Nightmare Fuel / Ranma ½

Because whilst part of Ranma 1/2 is comedy, that doesn't mean everything is funny...There's a reason one of the big fandom wars for this series is the "it's just a comedy, don't take it seriously!" crowd vs. everybody else.

• Even though it is always played for laughs, Ranma's life sucks! He is A) sexually harassed both by girls and boys (in his female form, where it's a lot creepier, B) stalked by several people who want to defeat or even kill him (even getting inside his house or attacking in his sleep), C) has an abusive father, and an estranged, implicitly crazy mother who might execute him over her own warped sense of honor, D) goes through near death-injuries everyday! And even at the very end of the series (apart from his mother reuniting with him), nothing ever changed.
  • Oh, and for added icing on the cake; Ranma-chan has actually been on the receiving end of what were, ultimately, attempted rapes. An amnesiac Kuno attempted to force himself on Ranma-chan when they were stranded on Watermelon Island together, whilst the manga-exclusive character Densuke slipped Ranma-chan knock-out drugs and took "her" to a love hotel!
• Ryoga Hibiki's combined curses. Being eternally lost is bad enough on its own, and Ryoga is known to frequently find himself alone deep in forests and jungles. Forests and jungles filled with dangerous animals. Luckily, Ryoga, being a martial artist of nearly unmatched skill, has nothing to worry abo—oh, wait, every time it rains, he needs to cross a river, or he accidentally falls in a puddle, he turns into a tiny, defenseless, extremely edible piglet. And, like the other Jusenkyo cursed, the entire universe is actively conspiring to soak him whenever possible. Good luck finding hot water to turn back when you're miles from civilization, five inches tall, have no thumbs, and are surrounded by hungry predators...
• For an overtly comedic manga, there's a lot of freaking references to death in this series! Ranma, Akane and Ryoga all come close to death at least once. Saffron, the closest thing to a Final Boss in the manga, is explicitly killed, even if he does then come right back to life as a baby. Mrs. Tendo is called out as being dead — they even visit her grave once — whilst Ryu Kumon's father was explicitly crushed to death when his dojo collapses on top of him. The painters of the cursed wall scrolls all died after completing them^note although the anime defangs this horror by having the vendor imply they died of old age. The haunted swimsuit is stated as having dragged multiple girls to the death beneath the waves. And then there's the murder attempts, and the fact that the Yama-sen-ken is described as having lethal techniques — one of its unique moves is explicitly intended to rip someone's heart out!
  • In the Pink and Link arc, after the eponymous twins render Shampoo unconscious with the poisonous Snake Plant, they beat her up 100 times... and then get ready to stab her to death. Only Shampoo's sleep-fighting training kicking in at that moment keeps them from killing her on-panel.
    • The reason for the feud between Shampoo and the twins: when Shampoo first met Pink when they were children, Pink attacked Shampoo with her deadly mandragora just to see if it worked and then left her to die. The only reason Shampoo survived was because Link stumbled across her and had the antidote to hand. Then Pink aggravated the feud by pushing Link to attack Shampoo for "revenge" when Shampoo, not realizing they were identical twins, beat up Link due to believing her to be Pink, which led to Shampoo deciding to just beat up both twins whenever they crossed paths. And Pink learns nothing from this, as when she comes to Japan looking to kill Shampoo's husband as her latest revenge ploy, she poisons Ranma with mandragora just for her amusement, as she didn't even know what Shampoo's husband was called or looked like when she first meets him! For once, Shampoo would have been completely right in killing them...
• The Supernatural Martial Arts of the Ranmaverse may seem awesome... until you realize that this series actually nods to Power at a Price. To get as good as they got, Ranma and Ryoga lost out on a lot of the little things most take for granted. And then there's the training itself. Many techniques seen in the series require training efforts that would often fall under a person's definition of "torture".
