Special Characters used in Ranma 1/2 Z:
ver 1.9
(just click on the name)
Most of them are high quality and original drawings by the esteemed
Rumiko Takahashi.
Dr. Gero
Akari Unryu
Herb
Hiroshi and Daisuke
Kirin
Kumon Ryu
Pantyhose Tarou (Pansuto Tarou)
Sanzennin Mikado
Shinnosuke
Toma
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Dr. Gero
He first worked as a scientist for the red ribbon army. He was originally killed in the series, but somehow he rebuilt himself as Number 20 - The first of the artificial humans (or cyborgs). He is very old, ugly, and has long gray hair. In DBZ, he traveled back in time with #19 to destroy the world. Later he himself is destroyed.
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Akari Unryuu :
First Appearance: Ranma Nibunnoichi manga vol. 30
(Multiple appearance)
One day a huge and violent pig appeared in the streets, beating up every young person it sees. It finally met up with Ryoga, whom brings the pig down with one strike. As Ryoga was walking away, a girl with dark long hair in attractive clothing called out to Ryoga, saying that he’d the victor, and gives him a love letter. This girl is known to us as Akari Unryu. Later we find out that the pig is called “Sumo Pig”, raised in Akari’s family sumo pig farm. Sumo Pig was the 14th generation champion sumo pig in the farm. When Akari’s grandfather was on his death bed, his lasts words are (translated) “Akari, you should live with a healthy and strong man. I won’t allow you to date anyone that couldn’t defeat Sumo Pig...”. Akari soon finds out about Ryoga’s curse, and absolutely adores it. Ryoga also develops genuine feelings for Akari, which makes his life more complicated than ever.
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Herb (and Mint and Lime)
Appearance: Ranma Nibunnoichi manga vol 24.
(One time only character)
(Note: just read the first paragraph if you don’t want the story to be spoiled)
One day, Mousse and Ryoga was beaten by opponents with super human speed and super human strength. One of them also captures Akane and heads for the Nekohanten. Ranma saw Ryoga and Mousse’s battered body on the streets, and goes to the Nekohanten to meet these characters. He witnesses an armored and robed figure, who violently throws Akane into Ranma’s hands as he enters. Ranma comments that he wont forgive anyone that treats Akane so roughly, and attacks. The fight was short, but Ranma manages to pull the figure’s robe off, revealing a girl underneath. The girl, whom we now know as Herb, gets mad, and attacks Ranma with an incredible flying maneuver. Ranma flies back, and hits a bucket of cold water. Herb muses at Ranma’s transformation, and splashes her with water from the Chiisui-ton (permanent shape water container), then she and his company leaves. Cologne explains that these visitors are the descendants of China’s Musk Dynasty. People from the Musk Dynasty uses a special martial arts where they incorporate certain animal characteristics into their fighting style. They throw wild animals into the spring of drowned girl, splashes them with the Chiisui-ton to make them permanently human, and marries them. The children of these marriages inherit the special abilities of half-animal mother, such as Mint and Lime. Mint has the appearance and speed of a wolf, as Lime has the appearance and strength of a tiger. Herb is new leader of the Musk Dynasty, because she has inherited the abilities of the legendary dragon. Ranma later discovers that he can’t change back to a boy with conventional hot water. Cologne explains that the effects of the Chiisuiton, Ranma ask for a cure; Cologne states that water from the Kaisui-fuu (boiling water kettle) will reverse the effect. Unfortunately the Kaisui-fuu has been lost for countless generations, and now Herb and her followers are trying to uncover it’s location, for unknown purposes. With out a second thought Ranma also begins her own search for the Kaisui-fuu, along with Mousse and Ryoga (both of which wants to get the Chiisui-ton from Herb for selfish purposes).
