| abstract
| - The main character of the series. A teen-aged master of Supernatural Martial Arts, generally assumed to be sixteen years old, though no official age is ever given. Like most of the other cast members, a very contradictory character, possessing both positive and negative attributes -- he can be sensitive and thoughtful one moment, and brash and insulting the next. Cursed to become a Gender Bender because of his father's stupidity, then bound in an Arranged Marriage he never even knew about until he was practically at the girl's doorstep, needless to say he doesn't get on too well with his father. When it comes to Akane, Ranma's lack of social finesse and Akane's mild dislike of men initially drives them to clash more often than not. But, as the story goes on, he gets to know her better and ends up genuinely caring for her as a person.
* Accidental Pervert: Almost never means to do things perverted, and is in fact kind of prudish, but is frequently found in highly incriminating Not What It Looks Like scenarios.
* The Ace-Apply mostly in the manga,the anime seems to have more of a bunny ear lawyer or even idiot hero most of the time.
* Attractive Bent Gender: He's attractive in both his forms, but his female form is considered a "babe" by pretty much any average guy who sees her, and Nabiki earns a regular profit by selling nude pictures/handkerchiefs of it.
* Awesomeness By Analysis: Bordering on Mega Manning (specialized in combat situations).
* Batman Gambit: Especially in the manga, really likes to show off by putting together cunning and elaborate plans. Unfortunately, (for him), his "puppets" seldom react as they're supposed to for long.
* Belligerent Sexual Tension: The male half of the template's Trope Codifiers.
* Berserk Button: Ranma's a fairly forgiving guy, considering the amount of crap he goes through on a regular basis. But if you hurt Akane or insult his masculinity, all bets are off.
* Big Eater: Often exaggerated, but does enjoy food and is capable of packing away a considerable amount -- but is usually more inclined towards frequent snacking then putting away massive meals. Somewhat a Justified Trope given the sorts of fights he gets into, and unlike his father he usually doesn't allow his appetites to lead him into danger. At least, not after it gets him his Accidental Marriage with Shampoo and zapped with the Dragon Whisker.
* Biting the Handkerchief: In the anime as part of at least one Wounded Gazelle Gambit, the manga version is much more likely to just look tearful/fake cry without a handkerchief.
* Blackmail: Ranma attempted to use what he thought was a love letter to blackmail Nabiki in the manga. Some of his psychological manipulations probably count as emotional blackmail and he does search for things to use against people.
* Blessed with Suck: His consumption of rice porridge made with stock from the hair-growing Dragon's Whisker forced him to keep his hair tied up with said Whisker or remain in girl form, otherwise his hair would grow and grow until he used up his whole life's supply.The effects wore off by the end of that story, however, so he's no longer at risk of baldness (well, unless you count all the hair he "used up" during the fighting.)
* Blue Eyes: In the anime, which lets him switch between "bluesteel", or blue-tinted grey, as a guy and deep blue as a girl.
* Boobs of Steel: His female form is arguably the most buxom among the female cast, if you take "her" bust size in comparison to "her" relatively short stature; "she's" also arguably the physically strongest female among the regularly recurring characters.
* "She's" canonically got a better figure than Akane, at least -- bigger breasts, trimmer waist (and in the anime completes the trifecta with bigger hips). It's still often an Informed Attribute, given that the size of all the teenage females varies quite a bit, and size differences between individuals aren't necessarily apparent in the artwork unless for some reason that aspect's getting played up in the story.
* Braids of Action: Ranma generally has his hair in a braid, though prior to the dragon whisker he had a Badass Long Hair Tomboyish Ponytail in flashbacks, and occasionally has other hair styles such as Girlish Pigtails while in disguise or uses Hair Decorations such as Flower in Her Hair.
* Brutally Honest - Has a tendency to be Brutally Honest which causes him far more problems than when he tells Blatant Lies (which he does almost as often).
* The Bully: To Gosunkugi (accidentally). Also to Ryoga in Middle School.
* Bully Hunter: Has been hired to apprehend hoodlums on occasion, and on his own time he will put a stop to bullying he finds himself witnessing, such as Kodachi's continued brutalization of the already-defeated Furinkan gymnastic team or the masked kids that were attempting to rob Gosunkugi.
