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Ranma ½ #13

Ranma 1/2: Vol. 13

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Follows the adventures of half-boy, half-girl martial artist Ranma, whose transforming gender problems began at the Accursed Springs in China when he became cursed to turn into a girl when splashed with cold water, and back into a boy with hot water.

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

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About the author

Rumiko Takahashi

1,603 books2,206 followers
Rumiko Takahashi (高橋留美子) was born in Niigata, Japan. She is not only one of the richest women in Japan but also one of the top paid manga artists. She is also the most successful female comic artist in history. She has been writing manga non-stop for 31 years.

Rumiko Takahashi is one of the wealthiest women in Japan. The manga she creates (and its anime adaptations) are very popular in the United States and Europe where they have been released as both manga and anime in English translation. Her works are relatively famous worldwide, and many of her series were some of the forerunners of early English language manga to be released in the nineties. Takahashi is also the best selling female comics artist in history; well over 100 million copies of her various works have been sold.

Though she was said to occasionally doodle in the margins of her papers while attending Niigata Chūō High School, Takahashi's interest in manga did not come until later. During her college years, she enrolled in Gekiga Sonjuku, a manga school founded by Kazuo Koike, mangaka of Crying Freeman and Lone Wolf and Cub. Under his guidance Rumiko Takahashi began to publish her first doujinshi creations in 1975, such as Bye-Bye Road and Star of Futile Dust. Kozue Koike often urged his students to create well-thought out, interesting characters, and this influence would greatly impact Rumiko Takahashi's works throughout her career.

Career and major works:

Takahashi's professional career began in 1978. Her first published story was Those Selfish Aliens, a comedic science fiction story. During the same year, she published Time Warp Trouble, Shake Your Buddha, and the Golden Gods of Poverty in Shōnen Sunday, which would remain the home to most of her major works for the next twenty years. Later that year, Rumiko attempted her first full-length series, Urusei Yatsura. Though it had a rocky start due to publishing difficulties, Urusei Yatsura would become one of the most beloved anime and manga comedies in Japan.

In 1980, Rumiko Takahashi found her niche and began to publish with regularity. At this time she started her second major series, Maison Ikkoku, in Big Comic Spirits. Written for an older audience, Maison Ikkoku is often considered to be one of the all-time best romance manga. Takahashi managed to work on Maison Ikkoku on and off simultaneously with Urusei Yatsura. She concluded both series in 1987, with Urusei Yatsura ending at 34 volumes, and Maison Ikkoku being 15.

During the 1980s, Takahashi became a prolific writer of short story manga, which is surprising considering the massive lengths of most of her works. Her stories The Laughing Target, Maris the Chojo, and Fire Tripper all were adapted into original video animations (OVAs). In 1984, after the end of Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku, Takahashi took a different approach to storytelling and began the dark, macabre Mermaid Saga. This series of short segments was published sporadically until 1994, with the final story being Mermaid's Mask. Many fans contend that this work remains unfinished by Takahashi, since the final story does not end on a conclusive note.

Another short work left untouched is One-Pound Gospel, which, like Mermaid Saga, was published erratically. The last story to be drawn was published in 2001, however just recently she wrote one final chapter concluding the series

Later in 1987, Takahashi began her third major series, Ranma ½. Following the late 80s and early 90s trend of shōnen martial arts manga, Ranma ½ features a gender-bending twist. The series continued for nearly a decade until 1996, when it ended at 38 volumes. Ranma ½ is one of Rumiko Takahashi's most popular series with the Western world.

