Characters / Ranma ½: Ryōga Hibiki

Ranma ½ Character Index
Ranma Saotome | Akane Tendō | Ryōga Hibiki/P-Chan | Tendō Household Residents | The Chinese | The Kunos | Other Recurring Characters | Major Story Arc Characters

Ryōga Hibiki (響 良牙, Hibiki Ryōga) / P-Chan (Pちゃん)

^{Click here to see Ryōga's P-chan form} 

Voiced by: Kōichi Yamadera (Japanese), Michael Donovan (English), Gerardo del Valle (Latin American Spanish, episodes 7-12 and 56-158 and OVAS 7-8), Benjamín Rivera (Latin American Spanish, episodes 13-30, Movies and OVAS 5-6), Humberto Ramírez (Latin American Spanish, episodes 34-54), Raghda Khateb (Arabic)

Ranma Saotome's most persistent rival, a boy with a notoriously bad sense of direction whom he met in junior high school. During that time, they had an ongoing rivalry about who would get bread at lunch; Ryōga never won, and eventually got sick of this and challenged Ranma to a duel in the vacant lot behind Ryōga's house. Unfortunately, it took four days for Ryōga, and Ranma had left after the third day of waiting. For this, Ryōga started to chase Ranma and ended up in China, all the way to Jusenkyo, where he was knocked into the Spring of Drowned Piglet by a crazy girl chasing a panda — which is why he blames his curse on Ranma's "cowardice". Ironically, Ranma actually was responsible, as it was he and Genma in their cursed forms who had caused Ryōga to fall in. Eventually, Ryōga tracked Ranma down to Furinkan, where things got even more complicated when Ryōga fell in love with Akane, who was oblivious to this. Eventually, the two mellowed it out, though they still fought — as much for their mutual respect of each other's skills as because of their irritation, given Ranma's love of manipulating and poking fun at Ryōga. Ryōga's curse allows him to masquerade as "P-Chan", the adopted pet of Akane Tendō. Ryōga has a noble heart and usually means well, but he is also driven almost entirely by his whims and emotions; he can just as easily beat Ranma up as he can save his life.

Ryōga's awful sense of direction causes him significant problems and grief, though his reluctant travels serve to make him a stronger and more capable combatant. Ryōga is known to be good natured, chivalrous and oftentimes Super Gullible, putting him in conflict with Ranma, since the latter has little problem taking advantage of this.

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A–K

• Always Late: Ryoga constantly shows up days late for events on account of getting hopelessly lost on the way. A key incident in his backstory is that he missed a fight with Ranma on account of getting lost and arriving three days late.
• Always Someone Better: The source of his rivalry with Ranma partly stems from the fact that Ranma one-ups him in almost every encounter they have.
• Angst Nuke: His signature technique, the "Shishi Hōkōdan", gets more powerful the more depressed he is. He can either fire this as a horizontal blast, or launch it into the sky for a super-charged mortar effect, as it crashes back down to earth with increased force.
• Animorphism: Because of his curse, he turns into a black piglet when he gets wet with cold water.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Done twice with Ukyō. They're seen posing back-to-back with each other in the main page image, and near the end of the "Tunnel of Lost Love" episode, when they're defending each other from the ghosts.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: He's always seen wearing his leopard bandana, which he can use as a weapon.
• Bash Brothers: With Ranma, after he finally accepts him as a friend.
• Berserk Button: Do not hurt defenceless women while Ryōga is nearby, or you should probably start making funeral arrangements. This trait is so strong that Ryōga has repeatedly assaulted Ranma for hurting Akane's feelings... despite the fact that he wants Ranma and Akane to break up so he can have Akane, and he's openly admitted that it's good for him if the two are fighting.
• Beta Couple: With Akari. From what little we see of them, they have a much more functional relationship than any other couple in the series, with Ryōga's terrible sense of direction being the only thing getting in their way. Within the massive Love Dodecahedron, they're the only ones to get a nearly definite happy ending.
• Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Ranma's Veronica. Akane genuinely likes Ryōga and thinks of him as a good friend, allowing them to get along way better than she does with Ranma. However, Akane's feelings for Ranma are stronger and she doesn't even think of Ryōga as a love interest since she's clueless to his crush on her.
• The Big Guy: In terms of raw physical strength, there's no one on the heroes side who matches Ryōga. He's strong enough to toss aside boulders, crush concrete and metal with arms and hands, and runs through walls as if they are tissue paper. His Bakusai Tenketsu training also made him virtually Nigh-Invulnerable and he can shrug off all but the most powerful attacks.
• Blessed with Suck: As troublesome as his P-Chan form has proven to be, he finds it a great way to get closer to girls and relishes such moments. Of course, that particular situation happens relatively rarely, and otherwise it's a big fat "abuse me!" sign. Adding insult to injury, out of all the people that transform in the series, Ryōga is the only one who is effectively helpless and vulnerable when transformed; even Mousse is dangerous in duck form, unlike Ryōga.
• Born Unlucky: Life in general sucks for Ryōga. To wit:
  • He's cursed with an abysmal sense of direction, which makes something as simple as finding his way around his own home (if he can even find it to begin with) an exercise in frustration for him. Which is also why he hasn't seen either of his parents in years, since it seems to run in the family.
