Akane

Voiced by Hidaka Noriko, Akane is a cute tomboy girl who is honest and kind but is easily triggered.
At the beginning of the series, Akane has a crush on her local doctor, Tofu Sensei.
But after realising that Tofu sensei has a crush on her elder sister Kasumi, she eventually gives up and slowly becomes the tsundere we know for the rest of the series.

She can be used as a damsel in distress for Ranma to chase after or mix her with Ryoga, who has a crush on her.
If she is in the episode along side with one of the female rivals, then things tend to get spicy with her.

But before we talk about her rivals, we’ll first mention Ryoga, who’s actually the first male rival

Ryoga, aka “P” Chan

Ryoga is the version of Sasuke if he had a crush on Sakura, without the win ratio and has the sense of direction that Zoro has.
His countless battles against Ranma to win Akane are funny to watch, and each time he simps for Akane, I cringe from laughter. Thank god he’s not as cringe as Gosunkugi.. 💀

But if there’s one thing Ryoga can surely catch, it’s Akane’s chest. AHEM, while pretending to be a Pig. Ryoga was cursed by the “Spring of Drowning Pig” which gave him a curse and a blessing at the same time.
When Akane first spotted Ryoga as a Pig, she thought it was just a lost cure pig she could adopt.
Thus, Ryoga falls in love with Akane for the rest of the series

The pork flavour doesn’t really change anything in the show
But Ryoga’s sense of direction is used cleverly to set up plots for episodes that otherwise wouldn’t happen if he didn’t get lost.

He’s best moments are when he does his serious monologues about loving Akane or his attempts to win her against Ranma.
And without spoiling too much, his desperate moments become his best moments.

Shampoo – The Chinese Amazon babe warrior

Up next, we have what I consider the improved version of Lum from Urusei Yatsura.
Why? ’cause she’s sassy, doesn’t care if her man doesn’t want to be with her, and they do share similar character design.
The obvious difference is that she’s a different kind of alien, by not being a literal one 👾

She tends to foil any chance for Ranma & Akane having genuine feelings for each other by literally throwing herself on Ranma and asking him for a date to speed-run towards marriage.

Why the rush, you ask? Well, first, this is before Japan (& the West) head towards lower birthrates
But in reality, as an Amazon warrior, she is obligated to marry the man who defeats her in combat.
Ranma initially defeated her “as a woman” back in China while he was training with his father.
Which meant that she was obligated to kill “her”.
However, after she realized Ranma was a sigma male, she was happy to know that her obligation was to marry him rather than kill him.

Because, let’s be honest, Ranma is not your typical bland MC… I’ll cover this important aspect later.

Shampoo blends well with most of the characters, except for Kuno and some of the later additions.
Her interactions with the cast are entertaining to watch—except when it comes to Mousse. As Shampoo’s official simp, he’s probably the only character I’d rather skip discussing altogether.

Her best interactions are with Ranma, Akane, and—my personal favorite—Ukyo.

Here’s a fun fact about her voice actor

Rei Sakuma, the voice actress for Shampoo, also collaborated with Noriko Hidaka on another well-known anime, Gunbuster. Unfortunately, Rei didn’t land as many prominent roles as Noriko did.

It’s a shame, too, because her Chinese accent is impressively convincing—yet she was never cast as other Chinese characters, like Shenhua from Black Lagoon.

The Kuno siblings

Up next, we have not 3, but 2 out of the Kuno family members, the Kuno siblings

Tatewaki, aka “Tachi”, aka “Kuno senpai”

One of my favorite characters to watch has to be Kuno-senpai. In every episode he’s featured, he typically shouts, ‘UHHH, Osage no Onna! 😍’ before shamelessly flirting with Akane, striking the pose of a self-proclaimed high school alpha male. Naturally, he doesn’t hesitate to ‘two-time’ his beloved ‘pig-tailed girl’ with Akane, casually assuming she’s just as smitten with him.

His main interactions are with Ranma, Akane, and occasionally Nabiki, Akane’s other older sister.

Kodachi, the kinky sister

Kodachi is probably the most underused character in the series. Kodachi is voiced by Saeko Shimazu, who also voiced Shinobu from Urusei Yatsura (the prototype version of Akane)

Kodachi is the only rival that doesn’t have any real reason to want Ranma, other than just for the lols. She’ll not frequently appear in the series as her brother, but she mixes well with the main couple and her family members.

Other than that… I think I forgot about a 🐱‍👤, but I don’t think he’s that significant to talk about

Ukyo – The best okonomiyaki girl

I swear that after posting this and my future Inuyasha retrospective, I truly have no other anime with a “Waifu” XD, because I do hate fan-service. But, being a childhood show, I’ll make an only exception

But, AHEM, anyway, up next is Ukyo Kuonji, who’s a massive upgrade from her prototype character, Ryūnosuke Fujinami from Urusei Yatsura.
Ukyo was destined to be Akane’s true rival when comparing her specifically with Akane

1. She’s constantly praised by Ranma for being cute—unlike Akane.
2. She can actually cook, especially her okonomiyaki, a dish where you can toss in ‘whatever’ you want. In concept, it mirrors Ranma’s ‘Anything Goes’ martial arts style—an ‘Anything Goes’ dish, if you will.
   Akane, on the other hand? Her 🤢 cooking is a notorious running gag in the show.
3. Despite growing up as Ranma’s childhood friend—who initially remembers her as a boy—and attending an all-boys school, she naturally appears to be more feminine in both attitude & looks.
   This stands in contrast to Akane, who’s more tomboyish in both demeanor and looks.

Sadly, whatever was initially planned for Ukyo was quickly set aside. Instead, her role shifted to episodes where she meshed well with the main couple, competed against the other girls, or occasionally teamed up with Ryoga to pursue their shared goals.

I do not know how she was later used in the manga after the anime stopped airing, but from what I know from the movies and OVA episodes, she’s not used for any other main arc to rival Akane.

Her only rivalry is against Shampoo, who, much like her, tries to snuggle on Ranma to speed-run towards marriage.

Well, at least she’s the only character who’s not affected by the cursed spring.
Speaking of such characters, I failed to mention earlier

Happosai, the “Happy” master geezer

Happosai is foil of all. He spices the show with his habits and perverted motives, even going so far as intentionally turning Ranma into a female just to rub himself in some tits.
Yes, this guy has no shame to be g*y. Because “Hey, a hole is a goal”

Luckily, his only perverted thoughts never cross the line other than stealing panties (which apparently was & still is a thing in Japan), but his constant havoc is what drives Ranma into becoming stronger to defeat him.

Happosai’s main interaction is actually with the Tendo & Saotome families, which I failed to mention since they are so many good side characters to talk about, but Happosai had to be mentioned since his involvement in the show is much more than it seems

But last and not least, we’re gonna have to speak about OUR BOI Ranma

If you come to this show expecting to see Akane, Shampoo, Ukyo, Nabiki, Kasumi & female Ranma to wear “unique” outfits for every episode like in Rent a Girl, then there’s not much for you to see.

The show does bust a few beach episodes and sometimes, but not occasionally, will show how a girl dressed for a date. But it doesn’t really try to sell you the girls.

Even when female Ranma is displayed with his *AHEM* chest, the shot isn’t so focused on HIS CHEST.
Moreover than that, some episodes feature the boomer dads with their pervy master Happosai.

If you’re that desperate for some Ranma “fanservice”, then the only thing you can watch is the 2nd movie called “Nihao My Concubine”. You can check my full review on it 👉 here 👈