RANMA SAOTOME

Ranma Saotome isn't what one can call a normal teenager. He has lived a very abnormal life since the time that his father, Genma, took him from his mother on a training trip as a very young child. Genma's goal was to make his son an expert martial artist in the School of Anything Goes Martial Arts and help him become a man among men. Things didn't exactly turn out that way.

As told on the General Info page, Ranma and his father got cursed at Jusenkyo and while Ranma's curse would be uncomfortable and inconvenient for an ordinary person, for Ranma it was truly a horror. His father being practically the only influence in his life, the young martial artist inherited his father's idea that women were weaker and not what anybody in their right mind would want to be. This shouldn't be held against him since he really never got a chance to learn otherwise.

This probably explains why his first meeting with the Tendos didn't start off too well. Ranma wanted to go back to China to find a cure for his curse, but his father forced him to go to Soun Tendo's home through the rain, and for some incomprehensible reason, Genma didn't even bother to change both of them back to their original forms!

Soun was very surprised as the boy who was expected to show up to marry one of his daughters turns out to be a girl. Saving Ranma from the very awkward situation his(her?) presence had caused, Akane Tendo, tries to make friends with him. Things begin to look up for the aquatranssexual.

Unfortunately, his new start is ruined when Akane accidentally walks in on his bath just as he is turning back to his male self. She bashes him for being a 'pervert' even though she walked in on him! Things rapidly go downhill from there.

Having a curse and being thought of as weird simply because he is capable of doing things normal people can't do is tough, but life gradually begins to settle down for Ranma. Until people start showing up trying to kill him. Among other things!

Most of this is Genma's fault as he has managed to tick off quite a few people. One of the horrible things he did when on his training trip with Ranma was to trick loving fathers that Ranma would marry his daughter someday in exchange for some food! Then Genma would run off and try this con on someone else! The total number of women he has engaged Ranma to is unknown, but knowing Genma, it might be better not to know...

Ranma's life appears to be run by Murphy's Law and while it's easy to feel sorry for him, it's hard to not laugh as well.

Ranma Saotome is a really cool guy and he has the potential to be one of the very great martial artists. His life may be tough, but it's actually helped improve his skills. Having your life threatened on an almost weekly basis tends to do that to a person. He already halfway there to being as good as Happosai or Cologne. His arrogance and over confidence could do him in, though. But it must be remembered that he is not stupidly reckless and he *will* retreat if necessary. Oh, that dreaded Saotome Secret Technique!

Ranma is a top notch martial artist. I am not going to get into a debate over whether or not he is the best martial artist but objectively speaking he is not at the moment but it appears that he is getting there. A martial artist's worth is not judged by how many victories he has or people he beats but by his dedication and contribution to the Art. Ranma has had experience beyond the norm and by the end of the series he is most certainly in the top ranks. What he may lack in skill and experience compared to people like Cologne and Happosai he more than makes up with his sheer tenacity and stubborn refusal to ever give up.

He just has to realize that he still has more to learn and I think he realizes that. He is always talking about how he's the best but I don't think he's being macho or trying to delude himself. It's a standard he's trying to live up to and the right attitude to have. Nobody ever gets to the top with the attitude of, "Well, I know I'm not the best and there are so many people better than me..." Acting like a winner is most of the way to getting there.

Some people wonder why Ranma is the way he is. Well, let's see. He is plagued by a curse that makes his life a living hell, was taught the Nekoken by his idiotic, inept father which could have driven him permanently insane, is engaged to multiple fiancees, and he hasn't seen his mother since his childhood. I'm just shocked that he turned out as well as he did!

He's more insecure than willing to admit. He has had very little experience with girls or people in general and so understandably not a good socializer. But it's just good that he didn't turn out like Ryouga and turn into a basketcase just from seeing a girl.

Ranma puts his foot in his mouth a lot and doesn't have a lot of tact. His brute honesty and habit of speaking without thinking tends to be interpreted as insulting, but he doesn't mean to be. He's actually a pretty nice guy most of the time. Of course, sometimes he really is a jerk but hey, nobody's perfect. :)

Ranma is deeper than most give credit for. He is not given many chances to be who he really is. In many ways he is an innocent child who doesn't understand why he isn't liked. He gets flustered easily but he is usually polite but only to those he thinks deserves it. He is a blunt individual though and usually uses his big mouth to his own detriment.

Having an isolated life, Ranma tends to hide his emotions and will do anything to avoid talking about them. All right, typical guy, but if he was as brave at solving emotional problems as he was solving physical ones, life would be a whole lot easier for him.

This guy tends to be seen as dense because of his ignorance of people. If this was taken into account, he is smarter than given credit for. He is obviously eidetic and he can pick up new martial arts techniques with ease. Even the ones that look like magic.

But it is one thing to memorize but another to know when to use which he can do. He knows when to apply his knowledge and uses his brains and wits to survive. A genius at tactics and adapting to changing battle conditions, he *could* be good at school if he tried, but with his life he probably feels that it's not important for him to learn stuff like algebra. (Can't argue with him there!) Ranma is incredibly competitive and that's understandable and it shows how he got so good, but the point is he can learn anything if given the motivation.

(I perfectly understand. It's taken me a week just to get the energy to write this profile and it still stinks!)

Despite his faults, it must be remembered that he is one of the most patient people around. He could press charges against everyone who's trying to kill him or make him marry them against his will, but he never blows up or really gets mad. Even though most of the antics in the series could drive most people insane!

Ranma's a very forgiving guy, especially compared to the people around him, and he never really gets mad. Even when he is steamed, he manages to stay in control of himself. I've always wondered what would happen if he just totally went beserk?

The strange thing is that Ranma seems to consider his enemies his friends and he'd rather humor them than lose them. And while not picking a fiancee could be seen as stringing them along it's more likely he doesn't want to hurt them or lose their presence in his life.

It's too bad that he's lonely, but he should take responsibility for making things up but the question arises of how would he know how to? He's probably never had to be responsible for anything before and he certainly doesn't have much of a role model.

Ranma will probably never have a normal life. Some might blame Jusenkyo for making him a trouble magnet and living in the area with so many other cursed people might do that. But his curse doesn't have to do much with everything that has happened to him. Maybe it's because of who he is. He should be using his skills to help people instead of fighting people he doesn't really want to hurt anyway!

Ranma is a honorable fellow and while he can be rude and insensitive he never really means to hurt anyone. He hasn't fully matured yet, but he's going to have to someday if he ever wants to have a decent life. There's no guarantee that it will be normal, but at least then he might not have a guilty conscience haunting him.