* Cannot Spit It Out: Out of everyone in the manga, including Ryoga, he has the worst case of this. Even in the few times he acknowledges his feelings for Akane via inner monologues, while she's being nice to him in turn, he can't get a single word out and is frustrated by this.
* Catapult Nightmare: On the multiple occasions that Ranma has a nightmare, he invariably wakes up with a scream.
* Ceiling Cling: A favorite habit of his. It's useful for purposes of escaping trouble or eavesdropping, but he's often seen doing it for no plot-related purpose, particularly in the manga. Possibly he's training, or possibly Takahashi just wants to show off his skills, or both.
* Celibate Hero
* The Chew Toy: Frequently doesn't deserve the punishment he gets -- or at least to be punished that much.
* Chick Magnet / Dude Magnet: Has attracted a number of suitors, some but not all through Arranged Marriages. While probably not the knockout his female form is implied to be, or quite reaching Bishounen status, Ranma can be assumed to be fairly attractive, in peak physical shape, and his often cocky attitude probably doesn't hurt.
* Chronic Hero Syndrome: More often than not, because he was just passing through, but sometimes just because "it's a martial artist's duty" (to help those in need.)
* Combat Pragmatist: Ties in with Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty below.
* Compliment Backfire: Due to a very bad case of foot-in-the-mouth, even when he's not trying to insult Akane she gets pissed at him.
* Cross Dresser: When dressed as a girl and turned back into a guy.
* Crossdressing Voice: English only. For the first three seasons of the dub, boy-type Ranma was played by a woman.
* Curse: Multiple. There's the obvious Gender Bender curse, but he also has one based on his hair constantly growing when not controlled by a magical item, and gains (and loses) others during the series' run -- being unable to stomach hot water, for example.
* Curtains Match the Window: By the late manga, the non-canonical artwork would most commonly show Ranma's female form with red hair and red eyes.
* Deadpan Snarker: Far more so in the manga than the anime.
* Deadly Dodging + Nonchalant Dodge + Excuse Me While I Multitask + With My Hands Tied: These tropes are all closely related and all apply to Ranma.
* Determinator: He does not give up and has on a number of occasions kept going on willpower alone collapsing from injury upon acquiring his objective.Example when he try to 'learned' Ryoga ki blast by getting hit by it for nearly the whole day and only collapse after Ryoga started to feel bad and left.
* Distressed Damsel/Distressed Dude: Has been in both situations due to his curse. Both situations often stem from overzealous suitors. Kodachi even once kidnapped him and placed him in an Unwilling Suspension at one point.
* Enemy Without: In the anime, Happosai once used a magical incense called Personality Splitter to separate Ranma's female form from his male form, in hopes that she would be so happy with being her own person she would model underwear for him. Of course, it turned out that as an embodiment of Ranma's "yin side", it was basically Ranma's evil half come to life, trying to seduce Ranma and take control of him.
* Enjo Kosai: Willing to accept offers of food from guys who mistake him for a real girl, which Akane disapproves of, but is also happy to crush their feelings and chase them off by revealing he's really a guy. He also purposefully goes on dates to acquire things like information or items from people (he is not that interested in money but still went on the dates to be compensated) like Tatewaki or Shampoo.
* Enter Stage Window: Ranma doesn't seem to see any clear distinction between windows and doors.
* Everything's Better with Spinning: His most powerful technique, the Hiryu Shoten Ha, uses circular movements to generate a powerful wind vortex. It's essential to getting back his strength after he is Brought Down to Normal, and revisions of the technique are ultimately responsible for beating his two greatest adversaries (Herb and Saffron) in the manga, as well as Prince Kirin in the anime.
* Expressive Hair + Prehensile Hair + Slipknot Ponytail: His pigtail is independently mobile and responsive to his moods, has come undone very easily during at least one arc, and he has used his hair as a weapon.
* Fan Service: In both genders!
* The Fettered: Comes with being a martial artist.
* Fiery Redhead: Girl-type. In the anime, which not only gives him the right hair color but also makes him more aggressive and forthright than in the manga. Still has some of the right personality traits in the manga, though.
