Ranma ½/Headscratchers

Ranma 1/2

 * Can Ranma get pregnant? (Of course, we "shouldn't think about it". But still.) Can he impregnate himself using previously collected semen while in female form?


 * Stop thinking about that, dammit.
 * But if you still can't stop thinking about it, the Musk Dynasty arc implies that it's possible.
 * Given that this eventuality is left explicity and deliberately undefined by the very Word of God you quote, nobody can answer this for you. Whichever answer you prefer can be rationalised to fit in with the established continuity.
 * But in those cases they were stuck as woman full-time (I still can't believe I'm talking about this as the answer should simply be a flat and deadpan "no")
 * Probably true, since Ranma probably wouldn't stay female long enough to ovulate, never mind what a Gender Bender could do to the fetus. In other words, it would only be possible if Ranma wanted it to happen, and that's slightly less likely than Soun and Happosai becoming an Official Couple.
 * Ovulating aside, there's also the fact that a woman is born with all the ova she's going to have in her lifetime, and doesn't produce any more. Given that Ranma never had any to begin with, it's not illogical to assume that he couldn't get pregnant simply because there's nothing to impregnate.
 * Sorry, WRONG! The "woman is born with all of the eggs she'll ever have" myth was disproved years ago.
 * We ARE talking magic here, or at least some very advanced nanotechnology. Nothing states that the newly created ovaries can't be fully stocked, or even that the spell/whatever can't keep track of how many have been used, etc. There may even be a whole mechanism to simulate how many should have been used up given his/her age, realistic time of menarche and how many cycles would have passed since then (there's another point - having not seen the show, does it cover whether or not Ranma has periods at all?). Similarly any conceived baby may just get put "on hold" while he's in male form.
 * The "women are born with all the ova she's going to have" aspect is handwaved by the Musk Dynasty arc. The animals-turned-women are all fertile and capable of having offspring --and since the manga never stated otherwise, we can assume that more than a few of the "strong animals" captured by the Musk throughout its thousand-year history were male.
 * Three words: In vitro fertilisation.
 * The Musk Arc does all but state that Ranma can get pregnant- but it also "states", just as emphatically, that the only way for the embryo to "hold" is if Ranma stays stuck in female form for the entire gestation. The instant he switches back... Magical Abortion.
 * Actually, there is such a thing as ectopic pregnancy - that is, the placenta can implant on any part of the body so long as it can access the mother's bloodstream (though this is generally bad news for the mother). Just because his uterus disappears does not mean Ranma will cease to be pregnant.
 * Except that requires the zygote to attach somewhere that will exist in Male-Ranma's body. A Uterus doesn't and such, unless Female-Ranma naturally happens to have a ectopic pregnancy, the process of changing back will terminate the pregnancy.
 * This Troper has seen quite a few fanfics get around this by having the curse Mode Lock Ranma in female form at the moment of conception.
 * The mode-lock seems a fairly standard thing in a lot of these types of fiction where someone is genderswitched... another variant is as soon as they loose their virginity in one form or the other, they're stuck with it forever (removing that element of "finding out what the other side feels"), and there's both an element of choice (deciding which gender to lose it in, and be stuck with) and of threat (rape, drunken abandon etc).
 * Like Takahashi says, "I don't think about that and neither should you!" . Although there are more then a couple hints that could infer an answer from. Like previously mentioned the Musk Dynasty uses the Nian-Ni-Chuan water to make animals into their brides, and the Locking Ladle to keep them women. The addition of the Locking Ladle more than likely removes the fanfiction advent of locking the curse if pregnant. What other reason could the Musk Dynasty men have for keeping the animals women other than to bring there children to term? Animals forced to be women can't be easiest brides to take care of (Communication, Toiletry, and nine million other problems) and were most likely abandoned once their purpose was fulfilled. Also not mentioned is the 3 or so months Ranma spent in the Full Body Cat's Tongue, of which he/she was not happy (I believe made mention about it) and quite possible had multiple menstrual cycles. Another item of note that no one ever mentions is the Watermelon Island escapade. During which Ranma is knocked unconscious whilst on Watermelon Island while Kuno is around and has a nightmare about being married and having children with Kuno. I don't know what Frued would say but just for the sheer fact of that thought to be terrifying to Ranma (and nearly beats Kuno to death upon waking) would suggest it a possibility.
 * People in Ranma's world have bizarre dreams anyway. Ranma having a nightmare about bearing Kuno's children means nothing, really. Also, I don't believe either the manga or the anime mentioned how long Ranma was Mode Locked, but the Full Body Cat Tongue story didn't even outlast the summer vacation.
 * "I don't think about that and neither should you!" You opened that can of worms yourself, Takahashi!
 * Takahashi probably just meant that it isn't a healthy mental topic to get stuck on, and she didn't create that kind of manga. She introduced it because it was funny. The short and easy answer is yes he could get herself pregnant, and might create something close to a clone of himself doing so.
 * The scary thing is that I saw a fanfic (linked from this site) that let Nabiki use this very premise on herself. Yes, that means "Spring of Drowned twins" + temporary "Spring of drowned man powder, as she couldn't love anybody but herself... Yes, that actually makes an eerie amount of sense for Nabiki, and presumably resulted a clone of herself running around in 17 years... Although the concept of women turning into men for sexual purposes still creeps me out for some reason. Oh well, at least there was no "reverse" involved...
 * While we're on the subject of babies: If Ranma (or any Jusenkyo-cursed person for that matter) had kids (in either form) would the children share the curse? I know the theory was brought up in a filler episode of the anime, in which Ranma, Genma, and Happosai go to the future and discover that Ryoga and Akane are married, and their kids turn into P-chanites; but it turned out to just be a dream of Ranma's. Thoughts?
 * The Musk Dynasty arc answers this: children conceived by a cursed form would inherit rough traits of the progenitor's original body, but wouldn't be cursed themselves. Since Ranma's already human, they'd probably turn out fine and uncursed if she were to bear children. I don't think the others would bear progeny at all in their cursed forms (though the Musk precedent would apply if they did, possibly resulting in either an intelligent animal or very, very vague hominid characteristics in their offspring,) and I don't think they'd pass along porcine/avian/feline traits while in their normal bodies either. In any case, since the children of "Musk Brides" don't change shape, and in fact Herb had to be cursed independently, I don't think curses are hereditary at all, regardless of the form the progenitor is in at the moment of conception.
 * The curses transform things treated as part of your body into their analogues. This is shown through the food in your stomach, as Genma eats bamboo as a panda but doesn't get sick as a human, and during the Bakusai Tenketsu arc, bamboo implicitly satsifies his hunger. Ranma abusing his girl form for free food also suggests that food eaten as a cursed form transforms with you, rather than vanishing (he could do it for the taste though). This leaves two options. If a fetus is not treated as part of Ranma's body, it will be dumped into a random, fatal (for it) location in male Ranma's body during the transformation. Magical Abortion indeed. What will happen if it is treated as part of his body, disappear? If this happens, would the born child still disappear whenever Ranma is a man, necessitating him staying girl to be a mother?
 * Also provides an answer to Pregnant Shampoo below. The fetus/baby becomes a cat-embryo/kitten and back. If (SQUICK!) Shampoo got pregnant as a cat, the opposite happens. Human baby when transformed back. This has the same question as above, though - after the baby is born, would Shampoo turning into a cat turn her child into a kitten?


 * More generally, what happens if a non-locked person gets pregnant?
 * Shampoo's a healthy (very!) and affectionate (excessively!) young woman. Sooner or later, she's going to get pregnant. What happens to the developing fetus when she shifts? Even worse, what if she's a cat when the pregnancy starts? Don't ask how that could happen. Seriously, don't.
 * Imagine that Shampoo eats a full meal shortly before transforming. If the mass of food isn't whisked away magically by the transformation, her cat stomach would probably burst trying to contain what her much larger human form has eaten. Given that there is no evidence of this ever happening, it seems reasonable to assume that the pregnancy would not carry over with the transformation, but resume normally when she returns to her original form.


 * What will happen if a cursed person is sprayed with water of temperature exactly between the ranges triggering the transformations?


 * For that matter, is there a "lukewarm" range of water temperatures between hot and cold that has no effect? Is it absolute temperature or relative temperature that is the trigger? How much water is required to trigger the curse? Rain works, but tears don't - nor contact with ice in non-cursed form (which would produce meltwater). The questions go on and on...
 * Water gun on up triggers the change. And Lukewarm water, judging by the water lady, counts as cold.
 * Since Magic does not have to obey scientific logic, there is no reason to expect clearly defined temperature ranges that always trigger the change, irrespective of the circumstances. Magic, being a creation of human fancy, is more likely to adhere to instictive human judgements of what constitutes "cold" and "warm" than to actually measurable temperatures. It could very well be that water of a certain temerature would change Ranma into a girl on a hot summer day, while water of exactly the same temperature would change him into a boy in mid-winter.
 * That would be completely right if the manga didn't already say it was completely wrong. During the cat's tongue pressure point arc Ranma clearly thought lukewarm water was boiling hot, yet it didn't change him back to a guy.
 * No. In the manga, when the Full-Body Cat's Tongue was in effect, Ranma DID change back. However, since he felt as though the water was boiling hot, he (or Akane) splashed himself IMMEDIATELY with cold water again to soothe his burning skin.
 * Which is still wrong, since the entire lake was boiling hot water, with steam coming up out of it and everything. And Akane did the water dumping too, btw.
 * I'd think the set point was the individual's body temperature.
 * Oh for heaven's sake, can't we just put them in a hot bath with a thermometer and a videocamera and let it cool down naturally? :) A bath of water will end up feeling "cold" as it will assume a temperature significantly below the bather's body (just a little ways above room temperature - water feels colder than air due to both evaporation and a higher specific heat capacity), so a change is almost guaranteed.
 * More than likely nothing would happen and they would remain in whatever form they were currently in.
 * What about drinks? Shouldn't they count by still being liquids? Unless you're drinking from a straw, the drink will still touch your lips regardless of how careful you are. Since obviously the characters do need to drink, otherwise they'd die of dehydration, wouldn't they be turning their curse forms every time or is how much water that touches them relevant? If not, that would mean every time you have a nice cold glass of lemonade the curse will activate while drinking a steaming hot cup of tea will reverse the curse.
 * The magic seem pretty sensible on what "getting wet" is. The absolute minimum we've seen, at least in the manga, is getting splashed with a glass of water, enough that it drips from the character's skin afterwards. That's what "I'm wet, so I change" means to the curses. A single raindrop wouldn't get you wet, so it's not enough of a trigger. Neither is your own sweat once it cools down, nor snow. Nobody ever seems to change from washing their hands, either. Therefore, looks like the curses don't consider the minuscule amount of moisture on "wet lips," or even the water inside your body, to be a trigger. It's not a hard-and-fast rule, it's just common sense.
 * My thoughts on the matter: the curse is triggered by not just liquid, but its victims' trains of thought. It'll only activate when they specifically think "oh, I've been splashed by hot/cold water" AND there is actually liquid present, regardless of temperature. (Though that begs the question: would hypnosis thus be a barrier against the curse?)
 * People have been splashed while they've been asleep or unconscious, though. They still changed.
 * But did any of these people sleep THROUGH the splashing? If the water wakes them up, then their brains would automatically leap to "oh, I've been splashed", triggering the change.
 * In the anime, yes. Conclusively. In the manga, just off the top of my head Happosai was KO'd and then his bump was splashed with Drowned Twin water, generating a second bump while he was out cold. I'm sure there are other examples but it will take some time to sift through 38 volumes looking for this highly-specific scenario. But it's a moot point anyway, since there are even cases where fully-conscious people get splashed or deliberately run headlong into waterspouts and don't notice the change themselves until it's pointed out to them, like the first Ranma vs Ryouga battle or the manga's rendition of the Wishbringer story. At any rate, you're overcomplicating things. Again, common sense is the most likely "rule" for how the curses work. Bringing in the victim's "state of mind" would bring up a whole other host of questions, like why would it affect a newborn baby that doesn't even know what water is, why does it affect non-sentient but perfectly nonchalant animals, etc. Basically, it doesn't matter what your mental condition or thoughts are, you don't have a say in how the curse affects you anyway; if the curse wants you to change and you're not Mode Locked by external magic, you'll change. As simple as that.
 * Yes, the curse could very well have a mind of its own, but I believe my theory about the victim's brain triggering the curse still largely stands. Basically, you don't need to have a conscious, sentient mind to be able to acknowledge something as basic as coldness/hotness/wetness. Even babies will be able to tell that something's different when they're splashed, as can animals. The curse's victims don't have to know about the mechanics of the curse; their brains just have to acknowledge, consciously or subconsciously, that they're wet/hot/cold.
 * Simple answer: the question is faulty. It assumes the existence of a temperature or range of temperatures that is between "hot" and "cold" for the curse's purposes. There has never been any evidence of this third temperature or range of temperatures. Above a certain temperature, the water is hot. Below a certain temperature, the water is cold. There is no inbetween.


