Quick Intro: Saotome Ranma, son of Saotome Genma, is dragged off by his father on a martial arts training expedition to China, where they both become the unfortunate victims of a certain set of magical hot springs (Jyusenkyo). There are over a hundred springs at this site, each of which is cursed. The curse is that anyone that falls into a spring takes on the body of the first creature to drown in that spring --- but only whenever s/he is splashed with cold water. Thus, Ranma, who fell into the Spring of the Young Girl (where a young girl drowned long ago), turns into a girl when splashed with cold water. His father turns into a panda. The only way to undo the transformation is to get splashed with hot water. Of course, Ranma and his father aren't the only victims of these cursed springs...
Book 2: A new player appears in this weird game: Hibiki Ryoga (or Ryoga Hibiki). He's strong, straightforward, single-minded, and has a grudge against Ranma --- but has no sense of direction. He manages to find his way to Ranma and Akane's high school and fights Ranma --- they're almost evenly matched --- but the fight stops when Akane's hair is accidentally cut off (there is a very bad pun here, having to do with "kega nakatta" (she wasn't hurt) and "ke ga naku natta" (her hair went away)). Eventually, though, Ryoga tracks down Ranma at the dojo, and they fight. Ranma, through all this, has been wondering why Ryoga has been p*ssed at him. He finally learns that Ryoga followed Ranma to China, where he was knocked into the magical springs by female Ranma and panda Genma. Thus, Ryoga now becomes a little black pig when splashed with cold water. In fact, he turns into his pig form during the fight, is found by Akane --- who adopts him as a pet and kisses him. Ryoga instantly falls in love with Akane. Ranma, who already decided to guard Ryoga's secret because of the warrior's honor code, is Not Happy, but can't say anything. Ryoga, now officially Akane's pet pig "P-chan," sleeps with her at night, to Ranma's great annoyance.
Book 3: This mostly concerns a gymnastics duel between female Ranma
and the cheating, lying, and extremely slimy woman that turns out to
be Kunou Tatewaki's younger sister, Kodachi. Kodachi has fallen in
love with male Ranma, but, like her brother, refuses to see that the
two Ranmas are the same person. The story then shifts to an ice
skating duel with new opponents. The ice skater Azusa, who collects
"cute" things, wants P-chan (whom she calls Charlotte); Akane won't
give up P-chan. Worse, Azusa's male partner Sanzenin kisses female
Ranma --- which really really really p*sses off Ranma (it was his
first kiss). So Akane and Ranma pair up against Azusa and Sanzenin,
with the prize being P-chan.
Book 4. Naturally, Ryoga isn't pleased; he jumps in in human form,
trying to take Ranma out of the duel and pair up with Akane in the
meantime. Ranma in female form and Ryoga wind up together, and
together turn the duel into a free-for-all mess. While fighting each
other, though, Ranma and Ryoga both discover that Akane can't swim
(she falls into the pool beneath the ice), and together jump in to
save her. Except Ryoga turns into a pig. Oh well. As they recover
later, a strange Chinese girl jumps in and tries to kill female Ranma.
Ths is Shampoo, for all you Shampoo fans. She's out to kill female
Ranma because of a local village edict --- if a stranger of the same
sex defeats you, you must kill her. So Shampoo has hunted Ranma down
all the way from China. But Shampoo meets male Ranma, who defeats
her, and promptly tries to follow the corollary to her village edict:
if a stranger of the opposite sex defeats you, you must marry him.
Shampoo even goes after Akane with a special shampoo and
pressure-point attack, making Akane lose all memory of Ranma (Ranma,
however, insults Akane to the point of making her remember). Finally,
Ranma shows Shampoo that he is both male and female, and tells her the
lie that he is actually originally a "she." Shampoo leaves in quiet
defeat.
Book 5. (Ranma's weakness is revealed to be cats. Due to screwed-up
training administered by his father, Ranma can't stand cats. If
exposed to cats for too long, he mentally turns into one --- and
becomes invincible. Shampoo comes back, with her great-grandmother
("O-baba" (honorable hag)), who makes Ranma unable to tolerate hot
water. Shampoo has also been to the magical springs, and now turns
into a cat. Shampoo's ardent pursuer Mousse arrives at this point,
and female-Ranma is barely able to defeat him.)
