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In the Beginning Ranma 1/2 was created by Rumiko Takahashi, and has proved to be one of her most famous works. Takahashi's first popular manga title in the 1980's was the crazy Urusei Yatsura , about a beautiful alien who comes to earth and falls in love with a girl-crazy boy. Urusei Yatsura was then animated, and grew cult popularity. After she finished that story, Takahashi created the story of Ranma 1/2, much different from Urusei Yatsura, which turned off a lot of her previous fans. However, Ranma became even more popular than Urusei Yatsura had been! It was also animated and became one of the most popular anime series of all time, lasting many seasons and spawning many movies and OAVs! Rumiko Takahashi's works have been very successful, and with the printing of Ranma 1/2 Volume 34 in 1995, she had sold one hundred million copies of her works! With the finish of Ranma, she is currently doing Inu-Yasha, a story different from both Urusei Yatsura and Ranma! Only time can tell if this new work may become even more popular than her last!

The Story of Ranma 1/2 Ranma 1/2 is a story about a teenager named Ranma Saotome, who thanks to the curse of the Jusenkyo Springs in China, turns into a girl whenever he is splashed with cold water! According to the curse, if someone falls into one of the springs, they will turn into whatever last drowned there whenever splashed with cold water, and will need hot water to turn back into themselves again. Ranma and his father, Genma Saotome, were not aware of the curse when they practiced their martial arts there, and now Genma turns into a large panda as well. Genma made a promise to his old fiend, Soun Tendo, that his son would one day marry one of Soun's three daughters: Kasumi, the eldest, Nabiki, or Akane, the youngest, so that Soun's school of Anything-Goes Martial Arts would be carried on by the two families. Once the girls meet Ranma and see his curse in action, the two eldest quickly nominate Akane for the position of Ranma's fiancée. Boy-hating tomboy Akane is very upset at this, but Ranma is no happier to be engaged to such a mean girl. (To boys, anyway. She was really nice to Ranma when she thought he was a girl.) But Genma and Soun are determined that with a little time, one day Akane and Ranma will learn to love each other!

The Suitors However, nothing is ever easy. Akane and Ranma each have their own set of suitors, none too happy that either is engaged to someone else. What makes it even worse is that girl-type Ranma ( Ranma-chan), also attracts many suitors of her own! There's Tatewaki Kuno, obsessed with both Akane and Ranma-chan and Ryoga Hibiki, one of Ranma's enemies who also has the Jusenkyo curse and turns into a cute little black pig who Akane seems to favor as a pet, calling him " P-chan." (And, of course, she doesn't know it is Ryoga, who develops a crush on Akane after she starts liking him as a pig.) Ranma gets many women suitors as well. Shampoo, a Chinese Amazon warrior, first shows up at the Tendo's school seeking Ranma-chan to give her the "kiss of death," an Amazon law stating that if a warrior is beaten by a woman, she must kill her. Once boy-type Ranma defeats Shampoo in combat, she is overjoyed because the same law states that if a man beats an Amazon, he must marry her. Shampoo is heartbroken to discover that Ranma and Ranma-chan are the same person, and returns to China. But, she returns a while later, now Jusenkyo cursed to turn into a cat, with a quest to marry Ranma. One bad thing, though: Ranma has a phobia of cats! Kodachi Kuno, known as the " Black Rose," is Tatewaki's sister and a star gymnast who grows an immense hatred of Akane after she falls for Ranma, and will use any sort of trickery to get Ranma for herself! Ukyo Kuonji is also another one of Ranma's fiancées, apparently betrothed at a young age to Ranma and is determined herself to get him, accompanied always by a very large spatula she likes to swing at anyone who gets in her way.

Meet Supporting Cast There are countless supporting characters as well. Mousse, who because of Jusenkyo turns into a duck, is Shampoo's rejected suitor who refuses to wear his glasses although he really needs them and follows Shampoo and her grandmother, Cologne. Cologne is an elder of the Amazons who teaches both Ryoga and Ranma their ultimate martial arts techniques. And of course, there's everyone's favorite little pervert, Happosai, an old man who loves girls' underclothing and trained Genma and Soun and is teaching Ranma his techniques-as long as he as rewarded by seeing Ranma-chan in a bra. (Which of course Ranma does NOT oblige to!) Along with the myriad of supporting characters, there's the fact that it's all set at a martial arts school, so there is much fighting! But it's never serious, usually over love, and done in the weirdest ways!

The Viz effect English version: Viz Videos is releasing the anime in dubbed and subtitled formats and is doing an excellent job. Viz Comics also translates the manga. By Raye