 * Also, for pervy purposes: What if one end is immersed in hot water, and the other in cold? Or even just one part subjected to a different temperature (the old "bowls of hot, cold and lukewarm water" thing from school - just altering their hands should be pretty obvious, unless you want to make it dirtier)?? Then immediately towelled off to avoid the cold warming up / hot cooling down? Chimera? Or just a whole body dominance based on the average temperature? Or should we just go have a cup of tea and a sit down and stop worrying about it?


 * Unless the real world physics of temperature don't apply in the Ranma universe, it's very nature would mean none of the cursed would stay that way for long. If you drench someone in hot water (for example a cup of tea) it would become stone cold in under a minute - forcing a transformation. Conversely, even on a cool day, ice cold water would become body temperature in an alarmingly short space of time, once again forcing a transformation. In short, unless Ranma has immediate access to a towel, he would never be in a situation where he would have to live as the opposite sex for a prolonged period of time.
 * Don't Panic, and never forget your towel. Hmmm, there is a Fan Fic in there somewhere you know.
 * Least amount of water I remember activating the curse is about One 8-Ounce glass equivalent, rain seems to take numerous drops up to or equal to that amount. That being said the transformation isn't partial in any way, if said 8-Ounce equivalent is splashed there will be a full transformation. I would think if immersed half way in cold water and half way in hot whatever current form would be held until one element of hot and cold was in a superior amount.
 * During the Ranma song "Love letter from China", Ranma sings the lyrics about Happosai and Cologne while Ryoga keeps on splashing his body with hot and cold water, so his voice keeps on changing for comedy purposes. At the very end of the song, Ryoga splashes Ranma with both and Ranma splits into two people, singing the last lyric like a male and female duet.
 * My theory is that a certain point on the body has to get hit with the water, like maybe the bridge of the nose or the center of the forehead. So, for example, if neko-Shampoo gets a splash of hot water on the bridge of the nose, she reverts to human form even if her paws/hands are immersed in cold water.


 * Speaking of towels, does anyone else think that the uber-masculine Ranma (and to a much, much larger extent Genma) are ridiculously under equipped? Personally if I was in a situation where I was in danger of becoming a panda every single time I got splashed with cold water, I would make sure I never left the house without a towel, a kettle, a Thermos of hot water or, at the very least, a decent sized anorak. Complaining about being cursed is one thing, doing absolutely nothing to protect yourself from its effects is another.


 * Ryoga does carry an umbrella, a kettle and various other helpful objects in his backpack. However, the Rule of Funny means that doesn't always help.
 * Also, Ryoga's alternate form is much less able to take actions that would allow him to revert to his normal form. So while he does try, his level of success is bound to be rather low. Ranma's just an idiot.
 * Genma always seemed to prefer being in his panda form, for whatever reason, and Ranma was usually attempting to keep his dual life a secret. He couldn't have always immediately changed back to his previous form after a change... sometimes, he had to hide until it was safe to do so.
 * So why doesn't anyone just wear full body armour? Considering they're all fighters it wouldn't at all be unusual, although in this series the unusual goes unnoticed frequently. Not only would be added defence in a fight, but the weight itself would be like perpetual training to increase their own physical strength, and it'd also prevent water from ever reaching them. Wait...let me guess. Rule of Funny defeats this reasoning, right?
 * Because, for all its fantasy and martial arts elements, the series wants to show the characters living an otherwise normal everyday life. It's not a shonen action series (like Saint Seiya or Naruto) where that sort of thing is expected, and the few times anyone wears armor it DOES stand out as unusual. Besides, how long would said armor last against people who can shatter multi-ton boulders with a punch? You'd have to justify the toughness of the armor, then pay attention to it in the narrative, and all in all you would overcomplicate things by inserting an element that the series doesn't need at all. (Plus, even if they wore armor, their heads would still be out there. And if they wore helmets, well... wearing a full set of armor to school for one day would be the joke itself, but doing it all the time would be too much for the Willing Suspension of Disbelief.)
 * To be fair the towel would be useless as it would only come into effect after he transforms. The Lack of Thermos or anorak is inexcusable however.


 * "Why the hell", didn't anyone just cure their curse right after they first got it, I mean they were right there! This is even worse for Shampoo and Mousse who lived right next to it for most of their lives.


 * ...Because the title would make no sense if Ranma wasn't half girl anymore? If it was just called "Ranma" he probably wouldn't be cursed.
 * One suggestion for Shampoo that I've seen is that going to Jusenkyo was her punishment for not doing her duty in killing Ranma, so if she went and cured it then the other Amazons would be Very Upset.
 * Considering how ditzy Mousse is, he might not even realize he's cursed. Alternatively, he likes being able to fly.
 * That's no true, since when he had chances to get some of the water from the Nannīchuan (Spring of drowned man), he tried to do everything to get it, since he suffers from the dellusion, that, once he'll be a man 100 % of the time, Shampoo will reciprocate his feelings, despite the fact, that she doesn't even gives a rat's ass if he's dead or alive.
 * Yeah not every curse the springs give are necessary harmful some such as Mousse's are rather quite useful hence why they haven't bothered to cure said curses.
 * He knows full well he's cursed; he even brought back Spring of Drowned Duck water to curse Ranma when he came back to Japan.
 * On that subject, if he collected duck water to curse Ranma with... WHY DIDN'T HE COLLECT SOME MAN-WATER FOR HIMSELF?
 * Because Mousse doesn't seem to mind being cursed to become a duck overmuch. Ranma and Ryoga hate their curses, but Genma, Shampoo, and Mousse never really seem to indicate much disapproval of theirs.
 * As for Ryoga...well, he's Ryoga. He couldn't find his own ass if you gave him a map of it, much less one unmarked spring out of hundreds.
 * Ranma tried some of the instant spring of drowned man mix which only works once. It cured his curse (once).
 * Fan Wank, of course, has come up with a multitude of answers, largely involving some form of making the curse incurable at first. The reasons range from requiring some specific amount of time to pass before the springs can be safely used in that manner to some karmic force stopping anyone from curing the curse by any means.
 * Well, given that the cures do in fact work, the easy explanation would be that it is not possible to cure right away/you must wait a few months, or end up with mixed curses like Taro. Of course this does not explain why they didn't simply ask for a casket of Jusenkyo water to bring with them, and use in a few months? Too expensive? The magic disappears after a certain time? Some inherent magic makes them mentally unable to find the right spring, or ask somebody else to do it, and must wait until a (more or less) stranger makes the effort out of charity? Something else?
 * The easy answer: They're all idiots.
 * This was actually touched upon in an episode of Ranma 1/2: The Abridged Chronicles. When Soun asked why Genma and Ranma didn't go into the spring that would turn them back, there was a pause and crickets chirping, followed by Akane saying, "You guys are idiots."
 * The average amazon did not appear to even know about the springs -elders did though and the reason the guide was taking Ranma and Genma to the Amazon village was because he didn't know of a cure.
 * That's actually fanon- it was never stated why the Guide took Ranma and Genma to the Amazon village. Given he's doing the tour guide thing when they show up, they may have asked him to take them there, either to study or to get some supplies, given that the Guide evidently didn't have any food to feed the two.
 * Like previously mentioned it wouldn't make for a good story if they were cured minutes after being cursed and is a major plot point. Also take into account the slapstick type of anime it is and it's not meant to make sense. Beyond that the character reasons could be as follows; Ranma and Genma don't speak Chinese and probably didn't know what happend in the first place beyond what little they understood from the guide. Also alot of the Springs are unmarked and the location of Nan-Ni-Chuan I dont believe is ever confirmed as being known. I know in the last chapter Ranma stands in front of a flooded Jusenkyo but I don't know if he was specifically in front of the Nan-Ni-Chuan. Shampoo was cursed as penance for failing to kill female Ranma as previously mentioned and doesn't seem to mind her curse much at all. Mousse doesn't care either and probably believes being cursed like Shampoo brings them closer, plus he saves on the air miles. Ryouga was more interested in revenge and also doesnt speak Chinese more than likely, also you could spin him around once while in front of Nan-Ni-Chuan and he couldn't find it. Also once he takes on the P-Chan persona he gets to be close to Akane and doubt he minds that. Tarou since he was mentioned previously likes his cursed form and the raw power it provides.
 * If I were to make a guess about the Saotomes, I'd say that Genma thought it could be useful for some kind of training - or, more likely, some kind of scheme. He obviously doesn't mind being a panda, as just hours after the curse he's sitting happily right next to a wok full of hot water (to cook Ryouga). Ranma also won't be able to beat Genma in a fight until much later in the series, when Ranma is thoroughly entrenched in Nerima life, so at the time he was pretty much stuck with Genma. As for Nodoka, Genma obviously wasn't expecting to meet her so soon. He might have planned to go back to cure Ranma later, when he felt sure his wife wouldn't kill him.
 * It could be that the spring of drowned man was not made yet or that no one knows which spring it is.
 * I've seen a lot of speculation on this and the theories I like the most are: 1. Takahashi hadn't thought about a cure even existing until much later into the story and retroactively made the boy spring the cure. 2. Though the boy spring exists it's location is a mystery. 3. All characters are not sure that the boy spring (or girl spring for Shampoo) would actually work though they think it will (Jusenkyo is not well known and even the near locals do not seem to know much about it considering that Shampoo didn't know about it until she went there).


 * Why doesn't anyone just travel to Jusenkyo like Ranma did with his father and most of the main cast did in the last arc. It took all of a couple days and they have have spent much more time on fake cures and crazy schemes to get free travel there.


 * Simply put: they never thought about it. Even in the first movie, the final joke at the end was Soun mentioning the fact that nobody thought about going to Jusenkyo after all that mess in China.
 * They probably don't have the means to do so. Ranma and Genma swam to and from China during their training; Ranma was also ecstatic over the possibility of winning a free trip to see China in two occasions, and they only got their opportunity when Plum arrived on her own boat. While Ranma himself could probably think of swimming back, and he's the only one who can, he's probably too deeply rooted in the Tendo household to consider a lengthy trip like that again (although he was willing to do so at the very beginning of the series.)
 * The simple answer is that all of the cursed characters lack either means or motive to go. Shampoo might have to keep her curse, which she got as punishment for breaking her tribal laws, until she makes up for it by catching Ranma's heart. Even if she doesn't, she's afraid that Akane or Ukyo might manage to "trick" Ranma into marrying them if she leaves town. Mousse is in much the same boat as Shampoo- he's afraid that Ranma and Shampoo might get married if he isn't around to stuff things up. The possibility that he's afraid of being caught and punished by the other Chinese Amazons if he returns isn't an ungrounded one, given how he routinely screws things up for Cologne and Shampoo. Ryoga can't find himself with a GPS unit, nevermind the fact he doesn't want Ranma to get close to Akane. Ranma would have to walk and swim to China and back, and likely would have to do so alone- not particularly invitings. Genma is too lazy to repeat the original way of getting there, and he and Soun might be afraid of the possibility that Ranma would run off after getting cured if he wasn't wed to Akane before going. To say nothing of the possibility that the Chinese Amazons might try and catch Ranma if he waltzes back into their territory. Pantyhose Taro and the Frog Hermit both like their curses, while Kin'nee is part of a crazy group who considers Jusenkyo sacred and thusly would regard curing himself as blasphemous. Herb, however, probably got himself cured the moment he got back home again, seeing as how he unlocked his curse and thus wouldn't be rendering himself a reversal of Ranma (hot water girl, cold water boy) with a dose of Nanniichuan.
 * It's easier to assume the Ladle of Preservation works by preventing shapeshifters from ever changing forms (thus making Yusenkio cursees unable to get a different curse), it wouldnÂ´t have been that effective keeping the Musk wifes under control if they could just jump from spring to spring until they regained their original form and then run away, thatÂ´s also the reason the Kettle of Liberation wasnÂ´t in China to begin with.


 * Did Ranma grow up traveling around with his father or going to a boy's school and just train/travel whenever he wasn't at school (I'm pretty sure they went to Jusenkyo in the summer).


 * This one's answered numerous times within the source material. Genma took Ranma, a little baby who could barely walk, on a years-long training trip- anywhere from 10 to 14 years long. He was gone so long he forgot he had a mother.
 * Then how did he meet Ryoga? In Book 2, Chapter 3, we clearly see the two meeting in some sort of boy's school. Ranma starts the feud by swiping the cafeteria's last roll of bread from under Ryoga's nose. On several occasions.
 * This troper always just assumed that, at some point, Genma realized that his son could benefit from at least a cursory academic education. Ranma and Genma also seemed to stay in one place long enough for Ranma and Ukyo to get to know each other well enough. Presumably Genma was training Ranma the whole time, but Genma IS very lazy, and the idea of not having to offer his kid in marriage to get a meal every now and then probably appealed.
 * That Ranma and Genma were nomadic doesn't mean they didn't put down camp here or there for extended periods. It just means they eventually uprooted and moved on.


 * During the final fight of the Musk Dynasty arc, why didn't Ryoga or Mousse just smash the kettle that would cure Ranma of being stuck as a girl after they used on themselves? They were already planning to betray Ranma after using the thing that made Ranma that way as a cure (it didn't work) so why didn't they just let Ranma get stuck that way and eliminate their only romantic competition?


