Akane Tendo

Akane Tendo (天道 あかね) is a fictional character and the female protagonist in Rumiko Takahashi's anime and manga series Ranma ½.

She is the youngest of Soun Tendo's three daughters and one of the heirs to the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts.

Akane is the Japanese word for madder, Aka (アカ or あか) = red, and ne (ネ or ね) = root; Rubia argyi (H. Léveillé & Vaniot) Hara ex Lauener ), as well as the crimson dye obtained from it. It is a common Japanese girl's name.

The French dub of Ranma 1/2 renamed Akane Adeline.

History
Akane's mother died when she was very young. Perhaps because of this, she appears not to have learned many traditionally feminine skills, and her terrible cooking is a running joke during the series, although she eventually learns. Akane may see her sister Kasumi as a surrogate mother figure, since she helps her with more traditionally feminine chores.

Akane grows up as a tomboy, getting into fights, acting tough, and improving her martial arts. In elementary school, her classmates thought she was so much like a boy that she was cast to play Romeo in their production of Romeo and Juliet; Akane accepts the role and plays a very cute Romeo, though deep down she always wanted to be cast as Juliet, a wish that she'll have fulfilled only years later (though she would have three different Romeos fighting for her except Ranma was only doing it so he could go to China for free).

At the beginning of the series Akane 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 longer like Kasumi's. However during one of the first fights between Ranma and Ryoga, her hair is cut, a look she retains for the rest of the series.

Despite her crush on Dr. Tofu, she initially claims to hate boys. It turned out that because her original 'suitor', Tatewaki Kuno, declared that only someone who defeated her in battle would be allowed to date her, many of the strongest male athletes at Furinkan High School began to violently attack her en masse every morning. Akane always beat them all without being late for class.

When the series begins, Akane is 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 will be assured a future. At first, Ranma could've been engaged to any of the Tendo girls, but Akane's older sisters palm Ranma off on Akane. 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 his boy form.

Akane and Ranma often fight and insult each other. Usually, Ranma insults Akane for being a tomboy and calls her "uncute," while Akane calls Ranma a "baka"/'dummy'. Despite their bickering, Ranma and Akane are always there to save or help each other in serious situations. The two are also usually seen hanging out with each other outside of school and the dojo. Ranma's arrival heralds the end of her daily morning fights shortly after he defeats Kuno, the school's best warrior, in combat. Because of this and due to learning of her engagement, her daily attackers tearfully declare that they give up on her.

After Akane's hair, which she had worked hard to grow out for Dr. Tofu, was suddenly and accidentally shorn off during Ranma's battle with his rival, Ryoga, she became extremely angry and sad. Realizing this, 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 (later making several attempts to help bring Kasumi and Dr. Tofu closer) and began to develop affection for Ranma, although his abrasiveness sometimes jeopardized these emotions.

The two are often seen in each others presence when they're not fighting, and often work together when trying to accomplish something. At the end of the series, Ranma admits his love for Akane. He opens his mouth wide, and thinks the words, but it is unclear if anything comes out, save her name. Regardless, Akane states that she heard him somehow, finally knows for sure that he loves her, and is very happy about this. In the final panel it is stated that the two will eventually marry.

Character
While Akane is generally shown as compassionate and helpful towards anyone in trouble, she's also a vulnerable, stubborn and very short-tempered girl. She frequently becomes angry and jealous, and is apt to hit Ranma when this happens, often a reaction to Ranma's own bad traits like his smart mouth and insensitivity, but also due to rampant paranoia and willingness to generally believe the worst of the situations she finds him in. Despite her temper, Akane has a more prominent gentle side. She has come to the aid of her rivals, even consistently feeling compassion towards or helping people who try to make her life miserable (or in the first case even kill her), like Shampoo, Happosai or Kuno. She's repeatedly expressed extreme disapproval in attacking or hurting anyone unable to defend himself/herself, and refrained from striking Ranma when he was turned into a small child despite being insulted. She has also apologized for her behavior, once she has had time to cool down or learn the facts, and consistently risked her own life trying to help Ranma without a second thought, showing extreme courage in this regard given her own comparatively limited skills/increased danger. For example, she choose to use a magic paper doll to take the damage for Ranma rather than herself, when both were bitten by lethally poisonous snake-herbs/wines, effectively consciously trading her life for his, and entered the Orochi's mouth in an effort to save him/her from being eaten.

