Ranma ½/YMMV

• Adaptation Displacement:
  • A minor example. Because the 33 chapters that originally contained color were converted to gray scale in the Japanese tankobon and the English release of the manga was only in black and white (VIZ did do one volume in color), Ranma's female form became established in the majority of fans' minds as being a redhead. Any fanfic or fanart that portrays Ranma's female form as having black hair is more likely to receive a barrage of questions asking why the author changed the hair color than compliments from hardcore fans thanking them for going with the original depiction.
  • Particularly annoying when people complain about the fanart since Takahashi has had Ranma with a multitude of colors such as purple, pink, green, blond, and blue in noncanonical art such as on the covers and the art book.
  • Less obviously; the name of the martial arts style that Happosai, the Saotomes and the Tendos translates directly (more or less) as "School of Indiscriminate Grappling", and this is what the manga used to refer to it. In the anime, it was translated as the somewhat looser, but arguably catchier, "Anything Goes Martial Arts", and this is how it is most commonly referred to.

"The Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling... I like to call it Anything Goes."

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Every single character gets one, and the deliberate alternate depictions (for some subtle, for others blatant) in the anime only add fuel to the fire. For example: Is Kasumi truly sweet and naive, or does she merely act that way because it's expected of her and she subtly enjoys stirring up trouble through such methods as giving Akane a mallet and planting the idea that Ranma may attempt to rape Akane while she's weak from flu?
• Base Breaker:
  • Akane is the most blatant, but Ranma is right on her heels. However, you won't find many characters who haven't performed actions that alienated some fan, at some point. Some of the most commonly asserted instances are:
  • Ranma repeatedly beats people up and/or insults them and when they try to get revenge he shifts the blame to someone else.
  • After Ranma seems to repeatedly molest Hinako, and other women; he, explains the reason to Akane, but she ignores it and continues making him into the bad guy.
  • On another occasion Ranma had broken into Hinako's apartment (to check for the goldfish feeding her battle-aura). Akane ends up visiting at the same time, and sees Ranma being blown out of the apartment, followed by a distraught Hinako just coming out of the shower, and pleading for help. After the resulting pounding, and being told that nothing happened, Akane conversationally states "Oh, so you didn't try to have you way with her?"
  • Soun Tendo knocking Ranma and Akane out to try and wed them in their sleep and/or his plan to use Ranma's Nanniichuan gift to blackmail them into getting married, at the start and ends of the Jusendo arc, sometimes get this treatment.
  • Nabiki's spotlight stories. Especially the later ones.
• Cult Classic: During The Nineties, Ranma was one of the few anime/manga series to reach an audience outside the existing (and quite small, compared to today) fan community, acting as a Gateway Series for many.
• Deus Angst Machina: Ryoga Hibiki. This, Wangst, or neither?
• Die for Our Ship: Pick a pairing, any pairing.
• Draco in Leather Pants / Ron the Death Eater: The entire cast really — it doesn't matter which one you choose, someone somewhere in the fandom will be fashioning some nice leather pants for them, and likewise someone else will be portraying them as Satan's Little Helper.
• Ear Worm: Yapapa... Yapapa... The various opening themes can be pretty catchy.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Ryoga Hibiki, to the extent that Rumiko Takahashi actually ended up creating a girl from scratch solely so that Ryoga could break out of All Love Is Unrequited and be free of the Love Dodecahedron and find some measure of happiness. Nabiki also qualifies.
  • Tsubasa Kurenai is a fairly common character in older fanfiction, despite only getting one manga story, a bit-part in an anime Filler episode and a cameo in the first movie.
• Epileptic Trees: When Tofu comments he hasn't seen the Xi Fang Gao shiatsu technique "in a hundred years", a theory broke out that he's actually Really Seven Hundred Years Old.
• Evil Is Sexy: Nabiki is arguably easily the most genuinely evil female character in the manga series, yet tends to easily get the biggest share of this among the readers, due to the mischievous sarcastic wit and worldvise hedonistic sex appeal. Shampoo is also one of the most villainous girls in the original manga, isn't exactly innocent in the anime (although much nicer than in the manga), and is typically regarded (in series and out) as being pretty hot-looking.