During the later half of the 1990s, Rumiko Takahashi continued with short stories and her installments of Mermaid Saga and One-Pound Gospel until beginning her fourth major work, InuYasha. While Ran

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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
Profile Image for Frahorus.
356 reviews81 followers
May 25, 2017
Il vecchio riesce a rendere Ranma debole come un neonato, togliendogli la forza. Ranma allora, aiutato dalla vecchia e da Ryoga, si allena alla tecnica segreta Hiryu Shotenha. E capirà finalmente quanto Akane tiene a lui.
Profile Image for John Wiswell.
Author 63 books1,253 followers
August 28, 2017
The stories in this volume are unusually short, sometimes wrapping up in just one chapter. That's the right length for them, though - they're cute ideas, like neighborhood kids mistaking an old pervert for Santa Claus. Sometimes they feel like Takahashi was writing episode fodder for the TV adaptation of her books, yet they don't feel like pointless filler. They're outrageously funny, particularly when Ranma gets into a feud with the King of Gaming, drawn like the literal king from any Bicycle playing card deck. Ranma and the King are somehow the two literal worst card players in the world, and their feud is perhaps the best parody of martial arts drama I've ever seen, not matching "power level" madness, but instead going in the opposite direction. Everything is on the line, and whichever man is not *the literal worst* will walk away with the feed to the Tendo Dojo.

What a gift this series is.
Profile Image for Miss Ryoko.
2,730 reviews174 followers
October 5, 2012
Oh poor, sweet Ryoga! I can't believe Akane is really THAT dumb! With all the people she's met and interacts with daily that have curses, you'd REALLY think she'd have figured it out by now. Tsk tsk...I shake my head at her.

This was the best part of this volume. I giggled profusely ;-) :

Ryoga's steely buttocks

Oh that Ryoga!!
Profile Image for Cecillie.
1,256 reviews15 followers
November 30, 2023
Another volume that prominently features Happosai, and I'm not here for it. I just really don't like him as a character, he's gross, a pervert and a thief. Most of the time some absolutely cursed combination of the three. I'm also not a fan of how most of the time when the story has got something to do with Happosai it's because he stole something important from someone else.
Profile Image for Lisa.
173 reviews26 followers
January 24, 2021
Volume 13 has four stories in it, and overall it isn't too bad.

The first is a fan-favorite involving Ryoga and martial arts calligraphy. He meets a strange man who offers to use martial arts calligraphy to make him the strongest man in the world. As soon as it's done, he's both horrified and wants to challenge Ranma to a duel. He arrives a week late with a ton of dojo signs he's won in combat, and defeats Ranma using only his pinky. He also shows Ranma how it happened, and reveals a dopey-ass smiley face on his abdomen that he can get rid of only by being defeated. Ranma agrees to help (admitting that Ryoga is the only person he sees as a rival). Later, after some failed attempts, Ryoga encounters Akane as P-chan and she's upset over who put a stupid-looking doodle on P-chan. Later, she encounters Ranma and Ryoga and sees the doodle on Ryoga, and is perplexed. Ranma turns into a girl and manages to surprise attack Ryoga and get a shot in when he's stooped. Ryoga stands and easily wins the battle. Later he's back at the dojo in pig form, and Akane goes to clean him with hot water. Ranma realizes the key to beating Ryoga, and the chapter ends with a look of horror on Akane's face, saying "P-chan...noooo!"

But in the next chapter, it's revealed that P-chan merely swallowed all the water and ran away. But not before Ranma rushes in and assumes Akane knows the truth, and urges her not to blame Ryoga. Which confuses Akane, and really, it's probably the dumbest she's been about the Ryoga/P-chan thing in the whole series. Ranma pulls Ryogo aside behind a curtain in the dojo the next day and tells him to scrunch up his abdomen so the smiley face isn't smiley. When they're doing this, the curtain opens and shows that the dojo has been rented out to a women's gathering, and they think Ryoga is the entertainment. Ranma punches him and the calligraphy vanishes. Akane is still a little confused about P-chan having the same doodle, so Ranma tells her that Ryoga practiced on the pig first, which Akane accepts.

The next story is about two girls who saw Happosai stealing bras and panties and assumed he was Santa Claus, and now want to apprentice with him. Ultimately they're very sweet and trying to do good things breaks Happosai.

