User blog:Ranime Codexer/Prototype vs. Testtype; UY's heritage in R1/2

It's widely accepted that Rumiko Takahashi likes to recycle her material; ideas, designs, concepts, characters and other such elements can very clearly be tracked back to each other in at least some of her works. Look at Inuyasha and Mao; both involve a female high school student touched by magic who involuntarily travels through time to the past and begins adventuring with a supernatural male protagonist. But the first place it began is in Ranma 1/2, which could easily be considered "Urusei Yatsura 2.0". Here, I'm going to take note of the inspirations, homages or references I've noticed in Ranma 1/2 throwing back to Urusei Yatsura.

The obvious place to start is the basic setup of both series. Both Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2 are slapstick romantic comedies in urban fantasy settings. Both revolve heavily around magic, the supernatural, and plentiful references to Japanese myths and monsters. The biggest tweaks on this meta-level are that Ranma 1/2 abandons the sci-fi element for martial arts pastiche, and the dynamic is changed from a male protagonist who ignores his fiancee out of perversion to a pair of engaged tsunderes both refusing to admit that they are attracted to each other.

Speaking of leads, let's start there, shall we? Akane Tendo is clearly based on Shinobu Miyaki. Both girls are super-strong tsunderes with a low tolerance for pervesion and a tendency to react violently when angry, both are brutally honest in verbally expressing their disappointment with the male lead, they share an overly emotional nature, and both tend to default to picking up heavy nearby objects and hitting or throwing them at the male lead when he makes them angry. They both come from comfortably middle-class to upper-middle-class backgrounds, contrasting the poor lower-middle-class Moroboshis and the wandering vagabond Saotomes. Whilst the temper and tendency to resort to violence when angry are traits shared with Lum, the bulk of Akane's character, and even her visul design once she gets her infamous haircut in the first volume/season, are clearly taken from Shinobu. The only trait Akane unquestionably took from Lum is that both are awful cooks; Lum due to her vastly higher tolerance for spice and occasional forgetting of human biochemical reactions, Akane due to lack of patience, lack of finesse, lack of attention and bad tendency to "experiment" with her recipes.

In contrast, on the surface, Ranma Saotome doesn't deem to share much in common with Ataru Moroboshi at all. Ataru is widely disliked by girls, and sometimes even implied to be rather plain looking, whereas Ranma is very popular with the girls and generally accepted as being quite attractive. Ataru is a notoriously poor student, with a tendency to eat in class, sleep through his lessons, forget his homework, or outright pick fights with his teacher, Onsen-Mark; Ranma doesn't really do any of that in the manga, although he is implied to be more of an Ataru-esque "low-level delinquent" in the anime. Ataru is a raging pervert who repeatedly states he wants a harem; Ranma, despite a lack of feminine modesty in himself, is repeatedly shown to be shy of and embarrssed by the sight of other women naked, he has no interest in flirting, and he's chased by three girls who he doesn't want. Ranma's devotion to the martial arts and superhumanly powerful physique contrasts Ataru's slacker attitude and default physical ineptitude. But there are some very key similarities. Ranma's personality could very easily be described as Ataru's shorn of its perversity; both characters are renowned for their determination and their drive to achieve their goals, both are prone to being insensitive and abrasive, both rely heavily on trickery and guile in the face of their many adversaries, and both have much nobler sides to themselves that they are hesitant to show, but which do attract their respective love interests. I'd say Ranma Saotome could be considered a "refined" Ataru Moroboshi, who sets the personality mold for Takahashi's subsequent male heroes in Inuyasha, Rin-ne, and Mao, but I'm too unfamiliar with those works to do so with confidence. Even Ranma's gender-bending quirk, whilst most obviously suggesting roots in Ryunosuke Fujinami, as I'll touch upon below, has a reference in Ataru, who was forcibly feminized in mindset by Kurama and physically turned into a girl by Kurama's minions.

But what of UY's third protagonist, the alien oni girl who took the fans by storm in the cusp of the 1980s and took over the lead role from Shinobu? What of Lum's legacy? Well, I personally think that Shampoo was based considerably on Lum. Both are exotic foreign beauties defined by their deep, borderline possesive, love for the male lead, their violent tendencies, and their willingness to force their affections on the lead despite his efforts to reject them. Both have very similar designs; Shampoo wears a lot more than Lum does, on average, but her hairstyle clearly invokes Lum's unique combination of cute little horns and long, flowing locks. Unfortunately for Shampoo, she has the deck stacked against her when it comes to winning Ranma's heart, between an incredibly terrible first impression, a far more dedicated stalker-figure in Mousse, a lack of her female rival having a serious opponent for her heart, and most importantly of all, her Jusenkyo curse turning her into Ranma's literal worst fear. The fact she was introduced so late compared to Akane, whereas Lum debuted in the first chapter, doesn't help, but I wouldn't say that it hurts so much - Ataru and Shinobu were childhood friends and yet Lum still broke them up, so Ranma's "bond" with Akane really is nothing by comparison. There are legends amongst the Ranma 1/2 fandom that go that either Takahashi wanted Shampoo to be a villain as a kind of "take that" to Lum and the editors & fans who pushed her to make Lum the female lead over Shinobu, or that Ranma 1/2 was largely motivated by Takahashi's desire to do a version of Urusei Yatsura where the Ataru/Shinobu relationship was kept canonical. I don't believe either is true, but I can understand where they're coming from.

