The Story

   It all started in Nerima, Tokyo, when one day Soun Tendo, the father of three girls and owner of the Tendo Dojo, recieved a letter from his old friend.  Excited, he rushed to tell his daughters.  One of those three girls was to marry Ranma Saotome, the son of Soun's old friend, Genma Saotome. 

    That night,  Ranma and Genma arrived.   They were both sopping wet, for it was raining.  Actually, Ranma and Genma didn't arrive..... a huge wet panda and a red headed girl did! 

    Apparently, Ranma had a strange curse: whenever he touched cold water, he became a red-headed girl!  Not only that, but Genma became a panda whenever he touched cold water.  They had been training martial arts in China, traveling everywhere.  Ranma had been training with his father for almost his whole life, being taken away from home at a young age to train.    They had reached an area called the Jusenkyo springs, and excellant traing ground.  There were pools of water everywhere, with poles sticking out of each one.   The two had each leaped onto a pole and started sparring in the air, jumping from one pole to another.  Eventually, Ranma knocked Genma into a pool. Out came a panda. Startled, Ranma dropped his guard, and was knocked into a neighboring pool. Out he came, a girl.

    The pool had been cursed, 1,500 years ago, when a young girl drowned in it.  Now whoever dropped into it became a girl when touched by cold water. The same went for all the other pools, depending on what had drowned in it. 

    After hearing the story, Soun was overjoyed. Since Ranma was still a boy, just cursed, he could still marry one of his daughters. He told Ranma to pick one.  The three girls, Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane argued.  Finally, Akane was chosen. (not by ranma, by Kasumi and Nabiki ^-^)   Soon after that, Ranma and Akane had thier first argument.

    The rest of the story tells how Ranma lives with the Tendos, in Japan. Martial ARts playes a big role in his life, and the story.   Ranma is a top martial artist, having been traing for all those years. He soon meets his old "friend" from Junior High : Ryoga. Then, a Chinese Amazon named Shampoo comes in pursuit of the female Ranma.  Finding that female Ranma was really male, she then changes her pursuit to trying to marry Ranma. Later, Ranma's childhood friend named Ukyo comes along, also being his fiancee. (Genma had agreed to the engagement a long time ago )    most of them: Ryoga, Shampoo, Mousse(a boy who had come chasing Shampoo) were also cursed with the pool.

    The ranma 1/2 story consists of 38 manga books altogether.  Ranma meets many characters, and goes through many challenges, most of them having to do with fighting someone or something.  His relationship with Akane progressed very slowly throughout.  They fought a lot, partially because of Ukyo and Shampoo crawling all over him almost all the tim,e and partially about anything else.   They do to have moments when they get along very nicely though. It seems like they are the focus couple. ^-^