Ryoga Hibiki
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| Ryoga Hibiki 響 良牙 | |
|---|---|
 Ryoga Hibiki | |
| Alias: | P-chan, by Ranma and Akane Charlotte, by Azusa Shiratori 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 Anna (anime only) Akane Tendo (as P-chan) Azusa Shiratori(as Charlotte) |
| Rivals: | Ranma Saotome Tatewaki Kuno Mousse (occasionally) Shinnosuke |
| Occupation: | Wanderer |
| 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 an important supporting 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.
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[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 inability to find his way. Ranma was gone by the time he arrived at the vacant lot on the fourth day. Ryoga has an extremely bad problem with directions and locations, and had spent the time running all over Japan looking for "that cursed lot" which happened to be three yards behind his house. Ryoga is known for having a poor sense of direction, and he often refers to it as one of his many curses.
A few years 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, Ryoga 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 pot-bellied 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 Ranma puts the pig in the hot bath Ryoga pops out. Akane decides to adopt the pig, naming him P-chan ("cute pig"; the "P" is actually derived from the English word "pig"), totally unaware of his dual identity. Due to it being partially his fault that Ryoga became a piglet in the first place, Ranma has sworn himself to secrecy about P-chan's identity, but likes to "subtly" hint to Akane about it.
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 around Nerima. One way or another he usually finds himself back in Nerima whether to challenge Ranma, find a cure for the Jusenkyo curse, give Akane some gifts, or just become entangled in the schemes and chaos that seem to follow his rival.
Ryoga is known to live in a house that is within sight of Mt. Fuji where his dog, Shirokuro (Checkers in the English Anime and Manga) and her pups live. It is often empty, as his parents seem to share his horrible sense of direction. His dog, however, has no such trouble finding her way and recognizes 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 angsting over his 'accursed fate,' which results in an emotional outburst and/or massive blasts of depressive ki.
His most prominent characteristic is that he is capable of getting himself constantly lost, once running the wrong way at the start of a three-legged race in the animated series and in the manga. He has no sense of direction and is therefore unable to go the right way in under a week or draw any legible maps. This is partly due to a considerable amount of stubborness, which makes him stick to the letter of any direction given to him, regardless of whether the path eventually turns; on the way to a date with Akari Unryu, for instance, he is supposed to follow the edge of a lake to get to their meeting point (which is in plain sight, too) but stubbornly follows a brook emptying into the lake and gets lost again. He carries a backpack which evidently contains essentials for survival in the wild.
At first glance, he seems to be stoic, unfriendly and unapproachable. In reality, Ryoga is quite emotional, more often than not following his heart rather than his head. Perhaps due to his sense of direction and his years of solitude, Ryoga is quite emotionally fragile and naive. He is often easily tricked and used by some of the more manipulative characters. Because of this he is usually quite depressed and angsty, especially in regards to his 'curses.'
Despite his faults, Ryoga is sometimes an honorable warrior and a solid friend. 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 Ranma, Ryoga actually defended him. In fact, he was saddened by the loss of his rival and helped him regain his strength. He has also helped Ranma on more than one occasion like the battle with Musk Dynasty warriors and the Phoenix People.
Ryoga is rather desperate for affection, and takes full advantage of his persona as Akane's pet P-Chan to enjoy warm human contact, overjoyed when she snuggles him like a teddy bear or kisses him on his snout. Ryoga 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.
[edit] Special Techniques
Ryoga is one of the most proficient martial artists in the Ranmaverse, second only to Ranma. His real power lies in his own monstrous strength—he is actually stronger, though slower, than Ranma—and stamina honed through years of training in the mountains as well as by Elder Cologne's Breaking Point Training. He's been known to plow through walls, fight wild boars, and have entire buildings dropped on him and still he'd be able to fight on. Besides his own physical prowess, Ryoga also has a variety of techinques 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 cutting through a tree with a single slash, these attacks are assumed to be possible by Ryoga channling his Ki into them. His umbrella is unusually resistant and heavy, but Ryoga easily wields it with one hand to deadly effect.
- Berserker: Not really an attack, but Ryoga is often known to go totally berserk, even outside of battle. This is usually caused by him getting angry, lost, fantasizing about Akane or all of the above. While in this state, Ryoga barrels through objects like walls and buildings, demolishing them with ease.
- Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics: For some strange, 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.
- Breaking Point (爆砕点穴 - Bakusai Tenketsu): 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 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.
- Lion Roar Shot (獅子咆哮弾 - Shi Shi Hokoudan): 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. 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.
- 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
Later 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.
Akari is a sweet girl that loves Ryoga's curse with a passion, although when she tried to compliment Ryoga by comparing him to pigs (which she adores above everything) she only managed to insult him at first, this because Ryoga HATES his curse he thinks it makes him pathetic, and in one of the many reasons he has trouble sharing his felings with Akane. In the end, Akari falls deeply in love with him and even understands why he hates his curse, which further complicates Ryoga's life since he can't seem to choose between her and Akane.
[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."
- The farthest Ryoga has ever gotten lost is when he borrowed the Kinjaka from Mousse to go and buy pork buns in a local chinese village but ended up getting lost in Moscow, Russia.
- Often compared to Koga from InuYasha due to their strong similarity.
- In the Latin American dub, he has had more voice actors than many other characters (probably in any anime series): Benjamín Rivera, 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.
[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 | |
