Shampoo's Curséd Kiss

Shanpū Toraware no Kissu (シャンプー囚われのキッス) is the 125th episode of Ranma ½ Nettohen.

Shampoo is trapped under a curse by Maomolin and it's up to Ranma to save her.

Just Another Delivery
A glasses-less Mousse desperately searches the Cat Café for Shampoo, but only finds the store's. Believing the cat to be Shampoo, Mousse begins commenting how hard and cold her skin feels until the real Shampoo appears and hits Mousse over the head whilst asking him why he's talking to himself.

Having finally found her Mousse instructs Shampoo to go on a delivery, although Shampoo refuses as she'd rather read her book and tells Mousse to deliver it himself. Mousse, however, informs Shampoo that the customer requested her specifically which prompts her to agree to doing the delivery.

Following the address for the delivery, Shampoo finds herself at a temple with a large number of cats nearby. But as Shampoo wanders through the temple she finds it strangely empty, nevertheless she continues looking for the person who made the order. As Shampoo enters the temple itself she hears the doors close behind her, but is unable to escape before the shut completely. At that moment she senses something in the room, as a large creature comments that he's been waiting for her...

Cat-astrophe!
Later on, as Ranma and Akane walk home they encounter Mousse who mistakes Akane for the missing Shampoo. Overjoyed, Mousse grabs Akane, but is quickly kicked by both Ranma and Akane. After putting his glasses back on, Mousse explains about Shampoo's disappearance since her morning delivery. Whilst Mousse wallows in despair, Ranma asks if they tried going to the customer who called for the delivery, which Mousse admits is something he forgot to do. Ranma then offers to go with Mousse. This offer delights Mousse who goes to hug Ranma but (thanks to him not wearing his glasses again) instead grabs Akane again, leading Akane to stoutly knee Mousse in the chin before Ranma hits him with his elbow.

The trio soon reach the temple where Shampoo's delivery was. As Akane comments how long the temple's been vacant, Ranma heads under the at the temple entrance. When he does, Shampoo immediately appears and begins running towards him. Mousse swiftly goes to intercept Shampoo, but is soon dispatched by Shampoo kicking him in the face. Whilst Shampoo snuggles up to Ranma, Akane, having seen enough, tells Ranma that they should head home. Ranma, however, suddenly finds himself unable to leave the temple's walls. Shampoo then reveals that as long as she sticks to Ranma he can't get out. Unconvinced of this statement, Akane attempts to pull Ranma out by force, but just succeeds in nearly choking him as Shampoo continues to cling onto him. Irritated, Akane heads under the Shimenawa herself when suddenly Maomolin emerges to exclaim that he placed a hex on Shampoo along with a magic barrier around the temple, meaning that she can never leave! Hearing this, Mousse turns to Shampoo and asks if this is true, to which Shampoo melodramatically responds that it is and adds that she must now be forever a captive of Maomolin.

As Maomolin laughs with glee at his plan having worked, Akane asks Shampoo if there's anyway to break the hex. This prompts Shampoo to recall how, after initially being trapped, she easily beat Maomolin, but it was pointless as the hex had been placed on her as soon as she entered the temple. She then goes on to explain that she nearly slit her throat in despair, forcing Maomolin to change the hex so that it would be broken once Shampoo is kissed by her prince.

Having revealed this, Shampoo quickly goes over to Ranma so that he can kiss her, only for an understandably irate Akane to intervene and angrily ask Shampoo why she made the clause breaking the hex so illogical... Just then Mousse runs up to Shampoo with her name of a sign round his neck and is quickly swatted away by Shampoo. Meanwhile, Maomolin proceeds to lick Ranma, which attracts a horde of cats towards him, leaving him terrified.

That Evening
Upon their return to the Tendo Dojo, Soun and Genma come across Ranma lying on the floor; still reeling for his earlier cat attack. As he lies there, Ranma begins cursing Maomolin and not a second later is horrified at his appearance in front of him.

Whilst Ranma continues to cower from Maomolin, Akane stops the from revealing on more detail her forgot to mention in favour of demanding to know if a kiss if the only way to break the hex. Maomolin retorts that he forgot to mention that if Shampoo isn't kissed by the time the temple bell rings for the 108th time, not only will she be trapped there forever, but she'll also be permanently transformed into a cat! Now that he's delivered his message, Maomolin bursts open a bag of powder before taking his leave and teleporting away.