 * Shampoo and Akane would've been really pissed. They could've killed (or at least attempt to kill) Ranma and said the members of the Musk Dynasty did it (as they originally planned), but if Ranma didn't beat Herb he probably would've killed them.
 * Note they're both pretty... ahem... simple guys. It probably didn't even occur to them at the moment. Also, they have their own pride, and it's pretty clear from the manga that they feel indebted to Ranma after he didn't even consider abandoning THEM just minutes ago.
 * At that point in the manga, Mousse and Ryouga have become Ranma's allies. They both save his life in the same scene, and make it quite clear they are trying to help him and are happy for him. Nor do either of them attempt to kill Ranma for the rest of the series. That story is pretty much the turning point in their relationship.
 * That was there initial intention, and reason for going on the trip. Like previously stated they are almost beyond their rivalry at this point in the story and Mousse kinda gets held back fighting Lime and Mint. Ryouga pains over the guilt at the last minute and risks himself to get Ranma's cure.


 * If Mousse is a duck why doesn't he just fly back to the spring?


 * He wouldn't be able to fly back to Nerima and couldn't come as part of the circus again (though he could have tried whatever the hell he did to get there the first time).
 * Because every time he thinks of it, Duck Season starts.
 * Two reasons. One, Mousse is an idiot. Two, that's not where Shampoo is.
 * And a third reason; he doesn't trust Ranma not to "try something" with Shampoo while he's gone. A possible 4th reason is that he's afraid that Cologne might telephone the other villagers if he flies back, so even if he does get cured, he'll get caught and punished for all the trouble he causes in Japan.


 * Why does Ryoga always wander all over the country even though he knows his sense of direction is horrible and it's really dangerous to be in his cursed form in the wild where everything it trying to eat him?


 * He couldn't just stay in one spot and would eventually wander into the woods even if he tried not to.
 * He probably went to use the restroom and was halfway to Beijing before he realized that he should have seen a toilet somewhere in the neighborhood of three weeks ago.
 * Now we may be getting off target, but almost all fanon sources have effectively retconned Ryoga's direction sense into a spontaneous form of random teleportation upon which Ryoga has no control whatsoever.
 * The anime does show that he somehow managed to get to Moscow on one occasion, in addition to China -- and there is some evidence that he apparently didn't realize that the Sea of Japan is between both of them and Tokyo...
 * On the other hand, Ozzallos' fine Heir to the Empire has him showing up on the Moon.
 * IIRC, the moon was Ryoga's stage in SuperFamicom game Ranma 1/2: Ougi Jaanken.
 * IIRC, I hear he has a cameo in Inuyasha.
 * I don't believe he did. Anyway he did end up in Moscow in the last story arc of the manga, but he was already in mainland Eurasia and using a magical scooter.
 * In his room he has things from around the world, most notably a miniature Eiffel tower. When called on it, he responds "Aren't these things all here in Japan?"
 * The miniature could have been of the Tokyo Tower, though.
 * Perhaps Ryoga is working with the assumption that practice makes perfect. Of course, whatever he's been doing doesn't work, so he's unknowingly improving his ability to become lost.
 * Ryoga is still massively durable as a pig (Ranma even uses him as a weapon occasionally), and probably still quite strong. Anything trying to eat him would probably be in for a world of hurt.
 * Ryoga is often very tired and has to sleep in the rain and darkness remember? And in the anime at least he's been shown as fleeing from them if they are large and he is weakened enough. It won't stop the piglet from fighting giant alligators and the like though, but it isn't at all fun to live with that kind of paranoia all the time. Anyway, he actually has a self-drawn map of things that he's encountered, including African tribesmen and France right next to each other...


 * Why didn't Happosai try to make girl-Ranma wear a bra after he used the Moxibustion technique on him.


 * Being Happosai, he probably decided it would be more fun to watch her run around without one.
 * Yeah, that or since he was doing it to get revenge he may have preferred to just see Ranma in pain the whole time (P.S. the one time we saw girl Ranma that whole time he just groped her and ran off)
 * Plus, that might give him/her an opportunity to trick him out of the cure. Plus, it only worked on strength, not speed.
 * Happousai is pretty consistent in that he picks on Ranma because he enjoys annoying Ranma more than out of plain perversion. He's strong enough to do anything he wants to virtually any female alive (including, arguably, Ranma), but never picks on say, Kasumi. He probably enjoys the reactions he gets as much or more than anything else.


 * Why do the springs work in different ways every time? Ranma becomes a female version of himself. When Herb throws a monkey inside, it comes out looking like female Ranma, but when he falls in himself, he becomes a female version of himself. When Kiima creates a "spring of Akane" and jumps in, she aquries the appearance and presumably the voice of Akane Tendo, instead of appearing as a fully human version of herself when transformed.


 * It's the spring of drowned Akane, Exactly What It Says On the Tin. If you "take the form of what drowned in the pool", and this pool is specifically stating that this is the pool where Akane "drowned", thus anything falling in would look like Akane. Ergo if say, Ukyo fell in, she'd turn into Akane when splashed with cold water. It's very specific and at the same time the vagueness can be beneficial, see Spring of Drowned Asura instead of Spring of Drowned Asura Statue. Besides, Takahashi seemed to make up things as she went, no doubt evidenced by all the constant relationship resets done to Ranma and Akane.
 * The monkey just looked kinda like Ranma by coincidence (I don't personally even think they look that much alike) and I guess it became the spring of drowned Akane because there was already a spring of drowned girl.
 * Or the spring of drowned Akane could have been specifically prepared that way, considering the purpose it was created for disguising Kiema as Akane.
 * Fanon has it that a spring turns who dives into it into a specific person only if somebody still remembers who drowned into that pool -- so, a couple hundred years in the future, the spring of drowned Akane will be just another spring of drowned girl.
 * I don't believe there's any consensus fanon explanation on that.
 * Herb explicitly states that the monkey-girl looking like Ranma is a gigantic coincidence, and that it's because they look alike that he has such deep loathing for Ranma --for "she" reminds him of the monkey-girl who gave him his curse. Otherwise, the springs only turn you into an alternate version of yourself, hence why Asura's three faces all look like Rouge, Mousse is still nearsighted, Shampoo has distinctive fur, and so on. No need to wrack one's brains over it when "mere coincidence" explains Ranma and the monkey.
 * My guess is that that if Ranma had fallen into the spring of drowned monkey, he'd probably look like the one Herb used.
 * * Cough Only Six Faces cough*


 * For that matter, how specific are these curses? Ryoga falls in the Spring of Drowned Piglet, and his form has remained that of a baby pig for some time. Does this mean that since Ranma fell in the Spring of Drowned Girl he could be technically immortal in his female form? For that matter, could someone like Shampoo's grandmother Cologne fall into the Spring of Drowned Girl and gain access to a young female form?
 * Well, it's how the Nyannichuan at least works in Destiny's Child.
 * No, this is incorrect. Ranma's cursed form stays the same age he does (as shown in the magic mushroom story), and also ages normally (as shown by his natural growth in the Bust Battle story). It is not an age-specific curse like Lukkosai's was.
 * This troper has the personal theory that the springs are only as specific as their name. Spring of Drowned Piglet specifies piglet and not pig-of-no-age-given, Spring-of-Drowned-Girl curse ages along with Ranma, but it might stop at some point that any further age would not be considered "girl" by anyone and has details based on what a human, female version of the cursed would be like, and Spring of Drowned Akane might stay at the same age as Akane, or it might stay at the age Akane was when she was dunked in the spring, and the name may in fact be the only reason the Spring of Drowned Akane works at all.
 * Is P-Chan a piglet or just an uber-small breed of pig like these (Note the breeds's original range would have put them pretty close to Jhusenkyo)? Or Since Ryouga is an adolescent human is it ureasonable to assume he wouldn't become an adolescent pig?


 * When did everyone learn that the spring of drowned man/girl would be a cure? Obviously they didn't know when they were there or they would have used it there (or they had to wait a while). It suddenly went from nobody had a clue how to cure it with Ranma just once saying he was going to look for one in China, to sometime in the second season/volume whatever (they were way out of order in the anime of seasons 2 and 3) after which they were always looking for either some local Jusenkyo spring water or a free trip to China. Also why were they so sure it would cure them? When Pantyhose Taro went into the octopus spring it combined with his old curse instead of changing his curse to octopus. Wouldn't some of them be afraid that it may mix do the same for them (though this might be because neither curse was his original species).


 * IIRC Pantyhose gained the tentacles, by applying Spring of Drowned Octopus (I say again, HOW??!) to eight specific points on his back, instead of full submersion.
 * As stated above and below, the nonsense about Pantyhose Tarou splashing only his back is fanon and not from the source material (and is in fact contradicted by it). As for "how an octopus can drown", it's because that isn't exactly an accurate translation. It is not necessary for anything to drown in the springs, they just have to be submerged in it. Akane doesn't drown in the last storyarc, and it's not as if a statue can drown either (Rouge).
 * A saltwater octopus might drown in a freshwater spring.
 * I don't know about the anime, but in the manga it was never stated how Pantyhose used the Spring of Drowned Octopus: it's simply mentioned in a phonecall Soun makes to the Jusenkyo Guide that when Pantyhose came back to the springs he asked the guide to show him the Spring of Drowned Octopus, but we're never told how he used it (the fact that he used it, though, is self-evident).
 * While we're on the topic, I wouldn't worry about how an octopus drowned. I would, however, worry about how an octopus got into a remote valley of springs in mainland China.
 * Well, Takahashi herself said that it would. Also, the Temporary versions have been shown to work on Ranma and Genma as well.
 * While nothing is ever stated as to why Taro assimilated his Octopus curse, there's three perfectly good simple explanations that could explain it. For a start, it could have happened because Taro's original curse is a case of Mix-and-Match Critters -- it's four seperate creatures that drowned in one spring, all blended into one seamless whole. A new curse just got "infected" by the same glitchy "programming" and added to the whole. Option two is that Taro only splashed himself with Octopus water and it takes heavy or total immersion to have a new curse overwrite an old one -- note that whenever a "Nanniichuan spring" shows up in the series, Ranma and co always try to arrange a large quantity, not a mere ladleful (Instant Nanniichuan, Japanese, Powdered and Outlet Nanniichuan in the anime, one whole cask of Nanniichuan was only enough water to cure one person in the manga finale). Finally, option three is that "template" Springs (Nanniichuan for guys, Nyanniichuan for girls) overwrite and anything else is absorbed.
 * None of the above answer the question of how the cast learned that the Nanniichuan can cure them. Among the cast, it seems to have suddenly and abruptly become common knowledge that it could, even though no one is ever actually shown discovering this fact.


 * I seem to remember in the Manga that Akane, disguised as a boy, was winning against Kuno in Kendo. This was the Kuno that had gone through the Watermelon Training, and was a threat to Ranma at the time. How the heck does Akane get that much power that we've never seen before and never seen since. Is she just naturally good with a sword or something?

