Ranma's disguises

I've seen people on various places on the internet criticize Ranma's disguises. That annoys me because I don't think they are bad. I'll admit that they could probably be improved but given how little time Ranma spent on them they do seem to be pretty good. For instance while pretending to be Ryoga's fiancée Ranma spent little time preparing but she did wear a dress, a wig, glasses, put on make-up (face powder), and spoke using feminine word choices. What more could she really have done except maybe put on contacts so she'd have a different eye color? It's not like he had the time to add prosthetics or detailed make-up work, realistically Ranma's disguises are about the best a person can do given time constraints.

The main reason I view them as being good is because they did what they were supposed to - fool the person that she/he (this is one of the times that English not having a good gender neutral pronoun annoys me) was attempting to fool. The most interesting thing about it is that Ranma himself, in the manga at least, was surprised that it worked the first time he did so. Since it was proven to work he did so again and again. Ninja, the historical spy/assassin type, commonly used disguises to infiltrate and considering how many aspects of ninjitsu Ranma displays him doing so makes sense. The thing is most of the reasons as to why the disguises worked for ninja is because the people who they were being used on didn't know the person in the first place (which is the case for some of the ones Ranma uses). The only person who seemed to always be able to see through them was Akane which is very strange when you consider that she can't figure out Ryoga and P-chan are one and the same when she has been given many clues (such as Ryoga's desire to get the cure) and knows the nature of Jusenkyo as well as anyone else in the series; though it could be an indication to show how she and Ranma are connected (the Japanese have a term for the connection between two people who have been around one another for a long time and can seemingly sense them from their connection to one another but I can't recall it at this time).

That is another thing I have seen that annoys me -when people deride Ranma's disguises I've seen the claim that even the guileless Akane can see through them. What manga were they reading by chance? Akane is not guileless. She tends to be less deceitful than most of the cast members and is generally honest but she has displayed various degrees of guile. Some examples of her displaying guile: Her lying to Ranma's mom about Ranma's identity when he was pretending to be Ranko. Her going along with the plan to pretended that she really was married to Ranma to convince Ukyo to leave. Her convincing Ranma's mother to take Ranma bra shopping as revenge for insulting her. Going on a date with Ryoga for the sole purpose of making Ranma jealous. Lied to Miss Hinako about Soun being married. Akane can be and is deceptive and willing to be dishonest even though she tends to do so less often than other cast members.

Of course if Ranma had bothered to spend more time thinking and planning (he is fairly impulsive) he would have made better disguises or decided a disguise wasn't needed at all. The thing is even if Ranma didn't have a reason to do so or did come up with other ways to do what he wanted to he'd probably still don a disguise. Ranma finds it to be fun to put on a disguise and mess with people, he has even stated that he was enjoying doing so on occasion.

I don't see Ranma putting on a disguise in fan fiction very often and when I do see him do so it is most commonly disguising himself as a sailor senshi or Ranko. This is one of the many things Ranma does in the source material that I just don't see in fanfiction as often as I think it deserves. There are a lot of reasons as to why he would do so and has done so. What in particular I'd like to see more often is Ranma impersonating people in authority for example a police officer or ranking person in some type of organization, heck even pretending to be a secretary to get information on a business/the government would be interesting. I've had an admittedly not put much thought into story idea about Ranma being hired as a political impersonator, thought it would be funny for an assassination attempt to happen only to find that the small caliber bullet used doesn't have enough force to penetrate Ranma's skin (considering the amount of damage Ranma can absorb small arms like those carried by the regular police in Japan and most commonly found on the Japanese black market simply wouldn't be able to penetrate) or for Ranma to impersonate a celebrity because they pissed him off (Ranma is shown to be perfectly willing to mock people like he did Mousse's fighting style by implying that it was just like a stage magicians). While I could see Ranma doing so as a means of identity theft (like Ryu Kumon did to Ranma) those types of fraud I more associate with Nabiki (I keep expecting to see a fan fic in which Nabiki is doing identity fraud and remittance scams, they are far too common in Japan at this time, but have yet to see one even though it is something I find extremely likely for her to do).

Ranma enjoys doing so, his disguises aren't bad considering the amount of time he generally puts into coming up with them (very little), they work on his intended targets and Ranma would make a very good method actor. I was rereading the arc in which Ranma disguised himself as Yoiko Hibiki (Ryoga sister) and if I didn't know better I'd have believed that Ranma was Ryoga's sister, he got pretty caught up in playing the part. Ranma being an actor or into role playing in fan fiction simply doesn't occur very much yet Akane being an actress, going to school to be one, or wanting to be one shows up more frequently than I think it should especially when you consider that at the beginning of the Romeo and Juliet arc she clearly did not want to be one even tried to convince them to chose Ranma instead of her until she learned of the part they wanted her to play (she only wanted to be that one character because of past experiences and had zero interest in becoming an actress playing any other character).

Another thing that somewhat bothers me is that Ranma in fan fiction rarely uses any alias other than Ranko (which I have already mentioned on this blog is not one I find likely for Ranma to use again because of the memories associated with it). In the manga he has used several for example: Yoiko Hibiki and Kew. I would think that more fan fiction writers would think of giving him a different alias on occasion.

Ranma's manipulative nature

Manipulation is a form of social influence. Everyone does it to varying degrees and it, like any tool, can be used for good (such as persuading an unhealthily obese person to lose weight) or for ill (such as conning people out of their life savings). There are many different types, degrees, reasons, and ways to manipulate people.

I bring this up because I often see, in Ranma ½ fanfiction, Ranma not being very manipulative when the manga incarnation of Ranma is extremely manipulative. He is far more manipulative than any other character in the series (the anime version is less manipulative). As far as I can tell there is not even one volume in which Ranma does not at least try to manipulate someone in someway. In fanfiction, Nabiki tends to be portrayed as the most manipulative character; probably because she is (manga version) avaricious, opportunistic, unscrupulous, fairly hedonistic, and borderline sociopathic (she shows absolutely no remorse for her actions). A lot of the traits usually ascribed to Nabiki in fan fiction (such as spying on people to find out their secrets, being manipulative, setting up elaborate plans, knowing what is going on, etc.) apply a lot more to Ranma than Nabiki.

I do not view all of Ranma's machinations in a positive light. That said I do usually, though not always, see them as being justifiable. In fan fics I often see Ranma resort to violence too quickly and too frequently. That is not his standard modus operandi. Ranma will usually try to be diplomatic (talk things through) and when that fails (usually because the other person really has no inclination to talk things through) he tends to resort to things like manipulation and deception before proceeding to violence. Violence, in most situations, is his last, not first, resort.

In a related note; Ranma's interpersonal skills are often viewed as being a lot worse than they are shown to be in the manga. While there are some situations in which his social skills are inadequate (mostly in situations involving romance or the possibility of romance) they are for the most part very good. He can explain things (most people do not listen or hear only what they want to hear which is not his fault -example Ranma tried to explain to Akane about the pressure points on Miss Hinako with the use of a visual aid we are shown that Akane selectively edited the conversation), he tries to be diplomatic (for example with Ryoga, Ukyo, Akane, etc.) that the other people have no inclination to talk it out is not his fault (this is something he has actively complained about for example in one volume, volume 11 by Japanese/online scan count, he tells Akane "when have you ever let me explain things before hitting me" after she said why didn't you explain it). He has no trouble socializing with people at school (hangs out with two kids). One of his faults though is he doesn't know how to socialize with girls as well as guys (probably because he spent most of his life around guys not girls, he was shown to have gone to an all boys school). For the most part he talks to girls as if they were guys for example guys would slap each other on the shoulder which is what Ranma did to Akane at least once. A couple other things which may contribute to people viewing him as having poor social skills is that he is out of touch with popular culture which is a hindrance amongst teens (he is a martial arts nerd) and he sometimes speaks without thinking about the ramifications of his words (he gets in more trouble from telling his honest opinion than he does when he lies). The fact that he is capable of manipulating people implies he has better social skills than many people assume.