  • He was knocked into the "Spring of Drowned Piglet", which leaves him utterly defenseless when splashed with cold water. Making him easy pickings for wild animals, or wandering chefs who happen to see him. Whereas in the manga Ranma just knocked him over without even noticing he was there, causing him to plummet into the pond, in the anime it is pretty obvious that Ranma deliberately kicked Ryōga out of the way. Ryōga wound up in the spring because the cliff face broke under his hand after he fell over, causing him to lose his balance and topple in.
  • Then he fell for Akane, only to find out she was engaged to Ranma, and winds up becoming her pet pig instead. A fact which Ranma frequently mocks him about, which adds to Ryōga's already bruised ego and his fragile emotional state.
  • Ryōga is also extremely gullible and trusting, making him easy to take advantage of — with Ranma being the main offender, by repeatedly using his girl-form disguises to either spy on him, or toy with his emotions. However, Mousse and the others have also taken advantage of him, to their own ends.
• Breakout Character: Ryōga's moral and character complexity, along with being one of the first characters who could actually provide Ranma with a challenge, pole-vaulted him to fan-favorite status, after his introductory arc. He ended up becoming the third most important character after Ranma and Akane, and continues to be one of the series' most popular characters, years after its run.
• Bromantic Foil: To Ranma, although he plays with the trope in several ways. Unlike the typical Bromantic Foil, who is a hornball that is regarded with distaste by girls, Ryōga is soft-spoken, well-behaved and polite to girls, which means they tend to regard him with more favor than they do the brash, headstrong and caustic-tongued Ranma. He also has both a romantic streak and a severe shyness around the opposite sex, at least when dealing with a girl he genuinely likes; Ranma lacks the former and is nowhere near as shy as Ryōga, although he is kind of shy around girls himself.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Brooding Boy to Akari's Gentle Girl.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: A very good example. Despite being one of the physically strongest characters who tends to think with his fists, he has a very chivalrous side, especially to girls and the weak. This is clearly shown during the moxibustion arc where he is the only one of Ranma's rivals who doesn't take advantage of his weakened state, and actually defends him from the others in a Go Through Me moment.
• Bully Hunter: He has stated a distinct disdain for those who pick on those weaker than them on several occasions, and is quick to put a stop to any bandits, bullies, or rampaging monsters he runs into during his travels (most notably the giant wild boar tearing up Shikoku in his first appearance, and sticking around to help Farmer Brown and Anna in the anime). This is further amplified during the Hiryū Shōten Ha story arc, when Happōsai cursed Ranma to lose all of his strength. Not only does Ryōga save Ranma from Kunō and Mousse, and admonishes them for attacking a weak person, but he actually helps Ranma while he's training to master the Hiryū Shōten Ha technique.
• Byronic Hero: He's abrasive towards Ranma, angry and a very sad and troubled loner. He's in truth emotionally very fragile and really a good person at heart.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Ryōga never manages to tell Akane how he feels. To make things worse for him, the one time he spits it out, it turns out to be a Mistaken Declaration of Love. In the anime, he manages to say it a few times — either when Akane isn't listening, or without noticing she's left. Which is how he ends up unintentionally inviting Ukyō to join him for the "Three-Legged Obstacle Course Race" (Ryōga hasn't realized they are in front of Ukyō's restaurant, who happens to step outside at that moment. Since Akane had already left, Ukyō assumes Ryōga is asking her to join him).
• Character Catchphrase: "Where am I now?!"
• Character Development: He is probably the most Dynamic Character in the series. He starts out as a petty-minded vengeful jerk. Finishes as a shy, well-meaning, noble, pitiable figure who is arguably more of a hero than Ranma is.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Even by the standards of the series, Ryōga has insanely high levels of Super-Strength and Super-Toughness, attributed to the harsh wilderness environments he frequently faces due to him wandering about lost.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Overlapping with Hypocritical Humor, Ryōga is nice, polite, and tends to act dignified in front of Akane; however, to Ranma's ire, Ryōga has little inconvenient with transforming into P-chan just to nuzzle at Akane's bosom at night.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Basically the same as Ranma. Generally due to stumbling across situations in progress rather than seeking them out, but similarly helps out since "it's a martial artist's duty" (to protect those in need).
• Clothing Combat: Can utilize his bandanas as projectiles and in his first appearance uses his belt as a sword.
• Collector of the Strange: A variation; he uses his wanderings and Super-Strength as an opportunity to gather all kinds of strange souvenirs, most of which he gives to Akane. He's given her everything from exotic dishes to man-sized tanuki statues, and his room back at his family home is filled with trinkets from his travels.
• Courtly Love: How he tries to act towards Akane. It helps him manage his shyness, but he still stumbles a lot over trying to make it clear that he likes her.
• Cute Little Fangs: His name actually means "Good Fang".
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: His Shishi Hōkōdan requires him to get more and more depressed to make it more powerful. The downside is that it basically requires the user to be suicidally depressed in order to reach its maximum potential. Additionally, if Ryōga starts feeling more upbeat, the technique gets correspondingly weaker, so it's pretty much useless unless he can guarantee it will be a one-hit victory attack.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Or at least one that was plagued with misfortune. His miserable life was also largely impacted due to meeting Ranma. He has been mostly alone throughout his life, and constantly mocked as a result of his directional issues. Then he got cursed as a result of following Ranma to Jusenkyo, which makes his constant wanderings all the more dangerous.
