- So Ryoga's curse form would be Ganon? Who's Laughing Now? indeed!
- Common misconception. Taro was splashed across the back with Spring of Drowned Octopus, and grew tentacles there. Happosai was splashed with twin water only on his bump and got two bumps. Near as I can tell curses override, but only effect where they've actually hit.
- A particularly horrific fanfiction example has Ranma becoming a self-impregnating mostly-woman.
- But hasn't the Instant Spring of Drowned Man powder already shown that it can cure Ranma and Genma?
- We don't know that it's the same kind of magic—it could just be named after/inspired by Jusenko. If there were some way to make Jusenko temporary, then why couldn't that apply to already cursed people? That being said, there's also evidence that Taro didn't immerse himself completely; it's suggested that he only washed his hands and back.
- If Spring of Drowned Man would cure them, why didn't Herb just jump in after he was locked? Presumably he'd still be locked, but he'd be locked as a guy this time.
- He probably did... And found out he didn't change at all, hence his need to unlock it.
- What about Mousse's initial attempt to curse Ranma with Yazuniichuan water? Firstly, he was flinging balloons containing quite a bit of cursed water, then he had a whole bucketful left, so Ranma would have gotten pretty well soaked regardless. Secondly, he was after Ranma for revenge, so he wouldn't have cared if Ranma ended up becoming a boy who turns into a duck or a boy who turns into a half-duck freak.
- It even makes sense with the cat-vs.-dog thing.
- That would explain why Ranma has super strength, super speed, endurance to practically anything, and loves to fight. Hell, I'm sure during the reincarnation process, Inuyasha threatened the being in charge that he'll rip them from adam's apple to asshole if they didn't give his reincarnation some portion of his enhanced demon strengths, and enjoyment of fighting. That's why Ranma is a genius at martial arts. His past life was a half demon who had centuries worth of experience of battling supernatural village busters. Unfortunately, Inuyasha should have included something about cats... Ranma has that horrible fear, it'd be helpful if he had Inuyasha's more sadistic and torturous nature he has towards them (There is nothing any troper can say that will change my mind that all those times he's "happily" playing with Buyo, when he's really just torturing the cat for his own pleasure. Being half demon means he's a trickster who's just waiting for the perfect opportunity to show his true nature - and Ranma's very cunning himself when he wants to be! Another link.).
- While this is an interesting idea, Ranma being good at martial arts and enjoying it is not proof of him being Inuyasha's reincarnation. Ranma was literally raised from birth to be a martial artist so its only natural that he'd be good at it, and it being the thing he was raised for its also only naturally that he would like it. You could make a case that he could still be mentally a genius in this particular field, however I argue that this still has more to do with how he was raised rather than inheriting anything from his previous incarnation. The fact that the two have similar personalities however, is certainly a case that can be made in favor of this theory.
- ...Descendant doesn't mean the same thing as reincarnation. It is possible that Ranma is Inuyasha reincarnated but not descended from him (and thus would have no reason to have inherited the fangs) while Ryoga is Kouga reincarnated and is also descended from Kouga (and thus inherited them). Or maybe, to make things unnecessarily confusing, Ryoga is Kouga reincarnated, but is actually descended from Inuyasha.
- There's just one problem with that theory. Kagome would be in the modern times, as would Akane. She couldn't be a reincarnation of Kagome if they live in the same modern era.
- except Kagome spent the rest of her life in the past so it is possible.
- The problem there is that they were both born in the modern era, and probably right around the same time, depending on when you want to set Ranma as it's never entirely clear when the series is actually supposed to be set. This would cause massive temporal problems in the long run. But if Ranma's story takes place before Inuyasha's, then this becomes utterly confusing. After all, if Akane is Kagome's reincarnation but is born BEFORE Kagome, how does that even work? Given that Kagome is a teenager and that the story supposedly begins right around 1996, it's more likely that both characters were born at the same general time, or at the very least within a few months of each other, which would still make the matter confusing as all hell since the same soul being born twice into the same timeframe in different bodies would probably cause hell on their psyches simply because of the bizarre nature of their soul(s) being alive simultaneously at once.
- No, this works if you assume time is on a Stable Time Loop, and Kagome dies in the past rather than the present. Kikyo dies in the past, her soul moves on to modern day and reincarnates as Kagome, then travels back in time back, then she dies in the past, time moves on, and it reincarnates as Akane. So between the two time periods of Inuyasha, there are two versions of Kagome's soul (Kikyo > Kagome and Kagome > Akane)
- Or, as both the anime and manga seem to suggest. Some springs effect the personality while others don't. No idea why, I'm guessing rule of funny.
- As for what that animal is, irony would have it be a warthog.
- Alternately, Ranma Saotome is distantly descended from the Musk Dynasty, though his mother's side, and his lineage is that of a monkey. That's why Ranma's girl form, which is stated by Nabiki to be all but identical to a younger version of Nodoka, so very closely resembles the human form taken by that monkey that Herb dunked in the Nyanniichuan.
- The Musk Dynasty story arc explicitly says that Jusenkyo-borne females are fertile. At least, enough to bear children that inherit their own animal traits.
