Tofu Ono
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| Tofu Ono | |
|---|---|
| Ranma ½ character | |
 Dr. Tofu Ono |
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| First appearance | Volume 1 |
| Created by | Rumiko Takahashi |
| Voiced by | Yuji Mitsuya (Japanese) Ian James Corlett (English,1st) Kirby Morrow (English, 2nd) |
| Profile | |
| Age | Late 20s/Early-mid 30s |
| Occupation | Chiropractor |
| Known relatives | Kin Ono, mother Father, deceased |
| Information | |
| Fighting style | Unknown |
Tofu Ono (小乃東風 Ono Tōfū?) is a fictional character in Rumiko Takahashi's anime and manga series Ranma ½. His name means "east wind axe".
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[edit] History
Dr. Tofu is a chiropractor who runs a moxibustion and acupuncture clinic in Furinkan. His office is located near the Tendo dojo and has known their family for a long time. He often helps Akane Tendo and Ranma Saotome when they have bumps, bruises, or other injuries from their many scuffles. In addition to his medical skills, he is very knowledgeable about martial arts techniques although he is never seen practicing. He helps Ranma discover a cure for Happosai's "Moxibustion", and Cologne's "Full-Body Cat Tongue" techniques. He is also one of the earliest to realize the potential of Ranma and Akane's relationship and skillfully nudges them in the right direction from the very beginning.
For a time, he employed both Genma Saotome (in the panda form) and Shampoo as assistants.
Tofu plays a small role in both anime and manga, disappearing from the manga after volume 12. He suffers from what some fans dub as "Takahashi Character Death", where a major character created by Takahashi is never seen or heard from again without explanation.[who?] His role in the anime isn't much larger; beyond his introductory story, he identifies the Xian Fang Gao technique and the formulas needed to use it and cure it, identifies the "ultimate weakness" moxibustion Happosai burns Ranma with and manages to find the temple with the counter-chart, looks after Akane's various injuries, accompanies the Saotomes and Tendos to a carnival and competes in a race with Kasumi as his co-driver, and helps identify a baby dragon Ranma finds before a typhoon as such and helps him keep it safe from the Frog Hermit.
[edit] Character
As the local physician, Dr. Tofu is often seen as very knowledgeable and quite serious, especially when it comes to medical attention. However, this serious nature is counterbalanced by two distinct mannerisms. First, he has a habit of punctuating his medical discussions by playfully referencing his full-size skeleton model, which he refers to as Betty. Second, and much more serious, is what happens whenever Kasumi Tendo crosses his path.
Unfortunately, whenever he sees the eldest daughter of Soun Tendo, his glasses fog over and he stops paying any attention to what he's doing - to the point that he can unknowingly become a danger to himself and the people around him. His patients have long learned to stay away from him when Kasumi is around, and the anime shows several humorous examples of what Dr. Tofu does when he is under the influence of love. On at least two different occasions, he has taken his skeleton and danced around town with it on his back after simply talking to her on the telephone. People who witness these antics often comment that "he's usually such a good doctor."
Even more unfortunately, Kasumi is completely oblivious to the effect she has on him, dismissing any of his unusual actions with the same casual air with which she addresses much of the insanity that occurs within the Tendo household. In a similar manner, Dr. Tofu was unaware of the crush Akane had had on him for years. In the anime, his mother Kin revealed this to be a family trait. According to her, Tofu's father - who looked exactly like Tofu would if he had grown a moustache - used to behave in exactly the same way when they were dating. The source of Tofu's infatuation with Kasumi is unknown, but flashbacks show that he's clearly been like this since Akane was a little girl.
Although Akane says he is a good martial artist and Ranma admits Tofu is skilled enough to hide his presence, he never actually gets into a fight in the manga. Instead, he only uses his knowledge of pressure points to help Ranma and the others. In fact, he was able to strike Ranma in such a precise manner that a very exact amount of time later—he is actually shown counting down—both of Ranma's legs, without warning, temporarily gave out completely. In the anime, Tofu has a small battle against the frog hermit, where he uses his knowledge of pressure points to completely paralyze his foe and his frogs for a time.
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Translated literally, "Tōfū Ono" means "east wind axe," a Japanese idiom for "the wind that brings the spring." In relation to the character's personality, it means nothing. See also Tofu and Ono Tofu
- Tofu does not appear in the OAV's but he did appear in the OAV ending theme Red Shoe Sunday. He is the man in the black suit and sunglasses who is watching Kasumi while she is at the harbor. Kasumi's lyrics in this song heavily imply that she likes him and is waiting for him to make the first move.
[edit] External links
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