• Desperately Craves Affection: The reason he starts liking Akane, as she showers him with affection whenever he's transformed into P-chan. Before meeting Akane, Ryōga utterly despised his pig form, but meeting Akane provides him with what he considers justified retribution for the utter humiliation that his curse causes him.
• Determinator: Acknowledged and justified in-universe; Ryōga's total lack of direction sense means that he typically has to spend hours or even days at a time walking without rest to get anywhere. As a consequence, he basically won't give up. Ever. This is even the fundamental basis of his fighting style; keep on fighting, no matter what, and try to wear his opponent down with sheer endurance. His iconic technique can be argued as being not the flashier Shishi Hōkōdan, but the humble Bakusai Tenketsu, which renders him so immune to pain that his opponents can literally exhaust themselves trying to hit Ryōga hard enough to actually hurt him.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Downplayed. His main use for his Bakusai Tenketsu technique, which shatters inanimate matter, is to create explosive eruptions of flying rocks by blasting holes out of the earth. He also regularly uses his strength to rip huge boulders out of the ground and throw them at whoever he's fighting.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Whenever he gets the least bit distracted or overemotional, he breaks stuff. It's one of his Running Gags that he will destroy things in a bout of clumsiness. This may be why Akane refuses to acknowledge his feelings for her; the one time they actually did go on a fairly successful date, an incident with Shampoo made Ryōga think Akane was trying to get affectionate, and when he got overjoyed and tried to respond, she was afraid that he would crush her to death in his excitement.
• Dogged Nice Guy: He's head over heels for a girl who is unaware of his feelings, only thinks of him as a good friend, and is also in an Arranged Marriage, and thus he is constantly sending her presents, daydreaming about her, trying to ask her out (failing, due to being so very shy), and trying to get her to dump her fiancée.
• Dumb Muscle: Ryōga isn't an idiot, but he is Super Gullible, overly emotional and just prone to thinking with his heart over his head. In battle, he doesn't tend to have very complex plans, relying instead on a straightforward "hit them until they stop moving" approach, or spamming his latest special attack, relying on toughness and willpower to tank any punishment he gets in return. The Shonen Sunday special that provides comparative Power Levels for the cast reflects this by giving Ryōga maxed out Power, Stamina and Heart scores, but a rock-bottom Intelligence score. For comparison, Ranma is slightly weaker (much weaker in female form), but has drastically higher Speed, Technique and Intelligence scores.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Zigzagged by the manga's ending. He hasn't found a cure for his Involuntary Shapeshifting curse yet, nor has he definitively established himself as Ranma's martial art's superior, but he's accepted a place as Ranma's preeminent rival and he's found a mutual abiding love with Akari Unryū. Indeed, one can argue that Ryōga is the only main character who has anything close to a happy ending by the manga's conclusion. Even Ranma and Akane are still a ways off from Ryōga's level of closure, given how the wedding went bust and they were shown blaming each other for it afterwards.
• The Eeyore: Ryōga is sensitive and melancholic in personality... The flip-side of course is that his life really is terrible — at least until he meets Akari — and he still perseveres.
• Everyone Has Standards: Ryōga doesn't like the idea of harming the weak and innocent. Earlier in the Hiryū Shōten Ha arc, he refuses to take advantage of the weakened Ranma, even defending him from the other rivals who were all willing to gang up on him.
• Fatal Flaw: An astonishingly poor lack of control. Ryōga has absolutely horrible emotional control and if he gets too worked up it will cause untold damage to anything and anyone around him, not a good thing when you can shatter inanimate objects with a finger poke. In fact it's what got him cursed in the first place, as he got too worked up about fighting Ranma and insisted on chasing him to China after missing their duel, where he ultimately got knocked into a Jusenkyo spring.
• Finishing Move: The perfected Shishi Houkoudan. Ryōga unleashes a massive pillar of heavy emotions into the sky. It then comes crashing down on himself and his opponent(s), but since Ryōga is emotionally hollow at that moment, he is unaffected. (Suddenly fill him with emotion at that moment, however, and he will be crushed by his own attack, as well.)
• Freakiness Shame: Ryōga hates his shapeshifting curse and thinks there's no way any girl could fall in love with a man who turns into a pig. This is not the case with Akari, who even makes a Happy Dance after knowing that the man she loves turns into the thing she loves more than anything in the world.
• Freudian Excuse: The lack of companionship he experiences through his pitiful direction sense is used In-Universe to justify his P-chan masquerade. Interestingly, while many fans agree with it, Ryōga himself acknowledges that it's not really much of an excuse, which is why he's so desperate to keep the truth from Akane; he knows that she would freak if she found out what had been going on.
• Friendly Rivalry: His bark sounds an awful lot worse than his bite. He has saved Ranma or Akane's lives on more occasions than the reverse. By the end of the series, he and Ranma are probably the closest thing either one has to a best friend.
• Gone Horribly Right: His P-chan status allows him to be treated with love and respect from Akane, including frequent cuddles, sharing her bed and eating from her plate. Unfortunately, that sometimes results in her accidentally abusing him, such as squeezing him too tightly on instinct when she's upset, or forcing him to eat her terrible cooking. One story involving Happōsai trying to take P-chan's place also states that Akane is a very violent sleeper, implying that P-chan regularly gets beaten up at night — weirdly, this trait was never revealed before, nor does it appear in subsequent stories. More importantly, the charade means that Ryōga must struggle to keep Akane from ever finding out the truth, lest she turn her wrath upon him for betraying her trust.