• Expies (whether influenced by Ranma ½ characters, or the other way around):
  • Ranma: Ranma himself seems based on Ryonnosuke from Urusei Yatsura, but then so does Ukyo.
  • Akane: Most explicitly Makoto seems based on her in virtually every detail including "rage-power boost" special technique and skyward punch. To a much lesser degree Amane Kaunaq, a more mature version of herself, who is part-time model, part time policewoman, retains the same explosive temper, and has exactly the same relationship to Seryuu as she has to Kuno, but is considerably less prudish. Likely due to some of the creators having worked on the Ranma ½ anime.
  • Genma: He seems based on Ryonnosuke's father of Urusei Yatsura.
  • Kasumi: Belldandy of Ah! My Goddess ends up with a similar personality and the same voice actress in the anime. Tsunami of Tenchi Muyo! is also part of the same archetype and by creators who worked on the Ranma anime a few years previously.
  • Soun: Amane's father, the overemotional, and overprotective, Mister Kaunaq also comes across as a very deliberate Shout-Out to Soun.
  • Shampoo: Renka, the cat-like kung-fu Chinese takeout waitress (and wannabe love interest), from Historys Strongest Disciple Kenichi definitely seems strongly based on the anime version of Shampoo.
  • Kuno: Seiryu Tennan seems directly based on Kuno to an extreme degree. The name means "Azure Dragon" (instead of "blue thunder"), so there may be some allusion there as well. Kuno himself seems based on Mendou of Urusei Yatsura.
  • Kodachi: Kodachi seems based on Ryoko, Mendou's sister of Urusei Yatsura, basically being a more flamboyant, and less manipulative, version of the same sadistic aristocratic personality.
  • Ryoga: It could be argued that he shares various characteristics with Ryu Hoshi from Street Fighter, such as being constantly training stoic bandanna-wearing martial artists Walking the Earth with a backpack, while struggling between personal nobility and strong negative emotions, although Ryu is a considerably more mature version of the archetype, and their personalities are quite different in other ways. Sagara Sanosuke of Rurouni Kenshin is also quite similar in personality and lost Walking the Earth nature.
  • Ukyo: Inuyasha's Sango seems directly based on Ukyo. The latter even shares her voice actress in the English dub. Ukyo herself seems more based on Ryonnosuke from Urusei Yatsura, but then so does Ranma.
• Fan Disservice: Genma is sometimes nude when he changes back from panda form... Fortunately, usually averted — he seems to have eventually mastered the art of magically appearing clothing. Plus some of his fans wouldn't object too much.
• Fan Dumb: Mostly related to the shipping wars, but a surprising amount due to people insisting on putting serious interpretations on Rule of Funny plot developments or visual gags and slapstick. On the other hand, several of the instances this is claimed for are in context parts of an entire story circling around a certain theme, and the same argument can easily be made about the fans who go to lengths to ignore anything, no matter how repeatedly and consistently a certain behaviour happens. Basically it is only true fandumb if it is an Out-of-Character Moment, rather than a pattern, alternately if somebody is willfully completely ignoring the pattern.
• Fanon: So, so much of it, mostly stemming from the rather uncoordinated release of English dubbed material and a huge Fanfic base with more crossovers than is sane. See the main article for more.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: As the only canonically requited matches in the Love Dodecahedron are between Ranma/Akane, Genma/Nodoka and Ryoga/Akari, every other pairing, including Shampoo/Mousse and Tofu/Kasumi, belongs in this category. Just the same, almost every single matchup inside the dodechedron (and numerous ones outside it) has fans. Ranma in particular is the Launcher of a Thousand Ships, although Ranma/Ukyo, Ranma/Ryoga, Ranma/Kasumi etc. are all individually less popular than Ranma/Akane. Ryoga and Ukyo, who weren't directly connected by any love triangles, are quite popular as a Pair the Spares matchup, despite a definitive Ship Sinking story and Ryoga's later involvement with Akari — this is doubtless due to the anime's influence, as its cancellation three years prior to Akari's introduction meant she never appeared in it, and the Ship Sinking story in question was a lot more ambiguous in the animated portrayal.