Cologne: Twice. Not only is Cologne orders of magnitude more skilled and powerful than anyone in Nerima, at least one of those two times she caught Akane via a surprise pressure point attack. The first time, she also hung Akane from a tree and bound her arms, giving her no leverage to escape until Ranma brought her down to the ground, and the next time we see her she's already free (either by herself or with Genma's help.) The second time, she refused to escape until Mousse intervened, and as soon as he did, she broke free by herself. Mousse: He sprang out of nowhere and popped sleeping powder in her face. Even Ranma has fallen to this exact ploy dozens of times. Once she was conscious, she was very clearly distracted and panicked by the threat of the Jusenkyo water; as soon as she had the chance (and everyone else was involved elsewhere) she broke free on her own. Principal Kuno: She's unconscious when we see her hanging from the ceiling, so it's likely she was also caught off guard (he later did the same to Ranma.) As soon as she woke up, she broke free and attacked the Principal. Pantyhose Taro: He's a Ranma-level fighter who can easily overpower her, he didn't even bother tying her up until the very end --at which point she did break free of the pantyhose (and Takahashi specifically pointed out the feat of strength that this was, since pantyhose is more flexible than rope and Akane still tore it to pieces.) Lime: Didn't even bother tying her up, he just grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. The guy can keep a collapsing ravine from closing, Akane would need Ryoga-like strength to even make him notice. Sexy Tea Shop Kunoichi: We never see her get caught, but judging by how they kidnapped Ukyo, it's likely they ambushed her in a similar fashion. And then she was hung from a tree again, and again, unlike the Principal Kuno example, the position gives no leverage to break the chains. Once she's on the ground, the action cuts away and we don't know whether Ranma or Akane herself broke the shackles. Kiima: Being carried off by a flock of ravens is such a bizarre situation we can't really tell how skill or strength could help. But afterwards, she drowned and fell unconscious on her own, and Kiima just fished her out and put her in a cell. Akane broke free on her own within moments after waking up simply by kicking the cell door loose. Now, see the common threads in those examples? Either she's caught by a martial artist far more powerful than her, or she's KO'd by surprise. And except for three instances, not only do we see her break free on her own, but Takahashi draws attention to it. And of the missing instances, two of them could go either way, and the third would've been impossible for anyone short of Ryoga (and that's being generous to him, seeing how he couldn't break free from Lime's grip either!) Of course, what any this has to do with Akane "being a good match" for Kuno in a straight up kendo tournament (where Kuno was going all-out, but where both of them had to follow standardized rules and regulations, and use shinai instead of bokken) for a few panels is anyone's guess. OTOH, her reactions to the above "Distressed Damsel" situations, and her continuous involvement with supernatural/superhuman foes and creatures consistently show her various physical feats for the entire manga, whereas Kuno only gets a few chances to show off his permanent, consistent skill level.
 * Every story he is in, after his first, Kuno becomes subject to a power level reset.
 * This is completely incorrect. Kunou is consistently no threat to Ranma in a fair fight from the first time they meet (where Ranma is able to tattoo Kunou's forehead with a kanji in the time it takes Kunou to make one swing at Ranma and not even hit). He's quite strong but very slow compared to Ranma. He is never made a serious threat in the series except in the Watermelon story, and as others have noted below, the Watermelon training does not "go away" but is just extremely specific in its application.
 * Actually, the watermelon training was very specific. By training for hours at attacking watermelons Kuno became very, VERY good at striking.... WATERMELONS. This is specifically stated. It's kind of like the Nekoken. If someone were dressed up as a watermelon, Kuno would go to freaking town on them.
 * A large part of that is probably because a kendo match has a strict set of rules on what's acceptable, disallowing most of Kuno's super-powered techniques. He can cut through rock with a wooden sword when fighting Ranma, but he can't very well use that technique during a kendo match.
 * Akane wasn't winning, she was merely a good challenge, and Ranma and Mariko's interference kept the match from a decisive conclusion. Also, Kuno might be the local Kendo champion, but Akane is no slouch: she's extremely skilled at kendo (she did KO the Seisyun kendo team herself,) fencing (seen in the Romeo & Juliet story,) archery (see: Cat-Fist,) and (as of the first match with Kodachi) Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics. It's just that she doesn't usually carry those weapons, so chances to display these skills are limited.
 * This troper seems to recall Kuno easily overpowering Akane when she tried to fence him in the Romeo and Juliet arc. And Akane injured herself learning Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics and never actually had to face Kodachi; just how good she got is debatable, as Ranma was chiding her skills the whole time.
 * It's worth noting that even though it mostly happens offscreen Akane has probably beaten Kuno dozens of times. He was the one leading the "Only someone strong enough to beat Akane can date her" charge after all which had been going on for weeks before Ranma showed up. Combined with the fact that Kuno just (watermelon training aside) is too arrogant to try to improve much while Akane does get slightly stronger (somehow, presumably she picked up some training off screen or something) by the end of the manga, and it's not that unbelievable that she could beat him. Akane's really not that weak, despite what most people would have you believe. She just has trouble improving because Ranma's usually on hand to bail her out of trouble, instead of forcing her to deal with it herself.
 * That would be true, if the fact isn't presented that she is essentially what would be considered a Badass Normal in any other series, but because of her Distress Ball that she can't shake, she never gets to show. We have to remember that in Nerima, spiritual abilities and superhuman effects are commonplace and consistently a part of the main universe. As for Kuno, his ability with Kendo was not only firmly established and improved through the Watermelon training, but he's also superhuman. It does not really compute.
 * Er, not exactly. The world of Ranma 1/2 does have plenty of people with superhuman abilities, but they're STILL treated as WELL out of the norm. At the very least, everything about Akane's life prior to meeting Ranma implies that, Ryugenzawa aside, all the martial arts-related weirdness arrived with him, so it's not as commonplace as it seems. Even locals like Kodachi, Mikado, and Azusa are impressive only because they apply martial arts sensibilities to their fields, but they're otherwise as rare as Akane and "normals" react to them as such.
 * That can no longer be applied to her situation anymore, though. While Nerima may not be used to everything that happens, Genma (who I blame for most of the conflicts of the series anyway, especially the conflicts between Ranma and Akane) brought all this trouble straight onto the heads of the Tendos. All sorts of insanity followed in their wake-accidentally in Ranma's case, intentional by Genma-and the fact that she is now part of this world slowly causes her to be majorly outclassed.
 * That's true. When people start arriving, she's outclassed pretty quickly. But we're digressing from the original point something awful here. The point isn't that the other, outsider characters outclass her, but that she was able to fight against Kuno, a local that has lived in Nerima all his life same as she has. Who cares if any of the insanely powerful Ranma MADMs outclass her? The above point tries to diminish Akane against Kuno by stating that she's a Distressed Damsel or whatever. And that Kuno improved through the Watermelon Training. But that's false. If we analyze Kuno's abilities and call him "superhuman" for them, then the same applies to Akane. Whenever she's involved in real combat, where Takahashi puts aside her clumsiness or rashness because this is a serious event, Akane has consistently proven to be super-strong, she's superhumanly acrobatic, extremely fast, and outrageously accurate. Kuno may slice trees in half with a wooden sword, but he's never lifted stone lanterns over his head like they were pillows. He may cause concrete walls to crumble (NOT break) with the air pressure, but Akane can kick holes into the walls of a swimming pool despite the water resistance and having no anchoring whatsoever. And while Kuno has the Watermelon Training, it only applied in the presence of watermelons, and even then only while he was amnesiac and fell into a berserker rage because of them. Now? He doesn't have any reaction to watermelons, let alone a negative one, and he thinks of it as a parlor trick. So the training didn't actually give him ANY edge in combat, not even in speed. On the other hand, Akane had been constantly exposed to danger since Ranma's arrival and up to Mariko's encounter (which is the point of this argument.) Plus, she crushed the entire opposing team by herself, and using kendo exclusively. Thus, when she goes up against Kuno, it makes sense that she can present a good challenge to him, even if he thinks she's a male competitor and is going all-out against her. Could she have won? Maybe. Maybe not. The match was interrupted and neither had the upper hand until Mariko intervened. But pointing out how everyone else outclasses her, or how she's sometimes handed the Distress Ball, has no bearing on this encounter, because Kuno is every bit as outclassed by everyone else as she is --maybe worse, because there is no indication that he ever improved, and the one chance he had was completely reset by the end of that chapter.
 * Then way, pray, has she been Bound and Gagged so many times when her established physical strength would allow her to simply break free of them with no effort whatsoever? If we're looking at Kuno and Akane as equals in a kendo tournament, she should beat everyone there in minutes. I'm using the fact that the situation in Nerima due to Gendo's and Ranma's coming here has gone so out of control that it feels that established strength that we know Akane has is being completely thrown out the window for the sake of drama, which feels unacceptable. Honestly, we're talking about putting her up against someone who should have no chance in hell despite a really strange gimmick. Let Kuno be weak and be readjusted, I say; its accurate and fair to the Tendo!
 * I don't get the point you're trying to make here. Before, you argued against Akane's prowess on the basis that Kuno had improved and she hadn't (using her Distressed Damsel status as proof that she hadn't,) but here you argue in her favor by saying Kuno should remain weak and "readjusted" in order to be fair to her. As for the other statements, again, you're digressing. If the question was about Kuno and Akane, every other circumstance is outside the point. And she did "beat everyone [at the kendo tournament] in minutes," we were shown this, and the attending audience explicitly comments on it (even though we're never told, beyond her classmates' reactions, whether she's equal to Kuno. Remember, their match was interrupted and inconclusive.) But since you insist, and for the sake of argument, let's look at her Bound and Gagged moments and why she didn't "simply break free" with her strength:
 * Oh, the reason I'm putting this up is simple. Didn't mean to confuse anyone: The original Headscratchers statement asked why Akane was able to beat someone like Kuno, where the question claimed that she didn't have the power or the skill to do so. Having a major disagreement with Takahashi's portrayal of relationship treatment and her main female leads as well (especially in, less in Ranma One Half due to the whole series being Played for Laughs), I felt the need to respond to that. At the time, Akane's perception of character-while showing major skill as a martial artist and superhuman as you described-seemed to be established as the damsel and the gentle girl, slowly ebbing away from her martial training. Something that doesn't make much sense to attribute to her considering the established skill we both know she has. To me, there was no question that she should have been more than able to beat Kuno because she's as good as she is as the Badass Normal in a community of extremely strong opponents. The way Akane's character has been presented did not portray her in a good light when she should have been more than able to beat someone like him. Just trying to give her the credit I feel she deserves despite what feels like poor portrayal. And in terms of being tied up in a tree? I do get that the leverage was poor, but we had already established great physical strength. Her arms were held like a box and suspended. That would have worked on a normal girl, but not for Akane. so what she had to do was pull in opposite directions, and she falls to the floor.


 * All things considered, wouldn't it have been a bazillion times easier for Ranma and Akane, despite their occasional quarrel, to get married? After all, they were the only ones who had mutual love in the entire Dodecahedron.


 * Arguably, it would be dishonorable. Like it or not, Ranma is legally also Ukyo's fiance and marrying Akane breaks that sworn vow. On the other hand stringing them all along technically doesn't break vows, he's the fiance to each of them and nobody ever said when he'd marry them. It's notable that he usually just blows off Kodachi and Shampoo, who have no actual vow tying them to him, while still paying attention to the women who do have promises from his father.
 * That would have required them to admit to themselves, each other, and the world that they were in love... (and get a fair bit of therapy in this troper's opinion, but that is up for debate)
 * Ranma admitted it to himself, but he wouldn't admit it to Akane (though it seems she was able to figure it out, anyway). She seems to acknowledge her feelings for Ranma, but she can't bring herself to say it out loud and she's probably waiting for him to say it first.
 * Isn't he technically already married to Shampoo by her laws? I don't think there was ever any betrothal involved. She certainly refers to him as "husband" enough.
 * No, as far as I know, the law says, that they have to marry, not that they are married.
 * In the manga, they did try to get married, so apparently Ranma is fine with breaking those vows. Of course, the wedding was sprung on him rather unexpectedly, so maybe he just didn't have time to protest or something. But it seemed to this troper, anyway, that had the wedding not been crashed by every single recurring character ever, he would have gone through with it.
 * No, he wouldn't have. He immediately went to Akane to protest being married and then went to get the Spring of Drowned Man water. Akane was annoyed that Ranma wouldn't admit his feelings, but she said she wouldn't force him to marry her, either.
 * Ranma doesn't ever shown any indication of caring about "family honour", and in fact violates it on numerous occasions. He also never cares or even thinks about Ukyou or Shampoo or Kodachi's feelings unless they are directly in front of him guilt-tripping him. Ranma and Akane are only 16 years old, and neither are really comfortable with the thought of getting married, plus there is their stubborn pride considering other people are continuously meddling and trying to force them to marry against their will.
 * They might have mutual feelings, but neither of them is aware of that. Throughout the entire series, in either canon, Ranma is the only person who has ever made any verbal claim to loving Akane, and he has always hastily "explained" it or otherwise denied it afterwards- Akane doesn't really know whether or not he does have feelings for her. That she's insecure and doesn't trust him does not help matters, as she's quick to assume he's cheating on her whenever the faintest hint of him being involved with one of the other girls pops up. In Ranma's case, he has even more cause to be unsure of Akane's feelings- Ranma has claimed to love Akane and then denied it, but Akane has never once claimed it in the first place. She does make occasional subtle hints, but so do all of the girls after Ranma, and she's quick to replace those hints of love with more obvious hints of dislike. Take the Golden Pair story, for example; Akane starts crying when Ranma takes the impact for her, then starts repeatedly calling him stupid- by the time Ranma opens his eyes, her tears are dried up and she accuses him of faking being hurt.
 * Read the last chapter very closely. To me, Akane realized Ranma's feelings for her, but also knows that Ranma isn't ready to admit it openly. Note how quickly she backs off after his denial of his feelings. Ranma seems rather clueless about how Akane feels, though the fact she was willing to marry him should have been a hint.
 * Also, they have every reason to believe that getting married, if they could learn to stand it (note how they fight worse then ever when they try and pretend to be married in the "Ukyo's Secret Sauce" story), that the other characters would just get worse. Given what they'll go to in their pursuit of Mad Love, what extents might they reach if they believe there's nothing left but to punish Ranma/Akane for not choosing them?
 * Okay, there's something you all need to remember...marriage is for life, and (almost certainly in this particular twisted manga universe) irrevocable. Any conflicts, gripes, annoyances, vexes, square-peg-round-hole issues...they'd have no choice but to put up with them. FOR LIFE. It's perfectly reasonable that Ranma and Akane genuinely love each other without wanting a lifelong monogamous relationship. (And given how generally violent this society is, you can imagine the horrific way this would eventually play out.)


 * If Shampoo learned Japanese with just something of an accent in all of two months, why does she still have an accent after what must have been at least a year?


