Enter Gosunkugi, The New Rival!?

Kyōteki? Gosunkugi-kun Tōjō (強敵? 五寸釘くん登場) is the 96th episode of Ranma ½ Nettohen.

An occult otaku, the nerdy yet sinister Gosunkugi, arrives as a transferee to Furinkan High School, where he develops a crush on Akane and a vendetta against Ranma.

Relation to the Previous Episode
None.

Avoiding Akane's Lunch
On a sunny morning in Furinkan, Kasumi busily sweeps up outside the Tendo Dojo when Nabiki suddenly runs past on her way to school. Kasumi questions Nabiki about why she's leaving so earlier, Nabiki replies that she refuses to be the Guinea Pig for Akane's cooking and runs off, leaving Kasumi to sigh out of minor frustration.

A little later that morning and Akane finishes her hand-made lunches for everyone and starts handing them out when she learns that Nabiki left early. Trying to stir Akane away from cooking anymore, Soun and Genma tell Akane that she doesn't have to always get up so early to cook for them as they can manage fine on their own. Akane, however, reassures the pair that she doesn't mind doing it, leaving them both deeply disappointed.

Just then Ranma tries to sneak past without being noticed by Akane, but Soun and Genma decide Ranma should have to share their misery and make sure to point him out to Akane. As Akane holds out Ranma's lunch to him, Ranma tries desperately to explain to her why he's going to refuse her lunch until Soun and Genma intervene and tell Ranma that he better not call Akane's lunches awful right in front of her. The pair then try forcing Ranma to take it, but he just manages to overpower them before running off to school.

As Ranma runs, he comments to himself about how he's had Akane's lunches for three days in a row and that if he has anymore he'll probably be hospitalised.

Elsewhere, a rather scrawny male student wearing the Furinkan High uniform notices some wild flowers growing on the side of the footpath he's walking and decides he'll pick one to "love me, love me not" on whether he'll make any friends. Unfortunately the student is focusing so much on the flower that he doesn't notice a rock on the floor, which he subsequently trips over. The angered student then proceeds to use a hammer and nail to hit into the rock repeatedly until it finally breaks.

After walking a little further, the student's flower has just one petal left, which will be one confirming he'll make friends, when suddenly Ranma appears and accidentally knocks the student to the ground. Ranma does go to see if the student's okay, but when he hears Akane's voice he quickly leaves again (causing the student to fall to the ground again). The student then checks his flower, but finds the final petal is missing, much to his annoyance. At that moment Akane appears and, in her attempt to give Ranma the lunch she made, doesn't notice she's standing on the student until his body's covered in footprints.

Some time later and after walking with the student for a while, Akane apologises for stepping on him and says goodbye, however, the student decides to give her an acquaintance gift, of a wara ningyo. Akane is instantly put off by the gift, but is shocked when Yuka and Sayuri appear and are fascinated by it so take half a dozen each from the student.

The New Student
In class, the student is introduced as transfer Hikaru Gosunkugi. Later at lunchtime, a determined Akane slams down her homemade bento in front of Ranma, with his classmates behind him commenting how lucky he is. Ranma continues to refuse the lunch, so Akane goes up to Gosunkugi instead and offers him the extra bento. Gosunkugi is extremely touched by Akane's offer and reaches to accept the lunch, but his joy is interrupted by Ranma who takes the bento from Akane. Ranma explains no ordinary guy can withstand Akane's cooking, even he has to be in top shape to handle it. Akane and Ranma fight over the bento, but it slips from their grip and lands on Gosunkugi's head. A hurt Akane runs out of the room calling Ranma a jerk.

Trivia

 * This episode introduces Hikaru Gosunkugi to the series.
 * In the manga, Gosunkugi was introduced way back during the Neko-ken arc. The anime however replaced him with the anime-exclusive character Sasuke Sarugakure and the latter took over many of the early story roles the former originally performed. Also, Gosunkugi was portrayed as already being a (relatively) normal student instead of a transfer like in the anime.