The Ranma-Akane Engagement: COMMENTARY PART 2
THE RANMA-AKANE ENGAGEMENT:
A MORE IN-DEPTH LOOK INTO THE ROMANCE OF RANMA SAOTOME AND AKANE TENDO
A SPIN-OFF OF MY ENTRY, THE RANMA 1/2 COMMENTARY,
Subcategory of the Harem and Romance Aspect
It is recommended that you read the COMMENTARY first before reading this.
WARNING: FULL OF REVELATIONS AND POSSIBLY, SPOILERS.
BEFORE YOU PROCEED, READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BELOW!
READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED: Ages 13 and up, possibly due to certain pictures and particular words.
In reading the article hidden underneath the cut, you agree to the TERMS AND CONDITIONS mentioned in my profile. Let me reiterate that you are allowed to disagree with any opinion and you may correct anything mentioned with the proper evidence/proof. You are also given the freedom to express your own views on THE RANMA-AKANE ENGAGEMENT. Pictures in this entry are the artwork of Rumiko Takahashi, her fellow animators or her affiliates. In no way am I associated to Rumiko Takahashi, the animators and/or staff responsible for the production or promotion of Ranma 1/2 and neither do I officially represent the anime. If you do NOT agree to the aforementioned, do NOT read the article underneath the cut (basically, anything that's after this disclaimer).
BEFORE YOU BEGIN, please be informed that the term Ranma-kun will be used for Ranma Saotome's male counterpart, and Ranma-chan suggests Ranma Saotome when he (or she) is female. When only the word Ranma is used, this refers to Ranma Saotome as a whole person (regardless of being male and female), whereas Ranma 1/2 pertains to the anime itself. I have re-checked each "Ranma" to make sure I'm not mistaken.
"It started with two meddling parents," sang Ranma and Akane in the song Ranma to Akane no Baraado (乱馬とあかねのバラード; The Ballad of Ranma and Akane). Indeed, the seemingly happy couple's love story did start that way: by agreeing to go through with an engagement arranged by two fathers. Like most anime couples, Ranma and Akane share a love-hate relationship (which means they pretend to hate each other, but actually love each other). As early as
Episode 1, we can see that Akane and Ranma would make good friends. Before Akane found out about Ranma's curse, Ranma-chan and Akane fought a friendly martial arts battle just for the sake of practicing. Ranma-chan became Akane's good friend after that, and they liked each other for a while... until Ranma-kun's secret was exposed! Afterward, chaos happened: insults from both Ranma and Akane were fired toward each other, hostility took the place of what used to be friendship
and all that the fathers dreamed of for their children will seem to never come true. In the first few episodes, we can unquestionably say that Ranma really did get on Akane's nerves. Nonetheless, as the series progresses, you will notice that the beautiful friendship we first witnessed in the pilot episode soon blossoms from a petite bud into a pretty flower. Despite disliking each other, they learn to get along, mainly because they have no choice, since they both live under one roof. Before you know it, they both learned to care for each other like brother and sister. To begin with, Akane is already an affectionate person and this was proven to be correct in Episode 5: when Dr. Tofu did something to Ranma-kun to render him incapable of walking (and also to prove his point that Akane is a sweet individual). To Ranma-kun's surprise, Akane volunteered to carry him on her back. Ranma-kun was ashamed to let her do it because he was a man, so Akane splashed him with cold water and carried Ranma-chan all the way home while carrying the groceries too. Ranma wouldn't let Akane beat him in being most helpful, of course. Likewise, Ranma would also volunteer to help Akane whenever she needed help, like the time when they needed to defeat Kodachi in Episode 12. Ranma-kun even dated Shampoo just so he can get formula shampoo 110 from her, a concoction needed to bring Akane's memories back in Episode 16. When times are good, Ranma and Akane would always disagree, fight and ridicule each other, even to the point of a lovers' quarrel; yet all ends well when they patch up and apologize to each other (which occassionally takes a few episodes). On the other hand, whenever you need a buddy to help get you out of trouble, a partner to help you practice your martial arts skills or someone to buy you that cookbook you need to make a good dish (and regrettably assume the role of taste taster), Ranma and Akane are always there for each other.