- The Musk also use the locking ladle to keep them female, so there is no switching back and forth.
- In addition, females are born with all the eggs they'll ever have; males, on the other hand, constantly produce spermatozoa. If the female hormones have yet to affect male-Ranma's secondary sexual traits, it's extremely unlikely they'd affect his spermatogenesis.
- On the other hand, have you ever seen Ranma shave?
- Women are born with all their eggs?! Then what do ovaries do?! Of course to actually have kids wouldn't he have to stay in female form till he gets at least 1 period?!
- Ovaries release the eggs. And technically, no, he wouldn't have to wait until his first period. It's very rare, but some women can actually get pregnant before having her first period.
- Studies done on mice have shown that ovaries (mouse ovaries if nothing else) do produce eggs after the fact. They're not just glorified egg banks.
- Your period is what happens after ovulation. It's the uterus clearing out all the crap that didn't get used for embryo implantation this time.
- Women have been known to ovulate after experiencing orgasm, so if the partner knows what to do. It would be possible to get Ranma to ovulate less than a minute after the transformation. This gives him less than 24 hours to change into a man and abort the pregnancy before it happens.
- Or not.
- I admit that I haven't gotten that far in the manga yet so forgive me if I'm wrong here, but is it possible the Musk are turning female animals into female humans for the purpose of reproduction? That might explain how they are still able to have kids without any problems due to them not having been born with eggs because they were originally male. If the Musk had been doing this for a while they should have had time to works kinks like that out of the system.
- Pretty likely. It certainly makes the most sense. And even if Ranma-chan could get pregnant, why on earth would he want to? Ranma canonically has such a strong sexual identity as a heterosexual male that he's gotten aroused by being among naked women (Happo Fire Burst story), and he also despises guys who do attempt to get into "her" pants. He does come to see his curse as a useful tool and gets adept at hiding his disgust, but whenever "she" does get flirtatious she's always either running on wounded pride or we see her complaining about having to do so whenever she's not being observed. In either case, Ranma's flirtations are always innocent (more "cute" than "sexy") and he still wants to get rid of his curse more than anything-remember, this is the guy who dumped Akane at the altar to try and grab a cure. If she did somehow got knocked up and the curse didn't take care of it, this troper can't see why he wouldn't get an abortion as soon as he realized what was going on. Or be given one by either Akane, Kodachi, Shampoo or Ukyo, who definitely would not take kindly to someone taking advantage oftheir "husband".
- There is zero indication one way or another about those animals being female. Considering that the Musk value strength and they took strong animals as brides, how likely are they to seek out specifically female animals to toss in the spring? Since the manga doesn't bother to tell us, common sense says that they sought out powerful creatures for their power, not their gender, and then tossed those into Nyannichuan. Look at Herb, for instance: hard enough to find, fight, conquer, capture, and submerge a dragon at all, and now it turns out they have to find, fight, (etc) a female one?
- Both sexes have both sex hormones, just in differing proportions. In fact, the body converts testosterone into estrogen, so a man who takes testosterone can find himself developing breasts.
- The curses transform things treated as part of your body into their analogues. This would include eggs, sperm and sex hormones. The food in your stomach, too, clearly, as Genma eats bamboo as a panda but doesn't get sick as a human. Ryoga's bandanna, which is always tied securely around P-Chan, but in reality would need adjusting - this also happens to "Charlotte's" collar, which would otherwise break or strangle him. Mousse's glasses shrink to fit his duck form perfectly, although I've heard it said that he has a separate pair.
- As for Ranma never shaving or having a period... does Genma ever shave? Does Akane ever have a period? Law of Conservation of Detail.
- There was that one time Genma grew out his stubble to make better use of the Hell's Cradle...
- This DOESN'T answer Pregnant Ranma, however, as does a baby have a male analogue? Would the fetus not be treated as part of his body, and so be dumped into a random, fatal (for it) location in male Ranma's body during the transformation? Or just disappear until he is back to being a female? If this happens, would the born child still disappear whenever Ranma is a man, necessitating him staying girl?
- As for Ranma never shaving or having a period... does Genma ever shave? Does Akane ever have a period? Law of Conservation of Detail.
- Ranma has shown sexual interest in girls in the manga, for example one time Shampoo jumped out of the tub naked he got a nose bleed and it is kind of implied that he became physically aroused the first time he saw Akane naked. Some of the hints are also there in the anime.
- Ranma's never gotten nosebleeds, he's usually pretty nonplussed by female nudity unless it's actually overbearing. It's more the attitude and personality combined with physical attraction that makes him respond sexually to a girl's advances.
- Given that he frequently gets verbally and physically attacked for being in situations that it is just barely possible for a suggestible observer to jump to conclusions about, this seems more a case of Ranma being realistic than an indication of his sexual preferences.