Most of her flaws can be attributed to insecurities about her own attractiveness, skill, or lack of traditionally feminine talents, and she recurrently goes to extremes in efforts to compensate by attempting to improve. Despite this, she seems to have an appeal to the opposite gender. Ryoga, Shinnosuke, Kuno and Gosunkugi have all been in love with her and she's considered attractive by her schoolmates, but given that she seems generally, but not consistently, oblivious to the first case and the others have largely been of a highly negative nature (constant assaults from Kuno and sports club members, general stalking from Gosunkugi) this hasn't served to build up her self-esteem.

Her insecurity often leads her to overreact upon finding Ranma in compromising positions and to punt, repeatedly whack, stomp, or attack him with bokken, shinai, mallets, arrows, stones, tables or any other available blunt object. Ranma seldom seems injured in the following panels, but in the Reversal Jewel story, she punched him so hard into the horizon that he was in a full body cast. Although in the anime this was also due to sustaining a follow-up beating from Kuno and Ryoga.

She's also once stated a remarkable double-standard in this regard as she was burning with outrage and vowed to never forgive him if he deigned to strike her even once during her relentless assault while wearing a 'battle dougi' that brought out her full fighting power (though the sheer difference in skill between them at that point made it highly unlikely that Ranma could get in even one hit). During the 'Nabiki's fiancée' arc she got upset just from overhearing an affirmation that a dejected Ranma found this treatment very taxing (though she only clobbered him after he derisively insulted her as well), so while she's remorseful about specific instances, and has gradually strengthened her restraint as the series progresses, she doesn't stop the pattern as a whole.

That said, according to Cologne, Akane confessed her true feelings under the influence of the reversal jewel, claiming that she loves Ranma with all her heart more than anyone in the world and is sorry for being so angry.

Akane has difficulty trying to sort out her feelings for Ranma. There are times when she is on the verge of telling him how she really feels, but this is almost always interrupted by comedic circumstances, and they return to their usual barbs and antics, but she's consistently worried when he's endangered and overjoyed when he turns up safe.

Akane does have a need for being comforted when sad or scared, but they're both usually too uncomfortable to interact in this manner. Unlike most other main female characters, she's expressed great, traditionally 'feminine', fears of ghosts or reptiles and can be extremely frightened simply from a scary story, being in a casino, or imagining something horrible happening to someone she cares about.

Despite not being as technically skilled as several other characters in martial arts, she takes pride in her legacy and position as the scion of her father's Tendo-Ryu, and never backs off from a fight or rejects a challenge.

Akane seems to get along well with people who are technically her rivals, like Ukyo and Cologne. She tends to be naive in often wishing to believe the best of everyone even when repeatedly proven to the contrary, as with Nabiki or Shampoo. The two most notable exceptions are Ranma and Kuno. In the former case attributed to her own insecurities being fueled by regular insults and the very awkward and chaotic semi-relationship, and in the latter due to intense harassment.

Ranma easily owes Akane his life several times over (though the opposite holds true as well). She is kind, helpful, self-sacrificing, hard-working, forgiving, and somewhat naive towards people in general, even technical enemies, being the only character in the series who can almost match Kasumi in her ordinary mood. She's also very appreciative if Ranma treats her with consideration, and is consistently worrying about, cheering him on, or going to extremes to assist him. When severely upset however, she undergoes a bipolar shift into a state of arrogant derogatory insults, unreasonable paranoia and self-righteous violence, on average treating Ranma worse than his arrogant and extremely insensitive behavior justifies, but she can just as swiftly switch back to being very kind again and make a shamefaced apology whenever she realizes a mistake. Kasumi's initial assessment that "She's really a very sweet girl. She's just a violent maniac." has consistently held true, if usually only in Ranma's case. However, Ranma has also been beaten up several times by his other paramours, Akane is simply around him more often. It is also more evident in the anime than in the manga.

Ranma is aware of his feelings for Akane since volume 3 and the Golden pair arc, but remains unable to admit them until he thinks she's dead during the final storyline. For Akane, we can see her feelings becoming stronger as the story progresses. In volume 17, Nabiki tells Akane that she should tell Ranma how she feels about him. Akane replies (in tears,) that she "can't". However, she does not deny that she is in love with Ranma. At the end of volume 17, Akane (thinking Ranma had asked her out on a date) is extremely happy and wants to make up with him (because they had fought earlier) so they can go back to being engaged to each other.

In volume 26, Akane openly, proudly, and happily tells Shinnosuke; "Ranma is my fiancée!" (However, in an earlier chapter, she was drowning, and started a sentence that suggested his love for her was requited.) In volume 36, when he gives her something that looks like an engagement ring (it turns out not to be, but they both think it is), Akane says that she is "so very happy," making it obvious that she is ready to marry Ranma.