  • The Neko-ken, for instance, is something that you'd expect in one of Lovecraft's books. The means of getting the fear is bad enough, as it entails being repeatedly thrown into a dark pit tied up wrapped in salty stuff that would burn as it rubbed into your wounds caused by creatures trying to eat you alive, and worse yet it is being done to you by a person you trust and is supposed to care for you.
    • The fear caused by that is beyond horrible. It's beyond scary movie fear, beyond a phobia like being afraid of spiders, it's beyond piss your pants scared: Ranma's now so afraid that his mind snaps and he loses everything that he is and becomes in mind the very monster that he fears so much.
  • Sure, the Neko-ken is the most extreme example here, and called out as a technique only the insane or the stupid would actually try to teach, but other techniques are still pretty bad. For the Body of Ice technique, Ranma had to learn how to make himself feel as if he were physically dead. Training in the Breaking Point requires massive physical pain as rocks slam into you. The Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken requires that you repeatedly stick your hands into fire. The Shishi Hokodan is mastered by letting darkness and depression consume you in exchange for power.
  • Even the quick power ups often have a price. The Super Soba, for example, made you grow whiskers as one of its first symptoms, and the strength it granted was not controllable (or at least very difficult to do so).
• Unlike in real life, where the most that can happen to you is to take away your freedom or your life, in the Ranmaverse you can lose a lot more.
  • There are multiple ways to strip you of your free will, as shown in various storylines: hypnotic mushrooms, magical incense, flowers like Pink & Link's "Flower of Womanhood", pressure points, Love Potion in various forms^note a bracelet full of love potion pills, a toy fishing rod that ensnares the heart of anyone you catch with it, mushrooms that act as love potion when eaten, literal examples of the Red String of Fate and Umbrella of Togetherness, and miscellaneous other enchanted items that can control your body and/or mind against your will.
  • Your memories aren't safe either, as they can be suppressed or altered by the right martial arts techniques and herbal remedies, like Shampoo's Xia Fa Xiang Gao shiatsu attack.
  • Your physical form most certainly isn't safe, as magic that can transform and warp you is a recurring theme — from the iconic Jusenkyo curses, to Shampoo nearly being permanently turned into a cat by Maomolin, to the magic spring of Togenkyo Island.
    • Your body can even be stolen outright, as seen in the Cursed Doll, Cursed Cherry Tree and Oni storylines.
  • Your abilities aren't safe, as techniques like the Strength-Sapping Moxibustion or the "Weakling Magic Items" prove; everything you sweated blood for to get can be stripped from you with the right move, or negated outright by some cheat with a magical trinket.
  • Even your dreams aren't safe from being invaded or manipulated, as Ranma found out when one creepy old man became obsessed with his female form.
• Many of the storylines can be turned into really dark drama or outright horror tales if you change the perspective.
  • Picture the Koi Rod of Love storyline from Ranma's viewpoint; wondering what is wrong with him, why he is increasingly attracted to his rival despite normally being straight, but powerless to fight as his mind is remade into Ryoga's love-slave. Then image how he might be feeling when reflecting on some of the events from afterwards, like how he was willing to meekly commit suicide for Ryoga's love, or how he tried to kill Akane as a love-rival!
  • Or the Strength-Sapping Moxibustion from Ranma's viewpoint. As he himself points out during the story; without his strength, the power he spent an entire childhood honing and gave up a normal life for, what does he have left?
  • In the Ghost Cat's Bride storyline, imagine not only being trapped in the body of a cat, but then forced to become the lover of a massive cat's ghost in the bargain. Because this is the fate that almost befalls Shampoo. The anime, notably, plays up the drama of this storyline to an extent.
• Whilst it's hard for many to be bothered because of the Curb-Stomp Battle she deals them, in reality, think about how scary the "hentai horde" must have been from Akane's perspective, especially when it first started. Beyond the obvious scariness of being ganged up on by a bunch of horny, violent guys, there's the fact that this reveals her own male classmates are jerks willing to beat the shit out of a girl in order to force her to go on a date with them. No wonder she doesn't exactly like boys her own age at the start of the show!