 * Shampoo's lazy. She learned enough to get by and stopped. (Although actually learning vocabulary is a separate thing from having an ear for accents.)
 * Shampoo might also be Obfuscating Stupidity to some degree so Ranma would be more forgiving if/when her plans backfire on her and besides, she sounds cuter speaking that way.
 * No time really ever passes. Kuno, for instance, goes from being 17 at the beginning of the manga to being 17 at the end, despite the passing of seasons.
 * Kuno's age is not given in the manga until the mushrooms of aging arc (it is in the begining of the anime but not the manga) so in the manga continuity he could have been 16 and turned 17 prior to that story arc.
 * Word of God is that one year passed in the manga.
 * This is Truth in Television. Foreign accents are very difficult to completely get rid of.
 * Plus some people are quite attached to their accents and take pride in keeping it even if they are immersed in a foreign culture. Shampoo is proud of her Tribal heritage so probably doesn't really want to speak Japanese at all, never mind give up her accent.
 * The dub writers demonstrate marvellous ignorance of comparative linguistics in writing Shampoo’s dub dialogue. Mandarin, Shampoo’s native language has (1) prepositions, (2) a subject-verb-object structure, (3) positional marking of subject and object and (4) short and frequently used pronouns, just like English. By contrast, Japanese has (1) postpositions, (2) a subject-object-verb structure, (3) compulsory case marking and (4) longwinded and thus often omitted pronouns. With that, you’d expect Shampoo, Mousse and Cologne to have the easiest time of learning English, yet they have Shampoo speaking in baby talk!? Shampoo’s habit of substituting nouns for pronouns (“Shampoo no like Mousse!”) is far more common in Japanese than in Mandarin.
 * In the Japanese version, Shampoo's speech patterns also denote limited comprehension of Japanese, whereas Cologne and Mousse speak it fairly well (regardless of colloquialisms and regional accents.) This aspect wouldn't convey consistently in an English dub, whereas Hulk Speak is probably the closest approximation the script writers could manage.


 * What does "1/2" in the title stand for?


 * Ranma is 1/2 boy and 1/2 girl. Or more broadly half the cast is 1/2 human and 1/2 something else.
 * Or 1/2 of the cast is dumb as a rock and 1/2 of the cast is a bunch of evil/semi-evil schemers.


 * How the hell did Ryu Kumon manage without a home or parents at the age of six? I mean Ranma at least had his dad, all he had was a scroll an a life-time goal.


 * Because he is just that Badass (or, y'know, unmentioned foster parents, but why ruin the image of 6-year-old Rambo?)
 * Or he could have stayed at an orphanage for some length of time. Possibly he left shortly before we first saw him.


 * Regarding Copycat Ken. I don't mind flawless disguises and voice impersonations, what with all of the near-instant learning Ranma does. What bugs me is replicating Mousse's instant weapon generation. That's not a martial arts technique, that's magic, Shampoo said so!


 * It's "magic" in the same way the Shishi Houkodan, Mouko Takabisha, or Hiryu Shoten Ha are "magic"; it uses ki to compress space inside his sleaves. He would be able to copy it like any other ability, assuming he could figure out how to manipulate ki, and I don't see how that would be harder than any thing else.
 * I do. Using ki to compress space? What kind of Fan Wank is that? Given that Mousse can use his "hidden" weapons in duck form as well, all I can conclude is that he uses magic to access his own personal stretch of Hammerspace. Copycat Ken should not be able to copy that!
 * Mousse never shows any sign or ever refers to being able to use magic. He refers to himself as a martial artist, and his style is just a ridiculous exaggeration of real hidden-weapon styles much like many martial artists in Ranma exaggerate either real martial arts or non-martial-arts-related activities. It's a reasonable assumption that his hidden weapons are a martial arts thing rather than a magic thing that he never refers to or shows any knowledge of anywhere in the series (he isn't able to tell a magic item by looking at it, as shown in the Magic Glasses story, nor can he tell that he is romancing a magic idol rather than Shampoo).
 * That just brings up more questions! If it's compressed space and not hammerspace or instant weapon generation, when did he get the weapons in the first place?
 * He is a male amazon as far as I'm aware. Their society doesn't exactly frown on making, using and carrying weapons. Besides, a lot of his weapons (if not destroyed) are reusable, like all his chains and his wrist blades (which he is shown to carry a finite amount of when Ranma destroys them all; presumably he didn't have too many of those because they were reusable unless destroyed). He might even bother to (offscreen) recollect some of his weapons, although knives aren't that hard to come by.


 * What would happen if you heated up a Cursed Spring, then jumped in?

"Come visit the lovely Jusenkyo Hot Springs! These magical springs not only relax and refresh, but are guaranteed to change your life forever! Unlucky in love? Take a dip in the spring of Drowned Lovely Girl to attract women! No energy at work? Then take a relaxing bath in the spring of Drowned Cheetah!
 * You would become cursed, but wouldn't immediately assume the cursed form. Look at it as two separate parts: The water bestows a curse. Period. Cold water activates the curse, so since the springs are naturally cold, the curses activate right after immersion in normal cases.
 * ... I smell a fanfic!
 * One named "Ranma and Ryouga-chan" does exist in which the water Jusenkyo Guide used to cook p-chan was boiled girl water. This resulted in his male "uncursed form" to be overwritten as female. The logic I presume is that the springs of jusenkyo are never seen to be heated so the cursed form takes over the temperature of the water at the time, allowing for "double curses"

If you call now and reserve a space in the spring of Drowned Panda, you also get a lifetime pass to the Beijing Zoo!"


 * What's the cutoff point for what can be affected by the springs? One might assume that it must be alive, and therefore one could not drop a robot or a wind-up duck into a jusenkyo spring, animate or not, but if that's the only limit, shouldn't bacteria and insects be constantly turning into people and other creatures? If it's conscious thought, about at what level of consciousness would the limiter be? For that matter, what if someone fell into a spring who was pregnant? Would the fetus/child/whatever stay human, or would it change along with the parent? Would it lose the curse after being born? This troper is irked to no end by the inability to test the effects of something completely fictional, yet so easily tested.


 * It's magic, so it effects whatever is symbolically appropriate (or perhaps the aura of magic repels small creatures). It's also possible that the springs need to be prepped properly for use, and that the Phoenix People (who are referred to as the rulers of the springs) are the only (or one of very few) that know how to do so. If you want to be really confused, consider the case of Rouge, whose spring was created when a statue of a (fictional) Hindu god was immersed in one of the springs, thus granting anyone who falls in later the powers of that god (and a wicked backache).
 * This troper recalls one fanfic explaining it rather agreeably - more-or-less being that something falling into a spring must be of a certain size to trigger the curse (likewise, an uncursed spring must have something at a certain size in it to "create" a curse), and a spring holds that curse "template" until something significantly larger falls in and "overwrites" that curse with a greater one - the whole thing was summarized by saying, if these claims were true, that given enough time and luck, the entirely of Jusenkyo would probably end up as "Spring of Drowned Elephant".
 * The Spring of Drowned Akane seems to imply that the springs need to be prepared before they can become cursed springs, and that they simply retain the form of whatever the first thing to be submerged in them is.


 * What happens to the clothes of the people who transform? At least in the anime it seems to be pretty inconsistent (I have never read the manga). Ranma doesn't have a problem because he simply transforms inside the clothes he is wearing at the moment (although the girl-Ranma is quite a lot smaller than the boy-Ranma, which raises the question of how the clothes, especially eg. the shoes, fit both). Genma seems to absorb the clothes he is wearing when he transforms into a panda; the clothes appear back when he transforms back to human. Ryoga does not absorb his clothes when he transforms into the piglet. Also when he transforms back, he is always nude. (Yet regardless of where he transformed into the piglet, eg. somewhere on the streets, he somehow is able to re-acquire his own clothes and backpack with ease, even if he transforms back in a completely unrelated place, eg. at the Tendo residence; it has never been shown how this happens, though. Given his complete lack of direction, it would also be rather unlikely that he goes to retrieve his clothes from where he left them when he transformed.) So even if both Ranma's and Genma's inconsistent clothing behavior could be explained by some weird magic, Ryoga's can't (or at least it has never been shown in the anime how he finds his own clothes and stuff back). Shampoo has been shown to change back to human nude (or covered by whatever was available around). Mousse is the most inconsistent one of all: Sometimes he changes to a duck and absorbs his clothes, sometimes he doesn't (as far as I remember). When he changes back to human, he is always clothed.
 * I've always assumed that Ryouga has taken to stashing clothes all around the spots in Nerima he visits frequently (i.e. The Tendo Dojo, Furinkan, Ucchan's, The Nekohanten). It doesn't explain how he can find clothing for himself elsewhere, but the Rule of Funny seems to apply. Mousse, obviously, hides spare robes in whatever ki-generated backpack he tucks under his wings and has learned how to deploy the clothing as he transforms.
 * For Ryoga, we have seen him on at least one occasion carrying his entire backpack, with umbrella tucked into it on the top, on his back as a pig.
 * Does anyone actually want to see Genma naked?
 * Er...yes???
 * No. Just... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
 * Ranma's clothing does not fit both sides. The shoes are much too big for female Ranma --the early manga chapters showed her feet positively swimming in them, her heels didn't even come close to the heels of the shoes. Later on, she usually ditches them or they fall off on their own. As for the shirt, Ranma's typical shirt fits him rather snugly, with very few creases; when he transforms, it looks a lot baggier, the seams at the shoulders don't match, and the around her waist is tightened up (of course, due to art economy, the transformations don't show Ranma adjusting her clothes every time unless Takahashi wants us to.) Same deal with the pants, which look enormous on female Ranma. And then, in the anime, some of male Ranma's outfits (like the sleeveless Chinese shirt) are large enough on female Ranma that they look like entirely different clothes (her shoulders are so narrow, said shirt looks like a thigh-length minidress with sleeves.)


 * Why doesn't Mousse have an accent? He's lived in China all his life, just like Shampoo, so why are his language skills so much better than hers?
 * Actually, he does (or rather, he speaks dialect Japanese). That, and he's mainly intended to be a pest, where Shampoo is a popular character and cute Chinese Girl.
 * Alternately, Shampoo is an amazon, and probably has had less occasions to learn Japanese than Mousse.
 * Or alternately, Shampoo simply learned different languages (perhaps even more than Mousse).
 * Some people are just better at learning languages than others.
 * I'm pretty sure that Mousse and Shampoo both have an accent in the original Japanese. Viz translated them differently for some reason.
 * Sexism, pure and simple!
 * Not in the slightest. In the original Japanese (written and drawn by a very progressive woman) Shampoo already has a pidgin accent that no other Chinese character but the Jusenkyo Guide has. Cologne, Kiima, and even Pink and Link are Chinese women and speak just fine (allowing for the latter's Verbal Tic, natch.) Mousse and Cologne speak in old or regional dialects. Therefore, Viz' adaptation did its best conveying this trait: again, Shampoo and the Guide speak in You No Take Candle while everyone else speaks flawlessly. If it were sexism, it would spread beyond the one character that shares this exact same trait with a male character.
 * All of the above are Chinese, but Shampoo is intended to fit the Anime Chinese Girl archetype; qipao, ridiculous stereotyped accent, takeout noodle resturant and all.


 * In the Full-body Cat Tongue story arc, when Ranma's first taking a bath and starts saying "It's hot! It's hot!", why does he then proceed to grab a bowlful of water and pour it on his head? He was already a guy, so the whole mess could have been avoided. He also could have just gone to Dr. Tofu, get some anesthesia, and be doused in hot water instead. Why do the Japanese seem to treat acupressure like it's magic?


 * The bucketful of water was to soothe the searing PAIN Ranma was feeling all over his naked skin, he didn't know it was because of the Full-Body Cat's Tongue, he didn't know that it was HIM who had the problem (he thought it was the water itself,) and he didn't know it could lead to a Mode Lock. Even afterwards, he tries to use hot water lots of times, but apparently the (perceived) heat is so painful his immediate reflex is to cool off with water. As for Tofu, he's a chiropractor, not a general doctor. He probably doesn't even have anesthesia --though they DO seek his help the anime and he applies a temporary solution, the Tokyo Grandpa Point, and in the manga he shows up on his own and asks Akane "Why didn't you tell me before?" before doing the same thing. Sadly, if a known chiropractor with great knowledge of acupuncture explicitly states that it would never work again, it also means he doesn't know of any other acupressure techniques that could help Ranma. And even if we apply real-world logic to it: if Ranma had gone to a hospital for anesthesia (and managed to find a variety specific to his entire skin, without impairing the rest of him,) it would ALSO have been a temporary cure, as the anesthesia would eventually wear off and he would soon be under the Full-Body Cat's Tongue effect again. Finally, it's not that the Japanese treat acupressure/puncture like magic, but in THIS particular case, the ailment was caused by Pressure Points --a real-life doctor wouldn't know what to do with the concept, but in a fantasy setting like this one, the best (and possibly only) cure to a Pressure Points-induced disability would be, naturally, Pressure Points (like the Tokyo Grandpa Point.) Or similarly mystic cures, i.e., the Phoenix Pill. But when was the last time medical science, or even homeopathic medicine, came up with a pill that instead of curing an illness, makes you impervious to heat?