- There is the possibility that while Ranma may be aroused, Genma simply never gave him the talk. He doesn't know what is and isn't appropriate/involved with the feelings. Example: Ranma doesn't really understand gender differences beyond the physical obvious—Kids can normally differentiate between gender by age six (the youngest Ranma could have been when he met Ukyo) but Ranma doesn't know what the difference is. This is a recurring problem with cross dressers. He might not even realize Akane means when she accuses him of being a pervert. (Note: the word Akane uses literally translates as "Unnatural" which he could interpret as her mocking his unnatural curse. Wouldn't that explain a lot about their interactions in the beginning?
- The English word "pervert" doesn't automatically refer to "sexual deviancy"; its literal definition is merely something that has been "distorted" from its original state or intention. Yet the common acception of the word "pervert" in day-to-day chat is understood to be sexual. The term that Akane uses to insult Ranma, "hentai" is the exact same way: she is not referring to his curse, she is not mocking him for his transformation, she's literally calling him a sexual deviant, and Ranma understands her just fine. Especially since she often replaces it with "sukebe" which explicitly means "lecher".
- Sixteen is still to old for it to classify as pedophilia, which mainly concerns prepubescent children. (Whom Happosai has shown no interest in whatsoever.) Rather, it would make him an ephebophile. Plus, the Japanese Age of Consent being 13, Ranma and Akane are both legal anyway. A more likely explanation is that Happosai simply enjoys the challenge.
- Ephebophile, my friend. The word you are looking for is ephebophile.
- Legalities aside, given that Happosai is older than everyone else in the series bar Cologne and Saffron (technically), isn't this kind of obvious?
- Also, though not really a big difference, Kasumi is 19, not 18. The reason that Happosai doesn't harass her is because he respects her, and she's nice to him.
Their part-demon ancestry is the source of their superhuman strength, and their sense of direction is the result of a curse Naraku laid on them as he finally died. Ryouga is attracted to Akane and girls who look like Akane because his family has a tendency to marry their cousins (who will understand about the curse) leading to a very strong resemblance among the Hibiki females to their maternal ancestor, Kikyo, who looks like Akane.
- Try, the Hibiki's are descendants of KOUGA. Just look at the names! Ryouga, Kouga, Ryouga, Kouga... and they do look similar too. Not to mention, they both tend to fall for the same type of girls. Both Kagome and Akane do look similar (mainly when Akane still had her long hair) and they are nice to everyone except the guys they actually love, and neither have any qualms in physically hurting that guy for any reason to vent. Ryouga finding an attraction to Akane is practically the same as Kouga finding an attraction to Kagome. In both cases, their feelings are never reciprocated. Also look at their rivals! Ryouga's rival is Ranma, who is the reincarnation of Inuyasha and also Kouga's rival. Coincidence? I think not! I could really keep going on about their similarities.
This is why Ranma is crossed over with everything. The events happen in every universe. Yes, even this one.
- Direct this Troper to Jusenkyō, then.
- that way, past the water cooler, left at the rhino, straight on until you see the polar bear eating the penguin, turn right, through the red door, ignore giant flesh eating spider plant, third exit at the roundabout on the Milton Keynes bypass, go north until you reach the small coffee shop, bear straight on at the post office, past the Tesco with the red roof, take the next right, past the monkey puzzle tree beside the exploding volcano, take the under pass below the swimming pool, go south at the mermaid cobbler, across the small brook next to the Eiffel tower and you're there. I got the directions from a nice chap with an umbrella, bandanna and wearing a pair of leather pants.
- One does not simply walk into Jusenkyō. The government of the People’s Republic of China is smart enough to not leave something like completely unsecured, one guide isn’t enough to protect something like that, Jusenkyō isn’t on any maps and is the most secure sites on the planet. Moreover Jusenkyō and associated magics are China’s trump card. . .
- But Ranma, Genma, Shampoo, Mousse, Cologne, and Pantyhose's mother all walked into Jusenkyo... In fact everyone who has been there walked to it, except Ryouga who was pushed into a spring by Ranma-chan and giving him the only truly life destroying curse in the cast. I've always thought Jusenkyo was a geographical version of The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday, that only pops up for chosen victims. If Jusenkyo wants you, there is no escape.
- Consider that everyone who walked into Jusenkyo did so during or prior to the late nineteen eighties. The People’s Republic of China has been much more careful with Jusenkyō since 1987, which is why you won’t find it on any map.
- Given what measures the Jusenkyo Preservation Society use to prevent abuses of curses it is likely they also suppress the exact whereabouts of the cursed springs
- The Jusenkyo Preservation Society works with the Chinese government to conceal Jusenkyo
- The Jusenkyo Preservation Society is a secret agency of the Chinese government
- The Jusenkyo Preservation Society secretly controls the Chinese government from the shadows
- Legions of fanfic writers have already gone here including every conceivable variation from "Ranma becomes his own mother" to "Ranma becomes Akane's mother." (That one is kinda squicky)
- This makes some sense when you ask how an eel can drown.
- Fish drown when there is not enough oxygen in the water that a fish can diffuse through their gills. If the yeti was holding on to the eel's head when it fell in, its massive hand could have immobilized the eel's gills or mouth. Ergo, drowned eel.
- This makes some sense when you ask how an eel can drown.