• Fan Wank: Ki Attacks get a lot of this. Everything which isn't explained in-universe, and which is really explainable by the Rule of Cool, Rule of Funny, and Supernatural Martial Arts, tends to be attributed to Ki manipulation. Mousse having a Hyperspace Arsenal up his sleeves? He's using Ki to compress space. The Happo Fire Burst explosives? Conjured from Ki. Akane's "signature" Hyperspace Mallet (which she doesn't even use that often)? Obviously a Ki construct. Kuno's implausible use of his Bokken? Clearly, it's reinforced with his Ki! Ryoga's razor-sharp belt and bandannas, as well as Kodachi's ribbon? A Ki-based ability called Iron Cloth (this also partially solves the Plot Hole of why Ryoga knows the feminine "sport" of Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics - he wanted the Iron Cloth technique).
• Faux Symbolism: Given the cultural backdrop of Japan, when asked if Ranma was an effort to enlighten a strongly male-dominated society, Takahashi replied that she doesn't think in terms of grand social themes, but strictly in stories that are fun and "märchenhaft". Of course that doesn't stop her from poking fun at the conventions every now and then.
• Foe Yay:
  • The fans tend to give Ryoga/Ranma a lot of this, regardless which gender Ranma is in at the time. Possibly based upon the fact that Ranma resorted to the "dress as a cute girl and flirt with Ryoga mercilessly" tactic whenever he needed a strategic advantage. Not to mention that, with the series reliance of Belligerent Sexual Tension, well...
  • Note that, canonically, Takahashi decisively punctured and made fun of this interpretation with the "Fishing Rod of Love" story. Ranma turns into a murderously obsessive stalker, and eventually pushes Ryoga into considering killing him/her in extreme disgust. Ditto for Ranma's reaction at the end, free of the influence, when Ryoga tries to hug Akane and proclaim his love... but got the wrong target. They're both completely heterosexual.
• Fight Unscene: Used more and more often the longer the Anime runs.
• Gateway Series: Possibly the gateway anime, along with Sailor Moon, in the 1990s.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Akane Tendo is one of the most popular characters in France and she is rarely a victim of hate.
• Having a Blast: Fanon is that the Happo Fire Burst is this (as well as a Ki Attack), due to the canonical Zig-Zagging Trope. Canon first presents it as a Dangerous Forbidden Technique, before revealing it to be a Joke Item - using fireworks to feign a high-powered Ki Attack. Then it becomes Happosai's signature move and actually quite effective (for the genre). Happosai gains the ability to pull bombs larger than himself from his shirt. Fanon immediately proceeds to claim that the Happo Fire Burst is actually a Ki Attack which conjures the explosives from Ki energy (see the Fan Wank entry above). Of course, Happosai is not the only one with a Hyperspace Arsenal, proving that in the setting, it is possible with enough skill, so they really might just be weaponized fireworks.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Akane Tendo, in the first volume/episode, is effortlessly tagged out by female Ranma in their first sparring match. She then states that she's just glad that she lost to another girl, because she'd hate to be beaten by a boy...
• Ho Yay: Ryoga and Ranma in the Love Rod mini-arc. It gets so convoluted that Akane honestly thinks Ryoga is gay, much to his dismay.
• I Am Not Shazam: The Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire is a training technique, not an actual attack. It is basically composed of removing several chestnuts from on open fire by hand without getting burned, success means that the trainee is now not only very fast, but accurate. The anime usually has Ranma shouting this when he uses his Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, however.
  • For some reason, a lot of the fandom refers to Shampoo's signature weapons as "bonbori" (in reality paper lanterns); this probably caused some confusion when listening to Akane's Baka Song, as she mentions bonbori. The round-headed maces are "chui".
