Ranma One Half / Tropes S to Z

This page covers tropes found in Ranma ½.

Tropes A to F | Tropes G to L | Tropes M to R | Tropes S To Z

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S to T

• Sacred First Kiss:
  • Ranma's first kiss is the occasion of great violence, as a self-absorbed playboy iceskater steals a kiss from girl-form Ranma. And when we say "violent", we mean 518 punches; by the time he's done, the skater in question is unconscious on his feet.
  • Akane's first kiss was also 'taken' in a similarly crazy fashion, as Ranma kissed her after sitting on her lap while under the influence of Cat Fu.
  • In another episode, to avoid it counting as a kiss, Ranma puts tape over Kunō's mouth. Later, Akane puts tape over Ranma's mouth.
  • Shampoo gives this to Ranma after he accidentally beats her
• Sadist Show: Pretty much, rarely any of the characters in this series need much of an excuse to pummel each other, even if the other hasn't done then much wrong. If it's a petty slight, retribution will be taken extremely overboard and most of the punishments can often cross the line into absurdity with the characters seeing it as perfectly fine to resort to murder just because someone displeased them. In the series's defense, it's meant to be more in the spirit of Looney Tunes just with martial arts and slight romance in a sense.
• Satire: The manga cheerfully plays straight, deconstructs and skewers a lot Japanese character archetypes.
• Say My Name: "Ranmaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
• Scary Flashlight Face: During a Hot Springs Episode Nabiki did this as she told a ghost story to Ranma and her sisters.
• Scary Stinging Swarm: Ranma's father tosses a beehive at his son as Training from Hell... with fairly mixed results.
• The Scottish Trope: Happōsai, in Fanon, though Sōun and Genma have made jokes referring to similar superstitions.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Principal Kuno hires three champions to subdue a rebellious Miss Hinako (and Ranma, natch): Happosai, Tatewaki Kuno... and Nabiki. While the two others actually try to engage in battle and are easily routed, Nabiki just takes the money and runs.
  • In an anime story where Azusa returns, she gets interested in Kuno and ends up visiting his house. Later Kodachi sees the mess she's causing including taking her stuff. After trying to fight her she gives up and announces that she'll live outside for a while. Meanwhile after Akane told P-Chan about Azusa's return off-screen, he refuses to leave the closet.
• Screw Yourself:
  • The manga features a plotline where Ranma gets his female side cloned, who, upon discovering that Ranma is actually male, latches onto him like only a crazy Yandere could. In the end, she hooks up with the another male clone of himself, and they become Sickeningly Sweethearts.
  • And in one anime story, his female side Happōsai once separates from his body. She appears to be quite adamant about getting back together with Ranma. Although, surprisingly, she doesn't try anything naughty once she has him under her spell.
• Second Love: Akane ending up falling in love with Ranma after getting over her first love, Dr. Tofū.
• Selective Obliviousness: Just about everyone in the series at some point. Most notably: Kunō's apparent refusal to understand either that Ranma and "the pigtailed girl" are one and the same, or that neither "the pigtailed girl" nor Akane Tendō are at all attracted to him, seems to be one part this, one part massive ego; Also, Akane Tendō either remains unaware of Ryōga's attraction to her, no matter how obvious it is, or immediately forgets it. She also tends to believe the worst of Ranma even when he doesn't deserve it, or in other cases, want to believe the best of characters when they don't deserve it, such as Nabiki, Shampoo, or in Ranma's case, the battle-dogi story.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Sōun and Genma, and to a lesser extent Ryōga & Ranma.
• Seppuku: Genma promised Ranma's mother that he and Ranma would commit seppuku if he didn't raise Ranma to be "a man among men".
• Serial Homewrecker: Mikado Sanzenin is a man who wants to kiss as many women as he can, without giving a damn about such details as the girl's consent or marital status. This reputation becomes somewhat more literal than usual when it turns out that his signature double-team attack with Asuza Shiratori (which is to grab the girl of an opponent skating couple, wait until the guy tries to pull her away and then twist around like a tornado until one team member eventually lets go of the other, getting the guy badly hurt and hopefully breaking the team's mutual trust) has the name of "the Couple Cleaver".
• Shameful Shrinking: In the manga, during the "Legendary Battle Dogi" story arc, Ranma tries to appeal to Akane's sentiments by saying the Battle Dogi is driving them apart. It works, and Akane accepts to get rid of it, making Ranma starts to feel really guilty about the trick. After imagining himself as a devil being torn apart by Akane's "angelic" light, he metaphorically shrinks in shame.
• Shapeshifter Swansong: Copycat Ken's breakdown resembles this (anime only).
• Shapeshifting Seducer: Kiima transforming into Akane and then instigating naked cuddling with Ranma in the final storyline.
• Shatterpoint Tap: Ryōga Hibiki does this with his Bakusai Tenketsu technique. While going through the training for the technique both he and Ranma thought that it worked on everything, including human flesh, but it turned out to only work on rocks. However, surviving the Training from Hell required to learn the technique did have the benefit of rendering Ryōga Made of Iron.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Every member of the Love Dodecahedron ships their rivals at some point (in an attempt to Pair the Spares), but Sōun and Genma stand out by shipping Ranma and Akane in nearly every episode. Then again, they did engage the two of them in the first place. When Genma plans says that he's going to make Ryōga the heir to the Saotome school, both Genma and Sōun ship Ryōga and Akane.
  • Dr. Tōfū is the first big Ranma/Akane shipper In-Universe after the parents.
• Ship Tease: The anime (but not the manga) Ship Tease Nabiki/Kuno a lot. Fanon would have you believe it Ship Tease Ukiyo and Ryōga, since they often join forces on couple competitions, but they always are explicitly doing it to break up Ranma/Akane or win the prize for selfish reasons.
• Shipwreck Start: Nihao My Concubine starts with Kuno showing off his new yacht. Cut to the yacht already destroyed and the cast stranded on an island.
• Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: Despite being shown attending school and having a few scenes set in school, they don't seem to be doing that much academic work. Ryōga appears to have dropped out in junior high to follow Ranma. Shampoo and Mousse are implied to be around the crew's age yet have never been shown going to school. However, high school in Japan is not compulsory, and albeit Ryōga doesn't seem to have a trade of his own (and his family seems to be well-off), Shampoo and Mousse do both work at Cologne's restaurant.
• Shout-Out:
  • Viz Video's VHS and DVD releases often referenced movie titles, songs, or other pop culture elements. Such as Big Trouble In Nekonron, China, Nihao, My Concubine, Like Water for Ranma, Akane and Her Sisters, An Akane to Remember, One Flew Over the Kunō's Nest, and Faster, Kasumi! Kill! Kill!. And those are just the movie and OAV releases —the TV series had gems such as "Dharma Chameleon" and "Smells Like Evil Spirit". Then it got even worse. The Japanese episode and movie titles within those releases had straight-up translations, though.
  • The anime also has a number of shout-outs to Urusei Yatsura; a couple of characters from the series can be spotted in blink-and-you'll-miss-it scenes — the two most notable are when Shampoo demonstrates Instant Nanniichuan, the dog turns into a replica of Ataru, and when Kunō does a flying dive onto a status of Cherry in the Wishing Sword episode, but they also show up in a couple of crowd-scenes. One anime filler episode has Kodachi show up in a scene that may be a reference to the first introduction of Ryoko Mendo. The anime's fourth opening reuses some animation from the first opening to the Urusei Yatsura anime. The below mentioned OVA also has Lum herself clearly show up as one of Ranma's many fawning concubines during Akane's first nightmare.
  • For Maison Ikkoku fans, there's Akane wearing Kyoko's iconic "Piyo-Piyo" yellow apron.
  • Azusa tends to name whatever objects or animals she steals from people after characters from The Rose of Versailles, such as "Rosalie", "Fersen" and "Marie Antoinette". This is more obvious in the anime, where she steals and names more things than she does in the manga; one episode has her kidnap Genma in his panda form and name him "Oscar", then dressing him up in full Oscar cosplay.
  • The manga has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to Dokonjou Gaeru — a sickly little girl with a crush on Ranma, appearing in a single Valentine's Day filler chapter from the manga, calls her stuffed bunny "Pyonkichi."
  • The "One-Punch Miracle Armor Warsuit" that Gosunkugi purchases in the manga is inspired by the Fire Suit from Tokkei Winspector.
  • Hinako Ninomiya, Ranma's English teacher introduced late in the manga, is a big fan of Doraemon — predictable for a Womanchild. She's seen watching it at least twice (one of them actually having Nobita crying "Doraemon" directly, because she's supposed to be watching an English learning video with Ranma and Akane at the time), and she has a Doraemon poster-calendar on her wall.
  • A single episode OVA that was released as part of the It's a Rumic World celebration for the anniversary of Shonen Sunday had multiple shout-outs to Inuyasha. In one of Akane's dreams, a painting on the paper wall is clearly Sesshomaru's dog form. In another scene, Akane dreams that she's in a losing battle and you can clearly see Kagome, Inu Yasha, Shippo and Miroku as her fallen comrades. Later in the same dream, we see Kodachi with facial markings similar to those seen on Sesshomaru, his mother and other full blooded dog demons.
  • Woolseyisms often do this as well. During the Romeo & Juliet story in the manga, Genma claims Romeo "is from the planet Krypton", whilst in an anime filler episode, Ranma suggests that Sōun and Genma are acting weird because "they've been replaced by pods".
• Shrine to the Fallen: A typical Buddhist shrine to the memory of Mrs. Tendō is occasionally shown.
• Sibling Team: The OAVs' Natsumi and Kurumi.
• Signature Move:
  • Ranma's Hiryū Shōten Ha and Ryōga's Shi-Shi Hōkōdan are definitely iconic enough. More subtly in the first moves they undergo Training from Hell to obtain. While not nearly as visual as the above two techniques, they are representative of their different focuses in combat, Speed vs. Toughness.
  • Ranma's Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken was a training exercise to make him MUCH faster (though he'll still call out the technique when he's just flat-out trying to punch his enemies as fast as possible).
  • Ryōga's Breaking Point technique allows him to shatter rocks with just a touch. Repeatedly being at the epicenter of an exploding boulder (As well as constantly getting smashed by boulders while training) has rendered Ryōga Made of Iron, even by the standards of the other fighters in the show.
  • Once Ranma picks up the Hiryu Shoten Ha, it becomes his signature move, using it (or variations of it) to finish off nearly every major threat after that point.
• Single Sex Offspring: During Nihao My Concubine, it's revealed the the influence of the floating island Togenkyō causes only male children to be born, which is why every so often, raiding parties are sent out to collect women from neighboring islands to keep the population going. When the main cast is shipwrecked, the woman are taken captive for this reason.
• Single-Minded Twins: The anime has Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung, the manga has Pink and Link.
• Sky Face: Ryōga will often imagine Akane this way while lost and trying to find his way to Tokyo to see her, or while suffering bouts of depression due to his inability to confess his feelings for her.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Subverted — Ranma and Akane bicker constantly but never quite succeed at kissing, despite their obvious growing attraction to each other.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Many of Ranma's Chinese outfits, and also Pantyhose Tarō and Ryū Kumon's entire look. Ranma readily wears heavy sleeved outfits when the weather is cold; he rolls them up for fights (which happen often).
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Arcs in the manga rarely end with anyone bettering themselves in any way, outside of possibly learning a new Martial Arts and Crafts technique. The series' overall view of love and relationships is decided jaded, filled to the brim with Belligerent Sexual Tension, tangled webs of one-side crushes, and outright murderous stalkers.
• Smashing Watermelons: Used as part of one of the early storylines. Tatewaki Kunō also turns this into a inverted form of Training from Hell.
• Smoke Out: This is used at least once by every character with a slightly shady or ninja-esque martial art, including Ranma, Mousse, Kodachi, Genma, Happōsai, and Konatsu. Ukyō Kuonji uses a flour bomb to create the smoke, as part of her Okonomiyaki Martial Art. Note that they all make a similar gesture doing so; apparently, Smoke Out are quite standardized.
• Snow Means Love: After Akane has a long day of trying to find Ranma for Christmas Eve, she eventually gives up and starts to go back to her house. As it turns out, Ranma had actually been waiting for her at some spot on the way there because it would, as he puts it, "be embarrassing at home." He then proceeds to give her presents that she had earlier told him she wanted, which, of course, makes her smile and it immediately starts snowing for some reason...
  Ranma: *laughs* Snow's kinda perfect right now!
• Soap Opera Disease: Happōsai, in season 3. He gets better. Also Hinako Ninomiya had a case when she was a child (weak constitution, with an IV in her arm, which she can slip out of to go play with a random stranger). She gets better as well.
• Social Services Does Not Exist: How Genma could pull off the Cat-fist training and not get jailed for child abuse is a wonder to everyone, in the show and out. Nabiki even lampshades this at one point.
• Speed, Smarts and Strength: Ranma is the fastest of the group and usually wins his fights by avoiding their more dangerous attacks and getting in more hits than the other guy. Ryoga is the strongest of the group and usually wins his fights by soaking most of the damage and dealing out large scaled powerful techniques. Mousse is the smartest of the group and usually wins his fights by planning them out in advance and fighting dirty.
• Spell My Name With An S: "Tendō" vs. "Tendou" vs "Tendo". Repeat for any place, character, or special technique with an "oh" sound anywhere in their name. Fan Fic is split on the latter two, with both seeing a large amount of usage in stories.
  • It doesn't help that the video games and certain official materials with romanized names take it one step further and use spelling such as "Kunōh."
  • In a more specific example, the character officially romanized as "Rakkyosai" is often spelled "Lukkosai" due to early fan scripts and the character's own nickname, "Lucky." ^note  "Rakki" is Engrish for "lucky."
  • Often also written as "Tendö" in Fan Fic by writers who do not know better, which is especially hard on the eyes for Fan Fic readers in countries which do use Umlaut characters, because there "ö" stands for a completely different sound than "oh".
  • Names with y-based diphthongs get hit with it the worst, especially as they combine with the "oh" sounds above, with some segments of the fandom spelling items like "Jusenkyō" or "Moko Takabisha" as "Jyusenkyou" or "Mouko Takabishya."
  • The Punny Names for the characters mentioned in that trope are also spelled in those approximations of Chinese in certain circles, whereas the majority (as well as official translations) go straight for the pun.
• Spider-Sense: Most of the martial artists have this.
• Stab the Picture: One Story Arc is kick-started with Kuno using a massive picture of Ranma for his kendo practice, shedding said picture into smithereens as the result. Unfortunately for him, the picture belongs to his sister Kodachi, who's an Abhorrent Admirer to Ranma, and so Sibling Rivalry takes place for the rest of said Story Arc.
• Stalker with a Crush:
  • Both of the Kunōs, and Mousse too.
  • Ryōga almost escapes this status, as he does have a good relationship with Akane as friends. The fact that he happily sleeps in Akane's bed in his pig form on a semi-regular basis pushes things right back into creepy territory. (Although it has been shown that he genuinely perceives it as stoically acting as a bodyguard.)
• Standing in the Hall: Seen in the second episode as Ranma and Akane are punished for being late.
• Status Quo Is God: No one ages, no one graduates, and Ranma and Akane's relationship develops at a positively glacial pace.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: This is a tactic Ranma uses quite often in the manga, on many characters, for varying reasons. Most of the time he does just to see their reaction, though he has used it in battle as well. No character can consistently prevent Ranma from sneaking up on them, even Cologne.
• Stewed Alive: Ryōga was captured by Genma and the tour guide while in pig form. For some reason, they decide the best way to cook him is to throw him into a pot of boiling water - while still alive. Fortunately for Ryōga, hot water turns him back into a human. "Oh, it is poor person! Now we cannot eat!" Cologne also once tries to cook Ryōga, with similar results.
• Stopped Reading Too Soon: Genma read about "The Cat Fist Technique" and decided to teach it to Ranma. It required tying him up with fish sausage and locking him in a basement full of hungry cats. Genma didn't read the next page, which stated "Of course, anyone who does this is a complete lunatic who should have their head examined."
• Stout Strength: The Dojo Destroyer, though that is more a case of an Informed Attribute (at least in the manga; the anime version is definitely portrayed as formidable).
• Straw Hypocrite: Many of the ones inflicted with the curse want to be rid of it yet have no problem with the advantages.
• String-on-Finger Reminder: One episode involves Akane helping Ryoga study so he can take a test and obtain his high school diploma (his absurd amounts of No Sense of Direction, obsession with getting Ranma (which made him wander the world) and being Book Dumb all conspired against him), but being so obsessed with clobbering Ranma and the fact Ranma is constantly pestering him because he's spending time with Akane, the poor girl forces him to promise not to fight and ties a neckerchief around his hand (a Japanese version of this trope) as a reminder. At the end of the episode in a moment that makes Ryoga burst out in Manly Tears, he decides he's too dumb and vengeance-obsessed to be able to keep his promise and follow through with what he wanted, takes off the kerchief, and wanders away.
• Strip Poker: In order to defeat the infamous Gambling King, Ranma "trains" with Ukyô and Akane by playing Old Maid. By morning, he's down to his underwear and the girls own not only his clothes, but many, many IOUs for his services.
• Sudden School Uniform: Principal Kunō introducing a mandatory hairstyle (or trying to) in addition to the existing uniforms.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: Hard training will not only let you do Ki Manipulation, but give you Super-Strength, at the very least specific forms of Super-Speed, Super-Toughness if not outright Nigh-Invulnerability, massively amplify your recovery abilities and let you use even the most ridiculous things as lethal implements of destruction.
• Super-Speed:
  • While none of the characters travel at 'standard super speed', Ranma is capable of punching dozens, or even hundreds of times at such speeds that not even those attacked noticed. At least until they realize that they can't be hurting that much from one punch. Even before taking the speed-training from Cologne, Ranma was able to punch over 500 times in 5 seconds while being spun around at super high speeds.
  • When so inclined, the characters can actually run (or cycle, or row, or swim, or whatever) at greater-than-human speed, even if they don't quite hit the "run 100 miles an hour" pace typically associated with Super-Speed.
  • When Ranma needs to realize the advantages of his female form (faster and smaller) he trains by running on water.
• Supporting Harem: It's pretty clear from the start who is going to be Ranma's love interest. While Shampoo and Ukyō get screen time here and there, Akane is on screen almost as much as Ranma is, and he actually lives in her house. She also gets his attention far more than the other girls.
• Surprise Jump: A running gag results in Ranma clinging to the ceiling if he is scared enough.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Surprisingly enough, it happens from time to time.