Before I get further side tracked, here is a list of some, not anywhere near all, of Ranma's machinations:

1. Being a matchmaker.
- tried to set up Cologne and Happosai, did setup Ryoga and Akari, was going to teach mirror clone how to properly pick up guys, etc.

2. Fake or create an injury to garner sympathy
- multiple times, for example the time he purposely hit himself with nunchucks to garner Akanes sympathy

3. Donning a disguise and pretending to be someone else
- all the time, pretended to be Ryoga's sister, maid, fiancee, etc.

4. Blackmail
- Few actual attempts for example tried to blackmail Nabiki with what he thought was a love letter. Has searched multiple peoples rooms looking for things to use against them (for example he searched Nabiki's room multiple times). Very much implied that he would blackmail people were he to find things to blackmail them with and had a reason to do so.

5. Emotional blackmail
- Fairly frequently for example with Picolet Chardin III told him, paraphrasing, if you love me you'd tell me the secret of the technique.

6. Threats/intimidation/coercion
- Few times for example threatened the Cherry Tree spirit with an axe.

7. Enjo kōsai
- Going on dates to get stuff such as his date with Tatewaki or Shampoo.

8. Bribes
- Rarely uses this since the majority of characters do not want anything he is willing to give. Example: To get Tatewaki's love (to win the competition) she gave him many objects such as a handmade scarf, love letter, bottled water, etc. or Happosai to get him to lower his guard.

9. Teasing/Seduction
- Teases people commonly. Was attempting to seduce Akane to get rid of the Dogi.

10. Drugs
- Tried to slip Tatewaki and Densuke drugs in their food, used chloroform on Happosai, got Happosai drunk, etc.

11. Elaborate plans, some involving many people and multiple steps
- In an attempt to get Happosai to change Taro's name he came up with an elaborate plan that involved writing a play, using suggestion incense, drugging Happosai, getting multiple people to work together, etc.

12. Guilt trip
- Made people feel guilty to get them to do stuff. For example, Akane when he pretended that he destroyed the instant man spring water.

13. Ventriloquism
- To mess with Ryoga, Akane, and once he went a step further than just the voice and used an unconscious Tatewaki like a literal puppet to force him to apologize to Kodachi.

14. Pretending to be beaten or apologizing then attack when guard has been lowered
- Pretended that Ryoga beat up an innocent normal high school girl to get him to lower his guard, pretended to bow and beg to Shampoo before attacking her, etc.

15. Scare tactics
- Used rubber snakes and other supposedly scary items on the school girls.

Okay I feel I have listed enough to make my point, Ranma is extremely manipulative. That is no where near a complete list and the labels/order for them is somewhat arbitrary. The thing is they are not one time things or isolated incidents this is common behavior for him. He is always manipulating people and playing head games. It is even a major part of his fighting style; he uses distraction (like look over there), underhanded tactics, fake incapacity, duplicity, trash talk, insults, etc. all the time. He exploits character flaws and weaknesses (to list them all would take a really long time) but basically if a person has a weakness (such as an addiction to women undergarments, anger at seeing breasts, an exploitable curse, etc.) he will use it against them (provided he has a reason to). He is shown to actively seek these types of things out (like searching Nabikis room). Because of how manipulative he is (and how much the characters around him are jerks) he is constantly suspicious of other peoples behavior and motives for example Happosai's friend Lucky and Nabiki (the open and trusting Ranma seen in some fan fiction is nothing like how he is in the manga).

Since this is a post on how manipulative Ranma is I will now say that not only is Ranma manipulative he is actually pretty good at messing with people. Ranma's machinations usually work on their intended target (he reaches his intended objective, though he is somewhat shortsighted on occasion and neglects to plan for what happens after he reached his objective). When they do fail or backfire (usually after he reached his intended objective) it is generally for one of these reasons:

1. His morals (or sense of honor) kick in. This results in him realizing how much of a jerk he is being, starts feeling sorry for his victim(s), and begins to feel guilty for his actions.
- This is actually why people like Nabiki are able to get one over him and what prevents him from being a monster. If this didn't happen things like Happosais death would have happened (when Happosai was weakened by Ranma, Ranma felt sorry for him and did not finish Happosai off or let the fathers do so). Basically he is too sensitive to other peoples feeling, if a girl, Ryoga, or even Happosai start crying or something he will feel sorry for them and try to help them (no matter how much trouble they had caused Ranma earlier).

2. Third party interference.
Things like Akane revealing that it is really him in disguise or Soun and Genma interrupting.

3. Opponents or allies taking unexpected and unforeseeable actions.
- This is a major problem for any plan. You can make plans based on the most logical thing a person would do or based on past actions but people do not always do the most logical things and can screw up your plan no matter how well made it is. For example Happosai deciding to kill baby Taro instead of taking the much easier and more logical route and giving him another name or his allies (Mousse, Ryoga, etc.) deciding to back-stab him.

This was actually one of the very first posts I had intended to write but I kept putting it off. While I do feel that this post serves its intended purpose of pointing out that Ranma is very manipulative it still doesn't really feel complete to me. I sort of feel like listing the justifications and context for Ranma's actions (as I had stated the majority of his manipulations are, imo, justifiable based on need or the actions of others and context is important because Ranma comes off as being a much worse person when the context for his actions are left out). I was thinking about explaining how being primarily opportunistic (Nabiki) is different from being manipulative (Ranma), though there is overlap (major difference being that one waits for a situation to come about and takes advantage of it, the other will do that but also will create a situation to take advantage of if one doesn't already exist).

Some thing else I felt like putting in the post but wasn't sure where to put it (that is why it is here at the bottom) is the fact that Ranma, and the majority of the cast, are teenagers. From a biological stand point. The prefrontal cortex doesn't finish developing until around the age of 25. Teenagers rely mostly on the amygdala which is the primary seat of emotion in the brain which leads teenagers to over-focus on the emotions of the immediate situation. The prefrontal cortex which is still developing in teenagers deals with initiation, planning, sustaining attention, organizing action, inhibiting reactions, shifting from one task to another, and regulating emotion. What that basically means is that I would expect fanfiction that has an older Ranma in them to have him be even better at manipulating and tricking people. At the time of the manga Ranma is impatient and somewhat shortsighted. That is something I would expect him to grow out of. While his plans generally work up to the point he thought them up he often failed to plan for what happens after he reached his immediate objective (or that it might be better to wait a little while before implementing his plan or think them through longer). While he is extremely good at improvising (for example in the battle with Herb he improvised a change of the Hiryu Shoten Ha based on it principals and correctly anticipated Herbs actions) it would still have been advantageous for him to have contingency plans already set in place.

Bragging

Ranma is sometimes portrayed as a braggart in fan fiction; using statements such as I am the best (which incidentally I don't really like very much and find annoying when characters say that - for example Wolverine from Marvel comics saying he is the best at what he does and what he does is not very nice) and saying "Ranma Saotome doesn't lose". I can't say conclusively that Ranma has never said things of that nature in the manga, only that I do not recall him doing so (I'm almost positive he does not at least for his martial arts abilities). I do not see Ranma as a braggart; using the definition very boastful and talkative person for braggart and speaking of yourself in superlatives for boastful.

There were several instances of Ranma downplaying his skills that I can recall such as during the first volume when he (technically she) downplayed his abilities and during gym class where he did so yet again. This by Japanese culture is the proper response and it also has an added advantage for Ranma in that it leads his opponents to underestimating him. That really is not the reason though. The main reason I don't think Ranma did so is because Ranma is a very secretive person who hates talking about himself and did not talk about any of his previous battles (most things about Ranma's past we learn second hand), Akane even complains that Ranma never really tells her anything in the manga. If Ranma boasts about say beating Saffron (commonly commenting about beating a god) it would be extremely out of character, since it would be out of character for Ranma to even mention fighting him in most situations.