  • Also there has been some minor confusion as to what constitutes Pantyhose Taro's first name. For the record, it's not "Pantyhose" --this is just a prefix to the "taro" component, so that in Japanese his name should be read as the single word "Pantsutotaro" (like, for instance, Kentaro, Yotaro, Kotaro, et al.) It is difficult to render it as a single word in English, however, making "Pantyhose Taro" acceptable.
• Indecisive Parody: While some people consider it an action comedy series where the humor extends into the depiction of martial arts tropes, other people see it as this. Especially since it pokes fun at otherwise serious scenarios (a duel against a nigh-invulnerable opponent whose fingerpoke can explode a person to bits, a teamup against a two story-tall minotaur monster, a no-holds-barred battle with a murderous ki master, a duel against a deathly-serious opponent with layers upon layers of meaning about family honor,) with hilarious lampshade hangings of techniques and deconstructions of the foes' motives (an "Ultimate Secret Technique" that consists of running away to think up something better, the monster is actually a Jerkass martial artist named "Pantyhose Taro" by Happosai, Ranma stealing the deathly-serious opponent's clothes and leaving him in boxers, etc.) And that's the "serious" fights against "serious" enemies --the comedy-oriented Martial Arts and Crafts contests fully embrace the trope, showing eating contests or martial arts cooking battles with the same exaggerated drama of Fist of the North Star or Saint Seiya.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Most if not all of the teen characters who are sympathetic. Some think that Ryoga fits best during his initial appearances, before his Heel Face Turn.
  • Mousse is initially a clearly morally reprehensible character, yet even Ranma and random strangers think he deserves some pity for his futile efforts at wooing Shampoo and his devotion to doing so.
• Jumping the Shark: Fans who disapprove of the series' Genre Shift agree that this happened, but opinions seem to differ drastically on exactly when, with the most popular allegations being against the introduction of Happosai, but other opinions placing the series' jump as late as the introduction of Hinako.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: Those who don't think of Mousse as a Jerkass Woobie (and even some who do) typically regard Shampoo's mistreatment of him at this. It shows she can be cold, cruel and callous, yes, but, as they point out, Mousse is a blatant Stalker with a Crush who has been harrassing her for thirteen years before the series starts, at least, and chased her to Japan openly declaring his intention was to Murder the Hypotenuse. Shampoo makes it extremely clear in both continuities that she does not love Mousse and has never loved him (making Mousse's attempt to beat Ranma to make him "give her up" clearly more using him as a scapegoat than anything), rather than this being a case of Belligerent Sexual Tension. Not only does she continually refuse his efforts to kiss her during one story in which she is looking at being turned into a cat forever if she can't be kissed, insisting that the only way the kiss will work is if she loves the person she kisses, the manga has a Filler story where she hears that it sounds like Mousse is going to die... and couldn't care less. While Ranma (who Mousse has tried to kill or at least humiliate dozens of times,) Cologne (who sees Mousse as an annoyance at best) and Akane desperately race to save Mousse, Shampoo promptly turns on her Super Nintendo and starts playing games, leaving Akane, who was trying to warn her, to go storming off in disgust.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Present early in the series, with many convenient bodies/sources of cold water, and Ranma frequently being forced into otherwise benign bodies of water due to his tendency to jump before he looked (Tendo koi pond, anyone?). Disappointingly increasingly Averted later in the series. They threw away/forgot one of the primary gags of the series. Especially by having Ranma keep his secret from the school the whole time in the anime.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Ranma Saotome's two forms, thanks to his canonical Love Dodecahedron, implied general attractiveness, and the fan-overstated tendency of his father to abuse Arranged Marriages that his son has no knowledge of.
• Les Yay:
  • Fanon is all over the place, but Shampoo certainly doesn't hesitate to Glomp Ranma in either form, and many of Ranma and Akane's most comfortable and relaxed moments have occurred while Ranma was female.
  • Akane's impassioned rants about how she hates boys certainly don't help matters — or possibly do help depending on the ship you prefer. Admittedly, that's usually blown completely out of proportion. Her complaints that she hated boys pretty much happened only right at the start, and were only about the ones that kept attacking/stalking her every morning. After they stopped she was usually shown being friendly and helpful towards boys as well as girls. She really doesn't like Kuno or Happosai though, but still always helps them out when they seem to need it.