Now enough with their friendship. Let's get on to when they actually learn to love each other. Just like in real life, it took a quite a while for love to develop romantically. It all starts with Episode 11, when Akane gets extremely jealous
over Kodachi trying to kiss Ranma-kun when Kodachi paralyzed him. Clearly, if Akane couldn't care less about Ranma and about their engagement, she would not bother to hit Ranma hard on the head before Kodachi even got the chance to lock lips with him. Another similar episode would be when Shampoo makes her debut appearance. Akane was boiling mad when Shampoo started flirting with Ranma-kun and calling him "ai ren" (爱人) which meant "lover" in Chinese. It is apparent that Akane wants Ranma-kun to herself alone and it seems that Ranma couldn't help but return the love Akane has for him. Ranma-kun also gets jealous sometimes and does his share to make sure that Akane is HIS girl and no one else's. The picture on the right shows a great example taken from Episode 21. In this picture, Ranma-kun is telling Sanzenin not to lay a finger on Akane, saying: "Akane is MY fiancee. You touch her and I'll KILL YOU!" This statement naturally connotes that Ranma-kun makes it nice and clear that no one should take Akane from him. When you first hear this statement, you'll be shocked (just like Akane when she heard this) because this episode took place in a time when Ranma still had no interest in Akane whatsoever romance-wise. Without a doubt, you can say that Ranma and Akane are just protecting their engagement to follow their fathers' will. That's ONE way of looking at it. But I rather believe that it is actually their love for each other acting SUBCONSCIOUSLY, since they still haven't realized how much they love the other person (romantically of course). As the seasons progress, the episodes get better and better and the manner of how they express their love for each other becomes more and more evident. By the way, did you know that Akane also once dared Ranma-kun in one of the early episodes to kiss her after Ranma-kun threatened her that he might? Too bad he couldn't do it, even with Akane's eyes closed (picture above).
With Ranma having many suitors and fiancees, to win Ranma's love is joining no contest; you're joining a war! In Episode 22, Akane fought Kaori in order to save her engagement with Ranma. Although it
wasn't her field of expertise (food delivery), she won the battle by a millisecond. Akane constantly reminds Ranma that she didn't do it for him and instead, was doing it for the Tendo Dojo and for the glory of the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts. This is obviously the love-hate relationship still at work, because she's hiding her true feelings, just like what she does throughout the series, except for a few instances to be mentioned later. We can also infer that Akane does not only love the male Ranma, but she has also learned to love Ranma as a whole -- male or female, jerk or dream boy, body and soul (ok, so that's a tad dramatic). At first she thought she was going to be married to a freak, but she soon accepts Ranma for who he is. She also tried her best to help Ranma-kun become a whole man again. She once had to
remind Ranma-chan of her [Ranma-chan] true gender, after Ranma-kun bumped his head on a rock in the backyard pond when being chased by her [Akane]. Since then, Ranma-chan (naturally, he fell in the pond and the curse took effect) forgot about her true self and believed that she was more of a girl at heart (even after she became Ranma-kun again). This put a lot of stress on Akane's part because she knows that Ranma, her fiance, has a very strong heterosexual male gender identity and the only reason why this happened is if something's really wrong with Ranma. She felt really troubled about this, and even cried in front of Ranma-chan -- begging her to go back to her old self -- all out of love (and guilt). After some time, Ranma-chan returned to normal after she hit her head on the rock once more. Based on this, I can safely say that whenever Ranma has a big problem that changes who he is or whenever he is demoralized, Akane is always there to help. Another perfect example could be when Akane set her arms on fire in Episode 68 in order to train Ranma-kun, so he can master the technique Ascension of the Dragon Wave. By mastering that technique, Ranma would be able to defeat Happosai and get the pressure point map from him to regain his full strength (after being drained of power as a consequence of the moxibustion technique used by Happosai in a previous encounter).
Now for the good part: Episode 125 monumentally confirmed that Akane loves Ranma. The story starts with her peering through the window of a shop and Ranma-kun asking her what she wanted for Christmas. After hearing her lengthy response, Ranma-kun told her that he'd be broke if he bought them all. Soon after, Ranma-kun disappears and Akane spends the day looking for Ranma-kun because she wants him to spend Christmas with the Tendos. Meanwhile, the three other fiancees fight over the "right" to have Ranma-kun over for Christmas dinner. Just when a fiery battle between Kodachi, Ukyo and Shampoo was about to begin, Akane interrupts their feud. Allow me to quote a truly surprising line from Akane.