Book 6. After much training, Ranma finally defeats Shampoo's
great-grandmother, by basically turning into his invincible cat-mode;
Akane in turn tames the cat-mode Ranma, and so wins the antidote to
Ranma's inability to tolerate hot water. Thus Ranma can return to
male form. Ryoga returns about this time, and is promptly tied into
knots by Ranma, who is now much faster, thanks to the training he
received from O-baba. In bitterness, Ryoga turns to O-baba for
training. She teaches him Bakusaitenketsu, a technique in which one
can strike the pressure point of rock, causing it to explode. Ryoga
and Ranma duel; Ranma nearly tires himself out before finally
overcoming and defeating Ryoga.
Things get sillier from here. Mousse also falls into the magical
springs, and now turns into a white duck when wet with cold water.
Book 9: We are introduced to Kuonji Ukyou, a girl who was also
betrothed to Ranma (by his father, of course). She gave up womanhood
from the embarrassment of having her fiance run off on her (Ranma, at
the time, didn't even know she was a girl), and dedicated her life to
making Okonomi-yaki (Japanese pizza/scallion pie/pancakes) and having
revenge on Ranma. Ranma finally discovers that she's female after
fighting her, and accidentally makes her fall in love with him. She
decides it's OK to be feminine now, and channels her energies into
chasing him. Ryoga hears the rumors of a new fiancee for Ranma, and
comes back to beat up Ranma for his infidelity to Akane. In the
process, he is introduced to Ukyou. Ryoga and Ukyo team up (after
all, he wants Akane, and she wants Ranma). Ukyo sets Akane up on a
date with Ryoga. Ranma jealously interferes. Things go downhill from
there.
Book 13 - 14: The mentor of Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome is a small, ugly,
obnoxious, women's-underwear-loving, dirty old man named Happosai.
Unfortunately (for the series as a whole), no one can beat him. One
day, he gets so angry at Ranma that he causes Ranma to become weak ---
so weak that even a child could beat him up. All of Ranma's enemies
come to hunt him down; only Ryoga protects him, and that's because
Ryoga hates "seeing weaklings get picked on." Ranma learns that
Happosai, the one who caused this problem, also has the cure: a scroll
with the cure pressure-points written out on it. But Ranma can't win
against Happosai, especially not as a "weakling." In desperation,
Ranma goes off training with O-baba, Ukyou, and his father. Akane
tracks him down. O-baba teaches him Hiryushotenha, a powerful "Ki"
technique that sends opponents up in a whirlwind and smashes them down
again. Ryoga inadvertently helps him learn the technique. Finally,
Ranma is ready to face Happosai --- but Happosai knows the secret of
the technique and refuses to participate. Ranma finally tricks
Happosai into fighting back, and so recovers the scroll, and becomes
strong again. Of course, most of his friends and family come to
regret this, but that's another story.
Book 18: Pansuto-Taro (The Pantyhose Boy). A young man, who turns
into a gigantic monster when splashed with cold water, defeats all the
males who have been to the magical springs, one by one (from Mousse,
to Ryoga, to Ranma's father), and leaves pantyhose wrapped around
each, as a signature. Finally, the monster attacks Ranma --- and
then, without resolving the fight, kidnaps Akane and flies off with
her. Ranma, Ryoga, and Akane's family discover that the "Pantyhose
bastard" has a grudge against Happosai. They assume it's because
Happosai was responsible for making him what he is now. But Akane is
still held kidnapped, so Ranma and Ryoga try to rescue her. On the
way, they join up with Mousse and Shampoo (Mousse is secretly there to
get rid of Ranma (so as to win Shampoo), and Shampoo is secretly there
to get rid of Akane (so as to win Ranma)). The fight is long and
drawn out --- Akane finally has to break free of her bonds to help
them --- but finally, the monster is subdued and brought back to human
form. Thereupon, it's discovered that his grudge against Happosai is
not for turning him into a monster, but for having been responsible
for officially naming him "Pantyhose Taro" (which, in Japanese, rhymes
with "Pantyhose bastard"). In pity (and to get the guy out of their
hair), the others try to help him out by staging a hypnotic play that
they hope will induce Happosai to rename Pantyhose Taro. It fails,
but they manage to beat up Happosai to the point where he agrees.
Pantyhose Taro is overjoyed, declares he wants to be officially
renamed "Mr. Cool Taro," and flies off with Happosai. Unfortunately,
Happosai changes his mind....