  • Though not directed at anyone really noticeable, Nabiki has some really weird habits for a presumably boy-crazy girl. Like fondling female Ranma to determine that her breasts have grown. Or all the pictures of female Ranma in various states of undress she keeps around her room, but then again she does sell the prints to an awful lot of people.
• Lighter and Softer:
  • The anime, compared to the manga. Ranma Half may be a comedy, but it's an action/drama/comedy, and the original manga is pretty dark sometimes (more so if considered from a first-person point of view). As this blog points out, there are all sorts of things — Power At a Price is alive and well (Most of the Charles Atlas Superpowers or Supernatural Martial Arts come at the cost of Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training, include Dangerous Forbidden Techniques, inflict Power Incontinence (including more physical strength than you can safely handle), requires Training From Hell, is Harmful to Minors, or any combination of the above), for starters. There have been multiple near-deaths and attempted murders, there are spells and items that can take away your body, mind, even your personality, your dreams can be invaded... The anime, though, turns down many of these events and even removes a few altogether (if only because some of the darkest stories came out after the anime was cancelled). With its canonical Alternate Character Interpretation, the characters seem less of a Dysfunction Junction, which helps.
  • Example of the Lighter and Softer: in a Filler story, a mysterious weirdo has cursed paintings that he says will kill people if their seals are removed, citing how his grandfather and father, who painted two of them, died upon completion. In the anime, it's changed so that he specifies his ancestors were in their late 90s when they finished, implying he's just full of hot air and trying to drum up interest by overblowing things.
  • Oddly, though, it's the anime that has the spider-demon and oni's seals be removed, causing them to emerge as Kaiju, whereas in the manga only the scribble-panda comes out. Of course, Soun, Genma and Happosai promptly grow into giants themselves and hold them off all night without causing any damage.
• Magnificent Bitch: Nabiki when she is motivated to make a genuine effort, as in the Kinnosuke Kasha-Oh story.
• Mary Sue:
  • Canon Sue: Akari is regarded by some as this, on the basis that she is an official character created by Rumiko Takahashi and she displays traits of the Relationship Sue.
  • God Mode Sue:
    • Ranma is often portrayed as one in fanfic. Most evident in stories where he obtains an extreme powerup or ability that almost instantly makes everyone else he knows concede that he's the best and the only hope for the universe. Though, to be honest, the canonical version of Ranma in the manga (at least) can be seen as heavily leaning this way, for reasons outlined below, but his powers are balanced somewhat by his tendency to attract luck associated with the Butt Monkey or The Chew Toy.
    • With the comedic exception of ice skating he's pretty much instantly good at any skill he needs to use (tea ceremony, sewing, cooking) and prone to pulling the fact that he is good at them out of thin air when he turns out to need them.
    • He has superhuman abilities (Super Speed, Super Strength, Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, Made of Iron, Healing Factor, Ki Attacks) and comes off as superhuman even compared to the other superhuman fighters in the series (The only characters who can actually go toe to toe with Ranma in straight up serious battle are Ryoga Hibiki the Old Masters Cologne and Happosai, Pantyhose Taro's One-Winged Angel form, Ryu Kumon (who happens to wield a whole school of Dangerous Forbidden Techniques), the dragon-blooded Herb and the... well, however you'd describe Saffron).
    • Despite his canonical childhood, he is actually nowhere near as poorly off for social skills as you may think, being quite capable of being polite, charming, sincere and even seductive when he wants to be.
    • He can read, decipher and reverse engineer the attacks and skills of his opponents in lengths of time that can take anywhere from days to minutes.
  • Jerk Sue:
    • Nabiki is portrayed this way in fanon... However, the root material more portrays her as a comedic spoof of a Villain Sue.
    • Akane is also sometimes portrayed this way in fanfiction, usually by simultaneously overplaying her actual temper and willingness to use violence and portraying every single thing she does as being reasonable, no matter how unreasonably extreme she may be portrayed.
