Ryoga Hibiki

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Ryoga Hibiki 響 良牙
Ryoga Hibiki
Alias:	P-chan, by Ranma and Akane Charlotte, by Azusa Shiratori Ryoga-kun, by Akari Joe, by Anna little pig
Gender:	Male
Age:	16
Curse:	Human to Piglet Lousy Sense of Direction
Family:	Mrs. Hibiki, mother Mr. Hibiki, father Grandparents, Deceased Shirokuro, his pet dog
Love Interest:	Akane Tendo Akari Unryu
Loved By:	Akari Unryu (manga only) Anna (anime only) Akane Tendo (as P-chan) Azusa Shiratori(as Charlotte) Little White Piglet (anime only)
Rivals:	Ranma Saotome Tatewaki Kuno Mousse (occasionally) Shinnosuke
Occupation:	Wanderer Pet Pig
Residence:	Originally: The Hibiki Home, somewhere near Mt. Fuji Now: Random
Fighting Style:	Self-taught
Attacks:	Breaking Point (Bakusai Tenketsu) Lion Roar Shot (Shi Shi Hokoudan) Bandannas/Umbrella/Belt
Seiyū:	Koichi Yamadera
Voice Actor:	Michael Donovan
1st Appearance (Manga):	Volume 1
1st Appearance (Anime):	TV Series, Season 1

Ryoga Hibiki (響 良牙 Hibiki Ryōga) is a fictional character in Rumiko Takahashi's anime and manga series Ranma ½.

He is Ranma Saotome's main rival, both in martial arts prowess and for the affections of Ranma's unwilling fiancée Akane Tendo. Ryoga's accursed alter ego is P-chan, a small black piglet into whom he transforms when doused with cold water.

Contents 1 Background 2 Character Overview 3 Special Techniques 4 Relationships 5 Trivia 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Background

Ryoga first met Ranma in junior high school, where he felt slighted because Ranma was always beating him to the last food at lunch. He challenged Ranma to a duel, but did not show up for three days due to his absolutely horrible sense of direction. The duel was actually set to happen in a vacant lot located 500 yards from Ryoga's own house. Ranma had left for a training trip to China by the time he arrived on the fourth day. Ryoga had spent the time running all over Japan looking for the destination.

Months later, Ryoga appears at Furinkan High School to challenge Ranma once again. The first charge was unsuccessful as Ryoga ends up barreling through Furinkan and getting lost for another few days. He soon returns and the two have their first match. The fight ends when Ryoga accidentally cuts off part of Akane's hair, forcing both boys to apologize profusely. During the course of the battle, he discovers Ranma's curse.

After another fight ends with a rainstorm, Ranma discovers that Ryoga has also been to the cursed springs of Jusenkyo. After finding two animals on the scene - a dog and a black piglet, Ranma tries to interrogate the dog, while Akane tends to and takes in the pig. Akane tells Ranma to bathe the pig, but when he puts it the hot bath Ryoga pops out. It turns out that Ryoga tracked him for the duel and female Ranma accidentally pushed him into a spring. Akane decides to adopt the pig, naming him P-chan** ("cute pig"; the "P" is actually derived from the English word "pig"), completely unaware of his dual identity. ** Cultural note :In Japan, if a girl takes a boy's name's first letter and adds "chan" to it, she is implying that she is romantically involved with him. ( Something which no doubt truly irritates Ranma, who knows that P-chan is really his biggest rival for Akane's affections )

Soon after, Ryoga becomes a member of the "Nerima Wrecking Crew," a term created by fans to refer to the various martial artists that live in and interact around Nerima. One way or another he usually finds himself back there, whether to challenge Ranma, find a cure for the Jusenkyo curse, give Akane some gifts, or simply become entangled in the schemes and chaos that seem to follow his rival. His anger lessens with time, first into a fierce rivalry, then shifting back and forth between tense competition, uneasy allies or non-serious conflicts and, after a brief lapse, finally on friendly enough terms to repeatedly risk his life to help Ranma, but the competition between the two will likely persist forever. Ranma himself considers Ryoga as a friend^[1] and as his only true rival/equal.^[2]

While he only occasionally finds it and generally leads a nomadic lifestyle, Ryoga's family house is known to be located within sight of Mt. Fuji, where his dog Shirokuro (Checkers in the English Anime and Manga) and her pups live. It is usually empty, as his parents seem to share his horrible sense of direction. His dog, however, has no such trouble finding her way and recognises him in both human and pig forms.