Book 20: Ryoga returns to duel Ranma. He has learned a new technique:
the Shishihoukoudan. It is a technique based on "heavy Ki" --- which
translates to "depression" in English. Ryoga, because of his sheer
unlucky nature, is a natural at being depressed; he perfects the
technique, which is tremendously powerful and blows huge craters in
the ground. Ranma is barely able to defeat Ryoga. This story is full
of all sorts of "Ki" puns that you won't be able to understand without
knowing Japanese (and something about "Ki"
as well). The rest of book 20 contains various random other silly
stories.
Book 24 - 25: Mysterious strangers beat up Ryoga, Mousse, and Ranma.
Ranma is also turned permanently into female form. Too late, they
learn that their opponents were members of an all-male warrior Chinese
tribe, which took on the powers of the beasts by taking animals to to
the magical springs, dropping them into the girl-spring, splashing
them with water from a magical vessel to make them stay in human girl
form forever, and then marrying them. The leader of the strangers, in
fact, is a girl who is the heir to the leadership of this tribe ---
and who has dragon blood in her veins. Female Ranma had been splashed
by water from the magical vessel, thus causing her/him to become stuck
in female form. Ryoga and Mousse decide that this vessel can help
them become stuck in male form (which is what they want), and thus
selfishly decided to help Ranma go on his quest for the Magic
Teakettle, which will undo the effects of the other magic vessel. For
some reason, the strangers were also looking for the Magic Teakettle.
Ranma eventually discovers that the leader of the stranger, the girl,
is actually a young man who, like Ranma, is trapped in female form.
Unfortunately, Ryoga and Mousse find the magic vessel that "freezes"
form. They battle the bad guys for it --- Ryoga nearly dies, but wins
thanks to his Shishihoukoudan attack from Book 20. Mousse and Ryoga
win, get the magic vessel, and splash themselves with the water,
thinking it will freeze them into male form. They forget that they
are splashing themselves with cold water, and thus become stuck
in pig and duck form. Their enemies, however, have taken the magic
Teakettle, their only hope for ever returning to male form. Ranma
battles the leader of the enemies (who is now back to male form), thus
buying time for Ryoga and Mousse to recover the Teakettle. Returning
the favor, Ryoga and Mousse help Ranma return to male form, and Ranma
barely manages to defeat their enemy.
Book 25-26: Akane's journey. Akane travels to the monster-inhabited
woods where she was once saved by a strange little boy. She discovers
the strange little boy is now a young (forgetful) man named
Shinnosuke, whose job it is to fight the monsters in the area. The
monsters are actually normal animals who have grown huge, thanks to
the magical wells in the area. The water from the wells is also all
that is keeping Shinnosuke alive (as his grandfather explains), for in
saving Akane long ago, Shinnosuke was actually mortally injured. But
the wells suddenly go dry while Akane is there, and Shinnosuke's life
is in danger. Akane, knowing she owes her life to Shinnosuke, decides
to stay and help him. Shinnosuke falls in love with her. Ranma,
meanwhile, has arrived (not so much out of worry, but because Akane's
father had demanded it), and believes that Akane is in love with
Shinnosuke. Ryoga stumbles upon them, too, and believes the same.
Ryoga is heartbroken, Ranma is angry. But both decide to help Akane
as best they can. They learn that the Yamata no Orochi (basically, a
Hydra-like creature from Japanese mythology), lives in the water
nearby. On one of its heads grows a moss that can save Shinnosuke's
life, and Akane is going to try to get some of the moss. But the
creature loves to devour alcohol ... and girls. So, Ranma, Ryoga,
Shinnosuke and his grandfather dress in drag and go to battle the
monster and distract it from Akane, who has already left to try to get
some of the moss. Eventually, Akane succeeds, Shinnosuke's life is
saved, and Ranma and Akane are brought closer together. Ryoga wanders
off again.