  • Relationship Sue: The blatant purpose behind Akari's creation was to give Ryoga a girlfriend and thus a happy ending, as well as a reason to stop chasing Akane. It worked in-series, but many fans preferred the Pair the Spares matchup of Ryoga and Ukyo. Specifically, Akari comes out of nowhere, with no previous ties to the characters, immediately falls head over heels for Ryoga, has no real character flaws, is absolutely perfect for Ryoga (sweet, demure, patient, understanding, kindly, loves pigs so much that she finds Ryoga's curse enchanting), Ryoga falls head over heels in love with her back, and she doesn't really do anything but stand around and talk a little. She only even shows up in four individual stories.
• Memetic Sex God: Ranma's two forms — likely causes are his apparent attractiveness to the opposite sex and the Power Perversion Potential of being a Gender Bender with Supernatural Martial Arts-based ultra-flexibility, stamina and recuperation.
• Misaimed Fandom: Nabiki is easily one of the most distinctive and compelling characters in the series. However, in at least the manga, she is also the one who is most uniformly shown as genuinely amoral and malicious, whereas even Taro, Shampoo, and Happosai are given a few Pet the Dog moments. Among several other things, she let Ranma and her family take the fall for her debts during a "let's make the opponent pay for everything" duel and took no responsibility herself even as the accrued debts ruined them, blackmailed male Ranma for a staged apparent rape for the fun of it, and repeatedly swindled kindergarten kids. Yet, she is recurrently greatly favoured and farfetched rationalised in simultaneous contrast with ones that are generally nice, with the bad moments as an exception, and much stronger contrasts, whether due to Evil Is Sexy, Opposites Attract, lack of other cerebral or relatively sane characters, sense of style, strict familiarity with the anime and fanon, or the writer identifying very strongly with her sociopath nature. Takahashi herself continuously drew Nabiki as a devil.
• MST3K Mantra: Invoked by the author regarding the technicalities of Ranma's shapeshifting.
• My Real Daddy: Ranma made Rumiko Takahashi a household word amongst American Otaku, and she's still the undeniable heart and soul of the whole franchise, but when most people picture the characters or try to draw them, it's the character designs of Atsuko Nakajima (specifically those featured in the OAVs and second movie) that they're imagining. See the main page's image for a prime example.
• Nightmare Fuel: For a zany comedy it has some pretty potent Fridge Horror, especially regarding the various curses. Speaking of which, let's not even bring up the infamous "Pregnant Ranma question"...
• Periphery Demographic: For a series aimed at teenage boys it was surprisingly popular amongst girls (particularly in Japan where Rumiko Takahashi had stated her surprise about it being so popular to young girls).
• Real Women Never Wear Dresses: Kasumi. OF COURSE!! She doesn't fight, she is not aggressive, does menial tasks and doesn't get involved other than being helpful to her family and friends. And she wears skirts or dresses ALL THE TIME. Which Fan Dumb fangirl wouldn't hate her for having the audacity of not being an Action Girl?
• The Scrappy:
  • Damsel Scrappy: Akane has moments where she could be seen this way, all the way to the end of the manga. On the other hand, she typically reacts by trying to escape on her own, and in many cases does manage to at least initially break free of them. But typically, unless her captor either isn't serious about it at all (Cologne) or too weak to hold her (Principal Kuno), her kidnapper outclasses her so badly she still needs Ranma to save her in the end.
  • Replacement Scrappy: The anime-only character Sasuke replaced Gosenkugi in many of the manga storylines, and is looked down on by some, particularly manga purists. However, others feel that Sasuke fit many of those roles just as well, if not better, and he really comes into his own when allowed his own stories. Even some diehard "manga-only" fanfic authors are only glad to use him.
• Seasonal Rot: The first three seasons of the anime are generally considered the best, with the subsequent seasons getting progressively worse. This is typically because the first three seasons are almost solely manga adaptations, and even their Filler stories were directly derived from Takahashi-penned characterization; meanwhile, the latter seasons were more loaded with original stories where non-Takahashi filler Flanderized or exaggerated the characters' traits. The anime getting cancelled before some of the biggest, most famous manga storylines were written doesn't help the frequent perception of the anime as inferior to the manga.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: One of earliest shipping wars to break out on the Internet, mostly among die-hard partisans of the three "official" fiancées.