On the journey, the Ranma team encounters the Herb team, and Ranma-chan and Herb-chan engages in another battle. Herb was getting the upper hand until she saw Ranma-chan topless and let her get in a hit. Ranma-chan wonders why this girl would be distracted by something she herself has. The battle ends when Herb doesn’t want to waste any more time, and goes to a mountain to look for the Kaisui-fuu. Of course Ranma’s group follows. Deep in the mountain, Ryoga and Mousse knocks Ranma-chan unconscious, and seeks out Herb to get the Chiisui-ton. They are intercepted by Mint and Lime, and the four engages in fierce battle. (Note: Mousse is fighting without his glasses) Mousse uses Mint’s weakness for girls and defeats him. Ryoga uses his Shi-shi hokoudan and beats Lime. Then they finally got their hands on the Chiisuiton and uses it. The effects were not as they had hoped: Since the water in the Chiisui-ton is cold, the Jusenkyo effect comes first, and transforms Ryoga and Mousse. Then Chiisui-ton’s effect takes place, and makes the change permanent. Ranma-chan finally regains consciousness and finds Ryoga and Mousse, and scolds them for their stupidity.
Suddenly the handle from the Chiisui-ton shoots out a beam that points directly to the Kaisui-fuu. Herb recognizes this, and becomes the first one to approach it (it looks like a huge kettle made of rock). She blasts the rock, and hot water begins to pour down like a waterfall. Herb walks through the waterfall, and comes out a man; his dragon-scaled armor now finally fits him. Ranma approaches, and Herb is determined not to let Ranma get to the magical water. A fight between two warriors ensue. Ranma is overpowered at first; she was not prepared for Herb’s sudden increase in power and speed. He attacks Ranma with unparalleled chi-attacks. However, she soon finds out that Herb’s weakness - -becoming shy at the sight of breasts, and makes him loses concentration of chi. Ranma was able to get in a few good hits, but is still no match for Herb. On the sidelines, Ryoga and Mousse has managed to snatch the Kaisui-fuu (which is really just a normal sized kettle hung inside the rock kettle) and regain their human forms. Ranma uses her Hiryu shoten-ha against Herb, who is shot up in the air, but comes down again and crushes Ranma with 5 meter wide energy sphere.
(The battle now goes into volume 25). Ryoga tries to throw the Kaisui-fuu to Ranma, but Herb knocks it off course and into a huge crack on the ground. Ryoga goes after it, but the crack closes itself, before Ryoga has a chance to get out. Ranma then starts his spiral around Herb again. Just as she was finishing it, the ground breaks open with a loud “Bakusai Tenketsu”, and hot water gushes from the breakage. Before Ranma raises her hand to unleash the Hiryu shoten-ha, Herb uses it instead, sending Ranma straight up into the air. The tornado combines with the water geyser that Ryoga has created, and Ranma transforms back into a guy at the peak of the tornado, descending toward Herb. Ranma has collected all the energy exerted by Herb’s energy, plus the tornado, and unleashes it in a 10 meter wide super chi sphere down on Herb. Herb is crushed to the ground, and finally defeated. The whole mountain starts to crumble under all the stress from blasts, and an unconscious Herb is saved from doom by Ranma. Then our victorious heroes goes home.
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Hiroshi
and Daisuke:
(Multiple appearances in Anime series)
Hiroshi has brown hair, and Daisuke has black hair. Both of these are Ranma’s classmates, and they both admire Akane and Ranma (in girl form). They have no special purposes other than being a background character.
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Kirin
Appearance: Ranma 1st movie.
