A Sudden Storm of Love

A Sudden Storm of Love (いきなり愛の嵐ちょっと待ってョ) is the third episode of Ranma ½.

Ranma's fight with Tatewaki Kuno over Akane continues. But things take a turn for the disturbing when Ranma's female form is discovered by Kuno.

Relation to the Previous Episode
This episode follows on from the previous episode, School is No Place for Horsing Around, and in fact the opening is a modified, compressed version of what happens after Tatewaki Kuno is sent out for disrupting class. He attacks Ranma Saotome and is led by him into leaping out of the third floor window into the pool. A Sudden Storm of Love can be considered to truly take place after the two combatants hit the water.

Plot Overview
As the other members of Class 1-F watch in shocked awe, Ranma and Kuno plunge into the pool from three floors straight up. Kuno soon floats to the surface, face down and clearly dazed, but no sight can be seen of Ranma by them. Having transformed upon plunging into the cool depths, Ranma desperately swims for the deepness of the far end of the pool, seeking to escape before anyone sees him in his changed form. Kuno is not unconscious, however, merely dazed, and proceeds to swim down in an effort to grapple Ranma - but, in doing so, gives Ranma's right breast a very hard grope. Enraged by this, Ranma grabs Kuno in a headlock and dives to the pool's bottom, using it as a surface to leap clear out of the pool, still carrying Kuno by his neck, and slam Kuno back first onto the far edge of the pool. While balancing above Kuno on her hands, Kuno manages to catch a glimpse of the female Ranma's face and figure before Ranma kicks off of his face and uses that to propel herself over the fence and into the trees beyond.

While the students wonder about what they have just seen, having been unable to get a clear view of the changed Ranma, Akane silently breaks off from them and goes to retrieve a kettle of hot water and find her unwanted fiance. Head still dangling in the pool, Kuno, meanwhile, is musing over what just happened, ascertaining that the person who just beat him was a female and immediately leaping to the conclusion that Ranma must have somehow traded places with her and had her fight in his place, something for which Kuno verbally denounces him before going in search of him.

Carrying her newly acquired kettle, Akane discovers Ranma seated in a tree, grumbling about how Kuno didn't need to touch her like that and melancholically deciding that Kuno must have realised her secret, having peeled off her long pants to wring the worst of the water out of them. Akane mockingly calls out to Ranma and asks how stupid she can be to do such a stunt, something to which Ranma responds by asking what Akane knows and pulling a face at her. To this, Akane responds by playfully teasing Ranma with the kettle, but stops when she hears Kuno approaching. Warning Ranma of this, she clumsily throws Ranma the kettle and hurries to face him, unaware that her misaimed throw has almost sent Ranma off of her tree branch.

Hurrying in front of Kuno, Akane verbally challenges him while mentally encouraging Ranma to turn back to normal while she buys him some time, which Kuno accepts after a moment's hesitation. Telling her that he will allow her to date him if she wins, he then warns her that he is prepared to lose. Akane, angry and incredulous, declares he's making it sound like she wants to date him, even as she and Kuno engage in a brief struggle that sees her leap over two of his strikes and then catch a third, vertical one in her hands. Kuno begins to overpower her, but Akane turns that against him and purposefully falls to the ground, using this as an opportunity to plant a foot in his sternum and send him flying through the air - right towards the tree where Ranma is.

By this time, Ranma has only just regained her balance, having previously been suspended straight out horizontally from the branch and held in place only by her feet thanks to Akane's poor toss. Just as she enthuses she can now resume her true form, Kuno lands headfirst onto the kettle and she finds herself face to face with him. Fortunately, he doesn't recognize her as Ranma, instead asking if she's seen "a strange man in a pigtail", to which Ranma shakes her head. Ranma momentarily breaks off this conversation when Akane appears and asks why Ranma is still a girl, replying with an angry retort that this isn't her fault.

Kuno ignores them to instead belittle Ranma, who he genuinely believes is absent, claiming he must have fled in fear of Kuno's prowess - a claim that angers Ranma. When he goes on to denounce Ranma as unmanly, Ranma casually drops the kettle, though Kuno mildly rebukes her for this with a notation that it hurt. Ranma proceeds to jump down and take a fighting stance with the declaration she's not going to let Kuno badmouth her, a challenge to which Kuno reacts by snatching his bokken from Akane and swinging at Ranma even as he repeats his "if you can defeat me I will allow you to date me" spiel from before. Ranma effortlessly dodges Kuno's strike and lands atop his bokken, asking who asked for a date even as she savagely kicks Kuno in the face, using the reaction to propel herself into the air and make two mid-air kicks as Kuno collapses onto the grass.