Then we have Kuno winning a sword that will give him three wishes. He wishes to humiliate Ranma (and does) and then wishes for a date with the pig-tailed girl. Ranma decides to use the date in order to steal the sword and gain the last wish to revert the curse. He goes as far as to promise to kiss Kuno in order to obtain the last wish, when he learns that the sword is voice-activated and won't recognized his request. Kuno agrees, and offers Ranma the wish even when the kiss never happens. He, however, says that he knows what the pig-tailed girl wants above all else, and creates a statue of them, commemorating their date.

And the final story is a very fun one. A fellow called The Gambler King (who looks like a King from a deck of cards) comes to Nerima to collect payment from Ukyo and Ranma for ten-year-old debts. Ukyo lost her okinomiyaki cart, and Ranma lost the Tendo Dojo. Ranma runs away to stay with Ukyo to train to win it back, but he's terrible at cards (losing most of his clothes to Akane and Ukyo, and having a ton of IOUs to waitress for Ukyo). Soun, meanwhile, loses most of his house trying to win back his dojo. Nabiki almost wins it all back, but loses on the last hand and the whole family moves to Ucchan's. Ranma trains some more, and Nabiki informs him that the King has two tells... and that Ranma has the same exact ones. The family goes back to the King's Casino/Tendo Dojo and use this knowledge to win everything back but the dojo. Soun tries to bet the living room for it, but Akane stops him. Ranma then appears, wrapped in bandages so his face won't reveal his hand. He and the king are equally (stupidly) matched, but Akane catches the king cheating. Finally, with everything at a draw, the king announces that in all fairness, he'll lay down two cards and if Ranma can pull the one that isn't the joker, he'll win. Akane shouts for Ranma not to do it, because she's certain the king has thrown down two jokers - but Ranma pulls an ace. Later it's revealed that he used the bandages to hide cards, and he cheated, too.

This last story was stupid and silly, but the kind of fluff that feels good in the Ranma world. I like seeing the less martial extraordinary things that happen to them, and I love it when the Tendo girls have to reign in their father for being stupid (which happens quite a bit in this one). Also the Ukyo-Ranma dynamic is fun, even if it's always her dreaming of a life together where he's completely reliant on her, and him pretending that the things that matter to him (in this case, as well as in the Ultimate Weakness Moxibustion arc, the dojo) don't mean that much. Also, Akane's jealousy with Ukyo plays out a lot more fun than with Shampoo, since Ukyo doesn't push physically. Akane usually ends up mad at Shampoo and Ranma and expects the worst of everyone, whereas with Ukyo she's jealous of the situation and how much Ranma trusts Ukyo, and doesn't take it out on Ukyo herself. It's... a bit more realistic, and a bit more understandable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
730 reviews19 followers
October 3, 2016
Such a great manga series to read and follow. A must read for manga lovers everywhere. Ranma1/2 is funny and upbeat manga that i enjoy reading.
Profile Image for Child960801.
3,213 reviews
August 15, 2021
In the first arc, Ryoga gets a doodle on his stomach that makes him unbeatable. He teams up with Ranma to try and get it off. Then there is a one episode story about some cute kids mistaking the pervert for Santa Claus. The next arc is about Tatewaki getting a sword that grants wishes and using it for stupid things. The final arc is about a gambler who comes to town and all the drama that causes.
Profile Image for BooksLoveBrains.
377 reviews2 followers
December 30, 2023
I really like the releases like this! Multiple shorter stories is definitely the way to go. Especially because, though they are very episodic, not all of them feel like just short little episodes. Some of them really do enhance the general relationship/character growth (even as small as that growth actually is). I particularly liked the vignette with undefeatable Ryoga!
Profile Image for Chloe.
244 reviews1 follower
December 30, 2023
Ranma has gotten stronger!
Bantering between Ranma and Akane is cute. Lol.