Book 28: The Ranma Imposter. (Ranma's mother Nodoka, a
pretty, gentle, nice, and utterly straightforward person, does not
know that female Ranma is Ranma; in fact, she doesn't know what male
Ranma looks like. She has no clue about any of the weird stuff,
because Ranma and his father won't let her find out. The story is
that, when Ranma was very young, his father took him from home to go
on a journey of training. In return, Genma promised his wife that
when they returned, Ranma would be a "man among men." If not, father
and son would commit ritual seppuku (self-abdomen stabbing) for having
failed, and she, fulfilling her wifely duty, would cut off their heads
and then slit her own throat. Of course, since Ranma now turns into a
girl when wet, and has taken up wearing dresses and acting femininely
in female form, there is no way they can let Ranma's mother know the
truth.) A young man, in search of the missing half of a technique
that he thinks will render him invincible, takes on the name of Ranma
Saotome so as to be able find the missing half, which is in the hands
of Ranma's mother. Nodoka thoroughly believes that he is Ranma, and
takes the imposter to heart (he thinks about forcing the location of
the second half of the technique from her, but her warmth and
gentleness touches his heart and stops him). But the imposter
eventually finds out about Ranma and his secret, and threatens to tell
his mother everything if he interferes. In fact, the imposter manages
to thrash Ranma rather badly, using the first half of the technique,
which was actually invented by Ranma's father. Ranma learns the
second half, and eventually manages to defeat the imposter. Nodoka,
meanwhile, had begun to realize that her "son" was an imposter --- but
she still never meets the real, male Ranma. The imposter leaves in
defeat, but tells Ranma to reveal who he is to his mother "for her
sake."
Book 29: (I think). The last story is about Nabiki. Nabiki, the
eternal cheapskate who makes all her dates give her presents and free
food and then dumps them, finally meets her match --- a young conman
who totally relies on others for his needs. Said man also has a
puppet of a butler with whom he constantly converses. Anyway, the
young man and Nabiki embark on a date-duel --- the first to spend even
10 Yen will owe the other the entire cost of the date (and their one
previous date). Together, they rent a private plane and travel to
Hong Kong, then stay at an expensive hotel, and then they rent the
Tokyo Dome for a karaoke session. Each slimes out of spending even
one 10-Yen piece --- but finally Nabiki wins (she keeps one of her
rival's 10-yen pieces as a souvenir). For days afterward, Nabiki is
seen sighing sadly to herself. Akane supposes that her sister had
really been in love with the young man --- but no, Nabiki is merely
lamenting that she hadn't bet 100,000 Yen instead of 10.
Book 30: Story 1 is about Ryoga. A giant pig is beating up all the
young men in town, and it turns out that this is because Akari, the
heiress to a long family tradition of raising sumo-wrestling pigs, was
told to marry a strong man. So, she asked her pig Konishiki to go
around beating up men until she met one strong enough to defeat him.
By happenstance, this turns out to be Ryoga (who also flattens Ranma
in the process, thus ruling out Ranma). Akari promptly falls in love
with Ryoga and starts giving him love notes, sweaters, etc. --- but
everything has a pig theme, because Akari absolutely adores pigs.
Ryoga, who for a moment had been touched by her offers, thinks that
she's only teasing him about his pig problem, and runs off. Akari
becomes convinced that Ryoga hates pigs, and determines to learn to
hate pigs for his benefit. Ranma can't just sit by and watch;
intending to help, he goes to O-baba and gets a magic potion. With
the potion, he puts Ryoga under a geas: Ryoga must hug anyone who says
the word "pig." Then Ranma sets up a date between Ryoga and Akari.
Of course, Akari is determined NOT to say "pig" (having worked hard to
develop a phobia of them), and everyone else does (most are bad puns).
But even though Ryoga goes around hugging everyone who says "pig,"
Akari is still determined to win him over. Finally, at the end of the
date, she stands before, eyes closed, face upturned, waiting for a
kiss --- but to Ryoga's dismay, it starts raining. Akari opens her
eyes and finds P-chan, and can't understand where Ryoga went. In
frustration, Ranma grabs P-chan, takes him home, and, with Akari
watching, throws P-chan into a bathtub full of hot water. Ryoga
appears, of course, but Akari is dead silent. ("Ryoga-sama --- you
weren't a normal man?" she thinks). Ryoga is philosophical (and
depressed) as he leaves the bathroom. "I thought you wouldn't want a
(messed up) guy like me," he said. Ranma is busy apologizing. But
then there's light --- and they turn to see Akari dancing for joy.
"There will never be another man for me!" she says. "You're my ideal
man!" But just as things are about to wind up between Akari and
Ryoga, female-Ranma accidentally says something that has the phonetic
sound "pig" in it. Ryoga hugs him/her. Akari is crushed and runs
away. So now Ryoga is wandering around (lost) as usual, trying to
find the pig-sumo place where Akari is waiting for him....
Book 31: One of the short stories involves Ryoga and Akari again, when
Ryoga tries a near-disastrous attempt at two-timing with Akane.