With Ataru, Lum and Shinobu out of the way, the next obvious subject to examine is Urusei Yatsura's fourth protagonist; Shutaro Mendo and his family. This is ian interesting case, because in my opinion the Mendo's influence can be found in two separate groups; the Kunos and the Tendos.

The Kunos obviously stand in for the Mendos, being a wealthy, upperclass family of dubious sanity. The Kunos are much more toned down by comparison to the Mendos in terms of financial and political reach; the Kuno estate is luxurious, but it pales in comparison to the Mendo estate, which could pass as a small Japanese sub-continent in its own right.

Tatewaki Kuno in particular is clearly meant to be "Shutaro Mendo 2.0", similarly to the relationship between Akane and Shinobu. But Takahashi seems to have grown either bored with Tatewaki or to actively dislike him, because after an initially strong showing, he is quickly and firmly downgraded from the position of "the archrival" that Shutaro enjoyed to Ataru. Whilst arguably a better swordsman than Shutaro, Tatewaki is resoundingly displayed as Ranma's inferior in the martial arts. Shutaro Mendo is adored by the girls of Class 2-4, if not Tomobiki High as a whole, and avidly pursued by Shinobu, who used to be Ataru's loyal girlfriend until he arrived. In contrast, Tatewaki Kuno is largely regarded with contempt by all and sundry, and whilst he pursues two girls, neither of them can stand him - and one of them is actually not only a straight boy, but also his self-declared archenemy, for added pitifulness. Shutaro is regarded as highly skilled in academics and athletics, even if his charms may be superficial; Tatewaki is presented as a bumbling buffoon. If anything, Tatewaki seems to be more of a fusion of Shutaro Mendo and Shutaro's rival Tobimaro Mizunokoji, with the superficialities of the former and the bumbling idiot comic relief status of the latter.

On the surface, Kodachi Kuno seems set up as the Ryoko Mendo of the series; she's Tatewaki's little sister, both are described by their brothers as "twisted", both have a... let's be charitable and call it a "love/hate relationship" with their siblings, both enjoy explosives (though Kodachi prefers gas and powder to fiery explosions), and both are wealthy heiresses. But, in my opinion, Kodachi Kuno has a very different personality to Ryoko, who was never one to involve herself in the action out of a tiny number of scenes of her throwing grenades at people who angered her. Honestly, I can't name any UY characters who directly remind me of Kodachi, or vice versa.

Principal Kuno, the insane patriarch of the Kuno clan, has no comparison at all to his Mendo counterparts, Shutaro's father and grandfather, outside of being an eccentric rich man. If anything, he more resembles a fusion of Onsen-Mark and the Tomobiki High Principal, with enough quirks added to obfuscate the fact. Like Onsen-Mark, he's a school-based antagonist whom Ranma and Tatewaki Kuno are constantly at war with, but he's a crazy principal rather than a rational, if temperamental, teacher.

As for the Tendos... well, obviously the Tendos and the Mendos are one letter apart in the English translation, but there are some subtle references as well. Soun Tendo looks a lot like Mr. Mendo, and even has his love of pranks and good humor, although his signature "Demon Head" move is definitely a reference to Mrs. Mizunokoji. Nabiki Tendo's money-grubbing antics may be unique to her, but much of her personality, as well as her spectacular ability to avoid punishment despite being such a troublemaking nuisance, is definitely taken from Ryoko Mendo.

Kasumi Tendo, meanwhile, is one of the odder references, in that her physical appearance is eerily similar to Nagisa Shiowatari!

Ryunosuke Fujinami and her dad have a very strong impact on Ranma 1/2 on the conceptual level. One could argue that Ryunosuke got two major references; her bad relationship with her father and gender issues went to Ranma, but her direct design as a crossdressing tomboyish beach girl clearly shines through in Ukyo Kuonji, whose history of having trained extensively against the raging seas to prepare herself to seek vengence upon Ranma and Genma Saotome is a subtle nod to Ryunosuke's. As for Ryunosuke's fiance, Nagisa; he got two similar homages in Tsubasa Kurenai and Konatsu, with Konatsu being the more blatant of the two.

Finally, the last major and obvious conceptual legacy of Urusei Yatsura in Ranma 1/2 that I'm aware of is Happosai; the obnoxious Grand Master of Anything Goes who can be best described as a fusion of Cherry, Ten, and Ataru's perversity, an experiment in a primary nuisance character that went horribly right - but that's the topic of a blog for the Ranma 1/2 wiki.

It must be emphasized that I don't think that Ranma 1/2 having conceptual roots in Urusei Yatsura is a bad thing. Far from it. As somebody who enjoys both series immensely, being able to see those common elements really makes me appreciate them more.