 * Another thing, if Cologne is 300 years old, how could she be only Shampoo's great-grandmother? She's supposed to be the same age as Ranma, right? 16, 17 something? If my great-grandma were alive, she'd be about 115. One generation is typically about 30 years. Even in Asia, lifespans were much shorter in the old days. A 300 year old relative would be more like your great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother. How old are Shampoo's parents for her to have a 300 year old great-grandma?! They'd have to be 100! Do Amazons just not have menopause or something?
 * The manga gives her age at just over a hundred. My guess is that the anime tripled it due to Rule of Funny.
 * Also, it could be that Cologne is merely a very old relative, or even a tutor, that Shampoo calls "Hiba-chan" out of familiarity. Like Akane and Ranma calling Genma and Soun "Uncle" respectively, even though these two aren't brothers, or people calling Happosai "Grandfather" all the time.
 * This troper has memories of his late great-grandmother up to just prior to his younger sister's birth. (His sister going on 17 at the time of this edit.)
 * Read The Belgariad by David Eddings. Trying to say Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-yaddayadda-Grandmother would just take too damn long. Sayin Great Grandmother is much easier and quicker.
 * I'm not sure, but is "Grand-mother" not a polite way to address elderly women in Japanese?


 * The Foreign Queasine article has enlightened me to the true horrors of ordering donkey meat in China, but I have to wonder if it also applies to pork. After all, the Jusenkyo Guide tossed P-chan in a wok to boil, lobster style, without killing him first. Shampoo also served him up in a platter with sauce and garnish after merely knocking him out (without even bothering to wash him, it seems.) Is raw, cold pork a delicacy for the people of the Jusenkyo area?
 * Given both Rule of Funny and the fact that Ryoga is canonically hella tough, is it really impossible that Shampoo did bake or roast "P-chan" after delivering a blow she thought had killed him, it's just that neither worked? The guy was dumped into a pot full of water intended to boil him alive and escaped with minor scalding, after all.
 * There are places that eat raw pork for example a Thai dish called Nam Mu Sod is raw pork and places that boil pigs for example the Korean dish Bossam is boiled pig.


 * Less a problem with the series then with Fan Dumb, but it just bugs me that people claim Akane only got kidnapped all of the time in the anime. I hate to burst your bubble, but Akane got kidnapped a lot in the manga too- and in both canons, she tended to be defiant at first, then wilt when it failed and wait around for someone to save her. The only anime-exclusive abductions were by the Frog Hermit and Kirin, and technically Toma, though he was actually stealing all of the women on the island in general and didn't pay even the slightest attention to Akane until she slapped him. In both canons, she got tied up and hung from a tree in the Breaking Point arc, Principal Kuno kidnapped her and did the same thing in his first story, Taro tried to get the Nerimites to hand over Happosai by kidnapping Akane and carrying her away to Crow's Nest Peak, Ryoga carried her off in the Waterproof Soap story (technical kidnapping), Mousse tried to kidnap her and use her as bait twice in his return story (succeeding on the second try)... The manga also had her get carried off by Lime, only for Herb to tell him to drop her and leave her, and Kiima in the Saffron arc. And this troper hasn't even read that much of the manga- I'm sure that there are other kidnappings in the manga too.


 * Why are there so many weird signs in this Japan? After doing stuff like hugging poles with signs that say "Do not hug pole", sitting on water mains nearby signs that read, "Danger: Do not sit", and jumping on fences that have "Warning: Unstable" signs on them, wouldn't the characters begin to look around for weird signs before doing stuff like laughing loudly in gardens?
 * Rule of Funny. Nothing more, nothing less. Takahashi adores this joke.


 * In the anime, why the heck was Akane going through the Secret Scroll Reunion ceremony with Kirin, which apparently means "marriage," when absolutely no one, not even Kirin himself, was forcing her into it?


 * In the Dragon's Whisker story arc, why don't they just make a big bowl of stock, share it, then give the whisker back to Ranma? Then everyone would be happy! Better yet, why don't they make an even bigger bowl, bottle the stuff, and market it? Then no one would have to kill each other over it anymore since the broth would be mass produced.
 * Because, like any other cooking ingredient, the Dragon's Whisker is used up when you make the soup. Yeah, they could make a really big bowl, everyone could share and bottle up whatever is left (of course, none of the baldies thought of that because they're all selfish and rotten,) but Ranma would be SOL and there would be no more Dragon's Whisker to "mass produce" the soup. Can anyone mass-produce lemonade from only 1 lemon?
 * couldn't Ranma just eat the hair growth food stuff with the rest of the baldies once he lost his hair, he would just need to wait it out...


 * Why did Ranma want to break up Kuno and Mariko in the Cheerleader storyline? Wouldn't he want his Stalker With a Crush to be cured of his obsession by a girl like himself or at the very least be busy with one of his own. Yeah Ranma wanted to get back at Mariko but there were other ways of getting back at her without ruining her relationship with Kuno.
 * Every time you ask yourself 'Why did (Ranma 1/2 cast member) do (incredibly stupid thing)?', remember that the answer is always "Because they're an idiot." Nerima is the original Land That Common Sense Forgot. Its inhabitants have the average IQ of mold, and I'm probably going to get sued by the mold for saying that.
 * Without having to insult the characters that badly, it's just that they suffer from severe tunnel vision. In Ranma's view, Mariko humiliated Akane and made her cry --therefore, Ranma is going to do everything in his power to put Mariko in her place, even if it means encouraging Kuno. Also, and more to the point, it wasn't about "breaking them up" (Kuno all but ignored Mariko until the kendo tournament,) but to get all of Kuno's attention. Later on, Kuno himself tried to go after Mariko, but she was so crushed by her defeat by Ranma and Akane's "love" she ignored him completely.
 * Mariko didn't announce herself to Kuno until he was already preparing for the Kendo tournament and Ranma was already trying to win him over. Kuno even pointed for once that it seemed like Ranma wasn't really into him and was merely using him. The whole event only seemed to hurt Kuno(where else would he find a girl who liked him despite his many faults), Mariko wasn't even phased. It Just Bugs me that Ranma complains about his suitors and rivals yet refuses to let them break the Status Quo and find happiness. What a Jerkass.
 * Um... No. Mariko exited the volleyball tournament, met Kuno, and proclaimed her love for him. Ranma was headed back home when she ran into Kuno, saw that Mariko was interested in him, and THEN decided to get in Mariko's way to get revenge for Akane. Kuno's feelings for anyone were, indeed, irrelevant, as Mariko was Ranma's target from the very beginning.
 * According to the chart in the memorial book about how Ranma views various characters Ranma really hates Mariko more than pretty much anyone (a few are listed as villians (phoenix people), sparring partners (Tatewaki, the principal, Ryoga), or rivals (Happosai) but she is listed as embittered enemy).
 * A bit meta, but... keep in mind, Kuno has been openly chasing two girls at once and declaring to anyone who might ask that he is "worthy" to date them both at the same time throughout the series. Ranma knows this. So, he's got no real reason to assume that Mariko's crush on Kuno will ever change things successfully -- if Mariko does make Kuno fall in love with her, so what? Kuno sees nothing wrong already with "loving" and trying to date two girls -- is another girl going to make him stop that? Bottom line is, Kuno would have stayed the same pain in the ass would-be romantic rival even if Ranma hadn't tried to use him to "get" Mariko. It's the same as forfeiting that fight with Mousse that would have caused Shampoo to be honor-bound to go out on a date with Mousse; it wouldn't have changed the status quo anyway. It's a lose-lose situation, but in one method, Ranma loses less, and that's why he went with it.
 * Ranma was jealous. Not that he likes Kuno, but Ranma doesn't like losing attention, even with unwanted suitors. This is shown in the anime episode "Extra! Extra! Kuno and Nabiki! Read all about it!" where Ranma was constantly telling Nabiki that Kuno couldn't suddenly have an interest in her. At the end of the episode, female Ranma purposely goes to win back his attention. This is also shown with Shampoo when she wore that brooch that made her hate him. Ranma doesn't like them, but he likes the attention.

In other words, Instant packets are "Get Out Of Jail Free" cards: it only works that one time, and once it's used up, you can't use its effects again unless you have another one. The real Nannichuan would be "Get Out Of Jail Free, Now And Forever." And while we're at it: The Japanese Nannichuan would've been the perfect cure, too, because (if the legend is accurate) it changed its victims into men permanently --no silly shapeshifting business with hot and cold water. THAT would have effectively removed, NOT overridden, the Jusenkyo curses, and it WOULD have only needed to work once. Too bad it was out of order. Also: the Togenkyo spring from the second movie would've been a strange cure, but a cure nonetheless, because it doesn't curse its victims to transform into men, it permanently transforms their current body into men (a subtle difference.) Technically, a Jusenkyo victim would still turn into its cursed form when splashed with cold water... it just so happens that its cursed form has been further modified to have the shape of a man, so there's no effective change. So Akane falling into the Togenkyo spring would've been a disaster, since Jusenkyo wouldn't have given her back her female form.
 * What exactly is the failing of an Instant Drowned Man (or whatever) remedy that "only works once"? Wouldn't it only have to work once?
 * Well, for starters, curses from "Spring of Drowned (X)" make it so that, from that point on, victims change every time they're hit with water, any water. Instant Springs change the victim only when they're hit with that particular water, which is why Shampoo's test dog wasn't cursed to become human permanently. Meaning, any kind of Nannichuan wouldn't remove the girl/panda curses, but it would override them... but if it's an Instant Nannichuan, it only overrides them once. Notice how Ranma and Genma's original Jusenkyo curses reasserted themselves when the Instant water from the Tendo pond was diluted by ordinary rain. Now, this is approaching severe Fan Wank levels, but it's possible that a pool of standing water cursed with an Instant packet would preserve its effects indefinitely as long as it's not diluted, evaporated, or removed --therefore, anything that fell in it would change into a man for as long as there was enough water in the container. But that's precisely why it wouldn't be a true cure for a Jusenkyo victim: the Instant water would eventually wash off, and would no longer be able to override the original curse. Ranma could buy a million Instant packets and keep the Tendo bath filled with cursed water, but the instant he's splashed with a glass of water, rain, or any other non-cursed water, the true curse would come right back.
 * Actually, the usage of the name "Nanniichuan" for the Japanese Nanniichuan does imply that it was just like the Jusenkyo spring of the same name, it's just that the legend was, naturally, not clear on all the details. The anime is explicit that it is just like the Jusenkyo spring -- in fact, it's an outlet of Jusenkyo.
 * If Ranma and company had gotten splashed by Togenkyo's waters, their cure probably wouldn't be quite so complete; they'd still change forms when splashed with cold water, it's just that their "alternate form" would be of men with traits reminiscent of their original curses (so Ranma would be more Bishonen, and the others would have bestial traits): note how Togenkyo's "masculinization effect" isn't as strong as Jusenkyo's, as evidenced by the bestial forms of Toristan and the nameless crab-man.
 * If Akane hadn gotten splashed, it's probably more likely that Jusenkyo would just cause her to assume her true form when splashed with cold water, but revert to her Togenkyo-induced male form with hot water. Sort of a reversal of Ranma's situation.


 * Why does Ranma BEING THROWN THROUGH THE ROOF by Akane not leave a mark, and yet being beaten up by multiple girls leaves marks all over his body?
 * Say it with me now, everyone: Rule of Funny. Said marks usually disappear within a couple panels, anyhow.
 * The roof is wood and plaster, and hitting it doesn't hurt nearly as much as being hit by the Made of Iron fists of the Nerima Wrecking Crew girls?
 * Probably this whole through-the-roof-stuff is a normal animé/mange-symbolism for getting your ass kicked like having the Nosebleed is an euphemism/metaphor for having a boner/creaming the pants.


 * Been thinking about this for fifteen years, now I have an outlet: Kasumi is 19, Akane is 16. Yet in the flashback near the beginning of the series (both in anime and manga) when high-schooler Kasumi picks up Akane at Dr. Tofu's clinic, Akane is so tiny she looks six next to her much taller sister. For that matter, she's wearing ordinary kiddy clothes despite having come back from school --Kasumi is wearing the Furinkan uniform, making her 16 at least, so a 13 year-old Akane would be wearing a uniform too instead of looking, and dressing, like a six year-old grade-schooler. Continuity error, or are Akane's memories embellished to make her even more of a "child" next to the mature sister she looks up to?
 * Akane has a very selective memory which, at least regarding Ranma, borders in delusion. Wouldn't be surprised if that were the case


 * Genma and the Nekoken. Why does everyone act like he should have known right off the bat that this is a stupid and dangerous technique? Compared to the other techniques shown in the series it fits right in, and may even be more believable than some (the Shi-Shi-Hokodan, or even the Chestnuts on an Open Fire).
 * Because he didn't turn the freaking page and read the bit saying that it was a supremely bad idea and only an idiot would do it.
 * Also, most other training techniques, as far-fetched and insane as they were (such as smashing yourself with giant boulders until you struck the "breaking point," or wearing a memory-metal outfit that would seize up and paralyze you in contact wih hot water) were undertaken willingly and with full knowledge of the consequences by all involved, so no one was ever forced to go through with it. Genma subjected Ranma to the Cat Fist training without Ranma knowing what it was about, and without Genma himself knowing what it would cause. That's so idiotically negligent, even the Tendos call him out on it -- which is made worse when they find out about the "next page" business.
 * Besides which, at the very least, Cologne was watching Ryoga and Ranma respectively during those moments and both could have and would have intervened if they really were in serious danger. She is an Old Master, after all. Genma just threw Ranma into the pit and left him there; even if he didn't neccessarily leave the area (we can't say if he did or didn't), he had no idea how badly Ranma was faring. In fact, recall that this idiot, after dragging Ranma out the first time, went on to throw Ranma back into the pit three more times that we know of. That says a lot for Genma's observational and logic skills.