• Hammerspace: He seems to have a neverending supply of bandanas wrapped around his head. Lampshaded during his first major battle with Ranma.
  Ranma: Ryōga, can I ask you something? Just how many bandanas are you wearing!?
• Heartbroken Badass: Being Born Unlucky really takes its toll. It only got worse when he develops feelings for Akane, but can never win her over.
• Hidden Depths: In the anime, he's portrayed as a beautiful calligraphist, and in either continuity, he occasionally quotes poetry appropriate to the situation. He also is surprisingly well versed in martial arts gymnastics.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Ryōga tends to build upon his most negative traits like envy, depression and anger, in order to both build his combat chops against Ranma and even have an excuse to fight Ranma to begin with. In his case, misery doesn't love company, but rather, misery begets powerful vengeance.
• Honor Before Reason: Ryōga is very chivalrous and will unhesitatingly defend the weak and innocent, even at his own risk.
  • When Ranma is turned weak by Happōsai, Ryōga refuses to take advantage and fights off all of Ranma's other enemies who have ganged up on him.
  • In the same arc as above, when Akane burns her clothes he mistakes Ranma for taking advantage of her and charges forward to attack him.
  • He also fairly shows Ranma his new move the Shishi Hōkōdan in their training battle, and after winning he considerately carries Ranma home to bed.
  • In addition, despite Ryōga having beaten Ranma a number of times he has not taken advantage of those wins to attempt to kill Ranma afterwards, and he has saved Ranma and Akane's lives more times than the reverse. In fact, the "fight to the death" motivation was dropped fairly quickly.
• Hopeless Suitor: Akane's too dense to realize that he's in love with her, compounded by the fact that he's too shy to tell her how he feels. And the few times he does manage to say it, she winds up being distracted, so she doesn't hear him. Or he fails to see that she's left, 'cuz he's lost in concentration, while he's trying to work up the nerve to say it — even though Akane plainly says goodbye to him, before leaving.
• Housepet Pig: Being ignorant of Ryōga's curse, Akane unwittingly adopts his pig form as her pet.
• Hunk: A handsome, muscular and manly guy, such as the other main male characters.
• Hypocrite: He goes on about how Ranma has no honor, yet Ryōga uses his curse to cuddle up to an engaged girl who think he's just a pet. He is aware of this hypocrisy, which is why he does everything he can to avoid telling her.
• Iconic Item: Both his bandana and his umbrella. That said, he doesn't actually use them much as the series goes on and he learns more powerful techniques.
• Implacable Man: Ryōga very nearly takes this to The Juggernaut levels, as he's literally been smashed into solid concrete and kicked into cliff walls hard enough for the rubble to collapse on top of him, only to emerge undaunted and continue to fight. Equally impressive is his ability to traverse large distances on foot in pursuit of his target, and he won't rest until he's caught up to them. Given his No Sense of Direction he tends to run in a straight line, plowing through anything and everything in his path, which is taken up a notch once he learns the Bakusai Tenketsu and can literally tunnel his way through everything. Just ask Ranma.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: For example able to throw an elephant-sized boulder to perfectly intercept Herb's blast across a battlefield, can swiftly find the weakest point of inert objects, and always hits the more nimble Ranma with his force-blasts.
• Improbable Weapon User: Among his arsenal of weapons is a bamboo umbrella that weighs at least a tonne, his belt that can slash through trees, and his stash of bandana that he can throw like projectiles.
• Insane Troll Logic: Ryōga's attempts to justify some of his less-than-noble deeds typically only make sense to him alone:
  • Ryōga's reasons for why Ranma is to blame for his Jusenkyō curse? Ranma wasn't there at the appointed time for the fight they were supposed to have. Keep in mind, Ryōga issued the challenge, Ryōga set the time of the fight, and Ryōga was the one who was four days late. To say nothing of the fact that Ryōga chose to go chasing after Ranma to have the fight, despite knowing about his terrible direction sense, and it was an apparently random girl and panda duo who actually knocked Ryōga into the spring, with Ranma, as far as he knew, being nowhere within miles of Jusenkyō at the time. That Ranma turns out to actually be responsible does not change the fact that Ryōga's first reaction was still to blame Ranma, even when he didn't know that.
  • Then there's the reason for that scheduled duel: Ryōga claimed Ranma "stole" his lunch bread. This, despite every single boy in school fighting over what little bread the cafeteria had, and Ranma doing nothing more than to beat Ryōga to it. While Ranma did win by treating the contest as combat, and beat Ryōga every single time, flashbacks show Ryōga gave as good as he got and he'd climb over his classmates exactly the same way Ranma climbed over him. He's still convinced the prized bread belonged to him and treated Ranma as a thief rather than a rival.
  • Likewise, Ryōga's reason for loving Akane? Because she was nice to P-chan, which he takes as an indication that she cares for him. As an incredulous Ranma bluntly points out, Akane had no idea that P-chan was really Ryōga.
