Editing Ranma ½ (section)

== Plot ==
{{See also|List of Ranma ½ characters}}

On a training journey in the [[Bayan Har Mountains|Bayankala Mountain Range]] in the [[Qinghai|Qinghai Province]] of China, [[Ranma Saotome]] and his father [[Genma Saotome|Genma]] fell into the cursed springs at {{nihongo|Jusenkyo|呪泉郷}}. The cursed spring causes any afflicted to assume the physical form of whatever drowned there hundreds or thousands of years ago whenever they come into contact with cold water, which reverts on contact with hot water but resumes with exposure to cold water. Genma fell into the spring of a drowned panda while Ranma fell into the spring of a drowned girl.

[[Soun Tendo]] is a fellow practitioner of {{nihongo||無差別格闘流|Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū}} or "Anything-Goes School" of martial arts and owner of a [[dojo]]. Genma and Soun [[arranged marriage|agreed years ago that their children would marry]] and carry on the Tendo Dojo. Soun has three teenage daughters: the polite and easygoing [[Kasumi Tendo|Kasumi]], the greedy and indifferent [[Nabiki Tendo|Nabiki]] and the short-tempered, martial arts practicing [[Akane Tendo|Akane]]. Akane, who is Ranma's age, is appointed for bridal duty by her sisters with the reasoning that they are the older sisters and can dump the duty on her, and that they all dislike the arranged engagement and think Akane's dislike of men is the right way to express it to the fathers. At the appointed time, the Saotomes arrive in their new forms given by the cursed springs, confusing the Tendos, and ultimately leading to Akane seeing Ranma changing from girl form to boy form in the tub, much to her horror. It takes several more pages for the situation to be explained to Soun Tendo and his daughters. Both Ranma and Akane refuse the engagement initially, having not been consulted on the decision, but the fathers are insistent and they are generally treated as betrothed and end up helping or saving each other on some occasions. They are frequently found in each other's company and are constantly arguing in their trademark awkward love-hate manner that is a franchise focus.

Ranma goes to school with Akane at {{nihongo|Furinkan High School|風林館高校|Fūrinkan Kōkō}}, where he meets his recurring opponent [[Tatewaki Kuno]], the conceited [[kendo]] team captain who aggressively pursues Akane, but also falls in love with Ranma's female form without ever discovering his curse (despite most other characters eventually knowing it). [[Nerima]] serves as a backdrop for more martial arts mayhem with the introduction of Ranma's regular rivals, such as the eternally lost [[Ryoga Hibiki]] who traveled halfway across Japan getting from the front of his house to the back, where Ranma spent three days waiting for him. Ryoga, seeking revenge on Ranma, followed him to Jusenkyo where he ultimately fell into the Spring of the Drowned Piglet. Now when splashed with cold water he takes the form of a little black pig. Not knowing this, Akane takes the piglet as a pet and names it P-chan, but Ranma knows and hates him for keeping this secret and taking advantage of the situation. Another rival is the nearsighted [[Mousse (Ranma ½)|Mousse]], who also fell into a cursed spring and becomes a duck when he gets wet, and finally, there is Genma and Soun's impish grand master, [[Happosai]], who spends his time stealing the underwear of schoolgirls.

Ranma's prospective paramours include the martial arts rhythmic gymnastics champion (and Tatewaki's sister) [[Kodachi Kuno]], and his second fiancée and childhood friend [[Ukyo Kuonji]] the [[okonomiyaki]] vendor, along with the Chinese [[Amazons|Amazon]] [[Shampoo (Ranma ½)|Shampoo]], supported by her great-grandmother [[Cologne (Ranma ½)|Cologne]]. As the series progresses, the school becomes more eccentric with the return of the demented, Hawaii-obsessed [[Principal Kuno]] and the placement of the power-leeching alternating child/adult [[Hinako Ninomiya]] as Ranma's English teacher. Ranma's indecision in choosing his true love causes chaos in his romantic and school life.