  • Mikado Sanzenin is his school's star student... But he's also an unrepentant womanizer, and the moment he's knocked out in public all his classmates take the chance to humiliate him.
  • Shampoo is one of the most beautiful girls around, so of course Ranma, being a teenager, is openly attracted to her on a physical level. On the other hand, her personality and the way she acts tends to push him away.
  • Gosunkugi is sickly and weak for real world standards, so when he gets a set of power armor that activates only when connected to the one he hates the most he cannot move due the armor being simply too heavy. When he does activate the armor he gets in a fight with Ranma, and he's now stronger and faster... But Ranma is an experienced martial artist and Gosunkugi never fought once, so Gosunkugi cannot touch Ranma even as they're chained together, while Ranma doesn't have the same problem as soon as he dignifies to actually fight back, and would have taken him down in ten seconds had the armor not been tough enough.
  • Ranma started to stay more often on his girl form because Nabiki told him that he was wasting hot water by drawing frequent baths to turn himself into a boy. Nabiki also first gave Ranma the option of dressing girly by wearing Akane's clothes, as the Tendōs were getting tired of seeing girl-Ranma topless all the time.
• Surrogate Soliloquy: Subverted — Akane talks to P-Chan, who's actually Ryōga. Ryōga, in turn, is often seen practicing his lines to Akane with an oddly-cute storefront doll shaped like an anthropomorphic frog in a sundress.
• Swarm of Rats: Unleashed against the kidnapped girls in Nihao My Concubine, followed by a tide of cats chasing them just after Ranma has gotten all smug about girls being scared of small furry animals.
• Sweetheart Sipping: Kunō and Girl-type Ranma (yeah, It's a Long Story). Also Girl-type Ranma and Harumaki (one part softheartedness to one part blackmail — the old lecher won't stop haunting her dreams unless she gives him a date). Come to think of it, doesn't it happen with Girl-type Ranma and Densuke too?
• Sweet Tooth: Ranma takes advantage of his much-hated girl form at any opportunity to get ice cream in the anime.
• Symbol Swearing: The English and French translations of the manga use grawlix to censor Hiroshi and Daisuke when they're grilling Ranma on how far he's gone with his fiancée Akane, leaving whatever naughty words they're saying to the reader's imagination.
• Sympathetic Wince: In one episode, during one of Ranma's morning practice sessions against Genma, Ranma is flung onto the roof with enough force that the kitchen shakes. Kasumi winces, noting, "That hurt" before suggesting that Akane check on her fiancé.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Not so much a devil but a Jerkass. The Kuno family are typically an annoyingly intolerable family of loons, but the Tendo Dojo residents couldn't help but feel sorry for them when Asuza forced herself into their home and laid claim to whatever she deemed cute.
• Taking the Fight Outside
  • Kuno attacks Ranma in the high school hallway, before Ranma points out this was no place for a fight and convinces him to head outside. But Ranma decides on the fastest way out, jumping out of a third floor window.
  • When Ranma and Pantyhose Taro are in the Cat Cafe and both ready to tear each other apart, Cologne has them take the fight outside by sending them both flying out of the building with a strike of her staff.
• Talking with Signs: Genma-Panda, since he can't talk.
• Tame His Anger: Both Ranma Saotome and Ryōga Hibiki do this. Their anger was towards each other. By the end of the series they're pretty much the best of friends.
• Taste the Rainbow: A martial art for every interest.
• Tears of Awe: Parodied by Happosai whenever he tears up at the sight of a particularly beautiful bra.
• Tempting Fate: The mushroom temple episode had Ranma, Akane, Ryoga, Kuno, Mousse, Soun, and Genma sit in a prayer hall in meditation. After a moment, the head monk hits Ranma’s shoulder for supposedly losing concentration. The others mentally berate and insult him for getting hit. Another moment later, the head monk rapidly whacks the rest of them harder as if sensing their self-righteous arrogant thoughts. Meanwhile Ranma wisely focused on meditation.
• Thanks for the Mammary: This may take some time...
  • When Ranma first comes to the Tendō Dōjō, Nabiki proves Ranma's (apparent) gender by first poking her/him in the breast, then rubbing it. She later emphasizes her point by grabbing her/his breast again. And, when it seems Ranma's bust size has increased in a late manga story, she proves it by... you guessed it! Groping hir again.
  • During Tatewaki Kunō's introduction, he plunges into a pool alongside Ranma. His first hint that something is amiss is when he holds onto the latter and accidentally grabs her breast and squeezes.
  • An anime-only scene in the first season has Sōun try and break up a fight between Ranma and Genma, both in cursed form, by pushing them apart with a hand on each chest. He then promptly realises he's cupping Ranma's breast, and his daughters have seen him doing so. He tries to claim that it's Not What It Looks Like, and promptly catches a fist in the face from Ranma due to not letting go.
  • In another episode of the anime, male Ranma stands up, half-faints, and braces himself. On Akane's chest.◊ As expected, a Megaton Punch follows.
  • Sometime in the late manga (and an anime OAV), Ranma has to confront a ki-draining teacher, Miss Hinako, whose technique can only be sealed away by hitting three shiatsu points on her chest and two on her back. Not much of a problem when Miss Hinako is in the body of a eleven-year-old girl... a very big problem when she inevitably absorbs his Battle Aura as he's hitting the points, causing her to grow up into a tall and buxom woman, and he gets a handful of breast for all the school to misinterpret.
  • And, of course this is how Ranma discovers that Wholesome Crossdresser Ukyō is a girl.
• Theme Naming: Every regular that is part of a group or family: The Tendōs, all Chinese characters, the Kunōs, the Saotomes...
• Those Two Guys:
  • Hiroshi and Daisuke for Ranma and their Distaff Counterparts Yuka and Sayuri for Akane. These are filler characters in the anime.
  • In the anime, Nabiki gets two unnamed extras usually helping her run her gambling pools.
  • Lime and Mint and Koruma and Masara act like this towards their respective lords.
• Through His Stomach: Over and over again. It gets to the point that even Akane realizes Ranma is more like to succumb to temptation by Through His Stomach instead of Show Some Leg. A Running Gag is that Akane constantly tries to invoke this trope despite being a Lethal Chef.
