Revenge! Raging Okonomiyaki...!

Gyakushū! Ikari no Okonomiyaki (逆襲!怒りのお好み焼き) is the 13th episode in the fifth season of Ranma ½, Martial Mayhem, and is the 101st episode overall.

Relation to the Previous Episode
None.

The Crepe King
Whilst visiting Okonomiyaki Ucchan's, Ranma is treated by Ukyo to some complimentary. Seeing how Ranma wolfs down her cooking, Ukyo wonders how terrible it must be living in someone else's house when Akane walks and immediately challenges Ukyo on her making it sound like there's nothing good to eat at the Tendo Dojo.

After Akane slams Ranma's face onto the grill with her satchel, Ukyo starts talking about how everyone now knows that she's Ranma's true fiancé, therefore making Akane his ex-faincé. Instead of arguing with Ukyo, Akane sits down and requests two takeout Okonomiyaki.

As Ukyo starts making the order, Ranma can't help but notice how slow business seems at the moment. After looking around the otherwise empty restaurant, Ukyo reluctantly notes how she feels like all her regular customers have moved away. Hearing this, Akane can't help but wonder if everyone is at the new Crepe wagon which has just opened and is attracting all the Furinkan High students.

Once the trio arrive at the wagon, Ukyo and Ranma are shocked to see all the attention it's getting, especially from customers/students who used to frequent Ucchan's. They then watch as the chef, Crepe Joe, puts on an impressive show as he prepares his customer's orders. Ukyo, however, doesn't fall for Joe's dramatics and compares him to a westernised dumpling maker. Having heard this Joe can't help himself from challenging Ukyo's comments and the pair prepare to fight each other. But despite her best effort, Ukyo is easily defeated by Joe who proceeds to describe her Okonomiyaki as an old-fashioned oddity.

Having seized victory, Joe leaves with his fans in pursuit whilst Ukyo falls to her knees in devastation. Just then a priest appears (having just watched the fight) and asks to try some of Ukyo's Okonomiyaki. The Priest informs Ukyo that her Okonomiyaki is good, but lacks Battle Aura which is why she lost.

Ukyo's Training
That evening, as they stand underneath a train bridge, Ranma tries to reassure Ukyo that she'll beat Joe next time. Ukyo, however, is still thinking about what the priest said as she knows that she's not ready to beat somebody like Joe. She then proceeds to comment on how she threw aside her femininity so that she could take revenge on Ranma, but adds that she no longer cooks Okonomiyaki to defeat Ranma but to please him, which has ruined her skill.

At that moment tears begin rushing down Ukyo's face, causing Ranma to tell her that her Okonomiyaki is great and doesn't need any battle aura. However, this causes Ukyo to ask Ranma if this means that even if her Okonomiyaki is weak he'll still marry her, which forces Ranma to retort that that is an entirely different matter. Unfortunately this just upsets Ukyo further who now sees herself as not being worthy of a martial artist of Anything Goes Martial Arts.

With this in mind Ukyo turns around and declares that she isn't coming back until she can cook Okonomiyaki worthy of Ranma. She then turns to Akane and tells her to take care of Ranma while she's gone before proceeding to run off from the pair. Akane then instructs Ranma to go and stop Ukyo, but Ranma doesn't wish to as it may just makes things worse.

After reaching a remote temple, Ukyo begins her training but still finds herself unable to infuse her Okonomiyaki with battle aura. Believing that she can now only create spiritless Okonomiyaki, Ukyo tells herself that she should give up on Ranma when she notices that the priest has appeared next to her. The priest then takes her inside the temple where he apologises for his rude behaviour earlier. He continues by explaining that their temple has been visited by countless chefs over the years before adding that an old man from made an offering of Okonomiyaki to them. The priest then removes the lid off a small box in front of him which contains a century old Okonomiyaki which has been kept fresh by the powerful battle aura that it has been infused with.

As Ukyo recoils in shock from learning how old the Okonomiyaki is, the priest reveals that the man was of the same school as Ukyo which causes her to decide that it must've been her great-grandfather who made the Okonomiyaki as he was the founder of the Kuonji School of Okonomiyaki. Hearing this the priest tells Ukyo that with the correct training she can make Okonomiyaki every bit as powerful as it's 100 year-old predecessor.

With Ukyo now begging for the priest to train her, the man can't help but agree to help, but warns Ukyo that what she'll experience will be extremely harsh, although Ukyo declares that that's what she wants.

Ranma Saotome: Substitute Chef
Back in Furinkan and as Joe continues to get a successful influx of customers, Ranma and Akane sit in the closed Ucchan's, wondering what Ukyo's doing right now. Whilst Ranma solemnly comments that Ukyo may never return, Akane suggests that they keep the restaurant open until Ukyo returns. Ranma, however, is skeptical at how Akane plans to make the Okonomiyaki, although Akane sees no other choice seeing how there's nobody else. Still unconvinced, Ranma asks Akane how she plans to attract any customers to which Akane simple replies that she knows a way...

Some time later, and Akane's plan has come to fruition by making Ranma do the cooking in his female form which undoubtedly attracts the attention of Kuno who comes in to see if the rumours are true.

Upon seeing that both Akane and the pigtailed girl are working at Ucchan's, the overjoyed Kuno tells the other members of the Kendo Club to order whatever they want as he's buying. Unfortunately, instead of making Okonomiyaki, Ranma ends up pinning Kuno to the wall with multiple small spatulas whilst the other Kendo members lie on the floor...