• The Mirror Clone storyline... to put things in perspective, the exact same plot was used for a straight-up horror manga ("Kowai Hon", aka "Scary Books", by Kazuo Umezu) with only minimal changes. Looking into a haunted mirror summons a yandere ghost, who falls obsessively in love with you and will do anything to have you all to herself.
• It's ultimately played for laughs, but it's hard to ignore the fact that Prince Toma and his cronies in the second movie are essentially a bunch of kidnapper-rapists. Most notably, after Toma decides he wants to wed Akane, he tells his men to "split them^note the remaining women up amongst yourselves", whereupon Togenkyo's inhabitants descend upon the kidnapped women and carry them off kicking and screaming to an unknown fate. Yes, our female protagonists got out unscathed, but what about all those poor girls without Plot Armor?! And, at the film's end, no mention is made of them whatsoever...
  • Actually about a minute after they dragged the girls away we see dozens of armed guards unconscious against the walls, suggesting that Ranma and the gang fought them on their quest for their respective girls. Though they most likely didn't get all of them, seeing as we later see Kasumi with a guard that wants her to cook for him; but still, I'm sure they saved all of the girls kidnapped by the guards.
• The fight against Monlon in the first movie is notable; her use of Razor Floss shows her to be one of the most sadistic enemies ever seen in the Ranmaverse. Most notably, the part where she smirks and plucks one string, causing Ranma's flesh to visibly tear in a spurt of gore, marks one of the few times we've ever seen blood in this series.
  • And then there's who interrupts the fight: a very pissed off Shampoo, who, as detailed below, is feared by most other characters for good reasons. By the time we see her again, a fainted Monlon is being carried away by Mousse, who's mistaken her for Shampoo... And Shampoo is giving chase, uncharacteristically calling for Mousse and saying she's behind him. It's easy to guess that Shampoo was mauling Monlon when Mousse, due his poor eyesight, saved her... And she wants to continue.
• Happosai: it's bad enough that he's a Dirty Old Man whose mastery of Supernatural Martial Arts makes him almost untouchable — imagine what it's like to know your town is haunted by an ugly little pervert who can indulge his love for voyeurism, underwear theft and groping with impunity because he's so skilled that nobody can stop him. But he compounds matters by being a vicious, cruel, spiteful little troll who has no shame or sense of Disproportionate Retribution. None of this is hammered home more clearly than the Strength-Sapping Moxibustion arc, where he first hits Ranma with an apparently unliftable Power Limiter for thwarting one of his panty raids, and then goes around deliberately telling all of Ranma's worst enemies that he's now weak as a baby. And this isn't some fit of pique; this is coldblooded calculation, as he later gloats to Ranma that now he can just sit back and watch as Ranma's enemies do him in, rather than exerting himself.
• Shampoo, if you get on her bad side: she's a Manipulative No-Nonsense Nemesis that, if given enough reason, will chase you to the end of Earth to kill you (and she will find you eventually), casually wields large maces of solid steel and other heavy weapons, she has the fastest hands in the cast until Cologne comes along and Ranma learns the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken, is strong enough to casually tear down walls (and actually prefers opening holes in walls to using the door), there's no way to stop her if she thinks she can get away with it, and, worst of all, people tend to think she's stupid due her low proficiency with Japanese language (in Chinese she's actually eloquent to the point of being archaic) and thus will underestimate her on first encounter until too late. There's a reason if, at the start, Ranma was terrified by her, even if the whole reason Shampoo wanted his girl side dead was that he had defeated her-and even as the story goes on, it's clear her wrath terrifies everyone-including Cologne.
  • Her first fight with Akane is a clear demonstration of just how terrifying Shampoo can be: Akane had crossed the honor line with Shampoo, so she inflicted her a complete Curb-Stomp Battle that ended with Akane forgetting about Ranma... Because she liked Akane enough to show mercy. And as soon as Akane recovers her memory, Shampoo goes immediately for the kill. Good thing for Akane that Shampoo later realized that Ranma wouldn't let her get away with killing her...