 * Genma and the Bowl of Rice Fiancee in the Anime Martial Arts Takeout episode
 * You're a well fed guy in a wasteland with food to spare and you come across this starving foodless wreck of a man with his infant son, and you make him trade the kid for a bowl of rice? And Genma is the Jerkass here for trading Ranma, getting a meal, and then stealing back a fed Ranma later? Sorry, but Mister Martial Arts Takeout is in the wrong on this one: no one ever taught basic decency to this guy. Genma showed a surprising amount of sense (in the situation at least, perhaps a lot less so in getting him and Ranma into that situation). Feck, I'd have kicked the guy out of the Tendo Dojo so fast his arse would leave skid marks on the ground when he tried to call in that so-called debt. Guy should have shared to start with; that's basic human charity and compassion.
 * Mr. Daikoku does imply that he doesn't have much more than basic supplies for himself and his own daughter, which does give him so leniency for being hesitant to share. Still, yeah, he's a dick.
 * There's also the matter of "face" to consider; it's kind of like why Soun is willing to honor Ranma's "giving" the Tendo Dojo to the Gambling King, or why Soun is willing to accept that one of his daughters must marry Picolet Chardin because of that "debt" he and Genma racked up. The proper thing would have been, respectively, to send the King flying out on his ass (even beyond the fact that he, y'know, cheated, Ranma was only a child who had no idea what he was doing), and to offer to just pay the original bill now that Soun actually had a paying job and stockpiled savings. But not living up to it and having Ranma fight to get the debt cancelled afterwards would have looked bad.
 * It's possible that Mr. Daikoku never really had any intention of actually taking Ranma; he first brought up the idea by replying to Genma's insistence he would do anything for food by asking if that meant giving up the child on his back, then he asked in disgust who would trade their son for a fish. In which case, Genma looks like the scumbag for being willing to hand his child over to feed himself just because someone brought it up rhetorically.
 * Mr. Daikoku may have also had humanitarian intentions. Look at the scene from his perspective; this random vagabond is not only wandering through a wasteland with a baby boy on his back, he's both too dumb to have properly supplied himself beforehand (and/or managed his supplies responsibly) and his reaction to running out of food is to beg some random traveler for help. And then he proves willing to just give away his son if it means putting food in his own belly. Who knows just what sort of dangers he could lead the kid into next!
 * Which is all well and good... except that Daikoku shows up fifteen (or sixteen) years later to collect. He held on to that debt, and raised Kaori with that debt in mind, for all that time. A humanitarian, he ain't.


 * Problem with the cat tongue thing
 * I understand that the warm water hurt a lot, but you only have to touch the water. Any time he touched warm water he would've become a boy again, before he could scream about it. Sure it'd hurt like hell, but seriously, he could've born it for a second, or failing that, gotten Nabiki to pour some over his head.
 * The thing is, no, he couldn't. We're shown in the series that s/he can't bear the temperature enough to stand there and let herself be covered in the amount of water she needs in order to change back. It's just that painful to him -- the pre-bath shower has Ranma, Mr. Made of Iron, screaming like someone's peeling his skin off with hot knives, and when she tries to jump into the no-longer-hot-enough-to-restore-her bath, she leaps out again screaming in pain as her first reaction. Besides, even if he could somehow manage to bear the pain once, he'd be back in the exact same position the very next time he got splashed with cold water.


 * Ranma Wearing Girls' Clothes
 * In Episode 7/Ryoga's introduction episode/manga chapter, it starts with Ranma running around in his underwear while in girl-form and swearing that he won't wear girls' clothes, which the Tendo sisters are insisting on. Kasumi offers to draw him a bath (in the anime, Nabiki scolds him for taking so many baths, which isn't cheap) so he can get back into boy form-- is it really easier to get Ranma into girls' clothes than it is to just boil a pot of water to dump on him?
 * It's not about the form Ranma is in. Kasumi and Nabiki explicitly state that ALL of Ranma's clothes are in the wash. Ranma would have no problem running around in boxer shorts in either form, but neither of the Tendo sisters thinks it's "proper" to have a half-naked man (or woman) lounging around the house in his underwear, even if it's just for the few minutes it'll take for the bath to be drawn. Since apparently they don't have any other clothes for 'male' Ranma (maybe Soun and Genma's clothes are in the wash too, or wouldn't fit at all) they tried to fit 'her' inside female clothes. And fitting Ranma in female clothes has the added benefit of 'not' having to draw a bath for her before her own clothes are ready.


 * Drinking Jusenkyo Water
 * What would happen if you swallowed a large amount of Jusenkyo cursed water? - Apart from the obvious stomach ache you would recieve from drinking the doubtless filthy spring water. As far as i'm aware its always stated that you have to be immersed in cursed water in order for the curse to take effect. However, anything powerfully magical enough to completely transform someone into something completely different (which lets remember includes the ability to even change someones species) must have some sort of effect. My two favorite theories are are that either it would activate a partial curse that only occasionally works or that it would activate a curse with a different trigger. After all, if being immersed in water activates the immersed in hot or cold water trigger, why wouldn't swallowing water activate a swallowing hot or cold water trigger? (yes its slightly WMG, but the result of drinking curse water is never addressed)
 * Actually, it IS addressed. The Mt. Phoenix people constantly and consistently used bird-cursed water from their own springs for everything, from drinking to laundry to cooking. Eventually, they grew wings and talons (permanently, too --they only become human if they immerse themselves in Nyanniichuan or Naniichuan.) I don't remember whether the manga stated that this took place within one generation or several, but the result is the same: we can extrapolate that, while drinking cursed water once would probably have little to no effect on you or your offspring, constant ingestion would endow you/your children with vague properties related to the water you consumed. The Asura spring might give you extra heads/arms but not the power (or viceversa,) the Child spring might stunt your aging, the Panda spring could give you black and white fur, stuff like that. Perhaps it would change you/your children to the same extent and with the same instantaneous effects of the Musk Dynasty's mating ritual with Nyannichuan'd animals did; the point is, it would take constant exposure, and a single ingestion would likely do nothing.
 * That means if someone was to drink from the Spring of the Drowned Man/Girl for a prolonged period of time... Damn that is the greatest candidate for Fridge Horror and Squick I've ever heard of.


 * The Jusenkyo Noah's Ark
 * Why have so many varied animals drowned at Jusenkyo. The springs are canonically in the mountains of China. So where did the Octopus come from - many of those crawling around inland is there? perhaps the greatest example is the Yeti riding Bull carrying Crane and Eel, how did these four completely seperate creatures not only find their way here but fall/jump into the spring at the exact same time? We must also include the Drowned Man, Woman and child springs - why are these people even up here? I can buy the man and woman being martial artists that were pulling a similar stunt to Ranma and Genma, but what about the drowned child? where were the poor kid's parents when he was playing around the bank of the spring? unless we're now into serious Unfortunate Implications time that someone deliberately threw this child into the deep water to die.
 * The actual word is closer in meaning to "fully immersed." Remember, in the last story, Kiima creates a "Spring of Drowned Akane" without Akane dying. As far as the animals, who the hell knows? It's like asking where all the hammers/microphones/doodle pens come from.
 * How the Yeti Riding Bull While Carrying Crane And Eel came to be in the first place may be a legitimate question, but the question of how they all fell into the spring at the same time isn't that hard to answer. The yeti was riding the bull, while carrying the crane and the eel.


 * It's always bothered me as to why Ranma continuously refuses to wear a bra. I fully realize the default answer is Ranma's uber-masculinity but... he has consistently shown that he's not afraid to utilize his femininity if it's going to result in an advantageous outcome. Given the size of his female chest (it must be at least a C) as well as the insanely large amount of physical activity he indulges in, surely he must regularly be experiencing acute back pain as well as a highly uncomfortable amount of movement. It's not as if we can use Ranma's godlike strength as an excuse, given how Rouge's Asura cursed form is massively strong but still suffers from horrible six-arms inflicted back pain.
 * The most simple answers are, one, everyone (or at least Akane), would deem him a horrific pervert for wearing bras, and two, any bra would simply snap apart when he turned back into a man -- to say nothing of what would happen if someone saw him wearing a bra while a boy, whether it was wrecked or not.
 * So what's stopping him from wearing a Sarashi and adjusting it as necessary? It's not like he'd be the only one.
 * Within context, if he put on a sarashi as a male it would do little good when he transformed, because he's so much larger as a man than as a woman. It'd come loose immediately. By the same token, if she put it on as female, then any wrapping that adequately bound her breasts would turn too small upon transforming. Adjusting it every time would get old and very frustrating real fast, and it would only be a liability in the middle of combat. Outside context, the action (printed or animated) would stop every time he or she were splashed with water. Re-fastening his pants by tugging at the sash is one thing, and can be easily implied between panels; rebinding a sarashi, a much more extensive binding worn under clothes, not so much. And besides, who's saying Ranma NEEDS to bind her chest? She's been in plenty of action scenes, running and jumping all over the place, and, unlike Rouge, she's never even hinted at having discomfort from the lack of support.
 * Also, Rouge's back pain is understandable because six arms weigh a LOT and she does NOT have "massive strength" to go with them. Everyone else, though, probably operates on Made of Iron and feels little to no pain, and no one has ever suffered any hindrance due to Ganiaxing or otherwise. If it's something Takahashi doesn't call attention to, it likely isn't there to begin with. Oh, and "at least a C" is Fan Wank. All we know for sure about Ranma is that she's bigger than Akane, that's it.
 * (op) Please explain to me why you need Word of God to make a visual estimation? here is a rough guide: A and B are the size of man-boobs and large grapefruits respectively. C is average, D is oversized and E and above is humongous. Ranma's chest is blatantly too large to be an A or B and too small to be E and beyond. This leaves the choice between C and D and considering Ranma doesn't exactly eclipse the other Tendo girls besides Akane, I have chosen to declare her a C.
 * Uh, nobody said anything about Word of God. It's about not using Fan Wank as a source for discussing canon. "I have chosen to declare" is, by definition, Fan Wank. Or at the very least Fanon, if many people subscribe to it.
 * Rouge's back pain is much more likely due to jamming three arms into each of her shoulder joints. Seriously, that is going to screw up your back muscles. Her back muscles are now having to manipulate three ball joints each side instead of one.


 * Am I only one who thought the waterproof soap was an excellent solution?
 * Just buy a lifetime supply and use it as your every day bathing soap and you'll be perfectly fine. In fact Ryoga's example shows that it lasts for a least two or three washes before wearing off, possibly more because Ryoga's only wore off after he stood under a waterfall for ages.
 * Given how much effort they went to retrieve it, as well as the fact we've never seen it again, would imply the soap is rare and/or bloody expensive. A lifetime supply would be out of the question - the smart move would be to keep an emergency supply e.g. whenever Ryoga ends up in a cold and wet forest swarming with predators that like to eat small animals.


 * Mirror Clone Arc in the manga
 * So apparently there was a girl who regretted not having a boyfriend as she died, and it's said she possessed the mirror, making lusty clones of anyone who looked into it. Girl-Ranma was cloned and everyone had to put up with it, which later fell in love with Ranma. I'm wondering, is it the same spirit as the girl who died, with the victim's appearance? Or is it just a cursed mirror that copies the victim completely (like/including personality) except the clone has a huge lust for he opposite gender? It's confusing because the girl-Ranma-clone seems to have her own personality (not sure if she has memories of her past life, if it is the same spirit), but at the end, boy-Ranma gets cloned as well, and the boy-clone goes to hit on girls. Then the two clones fall in love. Plus, why does there need to be a special curtain for the mirror? It needed to take a week to make it, and then it got torn easily...
 * I always got the impression that the mirror wasn't haunted by a specific spirit as much as by plain, formless "desire." So yeah, the reflections that come out of it have some vague similarity to the original person (apparently, learned skills and physical abilities are carried from original to reflection,) but they seem to have the same basic, overriding personality, which is centered on dating and hitting on people of the opposite sex. And as for the curtain, well, it's typical for haunted objects in stories like these to have exorcism "seals" on them (IIRC, the curtain had such a seal printed on it) but there's also the fact that it's a gigantic mirror, and Ranma tore its curtain off. Even if they're made of ordinary cloth, getting curtains made at that size, and putting up a new curtain rod at that height, is probably gonna take some time...


 * Lists of Ranma 1/2 magic
 * don't have the chance to ever see Ranma so I would to like to ask one thing: Where can I find list of cursed, magic and or special artifacts that cause the Dilemma of The Day?


 * Gender Pains
 * This may sound like like a weird one but it's always confused/interested me: it's been proven that if you punch male Ranma, female Ranma will also feel the pain after he transforms - fair enough. So what would happen if you were to kick Ranma in the groin and then splash him with cold water? technically the injured parts would no longer exist so shouldn't swapping his gender relieve the pain? the reverse should also be true (to a lesser extent) if you were to hit female Ranma in the chest and then splash her with hot water.
 * One could assume that the neurons would still be firing the 'Ow My Balls!' reaction to his brain even when the parts are removed. It would be a like the whole phantom limb phenomenon where people still have the 'feeling' of having limbs that have been removed. So yeah, no more pain physically speaking, but his mind makes it real.