Ranma, of course, won't stand for it, and does his best to foul up
Ryoga's plans. Ryoga eventually regrets it, of course.... Other
short stories include: the killer soba competition and the Japanese
doll. In the latter story, Akane is possessed by the spirit of a
vengeful Japanese doll, and tries her utmost to kill Ranma (mostly by
distracting him with feminine charms to create openings in his
defense). Akane's soul, meanwhile, is trapped in the doll, and she
tries desperately to tell Ranma what's really going on.
Book 32: A bunch of medium-length stories; actually pretty good. The
first story brings back Pantyhose Taro ("Don't call me by that name!")
and a new Jyusenkyou monstrosity that can beat even him up --- the
Chinese girl Rouge, who fell in the water in which the six-armed
goddess Ashura (or rather, a statue thereof) had drowned.
Ashura/Rouge insists that Pantyhose Taro has stolen the secret of her
power, and the two fight a lot, to the great annoyance of those around
them (what with a giant flying chimera battling a goddess, the
destruction levels get pretty heinous). The great question is: what
is Ashura's secret? Ranma switches sides between the two, finally
sides with Rouge against Pantyhose Taro, and eventually finds out the
true secret of Rouge/Ashura's power: adhesive pain-relievers for back
pain. After all, with six arms, Ashura has one heck of a backache and
needs them badly. Pantyhose Taro doesn't quite understand, and is
determined to become dangerously powerful with Ashura's secret to
success. Another of the stories involves the "boyfriend" battle
between Kodachi ("Kodachi of the Black Rose" --- Kunou's hentai
sister) and the Asuka (I think) of the White Lilies (I think).
(Random commentators: "Why, what a beautiful young lady --- she looks
as if she might be adorned with white lilies ---" (See huge bouquet of
flowers attached to the back of her dress to frame her face) "....Why,
she is adorned with white lilies...") The two have had a
long-standing duel to see which would have the more handsome
boyfriend. Even Akane decides to pit the Kodachi-Ranma pair against
Asuka, especially after Ranma's looks are ridiculed by the girl (who
uses more dirty tricks than Kodachi). But after various
misadventures, Asuka pulls out her trump card --- a truly gorgeous
"boyfriend" --- and both Akane and Kodachi fall in defeat. Except
said "boyfriend" was some random other girl's partner, and so Kodachi
and Asuka depart with a tie. Ranma, of course, is not pleased, even
though Akane tries to remind him (and herself) that "A boy's looks
aren't everything. Um, yeah."
Book 33: The age-in-years mushroom episode! Ryoga ingests a magic
mushroom that turns him into a very small 6-year-old. Eventually
Ranma winds up in the same boat, and the two rivals waste most of
their time competing to see who can return to 16 years of age first
(in the process destroying a lot of mushrooms that could otherwise
have restored them both). I believe this book also contains the Jizoh
story, too. Mousse lovingly knits a scarf for Shampoo, but Shampoo
(as usual) spurns him. Saddened, Mousse gives the scarf to a Jizoh
statue (any of a certain type of buddhist statue said to be a
protector of children). Soon after, the others notice that Mousse is
acting oddly... he's thin, pale, and runs off at night. It turns out
that he is having late night dates with the Jizoh statue, which to him
appear to be fantasy, high-class dates with Shampoo, but to everyone
else, it looks just like he's sipping water in a tiny shrine with a
stone statue with a scarf around its neck. Concerned that the statue
is slowly killing Mousse, Ranma and Akane eventually convince Shampoo
to help. She resignedly gives Mousse a scarf that she'd been knitting
--- Mousse is thrilled --- and the Jizoh statue declares that its
repayment of debt to Mousse is now over, and stops going out with him.
Discussion reveals that the Jizoh statue had not been killing Mousse;
Mousse had merely been getting no sleep that entire week, and thus
only looked like he was wasting away. The light of day further
reveals the suspicious letters that might spell "RANMA" on the scarf
that Shampoo had given Mousse....
Book 34: The outstanding story of this issue started
innocently enough with Akane's pride in her larger bust being
completely squashed by Ranma's gloating over his/her even larger bust
size.... Akane is not pleased, of course, and Ranma is his usual
insensitive self (as I said, he's gloating). Akane, however, gets
back at him by inducing his mother Nodoka to take him brassiere
shopping (Ranma's attempt to escape is cut short by a passing tank
full of archer fish). Hot water seems drawn to Ranma like a magnet
(surprise), and Ranma must constantly hide from his mother, who
unfortunately by now has seen him in male form wearing feminine
dresses far too many times (from behind, that is). She even figures
out that he's her son (in male form). By the end of the story
(several episodes later), Ranma is fighting for his life as he strives
to prove himself manly enough to his mother so that she might spare
his life. Of course, "manly" has strange meanings where Ranma's
mother is concerned. Maybe "sex-fiend-peeping-tom-ogler" is a more
apt description.