• The Ship Yard: Most, if not all, varieties of Shipping described here have shown up in both canon and Fanfic — most notably the Ghost Ship, when in the anime Gosunkugi acquires a girlfriend who is an actual ghost.
• Strangled by the Red String:
  • The various romances attract a lot of tension and complaints. These typically boil down to the following.
  • Ranma/Akane: The two are way too hostile towards each other to work out as a couple, Belligerent Sexual Tension be damned, and they never seem to gain any trust for each other, to the point their last words spoken on-panel in the manga are blaming each other yet again.
  • Shampoo/Mousse: Shampoo has outright stated she hates Mousse from the moment he officially joined the cast, and Mousse seems oblivious to all her faults.
  • Ryoga/Akari: Akari is a Relationship Sue.
  • Ukyo/Konatsu: Konatsu is a doormat who appears out of nowhere, far too soon before the series end, and Ukyo finds him annoying but pitiful more then anything.
• Tastes Like Diabetes: Azuza Shiratori, who takes Kawaiiko to teeth-knotting extremes, from her outfit to her voice to her attitude.
  • Rouge's ultra-sweet human form's manner of speaking and generally acting.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In the Anime version, Ranma's curse may be considered this. There is no (canon) exploration of the possible Mind Screw of being able to switch sexes so easily; Ranma is unquestionably assumed to be a straight male, yet has apparently never considered actively using his Power Perversion Potential, and yet has gotten so used to seeing the female body from his cursed form that he can Ignore the Fanservice (at least, while the girl's not touching him). After a while, the convenient buckets of water even stopped appearing, and Ranma typically spent the whole episode either male or female (and usually only the latter when it was a plot point). So not only did they waste the plot, they also wasted plenty of perfectly good gags and Fan Service. It got to the point in the anime where the general rule was that the hottest shot we get of female Ranma is the episode title screen, where she wears a tight but otherwise demure one-piece swimsuit.
  • Additionally, unlike in the manga, anime Ranma's curse is never revealed to the school. This could have been used for tension or humour, but very seldom is past the first season.
  • On the other hand, the manga version (which covered 38 volumes, whereas the animated version stopped at volume 21) continued to draw upon Ranma's curse for endless gags, characterization, and the odd moment of drama involving Ranma's mother. And yes, for Fan Service as well.
• Thunder Equals Downpour / When It Rains, It Pours: Often an implausible plot point, or subtle gag/HandWave for why Ranma is female when he'd clearly rather not be.
• Unfortunate Implications:
  • Ranma's female form is practically a Kryptonite Factor in some stories. Physically this is justified; her arms and legs are shorter than his are, throwing off his timing and resulting in a number of embarrassing beatdowns. Where it really starts getting unfortunate is when Ranma meets fellow Gender Bender Herb, whose Ki Attacks are so much weaker in his female form that they lose visibility. In other words, a female body automatically weakens spiritual energy. Although, admittedly, a reasonable explanation could be that this is due to the difference between "Ying" and "Yang" energies. Or that it's simply because the natural differences throw them off, so mind and body simply aren't as harmonious as they are in natural form.
  • Also specifically averted in the two part OVA The One to Carry On, an anime-only story in which Genma tells Ranma that his real problem is he's never even tried to exploit the physical advantages inherent in his female form. Once Ranma admits that the Dumbass Has a Point, he quickly concentrates his training on speed techniques.
• Values Dissonance:
  • For a series in which characters of both sexes frequently go topless or nude, gender-bending antics abound, and a major character is an underwear fetishist, Ranma's approach to sexuality is surprisingly innocent. As hormone-crazed as they are, characters rarely think about or attempt any kind of sexual act beyond dating, kissing, and PG-level intimacy. The exception being Kodachi, of course, who is more than happy to poison, paralyze, or blackmail Ranma in her attempts to achieve her own personal desires with him.