[Imitating Shampoo] "Ranma belong Shampoo." [Imitating Kodachi] "Ranma, darling, you and I are going to spend Christmas Eve together. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha." [Imitating Ukyo] "Ranma honey is mine, you hear?" [Akane's own words] "I'm sick and tired of listening to the three of you. Uuuugh! Do you understand me? Unfortunately for all of you, Ranma isn't going to spend Chrismas Eve with any of you... Ranma is going to spend Christmas Eve with me, you understand!?"
This line marks a wonderful moment in the history of Ranma and Akane. Never before has Akane expressed how much she wanted to spend time with Ranma. Usually she would keep her love for Ranma all to herself, but this time, she chose to say it outloud. The episode ends with Ranma-kun crying out to Akane from across the playground when she passed by to catch her attention. Afterward, he gave her most of the presents that she wanted -- something that made Akane cry as she accepted all of the gifts (picture on the left). From this, we can deduce that Ranma is actually a pretty sweet guy, even if he could sometimes be a jerk to Akane. Finally, they return home to see all their friends (and rivals & Ranma-kun's other fiancees) all waiting for them in the Tendo dining room, ready to celebrate Christmas Eve together with them. Aside from the last episode (Episode 161), this would have to be THE BEST EPISODE OF RANMA 1/2. If you want to watch the second half of the episode A Xmas Without Ranma, click here. Unfortunately, subtitles are in French and audio is in Japanese. Skip the part where Akane and Happosai are talking so you can see Akane in the middle of the fiancee feud (on the rooftop). Or, just watch the dub version, or notoriously known as the evil English version, and proceed to the time 17:01.
That would pretty much be it for Akane's active part of their romance,
so let's focus more on her being the receiver and let Ranma do all the proving. In quite a number of episodes, Ranma-kun shows his love for Akane by making her feel special, like in the Christmas episode mentioned above (Ep. 125), in which he gives SEVERAL gifts to Akane ONLY. Ranma-kun has also played the role of Akane's "Prince Charming" a reasonable number of times. In both movies, Ranma-kun saved her from being married to two different princes (Kirin in Big Trouble in Nekonron, China and Toma in Nihao! My Concubine). Moreover, Ranma-kun told Akane that it was important to win the match so that he can get her back in both circumstances and he also
tried to make sure that she was safe at all times (but she still ends up being kidnapped). Aside from that, Ranma-kun would clearly and willingly turn into a girl (what he hates the most) in order to save Akane from danger. Such instance happened in the OVA Episode 8. Prior to that, Ranma-kun was ready to beat Shinnosuke up just to make sure that Akane doesn't end up with Shinnosuke (who really had no intention of stealing Akane had he known that Akane loved Ranma). He wasn't able to deliver the punch though, since Akane darted to block the attack, which is why Ranma-kun stopped what he was about to do. Akane then requested him to leave, and because he didn't want to hurt her feelings and force himself on her, he obliged and left heartbroken, thinking that Akane has fallen for Shinnosuke instead and that he has been replaced. He kept all of this to himself though, and just told Akane "I understand now" before he left. How and why this even happened is a long story, so just watch OVA Episode 7 and 8 to understand all about Akane's past, or just read about it here. In addition to what I wrote above, please be informed that this is the ONE-HOUR SPECIAL and in essence, not an OVA. Since I'm following the episode list based on Viz Media's release of box sets, I have no choice but to call it an OVA, even if it isn't really one. Although it can be considered as one (or two episodes actually) even in the Japanese version, it is mostly known as the one-hour special. Anyway, speaking of Prince Charming and romantic rescues, Ranma-kun and Akane had their first kiss in Episode 39: the Romeo and Juliet episode (picture above). Sad to say, Akane put masking tape on Ranma-kun's lips so they did not exactly kiss, but just the thought of kissing Akane was enough to send Ranma-kun's heart racing. Ranma-kun even mentioned that if he didn't want to kiss Akane, "it wouldn't have been so hard". After the play, Akane told Ranma-kun that it might have been nice if they "could do it without the tape" -- a nasty trick of Akane that caused Ranma-kun to fall over the fence and almost into the river.