Take exhibit A: Pantyhose Taro. When he got dunked in the Spring of the Drowned Eldritch Abomination, and then a second Spring of the Octopus, instead of having the Octopus curse override the Oh-God-Whatthehellisthat form, it added on, creating something worse. By this logic, if Ranma got what he wanted, he would end up being a futa or a dude with a vagina/gynecomastia/androgynous when splashed. Of course Takahashi's answer to this would be obvious.
- Word of God is that the Nanniichuan is a cure for Ranma and the other cursed men (which presumably means Nyanniichuan is a cure for Shampoo). The Instant Nanniichuan (which is not stated to be any different to the real thing, bar only working for a single application) actually did cure Ranma and Genma, on screen, in both manga and anime. The Jusenkyo Guide sent Ranma a cask of the stuff as a thank you for saving/protecting his daughter in the final volume. Beyond that, there's actually multiple potential explanations for why the Octopus curse merged with Taro's. Firstly, Taro's curse is actually four separate animals/curses blending together to begin with, so another curse just got absorbed. Secondly, a dose of "original" spring (so Nanniichuan for guys, Nyanniichuan for girls) will cure, but another spring will blend (so if Ranma got hit with Drowned Octopus water, he'd turn into a girl with tentacles, while Drowned Twins water might cause A: two male Ranmas, B: two female Ranmas, or C: one male Ranma, one female Ranma). Thirdly, it takes exposure to a hefty dose of a Jusenkyo spring's water for the curse to overwrite instead of being assimilated-that whole barrel Ranma got sent by the Guide was just enough water for one person's cure.
- Naturally; her name is Shampoo.
- Female Ranma is never referred to as "red-headed" for the same reason Shampoo is neither blue-haired nor purple-haired. Anime hair coloring helps us distinguish between the characters and often does not reflect their actual hair color. When the characters are all Japanese (or in this case, Chinese), it is safe to assume their true hair color is black.
- That Fan Fic is Relentless by By Grayson Towler. It's in the second epilogue if you need the exact chapter.
- Daniel Ruth's Journey features a similar premise for Ryoga's sense of direction.
- This troper's literally had it stuck in her head on and off since January.
- By god, you may be onto something. Also the Shampoo version is cute too. just saying.
Once upon a time there were "Genma" and "Ranma" ("G" and "R"). G was a horrible parent to R (kind of like in the series). In the end, because R had had such a negative life, the Powers That Be reincarnated G and R, however in the new incarnation, "G" was the son, and "R" was the father, allowing R!Daddy to treat G!Son the way that R!Son had been treated. Unfortunately, since he had grown up as R!Son with only his fathers values, he unconsciously treats G!Son as bas as- if not worse than G!Daddy treated him. As such, the Powers That Be cycle them through again, leading it back to G!Daddy and R!Son. However, with the values that R!Daddy instilled in G!Son based on what G!Daddy 1 had taught R!Son 1... Well, you get the idea- they'll keep cycling. At least, until the end of the world or something. Or until the powers That Be get their heads out of their butts, and figure everything out. Until then, R and G will be trapped in a cycle of rebirth together.
- I'm sorry, what evidence is there for this? It's a decent fanfic plot, but the WMG is supposed to be for things that the current canon makes you think might have any chance of being true, not as a sounding board for fanfic.
- From the top of the page, "This is a "Wild Mass Guess" entry, where we pull out all the sanity stops on theorizing."
- Jossed. He's been explicitly called out as being short-sighted, both by others, and within the narration itself. The typical battles take place at around 10 metres(30 feet) maximum, which is about the furthest he usually throws his chained weapons. Finally, unless one has additional optical issues like wall-eye/cross-eyedness, a ranged attack will almost always hit a target, as long as you aim for their middle. His inability to differentiate people even if they're right in front of him is played for laughs, but is also entirely plausible with extreme myopia. Maybe he's colourblind.
- If this is the case, then this would arguably make all the times she beats up Ranma for "picking on" P-Chan even worse, since it would mean she knows that Ranma is trying to protect her from a real pervert and beats him up anyway instead of thanking him for trying to defend her.
- Considering what happened when we first met Shampoo, has anyone considered that her or Cologne may be repeatedly brain-washing Akane to have this and other mental problems in hopes of sabotaging any chance of Rx A. They could do the same for Kuno (both, even). Cologne is as skilled as Happosai, and conceivably as ruthless, as she comes from the "Obstacle is for killing" society and has survived and thrived there for decades. Even if Shampoo couldn't or wouldn't pull this off—in spite of the fact that she swore to kill Ranma <5min after first meeting him/her, does anyone doubt that Cologne might? As for why she doesn't just brainwash Ranma, perhaps there are limits to the technique (wears off eventually, etc.) and she worries that Ranma would come to his senses and wreak vengeance.
- Cunning doesn't mean intelligent. Why would she use this around people who already know that she is EXTREMELY dangerous (repeatedly attempted to murder Ranma)?
- Counterpoint: Spring of Drowned Virtuous Man. Spring of Drowned Twins might be if you can get a legal identity set up for the new person. The Shiva spring would be kick-ass if you lived in India or a place with a large Hindu population. Probably several others in those vein.
