I Love You, Ranma! Please Don't Say Goodbye

Ranma Daisuki! Sayonara wa Iwanaide!! (乱馬大好き! さよならはいわないで!!) is the 17th episode in the first season, Digital Dojo of Ranma ½.

Relation to the Previous Episode
This episode concludes the Shampoo's Introduction story arc, though the subsequent episode, I Am a Man! Ranma's Going Back to China!?, is evidently set very shortly after the events of this episode.

Plot Overview
Night having fallen, Ranma and Akane walk back to the Tendo Dojo; Ranma's search was a failure, and he thinks to himself that if he can't find Shampoo and her herbal concoctions, he cannot restore Akane's memory. When they finally return home, Ranma can only watch in sorrow and a trace of annoyance as Akane demonstrates to her sisters that she truly cannot recognize Ranma and plays a rather cruel joke on her father by claiming to have forgotten him. Wondering how he can find Shampoo, he is startled when a pair of panda paws latch onto his eyes from behind. When he wrestles free of them, he asks how his assailant, who he naturally presumes is Genma, can joke around at a time like this and whirls to punch him.



Instead, it turns out that his "ambusher" is Shampoo wearing fake panda paws; she easily leaps over him and is delighted at having managed to successfully play a trick on him. Ranma immediately runs to her and asks where she has the herbal shampoo she used for the Xai Fang Heng Gao technique, but she instead professes her love for him yet again and cuddles up to him -- which causes Akane to savagely elbow drop Ranma's head to the floor. Much to the surprise of Akane herself, who still doesn't recognize Ranma and wonders why she did that. Her family suggests it's a conditioned reflex, and that she still remembers Ranma deep in her heart.



This is not pleasing to Shampoo, who is rather irritated to have underestimated Akane's mental strength, and even as Akane once more tries and fails to place Ranma's identity, Shampoo leaps at her with her bottle of shampoo. Ranma intercepts, causing the Joketsuzoku to drop her herbal concoction, promptly snatching it up and dragging Akane to the bathroom even as Shampoo wails in protest. Ignoring Akane's own protests, Ranma bends her over the sink, pours the shampoo into her hair, and brutally scrubs Akane's head in a rather foolish effort to undo her memory modifications, which understandably provokes Akane into wrenching the sink off of the wall and breaking it over Ranma's head. The treatment she has just undergone, coupled with the sight of Ranma turning into a girl from the broken pipe, causes Akane to faint from shock.

Before Ranma can do anything to help her, though, Shampoo kicks the bathroom door open and is, needless to say, quite unhappy to see the "girl-type Ranma". Ranma escapes her by fleeing into the bathroom proper and hiding on the ceiling, the angry Shampoo entering the bathroom and then punching a hole through the wall to leave and start searching elsewhere. After she has gone, Ranma and Kasumi tend to Akane, wondering why the technique didn't work. Nabiki brings some hot water for Ranma mere moments before Dr. Tofu arrives, evidently having been called after Shampoo left. When Ranma complains about the shampoo he took from Shampoo not working, Tofu explains that the Xai Fang Geng Hao technique is actually designed to be used with a number of herbal blends, and the shampoo Ranma retrieved is blend #110, which is to be used to erase memories. Restoring memories requires blend #119... fortunately for Ranma, the good doctor has just found a booklet containing the recipe for that herbal blend. Unfortunately, Kasumi chooses that moment to come in, ecstatic that Tofu may be able to cure her sister, and he promptly shreds the booklet in his usual stupidity fit.

Disgruntled, Ranma retreats to his room, where he packs his bag and gets ready to do the only thing left: go to China himself and buy some 119 shampoo from a drug store. Nabiki, Soun, Kasumi and Genma all pour into his room, each asking for him to buy them presents on his trip, but Ranma has eyes only for Akane, who wishes she knew who he was and why he's going to all this trouble for her, reassuring her that she'll remember him soon and he will be waiting.



Running through the streets, Ranma admits to himself that the biggest problem is getting to China without any money, then figuring he'll just have to do what he and Genma did to get there before he got cursed: swim. He is, perhaps, relieved when he sees a very welcome sight: Shampoo dangling upside down from a streetlamp and showing off a bottle of the 119 blend he needs. He immediately tries to take it, and replies that nobody likes being forgotten about when Shampoo angrily asks why he's being so nice to Akane. She promptly begins leading him a merry chase, until he manages to catch her foot and causes her to drop the shampoo bottle she's holding. When he leaps down to retrieve it, though, she reveals that it's fake and then dumps dozens of shampoo bottles onto him. After a few moments of futile searching, he springs up and demands she give him the real one... only for her to look uncomfortable and then begin searching quickly through the pile, sheepishly revealing she dropped the real one by mistake.

Ranma walks up to her and again asks her to hand it over. Shampoo promptly sticks it into her cleavage and taunts Ranma to come and get it. While Ranma bluffs that he is quite used to women's bodies and won't hesitate to take it from her if she won't give it back, he is quick to back down -- partially because Shampoo promptly lets out a wail that can be heard around the block. Flustered, Ranma apologizes, then offers to trade Shampoo a favor for the bottle, though he quickly adds that he won't marry her or kill Akane. At this, Shampoo declares that he can kill "girl-type Ranma" for her if he wants the 119 blend, and though she is confused when Ranma asks her to make it "half kill", she agrees to the modified terms.