When he returns to his temple, Maomolin busily makes preparations for his wedding to Shampoo, as Shampoo herself continues to wait in hope that Ranma comes and saves her in time. Confident that Ranma won't show, Maomolin tells his future bride to just give up and make herself comfortably, but is quickly beaten up by Shampoo for touching her. Suddenly Ranma's voice can be heard as he arrives at the temple wall. With no time to lose, Ranma rushes towards Shampoo who runs outside to greet him, however, another horde of cats appears, forcing Ranma to flee out of fear. As Akane and Shampoo look on in confusion, Maomolin returns and reveals that the powder her burst over Ranma was actually catnip, meaning that any cat nearby will automatically come rushing towards him.

Ranma's Plans
As Maomolin starts ringing the bell, Ranma comes up with a plan. He acquires a coat with potent catnip sewn into it in order to distract any cats in the area. But instead of putting it on himself, he puts the coat on Akane so she can distract the cats while he goes in for the kiss. Akane does not agree with this plan and puts the coat back on him, then kicks him inside. Ranma's terror for cats force him to flee and the plan fails.

Ranma's second plan is to rub a football with shaved to distract the cats. While the plan worked initially, the ball flies to Mousse who shoves the ball into Ranma's mouth, attracting the cats his way. Akane then steps in and tells Ranma to just change his clothes so cats won't be attracted to him. He agrees with this and kicks the door down wearing a green version of his usual outfit. When they discover Shampoo, she is hanging from a cage, but Ranma is unable to advance any further because his opponent is a cat. Mousse then comes in and easily dispose of Maomolin, since he has no fear of cats. However, he gets rejected by Shampoo who only wishes to kiss Ranma.

Akane decides she should help and distracts Maomolin using a cat teaser. Maomolin is unable to help himself and gets distracted by the toy.

Ranma Vs. Mousse
Right as Ranma is about to kiss Shampoo and free her of her curse, Mousse intervenes, proclaiming that Ranma must defeat him first if he wants to kiss Shampoo. Ranma quickly beats Mousse and returns for the kiss, but is interrupted once again, this time by Akane. Her intervention allowed Maomolin to stop getting distracted by the cat teaser and confronts the group, but finds that they are all arguing with each other and not paying any attention to him. He yells at the group for ignoring him, but is thrown out of the building by Akane.

For Whom the Bell Tolls
Maomolin ends up landing near the bell, and starts ringing it in rapid succession. This prompts cat ears to appear on Shampoo, who is then transported near the bell. Mousse begrudgingly gives Ranma the permission to kiss Shampoo. Shampoo quickly transforms into a cat, and Ranma, due to his terror for cats, is unable to move any further. He instructs Mousse and Akane to kick him in the back to thrust him forward, but instead of getting to Shampoo, Ranma ends up hitting the bell and ends up stunned, giving the bell 107th ring. Right as Maomolin is about to ring the bell for the 108th time, Shampoo gets out of the cage and kiss Ranma in her cat form, freeing her of the curse. The now free Shampoo tries to kiss Ranma again, but is turned into a cat by Akane while Ranma is strangled by Mousse for kissing Shampoo. Maomolin laments that his plan failed.

Quotes
(Ranma) ''"Man, how can I be so brilliant?" - ''After telling Akane of his plan.

(Shampoo) "Ranma love Shampoo, after all!"

(Maomolin) "Cat teaser! What a dangerous attack...!"

Trivia

 * In the manga, Shampoo can leave the temple, but will transform into a cat if she does, While in the Anime she can't.
 * The manga counterpart does not have Ranma changing clothes or tossing the ball. He simply runs around with the coat of catnip and Akane throws the coat away once it attracted enough cats.
 * In the manga it's very likely that the ghost cat depicted in this story is meant to be different from Maomolin. Here in the anime it is no doubt Maomolin.
 * In the dub, when the trio first arrive at the temple, Shampoo calls Ranma "Ranma-darling" which is usually what Kodachi Kuno calls him.