* Five-Finger Discount: Ranma is not averse to stealing things that he needs, although it's mostly food.
* Flaw Exploitation: Not only will Ranma use any flaw you happen to have (such as a curse, addiction to female undergarments, or getting mad when you see breasts) he will actively seek them out (for example he searched Nabiki's room twice in the manga looking for something to use against her or give him a way to blackmail her).
* Gender Bender: Due to his curse.
* Which makes Ranma one of the few male examples of Action Girl (and Hot Amazon, by proxy) out there, and a Cute Bruiser to boot.
* Gender Bender Friendship: Subverted -- when Ranma first enters the series, it looks like Ranma's female form will allow him to get closer to the somewhat androphobic Akane. However, the fact "she" is really a transformed "he" is revealed minutes later and Akane promptly trusts him less because of it.
* Hair Colors: The first volume of the manga gave him black hair in either form. The anime changed it to red hair as a girl, presumably to make it easier for Ranma to be identified, and the non-canonical artworks by the author portrayed both male and female forms with a wide variety of hair and eye colors.
* Hates Being Touched: Gets extremely nervous when girls try to do something physical to him, and, being vehemently heterosexual, he gets extremely violent if men try something on his "girl form". Part of the blame for this might be because he is inevitably battered by Akane if she sees him in something that looks compromising, while the other girls vary between aggressively flirting with him and hitting him for pretty much the same reason.
* Healing Factor: Lampshaded and otherwise commented on by other characters in the series.
* Hello, Nurse!: See Gender Bender.
* Heroic BSOD: Everything up to the Cat Fist.
* Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Many of the mentioned things from Ranma's childhood would have gotten him either killed or taken by social services if they found out, but they're all Played for Laughs.
* I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!: He takes full advantage of his girl form to get free (or at least cheaper) food.
* I Have the High Ground: Fond of high places and a common means of travel for him via extraordinary leaps and Roof Hopping.
* I Want to Be a Real Man: Both in the literal sense (i.e. get rid of the Curse) and the metaphorical sense... the fact he's got to commit Seppuku if his mother ever judges him to be "unmanly" doesn't make things any better.
* Impossible Thief: During the training of the Umisenken (a powerful martial art style inspired by sneaky thieves and actually intended for that), he stole the foundation of the Tendo home, and the Tendo realized it only after the deed in spite of being sitting on it! Thankfully, his honour forbids him from using the Umisenken anymore...
* Improbable Weapon User + Improvised Weapon + Exotic Weapon Supremacy: Will use anything as a weapon including, but not limited to, spoons, boulders, rocks, pencils, paper fans, bos, staffs, brooms, noodles, tennis racket, water, magic items, pinwheels, explosives, his own hair, bras, P-chan, and other people.
* Improbable Aiming Skills: Able to flick a stub-sized pencil from across the classroom into the hole of a fifty-yen coin in his teacher's hand... all while clinging to the ceiling.
* Indy Ploy: When a Batman Gambit fails, or he just doesn't feel he has the time/it's worth the effort to pull off, Ranma can wing it like a pro. Probably the best at it in the series.
* Innocent Cohabitation
* Interspecies Romance: Ranma was nearly forced into this by the Cursed Scribble Panda, who wanted to date him before getting sealed up again.
* Jerkass: Ranma can be really petty, spiteful, egotistic, or manipulative, especially when irritated, pushed, or just uncomfortable, but usually isn't as bad as he claims to be (or as others claim he is).
* Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite everything Ranma is shown as a generally very helpful and compassionate sort when he clearly notices that someone is in serious trouble, including people he just met if asked for assistance, and will recurrently feel extremely bad after he has gone too far. He even saved Herb's and Nabiki's lives, and felt sad for Happosai when the latter felt abandoned by his students.
* Kung Fu Kid: He's a teenager and one of the best martial artists around. It helps he's been training BEFORE he could evem walk.
* Lightning Bruiser: Extremely high level of speed and stamina, high level of strength, decent endurance and great level of skill. He can punch a single spot hundreds of times so fast it looks like a single punch, on the other, even an offhand swipe with his fist to swat at an annoyance can crush a concrete roller into rubble.