  • Nodoka Saotome's Honor Before Reason contract may fall under either here or Deliberate Values Dissonance, depending on whether one believes she merely comes off as insane to non-Japanese or if she was supposed to be so over-the-top as to make Japanese readers feel uncomfortable with their perception of Seppuku.
  • Homosexuality is, at best, grudgingly tolerated; at worst, considered perverted by certain characters. The lengthiest discussion the topic generated, the Tsubasa arc, led to male Ranma attempting to "cure" Tsubasa out of her attracting to women by acting like such a suave playboy she'd fall for him instead.
• Wangst: Ryoga Hibiki. This, Deus Angst Machina, or neither?
• What an Idiot!:
  • Ranma's easily wounded pride means he gets a fair number of moments that make him behave very irrationally. Anytime a possible cure for his curse comes up, he gets jealous, he wants to upstage someone who beat him in something, a fiancée starts treating him coldly, someone claims that his female side isn't pretty, etc he generally does stupid stuff. Even his regular plots were stated outright as inane when trying to take revenge on Nabiki by saying "I love you" to embarrass her, and was promptly outmanouvred, and his zany Comedic Sociopathy ideas to manipulate Ryoga only work because Ryoga has a permanent Rule of Funny Idiot Ball for them. This type of thing accounts for 95% of everything he comes up with. The most complex idea he ever had was to set up a play for Happosai that was supposed to convince him that Pantyhose Taro wanted to steal all the lingerie in the world, and Happosai inexplicably moved backwards in time to get a chance to stop it. Somehow it sort of worked, but gave the opposite reaction. In his defence, he did at least ask Cologne for "suggestion incense", and he does have common sense when it comes to battle strategy. For example, he read up on the Chardin family to find a suitable approach, adapted strategies against Herb, Saffron, and such.
  • Nabiki's attempt to auction Ranma off to the other fiancés is slightly understandable, but you'd really think she'd know better, given she knows that they're basically all Jerk Asses whom Love Makes You Even More Evil and Crazy To Boot. However, to just barely get out of that experience with her skin intact, and then let them know Ranma is about to marry Akane? After they tore down Ranma's home over what they thought was him trying to deliver an engagement ring to her?
  • When Pantyhose Tarou first came back to Nerima after acquiring the octopus tentacles, he was so thrilled at having defeated Happosai he forgot the whole "make him change my name" idea and he let the old master slip away.
• What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Despite all the fanservice and sex jokes, the series is very much considered Shonen.
• The Woobie:
  • Most prominently Ryoga, Konatsu, Sasuke and Kumon Ryu, but depending on the version, any of the main cast can come off as this. The curses, Ranma's rotten family and love life, Ryoga's lonely existence and poor direction sense, the sheer onesideness of many of the character's romantic interests, Soun being a well-intentioned loyal nervous wreck, Nodoka being abandoned without her family desperately pining for her only child, the Kuno children basically being insane either raised without parents or occasionally an even crazier and completely irresponsible father.
  • Iron Woobie: Ryu Kumon, also a Stoic Woobie.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Ryoga Hibiki, Mousse, Ryu Kumon, Lychee, Ranma Saotome
• Woolseyism:
  • the English manga and dub script go to great lengths to adapt painfully-obtuse wordplay and remain faithful to the source. Similarly, they took great care to replace Kuno's quotations of classical Japanese poetry with equivalent passages from Shakespeare.
  • Some chapters/episodes even add in jokes and cultural references (many episode/chapter titles allude to films, literature, etc.) that weren't in the original script, in some cases making it even funnier. For instance, when Ryoga discovers that he is suddenly resistant to his curse during the waterproof soap episode, the Japanese script has him proclaiming (paraphrased) "Now we're equal... no, I'm superior!!" Ryoga's English voice actor, Michael Donovan, says this: "We're equals now, he and I... no, I'm even MORE EQUAL than he is!!"
  • Ukyo's translated pet name for Ranma could be considered this. With the limitations of the script system the translators were using, "Ranma-honey" was one of the better options for translating "Ran-chan".