When Kuno fails to rise, Ranma kicks Kuno's bokken into her grasp, smugly tells him that "Ranma Saotome is even better than me", and leaves the schoolgrounds, Akane following her with only a token protest that it isn't even lunchtime yet. As the girls wander off, Kuno admits that Ranma's female form is formidable, wondering just who she is before fainting from the blow.

When she arrives home that evening, Nabiki teases Akane about having given Ranma the grand tour, which irritates Akane.

In the dojo, having finished their evening sparring and now standing on their heads in meditation postures, Genma notes to Ranma that Akane really looked out for him at school today. When Ranma defensively remarks he didn't ask her to, Genma angrily leaps to his feet and goes on to melodramatically both remind Ranma he taught him better than to ignore such an honor debt and weeping over his "failure" to make Ranma a righteous martial artist. This earns him little but Ranma's contempt and a kicked bucket of cold water to the face, forcing him to withdraw with what little dignity he has left. More dignity is stripped from him when he discovers the bathroom's taps are all out of order, something for which Kasumi apologizes and Soun tries to make up by declaring they'll go to the public bath.

In the guest room he shares with his father, Ranma thinks back over how Akane stuck her neck out for him and declares that he really should go and thank her.

In Akane's room, Nabiki doesn't pause from doing her aerobics to ask Akane what the big deal is about Ranma's curse, adding she thinks it's kind of cool that Ranma can turn into a girl. Akane pauses from her homework in fury and angrily demands to know why Nabiki doesn't marry Ranma if he's so "cool", declaring that her life might as well be over and she's engaged to her worst nightmare.

At that declaration, Ranma's hand pauses before he can knock on Akane's door, standing there plainly hurt as Akane's words sink in. Heading to the steps, he angrily comments on Genma calling him rude, then thoughtlessly leaps over the railing and down the steps. Unfortunately for him, Kasumi is just coming up with a pail of cold water. Ranma manages to catch himself before he knocks the both of them down the stairs, though he ends up draping his arms around Kasumi's shoulders in the process. Thankfully, the only ones hurt are Soun and Genma, who the bucket ends up falling onto just as they return from the public baths.

The next morning, Kasumi notes Genma sitting on the porch and reading the paper as a panda and asks if he spent the night like that, to which Genma replies in the positive and Soun explains he felt it wasn't worth the bother of changing back.

On the way to school, Ranma asks if Akane would like him to help handle the goons waiting for her at school, only to be coldly told that they're strangers to each other. Ranma points out that she knows they're waiting for her, but otherwise lets her be, leaping up onto the wall surrounding the school and standing back as she plows through the horde of hormone-crazed idiots. Once they are defeated, Akane angrily proclaims her wish that they'd just give it up and heads to class, Ranma following in her wake and wondering where Kuno is.

Kuno is actually on the roof of the school, wondering where the pigtailed girl from yesterday is. At lunch, Nabiki admits to knowing her and Kuno asks her to carry her a message from him, declaring that she won't get away and laughing like a loon.

That afternoon, as they spar, Ranma asks if Akane ever gets tired of having to face the perverted boys every morning, telling her she doesn't look so cute when she gets mad after Akane angrily confirms that yes, she does. When Akane starts fuming at this, Ranma tells her it's just training, but any further conversation is cut off by Nabiki's arrival with a letter from Kuno. As Ranma reads it, Nabiki confirms that Kuno is clueless about the two Ranmas being the same person, and Akane notes that Kuno's message, to meet at the second field of Furinkan at 5:36pm sounds like a duel Nabiki tells Ranma about Kuno being a very sore loser, with Akane suggesting that Ranma maybe should not go. Ranma's response is to scrunch it up and tell them "I think not".

As the appointed time draws near, though, Ranma grows increasingly restless until finally he gives in, activates his curse and goes to the designated spot, angrily noting that Kuno is late. Kuno chooses that moment to emerge dramatically from the sunset with a poetic quote, proceeding to grandoisely introduce himself to Ranma's female form. Ranma angrily mocks Kuno's stupidity and asks where his weapon is, replying that Kuno must be pretty confident when he declares that he has no need of it. Kuno promptly declares himself confident enough to do this, throws her a bouquet of flowers and walks off into the sunset, pausing only to look back over his shoulder and tell "the pigtailed girl" that he loves her.

As what just happened sinks in, Ranma collapses onto her knees in utter shock.

Trivia

 * The episode title is read aloud in Akane's voice for the first time. This would be the style for the remainder of the series, but in the first two episodes it is done by female Ranma.
 * This was the first episode to feature animation direction by Asami Endo. Endo had been one of the principal animation directors on the anime version of Takahashi's Urusei Yatsura during its first few seasons, and would later work as a a key animator on InuYasha. She and character designer Atsuko Nakajima would be the only animation directors to work on Ranma through its entire TV run.