Ranma's Rep

[Zwzn]

What kind of reputation do you think Ranma has with his classmates, people on the street, martail artists, and anyone who might hear gossip about him?

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Most likely different levels of reputation for different areas of life, and choice of canon would probably play into things as well.

Amongst his fellow students, his reputation is most likely poor to average; while he does generally lead the charge against either of the Kunos, he is probably seen as a troublemaker and an outright freak, what with his curse and the destruction he and his cohorts tend to cause. The plethora of ladies after his hand means that the girls most likely dislike him, considering him a womanizer, while the boys envy his "luck" at having so many lovely ladies desire him.

People on the street would probably shun him as politely as possible; he's just too weird and troublesome for their tastes, but too dangerous to outright tick off.

People who know about him just by rumors are most likely all over the place, depending on whether they hear about his curse, his "perversity", all the destruction he causes, or his martial arts prowess.

Martial artists are the ones with whom he likely has the best reputation; they most likely only care about his skill and capabilities, which means they probably regard him with a mixture of admiration and envy. There might also be elements of sympathy and/or pity at the bad luck he's been dealt.

[Vilkath]

I have to agree with SpaceKnight of Chaos on most his points. Very few people really know Ranma, some times even those really close to him like Ukyo don't know him to well, shown by her delusion Ranma be happy working in a restuarnt with her as a waitress or assistant cook for rest his life if they got married.

The average man and woman on the street mostly hear of Ranma from rumors, which are mostly started by Nabiki to earn profits and possibly draw in some fights to entertain herself with and run bets on.

Then another vocal person about Ranma is Akane, which is almost always negative as she very rarely speaks well of Ranma in public. Add to the fact before and after Ranma Akane was seen as one the popular and most saught after girls in school her opinion, facts or not, would hold a lot of weight with the other girls until they had some means of proof against it.

Then you have the Kuno's, both of which speak almost nothing but slander against Ranma and between the two of the Kuno kids both forms are downplayed by them. True they are insane, but people do seem to listen to them, so their words hold some weight, especialy to new commers who might not know better. Fact they both hold sway over a body of students via the Hentai hord and Kodachi's control of her Gymnastics team shows large groups of people follow their words, even if they don't believe them.

Then you have Genma and his many miss deeds durring Ranma's child hood. By the sheer number of angry fiancee's, jilted temple owners, martial arts masters etc Genma seems to have pissed off in the series Ranma's name and his School of martial arts is pretty much mud to start with if for nothing else then his father and Happosais reputation.

So most of Ranma's social life is filled with bad PR, and he naturaly doesn't have the social skills to really fight that kind of battle so any new people he meets almost always be colored against him till they have enough time to see contradicting evidence.

Even his martial arts abilities are mostly spread around by vengful and disgruntled losers. Considering Ranma's upbringing and ego he is hardly a gracious winner most the time, so when challengers or rivals leave him and go spread his name they might admit he won but I doubt it be in the most flatering light.

And ofcourse one his most vocal rivals is Ryoga, who has nothing but loathing for Ranma most the time and due to his sense of dirrection seems to travel the most to 'spread the word' about Ranma's evil and dishonorable actions. Even if you don't by his ability to teleport around the world, he is at least well traveled around japan and china.

So in the end yeah.. I think most people think badly of Ranma due to his father, his schools grandmaster, his bitter rivals, his unwanted fiancee's etc. They are the people most likely to talk to others, as Ranma seems to lead a pretty sheltered life. Most of the people come to him, not the other way around, most people he meets will have met at least one of those people first giving him a negative repuation to start with.

[antimatterenergy]

Also should take into account that Ryu pretended to be Ranma and Happosai stole stuff leaving notes saying it was Ranma/blaming it on Ranma.

Ranma is also very secretive and really doesn't talk about himself so just about all information about him is secondhand from not very reliable sources (rumor mill, Nabiki, Fiancee's, Rivals, etc...). Even his fiancee's/the Tendo's/his mom know very little about him (Ukyo learned of his curse from seeing it/Akane, People learned about catfist from seeing it/Genma, Shampoo learned about Ukyo seven volumes after Ukyo's introduction, etc...).

Likely lot of rumors/gossip about him that is all over the place and most of it is probably contradicting. A lot of people likely don't even know if he's male, female (cause of his curse), young, old (cause of Happosai), one fiancee, or 20 (even his fiancee's didn't know for quite a while), married, or not (Shampoo uses Airen while talking about him which in Chinese is most common term used for spouse), or depending on the gossip Human (could easily see people telling tall tales making him out to be a kami of some type). People he helped like the little girl who gave him a Valentine and her grandma would be praising him, Shampoo would be telling about how great he is while making deliveries to anyone who asked, Ranma's mom who knows barely anything about him would be praising him, Martial arts masters he trained from would probably praise him, Rivals would denounce him, Happosai and Ryu's deeds would likely make him look bad, etc... So the average person likely knows nothing having to much contradicting info. Immediate classmates know some but not even everyone in the school likely knows of his curse since the drama club thought he was from rumors just legendary at disguising himself as female.

[Vilkath]

True even the posative rumors are more then likely colored by the person spreading them's own delusions and almost every one is slightly stuborn on some points.

Like Nodoka is probably saying how manly her son is, how many girls he's slept with, how many babies he's making etc to any one who would talk to her, even before she met him!

Then you have the fiancee's whom might not hate Ranma but more then willing to spread some false information if it ment keeping the competion away. Stuff like Shampoo who loves her husband, but be more then willing to say or do almost anything keep other girls away.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Firstly, Nodoka is not obsessed with grandchildren or her son proving that he's manly by taking lots of mistresses. That's pure fanon.

Secondly, Shampoo is more the intimidation type than the rumor type. She much prefers to scare others off with the threat of violence than to spread rumors to keep them away.

[antimatterenergy]

Then you have the fiancee's whom might not hate Ranma but more then willing to spread some false information if it ment keeping the competion away. Stuff like Shampoo who loves her husband, but be more then willing to say or do almost anything keep other girls away.

Ukyo did send Tsubasa a picture of girl form Ranma not male Ranma. So they are canonly spreading false info. Personally I would see Shampoo telling everyone how wonderful Ranma is, she does want to marry him and if he is bad it makes her look bad.

[Vilkath]

Shampoo might not bad mouth Ranma, but she might say bad things about Genma or use other methods to disuade other girls. True Shampoo cares about being seen as having the best husband, but a lot of her focus is on her own amazon village. She probably doesn't care quite as much about what stupid outsiders might think.

As for Nodoka not caring about grandchildren or her son being manly with many women.. it is exagerated in fanon but I do think it has some basis in fact. She did set up that pledge to kill him if he wasn't manly, so her bragging about her wonderful son isn't out of line. Almost all parents do it, and since the idea of her son being 'manly' was important enough to threaten his death over it, I could see it being a main topic of her conversations.

[lwf58]

She did set up that pledge to kill him if he wasn't manly, so her bragging about her wonderful son isn't out of line. Almost all parents do it, and since the idea of her son being 'manly' was important enough to threaten his death over it, I could see it being a main topic of her conversations.

Nodoka did not set up the contract. Genma did, as a ploy to make her allow him to take Ranma away. When he first told her about his plan for the training trip, she was extremely upset and refused to let Ranma go, so Genma wrote the contract, got Ranma to put his handprint on it by telling him it was fingerpainting, and then used it to force the issue with Nodoka.

After that, Nodoka was in the position of having to enforce the contract whether she liked it or not. She is very much a samurai's wife; the contract made her duty quite clear, and she had to live by it no matter how much she might not want to.

Her desire for grandchildren is overblown in fanon, but does have a basis in canon. She missed out on most of Ranma's childhood, and would like to have grandchildren as soon as Ranma is ready so that she can watch them grow up instead. Her idea of "manly" being perverted is also canon. She seems to think that manly men should do things that Happousai might approve of. For example, in one chapter, she is mildly upset when she finds out that Ranma doesn't try to be a voyeur. Not attempting to peep at girls in the bath isn't manly, according to her.

[camk4evr]

If I remember correctly, it's peeping on his fiance that she considers manly. Peeping on other girls is perverted.

[Jupiah]

Amongst his fellow students, his reputation is most likely poor to average; while he does generally lead the charge against either of the Kunos, he is probably seen as a troublemaker and an outright freak, what with his curse and the destruction he and his cohorts tend to cause.

I really don't see any evidence in the manga that Ranma's classmates think this poorly or him.

First of all, Ranma doesn't cause widespread destruction. His rivals do that. With the exception of stepping on someone every now and then, Ranma is normally very considerate of the nonmartial artists around him.

They also don't seem to treat him like a freak because of his curse - they accept it quickly and other than the guys joking with him about his girl form and the drama club being awed by his "crossdressing" skills, they never make a big deal of it. Personally, I'd think they'd be more weary of him because of the Nekoken, but during that entire arc the student body seems more concerned for Ranma's wellbeing than freaked out by him.

For crying out loud, compared to some of the other nuts in that school, such as Tatewaki, Principal Kuno and Miss Hinako, Ranma's downright normal. These students are used to weird things - they're proud of their freaks!

I don't think you realize just how much "school cred" Ranma gets for constantly stopping the principal's zany schemes. He has saved the student body from horrible haircuts, cleaning bathrooms, suffering in the Repentance Room, and having their poor test scores publicly announced. Combine that with bringing Kuno under control, and Ranma's a freakin' hero to the Furinken students!

I do have to agree that Ranma must have a reputation of being extremely perverted though. A lot of the stuff he does just plain looks bad. Apparently teaming up with Happosai to raid the girl's locker room, going on more dates with Kuno than anyone else in the series, getting locked in his girl form by the phoenix pill for at least a week (which doesn't seem to have ever been explained to rest of the students), fighting Mousse by "disguising" himself as a scantily clad girl, seeming to try to seduce Hinako and then constantly trying to "grope" her when that failed, the time when he was teaching his mirror clone how to pick up guys, his questionable fight with Mariko... Ranma's done a lot of perverted things, and he doesn't always have an excuse for it, or bother to share his excuse with others if he does. I'd imagine that most of his classmate's probably think he's bisexual (but in denial about it) and all of them probably think he's very, err... experienced, if you know what I mean.

[Zwzn]

Amongst his fellow students, his reputation is most likely poor to average; while he does generally lead the charge against either of the Kunos, he is probably seen as a troublemaker and an outright freak, what with his curse and the destruction he and his cohorts tend to cause.

I really don't see any evidence in the manga that Ranma's classmates think this poorly or him.

First of all, Ranma doesn't cause widespread destruction. His rivals do that. With the exception of stepping on someone every now and then, Ranma is normally very considerate of the nonmartial artists around him.

They also don't seem to treat him like a freak because of his curse - they accept it quickly and other than the guys joking with him about his girl form and the drama club being awed by his "crossdressing" skills, they never make a big deal of it. Personally, I'd think they'd be more weary of him because of the Nekoken, but during that entire arc the student body seems more concerned for Ranma's wellbeing than freaked out by him.

For crying out loud, compared to some of the other nuts in that school, such as Tatewaki, Principal Kuno and Miss Hinako, Ranma's downright normal. These students are used to weird things - they're proud of their freaks!

I don't think you realize just how much "school cred" Ranma gets for constantly stopping the principal's zany schemes. He has saved the student body from horrible haircuts, cleaning bathrooms, suffering in the Repentance Room, and having their poor test scores publicly announced. Combine that with bringing Kuno under control, and Ranma's a freakin' hero to the Furinken students!

I do have to agree that Ranma must have a reputation of being extremely perverted though. A lot of the stuff he does just plain looks bad. Apparently teaming up with Happosai to raid the girl's locker room, going on more dates with Kuno than anyone else in the series, getting locked in his girl form by the phoenix pill for at least a week (which doesn't seem to have ever been explained to rest of the students), fighting Mousse by "disguising" himself as a scantily clad girl, seeming to try to seduce Hinako and then constantly trying to "grope" her when that failed, the time when he was teaching his mirror clone how to pick up guys, his questionable fight with Mariko... Ranma's done a lot of perverted things, and he doesn't always have an excuse for it, or bother to share his excuse with others if he does. I'd imagine that most of his classmate's probably think he's bisexual (but in denial about it) and all of them probably think he's very, err... experienced, if you know what I mean.

Last time I checked, having a reputation of being extremely perverted is not a good reputation in most people's eyes, and neither is being one of the school "freaks".

The way I see it, the less you know about Ranma first hand, the worse he appears, and few know much about him.

[Jupiah]

Last time I checked, having a reputation of being extremely perverted is not a good reputation in most people's eyes, and neither is being one of the school "freaks".

The way I see it, the less you know about Ranma first hand, the worse he appears, and few know much about him.

Er, yeah, you're right, I kinda missed the point didn't I? I guess the point I was trying to make is that Ranma's classmates seem to like him quite a bit despite his terrible reputation. I'm sick to death of all those Ranma-the-social-outcast fics.

[Terra Hitarumonwa]

I honestly quite like the information the Senshi were getting on Ranma in Trimatter's story "Aftermath".

From what they heard Ranma was a boy, a girl, a sorcerer, a goddess, a pervert, the most honorable man that ever lived, a great martial artist, someone you depended on, a joke, a jackass, an airen and a cash cow. All that rolled up into one person.

[FriendlyEL]

Well, I remember Ranma's reputation being discussed some on the "Nerinma Noncombatant's View of Marital Artists".

Personally, if I was an average student at Furinkan I would have been slightly leery of Ranma. After all, this is the same person who has been able to easily outclass Akane and Kuno, two of the strongest and most feared (or at least respected) martial artists on the campus, and has also been shown to be trouble for authority figures. Usually the two combined tend to imply "school bully". I know what people are thinking, he isn't one, but from an outsider's first impression this could be a possible

As for what I think his reputation is he's for the most part well respected for his skill and I wouldn't be surprised if he's considered fairly desirable to the girls in school. Most of the males in the school are probably like everyone else impressed by his marital arts skills, but probably have a slight chip on their shoulder over his engagement.

I never got the impression he was much of an outcast in high school, but actually rather popular. His reputation is probably hurt some by the less considerate martial artists that he attracts, but not nearly enough to be particularly disliked for it. Also, I may be forgetting some scenes but how many students really are aware of his curse?