[edit] Character Overview

Ryoga stands out in the crowd due to his often unkempt and rough appearance. He spends much of his time wandering the globe, often depressed over having to spend all his time lonely in the wilderness, with the slightest rain turning him into a defenceless pig at the mercy of hungry humans or animals.

His most notable characteristic is that, like his parents, he has absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever and is therefore unable to go the right way in under a week or draw any legible maps, once running the wrong way at the start of a three-legged race in the animated series and in the manga. This is partially due to either sticking to the letter of any direction given to him, regardless of whether the path eventually turns, as well as an inability to understand even the simplest of directions.

This is not due to lack of motivation however. On the way to a cherished date with Akari Unryu, for instance, he is supposed to follow the edge of a lake to get to their meeting point, a statue that is in plain sight directly in front of him. Instead, Ryoga follows a brook emptying into the lake and gets lost again. In real world terms, he'd be classified as suffering from autistic limitation or brain damage in this area. It's also possible his lack of direction might be some form of family curse. In the anime, Maomolin the ghost cat possesses Ryoga and tries to lead him towards the girl he loves. However, the cat spirirt had as much trouble navigating as Ryoga himself - even though Maomolin was doing the thinking.

In the anime this condition is worsened by Ryoga's ability to traverse obscene distances in surprisingly little time on foot, although how he does this is unknown. When the two problems are combined, it results in Ryoga having essentially no idea where he is at any given time, which allows him to miss his destinations by insane margins. In one case, he attempted to reach Hokkaido and instead ended up in Hong Kong. Luckily, he carries a backpack which evidently contains essentials for survival in the wild.

In the manga this is not as heavily implied to be a supernatural talent. At least not beyond his comical tendency to pop up at odd moments. He seems to need much longer travel time, and hasn't explicitly been seen to swiftly and randomly traverse continents under his own power. However, in his first appearance he overshot Tokyo by 500 miles twice in a row,^[3] though it took him a week to do so (i.e. he travelled at least 143 miles a day). Through the aid of the Kinjakan, he also quickly made it all the way from Jusenkyo to Moscow and back, while out to get some dumplings in Peking,^[4] and his map was once shown to contain a forest, the Tendo dojo, a café, a road with a red car, some African tribesmen, China, and France.^[5]

Another running joke was that whenever Ranma-chan had a disguise on, which were allways horrible, he would completely fall for it. Ranma has used it to his advantage by getting closer to Ryoga to find out about any training he has been doing.

Given the horrible combination of his poor sense of direction, years of solitude, deprivation from any affection or comfort, and his terrifying curse, Ryoga is possibly the most miserable character in the entire series. When we first meet him this has turned him into a very angry and seemingly unapproachable individual. In reality, Ryoga is very emotional, more often than not following his heart rather than his head. He is quite emotionally fragile, straightforward and naive. He's regularly feeling depressed, which thus far has served as the source for his chi projection. When not upset he's generally shy, polite and soft-spoken, especially around women. He is often easily tricked and used by some of the more manipulative characters and turns extremely grateful and loyal for any kindness offered to him.

Despite his flaws and occasional lapses, Ryoga is a generally portrayed as an honourable and extremely loyal warrior. A prime example of this is when Ranma was weakened by Happosai's Moxibustion. While the rest of his rivals took advantage of this to obtain their revenge on him, Ryoga actually defended him.^[6] In fact, he was saddened by the loss of his rival and helped him regain his strength.^[7] Unlike Mousse & Shampoo, he also had no duplicious intentions when helping in the fight against Taro and saved him/her from drowning even though he was in piglet form.^[8] He has also risked his life to help Ranma against the Musk Dynasty,^[9] the Yamato Orochi^[10] and the Phoenix People.^[11] He's fiercely proud and brave. Even in completely outmatched piglet form he will still stand up to Ranma,^[12] Happosai,^[13] Lime or Mint,^[14] regardless if he has to take a severe beating, and he can't stand the thought of being seen as weak by Akane.^[15]

He is rather desperate for affection, to the point where a hug as Akane's pet P-Chan was his only way to get any kind of warm human contact, and is overjoyed when she snuggles him like a teddy bear or kisses him on his snout. He is not lecherous, however - being hugged against Akane's cleavage when she is in a state of undress will cause the shy Ryoga to nose-bleed and faint.

Ranma has generally been very honourable and considerate regarding the curse. Likely because he/she was the one who caused it, sheer sympathy or knowledge about his general prudishness, and possibly due to a silent 'warrior's code' vow to the dog. While he initially wasn't averse to threatening to expose Ryoga or attempting to tell Akane,^[12] he eventually found out that Ryoga sees himself as Akane's protector even in near defenceless P-chan form and endures her regularly violent nightly movements to keep her safe and happy.^[13] He's seemingly endeavoured to keep Ryoga's curse a secret from Akane ever since, by catching him when he's about to fall into water, switching Akane's head in another direction, making up excuses/explanations etc. He/she became sad for his/her rival when it seemed like Akane had found out, and tried to explain that 'Ryoga never meant to hurt you'.^[16] Though he still likes to occasionally tease Ryoga about it in their ongoing banter and sometimes makes blunders, like when honestly trying to convince Taro that it's possible to live with a curse through support from Ryoga, without considering that Akane was near.^[17]

Ryoga's by far worst lapse in behaviour occurred during, and immediately following, the infamous 'Fishing rod of love' story.^[18] Here he temporarily considers to test a magic fishing-rod, which he doesn't truly believe in, to gain the love of Akane. However, shortly before he reconsiders, he accidentally snares Ranma instead. When Ranma turns murderously jealous and possessive Ryoga begins to fear for his life and sanity, and decides to kill Ranma out of desperation. However, he can't force himself to go through with it until Ranma makes him furious through a kiss on the cheek. After Akane becomes involved Ranma attempts to snare Ryoga with the rod and attacks his/her fiancée with bloodthirsty ferocity. Ryoga has to confront Ranma to save Akane's life, and actually manages to both pull off a decisive victory and accidentally free him/her from the spell. Ryoga's heroic moment is destroyed when he attempts to hug and confess to Akane, but grabs Ranma instead. This humiliation leaves Akane to believe that he deliberately tried to gain Ranma's love and she 'can't understand him', while Ranma himself views Ryoga with disgust and suspicion. Presumably still reeling from the incident, he initially has no intentions to help Ranma find a cure during the Musk arc (unlike with Taro), and knocks her out from behind to retrieve it for himself and Mousse. After Ranma returns his betrayal with assistance, Ryoga helps Ranma in turn, and develops back into a reliable ally in times of crisis.

[edit] Special Techniques

Ryoga is one of the most proficient martial artists in the Ranmaverse, roughly comparable to Ranma, whom he's defeated or fought to a draw on many occasions (especially during shorter or off-screen battles) and sometimes even the latter has to 'cheat' (distract or trick him) to barely triumph in climax situations (through Ryoga's horrid sense of direction, attempting to turn him into a piglet, or destroying his guard through his shyness around girls and flustered affection for Akane). Unlike most cast members, Ryoga seems to be mostly self-taught, with enormous natural talent and relentless hard training as his only mentors. Miss Takahashi has mentioned in an interview that the reason for his great power lies in his constant harsh hiking life.

He appears to be physically stronger than, or at the very least as strong as Ranma. They've never outright competed in this area, since Ryoga tends to rely on skill and special techniques, but during the skating competition he moved and then hurled two enormous blocks of ice (with an estimated total weight of a few hundred metric tons) around 10-20 metres,^[19] while Ranma broke his legs from the effort of falling 50-80 metres while carrying 4 girls.^[20] Then again, he was weakened from poison at the time, so his peak effort should likely be multiplied. A more reliable gauge may be that Ranma proved unable to lift an approximately 80-100 ton large iron bell, even without handicaps.^[21] Also, when under the influence of a magic incense a simple hug from Ryoga almost crushed (male) Ranma's ribs.^[1] Other hints in this vein include that he seemed overwhelmingly stronger when Ranma pretended to be his 'sister',^[22] but Ranma was obviously in female form at the time. Akane was terrified of his casual power, while she hasn't reacted this way towards Ranma,^[23] though Ranma may simply have better conscious muscle control. He was also the chosen counterpart for Lime, but then again, Mousse was selected for Mint, and Ryoga has proven himself swifter,^[6][24] so that may simply have been a case of their most pronounced ability.