  • Ranma was once able to fool Ryōga into thinking that his female form was actually Ryōga's baby sister. Ryōga was doubtful at first but upon thinking over his No Sense of Direction declared it perfectly reasonable as just having missed it due to absence.
• It Runs in the Family: His No Sense of Direction appears to be hereditary, as his parents suffer from this as well.
• I Was Just Passing Through: A rare example of someone who can claim this, and actually be believed, because there's a very real possibility that he truly is. He tends to unexpectedly pop up whenever someone he knows/the plot has need of him.
• Jerkass Ball: While his rivalry with Ranma has always been present, in the "Fishing Pole of Love" arc, Ryōga actually uncharacteristically intended to murder Ranma, and even dug a grave for him. Though he does hesitate briefly when the love-struck Ranma allows him, but his murderous intent reignites shortly after.
• Jerkass to One: To everyone but Ranma, Ryōga is nothing but humble and polite. While with Ranma he will attack him on sight, insult him, and use him as part of his schemes.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's not above getting Ranma in trouble, but like him and Akane he's a really helpful and good person deep down. Although at the end of the day, the two of them respect each other as Rivals.
• Just Friends: Ryōga is constantly depressed over the fact that Akane sees him only as a friend and nothing more. Adding insult to injury, Akane is very well aware of the Nice Guy Ryōga is and has nothing but respect and appreciation for him, but he's nowhere near her radar as a romantic prospect.
• Ki Manipulation: In addition to being the only other main character who uses ki attacks, Ryōga is one of the most powerful ki-users in the series, only rivaled by the likes of Herb and Happosai. His attacks are so powerful he wouldn't be too out of place on Dragon Ball. His attacks include:
  • His Shishi Hōkōdan, which the anime presents as a Kamehame Hadoken type attack.
  • The perfected version of the above attack, where it becomes a Sphere of Destruction larger than the school. It even manages to impress Herb, who's the most powerful Ki user shown.
  • In the video game he also gets the "Hisho Koryū Ha" energy attack.

L–Y

• Lightning Bruiser: As impossibly strong and durable as he is, he still manages to be fairly fast.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Ryōga's romantic desires sometimes run away with his common sense. There have been several occasions when he's actually gotten a chance to take Akane on a date, only for him to ruin things because he gets so overexcited; he once contemplates staying in a Kimodameshi forever because Akane is asking him for protection while they are there; and he only allows Akane to think of him as P-chan because he's got a crush on her and he believes he can use it to protect her... despite being more or less harmless in piglet form.
• Love Potion: Ryōga once tries to use a love-inducing fishing rod on Akane, but accidentally hit Ranma instead. Much to Ryōga's horror, Ranma falls passionately in love with Ryōga, quickly devolving into a yandere.
• Love Redeems: The resulting crush he develops from being Akane's pet contributes directly and indirectly to his Heel–Face Turn.
• Manipulative Bastard: Ryōga is an interesting example, as even though he is usually heroic and gullible, whenever he gets manipulative he's portrayed unsympathetically. Early on in the series he sometimes used his P-Chan curse to get Ranma into trouble, or try to sabotage Ranma's fights when his engagement is on the line.
• Marshmallow Hell: As P-chan, women (Akane in particular) are pretty much always clasping him right to their bosom.
• Martial Arts and Crafts: A rather subtle one, given the nature of the world he's in, but Ryōga's most powerful techniques (the Bakusai Tenketsu and the Shishi Hōkōdan) are both actually mining techniques used to help miners get out of caves. (The Bakusai Tenketsu is designed to destroy boulders that block an exit, and the Shishi Hōkōdan is designed to let a trapped miner channel his depression at being trapped into a solution)
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Ryōga forms this dynamic with Akane, despite them not being a couple (despite Ryōga's wishes). Akane is a violent tomboy who is notoriously inept at feminine arts, even feminine martial arts, whilst Ryōga is shy, a hopeless romantic, very in touch with his sensitive side, and knows enough about Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics — a female-dominated style — that he can instruct Akane in its methods. In the manga, Ranma once comments that "Ryōga would be twice the man he is, if he was half as manly as Akane."
• Meaningful Name: "Noisy Good Fang", which references his loud-mouthed antics when around Ranma (and the noise he makes when breaking stuff), his visually iconic Cute Little Fangs, and the fact he's really a good guy at heart.
• Mistaken Declaration of Love: When Ryōga finally worked up the nerve to tell Akane how he feels, his declaration is accidentally given to Ranma, who takes it... poorly. Beats Ryoga within an inch of his life poorly.
• Mistaken for Gay: Because of the whole love-inducing fishing rod mess, Akane is lead to think that Ryōga intentionally used the fishing rod on Ranma. It doesn't help that she witnessed his Mistaken Declaration of Love.
• Never My Fault:
  • In his introductory story, although it turns out that Ranma really did kick him into the spring, that doesn't change the fact that Ryōga, for several weeks/months in-verse, thought the person who'd physically knocked him in was somebody else, and yet he still blamed Ranma. Not to mention the only reason Ryōga was near Jusenkyō in the first place was because he was chasing Ranma for "running away" from a fight that Ryōga picked... and was four days late to show up for.
  • During the Fishing Pole of Love story arc, Ryōga never does admit his own fault for trying to use the titular Love Potion on Akane and causing troubles by hitting Ranma by mistake.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Originally just Made of Iron, then he undergoes Training from Hell to become even more durable...