Meeting with Ryoga in the dojo, Ranma confirms to him that Shampoo is utterly clueless about his two sides being the same person, and begs Ryoga to help him "beat up" his girl side. Ryoga refuses, well aware that this is the perfect opportunity to make his moves on Akane, but Ranma provokes him until Ryoga attacks Ranma regardless. Unfortunately, Ranma is unable to resist his urge to fight Ryoga back and ends up knocking Ryoga out with minimal damage. As he laments about the apparent failure of his plan, Soun and Genma show up and begin a onesided beatdown of Ranma, declaring that they know why he's doing this and the least they can do is help. They are interrupted in their pummeling by Akane's arrival and her angry declaration that they shouldn't bully the weak -- this angers Ranma so much that he unthinkingly heals himself and asks who she's calling weak. Realising that their work has been undone, Soun declares they'll need to start over again and throws Ranma across the dojo. When Akane protests this treatment, telling Soun to fight her if he wants to fight somebody, Ranma grows irritated, asking who she thinks he's doing this for and finally calling her uncute.

At this, Akane staggers, clearly shocked, and Soun realises that Ranma's choice of words has affected her. He exhorts Ranma to do it again, and when Akane staggers again, suggests Ranma try insulting her as badly as possible, reasoning that Ranma's taunts are reaching her buried memories of him. This is something that Ranma declares he is happy to do and, accepting the microphone that Genma gives him, he unleashes several blistering insults before Ryoga snaps back to consciousness and hits him for being so cruel to Akane. To their surprise, they discover that Genma had set up an impromptu sound station and he begins to play Ranma's insults on a repeat cycle. The constant barrage of mockery finally makes Akane so angry that she manages to snap through the mental condition, automatically deriding Ranma as a jerk and slapping him savagely across the face. After that reflexive action, though, she realizes what she has done and runs to Ranma's side, asking him if he is alright.

Soun, in his delight at Akane's recovery, runs over to embrace her, thoughtlessly standing on Ranma, who begins crawling to the wall in an effort to try and make Soun get off. As he reaches it, though, Shampoo comes smashing through, burying Ranma in debris and standing on him accidentally as she asks if "girl-type Ranma" is almost dead yet. When she hears Ranma's pleas for help, she immediately gets off of him in shock and reaches to tend to him... which is when Akane runs over and grabs Ranma away from her. Shampoo is not happy to realise that Akane has broken through the memory modification, then declares it would have been better for her to stay forgetful, as then she wouldn't have to die. As she lunges at Akane, though, Ranma springs between them at the last second and catches Shampoo. Awestruck at this display of skill, Shampoo gladly turns it into an excuse to cuddle him, for which Akane viciously elbows Ranma in the face. Despite this, Ranma still begs Shampoo to not hurt Akane, the angry Joketsuzoku asking why she should and declaring that "obstacles are for killing". At this, Ranma declares he'll have to tell the truth.

Taking everyone out to the koi pond, he demonstrates his curse to Shampoo, then claims that the boy stuff is all a disguise and she's really always been a girl. Infuriated by this, Shampoo grabs her chui and attacks Ranma relentlessly, driving her back until she trips over a stone and can only cower as Shampoo gets ready to deliver a killing blow... a blow that never comes. Looking up, Ranma sees Shampoo weeping before, with a heartbroken "bie lao", the Chinese girl vanishes into the night.

After she has gone, Nabiki translates for the two that "bie lao" basically means "sayonara, we'll never meet again, etc", and Akane asks if Ranma wants to go after her, pointing out that Ranma, still in female form, could probably catch up. Ranma sadly tells Akane to just leave her alone, which prompts Akane to sarcastically pointing out that Shampoo sure was cute and Ranma must be sorry she turned her down. When Ranma angrily points out that Shampoo spent half the time trying to kill her and claims to be glad she's gone, Akane taunts Ranma with the fact she looks ready to cry, which starts a brief, nasty argument between the two that ends with Akane hurling something into Ranma's face and storming off.

Trivia

 * STAFF:
 * Script: Aya Matsui
 * Director/Storyboard: Shinji Kouboku
 * Animation Director: Masako Goto
 * When the "Akane misidentifies Ranma" gag is repeated, the dubbing and subbing differs again. The dub has the references "that cheer they say at football games" (Rah-Rah) and a certain 1985 Japanese remake of King Lear (Ran). The sub has the references of a certain stuff added to ramen (Menma) and an actor who knows a lot about the spirit world (Temba).


 * In the manga version, when Shampoo plays her practical joke, Ranma does not react violently and Genma is shown laughing at it. Here, Ranma tries to punch Shampoo, who dodges, and Genma is a disapproving latecomer to the scene.


 * This is the final episode in which Shampoo can be seen without a Jusenkyo curse.


 * Shampoo manages to overpower Ranma in this version of the story, but in the manga Ranma shows no signs of being at her mercy at all.


 * In the manga, the final scene consists of Ryoga trying to talk a clearly disinterested Ranma into going after Shampoo. In the anime, the final scene is a conversation between Ranma and Akane, and Ranma does seem genuinely upset about having to chase Shampoo off in such a fashion.


 * Surprisingly, though the dub of the manga changes the formula numbers from #110 to erase memory and #119 to restore memory (which are the numbers for the Japanese Police Service and Firefighting, Ambulance & Emergency Services respectively) to the numbers #411 and #911 (the American numbers for information and Emergency Services, respectively), respectively, the anime leaves the original numbers intact, even in the dub.
 * The most likely reason for leaving the original shampoo formulas intact in the anime, is the number of paint/image edits that would be required. In contrast to the manga (which would have to be edited anyway to change SFX and dialogue kanji into english etc) no such edits are necessarily required in anime as the only mandatory change is re-dubbing the voice track, so changing a minor plot point to make it slightly more culturally relatable would be very time consuming, in comparison.