Meanwhile, Ukyo goes through with her intensive training program until the priest tells her that she has to make 108 Okonomiyaki every day. The priest then tells Ukyo that she needs to empty her heart with each Okonomiyaki so as to erase all of the 108 earthly desires and allow her empty body to fill with battle aura. Spurred on Ukyo gladly accepts the priests challenge.

At the same time Ranma notices how late-in-the-day it is and wonders where all the children are. Akane is also concerned as she lowered their prices and the children said that they would come. She then checks to see if anything's happened, but is shocked to find that Joe has moved his van to right outside Ucchan's. The pair then head outside, where Akane confronts Yuka and Sayuri whilst Ranma notes how Joe can't set up here as it's causing an obstruction.

Just then Joe shouts to the group and cockily apologises as he came here to help them. He then suggests the pair just shut down their failing business so that they can become one of his batch of restaurants. Ranma sees through Joe's taunting and asks him outright if he just wants to take over Ucchan's, to which Joe retorts that he views his actions as a good deed since the weak must perish whilst the strong survive. Irritated, Ranma challenges Joe. Joe agrees, but adds that whoever loses must agree to leave Nermia. Ranma accepts the conditions, despite Akane's concerns.

Back at the temple and Ukyo has just made her 108th Okonomiyaki which she tries feeding to the priest, but he declares that he can't take anymore. Assured that she can infuse her battle aura and Okonomiyaki once more, Ukyo takes her leave, not realising that the priest was just too full to eat anymore.

Crepes vs. Okonomiyaki!
Returning to Furinkan once again, and Ranma prepares to face Joe inside a large rink; similar to the one Ranma originally fought Ukyo in. As she looks on from the edge of the rink, Akane asks Ranma why she needs to fight Joe as this is exactly what he wants, but Ranma just chuckles and tells Akane that she's learnt Ukyo's moves from when they first fought. Suddenly Ranma starts the fight by encasing Joe's feet in batter mixed with glue and cement before tying his arms with rubbery noodles.

With Joe tied up Ranma moves in to strike, but Joe someone manages to escape, prompting Ranma to throw some firecracker pellets at him. Joe, however, counters with his Crepes which fold around the pellets and send them back at Ranma. Not letting up, Joe throws more Crepes at Ranma, each containing a different item. After avoiding the first two Crepes, Ranma finds herself cornered where the third Crepe (containing tear-gas pellets) hits her and makes unable to see where to go. Whilst Akane tells Ranma to keep fighting, Joe moves onto his "main dish", the "Golden Death Crepe!"

At that moment Joe throws an extremely large piece of Crepe batter at Ranma which manages to encase her entire body. As Ranma warns Joe that she's made her mad, Joe cockily taunts that no human can break the special batter in the Crepe. He then continues to reveal that the Crepe also contains gunpowder cream, ultimately leaving Ranma helpless as the Crepe destroys itself around her.

Seeing that how much Ranma is struggling, Akane tries to remind her what she's fighting for whilst the rest of the crows loudly cheer Joe onto victory. Joe then proceeds to throw several spatulas at Ranma in an attempt to finish her off, however, just before the spatulas hit, Ukyo returns and declares that she'll take over Ranma's position in the fight.

Once Ranma crawls out of the ring, Ukyo informs Joe that he'll see what cooking 108 Okonomiyaki has done to her skills. The pair then begin trash-talking each other until Joe throws a swarm of Crepes at Ukyo (each filled with the same items he used against Ranma earlier). Ukyo, however, deflects all of the Crepes and swiftly moves in to land a direct hit on Joe. Unfortunately, Joe succeeds in moving away at the last moment, landing on one of the rink's corner posts.

Unimpressed, Joe proceeds to use his Golden Death Crepe attack again which ensnares Ukyo in it's unbreakable embrace. Everyone then watches as the Crepe explodes, prompting Joe to prematurely declare his victory, however, Ukyo emerges from the smoke of the explosion with her battle aura flowing around her body. Undeterred Joe quickly rushes in to try and finish off Ukyo once more, but this time Ukyo send Joe flying before using a new technique which creates a dragon out of Okonomiyaki which engulfs Joe in the air before exploding, leaving Joe in a large, perfectly cooked piece of Okonomiyaki.

With Joe having admitted defeat, the crowd begin cheering for Ukyo.

Some days later and Ukyo brings some of her battle aura infused Okonomiyaki to Ranma, who can't taste any difference from how Ukyo used to cook it. Despite this Ukyo declares that she'll continue making Okonomiyaki until she can match the one made by her great-grandfather 100 years ago (although Ranma has no idea what Ukyo is talking about). Changing the subject, Ukyo tells Ranma that now she's become fit to be his fiancé again she'll be making him Okonomiyaki every day. Whilst Ranma tries to back away from Ukyo, Akane sarcastically tells Ranma how fortunate he is, especially as they now won't have as many dishes to wash, leaving Ranma to sigh and hang his head in disbelief.

Meanwhile, at the temple, a sushi chef declares he can't do any better when the priest appears and comments to the chef that he can tell from his technique which school he's from...

Trivia

 * The van that Crepe Joe uses for his shop is a Citroën H Van.