See Me for What I Am

Honto no ore o mite kudasai (本当の俺を見てください) is the 364th chapter of the manga. It is also the fifth and last chapter of the Battle of the Busts Arc.

Synopsis
Ranma is hugged by Nodoka after being seen in a sailor outfit. Unable to look at her face, he runs away.

Plot Overview
Ranma doesn't realize what is going on around him while the rest of the family look on nervously. Nodoka lets go of her son and puts the white robe on him, at which point he realizes something is wrong. She sits him down and places a table in front of him before wearing a headband and begin practicing with her sword. Ranma is now fully aware that Nodoka expects him to commit. Nodoka's last request is to see her son's face, but when she turns him around she discovers that Ranma used body replacement technique and escaped.

Nodoka now lies in sorrow over not seeing her son. Ranma changes into a girl to tend to her mother, knowing she might never see her child in a male form again. Akane believes that if she was able to see Ranma's manly side, she will forget the schoolgirl incident. After some contemplating, Nabiki shouts that the only way to prove Ranma's manliness is to be a pervert peeping on girls. Nodoko suddenly wakes up asking if Ranma likes to peep at woman's baths but Ranma tries to deny it. Then she fully stands up announcing that it's very manly of Ranma to be interested in girls' naked bodies. Soun and Nabiki is glad to have found a solution while Ranma and Akane are just speechless.

The plan is for Ranma to get caught by his mother peeping on Akane taking a bath. Throughout the house are signs to make it as obvious as possible that Akane is taking a bath and Ranma is watching her. Before Ranma can move out, Happosai goes ahead of him wanting to peep for himself. When Ranma tries to stop him, Happosai takes out the schoolgirl outfit he put on Ranma before. Ranma can't react quick enough, but Soun is able to get between them and wear the outfit instead. He then begins choking Happosai so Ranma can go without distraction.

Meanwhile, Nodoka is hiding behind a board with Genma, currently in his panda form. There is a big rug with an arrow leading to the bath, but Ranma slips on the rug and lands on Akane's clothing instead. Nodoka thinks that Ranma is indeed more interested in the clothes than girls and emerges swinging her katana over her unmanly son. Genma is able to stop her and tells her that it was a misunderstanding. When she looks around, Ranma has disappeared.

In an effort to hide from his mother, Ranma went into the bathroom when he gets a soap thrown at him. He looks to see Akane still in the bath getting angry for not peeping from outside like he was supposed to. Quickly tunging around, Ranma says he was forced to do this and Akane reluctantly says to go with the plan anyway. Ranma, still looking the other way, makes it clear that he doesn't want to see her body. Soon Akane says she knows that and, while standing up, is sorry for having a boring body. Akane grabs Ranma's face and turns him around so he can have a good look at her and not commit seppuku. Ranma is flushed, but once he turns around he sees that Akane (now even posing) was wearing a one-piece swimsuit all along. Ranma collapses in dissapointment at the trick. From outside Nodoka sees how disappointed her son is in not truly seeing Akane's body and accepts his manliness.

She bursts into the bathroom to finally look at her son's face when Happosai barges in and tosses two fireworks for interrupting him earlier. Nodoka grabs the shower head to put it out. Knowing the danger of cold water now, Genma produces a sign telling Ranma to run and smashes his child with it through the bathroom wall. Nodoka looks through the hole created by Genma to see Ranko lying on the ground. She nervously gets up to see her mother dejected that her son ran away again. She attempts to comfort her mother when Nodoka notices "Ranma" written backwards on Ranko's forehead. Which was a part of the sign.

The next day, Nodoka finally takes her leave as Akane and Ranma bids farewell. As she was leaving, Nodoka was beginning to piece together the connection between Ranma and Ranko. Ranma is determined to show up as a full man next time. Nabiki notes that that might mean showing more perverted stuff.

Cast in Order of Appearance

 * Nodoka Saotome
 * Ranma Saotome (male)
 * Nabiki Tendo
 * Kasumi Tendo
 * Akane Tendo
 * Soun Tendo
 * Ranma Saotome (female)
 * Genma Saotome
 * Happosai

Quotes
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Trivia
To be added