonite Factor in some stories. Physically this is justified; her arms and legs are shorter than his are, throwing off his timing and resulting in a number of embarrassing beatdowns. Where it really starts getting unfortunate is when Ranma meets fellow Gender Bender Herb, whose Ki Attacks are so much weaker in his female form that they lose visibility. In other words, a female body automatically weakens spiritual energy. Although, admittedly, a reasonable explanation could be that this is due to the difference between "Ying" and "Yang" energies. Or that it's simply because the natural differences throw them off, so mind and body simply aren't as harmonious as they are in natural form.
    • Also specifically averted in the two part OVA The One to Carry On, an anime-only story in which Genma tells Ranma that his real problem is he's never even tried to exploit the physical advantages inherent in his female form. Once Ranma admits that the Dumbass Has A Point, he quickly concentrates his training on speed techniques.
  • Universal Adaptor Cast
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Ukyo; Mousse; Shinnosuke
  • The Unwanted Harem: The Trope Namer, both played straight and deconstructed; Ranma's status as a chick magnet gives the Jerk With A Heart Of Gold a fairly debilitating guilt trip. But though he's not enough of a cad to abuse the situation, it also soothes his manly Pride — badly battered by his Attractive Bent Gender curse. And though all the girls involved adore him, they're also rather exasperated by his wishy-washy attitude. It should be no surprise that the end-of-series attempted marriage ended in a Blast Out.
    • Somewhat subverted during the Reversal Jewel arc when Shampoo, under the jewel's effect, attempts to leave the harem, Ranma rather insistently runs after her to get it back, due his ego rather than true feelings. Lampshaded by Cologne when she notes that he got so used to Shampoo chasing him, he had to find out why she stopped.
  • Walking The Earth: Ryoga, though rarely on purpose; Ryū Kumon, since he's looking for the counterpart technique to his own; Ranma and Genma prior to the manga.
  • Warding Gestures
  • Weak But Skilled: Occasionally Ranma, relatively speaking.
    • Specifically, Ranma is usually untrained at whatever Martial Arts And Crafts of the week he is challenged at, but his genuine aptitude for anything Martial Arts lets him triumph. In a straight fight, he is only ever really challenged by the magically enhanced, Ryoga (Who is as tough as steel and ridiculously strong), and by actual monsters. Ranma wins by being faster, and through judicious use of the Saotome Ultimate Technique (Run away and come up with a better plan).
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Ranma's ailurophobia; Rouge's back pain due to having six arms; any Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist and water.
  • Welcome Titles
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome: Take Out Delivery Martial Arts, Fine Dining Martial Arts, Tea Ceremony Martial Arts, and so forth...
  • When She Smiles: Ranma's opinion of Akane.
  • When The Clock Strikes Twelve
  • Where It All Began: The final arc of the manga revolves around returning to Jusenkyo to save it. The readers finally get to see Akane at Jusenkyo, and fall in a spring.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Ukyo; Konatsu
  • Why Did It Have To Be Snakes: Ranma's fear of cats.
    • Also somewhat invoked by Ranma in the anime; while falling into the pool he screams, "Why does it always have to be water?!"
  • Willfully Weak: It is common for the characters to limit themselves be it to the rules of the particular style, not using every ability to their fullest extent, trying to not injure/kill their opponent, not caring enough to bother with it, etc. Special mention goes to Genma though since he came up with, and then chose not to use, the Umisen-ken and Yamasen-ken techniques, and almost never uses his battle-aura. Ryū Kumon supposedly promised to not use the "school of the violent thief" after his duel with Ranma.
  • The Woobie: Depending on version and your own opinions, any of the main teen cast can come off as this. The curses, Ranma's rotten family and love life, Ryoga's lonely existence and poor direction sense, the sheer onesideness of many of the character's romantic interests... the adults, however, are pretty much unsympathetic scum.
    • The trope is played with a bit during the introduction of Nodoka, and there is some sympathy built up for this lonely, abandoned woman, desperately pining for her long lost, only child. Then you find out she is just as Ax Crazy (possibly moreso) than the rest of the cast, of course.
  • Woolseyism: the English manga and dub script go to great lengths to adapt painfully-obtuse wordplay and remain faithful to the source. Similarly, they took great care to replace Kuno's quotations of classical Japanese poetry with equivalent passages from Shakespeare.
  • The Worf Effect: Done most often to Ranma himself, as most of the (anime) Villain Of The Week characters wind up proving their cred by kicking Ranma's ass. Mousse and Ryoga get this treatment during the Herb arc, as both are effortless beat by Mint and Lime respectively to build hype on Herb... who proceeds to Worf the crap out of Ranma just to prove this is serious opponent.
    • Usually done to point out Ranma's (relatively) weak but skilled nature. He almost always wins his fights through some clever ruse.
    • Ryoga also occasionally gets his ass kicked, but generally much less often then Ranma does and usually to help highlight that this is an unusually potent opponent.
  • Wouldnt Hit A Girl: Mostly Fanon, though there is a degree of it in both Ranma and Ryoga's actions — though the former can work around the issue, rather obviously. Likewise, Ryoga has no problem hitting Ranma's girl side... unless a wig and glasses disguise is involved (though that's only while he's unaware of Ranma's real identity).
    • Also averted early on by the Hentai Horde, who would hit Akane if they were good enough to lay a finger on her.
      • In the anime, they actually could touch her on occasion, but either they used grabs (which she could break out of, due to being much stronger then them) or she blocked them with her bookbag. That was only in the first season, though, and no other Mooks would ever be able to touch her afterwards.
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Kasumi, Kasumi. Can you respond to any situation in any other way than to say, "Oh, my!"?
    • Sure. She also says "Dinner's ready!"
    • Sure. She called Akane a "violent maniac"... A line which got Macekred (by the otherwise good and faithful English dub) into merely being "high-spirited".
  • Yandere: Most of the girls get accused of this by different fan groups. However, while under the influence of the Fishing Rod of Love, Ranma becomes a terrifying Yandere towards Ryoga. Hilarity Ensues. (Perhaps we should be glad Ranma is such an easy-going guy.)
    • Kodachi and Shampoo are the only ones who have been flat out shown as very willing to kill anyone in the way, although Shampoo isn't crazy, but rather really really into expediency. (Even scarier)
    • To point out how insane Ranma got, he deliberately triggered his curse for him and told Ryoga she'd gladly let him kill her if it would make him happy. Oh, and he also tried to Murder The Hypotenuse with Akane, which finally prompted Ryoga to step through his fears and doubt to defeat Ranma cleanly, for perhaps the only time in the manga. Notable because Ranma never got his win back from that.
  • You ALL Share My Story: Ryoga very prominently; many others as well throughout the series.
  • You Fail Biology Forever: Akane somehow survives all of the water in her body being instantly evaporated by the Kinjakan. Of course, like almost everything else in the series, A Magical Device Did It.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Both Akane (black with blue highlights) and Shampoo (lavender/violet) in the anime.
  • You Know What You Did: Akane gets lured into this a lot.

Fire EmblemTrope OverdosedAce Attorney
RaideenNoteworthy AnimeRave Master
QwanMangaRappi Rangai
new edits
forum
page history
edit page
view source
discuss
Creative Commons License
This wiki is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.