(One time only character)
Things start with a girl called Raichi (Lychi), with her huge elephant, Jasmine, come looking for Happosai (to mercilessly beat on him). The cause of this is that a long time ago, Happosai has stolen half a scroll with a special technique from the Shichi Fukudoujin (seven gods of martial arts luck). The half scroll is supposed to bring the owner a prince charming. Happosai has no use for it, so he sells it Jasmine’s mom, who gives it to Jasmine. Ever since then Raichi has been having bad luck, so she comes and throws the half scroll back at Happosai, but instead it lands in Akane’s hands. Then Kirin comes in his flying balloon powered ship, and kidnaps Akane, telling her that since she holds the other half scroll, she will become his wife. Ranma and co engages in pursuit of the ship. They managed to get on the ship, and had a short stay. Ranma has taken this opportunity to endanger his relationship with Akane by saying the ol “why she would make a bad wife” theme to Kirin. Ranma gets slapped, and the rescue party gets thrown off board. The group hangs on a rope attached to the ship, all the way to China. Ranma and co then passes the 7 seven gates, each guarded by a “lucky god of martial arts”. In the final confrontation between Ranma and Kirin, Kirin is winning in the beginning, blocking all of Ranma’s Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken with chopsticks. Then Ranma develops a strategy and breaks the ground, letting spring water gush forth. He uses a “revised” Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken, meaning he now launches a water bullet with each punch. Kirin’s chopsticks in unable to block water, and is hit many times. Then both fighters get serious and uses their ultimate techniques. Kirin uses a spiraling wave of glowing chopsticks, and Ranma uses his Hiryu Shoten Ha. The dragon ascension wins, and traps everyone in it’s force. Ranma leaps to save Akane, and Kirin saves Raichi (who was saving the half scroll). After everyone calmed down, Kirin joins the two halves of the scroll. It turns out that the scroll contains a recipe for a husband-wife dinner. Everyone got mad, and kicked Happosai into the sky, and went home on Kirin’s airship.
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Kumon Ryu
Appearance: Ranma Nibunnoichi manga vol 28.
(One time only character)
While Ranma’s mother, Nodoka, was shopping with “Ranko” (Ranma’s alias whenever his mom is around), a escaped bear leaps out of no where. Also out of no where, someone yells a horrifying “DON’T MOVE!”, which phases the bear, then leaps out and attacks the bear with a powerful kick and a strange hand motion. The army boy-looking stranger leaves, but Nodoka picks up a scroll he left behind, which has “Ranma” written on it, and chases after him about. The stranger identifies himself as Ranma Saotome, and the technique he has just used comes from the Saotome School of Indiscriminate martial arts: Yamasen Ken (mountain of a thousand fists. Nodoka accepts this as the real Ranma, and invites him to stay at her place, while Ranma-chan stands helplessly near by.
Ranma then issues a challenge to this fake Ranma. They fight; fake Ranma uses the same technique as before, but Ranma was able to break it. Genma tells Ranma that he has created the Yamasen ken and Umisen ken, and has written them on scrolls. Somehow the “fake” has one of the scrolls, and the other scroll is in Nodoka’s hands. Ranko asks Nodoka if she has it, but she doesn’t know about it. The fake takes a much more cruel approach and searches Nodoka’s house. The fake then follows Ranko out of the house, and finds out that he has fought the real Ranma. He goes to Furinkan High the next day, bust into Ranma’s class, tells him that his real name is Kumon Ryu, and issues his challenge. During their next fight, the Ryu uses many Yamasen ken techniques to defeat Ranma, and wonders why Ranma doesn’t fight back with the more powerful Umisen ken. Ranma goes back home, where Genma has agreed to teach him the Umisen ken technique.
In their first lesson, Ranma is told to attack Genma, who has adopted a strange position: back hunched, arms bent with fingers tips facing down, and legs also bent and standing on toes. Soun, who’s outside the door, comments that he can no longer feel Genma’s presence. Ranma attacks, but all he managed to do was hit air, then before he knows it, he feels some sharp pains in his back, and falls to the ground, bruised and shirtless. Genma tells the story that it was because of his Yamasen ken, the Kumon dojo is destroyed, and now the descendent of the Kumon dojo is looking for the other set of the technique. When Ranma recovers, he realizes that the secret of Umisen ken is stealth, so that your opponent can’t sense you. He starts his training by stealing food, rearranging drawers, and messing up the house’s structure, all without anyone noticing until it’s too late. The Ranma sends a challenge letter to Ryu, stating that if he (Ranma) wins, then he nor anyone else will ever use these techniques again. If Ryu wins, then the Umisen ken belongs to him. Akane gets a envelope from Nodoka to give to Ranko, and inside it has a part of the description of the Umisen ken. Ranma finds out something surprising in the description, and also wonders if Nodoka has found out Ranma’s secret.
On the day of the battle, Ranma’s Umisen ken seems to get an advantage over Ryu’s Yamasen ken. As Soun observes the battle, he finally realizes the base for both techniques. The techniques work by portraying your enemy as a house, with a front door, floor, supports, and roof. Ryu’s techniques is for breaking and entering the door, and Ranma’s technique (to cause Ryu to lose balance) is compared to destroying the support of a house. Some other details of moves are also discussed. Back at the battle, Ryu enrages Ranma with his curse and not lying to Nodoka. Ranma’s aura becomes clearly visible, and Ryu can easily sense his every move. The battle rages on, while Genma remembers how the Kumon Dojo was destroyed when Ryu’s father used the technique on the house itself, causing it to collapse. Ryu becomes angry with this memory, and attacks with the highest level obtainable with the Yamasen ken - Kijin Dai Ran Bu (The dance of the mad demons). Ranma retaliates with the body protection shooting star cloth. Sufficient to say that Ranma won (if I go any more in detail of the battle, Ryu’s performance in Ranma 1/2 Z would lose it’s flavor). After Ryu’s defeat, Genma explained that Yamasen ken and Umisen ken were forged for a evil purpose: stealing (at a deadly degree). He let the poor Kumon family learn the technique because he thought it would help them steal food and money. Ryu became bitter, and everyone beat up on Genma. The secret of the Yamasen ken and Umisen ken is now locked away forever. Ryu leaves the scene, and Ranma’s secret remains safe from Nodoka (who has actually just ripped the scroll into envelopes without knowing that is was the Umisen ken).
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Pantyhose Tarou. (Pansuto Tarou)
First Appearance: Ranma Nibunnoichi manga vol 18.
Multiple appearances
A guy in robes comes to Jusenkyo one day and steals the guest register booklet from the guide, then travels to Japan and begins to beat up all the victims on the guest booklet. Those that were beaten, Mousse, Ryoga, and Genma, were all tied with pantyhose, as that was the culprit’s signature. Ranma was the next target. He was putting up a good fight until it started raining, and the guy turned into a hairy 13ft tall monster, accessorize with horns, wings, and tail. Ranma-chan didn’t stand a chance, and then Happosai came to the rescue. The monster got mad at the sight of Happosai, but was beaten; so he turned around, kidnapped Akane, and flew away. Ranma picked up the register booklet it left behind, and every name was crossed out except for Happosai. Happosai then remembered that when he was in Jusenkyo a long time ago, he baptized a young baby in the Niuhoomanmaorenniichuan (The spring of drowned bull-riding eel and crane-carrying yeti). Everyone thought it was because of this the monster has come looking for him.
Then the monster busted through the walls, and this time, Ranma-chan gets a chance to ride on the flying freak, hoping that he’ll bring her to Akane. Aerial combat ensues, which ended in Ranma-chan hurting the monster and then falling off a water fall near the mountains. Ryoga, Shampoo, and Mousse also comes to the mountains and revived Ranma, and claimed to also join in the battle to save Akane. The team had to pass a mountain side full of water traps. Ryoga, Mousse, and Shampoo all got transformed and became useless in the fight. Ranma managed to make it to the top, and faced off against the pantyhose guy (whose name is still unknown). During the fight, Ranma got transformed, as did the pantyhose guy; the others were getting hot water. Now it’s Ranma, Ryoga, Shampoo, and Mousse (all in normal form) VS the pantyhose monster. Unfortunately, it flew through a waterfall, and Ranma-chan is the only one capable of defeating it. She tricked it into throwing her with some knotted pantyhose. Ranma-chan used the elasticity of the garment and recoiled back at the monster with “Pantyhose Shooting Star Kick!”, knocking it senseless.