• Nosebleed: Unlike Ranma, he has no resistance when it comes to the sight of barely clothed or unclothed female flesh, resulting in nosebleeds so strong that they can leave him in what is practically a miniature coma. He's fainted outright upon being cuddled to the bosom of an underwear-clad Akane in P-chan form, and in his first meeting with Ukyō, the sight of her sarashi-clad breasts is so shocking it gives Ranma the opening to knock him out. He does have some immunity to Ranma's nudity, knowing he's really a guy, but the anime sometimes makes him react to Ranma the same way he would any other girl.
• No Sense of Direction: He is practically the Trope Codifier. He seems to always either take the wrong direction (when given the choice between three roads, one of which he's told is right and one of which he's told is wrong, he takes the third road), or take directions too literally (when told to go "straight down the road" to the Seikan Tunnel from Hokkaido, he did just that — despite the fact the road curved and his route caused him to leap off of the road). His absurd levels of stamina, which lets him run at top speed for literally hours or even days without stopping, as well as being able to plow right through everything in his path, makes this worse, as he can cover distances far sooner than direction-givers might expect and, particularly after learning the Breaking Point, there's literally nothing that can force him to change directions. He's so predictably late that everyone schedules their meetings with him a week early to allow for a week of him finding his way. A big part of his backstory is that he missed a fight with Ranma because he got lost for three days, despite the place they were supposed to meet was behind Ryōga's house. Is lampshaded in his debut episode, where after explaining his reason for his fight with Ranma, the students who heard the story said the trope namer.
• Official Couple: With Akari, notable in that it's the only other pairing outside of Ranma×Akane to get labeled mutually affectionate on Takahashi's relationship chart.
• One-Man Army: During the moxibustion arc, he singlehandedly defeats all of Ranma's enemies when they gang up on him to beat him up in his weakened state.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Very much his attitude towards Ranma, leading to a truly badass Go Through Me moment during the moxibustion arc. Ranma actually mistakes Ryōga's actions as saving him all to himself, but it turns out Ryōga couldn't bear to see a weakened Ranma be taken advantage of by his enemies.
• Oxymoronic Being: Ryōga is a traveler with such an awful sense of direction that, sometimes, he gets so lost that he ends up at the right place. Bear in mind that it's not that he has wanderlust (he doesn't seem to have any to begin with), but rather, that the outdoors will immediately scramble the path to whatever goal he has in mind.
• Paper Tiger: Whilst Ryōga is largely considered Ranma's one true rival, the truth is that Ryōga actually has a terrible track record of fights against Ranma:
  • When they were in Junior High School, Ranma won every duel for bread.
  • When they first fight for real after reuniting in Furinkan High, Ryōga ties his and Ranma's wrists together so Ranma can't run away. He ends up trying to run after he realizes that Ranma is outclassing him, and that's before he pushes Ranma's Berserk Button.
  • The first time they fight after Ranma undergoes the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken training, Ranma has become so skilled he can casually manhandle Ryōga.
  • When they duel at the climax of the Bakusai Tenketsu arc, despite the fact that Ranma spent his time training in the completely wrong method (having focused on his dodging ability due to believing Ryōga was learning a Touch of Death technique), Ryōga still fails to beat Ranma, who invents a new way to use Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs on the fly to handle Ryoga's Super-Toughness.
  • Literally the only clear victory Ryōga can claim, outside of offscreen scuffles or times when he's been allowed to beat Ranma up for comedy such as at the end of the Ryugenzawa arc, is in the Shishi Hōkōdan arc. And even then, Ranma still comes up with a counter-move and claims the ultimate victory.
• Parasol of Pain: His primary weapon of choice, and it's so heavy that ordinary people can't even pick it up. Surprisingly, it can float on water.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Between his Super-Strength (which allows him to destroy giant boulders without even noticing), his Bakusai Tenketsu (which allows him to cause inanimate matter to explode with a finger-poke), and his willingness to just blow through walls and buildings rather than detour from his path (including burrowing underground or right through mountains after he learned the Bakusai Tenketsu), Ryōga can quite easily make a mess out of any area he's passing through. He becomes even more destructive after learning the Shishi Hōkōdan, which at his maximum power can project a Sphere of Destruction the size of the whole school.
• Pet Positive Identification: Ryōga's dog Checkers is able to recognize Ryōga even when he's been turned into a pig, despite never having seen his pig form before.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • In his debut, Ryōga refuses to tell Ranma why he wants revenge; it's only after he has no choice that he comes clean about Ranma knocking him into one of the cursed springs of Jusenkyo.
  • Ryōga could have avoided digging himself into the "P-Chan" hole if he'd come clean to Akane and apologized to her after she first "adopted" him. But because he wanted her affection (and/or to anger Ranma), he refuses to reveal the truth, meaning he spends the entire series in terror of her discovering the true identity of P-chan and hating him for it.
• Power Incontinence: Between his prodigious strength, and the ease with which he'll let his emotions get the best of him, getting Ryōga overly emotional about something often leads to him breaking things. Besides regularly tearing through walls, knocking over power poles and poking holes through concrete walls when his mind wanders, he's also done stunts like send Ranma (disguised as Ryōga's fictitious sister) flying across the room with (what was intended to be) a gentle poke to the forehead from his index finger due to Ranma's teasing Ryōga about him and Akane being a couple.
