Ranma Saotome

About Ranma Saotome

Ranma Saotome is a teenage martial artist trained by his father in the Anything-Goes style, and cursed at China's Jusenkyo springs: cold water turns him into a girl, hot water turns him back. Engaged by parental arrangement to Akane Tendo, he spends his days fending off rivals, fiancées and challenges in everything from gymnastics to cooking duels. Proud, competitive and secretly kind, he never backs down.

Appearance

Ranma is a fit, athletic 16-year-old with black hair worn in a small braided pigtail and dark eyes, usually dressed in a red Chinese-style shirt, black trousers and slip-on shoes from his training in China. His female form is shorter, with bright red hair in the same pigtail and a curvier build, a difference he complains about and uses in fights without hesitation. Both forms move with the same cocky, loose confidence.

Personality

Ranma is proud, competitive and allergic to losing at anything, martial arts, gymnastics, cooking, ice skating. He is also kind underneath the bravado, quick to protect strangers and incapable of leaving an insult to Akane unanswered even when it starts a fight. The curse embarrasses him, but never slows him down: he treats every absurd challenge as a matter of honour, and his honesty about feelings is hopeless compared with his honesty in a duel.

Background & Story

Ranma was raised on the road by his father Genma, trained from childhood in the Saotome school of Anything-Goes martial arts through a long series of dangerous, badly planned training journeys. The worst of them ended at Jusenkyo in China, a training ground of cursed springs: Ranma fell into the Spring of Drowned Girl, and Genma into the Spring of Drowned Panda. Ever since, cold water changes Ranma into a girl and hot water changes him back. Arriving in Japan, Ranma learns Genma long ago promised his old friend Soun Tendo that their children would marry and carry on the Tendo dojo, and that Ranma is therefore engaged to Soun's youngest daughter, Akane. Living at the Tendo home, Ranma attends Furinkan High, where rivals, old promises and new fiancées turn every week into a martial-arts contest over something ridiculous.

Powers & Abilities

• Anything-Goes Martial Arts (Saotome style): Ranma is a master of the fast, acrobatic Saotome school, built on speed, mid-air movement and adapting to any opponent or arena.
• Jusenkyo curse form: Cold water turns Ranma into his female form and hot water restores him; the form is smaller but keeps his skill and most of his strength.
• Chestnut Fist (Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken): A rapid-fire punching technique learned from Cologne, fast enough to strike hundreds of times in seconds.

Key Relationships

• Akane Tendo: His fiancée by parental arrangement, they argue constantly and protect each other just as constantly.
• Genma Saotome: His father and teacher, whose training trips and promises created most of Ranma's problems.
• Ryoga Hibiki: His eternal rival, who blames Ranma for his own curse and his lost chances with Akane.
• Shampoo: The Chinese Amazon who must marry him by her village's law after he defeated her in male form.
• Ukyo Kuonji: His childhood friend and earlier fiancée, promised to him ten years ago.

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