• Thunder Equals Downpour: Often an implausible plot point, or subtle gag/Hand Wave for why Ranma is female when he'd clearly rather not be.
• Thundering Herd: Used occasionally, most notably in the opening of the first movie.
• Time to Unlock More True Potential: Which then involves Training from Hell.
• Time Travel: The Nanban Mirror, only in the anime.
• Title by Number: Ranma 1/2.
• Tomboy: Akane; Ukyō. Ranma is also this, when female and not pretending to be a girly girl (usually for the sake of a disguise).
• Tone Shift: As mentioned above, something of a reverse Cerebus Syndrome; the series starts out comedic, but restrained, and with some semblance of an ongoing plot; over time it gets progressively wackier and more episodic, until past a certain point it almost feels like a different series compared to the early story arcs.
• Tongue-Out Insult:
  • In one episode, after Nabiki has made some rude comments, her sister Kasumi scolds her with, "Nabiki, that's not very nice." Nabiki responds by sticking out her tongue and saying a very sarcastic "Sorry."
  • During the episode when Tsubasa is introduced, Ranma, Akane, and Ukyo initially believe that they have driven off Tsubasa by revealing that Ukyo was in love with girl-type Ranma. Ranma sticks out "her" tongue as Tsubasa stormed out of Ucchan's. It would be short lived, as Tsubasa quickly returned with a vengeance.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Akane's cooking, as she is a Lethal Chef. Happosai, one of the most inhuman characters in the cast, greedily eats a batch of cookies Akane made, but then immediately cries in pain and despair. Even he couldn't stomach what she makes.
  Happosai: Waaaaah! My poor stomach! Why didn't you tell me those cookies weren't meant for human consumption!?
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • It is never explained how Nodoka went from being hideously clumsy with a sword (such as accidentally flinging it at people while unsheathing it), which is very very bad for a kaishakunin, to handling it with skill perhaps equivalent to Tatewaki shortly before becoming a permanent member of the Tendō Dojo.
  • In the OAVs, Akane specifically trained to take back the Tendō Dojo from Natsume and Kurumi.
  • Inverted with Tatewake Kunō, who, upon his introduction, demonstrated enough martial prowess to slip through Ranma's guard and mark his neck and was portrayed as a possible serious rival, only to devolve into a gag character in subsequent appearances, and can only be seen as a badass again (or even as a threat at all) when facing regular humans or when augmented by hyper-specialized, albeit temporary, training.
• Tornado Move: Ranma's Hiryū Shōten Ha attack.
• Tough Love: Poor Ranma. As above, how Genma "trains" his son using the 'Cat-fist' method.
• Training from Hell:
  • This seems to be the only way any of the higher-grade special techniques can be learned. Also inverted in one storyline; training on Watermelon Island is Training from Hell...that's actually useless in battle. It's Training from Hell for the Smashing Watermelons game.
  • Sōun and Genma spent years with Happōsai, supposedly training. Of course, the training is implied (they are strong martial artists, Overshadowed by Awesome notwithstanding), so only the hell part is shown.
  • A more silly example from Ukyō's Dark and Troubled Past story — after Ranma left her behind, she spent seven years fighting the ocean to hone her techniques. It's immediately lampshaded by a pair of observers who caught the tale.
    Guy #1: What kind of idiot would go through training like that?
    Guy #2: Dummy! Haven't you ever watched a samurai movie?
• Transformation Ray: Usually related to mystical water:
  • Jusenkyō. Drowning (non-fatally) in a spring or being splashed with water from it will curse you with transforming into whatever creature drowned there first. Powdered versions exist, but they're only good for one transformation. In addition, Prince Saffron needed pure water from Jusendo (the source of Jusenkyō) for his metamorphosis into the Phoenix King.
  • Japanese Nannichuan. Created by a traveling monk, underneath what is now Fūrinkan High's women's locker room, to transform a pack of mischievous foxes into men. The men then turned out to be even worse than the foxes....
  • Togenkyo. Anything that falls in the spring or is splashed with its water will be permanently transformed into a man.
• Trap Is the Only Option:
  • In an early chapter/episode, Gosunkugi/Sasuke (manga and anime respectively) finds out about Ranma's phobia of cats and decides to lure him into a cat-filled room to terrify him. He does this by sending Ranma a letter telling him to show up at a particular location if he ever wants to see Akane again...while Akane's standing right next to Ranma and reading the letter too. He then does a hilariously poor impersonation of being the kidnapped Akane (once again, while Akane's right next to Ranma) when Ranma shows up at the designated location. Ranma still goes along with it because he just wants to know what the hell this weirdo is up to.
  • Multiple characters have managed to trap Happōsai via panties or a bra. Happōsai admits to knowing the trap is there, but being unable to resist it.
• Trash Talk: Ranma loves doing this.
• Trickster Mentor: Happōsai again. He really IS that annoying. Cologne also qualifies.
• Trigger Phrase: When Shampoo erases Akane's memory of Ranma, she gets her memory back when Ranma calls her "uncute" and other insults.
• True Love's Kiss: Shampoo got captured by Maomolin to be cursed to be its bride. However she manages to make a deal with it to be able to break it with a kiss from her true love, intending it to be Ranma. Hilarity Ensues as Ranma is joined by Mousse and Akane to help her but they spend more time fighting each other than Maomolin on whether to allow Ranma the kiss or not.
• Tsundere:
  • Going by the definition Akane becomes a Type A later in the story, since in the beginning she had no interest in Ranma (to say the least). Kasumi even lampshades the situation in-universe by saying, "she's actually a very sweet girl, she's just a violent maniac".
  • Ranma also counts. He even breaks out the time-honored "I'm not doing it because I like you" line.
• Tunnel King: Ryōga.

U to Z

• Unfazed Everyman: Nabiki.
• The Unfettered: The only rule consistently followed by almost everyone in Ranma ½, especially during battle, is "Victory at any cost!". To Ranma, Genma, Shampoo, Happōsai and many others, morals and ethics are largely convenient masks to beautify their self-centered behavior, to be cast aside when they become hindrances to victory. However, this trope is usually Played for Laughs and the fights are never truly threatening except in the cases of Knights Of Cerebus such as Pantyhose Taro, Herb and Saffron.
• Unholy Nuke: Ryōga's Shi-Shi Hōkōdan, which is fueled by negative feelings and highly destructive.