The short of it is that Ranma 1/2, with all its martial arts action, is primarily a comedy series. The characters themselves are lighthearted enough that they don't consider their local rivalries "serious" enough to merit law enforcement. And when something happens that it's actually serious, like a kidnapping or a super-powerful martial artist wreaking havoc, there's nothing the police could do. Maybe the series could have inserted a martial artist cop, and turned him or her into a regular character to add to the comedy, but any serious, realistic approaches would've added unnecessary complications to the spirit of the work, like the "why don't characters wear full-body armor" issue up above.
 * Stop Snitchin'
 * Whenever the characters (Mostly Ranma and Akane) get stalked by unwanted suitors, recieve death threats from said suitors, property damage, Azuza mugging people for cute things, the fact that a pedophile panty stealing old man lives in the house with a 16 year old girl (girls in Ranma's case) and when Akane gets kidnapped... WHY DOESN'T ANYONE REPORT THESE THINGS TO THE POLICE? I mean everytime something bad happens or then Akane gets kidnapped, Ranma and the others take matters into their own hands, the same goes for the group of girls whos' panties get stolen by Happosai, they never call the cops for this sort of thing. Plus when the other people in Nerima are in trouble, they either go to a Priest or a Martial Artist and never a Police Officer. It never seemed to Ukyo that she should've just called the cops about when Genma stole her Okonomiyaki cart. Also when female Ranma was stalked by Shampoo back in Japan, why didn't Ranma just called a cop about this nor hide at a Police Station? Also Genma should've been arrested for Child Endangerment for what he did to Ranma involving teaching him "Cat-Fu". It's almost as if there are no federal laws in Ranma's hometown.
 * There's the none-too subtle implication that the township sees these martial artists AS a method of law enforcement. More than once, the neighborhood association gets together to ask the Tendo household for help catching a thief, or finding out who's attacking all the girls with braids, patrolling the streets for prowlers, and so on. Sometimes they even get calls for help from outside of Tokyo. So, in a sense, the Tendos are some manner of self-governing authority as far as the neighbors are concerned, and within the household itself they probably think it's more efficient, quicker, and practical to take care of their own affairs than to involve ordinary police officers.
 * If that's true then why do they allow Ryoga and Kuno to stalk Ranma and Akane and pretty much allow Happosai to perv then? I mean all of Ranma and Akane's problems would just go away if they used the magic numbers...9-1-1! That reminds this troper of the fact that in JEM, Jerrica never press charges on the Misfits despite all the attempted murders that they almost caused.
 * Like the above said, the Tendo household probably prefers to take care of its own issues. Ryoga doesn't "stalk" anyone but Ranma, (and even then, he always sends letters of challenge when he's looking for a fight; Ranma ambushes him more often than the reverse) and Ranma himself never asks for help taking care of his rivals. He wants the competition. And he would hear no end of it if Akane, who always takes Ryoga's side, saw Ranma accuse Ryoga of something to the police. Besides, even if people like Ryoga or Kuno were nice/honorable enough to go along with police, Happosai sure as hell wouldn't. And not only would an ordinary police force be unable to catch him (or any Ranma MADM, really,) he'd just escape and return shortly afterwards to annoy everyone, or worse, take revenge. When a house with four high-powered martial artists can't get him to stop, why bother calling the police on him?


 * I wonder what's the deal with most of the characters missing their mothers, justified that Ranma's isn't seen until later on and Akane's mother died before the series started but what about Ukyo, Shampoo, and the Kunos? Their mothers were never mentioned nor seen. This observation makes this troper believe that Rumiko Takahashi has "mommy issues" or her mother must've died during the run of the comic. But seriously, where is Mrs. Kuno?


 * Why didn't Ukyo just tell Ranma she was a girl the whole time? I mean if she did then none of this would've happened to her. Also it didn't help that at the time when Ranma was with her, she was dressed like a boy and Ukyo is a guy's name. In the French Dub her name is Frederique and that also proves her name is a guy's name.


 * If the extreme heat resistance from Doc Tofu's "Tokyo Grandpa Point" from the manga can only work once, and the pressure point can never be used again, then how do the boiling bath-loving old codgers at bathhouses manage, since the implication is that they do it all the time?
 * It's not called the "Old Man Tokyo Pressure Point" (or whatever translation you prefer) because it is used by elderly Tokyo men. It's called that because it bestows a level of heat-resistance similar to that possed by elderly Tokyo men.
 * Or it could be that the pressure point will only work to counter the Full Body Cat's Tongue point once. A person who is not under the effects of a heat-vulnerability point can use it again and again.


 * Another Rule of Funny thing I suppose, but having three faces should not in and by itself make Asura crave more food. She still appears to have only one abdomen presumably containing a single stomach and should not need more food than average before getting full.
 * ...Maybe her other two heads get jealous if only one head eats (*totally making crap up*)


 * Sure, Ranma is honor-bound (in some Moon Logic way) not to reveal Ryoga's secret to Akane, but none of the other characters are. Why does someone like Kasumi or SOUN feel it necessary to hold this information from her? I mean, Soun seems pretty protective of his daughters and would presumably object if one of them was sleeping with a pig-man. He's also very gung-ho about Ranma and Akane's engagement, so there's another reason why he would want to end that form of contact between them.
 * At what point is it even suggested that Soun knows about Ryoga and P-chan?
 * P-chan has no problem going into the bath and coming out as Ryoga even while Soun is in there. The first instance happened as early as the Rhythmic Gymnastics tournament, both anime and manga. Soun reacted with a simple "..."
 * A fair point. That doesn't really prove much regarding how much Soun knows or cares about Ryoga, though. Soun has a tendency towards apathy with regards to the wackiness that's followed Ranma to his home. He may have simply stopped trying to keep track of how many random animal-people are running around Nerima, and just regards Ryoga as yet another spat of craziness that Ranma's dragging his daughter into. Even if he has made the association of P-chan being Ryoga, if he doesn't know that Akane doesn't know, and she seems happy to have her squeezable pig, he may not have any reason to bring the subject up.

But anyway. The "non-martial artist miner" recognized the Bakusai Tenketsu when Ryoga tried to use it, and specifically acknowledged that it wouldn't be any use in that situation, so it's very obvious the miner knows his stuff. At the very least, he's familiar with demolition-oriented techniques --and the Bakusai Tenketsu is an obscure enough technique that, up until then, only two people in the series knew about it, one of which learned from the other, and this other was a very long-lived, Chinese Old Master, at that. So no, even if he's not a martial artist, the miner isn't just a regular schmoe off the street... and that makes sense! There are weird people everywhere in the Ranmaverse. It's no more strange than a half-mad old hermit wandering the countryside with a giant brush to draw smiley faces of invincibility on people's bellies, or Genma creating the Cradle of Hell just by rolling on his back as a panda with a truck tire in his arms. But instead of just "anyone" being able to learn the SHD, it's far more likely that the miner, who is specifically versed in demolition techniques, saw Ryoga using the Bakusai Tenketsu, and recognized him as a fellow with enough focus and familiarity with chi to be able to use the more advanced Shishi Hokodan. And as a small, meta explanation that has nothing to do with the story: the happy miner guy is a parody of the "Safety first!" notices at Japanese construction sites and quarries, right down to his ovoid shape and his clothes. "Big happy smile" is his default look.) As for his concern about the consequences, well, that comes with the Ranmaverse too. It's a world where people sell mail-order Powered Armor that can match a Ranma-caliber fighter blow for blow and don't worry if the buyer's target can take the punishment; where half-mad hermits make you invincible without caring if you're a criminal or not; where monks and temples give away wish-granting swords just because you're the ten-thousandth customer, or give away battlesuits that draw out your highest fighting potential just because they've had it with having them around. It's a very carefree, idealistic world, because most people in it are idealistic, and it's unusual to have realistic, or at least negative consequences to this sort of thing (Mr. Kumon being one of them, and that was Genma's fault).
 * The Shi Shi Hokodan arc. Ryoga originally learns the technique from an eccentric old miner. It's explicitly and repeatedly said to be powered by depression. The miner seems to be quite a happy go lucky guy. How can he use the Hokodan?
 * Also, how is it that the Shi Shi Hokodan is so powerful, being able to defeat Ranma repeatedly, and yet it's so simple that even a non-martial artist miner can use it? Wouldn't everybody use similar Ki Attacks, if they were that simple and easy? Or is it just another weird Martial Arts and Crafts thing, and the miner is actually a Martial-Arts Mining practicioner?
 * They covered this in the arc itself. The Shi Shi Hokodan is a technique that requires suicidal levels of depression to pull off, and very few people can reach that level. Further, it's ultimately not a very effectual technique; it's only really useful when you're both losing badly and suicidally depressed, and the moment you start winning, the upswell of hope renders the Shi Shi Hokodan no longer usable. Against a superior opponent, this results in an indefinite seesaw effect.
 * That's not really accurate. The Shishi ("lion" is one word) Hokodan requires a "heavy heart" or a "heart filled with heaviness" (Takahashi milks the term for all it is worth with puns) not suicidal thoughts (although the Perfect version comes really close.) Even Ranma was able to fire them off and he's not particularly self-destructive. Hell, during the SHD duel in the Tendos' back yard, they were able to let them out just by tapping into the negativity of some really petty stuff, and sometimes it seemed that anger worked just as well. Even when he was only just learning the technique, Ryoga was pretty calm and collected before and after using it, implying that he could tap into sad thoughts and vent them through the technique, but not going over the edge into suicidal ones.
 * None of which explains why the happy-go-lucky miner, even if we assume he's actually a powerful and skilled Martial Arts and Crafts mining Old Master, can use an explicitly depression-fuelled technique. Knowledge and ability are different things. For example, Ranma made the Moko Takabisha, so he should be its one true master, but it still let him down in the key moment because he didn't have the confidence to make it work (staring down a huge Angst Nuke, who would?). He had the knowledge, but not the ability, because he didn't have the emotional power to back it up. Not to mention when he was practicing it. Why didn't the same thing happen to the miner? He's smiling when they both use the Hokodan together for Ryoga's first time! How is the miner powering the Shishi Hokodan without depression? "Heavy Ki, Heavy Heart..." The miner seems about as light-hearted as they come...! Light-hearted enough to teach a random a really dangerous technique without concern for the consequences, just because they look talented...
 * It doesn't really need an explanation, though. For starters, we never really see the miner use the SHD (at least on the page; I admit I've only watched the animated version once, many years ago.) We only see him "do it" in the instructions Ryoga is reading off the scroll. And in those instructions, Step 1 is the miner looking all sad and gloomy while he gathers the heavy chi, and Step 2 is letting it out while he has a big smile on his face. It looks more like an illustration saying, "Congratulations, student, you did it!" And even if it's not, and the picture is accurate to the guy's expression, hey, maybe the sad little miner becomes a happy little miner by releasing the heaviness through the technique? Maybe he's a generally happy guy, and he's thinking of his dead grandma, his lost pet, or his first love when he gathers the chi, and then goes back to his generally happy life when he's not using the technique? As for knowledge versus ability, the SHD failed Ryoga too when he thought he had a secret admirer, and he was so happy over it he couldn't really focus on heaviness. But when he thought he was disappointing her, he tapped into THAT and pulled it off, and was instantly happy and smug about it. Just like the Moko Takahisha, the technique needs the emotion while performing it, not as a way of life.
 * Another WTF point: Ryoga hits Ranma with the Shishi Hokodan several times in a row at the very start of the arc. It actually gets visually bigger every time. Ryoga now has an ultimate technique Ranma has no answer to (yet). He's (temporarily) achieving his ultimate goal of defeating Ranma. I know I'd be pretty elated, not depressed, if I (thought I) was achieving my life's goal. Where is his power source at that point? In the backyard SHD duel, they're blast-for-blast (nobody is really winning), and Ryoga is deliberately bringing up all his grievances.
 * Dude, I said it up there: the SHD doesn't require a constant state of depression, it just needs a heavy heart while performing it. When Ryoga first shows up, he's clearly downplaying the power of the technique to psyche himself for it, saying stuff like how he doesn't think it'll work and all. And since Ranma's traditional opening style is to rush in and attack, Ryoga could very well be focusing on sad thoughts (even as he's starting to win) and pay only enough attention to Ranma to aim. And he IS overcome with joy and dancing with happiness when he dumps Ranma at the Tendos', but when he needs to use the SHD again, he focuses on something bad. It's simple. Even in the SHD duel in the backyard they do the exact same thing: one guy hits the other with a blast, and is smug/happy about it, which makes the other guy sad/depressed enough to fuel his own SHD, lather, rinse, repeat.


 * How much water does it take to trigger a Jusenkyo curse? Many scenes have Ranma dodging water in ways that would have some hit him. On the other hand, other scenes have him getting hit by a splash from something else and transforming. Also, when he transforms on purpose, he always seems to drench himself with a bucket, rather than say wash his face with cold water. The human body is supposedly like 90% water. Where is the line?