Herb

Prince Herb is a rival of Ranma Saotome in Ranma ½.

The Musk Dynasty are presented as an ancient community of Chinese martial arts masters, at one point claimed to have existed for 14000 years, who went to extremes to emulate the movements of wild animals. To this end they threw animals into The Spring of Drowned Woman at Jusenkyo and used the Pot of Preservation to trap the animals in their human forms and breed with them, and produce heirs with bolstered genetic fighting potential. The Royal line tracks its lineage to transformed dragons, which is the source of Herb's thorough chi-mastery. In present day however, they simply interview skilled female martial artists in the vicinity of their village, but continue their tradition of being raised separated from all women, including their mothers, by the time they are weaned, all in order to strive for the pinnacle of the world's martial arts mastery. It is unknown what happens to mothers, once they have 'fulfilled their duty', or to female offspring.

Cologne believed that the Musk Dynasty had been destroyed many years ago. However, later during a flashback, Herb is shown in a throne room with a young servant girl, and a chamberlain or vizier advising him about making a marriage interview. Apparently they have kept their survival largely unnoticed.

Story
Like all other males in the Musk Dynasty from the point they no longer have to be weaned, Herb was raised with virtually no contact with women whatsoever, and is subsequently very unnerved by femininity. His bodyguards Lime and Mint have been stated to have served him since they were children, though unlike them he apparently made use of a young servant girl during adulthood, so he could not have been entirely unaware, but apparently only actively considered them after being reminded of his duty to get married.

Before wedding, he wished to familiarize himself with women and decided to use the Jusenkyo spring of drowned girl to do so. After he had thrown a monkey in to the spring, he became distracted by her naked breasts, allowing her to knock him into the spring and use the ladle of preservation to permanently lock him in female form.

After this incident, Herb and his two flustered companions traveled to Japan in order to find the lost treasure of the Musk Dynasty, the "Open water Kettle" or "Kettle of Liberation", in order to cure him. After they came to the Cat Café to speak with Cologne about the location of the Pot, she told Herb its location was on Mount Horai. As he was about to leave, Mint and Lime came back with Akane Tendo and Shampoo, but Herb told them to leave the girls because they were about to leave. After Herb treats Akane roughly, Ranma angrily fights him only to be easily beaten and intentionally trapped in his female form. Ranma comes after Herb for revenge and tries to win back his manhood in the process.The three Musk men arrive at Mount Horai, and rapidly reach the boiling wall of water where the kettle is kept. Herb regained his male form (but still changes to female when doused with cold water), much to his satisfaction and Lime and Mint's disappointment, since they had marveled at Herb's breasts.

When Ranma arrives at the mountain, Herb engages in a massive battle, and consistently outmatches his opponent, despite female Ranma repeatedly distracting and enraging him by baring her breasts (As she personally states, she always takes advantage of an opponent's weaknesses, and breasts are Herb's), and being explicitly stated to have his aim thoroughly destroyed in his fury. He also demonstrates his ability to create or counter Ranma's Hiryû Shôten Ha, and assumes his enemy has been beaten, but is taken by surprise when a now male Ranma descends from the tornado (due to being cured by Ryoga), having collected the excess chi from Herb's wild blasts and funnels it into a single concluding attack to smash Herb into the ground. The already crumbling mountain is given a final push and collapses, but Ranma rescues the unconscious Herb and carries him to safety. Herb, Lime and Mint are later seen on a ship heading back to China, and Herb reassesses his opinion of Ranma as a man who might be worthy of respect. Although he remains afflicted by his curse, he may have been able to cure it later, given his apparent relative proximity to the Jusenkyo area.

Character
Herb is callous, vicious, sadistic, disdainful, haughty, irate and annoyed for most of the story, He off-hand treats Akane like a bag of trash, shows little respect for the worth of anyone beyond himself, and is more than willing to destroy someone's life, or smugly slowly cut their heads off, for having the audacity to land an attack when standing up to him. But some of this may stem from his distress after being locked in an alien form. When Herb is calm, he appears to be intelligent, and was willing to reevaluate his opinion of Ranma after the latter saved his life in return for repeated murder-attempts and gleeful casual cruelty.

Due to his experience with the girl/monkey that cursed him, Herb possesses an irrational hatred towards female breasts, and will be distracted or enraged by the sight of either.