Book 35: 2 main stories are in this new one. First is the probably
now-famous double Ranma story, in which Ranma runs into a cursed
mirror that creates a double of him (her). Said (female) double runs
around trying to date every male in town and finally falls for Ranma.
A long duel over a magic compact mirror ensues. At last, the double
Ranma is brought back to the original mirror, to be imprisoned alone
for the ages again --- but Ranma (this time as a male) runs into the
mirror again. Luckily for the double, a double male Ranma appears,
and the two fake Ranmas fall happily and narcissistically in love with
each others' beauty. A second short story that I found amusing was
Nabiki's revenge on Ranma for having accidentally burned up her
concert ticket. Let's just say it's not good to get on Nabiki's hit
list. And finally (though not last in the book) is the Kunoichi
Konatsu story, a long, drawn-out affair involving the
martial-arts-genious, beautiful ninja Kunoichi of the Male Martial
Artists' Training (Play) Ground (an erotic resort, alas staffed by
really ugly women). Kunoichi has evil and ugly step-sisters and a
step-mother, all of whom pick on poor pretty genius Kunoichi (force to
sleep under newspaper, deprive of food, force to work for no pay,
etc.). But after much confusion, Kunoichi falls in love with Ukkyou,
duels with Ranma, decides to leave the ugly step-family, and turns out
to be male. Of course. In any case, he winds up working overtime at
Ukkyou's shop for no pay, happy to have such a kind and generous new
boss.
Book 36 contains the climax of the long plot regarding
Ranma and his mother (as well as the brief story about Ryoga's
pathetic attempts to find his date, and Ukkyou's sad experiences with
Konatsu). The main story, of course, is the one about Ranma's mother.
Genma is out to steal a family heirloom from his wife --- a gold medal
worth maybe twenty dollars. Ranma is out to stop him. Of course, the
wrong temperature of water always seems to pop up, and Ranma's mother
becomes progressively suspicious. (In one great scene, she tries to
make female Ranma convert to male by plopping an empty tea kettle on
his forehead). At last, however, Ranma meets his mother in his male
form, and they shed tears of joy --- until Ranma's father
inadvertently sends them all into cold water. However, Ranma's mother
is convinced of Ranma's manliness, and so he's saved. But now,
however, Nodoka wants her husband and son to come live in their own
house. Ranma departs from the Tendo Dojo (with Akane's chair stuck to
his head as a result of an insult). But then, Nodoka asks him to give
Akane a small present --- something that looks just like an engagement
ring. All of Akane's rivals fight to keep him from giving it to her,
and Ranma himself is almost too embarrassed to give it to her. At
last, he gets it to her, and the ring turns out to be not a ring after
all. Of course. But in the meantime, Ukkyou, Shampoo and Kodachi
have conveniently destroyed Ranma's house, and so the entire Saotome
family moves back to the Tendo Dojo.
Book 37 contains the beginning of the newest Jyusenkyou
emergency. This story, which ran in Feb. 96 in Shonen Sunday,
involves all the major Jyusenkyou victims fighting to save the springs
from a strange race of bird-people. Ranma and friends rescue the
daughter of the Jyusenkyou guide from flying winged people, who are
led by Keema (and her sidekicks Korma and Masala (yes, these are the
names of Indian dishes)). As things progress, Shampoo becomes
brainwashed into becoming Keema's servant, the bird-people steal back
a special map of the springs and head to China with Shampoo, and the
Jyusenkyou males all wind up in China As Ranma tries and fails to
storm their palace, the bird-people also manage to kidnap Akane from
Japan and drop her into a Jyusenkyou spring. (There is a plot twist
here that I suppose I could write about, but someone might be really
annoyed. It wasn't as if it wasn't really obvious what was going on,
though). Eventually the bird-people manage to drain all the springs,
even as Ranma and friends rush to the source of the water and try to
rescue Akane and Shampoo. The question remains: Why are they draining
the springs? Why does the bird-people prince Saffron (yes, as in
saffron rice) require a hot spring bath?