Ranma Nibunnoichi (Ranma ¹/₂)

Ranma ¹/₂ is a romantic comedy of bizarre martial arts, hilarious curses and odd couples. The star of the series is Ranma Saotome, son of Genma Soatome, founder of the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts. Genma is obsessed with training his son in the martial arts, using (as the series later shows in flashbacks) the most insane and outrageous techniques he can find. Hearing of the Springs of Jusenkyo, where fighters can hop from bamboo pole to bamboo pole sticking out of the water over hundreds of small pools, he takes his son there to improve his agility and balance. Unfortunately, he didn't the guidebook (it's in Chinese) - they are the Cursed Springs of Jusenkyo, so named because over the centuries a variety of creatures have drowned in the different pools, and now each one carries a curse. Or to paraphrase the Chinese guide who shows them there:

"Ah. That is Pool of Drowned (pick-your creature). Very tragic story attached to that pool. (Pick-your-number) years ago, a (creature) drowned in that pool, and now anyone who falls in it, takes on form of (creature)".

During their fight, Ranma unseats his father, who falls into the Pool of Drowned Panda. Sure enough, the curse kicks in, and Genma emerges from the water with a flying kick...in the form of a giant Panda. This so unnerves Ranma that he loses his footing, and falls into the Pool of Drowned Girl. Now, whenever either of them is splashed by cold water, they take on their curse form (a large panda or a buxom red-headed girl respectively), and they return to normal when hit with hot water.

Ranma is understandably less than impressed with this intermittant sex-change. To make things more interesting, there next port of call is to Genma's old friend Soun Tendo. Years earlier, while training under their master Happosai, the two men pledged to have Ranma marry one of Tendo's three daughters - (the now) 19 year old Kasumi, 17 year old Nabiki or 16 year old Akane. The three girls are less than thrilled when they discover Ranma's curse - the two elders because of the curse, Akane because she doesn't want to have to marry anyone and she is irritated because the female Ranma beats her in a training session. Naturally Nabiki and Kasumi decide that Akane should be the one to marry Ranma, since she doesn't like boys anyway, and Ranma is a girl half the time. And so begins a beautiful relationship...

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