Herb is the one person Ranma recognized as his complete equal, outright stating that he was a man to be feared. This is most likely because, not only does Herb have immense power and skill that surpases Ranma in sheer intensity, but they have several parralles in their lives. Not only is he the only character that shares Ranma's exact curse, Herb has very little experiance with women or a good understanding of how to socialize with them, and he was brought up without a mother to constantly train and fight. One has an animal in his very blood and fighting ability, while the other has an animal locked tight within his own mind. One was raised among royalty, and the other was raised like a wandering thief. They are both very prideful, so when their wills clashed, they both fought more seriously then they had ever fought in their lives. Ranma was unwilling to stand down even after a chi-blast nearly sent her to unconsciousnous. Herb only seemed to look upon Ranma with interest when he found out he had the same curse. Ranma and Herb are in a way perfect folds to each other's.

Fighting Ability
Herb is most likely the most powerful martial artist in Ranma 1/2 in overall power and skill. Herb is an immensely skilled, swift, dangerous and ruthless martial artist and consistently outmatched Ranma in direct combat. However he is easily distracted or infuriated by being shown breasts, and is arrogant enough to be taken by surprise attacks, when assuming a premature victory or underestimating a physically overmatched but more creative opponent using a move he is not familiar with. The combined effect from extensive usage of all his attacks, during his prolonged final confrontation with Ranma, is shown to directly create a 2m-3m wide, deep chasm in Mount Horaisan, with a shown span of at least 14m, but which stretches off page. Herb commented that the mountain was crumbling under the force of his attacks, and later Ranma, funnelling the spent energies from Herb's earlier blasts, gave it the final push. However, individually his shown abilities have been far more limited in power.

He is also easily distracted or infuriated by being shown topless women, and is arrogant enough to be taken by surprise attacks, when assuming a premature victory or underestimating a physically overmatched but more creative opponent using a move he is not familiar with.

Special Techniques
Flight: Herb has been shown capable of flying for at least brief periods, but has never done so for an extended time, and preferred to spring when racing Ranma for the kettle.

Supersonic Fist: An unnamed, almost indiscernible, barrage of incredibly swift blows, apparently exceeding the speed of Ranma's own supersonic strikes.

Chi-blasts: Herb can project and mould wider, 'regular' chi-blasts, shown capable of making a roughly 1m x 1m x 12m path through solid rock, and were implied to have destroyed even the magic metal ladle itself. They've also proven enough to briefly stun female Ranma.

Ryu Sei Hisho ("Soaring Dragon Spirit): While using his ability to fly, Herb dive bombs his opponent one-handed while firing chi blasts that bounce off the ground to catch his opponent off guard. Capable of knocking out female Ranma for 1-2 minutes, when struck from all directions at once. The blasts cannot bounce off water, however. It is also one of the few moves that Ranma failed to develop a counter or a defence for, even after he learned how it worked.

Hito Ryu-Zan Ha ("Flying Sword of the Dragon"): Herb's most dangerous attack. With this move, he creates blades of chi that can fly through the air and effortlessly slice through dense objects, shown to include a 4m-5m diameter mountaintop, but his aim is also completely ruined when enraged. While similar in appearance to the Yamasenken's "Demon God Multiple Strike" move, the blades are made of chi, not vacuum.

Chi-sword: Herb can also create a sword of chi with his hand, and has claimed that this is powerful enough to cut female Ranma's head off.

Hiryu Shoten Ha: Being a dragon descendant and chi-master, Herb was familiar with this move and managed to both counter and use it against Ranma.

Other appearances
Herb is the final boss and a secret character in the Ranma ½ video game Super Hard Battle, in which he was voiced by Katsuaki Arima. Strangely, he seemed to want world domination in this arguably canon appearance and his girl form did not make an appearance. Mint and Lime did not appear in the game.

Characters Aware of his Curse

 * Ranma
 * Akane
 * Shampoo
 * Cologne
 * Lime
 * Mint
 * Mousse
 * Ryoga Hibiki

Trivia

 * Though he has yet to appear in animated form, the antagonist of the first movie Kirin has similar facial looks. Herb is also similar in appearance to Ryura of the Four War Gods from the fourth InuYasha film.