* Literal Split Personality: In the anime's Living Shadow and Enemy Without episodes.
* Living Shadow: In the anime, a Filler episode has Ranma buy some magical incense to bring his shadow to life for intense training. It's perfectly benign at first, but Ranma overdoses on the stuff, awakening his unrestrained desires in it and allowing it to act on its own until Ranma takes it down.
* Manipulative Bastard: A wannabe in terms of sheer Zany Scheme silliness, and unsuitable, mostly kind, non-sociopathic personality, whereas Nabiki is the real deal, and even Shampoo seems better at it. He usually ends up thwarted by his own conscience, or by the outlandish half-baked nature, irrationality, or the sheer unpredictability of his rivals, friends, enemies, and acquaintances. Basically, he's a bit manipulative, and can make fun of Ryoga or Kuno with a Paper-Thin Disguise, but he definitely isn't a bastard, and will not deliberately cause actual harm.
* Meaningful Name: "Saotome Ranma" translates to "Swift Maiden's Wild Horse"
* Mind Control: Alongside Akane, is the most likely to get hit with it in the series. He's also perfectly willing to use it against others in the manga, most notably trying to brainwash Happosai with "suggestion incense" to change Pantyhose Taro's Embarrassing First Name and going to the Amazons for a Love Potion to use on Ryoga in the first Akari story.
* Ms. Fanservice: Again, see Gender Bender.
* Murderous Thighs: Particularly in female form, quite adept at using his legs as rudimentary arms to grab, hold and throw others.
* My Significance Sense Is Tingling + Spider Sense: Not played up much in general, but always seems to know when something important is going on or when he's about to be attacked.
* New Transfer Student: He was this in the very early series as he arrived at Furinkan High.
* No Social Skills: Most animals would probably have better social skills. However, he is actually surprisingly well-adjusted, considering he was raised by Genma.
* Not So Different: To many or even all of his rivals and fiancees -- Ranma has no qualms with cheating, lying, stealing, cheap shots, outright Mind Controlling people or, well, just about anything short of actually killing someone.
* Not What It Looks Like: Ranma gets caught in these situations roughly once per storyline. Including a few times with Ryoga. It's pretty much never what it looks like.
* Opposite Sex Clone: From a certain point of view, Ranma's Gender Bender nature basically allows him to be his own opposite sex clone (it's stated a number of times that the two forms look enough alike to be mistaken for twins). More literally, the anime and the manga each have a Filler story where Ranma gets an independent copy of his female form made. In the manga, it's a spirit-clone created by a lonely ghost that tries to seduce him. In the anime, Happosai creates a splinter-spirit that turns out to embody Ranma's evil side and which tries to seduce Ranma -- Soun and Genma note that they seem like a perfect couple and agree that this makes sense as they are two halves of the same person.
* Pimped-Out Dress: During the Martial Arts Dining arc female Ranma wears several of these, including accessories such as necklaces and flowers. Various other stories have her in outfits that probably fall in this trope as well, such as cheongsams and kimonos.
* Ranma is also one of the rare examples of a male falling under this trope, as he is quite willing to dress up in fancy outfits in male form when the occasion arises.
* Please Put Some Clothes On: Told to him several times in both forms.
* Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: After completing the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken training, Ranma devises his own trick based on this trope. While he never names it in the manga, the anime and video games confused its name with the speed training and it has become more or less adopted in Fanon as the actual Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken. Further training for the "Parlay du Fois Gras" honed this speed for precision through stuffing an opponent's mouth with food without being seen; and the Umisenken involves a "snake-fist" technique with open-handed spear strikes towards the weak spots of an opponent's back, or stealing things swifter than a normal eye can follow... including floorboards.
* Real Men Hate Sugar: A subversion; he, in the anime, personally loves ice cream, but would not be caught DEAD saying he does, much less going to restaurants and ordering them (it's not manly, after all). Fortunately, his "curse" allows him to openly and gleefully order chocolate sundaes with a cherry on top in public; heck he even delights in the fact the young and impressionable clerks will sometimes give him free scoops or even free parfaits!!
