Akane Tendo
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| Akane Tendo 天道 あかね | |
|---|---|
| Image:Akane Tendo.jpg Akane in the anime | |
| Alias: | Macho/Violent Tomboy, by Ranma Uncute, by Ranma |
| Gender: | Female |
| Age: | 16 |
| Family: | Soun Tendo, father Unnamed mother, deceased Nabiki Tendo, sister Kasumi Tendo, sister |
| Love Interest: | Ranma Saotome, fiancé |
| Loved By: | Ranma Saotome, fiancé Ryoga Hibiki Tatewaki Kuno Hikaru Gosunkugi Shinnosuke Many Minor Characters |
| Rivals: | Ukyo Kuonji Shampoo Kodachi Kuno |
| Occupation: | Student |
| Residence: | Tendo Dojo, Furinkan |
| Fighting Style: | Anything Goes Martial Arts |
| Seiyū: | Noriko Nagai(as Noriko Hidaka) |
| Voice Actor: | Myriam Syrois |
| 1st Appearance (Manga): | Volume 1 |
| 1st Appearance (Anime): | TV Series, Season 1 |
Akane Tendo (天道 あかね Tendō Akane) is a fictional character in Rumiko Takahashi's anime and manga series Ranma ½.
Akane Tendo is the youngest of Soun Tendo's three daughters. She is also one of the heirs to the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts.
Contents |
[edit] History
Akane's mother died when she was very young. Because of this, she was never really taught the things that mothers usually teach their daughters, and her terrible cooking skills are a running joke during the series. Akane grew up as a tomboy, getting into fights, acting tough, and perfecting her martial arts to the best of her ability. When she was in elementary school, she was so much like a boy that she was once cast by her schoolmates to play Romeo in their production of Romeo and Juliet.
However, despite what she projected on the outside, Akane is indeed a girl. At the beginning of the series she had a crush on Dr. Tofu Ono, who patched her up many times when she got into fights. Unfortunately for Akane, Dr. Tofu is besotted with her older sister Kasumi. In an attempt to get his attention, Akane grew out her hair so it would be longer than Kasumi's, however during one of the first fights between Ranma and Ryoga, her hair was cut down, a look she retains for the rest of the series.
Even if she had a crush on Dr. Tofu, she claimed to hate boys, despite being very popular with the guys at Furinkan High School. Because her original "suitor," Tatewaki Kuno, challenged all the boys in school to defeat Akane in battle to be worthy of dating her, Akane was attacked by at least 50 or so boys every morning on her way to school. A very annoying situation, indeed, but Akane always managed to handily beat them all, including Kuno, the school's top fighter—and pervert. Then Ranma arrived...
[edit] Character
Akane is a very strong-minded and short tempered girl. She can become angry and jealous, and is apt to hit Ranma a lot whenever this happens, often a reaction to Ranma's own bad traits like his smart mouth and insensitivity.
Despite her temper, Akane does have a gentle, feminine side. Akane has shown a willingness to come to the aid of her rivals, even helping the people who routinely try to make her life miserable, like Shampoo or Happosai. She has also been known to apologize for her behavior, once she has had time to cool down or learn the facts.
Most of her faults can be attributed to violent overreaction to the situations she and Ranma find themselves in, a common trait in comedy anime. Constantly, this overreaction ends up with her comedically attacking Ranma throughout the series. Even though Akane is more tempted to hurt someone when angry, she has also cried several times throughout the series, oftentimes due to an overload of Ranma's obnoxious comments and insults.
Having been raised in a family without a mother figure, Akane has a hard time trying to sort out her feelings for Ranma. There are many times when Akane is on the verge of telling Ranma how she really feels, but this is almost always interrupted by different comedic circumstances, and they return to their usual habit of hitting and insulting each other (Ranma: "Kawaiikune!" [Uncute!] and Akane: "Ranma no baka!" [Ranma you idiot!] - are often repeated). Akane has adopted her sister Kasumi as a surrogate mother figure, trying to improve her matronly skills. Before Ranma's arrival at the Tendo dojo, she seemed more or less uninterested in being a "normal" girl for the sake of a boy.
Akane seems to have a special charm that appeals to the opposite gender. This results in her having a fair number of suitors who would be interested in dating her, the number of which is second only to those for Ranma—male and female. Perhaps this is because Akane is the closest thing to an average real-life person in Ranma ½ - someone who has no particular obsession, gets angry when pressed, and is unafraid to fight for what she believes in. Another reason is Akane's straightforward, honest nature, which leads her to be kind to those who need her help without being afraid of pointing out the other person's flaws, something clearly seen in the "Nihao my Concubine" movie, when she slaps Touma for his treatment of her and the other girls. Akane also has many noble traits, such as personal honor and the need to fight for those she cares for.
Akane may never admit it, but her deepest wish is to be the ideal of a Japanese matron figure: gentle, skilled, understanding, and even-tempered. She has made some progress in this goal, in no small part due to the efforts of Kasumi and Ranma's mother, Nodoka. One of her reasons for this goal is to win Ranma's approval for her.