Ryoga also has far greater stamina - honed through years of training in the mountains and through Elder Cologne's Breaking Point Training.^[25] He's been known to plow through walls, fight wild boars, be struck with heavy objects, covered in a rockslide, or even have entire buildings dropped on him and still fight on. He was unfaced by a full force blow from Taro's 'minotaur' form,^[26] while this proved enough to immediately defeat Ranma-onna.^[27]

He's not quite as skilled or swift as his rival, but markedly catches up in these areas as the manga progresses. By the time of the 'weakness moxibustion' arc, he is able to simultaneously parry and beat up Mousse, Tatewaki & Principal Kuno in under a second.^[6] Additionally, when Ranma is turned murderously jealous by a magic koi mark, Ryoga manages to avoid and parry his amaguriken^[28] and eventually best his rival.^[29] In battle with the physically stronger and extremely durable Lime,^[30] he easily managed to stay out of his opponent's grasp until Mint accidentally plowed into him from behind. Near the end of the manga the author spoofs their relationship by portraying Ranma&Ryoga as two constantly feuding and completely evenly matched children.^[31] (Beyond Ryoga's more powerful and dependable force-blasts.)

Curiously, Ryoga's 'sixth sense' (which warns all the Ranmaverse martial artists from incoming attacks or danger) may be considerably more developed than that of Shampoo, Mousse, Ranma, or even Cologne (Possibly due to his constant dangerous travels as helpless prey). When the Phoenix tribe warriors were spying on their meeting,^[32] he noticed much earlier than the others. On the other hand, characteristically he also thought they were located in the wrong direction. When Ranma-chan tried to sneak up on him in the girl's locker room Ryoga also instantly reflexively downed her.^[33]

Besides his own physical prowess, Ryoga also has a variety of techniques at his disposal:

• Iron Cloth: Ryoga is known to wield very unconventional weaponry, among them his own clothing. He seems to have a never-ending supply of his trademark bandannas, using them as razor sharp missiles and can even turn his belt into a blade capable of easily cutting through a tree, or a steel pole, with a single slash. These attacks are assumed to be possible by Ryoga channeling his Ki into them. His umbrella is unusually resistant, and so heavy that Akane could barely budge it, but Ryoga easily wields it with one hand to deadly effect and increased impact damage.

• Berserker: Not really an attack, but outside of battle Ryoga is often known to lose track of his own actions. This is usually caused by him getting angry, lost, flustered, embarrassed, fantasizing about innocent dates with Akane or several of the above. While in this state, Ryoga unconsciously barrels through objects like walls and buildings, demolishing them with ease, while lost in his own mind.

• Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics: For some unknown reason, Ryoga actually has a fair knowledge of this martial art. The only time he really uses it is early in the series, when he tried to teach it to Akane, then to Ranma in order to prepare them for a fight against Kodachi. When he instructed Ranma, he tried to ensure his defeat, which would enable Ryoga to date Akane. It is possible that he studied this to better apply his 'iron cloth' ribbon technique.

• Bakusai Tenketsu (爆砕点穴 - Breaking Point): A technique taught to Ryoga by Cologne. Originally used by construction workers to clear away debris, this technique enables Ryoga to shatter rocks and similar substances with a finger. The training is grueling, consisting of tying yourself and a boulder to a tree and repeatedly slamming yourself, finger first, into the boulder until you figure out the 'breaking point.' The technique is useless on humans, but the training's side-effects make the user nearly invulnerable to physical attacks. Also, as demonstrated in the manga, this technique is what allows Ryoga to tunnel underground.
  • Breaking Point: Rapid Fire: a variation of the normal breaking point, Ryoga strikes with his finger almost as fast as Ranma's Amaguriken technique, allowing him to create several small blasts in a row.

• Shishi Hōkōdan (獅子咆哮弾 - Lion's Roar Blast): Ryoga's single most powerful technique was taught to him by a civil engineer during his wanderings. By concentrating his depression and anger into his ki, Ryoga is able to unleash a massive blast of energy from his palms. When he was first taught it, in its imperfect form, the attack was strong enough to defeat Ranma in one shot.^[34] The regular version proved enough to knock him out for a short moment even when Ryoga was transformed into a small child.^[35] The secret to perfecting the technique lay in the use of the ki and the strength of the user's emotions. As ki generated by depression and anger is 'heavy,' by projecting it into the air, Ryoga creates a massive sphere of ki that can decimate a whole city block. Since Ryoga is 'emotionally hollow' after the attack, he himself is unaffected by the blast. However, he can be distracted out of this state and thus hit by the blast too. His chi-generation ability is so immense that even the dragon prince Herb of the Musk was instantly awakened and then completely awed when he witnessed it.^[36] Cologne was similarly impressed by his sheer power.^[37] Though, unlike Herb, Ryoga thus far has very limited control, and can't mold or focus it into a cutting edge. Nevertheless, with the possible exception of Happosai, his strongly emotional essence/sheer strength of spirit seems to easily make him the most powerful chi-generator in the entire series.
  • An interesting point is that the technique's color varies by source. In the manga and video games, it was supposedly colored green. But in the anime it was red, and in the second movie it was blue.