* Real Men Wear Pink: Quite skilled at various domestic habits, particularly cooking, and hates a messy house so much he once forgot about a mission (not to mention the fact he was breaking into the flat in question) to clean someone else's flat. He even started cleaning it up again when the owner returned and promptly made a new mess. Admittedly, a lot of his domestic skills can be presumed to stem from the fact he's been taking care of himself for as long as he could remember. In the anime, he also often wears a pastel orange shirt with a dinky little red bowtie, in a more literal version of the trope.
* Rule 63: and it's CANON
* Shameless Fanservice Girl - Ranma is aware of the social rules regarding nudity but simply doesn't care if he/she is wearing clothing most of the time, even in male form (and can often be seen wearing very little clothing such as only boxer shorts).
* She Fu: A heavy basis of his fighting style in either form, and he fought like this before becoming a Gender Bender.
* Shipper on Deck: Actively and successfully set up Ryoga and Akari, attempted to hook up Cologne and Happosai, willing to help others such as Mousse and his mirror clone, etc.
* Subverted in a time-travel episode of the anime, where he is the one to speak up the most about the possibility of Young!Happosai and Young!Cologne possibly hooking up, then calls Akane and Shampoo out for trying to make them get together.
* She Cleans Up Nicely: In the second movie, Ranma has to save the ladies from an Harem-slash-arranged marriage to a prince who just so happens to have a potion which turns anything male. Needless to say, Ranma went all out to kill two birds with one stone.
* Show Some Leg: Not at all above abusing this, especially against Happosai.
* Sleeves Are for Wimps: His iconic clothes are short-sleeved or sleeveless Chinese shirts.
* Slipping a Mickey + Instant Sedation: Ranma on occasion has drugged, or attempted to drug, people (for example: tried to add knockout powder to Kuno's food, got Happosai drunk, used chloroform on Happosai, etc.). Once, it backfired; in another occasion, the other party did the same thing at the same time to Ranma's drink.
* Stealth Hi Bye: The manga version enjoys doing this, particularly to Akane, but has done it to others as well. The anime version gets a few cases of it in as well.
* Super Strength: A pair of early examples is Ranma, in female form supported Ryoga on her head while Ryoga pulled two artificial icebergs out of the water to crush Mikado Sanzenin between them in mid-air, and then threw at least one of them in a swift movement. Female form Ranma was also able to use Ryoga's heavy combat umbrella, which a regular person can't even budge with two hands, with apparent ease, for example being able to effortlessly leap from the ground to a treetop while carrying it. The most reliable gauge may be when female Ranma picked up a boulder that was several times her size and effortlessly swam with it swiftly enough to ram it into the mouth of the Orochi of Ryugenzawa in order to stop it from eating Akane, despite it having carried her off several seconds/panels before. Word of God states that his female form is weaker.
* Super Speed: Even from the series' beginning, he demonstrated this ability, tapping an insulting translation of Kuno's name onto Kuno's forehead without anyone noticing. Then, when Kuno and Ranma had their real fight, he managed to kick every single vulnerable point on Kuno's torso while making it look like he merely swept his leg up from the ground to above Kuno's head. A bit later on, he hit Mikado Sanzenin over 500 times in less than 5 seconds. All of this before he learned any speed-boosting techniques, after which he became even faster and more precise -- he was able to hit Ryoga a few hundred times so swiftly that it looked like a single strike, dispose of food so rapidly that viewers couldn't see it in the Chardin arc and, in one anime filler OAV, and learned to run so quickly he could briefly speed across water without falling in. He can basically move at around 2-4 times the speed of sound, but not run that swiftly.
* Super Toughness: Bordering on Nigh Invulnerable levels sometimes, and definitely proof to regular firearms, although Ryoga is emphasized as being considerably tougher than him after learning the Bakusai Tenketsu.
* Sweet Tooth: In the anime, he is shown to adore ice cream, but is so afraid of looking unmanly that he always goes into girl form when he goes to buy some. The fact he can get more for less by playing on his female form's looks is all the more reason for him to shift shapes.