[edit] Story
When Akane was 16, her life took a new turn. She was engaged against her will to her father's friend's son, Ranma Saotome, so that the Tendo dojo and the school of the Anything Goes Martial Arts would be assured a future. Akane's sisters thought that this match was a perfect excuse to get out of the engagement. Since she hated boys, and Ranma was half-girl, she seemed to be the most obvious person to palm the weirdo off on. Akane's first meeting with Ranma does not go smoothly: when Akane first meets Ranma, he is in his girl form, and they have a short sparring match. But as she goes to wash off the sweat from their workout, Akane unknowingly walks in on him in the bathroom just after he's transformed back into a boy.
She and Ranma often fight and insult each other, though not as often as most fans seem to believe. Usually, Ranma insults Akane for being a tomboy and calls her "uncute," while Akane insults Ranma for being a pervert. Akane's anger reaches its peak when Ranma suggests, or just plainly announces, that his girl-form is sexier than her natural figure.
Despite their constant bickering, Ranma is always there to protect her from the beginning. Ranma's arrival into her life heralds the end of her daily morning fights after he defeats Kuno, the school's best warrior, in combat. Because of Kuno's loss, the other male students of Furinkan tearfully decide to give up on her.
After the hair she had worked so hard to grow out for Dr. Tofu was accidentally and abruptly cut off during Ranma's first battle with his archrival Ryoga, she became extremely angry and sad. Realizing what he had done, Ranma comforted her by telling her she looked cute with short hair. After that, Akane was able to get over her feelings for Dr. Tofu. A developing love for Ranma started to replace those sentiments, although her fiancé's abrasiveness towards her sometimes jeopardized these emotions.
She continues to be pursued by Kuno and other guys—some love her in secret, like Ryoga. But although she won't admit it, she does have developed feelings for Ranma, which she has trouble expressing because of her lack of experience on the matter. She can be nice to Ranma and actually gets along well with him most of the time, but is also jealous of the other girls who chase him. The two are often seen in each other's presence when they're not fighting, and often work in tandem together when trying to accomplish something. At the end of the series, Ranma admits his love for Akane, and it is heavily implied the two will eventually marry.
[edit] Physical Abilities
Despite being trained in the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, Akane, while able to handle most threats directed at her, is the fiancée who has to fight the least in the series since Ranma or Ryoga often save her when she’s in a dangerous situation.
Overall, Akane, as one of the heirs of the Anything Goes Martial Arts School, is in good fighting form and knows the basics of the Anything Goes style, but she apparently doesn’t know enough of it to use it as effectively as Ranma. This could be a lack of proper training by her father, who may have trained her in the basics since she was the only one of her daughters with martial arts talent, but still looked forward to the day when Ranma would take over the dojo by marrying either Akane or one of her older sisters.
Akane might not know any special techniques other than a variation of Soun's Yokai Head, which consists of her expelling her battle aura in a frightening manner when she's angry at someone—usually Ranma, Genma or her father. Her actual fighting skill has been a source of controversy for years; while she is sometimes considered weak, the manga clearly depicts Akane as a strong martial artist in her own right.
Akane is athletic, albeit slighty clumsy. She practices and excels in sports and appears to be the captain of her school’s volleyball team. Despite her chronic inability to swim, Akane has also fared well in tennis, ice skating and gymnastics. She has had numerous athletic achievements, including:
- Fighting and defeating at least a dozen other students, most of whom were athletes or martial artists, every morning.
- Battling Tatewaki Kuno in a Kendo match. Also, during the official match, Akane was disguised as a boy, meaning Kuno was not holding back like he usually does when fighting her. Though he was more skilled with the sword, she still defeated him by being a more clever tactician.
- Successfully defending herself against Kodachi Kuno when the Black Rose tried to ambush her in her bedroom. Akane often stops Kodachi's attacks (usually a bokken or large hammers) bare-handed.
- Standing her ground, despite an injured hand, for a while against the dojo destroyer while Ranma was dating Shampoo.
- During the Water of Life story arc, Akane was able to jump and maneuver between the heads of a giant, seven-headed dragon in order to collect the magic moss needed to save the life of her childhood friend Shinnosuke.
- Blocking arrows using a staff at Phoenix Mountain.
In the anime OVA "Akane and Her Sisters", Nabiki states that Akane has given up on martial arts, bar jogging to keep her figure and smashing bricks to relieve her tension, because Ranma always saves her. By the end of this story, Ryoga helps Akane to train and she improves her martial arts skills. Since this is a sidestory outside of Rumiko Takahashi's work, it is arguably not considered canon to the main story depicted in the manga.
[edit] Trivia
- Akane is the Japanese word for madder (Rubia cordifolia), as well as the crimson dye obtained from it. It is a common Japanese name.
- The Spring of Drowned Akane at Jusenkyo was not a pre-existing cursed spring, but was created by Kiima in order to impersonate Akane to get at Ranma. As such, it does not have a Chinese name.
- In the Latin American dub of the series, Akane had two voice actresses: Rosy Aguirre (TV series) and Patricia Acevedo ("Big Trouble in Nekonron" and "Nihao my Concubine" movies).
[edit] References
| 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 | Ranma ½ minor characters | |
| Other Articles | |
| Locations in Ranma ½ | Anything Goes Martial Arts | Chinese Amazons | |
