And the Challenger is... A Girl?!

Dōjō Yaburi wa Onna no Ko? (道場破りは女の子?) is the 6th episode in the fifth season of Ranma ½, Martial Mayhem, and is the 94st episode overall.

Relation to the Previous Episode
None.

Part one:
Ryoga was trying to get his barrings (as usual) when he overheard a bunch of kids marvel at a bunch of card games that a man in a red mask was laying out. As Ryoga walked up for a closer look, the masked man could tell that the young audiance was only pretending to be impressed: "Thats the problem with kids these days: no imagination! Lucky for you, card games got something even better, you just watch."

It was then that this mysterious card-player started to show of combat-like manuvers with the cards, which her acnollaged as ""Super-dupper Mid-air Lightning Strike" and "Ultra-high-speed Whirlwind". The kids watched with there mouths hanging open, and the card-player laughed heartilly. Even Ryoga was impressed. Suddenly, an RC toy race-car zoomed between the masked man and his audiance, ruining the cards. The children chased after it in delight, but the red-masked cardplayer and his white-masked companion were upset. The then asked Ryoga if he was a martial artist, much to his confusion.

Later on that same day, Ranma was walking along one side of a fence when he heard the exact masked men Ryoga ran into (although he didn't know about Ryoga's encounter), and spyed from over the fence as the "lord-of-marbles", in the white mask, shown a new group of children an attack-manuver he called "Super-spinner Guggernaut" (its unknown it the game was ringers, but if that's the case, it knocked all the other marbles out of the circle in one move), and the kids were wowed... until one of them noticed that its almost time to catch an episode of pok'emon, and they all headed home, much to the dismay of the masked men. They complained that the kids of today are so obsorbed with cartoons and ultra-violent videogames, and agreed that it wasn't the Japan they recall from there own childhood, wondering what happened to what playtime used to mean to kids. Looking at the victory marbel of his companion, the red-masked man had a nostraliga of those days...

...a pair of boys playing a sort of cops-and-robbers game, in which the kid with the gun shouted to his caped-and-running playmate "Bang! You're dead!" (as toy guns didn't make there own sounds then). After that, a group of children stood around as a man was giving a puppet-show about bluebeard the pirate. Then, there were a few little tikes running around in a candyshop, followed by a couple of older kids at a bride, and the voice of a girl shouter "olly-olly-outs-and-free" (hide-and-seek, purhaps), and finally, a youthful bunck of friends just running and laughing...

... the leader of the group, a green-masked man who called his character "ultraman", assured his comrads that things are going to be alright before noticing Ranma. The ultraman-masked man could tell by the way Ranma was watching them that he knew martial-arts too, and Ranma introduced himself and assured he is part of Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. The leader of the masked men sounded impressed, and offered Ranma a chance to test his skills. The other two masked-men brought out there signature "toys", and got into a battle-stance. Long story short, it was a mistake to challage Ranma Satome!

Meanwhile, at the dojo of Anything Goes Martial Arts, Akane Tendo had just got home, late, and found she was the only one there. She just when outside to look around, when she found Master Genma Satome (in his panda form) playing hopscotch with a little girl. After welcoming Akane home with one sign, he admitted to Akane with another, when she asked him to introduce his new friend, that she didn't know who this kid was. The little girl said she came here earlier and found nobody home, so she asked the panda if he can play with her. After Akane assured that she wasn't the owner of the dojo, but rather the daughter of the man who does, the little girl challaged her for the dojo, much to the shock of those around the giggling child. (Bwow!')

Master Satome, in human form, insisted to Akane that she follows through with it, but only to humor the little girl (who promiced that she was strong for her size). Akane tried to talk the kid out of it with offers of videogames and cartoons instead. The girl said Akane was afraid she would lose to her, and that convinced Akane to fight this kid to teach her a lesson. When asked if she's ready, the girl admitted that her fighting style is twelve generation... and that caused Master Satome to realise too late what Akane was up against! The girl introduced herself as Tamari Kamanarimon, and said she was from the Good Old Days School of Martial Arts before catching Akane (both liturally and by surprise) with "Cat's Cradle Hundred Tread". Tamari then finnished Akane off with "Fireflower Bean-bag Endless Downpour" (during the hypnotic part, Akane was drawn in as the singing and juggling somehow reminded her of her mother).

Ranma was told by the Good Old Days Masters about the Dojo Yaburi that was taking place, and he ran as fast as he could, knowing Akane would be home alone, but the sight of a little girl (Tamari) running the other way with the sign to the Anything Goes Dojo informed him that he was already too late.

Akane's father cried at the sight of his wounded daughter (even though her sisters' assured him it was mostly just shock) when Ranma came in and told the group that, along with seeing Tamari, he fought and defeated some friends of hers, and asked what kind of fighting style is Good Old Days. Master Satome (Ranma's father) recited it's historical connection to Japan's Edo period, and Akane's Father insisted that Ranma gets the dojo sign back (the excuse for not doing it himself is because Ranma is Akane's fiance). Just as Ranma was considering the task, Akane, dispite her need to recover, told them all, Ranma especially, to stay out of it, for the matter was all her fault. Akane's father wondered why Master Satome wasn't the one that fought the Kamanarimon child instead of her, and Master Satome doused himself with cold water (thus turning into a panda) and held up a sign reading "sorry"... that wasn't much help for the matter.

Ryoga, in his piglet form (which had bandages, assuring that he used cold water to soothe his wounds) overheard the matter and ran with a vengence.