* The Tease
* Thou Shalt Not Kill: He has been shown to avoid using lethal force in combat even if they show no such compunctions --such as Ryoga's ki-hardened belt and bandannas, or Kuno and Mousse regularly using blades and lethal weaponry against him. Most telling of all is the incident with Herb: despite the Chinese prince attempting to murder Ranma several times, in and out of combat, Ranma went as far as saving his life. However, he has his limits: when Akane's life is threatened by Saffron, Ranma immediately lets loose with attacks (and an enchanted Impossibly Sharp Blade of his own) that would have killed anyone else.
* Through His Stomach: He loves food, the girls around him know that, and so they are frequently trying to use food to get some attention from him. It actually doesn't work quite as often as you might think, even when it's not Akane who's trying it.
* Tiger Versus Dragon: He's actually both, depending on the fight. He's a tiger to Ryoga's lion but his signature technique, Hiryu Shoten Ha, invokes dragon imagery and he is a dragon to Saffron's phoenix.
* Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Prefers to fight upfront in tests of martial skill, but if he's at a disadvantage (regardless if his opponent fights without trickery as a raw test of ability) Ranma only follows regulations if explicitly stated before the match, and frequently uses distractions, cheap shots, taunting, ambushes, or strategy to exploit weak spots. Most likely to use Hey, Catch!, Look Behind You!, Loophole Abuse, Talk to the Fist and Trash Talk, specifically, though has used other ones on occasion such as the memorable use of Ryoga/P-chan as both Human Shield and flail. An entire story called "The Unmanliest" was devoted to showing that both he and Mousse will stoop to using lots of dirty tricks if motivated.
* Well he is the effective heir to the "Saotome School Of Anything Goes Martial Arts".
* Ventriloquism: Possibly used a few times in the manga, when hiding behind someone else, although when these situations have been rendered in anime format it's not displayed as modulating voice projection, but rather as plot induced Idiot Ball.
* Wall Crawl: Scrambling up walls, poles and other sheer surfaces is a frequent habit of his, either to escape or gain a height advantage.
* Weak but Skilled: Comparatively speaking. Ranma is actually pretty powerful, but tends to use a combination of skill speed, strategy, and power to win a fight. In battles against opponents that are clearly displayed to have more raw offensive power than himself, such as the Orochi, Happosai, Saffron, Rouge, Herb, or even Ryu Kumon, he has either won or obtained his objective because of his quick thinking,trickery, using exploitable weak spots, powerful weaponry, etc rather than by matching them outright.
* Why Did It Have To Be Cats?: Screams in terror and invariably faints or runs away at the mere sight of housecats and the ghost cat.Somewhat Inverted later on when he ride a tiger later on. It seems only household cats/catghost cause him to enter a panic stage.
* Wig, Dress, Accent: Frequently puts on a disguise to better manipulate people. However, in canon said "disguises" literally almost always only consist of simply changing her clothes, and otherwise look exactly the same. As this is a comedy series this is explicitly used as a Running Gag in that no matter how ridiculously bad the disguises almost consistently are Ryoga will be tricked. For example, in the "waterproof soap" story Ryoga recognises Ranma and Shampoo, but when they instantly change into swimsuits he doesn't. When informed who they are he says "so, your ingenious disguises fooled even me. To Ranma's surprise this doesn't work on any of her schoolmates in the Tsubasa story, but the female form in itself can be useful against people who have never seen it before, such as Principal Kuno, even with just a swimsuit, or a dress and P-chan be enough to make tranced Happosai see a mother and her baby. Even Akane managed to see through the by far most ambitious disguise Ranma ever donned - a wig, glasses, make-up, and big dress, with the only time she was fooled being because Ryoga had just been fooled into thinking he was his non-existant sister.
* Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Subverted: has no problems with fighting girls, and while slightly more likely to go after them as a girl himself (to avoid looking bad), won't hesitate to take them on as a guy if he deems the situation calls for it. Basically, he has stated that he strongly dislikes hitting them, and, if he has enough of an advantage, will usually try to incapacitate them without causing any damage, but if he/she clearly does not, the situation is too dangerous, or (as with Konatsu) it is proven that holding back in this way will simply cause him to lose, he stops being chivalrous/considerate.
* Zany Scheme: Perpetrator of many. By extremely random happenstance, these ploys frequently necessitate crossdressing.
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