- Only fundamentalist Hindus would openly accept the personification of Shiva. Everyone else would either run scared or turn violent (especially if they decide the curse is a fake. No one would willingly let such an open mockery of their beliefs go without confrontation). I'm assuming the Spring of the Drowned Virtuous Man is the same thing as the curse of the Good Samaritan Pantyhose Taro tried to infect Happosai with. Given how the idea was to produce a kind, gentle Happosai, arguably this curse destroys your free will by effectively making you a doormat; that may sound harsh, but given Happosai's dominant personality it's hard to think of this curse as doing anything else. Once again, imagine the problems in real life if you were in a position where you have to be violent such as as a soldier in a war zone - if you became nice and gentle in the face of the enemy you would almost certainly be killed. Finally the Curse of the Drowned Twins... it would be horrific. Can you honestly say that if you were split in two you would be happy about it? an identical duplicate to yourself, with all of your memories and feelings, suddenly wanting to be recognized as a real person? because he has every memory and thought you do, he would want to move in with your family, go out with your friends, have sex with your girlfriend, go to your job, use your stuff. He's also unlikely to accept a new identity because he will probably think of himself as the original - watch the Farscape where John is duplicated for all the problems that would raise. To put it simply, in real life most people who fall into this Spring would end up attacking each other - whether sooner or later.
- Personally, I would consider being split into twins less unpleasant than becoming a man, but I'd hold out hope for a Spring of Drowned Shapeshifter or Spring of Drowned Insanely Wise, Knowledgeable and Content Person.
- The Springs might be energy-efficient, rather than uniform in their effect. The Spring of Drowned Virtuous Man would entirely change Happousai, but only have minor effects on someone who was fairly virtuous already. In the unlikely event, the person cursed was a soldier in a war zone, it would only have an effect if the person was fighting for reasons a virtuous person would not consider valid.
- We don't know enough about how the Spring of Drowned Twin works. Presumably when you (or your twin) get dowsed with hot water, you and your twin become a single person again. Which means there's no risk of self-warfare since any gain is temporary anyway. If your memories merge as well, that means that it effectively lets you be in two places at once, which would have massive beneficial opportunities.
- Only fundamentalist Hindus would openly accept the personification of Shiva. Everyone else would either run scared or turn violent (especially if they decide the curse is a fake. No one would willingly let such an open mockery of their beliefs go without confrontation). I'm assuming the Spring of the Drowned Virtuous Man is the same thing as the curse of the Good Samaritan Pantyhose Taro tried to infect Happosai with. Given how the idea was to produce a kind, gentle Happosai, arguably this curse destroys your free will by effectively making you a doormat; that may sound harsh, but given Happosai's dominant personality it's hard to think of this curse as doing anything else. Once again, imagine the problems in real life if you were in a position where you have to be violent such as as a soldier in a war zone - if you became nice and gentle in the face of the enemy you would almost certainly be killed. Finally the Curse of the Drowned Twins... it would be horrific. Can you honestly say that if you were split in two you would be happy about it? an identical duplicate to yourself, with all of your memories and feelings, suddenly wanting to be recognized as a real person? because he has every memory and thought you do, he would want to move in with your family, go out with your friends, have sex with your girlfriend, go to your job, use your stuff. He's also unlikely to accept a new identity because he will probably think of himself as the original - watch the Farscape where John is duplicated for all the problems that would raise. To put it simply, in real life most people who fall into this Spring would end up attacking each other - whether sooner or later.
- Doesn't the gender part of this depend on who's getting cursed? Putting aside the potential difficulties of mistaken identity and pursuing a romantic relationship, a lot of women would find becoming a man very difficult just in terms of the gender identity issues, wardrobe restrictions and changing social expectations. On the other hand, being a teenage girl is hardly a tragedy in physical terms. Most people aren't strong men and most strong men don't actually need that physical prowess outside of controlled environments.
- What curse is the best one to have depends from person to person. The only ones we know would be good for someone are Taro's two curses (we saw him loving them) and whatever makes you good for Happosai (because it would rid us of the ultimate evil).
- Shinnosuke<->Abel, Genma<->Gouken (or Genma<->Retsu), Happosai<->Akuma (or Happosai<->Gen), Pink&Link<->Juli&Juni, Lime&Mint<->Yun&Yang, Pantyhose Taro<->Adon, Herb<->Gill, Hinako Ninomiya<->Ingrid, and... I can't believe this hasn't been mentioned so far... Shampoo<->Chun-Li.
- it seems to be implied the curse forms are versions of the person who falls in, this is why they often have similar eyes and obviously in human gender springs it's just a switch.
- It is implied that Jusenko was created by ancients some 4,000 years ago. Perhaps they simply set it for human uses, and thus gender and personality springs for human curses, and just generic animal curses for the rest?
- And yes, if there is no "spring of drowned woman" Shampoo's cure will be a fountain of youth, form
- Possible complication: the "girl" part seems to be partially a Translation Convention into English. The character used for the Spring's original Chinese name, niáng, can mean anything from "young woman" to "mother".