In the event that Ranma did once say something of that nature in the manga, I'd like to point out that the manga occasionally introduces a trait or piece of information that conflicts with other arcs; such as Ranma developing an inability to play cards which is countered by multiple other arcs in which he can. When there is a conflicting trait, I tend to discount that trait in favor of the one that has more supporting evidence as being my personal canon. This type of error is common in many works, particularly in long works written by many authors like Batman. As for the Ranma manga, it is a comedy so it uses the rule of funny, i.e. being funny is more important than being consistent. I mostly go by the manga, since I like it more than the anime and the majority of fan fiction, but I'd also like to point out that the anime and fan fiction tend to change or exaggerate character traits (not that the manga is entirely free of doing this as well) so it is also possible that people view Ranma as a braggart from the anime or just from other fan fics.

Of course it is also possible, as pointed out to me on a forum, that it stems not from anything Ranma ever said but from some of Ranma's character traits. Such as his competitive nature, dislike of losing, and belittling/underestimating other characters skills.

Five Random things on the Ranma manga

1. During the dragon whisker story arc in the manga, when it flashes back to the time Ranma got the dragon whisker, the Viz version says years ago whereas the Japanese versions says China training period.

2. A recent read Ranma fan fic made mention of Ranma disdaining the use of guns and another one implied that guns did not exist in the Ranmaverse. Personally I think, depending on the situation, Ranma would use guns. He has used drugs, magic, killing techniques, and assorted weapons in the manga, why wouldn't he use guns? (beyond them being illegal and hard to acquire in Japan - not that Ranma actually cares about legalities). As for them being in the manga; Here is a scene from the manga in which Genma, Soun, and Happosai are being shot at:


3. During the hot spring race (in the manga), Ranma makes mention of a prom in the VIZ version, I'm unsure what the Japanese version says but I know that it doesn't say that because the Japanese do not have proms.

4. Something that I've been finding annoying in relatively recently read Ranma fics is the repeatedly revealed investigations of Nabiki Tendo. In the manga, Nabiki does not spend time spying on people to find dirt on them, Nabiki does not have an information network, Nabiki is not good at finding people who do not want to be found (the fiancees are likely better at that than her and if Ranma didn't want her to find him, she never would be able to, if he wanted to he could hide in the same room she is in and she wouldn't know), Nabiki does not show as great an ability to figure things out overly quickly as she does in fanon (Ranma is usually the person who figures out things the quickest -couple examples:what the Ashura's source of power was and who the principals son was), Nabiki does not generally look up information (Akane and Ranma are seen turning to books to find info more often than Nabiki is), etc.

5. Who is the character that spies on people? Quite a few characters, of which Nabiki isn't one of them. If she happens upon something to use against you she will but she doesn't actively seek them out the way other characters do. Ranma does though: During the Sakura-Mochi storyline Ranma wears a tenugui (hand towel used as a sneaking mask in Japanese works) and spies on Akane, during the time Nabiki was his fiancee he clung to the ceiling and listened into Nabiki and Kasumi's conversation, Ranma searches Nabiki's room for stuff to use against her twice in the manga, Ranma also searched: Happosai's room, the Chardon's mansion, Yohyo's mansion, Miss Hinako's apartment, etc. Ranma is far more likely to investigate you and try to find your secrets out to use them against you than Nabiki is.

Few comments inspired by Ranma Fanfiction

I was reading some Ranma fanfiction, which is something I haven't done a lot of lately, and now feel like making some comments inspired by recently read Ranma fanfics.

-In one fic I read, I saw mention of Ranma being unable to get somewhere because of a mountain range in his way forcing him to spend weeks going around it. I don't get why Ranma would have trouble climbing or even going directly through the mountain if he wanted to. Even had the mountain been virtually vertical it would only cause him little trouble seeing how he has the same ability as Spiderman to cling to impossible surfaces and he could, had he wanted to, just gouge his fingers into the stone (can casually do this as seen in the arc in which he gets strength back). How he could go through the mountain is the very same way Ryoga does tunnel through the earth via breaking point and ki blasts.

-I find it extremely unlikely that Ranma doesn't know the breaking point since he has seen it repeatedly, witnessed the training for it, and he has learned other techniques with less exposure. If Ranma knows it why doesn't he use it? Simple from a combat point of view, against his normal opponents, it has very few offensive abilities. Ryoga doesn't even try to use it on Ranma, in the manga, after it's intro arc since it can't hurt Ranma. There is only one time in the manga in which Ranma would have had a reason to use it, when he (technically she at the time) made a hole in Ryoga's house's wall, but Ranma chose to instead make a perfect circular cut barehanded to the wall. There are times where it would be useful though, for example against armor, though the shrapnel from the armor may kill the person so Ranma would not use the technique in that way lightly.

-In another fic I saw Nabiki swear to pay a debt she owes. This is extremely out of character for her. In the manga, she has no qualms about leaving her debts to others or running instead of doing what she was paid to do (like when the principal hired her and she took the money and ran).

-Comments of this nature: "Ranma is sexist so the pools made him female to learn that males and females are equal"; are untrue and do not make sense. Ranma is no more sexist than anyone else in his society. There are only two things, that I remember, him saying that can be construed as being sexist. One that guys tend to go easy on girls - which isn't really a sexist statement so much an observation, guys do tend to go easy on girls in fights. The second being that he doesn't like to fight girls (not that he won't, just that he doesn't like doing so). There are many reasons as to why he would dislike fighting girls beyond seeing them as being inferior (for instance how society would view him for hitting a girl -this is sort of implied to be at least part of the reason since he did have a daydream once in the manga about hitting Akane after she pissed him off and the shown reaction of the bystanders when he defeated Shampoo during the Reversal Jewel arc). He does treat females as serious opponents, he does not mind taking females like Shampoo or Ukyo with him on his training trips, he has fought with females, and he has asked females (such as Cologne and Akane) for help. Ranma is less, sexist than Akane is (she does have a valid excuse in that boys were attempting to defeat her for the privilege of dating her because of Tatewaki's proclamation) who thinks it's perfectly acceptable for a girl to see a guy nude but not for a guy to see a girl nude (or that it is fine for girls to hit guys but not for guys to hit girls). If anything cursing him to be a girl would make him more sexist, not less, since his female form is physically weaker than his male form and people expect him to act differently (like a girl) while female (mostly people who don't know his true form but still happens).

The main reason people probably view Ranma as being chauvinistic has nothing to do with any of his words or actions. The reason people view him as chauvinistic or misogynous is simply because he turns into a girl and doesn't want to. People construe not wanting to be a girl as him viewing girls as being inferior to guys. That is not the reason Ranma doesn't want to be a girl, he doesn't want to be a girl because it is a curse, not his natural state of being, and has caused him all kinds of problems (up to and including nearly getting him killed).

-I've seen fics in which Ranma knows every technique in the manga/anime. It is true that Ranma has a very high learning curve, if he sees the technique, particularly if he has seen it repeatedly, he probably knows how to duplicate it. He can't do so instantly though, even he needs some time to perfect the technique. Ranma can reasonably be expected to know the breaking point, Happosai's firework technique, Mousse's hidden weapons, and Kuno's sword techniques. He seen them enough that based on his learning other techniques (for example the Umisenken and tea ceremony) he should know them. He should not know some techniques like Shampoo's remote control acupuncture, because he hadn't seen it, and should not know Miss Hinako's ki draining techniques since they required her to be physically altered to do (though given time and motivation he could probably develop his own version).

-Ranma in all likelihood knows some and could duplicate other techniques which can kill. Ranma is not a killer, I do not like fics that have him be one. That is not to say Ranma won't kill, he would but only as a last resort or if killing would save peoples lives. Having Ranma go to someone to learn them is really not needed, existing techniques can, and have been, altered to kill.