• Unintentional Encryption: A manga chapter and anime episode are focused on Happōsai's attempt to rediscover his legendary technique (which he forgot about), the Happō-Dai-Karin, and the gang's efforts to prevent him. When the scroll sporting the secret technique is finally retrieved, nobody can read it because of Happōsai's atrocious handwriting. This include Happō himself, which frustrates him so much that he ends up tearing the scroll.
• Universal Group Reaction: One OVA episode features an oni that can possess people. The priest who is working with the group is subjected to this sort of reaction twice. The first is after Kasumi is possessed, and the priest tells them the oni won't willingly leave its host, it will have used them up first. Everyone jumps him, shouting in unison, "Why didn't you say that earlier?" He gets the same response when he later informs them (as in a full day later) that he can banish the oni with a ward.
• Unspoken Retort:
  • During the Rhythmic Gymnastics arc, after Ranma and Ryoga have spent the night "training" (i.e. trying to kill each other), and an exhausted Ranma is absently chewing on a dish towel at breakfast, Akane thinks to herself, "That's it, we're doomed."
  • After Mikado kissed Girl-type Ranma, and Ranma ran off crying, Mikado comments on his kiss being too much for an innocent girl. Akane, having witnessed it, and being fully aware of Ranma's Gender Bender curse, sourly thinks to herself of Mikado, "You'd cry, too, if you knew who you kissed."
• The Unwanted Harem:
  • The Trope Namer, but it's an Unbuilt Trope due to predating modern harem anime; Ranma's status as a Chick Magnet is generally not much more than an annoyance to him. Though he's not enough of a cad to abuse the situation, it soothes his manly Pride — badly battered by his Attractive Bent-Gender curse. And though all the girls involved adore him, they're also rather exasperated by his wishy-washy attitude. It should be no surprise that the end-of-series attempted marriage ended in a Blast Out.
  • Subverted during the Reversal Jewel arc when Shampoo, under the jewel's effect, attempts to leave the harem, Ranma rather insistently runs after her to get it back, at first because of her abrupt change of temperament than due to his ego rather than true feelings. Lampshaded by Cologne when she notes that he got so used to Shampoo chasing him, he had to find out why she stopped.
  • In Episode 4 of Season 2 it's indicated (by way of Flash Back) there are at least two girls whose fathers Genma promised Ranma to long before he is even introduced to the rest of the cast. Ranma Lampshades this by asking "How many more fiancées do I have, anyway?" at the end of the episode.
  • Akane. Especially at the beginning of the series where every morning before school she has to fight her way past a bunch of guys who think that if they beat her then she has to go out with them.
• Valentine's Day Episodes: One chapter is set on Valentine's day. Akane hasn't bought any chocolate yet so her friends wonder if she'll give Ranma some homemade ones. He suddenly shows up and says to just buy some instead of making them herself. She kicks him out shouting she has no intention of giving him any. Later she gets asked a favor from a grandmother and her granddaughter to give some chocolates to a kid that once saved the child's doll. Turns out it was Ranma.
• Valley Girl: Mariko, like totally.
• Vandalism Backfire: Akane is chasing Happosai (after the old goat has raided her underwear drawer yet again) and throws a bottle of soy sauce at him; he dodges and it instead hits Nabiki just as she walks in the door, getting soy sauce all over the new jacket she was wearing. Akane begins profusely apologizing for staining the jacket before Nabiki tells her not to bother; after all, it was actually Akane's jacket, to the younger sister's chagrin.
• Vanity Is Feminine: Ranma takes insults to his female form's attractiveness much harder than he does to his male counterpart. One specific installment has Ranma insult Akane on her looks, which naturally put her into a temper. Kasumi confronted him afterward and said he had to apologize, because even if she was tomboyish, "...she's still a girl."
• Victor Steals Insignia: The Dojo Destroyer is a huge man who specializes in challenging various martial arts dojos. When victorious, he takes the defeated dojos' signs.
• "The Villain Knows" Moment: In the "Moxibustion Arc", after Ranma has been rendered physically weak by Happosai, Cologne teaches him the Hiryu Shoten Ha, a technique that requires no strength and uses an enemies power against them. Ranma masters the technique, then goes off to confront Happosai. Except there's a problem. Easily provoked as Happosai usually is, he refuses to fight Ranma. Then it turns out that despite Cologne's earlier statement that no one outside of her tribe had seen the Hiryu Shoten Ha in hundreds of years, Happosai reveals that he knows the technique, and that Ranma is trying to use it. How? Turns out Cologne forgot that the last time she used the technique over a hundred years earlier, it was against Happosai.
• Violence Is Not an Option: Raised to learn only martial arts since birth, Ranma and other characters tend to struggle clumsily with problems that can't be solved with violence. On his own, Ranma would try to use blunt trickery to solve such problems (e.g. combat strategy, cheating, disguises using his female form), but he is usually at a loss when that fails. Whenever the problem is on the verge of overwhelming Ranma and the others, the problem is usually solved by Nabiki (through practicality or cunning) or Kasumi (through kindness and appeal).
  • At one time, Ranma, Genma and Sōun encounter an oni that could possess humans, forcing them to commit petty acts of evil (e.g. doodling on peoples' faces, peeping on naked women). After being told by a priest that punching the possessed once would drive out the oni, Ranma happily to does so to Genma, Kunō and Ryōga in quick succession until the oni finally possesses Kasumi. Unwilling to hurt Kasumi, Ranma and the Tendō family are at a loss on how to solve the problem until being told by the priest later that a paper with a certain mystic symbol can drive out the oni as well. While the priest was at fault for not saying so sooner, the entire incident gives an example of how poor Ranma and the other martial artists are at dealing with problems that don't involve fighting.
  • In one manga chapter, Sōun receives a bean-spitting plant that spits beans at oni or those who feel anger. After exhausting all options to deal with the plant through violence, Ranma, Genma and Sōun are on the verge of giving up entirely when Kasumi calmly walks in, takes the plant and throws it into the kitchen bin.