The cliffhanger though! Omg!
Profile Image for Marlene Willinger.
358 reviews1 follower
January 10, 2025
Aahhhh! This volume was so good! We had some actual communication between Akane and Ranma and then the end!!!! New favourite volume of the series!
6,457 reviews39 followers
January 16, 2016
Part 1: The Mark of the Gods: Ryoga runs into a guy who practices Martial Arts Calligraphy. The guy marks Ryoga's abdomen with a dumb looking thing and he becomes the strongest man alive. Ranma promises to help Ryoga get rid of the mark.

Part 2: Face Off!: Ryoga changes into P-chan, but he still has the mark and he's still super-strong.

Part 3: The Mark of the Pig: Ranma thinks he's come up with an idea to get the marking off of Ryoga. But Akane has found P-chan and washed him and used hot water.

Part 4: Akane Guesses the Secret: Ranma realizes that if Ryoga changes the shape of the drawing, he will stop it from working, but something funny happens before that is totally finished.

Part 5: Santa's Little Disciples: Happosai had been mistaken for Santa Claus by two really young kids, and they find him again. They want to be his helpers. He tries to train them to steal ladie's underwear. Things don't go well for Happosai, though.

Part 6: When You Wish Upon a Sword: Kuno has found a place that has a sword in a stone that, if the user can pull it out, it will grant him three wishes. Kuno manages to get it and uses a wish to humble Ranma. The sword changes into a mallet and hits him. Kuno then wishes the date the pig-tailed girl.

Part 7: May I Cut In?: Ranma-chan goes on her date with Kuno. Genma steals the sword and makes a wish, but it won't work for him.

Part 8: The Final Wish: Kuno makes his final wish, but it's not at all what Ranma-chan wanted or expected.

Part 9: The King is Wild: The Gambling King shows up to get revenge. The Gambling King has the deed to the Tendo dojo.

Part 10: Never Bet Your Life: The Gambling King starts to take over all parts of the Tendo Dojo, but Nabiki challenges him and wins. Then she loses.

Part 11: Put On a Poker Face: Ranma trains so he doesn't express any emotion when he gambles.

Part 12: The Virtues of Training: Ranma cheats and defeats the Gambling King (who also cheats, but all the time).
2,143 reviews22 followers
April 14, 2014
In this 13th instalment in the gender-bending comedy series Ryoga meets a martial arts calligrapher who draws a doodle on his abdomen that makes him the ultimate warrior. He can only go back to normal if he is defeated in combat. He seeks Ranma to help him out.

We have three other fun one shots in this volume. Whilst on an underwear raid Happosai is mistaken for Santa and two little kids turn up hoping to be his disciples. Kuno draws a magic sword that offers the bearer three wishes. Ranma wants to get the sword to end his curse. Finally We meet the gambling king set to claim the Tendo dojo which Ranma apparently lost in a bet when he was little. Ukyo is on hand to help out and hopefully win Ranma's heart in the process.

This is a fun volume that can easily be read without the benefit of preceding volumes as all 4 stories are pretty much self contained. Love the look of the gambling king - its just as if he stepped out of a playing card. This volume isn't as frantic and fast paced as some, but is a lot of fun.
Profile Image for Emi えみ Takami 鷹見.
1,081 reviews31 followers
August 22, 2013
Emmy Re-Reads
In this volume Happosai plays Santa, Ryoga becomes invincible, Akane may or may not of found out the similarities between him and P-chan, the Gambling King pays a visit, and the Pigtailed Girl and Kuno go on a date.
Profile Image for Becky.
91 reviews9 followers
May 12, 2013
Volume 13: Ryoga's unfortunate "Martial Arts Calligraphy" tattoo, Kuno's wish-granting sword, and a master of playing cards bound and determined to beat Ranma...at Old Maid. Ah, such goofiness!
Profile Image for Xavier.
1,447 reviews163 followers
October 27, 2016
Hello world,

I am ranma trash.

Read this series and you will become ranma trash too!

Thanks
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews