Ukyo Kuonji
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| Ukyo Kuonji 久遠寺 右京 | |
|---|---|
| Image:Ukyo Kuonji.jpg Ukyo Kuonji with her spatulas | |
| Alias: | Ucchan, by Ranma Spatula Girl, by Shampoo |
| Gender: | Female |
| Age: | 16 |
| Family: | Mr.Kuonji, father Great grandfather (Anime only) |
| Love Interest: | Ranma Saotome, fiancé |
| Loved By: | Konatsu Tsubasa Kurenai |
| Rivals: | Akane Tendo Shampoo Kodachi Kuno Hinako Ninomiya Genma Saotome Gambling King Hayato Myojin Crepe King Joe (anime only) |
| Occupation: | Okonomiyaki Chef Student |
| Residence: | Formerly: Osaka Now: Ucchan's, Furinkan |
| Fighting Style: | Okonomiyaki Martial Arts |
| Attacks: | Giant Spatula Projectile Spatulas Tempura Flakes |
| Seiyū: | Hiromi Tsuru |
| Voice Actor: | Kelly Sheridan |
| 1st Appearance (Manga): | Volume 8 |
| 1st Appearance (Anime): | TV Series, Season 3 |
Ukyo Kuonji (久遠寺 右京 Kuonji Ukyō) is a character in Rumiko Takahashi's anime and manga series Ranma ½.
Contents |
[edit] History
Ukyo Kuonji is an okonomiyaki or Japanese pizza cook who is Ranma Saotome's oldest friend. Ukyo's initial problem with Ranma goes way back to when she and Ranma were little kids. During Ranma's decade-long training trip, he met Ukyo, who was with her father, an okonomiyaki vendor, at the time. During the time that Ranma lived in the same neighborhood as Ukyo and her father, they had a game in which they play-fought every day. If Ranma won, he got a free okonomiyaki from Ukyo's dad. Needless to say, he managed to defeat her every single day.
Eventually, Ukyo's father proposed Genma Saotome to engage her to Ranma, and to throw his okonomiyaki cart in as a dowry. Genma, always mindful of where his next meal was coming from, agreed. Unwilling to let go of the okonomiyaki cart, but not wanting to break the promise he made to his friend Soun, Genma asked little Ranma which he liked better, Ukyo or okonomiyaki. The young boy, eating an okonomiyaki at the time and unaware that his friend was a girl, quickly chose the food. Thus, Genma stole the cart and left a furious Ukyo behind. After this, Ukyo turned into the target of the other girls at her school, who mocked her for not being feminine enough to keep her fiancé with her. Because of that, she decided to give up on her feminity and learned to act as a boy. She then spent the next ten years training in the martial art of okonomiyaki to prepare for her revenge against the Saotomes.
Ukyo caught up with Genma and Ranma ten years later, at Furinkan High school. Ukyo, still posing as a boy, beat up Genma, and then transferred into Ranma's school. Ranma didn't remember her at first, and had a hard time understanding why she wanted revenge; Akane even believed for a while that Ukyo was Ranma's brother, after hearing and misinterpreting a yelling match between Ukyo and Genma. Finally, they dueled on an enormous okonomiyaki grill. During the bout, Ranma discovered that Ukyo was a woman and why she hated him. Ukyo finally stopped fighting when Ranma said she was "cute." However, this in turn angered Akane Tendo, the daughter of Soun engaged to Ranma. Upon seeing the two quarrel and Akane "congratulating" Ranma on his "cute" fiancee, Ukyo immediately forgave Ranma and re-established their engagement the next day.
Near the end of the series, Ukyo meets Konatsu, a crossdressing young ninja who falls in love with her. While Ukyo has no actual feelings of love towards Konatsu, she still appreciates him as a friend, and allows him to live and work as a waitress in "Ucchan's," the okonomiyaki restaurant she owns.
[edit] Character
Overall, Ukyo is a nice girl and actually gets along well with Akane most of the time. However, she is not above trying to hurt Akane or to guilt-trip Ranma into being with her if it suits her needs. She often tries to break Akane and Ranma's engagement indirectly, but they are mostly unaware of her plotting because it often backfires before it gets anywhere. Ukyo usually drags Ryoga Hibiki into her plans.
Even if Ranma has no romantic feelings for Ukyo, she still feels a close bond of friendship with him, which Ranma returns. He usually calls her by the nickname "Ucchan," which he also called her as a child when they play-fought each day. Ukyo is bitter rivals with Shampoo and Kodachi, and often fights with them for a chance to date Ranma. However, she will team with them if it is convenient for her at that moment.
Ukyo still dresses as a boy at school even though every student in Furinkan knows that she is a girl. It is unknown why she does this, but it could be that she is by now so used to posing as a boy that she sees no need to dress like a girl. She does, however, wear the girls' gym uniform. In the anime, she wore a girl's school uniform once and all the guys at school promptly fell in love with her, thinking her to be a new student even though she still carried her trademark spatula. Ironically, the only male student besides Ranma to immediately recognize Ukyo that day was the usually clueless Tatewaki Kuno, who was completely smitten as well.
[edit] Special Techniques
Ukyo is a talented martial artist whose style is based in the preparation of okonomiyaki, meaning she uses food-based moves to confuse and defeat her opponents. Her techniques aim mainly to stun her opponents long enough for her to crush them with her spatula. Her specialized and unusual style gives her an initial advantage, but stronger fighters like Ranma and Ryoga have no trouble overcoming it. She is strong, agile and her skill with her giant spatula is unmatched, making Ukyo a force to be reckoned with. Her only weak points are her reliance on weapons, though she can fight without them, and that her fighting style is not very useful in small spaces.
Her special techniques are:
- Battle Spatula: Ukyo carries a large spatula on her back that she uses as a sword or club. She is highly skilled with it, but it is sometimes destroyed by stronger martial artists. She also carries several smaller spatulas in a bandolier and uses them as shuriken to attack from a distance, throwing them with uncanny accuracy. Her most common attack.
- Adhesive Batter: A special batter made with rubber cement, used mainly to slow her opponents down to smack them with her spatula or other techniques.
- Flour Bomb: Uses a bag of flour to create a smokescreen effect to hide her movements and to confuse her opponents. Has a small range and it's not very effective.
- Yakisoba Rope: Large ropes made of rubber Yakisoba noodles, used to tangle or restrain her opponents to make them easier to hit with her spatulas. Later in the manga, it is also used like a whip and a rope to swing across gaps.
- Tempura Bomb: By mixing tempura flakes with gunpowder, she creates flashy explosives to blind and stun her opponents for a few seconds. Later, she improves this technique to create exploding okinomiyaki bombs.
- Batter Dragon: An anime only attack she used to defeat the Crepe King. Combining all of her food based techniques together, she creates a huge dragon made of batter, which fuses all of Ukyo's attacks into a single one. It also traps her foe as an ingredient in a giant okinomiyaki.
[edit] Trivia
- Ukyo speaks in the Osaka dialect of Japanese.
- The name "Ukyo" is composed of the kanji for "right" and "capital city." "Kuonji" means "eternity."
- Ukyo had only one real fight with Shampoo in the manga but it was interrupted and ended inconclusively; in the anime, they fight each other often and are shown to be evenly matched.
- Her Latin American Spanish Voice Actor is the popular Gabriela Willert, famous for her roles of tomboyish girls and very young boys.
- Ukyo has been compared to Sango from Inuyasha. This rationale comes from the fact that they both have long hair, carry a large primary weapon on their backs and are even both voiced by Kelly Sheridan in the English dubs.
[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 | |