Furthermore, Ranma-kun proved he cared for Akane in other ways apart from rescuing her. Once, he told her to take a certain antidote so that her strength would return to normal (from extremely strong after eating the Super Soba in Episode 47), and he did that so that she wouldn't grow whiskers. Unfortunately, she didn't listen and ended up having them because she wasn't aware of the consequences. Nabiki also pointed out in Episode 112 that one of Ranma's fears is being hated by Akane, because he loved her a lot. Lastly, the third best episode would have to be Episode 127. In this episode, Akane sprained her ankle because of Ranma and Gosunkugi and has to stay with Dr. Tofu for a while. As usual, instead of Ranma-kun being able to apologize, they end up arguing... A LOT. But Ranma-kun makes up for all of it in the long run by staying up all night to make a gigantic poster which said "I'm sorry, Akane. I messed up" and being the first person to come fetch her and bring her home when she was discharged (which actually infuriated his other fiancees and Akane's suitors).
To bring all this proof stuff to a close so I can get to the wedding part, I'll just name the rest of the episodes where Ranma and Akane have shown their love for each other: Episodes 59 (Akane, Shampoo, Ukyo, Genma, Soun and Cologne all help to stop the evil Ranma-chan -- yin side -- which seduces the good Ranma-kun -- yang side -- at night after what Happosai did to separate Ranma's two sides), 95 (Akane wanted Ranma-kun to become her partner in the race so that if they won, Ranma can go to Jusenkyo and be cured), 105 (Akane gives Ranma-chan a pack of digestive to help her in training for his Battle Dining match with Picolette), 110 (Ranma didn't want Akane to stay mad at him and Akane was
jealous of Nabiki for having Ranma-kun as her "fiancee"), 145 (Akane and Ranma-kun ate love mushrooms... but this is not really CONSIDERED actual proof -- picture taken from the episode is the first one in this entry), 149 (Akane wanted to know if Ranma-kun was "the one" for her by trying to make him eat her sakura cakes), OVA 10 (they didn't want to be separated in the Cursed Tunnel of Lost Love) and OVA 12 (Ranma-kun blushes when with Akane and when the evil Akane started to "seduce" him by becoming [ahem] naughty, spent more alone time with him, undressed before him and hugged him, as seen on right.)
Now for the good part. Who does Ranma marry? The answer has never been simpler: あかね. A-KA-NE. Akane. Actually, the wedding never took place and they didn't get married, but we know that Ranma will marry Akane. In the anime, everything ends without a definite conclusion, but if you read the manga, you will find out that in the end, Ranma-kun confesses to Akane that he loves her because he thought she died. Basically what happened is the classic type of confession, especially when it comes to characters who hide their true feelings from one another! Akane also tells Ranma-kun that she loves him a few scenes
after. Just before their wedding, Ranma-kun's rivals arrived to either interfere with their matrimony or to steal the barrel of "sake" (actually, the barrel of Nannichuan sent over by the Jusenkyo Tourist Guide). The other fiancees, Shampoo and Ukyo, also came to put a stop to the ceremonies. The wedding was such a fiasco that they just decided to postpone it. You can read more about it here. You can also find out why Ranma never became a whole man there. The Ranma-Akane engagement just has to be the backbone of the plot of Ranma 1/2. Without it, Ranma would never have been engaged in so many battles, there wouldn't be much to laugh at without Ranma and Akane calling each other names (and the funny situations they get into), no one would be there to give Ranma moral support & help him solve his problems and lastly, Ranma-kun wouldn't have a love interest. Face it, Ukyo's not meant for the job.
I admit that I am a Ranma-Akane shipper, which is why I even wrote about this part: to prove that Ranma-kun and Akane are meant for each other! Go Ranma and Akane! I suggest the fellow Ranma and Akane shippers out there to watch this Ranma-Akane video. I loved the way the creator made it. Timing was perfect and the scenes fit exactly what the song was singing at that time, but the song Only Hope by Mandy Moore was not exactly what I had in mind for this particular couple. Just to make things clear, shipping, in the context of fandom, is an expression derived from the word "relationship" used to describe the involvement of fans to promote a certain romantic relationship between two different characters in a work of fiction. Hence, all those who try to advocate a romantic relationship between two characters (no matter how impossible and hopeless it may be) are called shippers.
RANMA AND AKANE FOREVER!
Grade: 98
The Ranma-Akane engagement has proven to be the thread that binds the story together; therefore, making it the most important aspect of the anime.
It is obviously present not only to entertain, but also to act as an essential element to complete the story.
To read the main entry [Ranma 1/2: The Commentary], click here.