- I for one love the idea of this and could think of a very good set of arguments for it or against it. I hate to be very critical, but the one you put forth was fairly appalling, to START with, you might consider dropping the gender ambiguous pronoun slander, for two reasons really, the first, if you really believe Ranma is MtF, you might dignify her by using the correct pronouns she would want. second though, they are sort of an eye sore, they or them, despite being plural usually works just fine if you need gender neutral, lots of Languages screw around with plurality. moving right along. the 'infamous pretty womanhood was very played for laughs. It doesn't shed a lot of light on Ranma's character or feelings at all, the only slightly plausible explanation is that Ranma has a very narrow dirt poor view of women. The anime isn't really a good source for any theories in my mind, It takes many liberties with the characters. I think the best scenario in mind for this idea is that Ranma has gender identity disorder and rejects it, not that Ranma's secretly knows she likes being a woman but is hiding it. I can really see the beginning chapters of Genma's daughter being plausible for canon Ranma, In that confronting this problem would be extremely and unbearably difficult for her, it's just plausible that Ranma might consider being male 'hard' because of his fathers words or even his own sheer bravado and cultural upbringing, but even baring that, the magical nature of the curse leaves open the question of weather it could maliciously make someone desire to be who they're not, rather than just be inconvenient. Theres plenty of wiggle room to push it in either direction. Certainly, I wonder how skeptics of this theory might explain why Ranma so frequently forgets what sex he is in at any given moment, at the very least it implies that Ranma's female form doesn't irritate her and draw her attention to the fact that she's in the wrong body again.
- Ranma usually helped him getting school, at least in the manga.
Other than the fact both were confused as boys despite being female there are other things this bother this troper. When Ukyo was first introduced she was dressed as a boy and was given the boy's name Ukyo. Then it turns out there is another character who was also given a boy's name and dresses like a boy, Ryuunosuke! So I guess Mr. Kuonji wanted a son so he forced his daughter to dress like a boy, raise him as a boy and gave him a boy name. Now not much about Ukyo's past is revealed and keep in mind that she was like this BEFORE Ranma and Genma stole her cart. Also the freaky part of this thought is both characters are missing mothers, Now it was confirmed Ryuunosuke's mother died during childbirth but as for Ukyo her mother was never seen nor mentioned. Coincidence?
If she actually joined a fight, she'd either have broken the series or become the prototype for Aizen. Or both.
Think about it. She's the only one in the series with fully effective Plot Armor and has demonstrated the ability to one-shot both Happosai and Copycat Ken (disguised as Happosai) at the same time. While also eating some kind of bread and reading a manga or magazine. In fact, she's the only character able to consistently ward off Happosai's attempts at perversion. She's also conspicuously absent when her presence would require a demonstration of martial ability to avoid injury, and shows knowledge that her absence was to her benefit when she returns at the end of an episode when all the trouble's died down. It is possible that Nabiki wasn't the one Ranma was saving from a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown when she tried auctioning him to his fiancées.
Also, Rumiko Takahashi is stated to have an affection for her. Which for a character means God loves her and she knows it, and that in turn would explain why she's grown progressively less subtle about being a bitch over the course of the series. This is taken up to eleven when both the 'dead mother' and 'middle child' cards are pulled to sucker Ranma (and probably the audience) into believing she's got a Freudian Excuse or two, but even those aren't things she genuinely cares about, just more pity party meal tickets. In effect, her Plot Armor is so thick you can't even hurt her feelings.
- Well, only the Plot Armor and Manipulative Bastard part is true, but if you want to see Nabiki being played as the actual most powerful character in the series, there is always Ajimu Najimi of Medaka Box.
Note that girl-type Ranma, at a glance, is essentially a shorter Ranma with boobs and red hair. What if the girl who originally drowned in the Spring of Drowned Girl looked nothing like girl-type Ranma does, except for the red hair? The longer that Ranma goes without getting his curse cured, the closer his cursed form will grow to resemble the original drowned girl, in both appearance and personality.
(I realize that Taro is the largest piece of counter evidence to this theory, as he's had his curse for pretty much most of his life. However, Kin'Nee is still older than he is, and could theoretically have had his curse longer.)
- Alternatively the curses devolve in the Jusenkyo becoming more and more generic. Spring of drowned Akane is but a recently created spring, but give it a couple of hundred years and it will basically be another spring of drowned girl.
Physical discomfort is rarely, if ever, displayed by curse victims when they transform (several times, they don't even notice until it's pointed out). What if the curses aren't a matter of merely twisting and warping their flesh and bones? Sure, one could say that A Wizard Did It, but where's the fun in that?
As soon as someone hits the water in a spring, the powers behind Jusenkyo craft an entirely new body (a la the haunted mirror) that serves as their "cursed form". From then on, whenever a curse victim is splashed with cold water, their non-cursed body is simply swapped with their cursed body; their mind/soul/whatever stays where it is. In either form, their "alternate form" is stored in a cave or something beneath Jusenkyo, ready to be summoned whenever cold/hot water rears its unwanted head. Wounds/mind control/whatever that one form suffers are generally transferred to the corresponding areas on the alternate form, wherever it is.