  • Another good demonstration of what Shampoo can do comes in the final arc, when she's brainwashed by Kiima and becomes the Jusendo People's most formidable fighter in the story until Saffron gets out of the egg:
    • Immediately after being brainwashed she's ordered to recover the various pieces of the Jusenkyo map. In quick succession she defeats Cologne, found tied up and with a bump (obviously a surprise attack, as her brainwashing wasn't known yet, but she still one-shotted Cologne), takes out Ryoga, hugs Mousse so he'll hand her a mace to check if he's dreaming and uses that to knock him out, and takes out Genma with drugged nikuman (and stands over him with a creepy grin). The only one to even slow her down was Ranma, and that was because she got so caught up in using her charm to distract him she forgot.
    • When the group of Ranma, Ryoga, Mousse, Genma, and Plum (the daughter of the Jusenkyo Guide and a non-combatant) arrives at Jusendo they enter from the staff entrance, sure that they won't find any guard there... And are promptly splashed by Shampoo, who had been ordered to kill all intruders and thus was waiting for them there. She then gives Ranma a run for his money and brainwashes Genma into becoming her servant.
    • After Akane has been dehydrated into a doll that can be saved only with Jusendo's cold water, Shampoo manages to capture Ranma and offers him the last bottle of Jusendo water... In exchange for him letting himself being brainwashed into becoming his servant. And when he tries to use the brainwashing eggs on her she promptly destroys it. And this is Shampoo trying to save Ranma: her orders are to kill all intruders, but if Ranma had become her servant he'd not be an intruder anymore. And now she has no other choice but kill Ranma... But before she wants some "sweet memory", and threatens to finish off Akane if he refuses. Thankfully she's broken out of brainwashing soon after...
    • At the end of the story arc she releases Genma... By ordering him to do as he wants. He's still brainwashed.
  • During the Waterproof Soap Arc she needed Ryoga distracted... So she brainwashed Akane into wanting to hug him. It wore off as soon as she did it, but until that moment her only goal in life was to hug Ryoga, and forgot everything immediately after.
  • Shampoo's catchphrase may be "Obstacles are for killing", but she actually seems unwilling to do it... Most of the time. Then, during the manga take of the arc where Nabiki was briefly engaged to Ranma, Nabiki tried to auction off the engagement and Shampoo came out of nowhere and tried to kill Nabiki because "If Nabiki dies is free".
  • And to turn all of the above much scarier, she's actually a very nice girl who just happens to have a very foreign and bizarre sense of ethics, and is not being malicious at all in anything of the above. One can only wonder what she'd do to someone she actually hates...
    • Mousse actually answers that question when he believes he made her snap, saying she was using the Three-Year Smile of Death-a technique consisting in storing all her anger inside with a smile while picking on the victim in a painful and potentially lethal way and making them all look like accidents for three whole years. And even offers evidence in all his spare glasses and weapons having been mysteriously broken, and points out to Shampoo breaking a table while he was hidden under it to kill a cockroach. It turned out it was a misunderstanding (Shampoo had forgot to take out from his clothes Mousse' spare weapons and glasses when she washed them and broke them all, so when he tripped and accidentally had a rocket go off on her face she just forgave him with a smile-that once) and didn't even know about the Three-Year Smile of Death, but the fact it was believable says enough.
    • Pink and Link offers an even clearer answer, as Shampoo hates them for Pink poisoning her just because and Link for defending her sister... And any time she meets them she kicks them one hundred times each. And the twins' horror when they realize they're alone with a Shampoo that hasn't been neutralized as they thought hints that she has occasionally done much worse, and that they're only still alive because Shampoo can't be bothered to hunt them down. Too bad that, at the end of that very story arc, they actually piss her off enough she decides to do just that...