When they got him under control, they asked for the pantyhose guy’s name. Happosai remembered that on the day he baptized him, he named him “Pansuto Tarou” (roughly translated... Mister Pantyhose). Tarou wanted Happosai to change his name back (under his custom, only the person who first names a baby has the power to rename it). Happosai refuses. Then Ranma decides to help Tarou by staging a play where all the pantyhose in the world has been stolen by the creation he gave his name to: Pansuto Tarou. It backfires, and instead of Happosai willing to change the name, he wants to destroy the monster instead. As a going away present, Ranma hands over an unconscious Happosai to Tarou, so that he can do whatever he wants with him. Of course Happosai eventually escapes. The next time that Tarou makes his appearance (few volumes later) he also has an added weapon: squid like tentacles and the ability to eject black jets of ink. Apparently he wants to be more powerful by adding another weapon to his arsenal.
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Sanzenin Mikado
(Sanzenin means “3000 temples”. Mikado means “emperor”)
First Appearance: Ranma Nibunnoichi manga vol 3. (Makes few other cameo appearances)
Mikado is the pretty boy martial arts skater of the “Golden Pair”. Usually undoing the deeds that his skating partner Azusa has done, he first appears by giving P-chan back to Akane. He flirts and tries to kiss Akane, but is intercepted by Ranma’s patented flying-onion-to-the-face. Mikado accepts this challenge. While Ranma-chan and Akane was training for the competition, Ranma-chan slips and falls into Mikado’s arms, where he promptly lays a kiss on the “cute” girl he saved. Ranma-chan turns into glass and shatters, then runs away crying. He returns as male with a flaring aura, and fights Mikado right there. Ranma wins, and the next day at the real competition, Mikado vows to take away Akane’s first kiss, to Ranma’s discontent. Of course that goal is never accomplished.
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Shinnosuke
Appearance: Ranma Nibunnoichi manga vol 25.
(One time only character)
Things start Akane dreaming of something that happened in the past, about a certain little horn whistle she receives. She gets a strange telephone call, and goes to Ryoganzowa, where her family had vacationed years ago. She is attacked by a huge platypus, but is saved by a guy wielding a broom. Akane wonders if this was the same guy that had saved her all those years ago. Back then, the same platypus had scratched the boy’s back fiercely, then falls in a monster trap, and little Akane had to take him. This time, the guy again falls in one of his own monster traps, and again Akane had to take him home. Meanwhile, Ranma comes to Ryoganzowa to look for Akane. At the boy’s home, he explains to Akane that he and his grandfather are the guardians of the forest, keeping the over-sized animals from getting to the outside world. Akane asks Shinnosuke if he remembers the little whistle. He says no, and Akane is not sure if this was the same person that gave her the whistle years ago. It wasn’t until Akane saw Shinnosuke’s scars on his back that that she became sure. (The story now goes into Volume 26.)
The next morning, Akane makes breakfast for Shinnosuke and his grandfather, who exclaims that the food was the best they ever tasted. Then Shinnosuke goes out on his daily patrol, and Ranma witnessed the “friendly” attitude Akane has for Shinnosuke. Then Ranma gets some of Akane’s cooking, and comments there must be something strange with this forest -- huge animals, Akane’s cooking. Shinnosuke also senses a change in the forest, all the wells were drying up. The grandfather is in shock at hearing this, stating that if the wells dried up, Shinnosuke will die. He explains that the reason the animals are so huge in this forest is because of the forest of life. One day he finds Shinnosuke outside their shack, (where Akane has left him) with major slashes in his back. No medicine will heal him, only the Water of Life can sustain Shinnosuke’s life. Without the water, he will die. Mean while, Shinnosuke was fighting with the platypus, but during the fight he suddenly fainted, and Ranma saves him, and brings him back to the shack. Ranma notes how Akane cares for Shinnosuke, and when he asks Akane to go back home, she states she must stay with Shinnosuke. Ranma angrily runs off.