This also serves as a handy little solution to the "pregnant Ranma" debacle; the fetus would be transported with its "mother" to the aforementioned cavern. The male form remains unaffected, as it does not possess corresponding organs. Of course, that opens up a good old can of Fridge Horror...
- Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken. The Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire attack/training method. Ranma learns it as a girl during the Phoenix Pill story arc. Thereafter he uses it at least as often as a man. If Ranma's cursed form was separate and existed in a different physical location, then how did his male body get the speed of the Chestnut Fist?
- Two people with the same curse are hit with cold water simultaneously, or one is while the other is still in cursed form. What happens? The body is taken.
- Easy. Every time someone falls into a spring - even if it is the same spring - a new cursed body is created. Each cursed individual has his or her own "spare" cursed form.
- Except that markings, tattoos, or injuries sustained in one form persist in the other. And if these are magical themselves, the effect also persists. So it's always the same body.
- Quite the opposite; Mousse has tried to do the "best her to win her hand routine" in the past, before Shampoo met Ranma. He goes after Ranma now because, by logical deduction, if he wants Shampoo's hand, he's got to prove himself worthier (stronger) than her present choice of husband.
Clarke's Third Law is applied here. The unusually high concentrations of fluid made that the springs can easily absorb new DNA and provoke fast transformations, also known as curses, to those who are exposed to it, then to matching stimuli.
This actually matches a fringe theory about how aliens supposedly crashed (and, according to some, still live) in the real-life Bayan Har Shan region, where Jusenkyo is in the manga.
- Except Akane doesn't actually act any particularly angrier at Ranma after Shampoo's introductory arc and as the series goes on, gets less angry.
- When Nodoka first shows up Nabiki starts acting out of character, dropping hints about "Ranko"'s real identity fully knowing what Nodoka would do if she realized the truth, telling Ranma he's lucky that he still has his mother, and spending the rest of the arc and the early parts of the following Reversal Jewel Arc uncharacteristically angry, only acting as usual when she demanded money from Ranma for seeing her baring her heart after she pointed out his luck, so you may have a point. At the very least she hasn't got over it.
- Would explain why he is not surprised when crazy things happen. Why crazy things only seem to happen when he is around, or at least most often when he is around. And why he 'always wins in the end'.
- The only down side is that if he is made aware of his powers then it's way too overpowered. What’s the point of a story where in the main character can just say, "Oh, you want to destroy the planet, well, how can you do that when you were never born?" He stops being a super hero and is jsut a god. No point in a story where the hero can literally do anything without lifting a finger. (that's also why characters even as low on the spectrum as the Scarlet Witch get written out of the story or killed off a lot, because hacks can't figure out how to write for it believably). There have to be limits on a power like that, and not knowing you have the power is one of the better ones. Much more fun can be had when he doesn't know he is doing it. The unintentional changes that could be used for humor.
- Think about it from this side, Ranma making anything he can imagine a reality. Then combine that with the way he imagines things, like his revenge scheme to get back at Nabiki, or his fight with the Gambling King. Ranma doesn't exactly have an imagination when it comes to things out side of the art (his best attempt was with Mousse, and the magic show, the rest were just sad). I blame Genma, after all he was never given the opportunity to get into fiction as a kid, so was never allowed to think about things other than the art for long or very seriously so between that and the weirdness of his life make it so he wouldn't know what most people call normal to save his ass. His reality has been warped since day one. I think Genma has the power too, he just doesn't know it either, ...And thank the Kami for that.
- I think it's much more fun for him not to be aware of it at all, and not to become aware of it. Just something that happens subconsciously. This way he can still do almost anything but he has to believe he can (mostly) and the little doubts in the back of his mind can cause 'fun' little 'accidents' and other situations that keep him from winning every fight easily.
- Doing this this way would also allow him to develop any type of super power he sees, like a technique, if he believes he can do it, believes in his ability to learn to do anything. Beyond what would be possible to do normally, even for him. He could mimic any ability by unintentionally altering himself to allow him to have the capacity to do these things. Like flying, or using "x-ray" vision, or other powers that he normally couldn't copy exactly.
- Like Clark's Heat Vision, Ranma, I figure, COULD figure out a way to make a ki burst using his eyes as the focus, if he worked at it long enough, so it would 'look' like he was shooting beams out of his eyes in a more normal story (many high level anime martial artists can make their eyes glow, this is just a variation of that application), but that isn't exactly the same thing as mimicking the power, just similar. Where as with Reality Warping powers he could alter his eyes so they could in fact shoot beams, ...if he was shown that it can be done so that he believes he can learn it like a technique. He would change the way his eyes work while trying to 'learn' the 'technique'. Or just about anything else the author wanted to use.
- Except that plenty of other people show the same level of superhuamn skill as Ranma. We also explicitly see two people who aren't fully human (Herb and Saffron) and they're both far beyond Ranma in strength.
