Mallet gag

The mallet gag is recurring gag in the series and perhaps the most common in both the anime and manga. It usually involves Akane Tendo hitting Ranma Saotome over the head with an oversize wooden mallet with a short handle which she pulls out of nowhere, normally when she gets angered or insulted by him. Akane does not have a monopoly on the use of mallets as other characters have also pulled them out to strike at someone else, but she uses them the most. While Ranma can normally dodge Akane's attacks, he tends to get when hit with a mallet, usually because his back is turned.

Most of the time when Akane hits Ranma it is due to an misunderstanding. However she tends to refuse to accept any "excuses" that she believes Ranma comes up with, even though most of the time the excuse is the truth. Sometimes Akane has even hit Ranma with the mallet before he even does anything, her reasoning being that he was going to do something she disagrees with.