• Pressure Points: His Bakusai Tenketsu is basically this, but applied to inanimate objects. Touching rock (and wood, and possibly metal, depending on the continuity) at just the right spot lets him cause it to explode violently, or just crumble into fine dust. He initially thought it would also work on humans, prompting a last-minute Training from Hell session for Ranma, until Cologne set them both straight.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He's hinted to have studied martial rhythmic gymnastics, and he's actually shown teaching it to Akane during Kodachi's introductory story-arc.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes have a habit of glowing red when he gets angry or charges up his chi in the anime. It also happens when he fires a Shishi Hōkōdan.
• The Resenter: One of Ryōga's primary defining emotions is resentment^note the other is depression; he's absolutely fixated on avenging himself against Ranma because he resents how much better a life Ranma seemingly has compared to Ryōga's own. Resentment fuels their eternal feud, and even though he starts to mature away from this mindset over the course of the story, it's still the primary cause behind his and Ranma's bad relationship. Ryōga resents Ranma's superior fighting skills, he resents that Ranma is Akane's fiancé, he resents that Akane has a crush on Ranma yet has friend-zoned Ryōga, and he resents that Ranma has a simple Gender Bender Jusenkyo curse when Ryōga's own curse is far more dangerous to him.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: P-chan is regarded in-universe as incredibly adorable; Akane just dotes on him when he's like this, and other teenage girls also tend to fawn over him.
• The Rival: Ryōga is by far the most resilient and persistent of Ranma's rivals and the only one Ranma has ever acknowledged as actually being a rival. Made moreso, given that Ryōga is mostly self-taught whereas Ranma has had years of formal training from his father. Yet, he's among the few that can force Ranma to fight seriously and has canonically defeated him several times.
• Romantic Runner-Up: Akane mentions on several occasions that she thinks Ryōga is a much more gentle and reliable than Ranma, seriously considers him when she thinks he is her "destined love" in one shared continuity filler story, and the two really do have similar personalities, but ultimately he never gets anywhere with her.
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: He's frequently nude when he changes back into human form.
• Ship Tease: With Ukyō Kuonji, sometimes, but ultimately subjected to Ship Sinking in the Tunnel of Lost Love story. They still remain a Fan-Preferred Couple though, which may be because the anime version of the aforementioned story is less blatant about its sinking and Ryōga ends up saving Ukyō in the second Non-Serial Movie (though he has to be bartered into it, as at first he wants to save Akane, and is quite fine with the idea of leaving Ukyō to Sarutoru).
• Spear Counterpart: He and Ukyō share a lot in common. Both are the nicer Hopeless Suitor of one half of the main couple and get the Just Friends treatment from their crush. When they team up in attempts to break up Ranma and Akane, their actions and behaviors are exact mirrors of each other.
• Sphere of Destruction: His perfected Shishi Hōkōdan technique. At max power it's larger than the school.
• Spider-Sense: Much like several other protagonists, Ryōga has a sixth sense that warns him of danger from behind. Surprise attacks from enemies (usually Ranma) often fail to catch him off guard. Though it also depends on the plot, as if he needs to be caught off guard then his sense will fail. And to makes things worse for him, his danger sense is also affected by his sense of direction, and he can sometimes perfectly and accurately detect a threat... from the opposite direction it's actually coming from.
• Stalker with a Crush: A relatively tame and chivalrous one compared to usual examples, but he does come off as a subtle version. Since he's too shy to be direct about his feelings for Akane when he's human, he often transforms into a pig and pretends to be Akane's pet so he can get close to her, saying that by doing this he can "protect" her. Sleeping in her bed is just a bonus. His antics are ultimately harmless and he is treated as something of a lovable idiot for doing them, but they could be played as creepy and unsettling in a less comedic series.
• The Stoic: Ryōga aspires to be this, but he isn't really that good at it. He's invariably overwhelmed by his emotions. It becomes a positive when he masters an Angst Nuke fueled by his negative emotions.
• Stock Shōnen Rival: To contrast his rival, Ranma Saotome, who's happy go-lucky, larger than life, and carefree, Ryōga is very melancholic, stoic, and brooding. For a long time there was nothing Ryōga was concerned with more than getting even with his rival, but eventually he comes to see there is more to life than this, once he experiences love. Over time the two of them become more akin to friends and even Bash Brothers, although they still remain the rivalry and treat one another as Worthy Opponents.
• Stuff Blowing Up: His Bakusai Tenketsu technique invokes this, causing inanimate matter to violently explode.
• Super Gullible: If there's one curse that's less apparent than his pig form or his No Sense of Direction, then it's his over naive and trusting nature that constantly makes him everyone's victim. Ranma in particular will repeatedly exploit this using his girl form. to either spy on him, dupe him, or just annoy him for kicks. You'd think Ryōga would eventually learn to recognize her face, or her voice — but he never does. Even when Ranma's using little more than a pair of glasses as a disguise. The most egregious instance being when Ranma is even able to convince Ryōga that she is his sister. Ryōga figures it is plausible, given he hasn't seen his family in years, due to his poor sense of direction.
