Sixteen year-old Ranma Saotome has lived most of his life as a wandering martial artist with his father and frequent sparring partner Genma. On a training journey in the Bayankala Mountain Range in the Qinghai Province of China, the two fall into the cursed springs at Jusenkyo. When someone falls into a cursed spring, they take the physical form of whatever drowned there hundreds or thousands of years ago whenever they come into contact with cold water. The cursed will revert when exposed to hot water until their next cold water exposure. Genma fell into the Spring of the Drowned Panda while Ranma fell into the Spring of Drowned Girl.
The story opens with the pair coming to settle in the dojo of Genma's old friend Soun Tendo, a fellow practitioner of Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū or "Anything-Goes" martial arts which Genma passed on to Ranma. Genma and Soun agreed years ago that their children would marry and carry on the Tendo Dojo. Soun has three teenaged daughters (in birth order): the "Buddha-like" homemaker Kasumi, the selfish materialist Nabiki, and the hot-tempered, but valiant and helpful, martial arts practicing Akane. As Akane is Ranma's age she is appointed for bridal duty by her sisters. Although both initially refuse the engagement and often (but not always) play-down their engagement, they are generally treated as betrothed and end up helping or saving each other on numerous occasions (often on a pretext). They are frequently found in each other's company and are constantly arguing in their trademark awkward love-hate manner that is a franchise focus.
The Ranma½ cast
Ranma goes to school with Akane at Furinkan High, where he meets his recurring opponent Tatewaki Kuno, the kendo team captain who is aggressively pursuing Akane, but who also falls in love with Ranma's female form without discovering his curse. Furinkan serves as a backdrop for more martial arts mayhem with the introduction of Ranma's regular rivals, the eternally lost Ryoga Hibiki, the nearsighted Mousse, and Ranma's perverted grandmaster Happosai. His prospective paramours include the martial arts rhythmic gymnastics champion Kodachi Kuno, the okonomiyaki vendor and his second fiancée and childhood friend Ukyo Kuonji, along with the Chinese Amazon Shampoo, supported by her great-grandmother Cologne. As the series progresses, the school becomes more eccentric with the return of the Hawaii-obsessed Principal Kuno and the placement of the power-leeching alternating child/adult Hinako Ninomiya as Ranma's English teacher.
TV Series Deviations
The TV series stays true to the above description. The TV series does diverge from the rest of the series by keeping Ranma's gender transformation a secret to the high school students at least throughout most of its length (in both versions, the Kuno family act as if there were two Ranmas). The TV series also fails to introduce geeky, voodoo-practicing Hikaru Gosunkugi until very late in the series. Gosunkugi is an important rival for Akane's affections in the early manga. Instead, the TV series introduces a major recurrent character: Sasuke Sarugakure, diminutive ninja retainer of the Kuno family. Sasuke fills a number of Gosunkugi's roles in early storylines but is a major character in his own right.
Japanese Cast
Kappei Yamaguchi as Ranma Saotome (Male)
Megumi Hayashibara as Ranma Saotome (Female)
Noriko Hidaka as Akane Tendou
Hiromi Tsuru as Ukyou Kuonji
Hirotaka Suzuoki as Tatewaki Kunoh
Ichirô Nagai as Happousai
Kenichi Ogata as Genma Saotome
Kikuko Inoue as Kasumi Tendou
Kouichi Yamadera as Ryouga Hibiki
Kouji Tsujitani as Tatewaki Kunoh (eps 83,84,86)
Minami Takayama as Nabiki Tendou
Miyoko Asou as Cologne
Rei Sakuma as Shampoo
Ryunosuke Ohbayashi as Souun Tendou
Saeko Shimazu as Kodachi Kunoh
Tatsuyuki Jinnai as Principal Kunoh
Toshihiko Seki as Mousse
Yuji Mitsuya as Ono Toufuu-sensei
Akiko Hiramatsu as Miscellaneous female voices
Akira Ishida as Yutaro
Akira Kamiya as Sasuke Sarutobi
Akira Murayama as announcer (ep 26-27)
Arihiro Hase as Niku-man 4
Banjou Ginga as Shampoo's Father
Bin Shimada as
Niku-man 3
Sentaroh Daimonji
Chie Kitagawa as Matsu (ep 97)
Eiji Maruyama as Oshou (ep 82)
Eiko Yamada as Tsubasa Kurenai
Hideyuki Tanaka as Torajiro Higuma (ep 73)
Hiromi Tsuru as Kaori Daikoku
Hiroshi Masuoka as
Junsenkyo Secondary chairman (ep 48)
Old Man (ep 116)
Hisako Kyouda as Iemoto
Houchu Ohtsuka as Gindou (ep 78)
Isamu Tanonaka as Niku-man 1
Issei Futamata as
Hikaru Gosunkugi
Miscellaneous male voices
Jouji Yanami as
Harumaki
Old Man (ep 79)
Jun Hazumi as Okame (Torahachi) (ep 94)
Kachiko Hino as Koharu (ep 85)
Katsuji Mori as Sankichi (ep 85)
Kazuhiko Inoue as Mikado Sanzenin
Kazuko Sugiyama as Cirucs manager (ep 70)
Keiichi Nanba as Picolette Chardin II
Keiji Fujiwara as Daitokuji (ep 98)
Kinto Tamura as Chingensai (ep 50)
Kôhei Miyauchi as Priest (ep 101)
Kôichi Kitamura as Ultra (Kumajiro) (ep 94)
Kouichi Yamadera as Jusenkyou Guide
Kouji Tsujitani as Hiroshi
Kôzô Shioya as Circus announcer (ep 31-32)
Mahito Tsujimura as Ex-Chairman (ep 46)
Mari Yokoo as Yohtaroh's Mother
Masako Ikeda as Nodoka Saotome
Masako Katsuki as
Mio (ep 57)
Yang-gui-fei (ep 46)
Masami Kikuchi as Ken (ep 60)
Masashi Sugawara as Hotel Owner (ep 99)
Mika Kanai as panda in drawing
Minori Matsushima as Temari (ep 94)
Mitsuki Yayoi as Tsukasa
Mugihito as Chairman (ep 48)
Naoko Matsui as
Azusa Shiratori
Yohtaroh
Natsuko Fuji as Ume (ep 97)
Natsumi Sakuma as Take (ep 97)
Rei Sakuma as little Ho-o-
Reiko Suzuki as Baa-san
Rokuro Naya as Hyottoko (Ryuukichi) (ep 94)
Ryuuji Saikachi as
Anna's Grandfather (ep 108)
Frog Hermit (ep 100)
Shigeru Chiba as
Niku-man 2
Sasuke Sarugakure
Shinnosuke Furumoto as
Heita (ep 74)
Taro Pansuto
Sho Hayami as Uchinosuke (ep 108)
Tadashi Nakamura as Narrator
Takehito Koyasu as Daisuke
Takeshi Aono as
Bakuchi Oh King
Kinni (ep 48)
Takuzou Kamiyama as doujou yaburi
Tateno Hitouchi as Principal Kunoh
Tomohiro Nishimura as older Ho-o-
Tomomichi Nishimura as Restaurant Owner (ep 88-89)
Yoshiko Ohta as Ono Kin
You Inoue as Rinko
You Yoshimura as
Bake-neko
Kinnosuke
Yuko Kobayashi as
Anna (ep 108)
Ranran
Yuko Mita as
Linlin
Madame Saint Paul
Orihime
Yumi Takada as Midori-sensei
Yumi Touma as Hinako Ninomiya
Rica Matsumoto (ep 11)
(you can search for their info at http://en.wikipedia.org)
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