- Except that Ranma didn't marry Shampoo. The Law stats that the Joketsuzoku fighter "Shall marry" not, "is married." Cologne and Shampoo are trying to get Ranma to agree to marry Shampoo
The title of this post is a bit misleading. Ranma is human (born of a human mother and father) but he is still alien. How so? He is so different from regular humans (even in his own universe not just real life) that he may as well be an alien. Heck aliens on other shows like Star Trek and Sailor moon are closer to being human than he is.
One thing that sets Ranma apart from normal baseline humans is his super human abilities. Some examples of his super human abilities are: super strength (lifts multiple tons, bend steel pipe), toughness (hits wall hard enough to leave massive creator gets up like nothing happened), speed (moves faster than the human eye can track when he wants to), abilities (can scratch his own mid back with his foot, cling to ceilings, can cut things with his bare hands - cut perfect hole in Ryoga's house bare handed), stamina (swam the sea of Japan), energy manipulation (ki blasts), danger sense (senses danger before it occurs), incredibly fast healing rate, etc. We are shown that these abilities are very uncommon in the Ranmaverse several times. Some examples of people being surprised by the martial artists displays of super human abilities are: School kids surprised girl form Ranma can lift and jump with Ryoga's extremely heavy umbrella , school kids thinking that a mere three story fall would kill Ranma, the martial arts ice skaters surprised that Ranma survived the attack much less was able to continue fighting, people running in fear when Happosai fights Ranma or when Happosai and Genma made themselves huge, Kodachi, Akane, and Asuka surprised at the speed Ranma heals, etc., I can list more.
Another thing that sets Ranma apart from the baseline humans of his universe is that Ranma has developed, because of his upbringing, quite a few abilities/habits that could be considered primitive or sub-human. When his fear of cats becomes too strong he acts like a cat (a super cat that can cut through basically anything with its claws and used a multi-ton shark as a chew toy). He has been shown to howl at the moon (did this in battle dogi story - arc surprisingly he wasn't in neko-ken - Kasumi said that at least it was scaring the cats away), yells into the night, sleeps in trees, eating while crouching on the table, using his feet to grip/hold things (we've seen him hanging upside down from his toes, write with his feet, scratch the back of his head/mid-back with his feet while reading, and feed himself with his feet in manga), jumping up and clinging to the ceiling when surprised, lack of modesty (such as him not caring where and who sees him nude), etc.
There are other things as well that set Ranma apart from normal humans. Ranma often sits in weird positions (meditating upside down, sitting on someone's head, hanging from the ceiling). Strange, at least to most people, thought patterns or seeing things that aren't normal as being normal. Ranma is likely to consider a lot of things as being normal that aren't, such as people trying to kill him, people kidnapping people to get stuff, and having a large number of nightmares. Inability to understand regular peoples view points because it is so different from his own (for instance he has a very different view on females than guys his age), etc.
If the Ranma series had continued, Ranma would have become further and further away from normal humans. My reasoning is fairly simple. As Ranma's knowledge of martial arts, ki, and magic grows he would grow further and further from baseline humans. Before the manga started he didn't even know about magic by the end of the manga Ranma has used magical items more than a dozen times and has had magic used on him even more times than that. It's only a matter of time until he actively starts learning how to use and control magic if for no other reason than self defense. He also has been seeking magical items to cure his curse and for power (Dogi). Ranma's knowledge and ki abilities have grown massively as well, at the start of the manga Ranma did not know how to project his ki at all. As the series progressed he learned new techniques and then improved every single one. We never see him do techniques the same way as he did them before every time we saw a technique it was a new variation (Shi Shi Hadoken became Moko Takabisha became Moko Takabisha double). In all probability Ranma would continue to do so.
- Except that pretty much every cast member shows super human abilities, and several characters are stronger than him. The baseline for human ability in the Ranma 1/2 universe is simply higher than Real Life.
- Counter-argument; Nabiki was already selling photos of Akane to Kuno well before Ranma arrived, and Kuno is established as being "Furinkan's Greatest Pervert". Even if she's not in the slightest bi-curious herself, she would still be able to recognize that A: Ranma-chan is a busty hottie, and B: skimpy photos of a busty hottie will always be something she can sell to horny teenage guys - Kuno was just her first choice because he's loaded and thus she could milk him for more money if he was willing to buy.
- The flaw with this logic is that you're assuming the law would even get involved with this sort of situation in the Ranma½ universe. There's no indication that the police or anybody cares about the crazy fights or other weirdness of the martial artists. Odds are if a police officer did get involved they'd just look at the contract, shrug, and let things go on.
- On the other hand, if Kasumi and Nabiki were fully trained, it might explain why Happosai doesn't try to molest them in their sleep. They may actually be better than Akane, since he only really tries to go after Akane.
Akane fears being seen as perverted if the school discovers that Ranma can turn into a girl? A metaphor for the need for queer people to keep their relations secret.
Shampoo calling Akane perverted just for asking questions? A transpose of real-life homophobic comments after accidentally outing oneself while being incredibly careful not to do so.
Akane telling girl-Ranma not to kiss her because "they're both girls"? The fear from some queer people of showing intimacy in public.
And so on and on.
It all makes sense.