The next day, Akane, Shinnosuke, and his grandfather goes in search of a way to fix the disappearing water of life problem, and find a permanent cure for Shinnosuke. Akane and Shinnosuke was holding hands during the trip, which Ryoga witnessed. That night, the grandfather dressed up like a women, for a reason unknown to Shinnosuke. Shinnosuke confesses his love to Akane. Then Ranma showed up, demanding Akane why did she chose Shinnosuke. Shinnosuke interfered, and they had a short fight, with Akane protecting Shinnosuke from Ranma’s attack. Ranma backed off, his spirits crushed, and said one last good bye to Akane. Meanwhile, the grandfather in disguise aroused a monster from the deep. A 7 headed dragon rose out from the water, attacking the grandfather, whom Ranma had to save. They ran back to Akane and Shinnosuke, and everyone hid in a cave. The grandfather explained that the dragon (Orochi, the eight headed dragon) was the source of the Water of Life, and the algae on it’s head is the essence of the water of life. Only the algae can permanently cure Shinnosuke. They plan how to get some of the algae and make the monster peaceful again. The grandfather states that it’s weakness is beautiful women and alcohol.
Next day, the male heroes dressed in women’s clothing, while Akane dressed in boy’s, and together they approach the dragon. While the boys provide distraction, Akane leaps from head to head, trying to get the algae, but found none. She noted that so far they have only been fighting 7 heads. After some more fighting, the 8th and most massive head shows up, bearing the algae on it’s forehead. Akane goes after it, throws the algae to the old man, but is captured by the dragon and brought under water. Ranma goes and saves her, tells Shinnosuke to “take care of Akane”, then goes after the dragon head. Shinnosuke receives the algae, and his wound is gone. Meanwhile, Ranma-chan gets trapped inside the dragon’s mouth. Akane goes to the rescue, stating that Ranma is her fiancee. She succeeds, then Ranma has to saves them both from being eaten. They are together once more. However, the dragon is still not down, and the old man brings up that the horned whistle is the only thing that’ll stop the dragon. Akane blows it, the dragon goes back to sleep, and the forest is peaceful again. The story ends with Ranma going back home with Akane, and Shinnosuke sees them off, wondering.....
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Toma
Appearance: Ranma 2nd movie
One time only character.
The Ranma crew decided to take a summer vacation out in the seas on Kuno’s boat. The boat crashes, and everyone is stranded on the island. The women of the group begins disappearing one by one, the next target is Akane. When Akane was being kidnapped by sudden “holes” in the ground, everyone became alerted and exposed the kidnappers. A prince appears in a bright flash of light, warning that if anyone disobeys him, he would curse them with a magical water, which would turn anything it touches into a man. Ranma, Ryoga, Mousse, and Genma goes after the water, but is defeated by Toma’s illusionary sword. Then the prince brings Akane to the floating island of Togenkyo, where he lives. The rescue party goes after them. It would seem that Toma was finding a ideal wife by capturing all the women in the. Ranma-chan breaks in, not only to save the others, but trying to get to the man-water. Toma announced a series of competitions where the winner would be his wife. Ranma wins with flying colors in each competition, until Toma releases a swarm of cats, and the result was chaos everywhere. Then Akane boldly walked up to Toma and slapped him, giving him a lesson about love. Not so surprisingly, Toma chooses Akane for his wife. Ranma then comes up, again saying crap about Akane to get Toma to lose his interest. Akane gets mad, and goes off with Toma. Toma tells of how he is orphaned at birth, and of his island’s special magical pond that is the source of the man water.
Meanwhile, the other women are divided up for the various members of Toma’s elite fighters. Kuno TRIES to save Nabiki, Mousse saves Shampoo, Ryoga saves Ukyou. Ranma manages to find where Toma is hiding, and issues his challenge. They fight, and Ranma finds he couldn’t even get close to Toma, because of his illusionary powers. Ranma finally breaks through the illusion and gets a hit. Akane shows Ranma where the pond was, but is immediately captured by Toma, who brings her down to what seems like a mine. Ranma follows by hoping on another cart. He finally gets Akane out of Toma’s hands; unfortunately, they were both falling out of the tracks and into the man-pond. Ranma destroys the pond with a chi-blast, not wanting Akane to become a man. The whole island of Togenkyo erupts with the destruction of the pond, then there was peace among everybody. The other victims of Jusenkyo are mad at Ranma for destroying the pond, but Toma’s henchman says that after a couple hundred (or thousand) years, the special sap from the trees will fill the pond up again. They spent the rest of the trip on Togenkyo until the island floats back to Tokyo.