  • In the Pink and Link arc, in the final chapter, the twins render Shampoo unconscious and proceed to beat her sleeping body whilst she can't fight back. When they go to stab her to death, though, she suddenly springs back awake, disarms them, and then begins beating them up for the attempt. Then they realize she's still asleep, she's just been trained so that she can fight without needing to be awake — and in her sleep she doesn't have her usual unwillingness to kill. By the time Ranma returns, Shampoo has struck each sister 500 times — and then, as they try to prepare and antidote, she starts interfering by grabbing one twin's neck and starting to strangle her. Only Ranma's intervention keeps the unsleeping Shampoo from just killing them both.
• Kodachi is an absolute nightmare to deal with, simply due just how unhinged she is. Surprise attacks with lethal weapons? She's done that-by reflex (at least Shampoo doesn't do it unless she means it). What's her pet? A giant crocodile, that she once fed her brother to for a sibling spat. Explosives? Thrown around without care for collateral damage. Poisons and paralyzing agents? Neither Kuno (her brother) nor Ranma (her Love Interest) will touch anything she cooked without having someone test it first for fear of being fed to the crocodile or raped, respectively - and those fears are what she actually tried to do them the times they forgot to have someone else test it first or she used something that has a sufficiently delayed effect.
  • The anime adds to it by revealing she is proficient with a Boys anti-tank rifle. That she used in a fight with her brother.
• Ranma himself is a terrifying character — and, by extension, so is anyone trained in the Anything Goes style, as demonstrated by the first knock-out on Kuno being inflicted by a series of kicks that struck him hard enough to leave a bruise on groin, spleen, liver, mouth of the stomach, middle of the chest, lower face (including the nose) and upper face (including the eyes and the area between them). The first will cause unimaginable pain, the others could potentially cripple someone, and each of the last three could have been a killing blow in its own right. And neither Akane nor Nabiki are scared-actually, they are seen admiring the job. It's quite a good thing that all the practitioners of that style firmly believe that martial arts are not to be used on the weak... All except Happosai, that is. And he may well be the World's Strongest Man.
• Nabiki may be amusing to watch in action, but being her victim isn't. There's a good reason Ranma was terrified when he accidentally made her angry (and for good reasons to boot)... And the moment they were alone she made that very clear.
  • The one thing safe about her is that she's a non-combatant... Except she can generate a Battle Aura, hinting she may actually be trained too, she just never had reason to actually fight. Thus the moment she'll actually do it her victim will be completely blindsided.
• Kasumi of all people can also form a battle aura, which suggests that she may also have been trained, in which case a victim would be even more blindsided. Meanwhile, no one in the ultraviolent, chauvinistic Ranmaverse ever tries to attack or molest her, not even Happosai. Perhaps this is just because she's sweet and innocent, or perhaps she might actually be the strongest of the three Tendo girls. Beware the Nice Ones, indeed.
• Konatsu's backstory, if you ignore the manga's insistence on playing it for laughs. Konatsu has been so financially abused that he doesn't understand how money works, thinking that two yen is a "fair price" for an okonomiyaki. He's so used to stretching out every little thing he has that he thinks the appropriate way to make okonomiyaki is to dilute the batter thirty times, add one tiny topping, and one thin smear of sauce, or else to make okonomiyaki so small that they're barely larger than a single fried egg. And so used to starving that a small bowl of rice with a single slice of pickled radish is an "extravagant" meal. He is routinely beaten by his step-family, denigrated, and forced to pretend to be a girl to the point he's internalized that belief himself. No wonder he has tried to assassinate his own family!
• The Harumaki Arc gets really creepy when you stop to think about it. Imagine being a heterosexual guy who, night after night, is haunted by the exact same nightmare of being trapped in a girl's body and swept off your feet by another guy... who proceeds to turn into a hideously ugly old man just as he bends in to kiss you. That's where it starts. Then you learn that the dreams aren't just dreams, but the creepy old man is real, and he's using Astral Projection to invade your dreams because he's fixated upon you as a replacement for his "long lost love". Then he demands that you take him on a date, or not only will he continue to haunt your dreams, the Dirty Old Man will become a real ghost and sexually harass you for the rest of your life.