Part two:
While running in human form, Ryoga was focused on fighting the masters of Good Old Days Martial Arts. It was revealed in split-second flashbacks that they beat him easy, and that was bad enough, but anyone hurting Akane is where he draws the line! Ranma found Ryoga and asked what he was doing. In the descusion they had while running, Ranma learned that Ryoga knew about the Good Old Days masters... but Ryoga, with poor sence of direction, realised he had no idea where they are! Even if one did have keen barings, they'd be tricky to find, as the Good Old Days practitioners live on the streets (under a bridge, in this case), and it was revealed that Tamari Kamanarimon preforms Dojo Yaburi in attempt to get firewood for her masters... especially since their leader likes his bathwater very hot. Ranma And Ryoga managed to knock the sign for their dojo out of the masked masters' hands before they had fofilled the chance to burn it, and the Good Old Days masters recognised Ranma as "the strong one" and Ryoga as "the wimp" (much to Ranma's surprise, as he didn't expect Ryoga to lose to them). Ryoga was about to fight them again, reving them up to beat him again, but Ranma told Ryoga to back of, for they both knew Akane wouldn't like it this way. Then Ranma acknowlegded that they know why he's here, and the grandmaster layed out the basics of it: Ranma is here for Akane's sake, as she wants a rematch against Tamari to get the dojo sign back. Ryoga didn't like the sound of that, for Akane was still recoving, but at the sound of Tamari asking "Would it be fun like before?" (confusing Ranma and Ryoga) the grandmaster figured the matter is settled and Akane would have her rematch with Tamari... of course, they'd have to surprise them with the time and place, much to the objection of Ranma and Ryoga.

The next morning, Akane was practicing inside the dojo (while Ranma and Ryoga had an arguement over who started it: Ranma for asking for a rematch, or Ryoga for exciting them into it). Akane was tumbling all over herself, as she was still recovering from last time, but figuring she wasn't going to win, she layed on the floor and consitered giving up... that's when her sister, Kesume, came in and said that if she learned of this sooner, she'd have helped out. Kasume then offered the beanbags their mother had since she was little (and indeed sang while juggling them). As Kasume recreated their mother's ruteine, Akane realised, that in that surprise attack, she didn't notice that it had something to do with the hand-sppeed. Also, across her mind, Akane had non-audio images of the very nostraliga that the Good Old Days masters had earlier, revealing that she figured that Tamari's victory was nothing serious... it was just, well, child's play.

Afternoon came, and at the place the Good Old Days Masters invited Akane and all that came to watch the upcoming fight, Tamari was bouncing and catching a ball as she waited before noticing the arrival of the opponent... a sight to which she smiled playfully.

The deal was resighted by the Good Old Days grandmaster before the fight: If Akane wins, they get the sign back, but if Tamari beats her again, Anything Goes School of Martial Arts admits inferriority by letting her and the other old school fighters keep it!

As the fight begain, Tamari threw her ball at a knock out speed, but Akane blocked that, and used two pairs of scissors to snip herself free when Tamari used Cat's CradleHundred Thread again. When Akane did a mid-air attack, Tamari threw her off gaurd with smokepellets in the form of bouncy balls, and followed it up with the Iron tops manuver, which she throws those said toys like ninja surakins, but she missed and they went into the audiance on Akane's side (Ranma, Ryoga, Master Satome, and Akane's father), spasificly the drum Master Satome used to incurrage Akane with a chant... the minute the tops hit the drum, they expolded! Tamari attempted the top bombs again, and would've hit Akane this time if she didn't (on a hunch this time, appearently) expect this to, and she caught the Iron Tops with a magnet, defusing them in the prosses. Tamari then got upclose and personal with Akane, armed with a paddleball of sorts, which she used as though it was nunchucks, knocking Akane to the ground, then warming up for the Fireflower beanbag endless downpour. The grandmaster unwittingly gives Akane a clue ("That's it! Don't take your eyes off!") and Akane, now knowing what to look for, notices that, by varying the handspeeds, Tamari's juggling created the illusion of a solid wall... all that's to do is stop staring long enough! Akane's flinched squint as she shut her eyes got the Good Old Days Masters assuming she gave up, and signalled Tamari to finish her aponnent off, but when the beanbags were thrown, Akane's timing was purfect, and her eyes agusted to find the four true projectiles and deflect them, but she protected Tamari from the last one as it went streight toward her. Tamari hugged Akane and said she was sorry, and Akane forgave her.

Then the secret of the Good Old Days martial artists was revealed when Tamari asked the lead master "Are you made at me for losing, Grandpa?" Indeed, the man under the ultraman mask is Komajiro Kaminarimon, and the other two are older men too (uncles, most likely), keeping alive an old fighting style and a peice of there past, as there brand of warriors is indeed an indangered species of mashal artist ("There's so few left of us as it is"). They only wear masks to keep the kids of today from laughing at them as they share a bit of there own youth with the world.

Tamari was then given the freedom to live as she chooses, but she actually had a liking for old fasioned games, and Akane's friends and family told them that the past shouldn't be forgotten. As Ranma himself said "There's always a place for Martial Artists in the world, and besides, you are like a living treasure." Akane added to that by telling Tamari she's the next generation, thrilling the little girl, and giving hope to Komajiro for all the kids in the world. Tamari then announced what she's going to do with her new life... train hard, and use her old-school fighting style to the Tokyo Olympics! This caused confusion, as even Ranma knew the upcoming games are in Australia, and Komajiro stated that, if any justice truly exists, the olympics would be in Tokyo all the time... which rilled Kendo into arguing over the matter, and Ranma and Akane looked at each other and smiled, knowing this will be one of those days they'd never forget.

Trivia

 * This episode has become rather infamous amongst fans of the english dub given the large number of references to the Pokémon franchise.
 * None of these references exist in the original Japanese script given that this episode was aired roughly six years prior to the first Pokémon anime episode.