-I've seen fics in which Ranma finds it abhorrent or criticizes people for using magic. Ranma in all canons (manga, games, and anime) has used magic. He came to Nerima carrying the girl repellent, he has borrowed magic items from the amazons, he bought magic items, etc. Even in the anime he uses magic, for example he bought magic that brought his shadow to life to practice with (then proceeded to train for three days straight wearing out the magic). I would not be in the least bit surprised to find out he was actually attempting to learn magic - to cure his curse and to counter other people using magic on him (I'd be more surprised if he wasn't).

-This has bugged me for awhile now, fics in which Ranma sleeps in school. If you read the manga that is not a common occurrence for him (eating in class yes, sleeping no). Akane has slept in class more often than Ranma, yet he is the one who is said to sleep in class not her in fanon. Actually the whole Akane being better than Ranma when it comes to schooling bothers me. Akane has been shown to cut class, does so with Ukyo in one arc but there are other times as well (though this is something Ranma does as well). Akane has disrupted class, a few times. Akane has incited riots, while Ranma doesn't he instead tries to manipulate the people doing things that bothers him to get his way (Akane solution get students up in arms to cut Kuno's hair, though she did eventually see it as being wrong, Ranma's solution use female form and attempt to manipulate Kuno into cutting his own hair). Et cetera. Yet in fan fiction Ranma is said to be the worse student. Ranma is not shown to be a worse student than Akane is in any way. Though this maybe different in the anime.

As far as grades are concerned, Ranma's grades are pretty much unknown (based on the evidence you can interpret them any way you want though it is implied that he is at least maintaining a passing grade). As for Akane, like Ranma her grades are mostly unknown and it is implied that she too is passing but there is some evidence that she is doing poorly in at least one class (and likely more). She is shown to be in a home economics class and she is also shown to be absolutely terrible at every single thing that class teaches. Since she can't cook she likely would do bad in related classes such as chemistry and since she can't swim she is probably not getting a great grade in that class (swimming is shown to be part of the curriculum).

Ranma-onna vs Ranma-otoko

Ranma-onna

Ranma-otoko

Differences directly shown in the manga

• Girl form is shorter than male form (is in fact one of, if not, the shortest girl).
• Is less skilled than male form Ranma. This is displayed during the battle with Mousse. Logically this makes sense Ranma had been training in his male form for his entire life and has only had the female form for a short period of time, no where near long enough to be anywhere near as good in that form as his natural form. Though the way it was displayed was not the best way of doing so. From a real life perspective neither Ranma or Mousse would use a jump kick since it is a solely offensive attack that leaves almost no defense. Takahashi does not really know much on martial arts basing it off of pop culture but a real life martial artist, even one without a lifetime of experience like Ranma of the manga has, should have compensated for reach differential, since they most likely would have fought taller people before (in the case of Ranma his father if no other person).
• Female form Ranma is physically less tough then male Ranma. From a real world perspective this makes sense. Females skin is 25% less thick than males and females have a lower pain threshold and tolerance to pain. This is displayed in the manga during the battle with Taro, in which female Ranma afraid of rock Taro threw then turned male effortlessly shattered rock using arm that was injured. This shows that Ranma is either physically less tough as a female or Ranma is less confident in his female forms abilities and underestimates his female form, or both (personally I think it is both Ranma's female form has thrown/broken rocks in that size range and should have been able to deal with it as a female but I also think she is less tough).
  
• Female Ranma is more emotional than male form Ranma. Female Ranma is more likely to cry in the manga than male Ranma is just one example. Whether this is because of different hormones or social reasons namely guys aren't supposed to show emotion is unknown.
• People treat Ranma different depending on which form he is in. Most easily shown by how the Kuno's treat him depending on sex (namely Kodachi and Tatewaki). Though there are lesser more easily to not notice examples as well.
• While he is female people expect him to act different than when he is male (sit differently, use female specific words, dress differently, etc.). He generally doesn't unless he is doing so for a specific purpose (tricking someone, hiding from mother, etc.) but people still do expect him to act differently depending on gender.
• Is forced to deal with the double standards that apply to both genders. Example, has changed form to do something that was socially unacceptable for current form. As well as deal with sexist statements against both sexes example, Akane mentioning it being okay for girls to see guys nude but not for guys to see girls naked.
• Ranma is less modest/more shameless as a female. We see female Ranma nude more often than male Ranma. Though even male Ranma has very little modesty seeing no problem walking around outside in only boxers or being nude around people.

Differences not directly shown but can be inferred from things shown in the manga using logical thought

• Female form is not as strong as male Ranma. As far as I can recall this is not explicitly shown but females are not as physically strong as males (even in the manga) and female form Ranma has less muscle mass than male Ranma.
• Again not explicitly shown but female form Ranma should be a slower runner than male form Ranma, shorter legs and if you look at world records males are faster runners than females.
• Female form Ranma has less ki than male Ranma. This is not shown directly in the manga as applied to Ranma but is shown in Herb who has the same curse as Ranma does. His ki became significantly more powerful when he returned to his natural state of being male, this likely applies to Ranma as well.
• Female form is likely more flexible than male form Ranma, though even Ranma's male form has shown extreme flexibility, girls are more flexible than guys.
• Female form is likely better at dodging than male form Ranma since is a smaller target, reduced muscle density, and superior flexibility.
• Each form has different sense of balance.
• Female form may menstruate and be capable of having children (I do know Takahashi's viewpoint on this - don't think about it). There are a few points in the manga that leads to this conclusion.

1. Ranma has had nightmares of having Kuno's children.
2. The Musk were capable of having children with the animals cursed at Jusenkyo. They likely did not look at the gender of the animals being thrown in and from a genetic stand point the curse has to alter the cursed individual at the genetic level for any offspring to be possible.
3. Female form is growing as shown in the bust battle arc.

• why isn't it shown in manga -see Takahashi's view on it, Ranma may not have started menstruating yet - some people like the females in my family did not start until they were 18, stress can delay or disrupt it, and over exercising can mess up the cycle are just some of the possible reason she might not be yet.
  

Speculation that is neither shown or inferred by the manga at all but doesn't contradict it either

• Ranma is probably capable of drinking more alcohol as a male since he is physically larger and because males have an extra enzyme in the stomach lining which breaks down some of the alcohol so less reaches the blood stream.
• Female form better fine motor control because of smaller fingers and because the female brain is better organized for fine motor control of the hands.
• Female form better sense of touch since females have more sensitive touch because of the differences in male and female skin.
• While eating there are genetic differences in taste perception and differences in the density of taste buds on the tongues between males and females so stuff would taste different depending on sex.
• Females tend to have a better sense of smell
• Males tend to have a stronger sense of hearing.

The point of this post is to show that male Ranma and female Ranma are different. That while fighting in female form Ranma is at a disadvantage when compared to fighting in male form. That Ranma acts somewhat different while female (there are things he would do while female that wouldn't do as a male) and that he has to deal with societal expectations for both forms. Having said that Ranma, while female, is still Ranma. She is not going to suddenly start liking guys or act girly for no reason. Female Ranma though physically female is very much a lesbian tomboy.

Though I wrote this about Ranma, I could just as well have written about one of the other cursed characters. They to are altered physically. Though they do not act as differently while in cursed forms as opposed to normal forms as Ranma does (baring cursed forms that also alter you mentally like the Ashura curse), there is two reasons for this; we do not see them interacting in their cursed forms as often and, since their cursed forms are animals, they do not have the societal pressures/expectations put on them to act differently that Ranma does.

Honor, Morals, Ethics, and Guilt as they relate to Ranma

I am of the opinion that having Honor, Morals, Ethics, and feelings of guilt are virtues. If you don't have them your basically a sociopath. While they are virtues, they are also weaknesses since they can be used against you. These concepts are of extreme importance to the Ranma 1/2 storyline; if the characters had different ones from the one's they have the story would be completely different.

Ranma has an honor code, is a moral person, has somewhat questionable ethics, and frequently feels guilty when he has wronged someone. These traits have been shamelessly used against Ranma many times in the manga.

Ranma's honor code is mostly unknown. We do know that part of it is to protect people and fight monsters as both Genma and Ranma have stated this several times in the manga. Several of his largest problems are problems of honor. There are the various engagements which are a problem of honor (not a problem legally since in Japan forced marriage is illegal by the constitution). His mother held and still does at the end of the manga a pledge stating that Ranma has to be manly or commit Seppuku (even after knowing and accepting that he turns into a female she still seems to hold the pledge since after Ranma moved out of the Tendo's and was feeling depressed she went for her sword while commenting that he wasn't being manly) which wouldn't mean anything if Ranma didn't have an honor code since he could run away or go to the authorities (it's technically illegal and even if it was legal Ranma is not an adult and it would violate Article 19 convention of the rights of child). People have also tried to use his honor against him several times in several ways one way being duels of honor with something (often Akane) at stake. If he didn't have honor they'd be meaningless since he just wouldn't abide by them. Genma and Soun make many attempts to use his honor to force him to marry Akane or do something. For example, when it was thought Akane was turned into a duck Soun tried to use Ranma's honor coupled with his feelings of guilt to marry him to Akane. He has used it in other ways as well for example during the Orochi arc after Akane left Soun used Ranma's honor to get Ranma to chase after her, when Akane went on her first date with Ryoga Kasumi and Soun sent Ranma to watch over her, the scheme with the Dojo Destroyer also was using his honor against him.

Like his honor his morals and ethics have been used against him multiple times as well. His morals and his honor compel him to help people like Happosai and the sick perverted kid. Examples of morals being used against him: Every single thing Nabiki has done to him was only possible because of his morals, ethics, and sense of obligation. She used his feelings of guilt and sense of obligation to her advantage when he accidentally destroyed her tickets to get him to buy her expensive sushi (his suggestion as repayment), pose for pictures (again his suggestion since Nabiki viewed the sushi as insufficient repayment), and later blackmail him. The only reason she was able to sell him by the hour to his classmates was because he felt that since they paid for the time he was obligated to spend the time with them, etc.

Even though Ranma is a moral person and tries to do good his methods of doing so are, on occasion, using questionable ethics. For example, to help Pantyhose Taro get his name changed by Happosai Ranma drugged Happosai (chloroform), wrote a play to manipulate Happosai, and used mind altering magic on Happosai (suggestion incense). Another occasion of his loose ethics is using magic to help Ryoga and Akari get together.

If Ranma did not have morals, ethics, honor, and feelings of guilt the manga would be a lot different and Ranma would be much more dangerous. Moral's and feelings of guilt prevent him from beating up girls, prevent him from seriously hurting his opponents like Ryoga, using killing or maiming techniques, blackmailing/manipulating people more often and limit the severity of his machinations, using sneak attacks/being offensive more often, seducing people, only thing keeping Nabiki safe, etc.

Ranma's use of insults in the manga

I was talking to an Akane fan earlier and they were talking about how Ranma deserves to be hit by Akane because he always insults everyone. This is not true; Ranma does not insult everyone, even if that was true it is not a good reason to hit someone.

When Ranma first meets people he is nice and doesn't insult them until after they have done something to upset him. This is shown many times in the manga. When he first came to the Tendo's he was polite and not insulting until after the Tendo's insulted him repeatedly. He was polite to both Ukyo and Ryoga (contrary to some peoples way of thinking Ranma would rather talk than fight), etc. If your polite to Ranma he'll be polite to you. He is always polite to Kasumi, even uses the -san honorific for her. He is even polite to Happosai when Happosai hasn't done anything to annoy Ranma for awhile.

Ranma accidentally insults people sometimes because of his inadequate social skills (doesn't think about ramifications of what he says and treats girls like they were guys -which isn't that uncommon for people who went to all boy schools) and his upbringing. An example of accidental insult is: During an early volume of the manga Ranma wears Akane's clothes because his clothes are in the wash and Kasumi and Nabiki pressure him into it. He is asked how the clothes fit and replied honestly that top was too tight bottom was too loose, inadvertently insulting Akane. No insult was intended.

Sometimes he insults people because they insult him (ok often). An example of this is most of Ranma's dialog with Pantyhose Taro.

Ranma also uses insults as a means of manipulating people or to serve a purpose. He uses these type of insults to spur someone on, anger them in battle, trick them to do something/not do something, and to avoid things (like eating Akane's cooking).

Some of Ranma's insults may have been meant as compliments but were worded wrongly or not taken in the manner Ranma meant them. Akari is the person who did this the most with her comparing Ryoga to a pig; they were meant to be compliments but were taken as insults. I think Ranma does this as well but can not think of a specific instance where he did so off the top of my head.

Contrary to what some Akane lovers say Ranma was not the one who insulted Akane first. She insulted him multiple times before he insulted her. See the first volume where she insulted his gender and curse when he makes a comment in retaliation to her insults she hit him with a table while his back was turned. Considering the way the Tendo's and Akane were treating him (basically arguing about not wanting him, treating him like an object, and insulting him) his comment was fully warranted. Ranma really doesn't insult Akane much more often than she does him (if he in fact actually does do so more). I'm fairly sure there are volumes in which Akane insults (either purposely or indirectly) Ranma more often than he does her. I've had people argue with me that Ranma's insults are worse than Akane's this is not true. Akane's insults to Ranma are as bad as or even worse on occasion than the insults Ranma uses on her. For example, she has accused him of trying to rape Miss Hinako, in volume 8(VIZ) she said that his body has always been sick and twisted, told him to stay a girl and marry a guy, etc.

Ranma does not always insult her when given a reason to and has attempted to not insult her on a several occasions. For instance some people say that Ranma always insults her cooking, sewing, etc. In the manga, when she first cooked for him he took one bite and tried to just continue training instead of insulting it (she then tried her own food, said it was bad, and threw a rock at him). As for her sewing he did not purposely insult it, ever. Two instances exist in the manga, one he did not know she was around and said "how can something sewn that looks like it was sewn by a third grader be so hard to pull off!?" and the second time he said "that's a rabbit I thought it was a jellyfish" which isn't really an insult particularly since it looked like a jellyfish. Since I'm trying to be fair Akane does not insult Ranma every chance she gets either and she has on occasion not hit/insulted Ranma when, in my opinion, it would have been excusable for her to do so.

In a related thing, since cuss words are most often insults, In the original Japanese and all the English fan translated versions of the manga Ranma, and some of the other cast members, use swear words (or extremely rude language that if properly translated would be equivalent to cuss words) .

Ranma's characterization between manga and anime

Ranma in fan fiction is generally a mix of anime and manga, with a little bit of the author and fanon thrown in. Recently I re-watched part of the anime and decided to make this list comparing the characterization differences in Ranma between the manga and the anime, and why I prefer the manga characterization. It is incomplete.

• Manga Ranma is a neat freak, hates a messy room, and will start cleaning a dirty room without thinking about it as shown by his starting to clean Miss Hinako's room and having to think about it to stop (above two pictures). This makes sense to me. A person who travels a lot and may have to leave at any moment, in my opinion, is more likely to keep his things organized and neat. Why? Because if you have to leave in a hurry, you have to know where your stuff is or you risk leaving it behind. Anime Ranma does not like cleaning, complains when he has to, and skips cleaning duty at school.
  
  

• Anime Ranma is not very good with money and will spend it as soon as he gets it. Then will borrow money from Akane. He also receives an allowance if Akane is to believed since she mentions once that he shouldn't have spent all his allowance. Who is giving him an allowance? Genma giving Ranma money does not seem to be very likely. Stealing money from Ranma seems a lot more likely. Manga Ranma is rather tight fisted with his money even while in a hurry and being blackmailed he'll try to negotiate a lower price (above picture). Both manga and anime Ranma will go to food stalls in girl form to get cheaper and/or free food (above picture right). The difference is manga Ranma doesn't want to spend the money and Anime Ranma doesn't have any money. Manga Ranma is shown to take part time jobs to earn his money such as when he took a job at a hot spring and a comment by Genma at another point implies that taking a short term part time job is not uncommon. In my opinion, being tight fisted with money makes more sense. During his training trip he quite likely did not have enough money to buy essentials some of the time and he has to actually earn the money he gets. Considering that, if I was in his situation I would try and make all the money I had count because I would worry that a time would come in which I needed money but didn't have it.

• Manga Ranma is secretive and more suspicious of people's actions than his anime counterpart. Anime Ranma is more trusting and willing to impart information about himself. I can come up with quite a few reasons as to why Ranma would be secretive and suspicious of people.

1. Genma. Genma lies and attempts to scam people/betrays them. For example Ukyo's dad. Ranma probably eventually caught on that Genma can't really be trusted and if he can't be others probably can't be.
2. We see that people betray him during the manga and it is likely that others betrayed/tried to cheat him prior to the manga, like Genma.
3. What people don't know about you they can't use against you. For example when people found out about his fear of cats they tried to use it against him like Akane sometimes uses it to punish him or Nabiki pulling out a cat so he couldn't intimidate her.
4. He appears to have some ninja training - crawl along ceiling, body switch trick, smoke cloud, etc. Ninja's are known for being secretive.
5. Ranma himself is fairly manipulative and will use any advantage he can get against you - such as trying to blackmail Nabiki, attempting to seduce Akane to get rid of the dogi, or using Herbs anger at seeing breasts against him. He probably figures others are manipulative and likely to use any advantage they can as well.

• Manga Ranma is more likely to look at books for answers and to read for entertainment then the anime version. The anime version is more likely to play super nintendo then read. We see Ranma turn to books for answers such as when Dr Tofu hurt his neck we later see him reading a book on chiropractics, during the reversal jewel he turned to dating magazines for advice on dating, turned to a scroll to counter Miss Hinako's draining, picked up the diary to find out why no one was at the island with the Hawaiian virus, etc. We also see him reading at other times as to what he was reading at those other times is unknown he was reading something while waiting for Ryoga prior to the ShiShiHadoken, read something while going to sleep when Miss Hinako stayed at the Tendo's, etc. Reading makes more sense then playing video games to me. Think about how his training trip likely went. Probably trained with many different martial arts masters at dojo's all of which were likely older then him and unlikely to have video game systems. When training on a mountain or away from civilization wasn't likely to have access to electricity required for video game systems/TV's to work but as long as there is light you can read a book to keep yourself entertained. Though manga Ranma will occasionally play video games ( he plays a fighting game with Miss Hinako on her Super Nintendo) and watch TV (we see him watch the news occasionally) he is much more likely to grab a book than the anime version.

• Anime Ranma complained about having to go to school. Manga Ranma did not complain about having to go to school. In my opinion, Not complaining makes more sense. He was a lonely kid, dragged around from place to place with Genma, probably training under various older martial artists, and had little contact with kids his own age. Whether or not he liked doing the assignments. He probably still would have liked going because it would've been a place to go with people his own age. People who he could just be a kid around. In the wilds it would have been about survival and training. At dojo's it would have been training and possibly working in exchange for the training/lodging (like sweeping or cleaning the dojo or something). School even with the assignments would be the place in which he could be around, meet, and play with people his own age.

• Manga Ranma is less human. As pointed out in an earlier post Ranma is not really like normal people. Anime Ranma acts more like a regular person than his manga counterpart. Manga Ranma is more likely to cling to the ceiling, run up telephone poles, accidentally break things with his strength, etc. I just prefer the manga version in this case because I think it is cooler and believe that people with super human abilities would use them in everyday situations.
  

The above was just some of the differences between manga and anime Ranma. I could go on. For example, Manga Ranma had better handwriting and spelling than his anime counterpart - In the original Japanese manga Ranma did not spell anything wrong, in the anime he misspelled spirit wards and in the English version of the manga he misspelled buffoon. Manga Ranma was able to write fairly neat even in bruises while in a hurry and could write legibly with his foot.

Some jobs Ranma would be good at

I've seen people say that without the Tendo's Ranma would have no way of supporting himself. Leaving out the fact that Ranma has lived off of the land before and has actually taken jobs within the manga a few times (worked at a hot spring -right picture above-, as a waitress -left picture above- for both Ukyo and Cologne, and Genma asked Ranma once if he was working at a bath house). Here are some jobs Ranma has the skills for already. Also the Tendo's are not his only option he could stay with others like Ukyo (who he and the Tendo's lived with during the Gambler King story arc) and Kodachi (who he stayed with once in the anime and she had given him his own personal dojo) amongst others.

Magician - using techniques like how in his battle with Mousse he blew himself up, had a half dozen bunny rabbits, a dozen doves, flags, flowers, mini parachutes for all his stuff from his sleeves, his body switching technique to switch places with things(switched with a bear at Miss Hinako's, a log in battle with Herb, a statue to get away from Ryoga, etc.), Using his martial arts to do tricks that appear to be magic like standing/ walking on things that should not be able to support his weight (like Kuno's sword), lifting things that he shouldn't be able to lift (like all those multi-ton boulders he likes to pick up and throw), crawling/walking on the walls and ceilings (he does this very often in the manga), running up vertical objects (like the telephone pole he ran up chasing Cologne), etc.

Ventriloquist - one time he faked Akane's voice to mess with Ryoga, another time he faked Ryoga's voice to mess with Akane and Ryoga, another time faked Kuno's voice to have Kuno apologize to Kodachi.

Puppetry - He uses Kuno as a giant puppet a few times.

Thief - Ranma has attempted to steal stuff fairly often like the water proof soap, tried to steal the Shi Shi Hadoken scroll, wishing sword, etc. He stole food from Ryoga when Ryoga was turned into a kid, stole food from hot spring guy, stole the bowl of food that had the dragon whisker, ect...

Waitress - Done that a few times in the manga for both Cologne and Ukyo.

Cook - Is a very good cook in the manga.

Construction worker - Ranma has shown the ability to do repairs around the Tendo's house in the manga and with his massive physical strength and abilities this would be easy for him.

Professional Sports - Ranma's abilities and competitive attitude would make Ranma very good at sports.

Demolition work - He wouldn't even need equipment.

Model - Ranma's female form at least is shown to be very attractive and Ranma is proud enough in his looks and shameless enough to make a good model.

Circus Performer - high wire no problem, throwing knives no problem, juggling no problem

Protector - Bodyguard, Bouncer, etc.

Spy - Has abilities that would allow him into places he shouldn't be able to get into.

Lifeguard - Swam the Sea of Japan and has demonstrated knowing how to save a drowning person - Miss Hinako and Akane.

Seamstress - We see Ranma sewing in the manga and creating his disguises.

Housekeeper - Ranma is shown cleaning in the manga. Heck he can't stand a mess and starts cleaning it before he thinks about it as seen in Miss Hinako's house while going to steal her fighting fish and cleaning the dojo.

Stunt man - would be excellent at this

Delivery person - With his abilities he could deliver things much faster than conventional methods.

Masseur (when male)/Masseuse (when female) - Ranma has given massages in the manga to Akane to calm her down after he has angered her and offered Nabiki one to pay her back for the ticket he accidentally destroyed.

With his skills, abilities, and talents many other jobs could be done by him. Since he learns fast he could also acquire new skills/build on existing skills as well. For example, he has demonstrated some knowledge in medicine/human biology that could be built upon. Treats his own wounds, basic first aid, some herbal remedies, some pressure points (at least weak spots and most likely the sleep spot which he was going to use on Ryoga after seeing Happosai use it but didn't get the chance and likely knows more), CPR used on Miss Hinako, etc. and could learn more.

Ranma's drawing ability

Ranma in the manga is not very good at drawing things when he wants to but is good at doodling.

Attempting to draw

Ranma doodling during koi rod of love story arc

Ranma reading

In fan fiction it is not uncommon for Ranma to start reading books or have him secretly read books, this is used to show his hidden intelligence often. In the manga, Ranma doesn't hide his intelligence and reads often. I'm not going to list every instance but here are some examples of him reading: While sparing with Akane, while waiting for Ryoga to show up before the Shi Shi Hokoudan arc, after figuring out the Moko Takabisha and waiting for Ryoga to show up again, reads dating magazines during the reversal jewel story arc, reading something when Akane made the edible curry, was reading before going to sleep during the time Miss Hinako stayed at the Tendo's (judging by the open book near him while he was sleeping), a manga at end of the master student pill arc, there is a picture Nabiki took of Onna-Ranma sleeping holding a book, etc. There are many more. Reading is one of the most common things he does, he certainly can be seen doing so more than playing video games (shown once in the manga versus Miss Hinako) or watching television (is only seen doing so while others are doing so, unlike Akane or Shampoo whom we see watch television alone).

Since I am a voracious reader it is an aspect of Ranma's character I easily identify with and makes sense to me for him to do so. Books are a means of acquiring knowledge such as martial arts (we do see Ranma turn to books for information in the manga), they are a form of entertainment that is portable (something he can do on his training trip when not training or while recovering from injuries), does not require electricity (many other forms of entertainment requires electricity and/or other people to participate with which Ranma would have had limited access to occasionally during his training journey), is easily accessible (books are not that expensive, libraries loan books out for free, people throw away books -in Japan Manga are released in phone book size magazines on fairly cheap paper that are not meant to be kept often times after people finish reading them they are tossed out and Ranma could acquire them by taking them from the trash or people giving them to him once they are finished with them), etc. I can think of a lot of reasons for Ranma to read often and I do not see reasons as to why he would not (particularly since we do see him read often).

What do you think Ranma reads?

Things I think he likely reads are:
*Martial arts manuals - at least one of the times it clearly is a martial arts manual.
*Text books - he is in school and we do see him carrying his school books with him often
*Researching a cure for his curse and other problems - would make sense since we do see him research using books - Dating magazines for tips on dating, a book on Chiropractics after Dr Tofu accidentally hurt Ranma, pressure point charts, etc., and since he wants to cure his curse books would be a good place to start a search.
*Cook books - Possibly at least for a recipe. In the manga he is a pretty good cook and likes to eat so this would make sense.

Beyond those he reads for entertainment. I'm assuming the manga he reads, if nothing else, is for entertainment. What genre do you think he reads? Personally I don't think romance or martial arts themed stories since he gets too much of that in his regular life.

Ranma uncultured?

A cultured person, in the European tradition, is one who is well rounded and Ranma is definitely well rounded, heck he is probably the most well rounded in skills in the manga displaying knowledge in a large variety of fields (cooking, cleaning, repair work, sewing, horse riding, first aid, CPR, some knowledge on magic, designing (he makes his own disguises in the manga; can be seen sewing a costume before the battle with Mousse - pictured above), tea ceremony, proper manners (though he doesn't always use them), animals, constructed spirit wards (didn't screw them up in the manga only in the anime), dancing (went dancing on a date in the manga), wrote a play and went to see plays), etc.

If you use word net's definition of uncultured that is lacking art or knowledge. Ranma is not uncultured by that definition either. Since he has displayed knowledge in many fields. Is passing in school and doesn't appear to have any trouble with his classes (in the manga, even the anime implies he is passing). As for art he has displayed creativity and imagination and has a superior skill that you can learn by study and practice and observation which are two definitions for art. Heck he even created and directed a play.

Ranma is not uncultured he is uncivilized. They aren't the same thing. One who may be poor and wearing cheap apparel may be considered 'uncivilized', but still he or she may be the most cultured person. Ranma does fit the definition for uncivilized in that he is often rude, doesn't use manners very much (though he does know them), and acts like a savage on occasion (swings - more like bounces - from tree to tree, howling at the moon, eating while crouching on the table, sleeping in trees). He doesn't fit the definition for uncultured.

Secretive Ranma

There are some minor things in fanfiction that bother me more than they probably should. One thing is stories in which Ranma, shortly after meeting some new people, tells them his life story. This is very out of character for Ranma to do. The reason this is OOC is because Ranma is a very secretive person and has never told his life story to anyone in the manga. In fact Ranma rarely tells anyone anything about himself if he can avoid doing so, the vast majority of the things we know of Ranma's time before coming to the Tendo dojo is from what other people have told (Genma, Ukyo, etc..).

In many fan made stories, Ranma tells people about his curse shortly after meeting people. This too is out of character for Ranma, though not as much, he generally doesn't tell people about his curse preferring that they don't know. He doesn't really try to hide it but most people who found out about it learned of it from witnessing it in action or learned about it from others. For the few that Ranma showed the curse to, he did not tell them how he came to get the curse or anything about it preferring to let them come to their own conclusions. Though others characters did explain his curse to others. An example from the manga, Ranma did not tell Ukyo about his curse she found about it later and Akane told her about it. He also did not tell Densuke or Yohyo and even stated that he wasn't going to.

Ranma in fanfiction often tells people about his fiancée problems. In the manga he doesn't even tell his fiancée's about each other. Ukyo didn't know about Shampoo and Shampoo didn't know about Ukyo until 7 Volumes of the manga after Ukyo's introduction (Ukyo introduced Volume 9 meets Shampoo for first time Volume 16). So telling complete strangers seems very unlikely to me.

In several fanfics, Ranma will boast about beating so and so or say "you should be scared I defeated Saffron" or tell people what martial art styles he knows. Those are out of character as well. Ranma has told no one what martial arts styles he knows, even the readers don't know how many or what styles he knows. He doesn't even tell anyone about the battles he fought or any of his past accomplishments.

One thing Ranma has told no one about and would actively do everything in his power to hide is his fear of cats. People have and do use it against him in the manga. He also does not complain about any of his problems to anyone, knowing that people may use them against him.

Ranma is very secretive and not an open person which makes it so that we know very little about Ranma. The vast majority of his past is unknown. This is good for fanfics since a fic can be written about Ranma helping the police with detective work when he was twelve or having been an assassin when he was fourteen and nothing contradicts that, though you should probably explain why Ranma doesn’t kill anymore except as a last resort. It also makes it somewhat more difficult since Ranma is unlikely to tell us things about his past since he doesn't volunteer information and would tell you the bare minimum about whatever you asked him (would even lie about it if he didn't want you to know). Meaning if you did make Ranma an assassin at fourteen you'll have to come up with a good reason for Ranma to tell anyone or have someone else tell it.

Ryoga's direction sense

Ryoga's direction sense is pretty bad. In some fan fiction they joke that he could get lost in a room with one door. While it's not that bad in the manga, it still is very bad and he seems to accidentally teleport since he has managed to cross large bodies of water without noticing. In the Fan scanlation, he considers both France and China to be in walking distance, while in the Viz version and the text translation he says horse race track and Kyushu (which is a separate island of Japan). He has managed to some how miss Tokyo an area of over 1000 miles by many miles as in 100's (500 miles in VIZ version), ended up in Russia while looking for Hong Kong, went the wrong way in a three legged race, and somehow got himself and Ukyo lost in such away that they managed to get to the finish line first, could not find the exit to Shampoo's house, amongst other times. He also uses the breaking point and shishihadoken to tunnel through the earth, which can not help his sense of direction. As for the picture below, it is from the Fan Scan, in the VIZ version it says Nagasaki in the background and not Hong Kong.

Ranma's Intelligence

Manga Ranma is very intelligent, far more than many people credit him as being; judging by fan fiction.

Ranma's largest problem is that he is a live in the moment type person, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because he does not dwell on his problems, like Ryoga does, but a couple of consequence from being a live in the moment type person are shortsightedness (does not plan far enough in advance/think things through enough/come up with contingency plans) and impatience (which leads to him to doing things like trying to sneak into the girls changing room instead of waiting until after school).

He has displayed a high level learning ability judging by how fast he learned the Umisenken (Genma only showed him once), Cologne's surprise that he was able to learn the Hiryu Shoten Ha as fast as he did, and he has learned entire schools of martial arts over night (Martial Arts Tea Ceremony). This is even commented on in the manga, Akane for instance does so at the beginning of the Romeo and Juliet arc.

Ranma's manga incarnation appears to be doing fairly well in school even though he has missed at the very least a few months of school (time in China), missed part of that year (school started several weeks earlier), and will skip school (skipped it to go on trip with Happosai, Genma, and Soun during the Konatsu story arc for example). Another thing that shows that Ranma isn't doing all that bad in school, at least in the manga, is that Ranma wasn't worried about Principal Kuno showing Ranma's grade to everyone which implies that Ranma does not generally get bad grades or he really doesn't care about them (a view point that is countered by Ranma's actions when Principal Kuno implied they were extremely low). Ranma was also happy with his grade when it was shown on CMN news meaning it wasn't that bad a grade. Since Ranma does care about how people view him, for him to get very bad grades would be out of character because it would make him look stupid. For those who say that Genma wasn't happy with his grade my view is that Genma was upset about allowing Principal Kuno to put the grades on television (i.e. that Ranma let Principal Kuno get one over Ranma). Miss Hinako doesn't really attempt to get him to improve, she tries to get him to take school seriously and conform.

Ranma is fairly cultured though uncivilized and tends to ignore social conventions though he is aware of them and uses them on occasion when he feels a reason to do so. He did write, direct, and star in a play of his own making to try and get Happosai to change Pantyhose Taro's name. He does display knowledge in other fields besides martial arts such as cooking, sewing, first aid, repair work, CPR, cleaning, designing, etc., and can usually be counted on to know at least something helpful on just about anything. He is generally the person who comes up with a solution or figures things out, examples: figured out that Tatewaki Kuno was the principals son before anyone, figured out the source of Rouge's (the Ashura's) power, figured out that the cursed spatula was actually an iron, saw through Principal Kuno's and Gosunkugi's disguises, etc.

Ranma is very good at making new tactics, copying techniques, developing counters, and discovering a person's weakness. He even had stated that using a technique against him multiple times is pointless. (Happosai used pipe throwing technique; Ranma reversed it throwing Happosai instead.) If you have a weakness of any type Ranma will figure it out and use it against you.

People say Ranma is stupid because he didn't think to jump into the spring to cure his curse but when you consider that no one else has managed to cure their curses it is quite likely that part of the curse is an inability to cure yourself of it. Meaning a cursed individual would not think of that as a possibility until after it is no longer an option. The guide did not appear to know of a cure to the curse at that time Ranma was cursed (or at least did not know of its location). That is one possible reason for him to take Ranma and Genma to Shampoo's village. If the guide did know the location of the cure he probably would have given it to them. The real reason, of course, is much simpler; Takahashi wanted Ranma to be cursed for plot reasons and likely had not thought up a cure until later when she decided that it could also be used for a story arc.

As for Ranma not knowing what Romeo and Juliet is (another thing I've heard people use to say Ranma is stupid). This is not an example of stupidity; it is an example of ignorance. Ranma has spent most of his life training, though he did go to school as well, and just did not learn about it. He was also not the only character that did not know it, Tatewaki Kuno, Gosunkugi, and Happosai were also unfamiliar with it. This is no worse than people around the world not knowing the Tales of Genji (An extremely important and well known Japanese work of literature that every Japanese person knows about and is required reading in Japanese middle schools).

Ranma's inability to play cards in one arc was a result of PIS (plot induced stupidity). That arc was filled with PIS (and is in my opinion the worst arc in the entire manga). He can be seen playing cards with his classmates and not losing at various stages of the manga, both before and after that story arc.

As for Ranma not remembering or thinking about whether he had a mother, remember in the Manga, Ranma was taken from her before he could even walk and almost everyone he knows is motherless (Tendo's, Kuno's, Ukyo, and Shampoo). He most likely just assumed she was dead.

As clarification this post is about Ranma's intelligence not really on how knowledgeable he is. For some reason, I often see people think intelligence and knowledge are the same thing, they are not. You can be intelligent and not overly knowledgeable, they are not mutually exclusive. Ranma has shown to be plenty intelligent but he lacks knowledge (as well as patience) in a few things people take for granted (interpersonal skills in romantic situations mainly). He is a teenager, were he not fictional and capable of maturing, he would gain knowledge and experience which would better enable him to utilize his intelligence.

In my opinion, Ranma is a martial arts nerd that is not overly interested in many other things. He is also pretty pragmatic. The point of the last two sentences is that things like popular culture do not really interest him and he will happily learn anything that has to do with martial arts or that he can see has a practical advantage in knowing e.g. learning the names of every past ruler of Japan or all the baseball teams would be viewed as a pointless waste of time since he'd see no practical purpose for that knowledge and it has nothing to do with martial arts but if it relates to martial arts or he sees a practical purpose in acquiring the skill/knowledge he will happily do so.

Ranma's Physical strength

Ranma is incredibly strong many times stronger than a normal human. We've never seen Ranma push himself to his limit strength wise and there is no way to tell how strong he really is. Ranma's male form is stronger than his female form how much so is unknown. Some feats for female form Ranma are throwing multi-ton ice blocks around, punching multi-ton boulders shattering them, pushing a roughly 70-ton boulder into the mouth of the Yamata-Orochi underwater, and supporting pressure Ryoga exerted on two enormous floating slabs of ice with an approximate total weight of roughly 250 to 700 metric tons when Ryoga was standing on her head (weight was determined by someone on wikipedia, By comparing with the almost 2m tall 'tiny' Mikado, with an estimated total weight of between 1.5m*8m*25m*917kg/m^3=275*10^3kg and 2.5m*10m*30m*917kg/m^3=687*10^3kg.).

Ranma's an alien

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.

Ranma's Memory

Some people think Ranma does not have a very good memory. I disagree; Ranma has a very good memory. Ranma has demonstrated the ability to recall things that happened many years earlier such as remembering losing the Tendo Dojo to the Gambling King over 10 years earlier (which even though I dislike that story arc; I find to be pretty impressive after all how many specific events can you remember that happened 10 years ago not counting major life changing things like a death or wedding). Ranma remembered other things that have happened 10 years ago as well such things as messing with Ukyo's sauce. He was also able to effortlessly recall many instances of Genma stealing food from him, events that happened years apart. He also remembered where Ryoga's house was.

How can I say Ranma has a good memory when there are two instances in which he did not remember things? The instances of him not remembering are; not remembering his mother and who Ryoga was. Not remembering his mother is very easy to explain. In the manga; Genma took Ranma away when Ranma was a baby not even able to walk yet. In the manga; Ranma's earliest memories are training in a foreign country.

Not remembering Ryoga is a bit harder to explain but not that hard. Ranma was able to remember Ryoga after thinking about it for a few moments so while he did not remember him instantaneously he did remember Ryoga. There are many possible reasons as to why he did not remember him instantly. Things like Ranma may not be good at remembering people's faces. Ranma had absolutely no reason to remember who Ryoga was nor did he expect to see Ryoga again. Ranma and Ryoga were not friends, at least not close friends, in middle school; Ranma bounced off of Ryoga's head grabbing the last piece of bread that the lunch lady would throw into the crowd. It is likely that Ranma was not in the same class as Ryoga. Ranma probably was only at that school for a few months and Ryoga, almost positively, missed several days by getting lost. My question to you, dear reader, is: How well would you remember someone you interacted with for a few times a day for a few months over a year ago after many stressful and important things have happened (in Ranma's case trip to China, hunted by Shampoo, started going to a new school, obtained a curse)? Lets say you bumped into a teacher who subbed for a few months in one of your classes, over a year ago, how quickly would you remember them? Before someone say's but Ranma acted like Ryoga was his friend. Remember this is Ranma a person who considers just about everyone to be his friend and in my opinion, and the Memorial book's chart, even sees Kuno to be a friend (or at least a sparring partner).