Suitors
Akane has had certain suitors other than Ranma, such as Tatewaki Kuno, Hikaru Gosunkugi, and Piccolet Chardin, but the only ones that she has taken somewhat seriously at some point in the story are the forgetful boy Shinnosuke, and as a more recurrent theme, Ryoga Hibiki.

It is very unclear as to what extent Akane is aware of Ryoga's highly visible infatuation with her. He regularly brings her gifts from the widespread locations he visits during his travels. He becomes extremely flustered at even talking to her, outright affirming that he's overjoyed from even innocent "dates" between them. Even more significantly, he becomes furious and comes to her defense the very notion of anyone (especially Ranma) disrespecting or hurting her, and has helped to save her life on multiple occasions. Ryoga has also made a few embarrassed, and highly transparent, attempts to confess his love to her.

Despite all the evidence, Akane seems almost completely oblivious to his affection. During Ukyo's prolonged introduction story, she witnessed Ryoga's very emotional reaction when Ranma made him think she was holding his hand, but drew no conclusions. She adamantly protested out of genuine confusion when Nabiki suggested that the latter was actively pursuing her, in the "Fishing-Rod of Love" arc, stating that he was simply a good friend. However, she has mentioned that she considers him as kind, pure and gentle, in the "Sakura Mochi" arc, and as much more reliable than Ranma, in the "Tunnel of Lost Love" arc, where she also wanted him to hold her hand in order to comfort and protect her from the ghosts in the cave. Given the above she generally seems to view him as a younger brother.

There have, however, been a few exceptions. Early in the manga, even Akane noticed his feelings when Shampoo's "remote-control acupressure" made her charm Ryoga, making him overjoyed and relentlessly persistent. This terrified her when she realized that his overwhelming casual power might kill her through a simple hug. Afterwards she stated that whoever became his girlfriend had to be a lot sturdier than herself.

During the "Sakura Mochi" story she also, for once, actively considered him as a potential boyfriend upon noticing several "petal marks" on Ryoga's face after he ate a "true love predicting" cookie. Even then, Akane was visibly relieved when Ranma's face showed more of them, though the "petal marks" she saw were actually P-chan's hoofprints. She has also consistently been very happy for Ryoga whenever she thinks that he has managed to find a girlfriend, admitting that she has been worried about him due to his overwhelming loneliness.

Fighting style
As one of the heirs of the Anything Goes Martial Arts School, Akane is in good fighting form, and has excellent physical strength and agility, although she doesn't know enough to use her style as efficiently as Ranma. She is also proficient in the use of several samurai weaponry, including bokken, shinai, staffs and archaic bows. Among other feats, she has managed to hold her own against Tatewaki Kuno in an official Kendo match, while disguised as a boy, deflected Mariko Konjo's "Airborne Cutter" 'razor-batons', and used a staff to block arrows from Phoenix tribe warriors. She seemingly possesses greater skill in armed than unarmed combat.

Skill, speed, and agility
While sometimes considered weak, the manga clearly depicts Akane as a strong and very gifted martial artist in her own right. During Nabiki's stint as Ranma's fiancée, she was able to instantly defeat nine of her school's strongest fighters. She has repeatedly successfully defended herself against ambushes from Kodachi Kuno, even stopping her attacks single handed or without significant effort. She fought, while previously injured, against the Dojo Destroyer and managed to stand her ground for an extended time, but was eventually overcome. She has held her own against Kiima, avoiding the latter's "Thousand wings of a Seabird" signature attack, and immediately barraged her foe with several sharp bamboo projectiles, despite waking up disoriented and in hostile (Jusenkyo) terrain.

She has also shown great agility when avoiding throngs of projectile attacks, for example from the Dojo Destroyer, Kodachi, Kiima and Mousse, and effortlessly maneuvered between the heads of a giant multi-headed dragon/hydra, and managed to snatch the rejuvenating moss growing from its body, while simultaneously caught in its tongue.

Her most prominent achievement in the anime continuity is likely in the OVA "The One To Carry On". Here Nabiki stated that Akane had begun to mostly use martial arts as a mere exercise. However, after being defeated by Kurumi, she trains with Ryoga's help, and later gains an advantage in their 1-on-1 fight, before it is interrupted by Kurumi's sister Natsume. By collaborating, she and Ranma manage to defeat both sisters.

Akane's "special techniques" have thus far been limited to generating a fear-inducing, and possibly power-boosting, battle-aura; a "warning-sense" that alerts her to incoming battle-auras/attacks, and sometimes affords her premonitions from strong feelings or dangerous situations for either Ranma or Ryoga; and with some charitability her versatile expertise in samurai weaponry. However, the Akanekodan computer RPG treated her trademark "megaton-punch" as the game's ultimate, non-taxing, attack skill.