[edit] Relationships

Late in the manga Ryoga meets a girl named Akari Unryu whose family runs a dojo dedicated to training massive "sumo pigs". By accidentally defeating her strongest pig, Katsunishiki, Ryoga became Akari's betrothed by the decree of her grandfather.^[38]

Akari is a sweet girl who loves Ryoga with a passion, although she doesn't know about his curse, and when she tries to compliment him through comparisons with pigs (which she cherish above everything), he takes it as a grave insult. Ryoga despises his curse and thinks it makes him pathetic and inferior, which is one of the reasons he has trouble sharing his feelings with Akane. In the end, Akari finds out about his condition, which only makes her adore him even more. This further complicates Ryoga's life, since he's initially indecisive about her and Akane and once tried to court both of them at the same time.^[39] However, towards the end of the series he seems mostly focused on dating Akari alone,^[40][41] and he was content to let Akane wed Ranma without interrupting... until he got lost and accidentally wound up at the reception anyway.^[42]

In the German edition of the concluding official 'Memorial Book', Ryoga and Akari were described as feeling reciprocal 'great attraction' towards one another, while he only felt 'lingering affection' for Akane. In this respect Ryoga seems to have received a more 'conclusive' ending than most main characters, since the others were still caught up in the usual 'romantic' entanglements and complications. His rivalry for Akane is gone and he's met his seemingly perfect match, but his direction sense and remaining curse naturally still complicate matters.

Ryoga and Ukyo as a couple is joked about in the anime (likely due to that Akari was never introduced in this continuity), but seems unlikely in the manga. She's regularly bluntly and abrasively reiterated her derision towards his lack of judgment and direction sense, followed by hard whacks of her battle spatula, and they seemed to outright hate each other by the end of the 'Tunnel of lost love' episode. Her attitude would likely destroy Ryoga's fragile ego, as he tends to become infatuated with girls who are consistently gentle with his feelings.

[edit] Trivia

• In the anime, there is a girl named Anna who also falls in love with Ryoga; she lives in a farm and rides around in a huge bull.
• The name Ryoga can be broken down to read as "good fang," which refers to the fact that he has rather prominent canine teeth which look like fangs. Hibiki is translated as "to echo or resound."
• Often compared to Koga from InuYasha due to their strong similarity (fangs, huge strength, stubborness) , but while Ryoga is usually honourable and well-intended, Koga is a ruthless cannibal (at least at the beginning).
• In the Brazilian dub, his voice actor is Wendell Bezerra (also dubs adult Goku in all Dragon Ball series)
• In the Latin American dub, he has had more voice actors than many other characters (tied only by Soun Tendo, Nabiki Tendo, and Shampoo): Benjamín Rivera (known as the voice of Goemon Ishikawa XIII in Lupin III), Humberto Ramírez (2 episodes) and Gerardo del Valle, although the first one (B. Rivera) voiced the character in the movies, hence making this Mexican voice actor known as Ryoga's most known voice.
• In his first anime appearance, he emits a Wilhelm scream while running scared through a forest he thinks is the straight path to Tokyo.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ryoga at AnimeInfo
• Ryoga at Furinkan.com

Ranma ½ Characters v • d • e
Saotome Family
Ranma Saotome | Genma Saotome | Nodoka Saotome
Tendo Family
Soun Tendo | Kasumi Tendo | Nabiki Tendo | Akane Tendo | Mrs. Tendo
Chinese
Shampoo | Mousse | Cologne | Jusenkyo Guide | Pantyhose Taro
Kuno Family
Tatewaki Kuno | Kodachi Kuno | Principal Kuno | Sasuke Sarugakure
Notable Furinkan Residents
Ukyo Kuonji | Hikaru Gosunkugi | Dr. Tofu Ono | Hinako Ninomiya | Konatsu
Major Adversaries
Ryoga Hibiki | Happosai | Mariko Konjo | Herb | Ryu Kumon | Saffron
Recurring / Other Characters
Akari Unryu | Tsubasa Kurenai | Shinnosuke | Minor Characters
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