  • In one anime episode, Ranma and the rest of the Tendō household except Kasumi all fall asleep one afternoon. In the process, they are trapped in the dreams of Happōsai, the first to fall asleep at the time. In this dream, Happōsai is all but invincible and the dream would end only if he wants to wake up. Ranma, Genma and Sōun eagerly jump at any solution that involves violence (forcing Happōsai to wake up), but this backfires on them spectacularly every time. Happōsai finally wakes up when Kasumi (appearing as a goddess in the dream) tells him that the beans everyone was waiting for that day are finally done.
• Virile Stallion: Ranma Saotome has the meaningful name "Wild Horse", is quite a lot of pride in his manliness (he's a top-notch martial artist) and any kind of questioning about it is a Berserk Button. Which of course makes it quite ironic that he has a curse that turns him into a woman and he comes to embrace it because it allows him to do things like eating ice cream without shame. It also turns out to be enforced because his father made an oath to his mother that Ranma would be a "man among men" courtesy of his martial arts training under threat of Seppuku if they failed.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: It's easier to list the relationships Ranma has that aren't this. His relationship with Akane, his friendship with Ryōga, even his interactions with his own father.
• Walking the Earth: Ryōga, though rarely on purpose; Ryū Kumon, since he's looking for the counterpart technique to his own.
• Warding Gestures: Many of the characters display these after being hit with a large blunt object, or after suffering a Face Fault. At least when their hands aren't preoccupied.
  • Interestingly, Happossai never does this as he is evil incarnate.
• Water-Triggered Change: Jusenkyo-cursed characters will change to some specific form (female human, a variety of animals, and a few monsters) when drenched in cold water and change back in hot water.
• Weak, but Skilled:
  • Ranma is not weak, but most of his enemies like Saffron, the Orochi, Herb, Pantyhose Tarō, Ryōga and Ryū are explicitly displayed to have considerably greater raw offensive power than himself. Ranma tends to find some way to either win or obtain his objective by a combinations of strategy (all of them), cheap shots (Happōsai, Herb), exploiting specific weak spots, luck (Saffron/Happōsai/Herb), speed, and through judicious use of the Saotome Ultimate Technique (run away and come up with a better plan). Ranma is usually untrained at whatever Martial Arts and Crafts of the week he is challenged at, but his genuine aptitude for anything Martial Arts usually lets him/her triumph.
  • Happōsai and Cologne. Their old age makes them physically weak, but their (hundreds of) years of training and researching martial arts makes them nigh unstoppable.
• Weaksauce Weakness:
  • Ranma's ailurophobia.
  • Rouge's back pain due to having six arms.
  • Any Jusenkyō-cursed martial artist and water. (Except for Ranma after he gets used to his female form, who might be a bit weaker and shorter, but is also faster and nimbler.)
• Wealthy Yacht Owner: Kunō in the second movie. He kicks it off by inviting Akane and Ranma-chan on a voyage with him. The rest of the cast promptly invite themselves along.
• Wedding Finale: The Grand Finale involved Ranma being bribed with Jusenkyo water and forced to marry Akane, four fiancees, assorted would-be lovers, at least one ninja, many pounds of explosives disguised as Oriental fast food, assorted murder attempts not related to the rest of that, and a pre-adolescent school teacher eating the wedding cake. Among other things. And thanks to status quo, they still didn't tie the knot!
• Weirdness Censor: Both Tatewaki and Kodachi Kunō are oblivious to the fact that male and female Ranma are the same person... despite the fact that he's transformed in front of them!
• Welcome Titles:
  • At least one season had a brief segment after the Anime Theme Song titles introducing the main characters.
  • Several of the later OVA episodes began with a song called "Where Do We Go From Here", during which the various cast members were shown around the neighborhood and/or on their way to school.
• Wham Line: A couple from the Shishi Houkoudan arc.
  • Ryouga reveals he learned the technique from miners.
    Ranma: Hmph. So another construction technique.
    Ryouga: It might be a similar technique, but there's one big difference: This one works on people, too.
  • After Ryouga defeated Ranma in a sparring match using the Shishi Houkoudan, Ranma comments to Akane just how strong it is, possibly even unbeatable.
    Akane: You didn't actually lose to Ryouga, did you?
    Ranma: No, of course not. It was just sparring. But... I wasn't holding back, either.
  • Ranma figures out the source of the technique's power is negative emotion. Ranma thinks he finally has one up on Ryouga, until Ryouga drops this bombshell.
    Ryouga: Let me tell you a little secret, I haven't even perfected the technique yet.
• What Song Was This Again?: Viz Video's song subtitles, as well as dubbed versions of DoCo's OAV songs, were "translated" to fit the melody and the rough spirit of the original lyrics. Fans came to label these "Trishliterations" after Viz Media's Trish Ledoux.
• When She Smiles: Ranma's opinion of Akane.
• When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Used twice: first, during the Curse of the New Year's Bell arc, where the Mao Molin's curse would have turned Shampoo permanently into a cat unless kissed before the 108th toll of a bell. Then, when Akane was reduced to a dehydrated doll by the magic of the Kinjakan, Ranma had to bathe her in Jusenkyō water before her eyes closed completely, or else she would die.
• Where It All Began: The final arc of the manga revolves around returning to Jusenkyō to save it. The readers finally get to see Akane at Jusenkyō, and fall in a spring.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Ukyō; Konatsu, and Tsubasa.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Ranma's fear of cats and water. While falling into a pool in an episode he screams, "Why does it always have to be water?!"
• The "Why Wait?" Combatant: The Golden Pair arc. Ranma and Akane are already scheduled for a duel with Mikado and Azusa. However, when Mikado steals a kiss from girl-type Ranma (helpless on the ice in her skates, not knowing how to skate at the time), Ranma runs to the restroom, transforms back to himself, and tells Mikado he's not waiting for the duel. He charges Mikado on the ice. The end result? Ranma gets knocked out the whirling spiral the two were in, but gets to his feet. Mikado? He'd been beaten unconscious where he stood.
• Wife Husbandry: Inverted in a flashback where Genma offers Ranma to this fate in exchange for some food.
• Willfully Weak: It is common for the characters to limit themselves, be it to the rules of the particular style, not using every ability to their fullest extent, trying to not injure/kill their opponent, not caring enough to bother with it, etc. Special mention goes to Genma, since he came up with, and then chose not to use, the Umisen-ken and Yamasen-ken techniques, and almost never uses his battle-aura. Ryū Kumon supposedly promised to not use the "school of the violent thief" after his duel with Ranma, and Ranma himself never again used the counterpart school either, although in that case, beyond being a counter to Yamasen-ken, all that it really provides is extreme ninja stealth and master thievery.