Potential
In the 'battle-dougi' arc Akane's potential was shown as immense, greatly eclipsing Ranma's prowess at the time. While she has most likely previously received consistent, by normal standards intense, training by her ever-present dojo-master father - Who would like her to become a very powerful martial artist, as he expressed great pride when her full power was brought out by the dougi - several other characters have seemingly received more extensive training, and she is currently only explicitly seen training alone, but also as severely frustrated from this lack of proper instruction and sparring-partners, being very appreciative when treated seriously. Akane in general is intensely driven, overachieving, trying to live up to multiple high standards, and to compensate for horrible self-esteem.

Ukyo, Ryoga, and possibly Taro, are apparently almost completely self-taught while wandering the country, but the former apparently used to be, and the second is currently shown as, extremely dedicated. Ranma has mixed regular school and intense training journeys with his extraordinarily proficient father since he was at most 2 years old, and Shampoo has been immersed in a warrior-culture, while being tutored by the greatest martial arts teacher in the series, since she was small. Mousse lacks that instruction, but is a fellow product of this environment, and has apparently managed to vastly exceed Shampoo in spite of this.

However, it should be noted that, except for Ranma and Ryoga, none of the characters' are explicitly shown to train much on-page. It is simply assumed to happen between the chapters, and Akane's displayed skill, and physical ability to handle highly demanding challenges is shown to steadily rise as the series progresses. Regardless, Akane's displayed, by normal standards incredible, skills are remarkable given the circumstances.

Physical power
Like most other regular cast members Akane possesses considerable superhuman physical strength, enabling her to, even early in the series, completely shatter thick stone-pallisades with one blow, or punt Ranma at least a few kilometres. Her regular level was shown as somewhat less than that of Shampoo during the "Super-Soba" story, and far less than that of Ranma in the same story, but she seems to occasionally undergo a great boost when enormously maddened, such as when Nabiki was made Ranma's fiance instead of her and upon being attacked by her usual swarm of admirers, due to her no longer being engaged, she literally sends them all flying with a single kick. During the two times he's angered her most, at the end of the "Reversal Jewel" story, and during the "Battle Dougi" arc (here without the dougi), she even managed to knock out, and in the first case seriously injure Ranma by single barehanded attacks, but partially by taking him unprepared. Thus the only regular cast members eclipsing her potential for raw power seem to be Ryoga Hibiki and Happosai. In the anime continuity she was once seen effortlessly kicking a 14-tonne steel globe considerably larger than herself like a football over a field/at least 20 metres.

Sports
Beyond her fighting prowess, she is athletic, albeit slightly clumsy. She practices and excels in regular aerobics, and appears to be the captain of her school’s volleyball team. She is also moderately adept at tennis and ice skating. She had trouble learning rhythmic gymnastics as preparation for a duel with Kodachi, but this may be more due to the complexity of the sport rather than any real deficiency on her part, and she developed a reasonable amount of skill after a week of training. However, she has no aptitude whatsoever for swimming due to a number of factors; outrageously unsuitable instructors, ill-conceived alternate methods, and primarily an erroneous preconceptions of the skill: a stated misconception that the skill entailed breathing water. This results in her possessing absolutely zero buoyancy; she sinks like a stone, earning her the title of "hammer-girl". Her potent musculature may also contribute.

Trivia

 * 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 seduce Ranma and recover the Kinjakan. As such, it does not have a Chinese name. It is unknown if the spring was sealed/destroyed afterwards, or if anyone could potentially use it.
 * In the English dubbed version of the anime, Kasumi's early description of Akane's nature (as a generally genuinely very nice person who has a mood disorder) is replaced with "she's a very sweet girl, she's just a little high-spirited".

Influences
Makoto of the Street Fighter game series, has virtually identical appearance, personality, background, and fighting style to Akane, even including rage power-boost and skyward punch attacks, but is strictly a Karate master, without additional expert sword skills.

Amane Kaunaq of the Tenchi Muyo GXP series is less blatant, but was developed by a creative team that had originally worked on the Ranma anime. Amane is a righteous and driven tomboy policewoman with the personality of an older and more sensual Akane, in combination with an identical violent relation to her unwanted, more explicit Tatewaki Kuno-homage, long-time suitor Seiryo Tennan, a similarly overprotective and emotional father, and a mother very similar to Akane's older sister/replacement mother figure Kasumi.