  • Ranma once tried loosely dressing up Katsunishiki (Akari's GIANT champion sumo wrestling pig) and claimed that "Akane" wants to kiss him. Fortunately it turned out even Ryōga wasn't dumb enough to get fooled by that one.
  Ryōga: And just what part of Katsunishiki.... looks anything like Akane?
• Super-Speed: He's shown as slower than Ranma, somewhat swifter than Mousse (able to avoid all of dangerous weaponry, but taking some time), and effortlessly able to parry all of Genma's strikes while looking in another direction, but does not always use it efficiently (sometimes plows right ahead rather than listen to his reflexes), especially when in a rage.
• Super-Strength: Often assumed to be the physically strongest of the crew, and likely the strongest character within human limits (with only Pantyhose Taro's monster form and Lime surpassing his strength). His feats include: snapping a concrete encased power pole with his arms and using it as a weapon, throwing an incredibly huge ice boulder across the length of an ice-skating rink with a single arm, pulling two ice glaciers together while suspended in the middle, accidentally shattering a stone platform wide enough for him and Ranma to spar on it simply by prostrating on it, being able to unintentionally crush anything he's holding with his hand or arms (spoon, power line, phone handset), almost breaking Ranma's ribs with a hug (each form on separate occasions), repeatedly handling female Ranma like a small baby when she pretended to be his sister "Yoiko Hibiki", including a strong implication that he can literally outpower her with a single finger, effortlessly throwing a grappling male Ranma to the ground in the anime, being paired against Lime in a fight, and so onwards.
• Super-Toughness: He has monstrous endurance and survival ability due to his terrible sense of direction leaving him in the wilderness 99% of the time. This only increases after he learns the Bakusai Tenketsu.
• Tender Tears: Despite his physical strength, Ryōga is very emotional, and can start to cry just for feeling sorry even for Ranma.
• There Was a Door: Perfectly willing to just plow through anything in his way when he wants to get somewhere enough. Considering it's Ryōga, he probably can't find the door.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: Ryōga technically lives at the Tendō household as P-Chan, where he mooches food, shelter, and even affection courtesy of Akane, who is blissfully unaware that her pet piglet is Ryōga. Given the circumstance, this can irritate Ranma so much sometimes that he often threatens Ryōga with spilling the beans to Akane.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: In the giddy sense. Ryōga is emotional, sentimental and romantic, so some of his decision-making gets skewed by his giddiness.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: He's the only character to receive any closure at the end of the manga (at least regarding his love life).
• Tritagonist: As a Breakout Character he kept getting increased importance until he eventually became the third most important character in the series, just after Ranma and Akane. He constantly gets arcs centered around him and is the only one in the Love Dodecahedron aside from the Official Couple that had a happy ending with his own Beta Couple relationship.
• Tunnel King: Once he learns the Bakusai Tenketsu (which lets him destroy inanimate matter with a finger poke, and makes him Nigh-Invulnerable as a side-effect of the training), he's recurrently shown as using it to tunnel underground or through mountains to get to places. Precisely why is never explained, although during his first date with Akari he apparently believes that there is less chance to get confused by landmarks and go the wrong way if he starts with his eyes in the right direction.
• Twice Shy: With Akari; Ryōga is so uncertain of how to respond to somebody expressing an interest in him, and so torn up on if he wants to give up on Akane, that it takes Ranma's intervention for him and Akari to finally hook up together.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Ranma is entirely right at being angry at Ryōga taking advantage of Akane's kindness and good nature, notwithstanding that Ranma can effectively nuke any chance Ryōga has towards winning Akane's affections by just spilling the beans. Ranma, despite his rightful anger, refrains from doing it out of consideration for Akane, as he's aware of how much the revelation would hurt her.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Relatively speaking: he's less skilled than Ranma, but noticeably stronger. In a variation, when it comes to weapons he may be just as good as Ranma, but he ended up not using them after he stopped trying to kill Ranma.
• Unstoppable Rage: When Ryōga gets angry, stay out of his way. His emotional instability and his lack of control of his strength makes him very dangerous. Especially the case in the "Shishi Hōkōdan" story arc where he learns a technique that's powered by depression. The sadder he gets, the stronger he gets.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Ranma, eventually. Each feels incomplete without the other to compete against, and Ryōga has even turned sad if he has too much of an advantage over Ranma.
• Walking the Earth: Due to the aforementioned lack of directional sense. It's possible he's even managed to cross continents without realizing, although this is hotly debated amongst fans.
• Wife-Basher Basher: Hurt an innocent woman, and he'll hurt you.
• Wowing Cthulhu: When Ryōga momentarily gets killed by Lime. He enters the afterlife where he meets his deceased grandparents, who convince him to go back. His spirit then returns to his body where he unleashes the most powerful Ki Manipulation ever shown in the series which crushes Lime. Herb, the most powerful Ki user in the series, watches from a distance and is utterly impressed.
• You All Share My Story: There certainly are times when Ryōga clearly arrives in Nerima by accident. However, there are definitely other times when he appears at a coincidentally perfect time to take part in the adventure.
• You Keep Telling Yourself That: Ryōga's enmity with Ranma is rooted on his own perception that Ranma backed off from the duel they were supposed to have in junior high, and Ryōga built upon the anger at the idea that Ranma was just cowardly fleeing from him. To Ryōga, Ranma is just a miser and a coward, not being aware that Ranma is just the former.

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