• Wistful Smile: Kasumi has a sad but serene smile in the OAV episode where she found her late mother's old cook book.
  • In another OAV episode, Ryoga smiles sadly as he walks away from Akane while she sleeps. He knows in his heart that if he keeps training her against her opponent, he'll unconsciously sabotage her, because it would break her engagement to Ranma. But he can still smile as he walks away, because " At least this time, I get to be the hero."
• With My Hands Tied:
  • Ranma actually does a lot of things with his toes in the manga, one chapter had him hanging from a rope with his arms bound by the aforementioned rope while going up against the principal, using his toes to maneuver himself and kicking.
  • Kodachi tried to hinder Ranma's agility by shackling her to Akane's pet piglet P-chan. It backfired spectacularly since it provided Ranma with a piggy-shaped flail.
    • She might have assumed Ranma wouldn't want to hurt the cute innocent widdle pig. "Pig is VALID weapon...." Cue the squealing....
  • Near the end of the manga, Ranma's hands and arms were held in place and encased in nigh-indestructible crystal, product of Saffron's metamorphosis. He was still able to fight almost to his full abilities, even wielding the spear-like Gekkaja with his toes and cut a giant Phoenix statue's neck in half that way.
  • Ryōga, under the "Mark of the Battling God", become invincible, but get also an embrassing mark and need to be defeated to remove the mark from his body. In order to make things easier for Ranma, Ryōga has blindfolded himself along with tying his hands together and placing large weights to his ankles. But he fail and still easily knocks Ranma into the ceiling.
• Wok Fu:
  • A common occurence at Cologne's Chinese restaurant, and by extension when Shampoo is making a delivery, there's a significant possibility that the food plates are going to be used as throwing weapons.
  • Subverted with Ukyō, who uses the food itself as a throwing weapon (okonomiyaki), without using plates.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Done most often to Ranma himself, as most of the (anime) Villain of the Week characters wind up proving their cred by kicking Ranma's ass. Mousse and Ryōga get this treatment during the Herb arc, as both are effortlessly beaten by Mint and Lime respectively to build hype on Herb... who proceeds to Worf the crap out of Ranma just to prove this is a serious opponent.
  • Ryōga also occasionally gets his ass kicked, but generally much less often then Ranma does and usually to help highlight that this is an unusually potent opponent.
• World of Ham: Most characters in this series are very hammy: heroic ones, such as brash Ranma and short-tempered Akane, and villainous or antagonistic ones (especially the Kunos, who are complete cloudcuckoolanders, of course).
• Worst Wedding Ever: While Ranma and Akane weren't likely to go through with it anyway (yet), the final chapter of the manga provides a classic example. Featuring thrown bombs, an attack with a real sword, lots of property damage, and Ranma once again losing a chance to cure his curse, it was enough to finally convince Akane's father to hold off on any further wedding plans until things are settled with their other suitors...
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl:
  • Ryōga has no problem hitting Ranma's girl side... unless a wig and glasses disguise is involved (though that's only while he's unaware of Ranma's real identity).
  • Averted with Ranma himself as he showed no qualms about wanting to hit Cologne during her debut. There was also the fight with Kodachi where he himself was on the line (and she did hit Kodachi using P-chan as a weapon). In the anime, they actually could touch her on occasion, but either they used grabs (which she could break out of, due to being much stronger than them) or she blocked them with her bookbag. That was only in the first season, though, and no other Mooks would ever be able to touch her afterwards. For the most part, however, Ranma plays it straight, preferring not to fight girls, unless there's an unavoidable reason, and even then, he'll only do it in girl form.
• Wowing Cthulhu:
  • During the Herb Arc. Ryōga momentarily gets killed by Lime. He enters the afterlife where he meeting his deceased grandparents, who convince him to return. His spirit then returns to his body where he unleashes the most powerful Ki Attack ever shown in the series which crushes Lime. Herb, who's borderlines on being a Physical God, watches from a distance and is utterly impressed.
  • During the Saffron Arc, Ranma manages to twice wow Physical God Saffron, the immortal leader of the Phoenix people. First by mastering the Kinjakan, which was previously believed only Saffron could successfully wield. A second time after Ranma manages to survive Saffron's Entire Empire Instant Annihilation Shot which no mortal should survive, by freezing himself with the Gekkaja.
• Wrong Bathroom Incident: Ranma once used his Gender Bender curse to gain access to the girl's changing area (he'd been led to believe he could find a cure there). Unfortunately he'd picked the time the girls were using it, and Akane recognised him. Violence ensued.
• Wrong Parachute Gag: Kinnosuke, after mooching off the Tendo family to one billion yen in debt, decides to bail on them by jumping off a helicopter he had rented that has just run out of fuel. He opens the backpack... and out comes a banner with "TRY AGAIN" while no parachute opens.
• Yandere: Most of the girls get accused of this by different fan groups.
  • While under the influence of the Fishing Rod of Love, Ranma becomes a terrifying Yandere towards Ryōga. Hilarity Ensues.
    • To point out how insane Ranma got, he deliberately triggered his curse for him and told Ryōga she'd gladly let him kill her if it would make him happy. Oh, and he also attacked Akane when the latter interrupted, which finally prompted Ryōga to step through his fears and doubt to defeat Ranma cleanly, for perhaps the only time in the manga. Notable because Ranma never got his win back from that.
  • Kodachi and Shampoo are the only ones who have been flat out shown as very willing to kill anyone in the way, although Shampoo isn't crazy, but rather really really into expediency. (Even scarier)
• You ALL Share My Story: Ryōga very prominently; many others as well throughout the series.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: The phrase "Joudan ja nai wa yo!" literally means this, and Akane says this more times than one can count throughout the anime.
• You Know What You Did: Akane gets lured into this a lot.
• You No Take Candle: Shampoo and the Jusenkyō guide. While this is supposed to illustrate the stereotype of Chinese people speaking Japanese, the odd thing is they are the only Chinese people who speak like that; Cologne, Mousse, Pantyhose Tarō etc. all speak properly. Cologne at least has the excuse of living so long that she learned proper Japanese. The other two, not so much.

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