The Case of the Furinkan Stalker!

The Case of the Furinkan Stalker! (風林館高校·通り魔事件) is the 8th episode in the sixth season, Random Rhapsody, of Ranma ½ and the 120th episode overall.

Relation to the Previous Episode
None.

The Stalker of Furinkan High
On a dark and windy night in Furinkan, a woman walks along one of the streets when she begins to become nervous. The woman then begins running from whatever is behind her, but when she turns around, nobody can be seen. She then turns back, only to be met with a masked figure staring straight at her. The woman screams in terror, and the masked figure leaves her with a hairy caterpillar, which the woman detests, before making his escape.

The next day, Akane's friends start asking her if she's noticed anything different in Ranma's behaviour. Confused, Akane notes that Ranma seems the same as usual and retorts by asking if there should be anything she noticed. Akane's friends explain to her about the Stalker who dresses in a black cloak and a mask before Yuka goes on to reveal that yesterday when she left school late, after getting a feeling of being followed, she was stopped by the Stalker.

Once she finishes screaming from recalling the story, Yuka continues by explaining that when she saw the Stalker she hit him over the head with her Satchel and proceeded to run away. Hearing this, Akane comments that it seems like the Stalker came off worse in that situation, but Yuka retorts that whoever it was didn't deserve to make her so scared. The girls then go on to inform Akane that Yuka's the fourth victim that they know of, and that with every attack, the Stalker sprays his victim with ink before leaving them with a hairy Caterpillar. Akane quickly decides that the girls want Ranma's help to catch the Stalker so asks her friends if the Stalker had any distinguishing features, but the girls just sit in silence before Sayuri finally tells her not to get mad because things are about to get confusing...

Meanwhile, Ranma has just finished his lunch in another part of the classroom when he hears Akane scream "what?" at the top of her voice. Ranma looks over, but when he sees Akane being kept quiet by the other girls, so decides to leave her alone and take up Daisuke's offer to playing outside.

Akane's Attack
Some time passes and Akane watches Ranma playing with his friends from atop the School building. As she looks on, Akane thinks back to her friends revealing that they believe Ranma's the Stalker as when Yuka talked with the other victims they all noted that Stalker's pigtail, one victim even said that, when the Stalker attacked her, he identified himself as "Ranma Saotome".

Later that afternoon, Akane asks Hiroshi and Daisuke where Ranma went, but the pair admit they have no idea and head off home. As Akane sits alone in the classroom she begins wondering about how absurd it is that Ranma is the Stalker, as he has no motive to do such a thing... At that moment Akane remembers an incident that happened the day before, where Ranma took bits of every girl's lunch, much to their annoyance which ultimately resulted in Ranma getting beaten up. After recalling the scene, Akane giggles at Ranma's antics and decides that he wouldn't hold that against anyone. She continues by thinking to when attempted to get out of cleaning duty and ended up having to clean over 20 windows under the strict supervision of the female students.

Akane notes that Ranma brought the punishment onto himself and rules that out as a motive as well. Continuing, Akane also recalls when Ranma threw the eraser to another pupil before he accidentally threw it towards Akane's friends and got dust over their lunches, prompting the trio to throw multiple weapons at Ranma in revenge. Before she can think of any other possible motives, Akane notices a black mask on the floor and, after picking it up, is horrified that it may be the mask of the Furinkan Stalker.

After leaving school, Akane buys some apples, but is so concerned about the Stlaker that she leaves without paying. As she thinks about how late she is, Akane gets the feeling that someone's following her, so she begins to run down the street. When she turns a corner, Akane looks behind her and sees the Stalker. Not wanting to run anymore, Akane warns the Stalker that she won't give in easily and adds that she'll show him what happens when you pick on girls. Akane then proceeds to walk confidentially towards the Stalker, who, terrified, begins to run away.

Not willing to let the Stalker get away, Akane begins chasing after him and quickly uses one of the apples she got earlier to hit the Stalker with a great force. However, when Akane goes round the corner which the Stalker scurried down, the Stalker is nowhere to be seen.

Ranma the Stalker?!
By the time Akane returns to the Tendo Dojo it's already early evening and she heads up to the bathroom so she can talk with Ranma. Once there, Akane reminds Ranma that he was meant to come shopping with her. Ranma apologises and explains that he got really dirty today, so decided to come home early to clean up. After looking at Ranma's dirty clothes, Akane decides that the dirt must've come from the garbage in the alley the Stalker disappeared down.

Infuriated by the belief Ranma would stalk her, Akane storms into the bathroom and begins attacking Ranma (much to the confusion and interest of Soun and Genma downstairs). Akane proceeds to ask Ranma if he's the stalker... Meanwhile, the real stalker, Hikaru Gosunkugi, slowly stumbles down one of Furinkan's streets as he mutters that Ranma Saotome's social life is about to come to an end...

A little later, in Akane's room, Ranma angrily questions Akane about why a stalker would say his own name, whether Akane believed he was the stalker, before adding that he has no motive for being the stalker. Akane replies "no" to each of Ranma's questions, but does attempt to note about Ranma's possible motive, however, she quickly drops the idea when Ranma angrily asks her what she just said. Seeing how passionate Ranma is about someone framing him, Akane decides that Ranma isn't the stalker after all.

Unmasking the Stalker
The next day, Akane happily walks into school next to Ranma, although the other female students still believe Ranma to be the stalker. Seeing the current situation, Gosunkugi decides that he needs to give just one more push before his plan's complete.

As Ranma walks into the classroom he's met with suspicious looks from everyone. Suddenly, Gosunkugi appears behind Ranma and brings up how horrible it is that everyone thinks that he (Ranma) is the stalker. Infuriated at this accusation, Ranma pushes Gosunkugi to the nearest wall and demands to know who's heard these rumours, to which Gosunkugi replies that the whole class has heard, but adds that he's on Ranma's side about his innocence. Gosunkugi continues by asking Ranma if he wants him to tell the girls the truth, but adds that he doesn't know who the stalker is and that he knows the terrible suffering Ranma's going through.

Ranma listens as Gosunkugi begins attempting to make Ranma get revenge at the girls for what they've done to him, and how, no matter how underhanded the stunt, he'll always be his friend. Hearing this, Ranma kicks Gosunkugi out of the window whilst telling him that he doesn't need friends like that.

Later on, Ranma becomes more determined to find the real stalker, as a bored Akane sits in silence. Gosunkugi, meanwhile, looks on and thinks how that, when everyone in the school shuns Ranma for the being the stalker, he'll finally be able to have Akane be his fiancé. His daydream is soon cut short, as the teacher sends Ranma, Akane and Gosunkugi to go stand outside in the hall for not paying attention.

Once school finishes, Ranma disguises himself in his female form and acts like an lovesick girlfriend of Ranma's, forever asking where he is. By later afternoon, Ranma takes a break from her act as the stalker didn't fall for her decoy and never showed up. However, as Ranma looks at the sky, a spider appears in front of her face and after swatting it away she sees that the stalker has finally appeared. The stalker cockily asks Ranma if she knows who he is, to which Ranma admits she doesn't but will when she takes off his mask.

Ranma then proceeds to run straight at the stalker, who panics and tries to make his escape, dropping a bag of small animals in the process. When Ranma catches up with the stalker she sees that Akane has already stopped him from making a clean escape. Akane notes her relief that Ranma wasn't the stalker after all and the pair start thinking what to do next. Worried, the stalker asks if they won't ask him his name, to which Akane decides to humour the stalker and asks him. Gosunkugi then removes his stalker disguise to reveal himself wearing an outfit identical to the one Ranma usually wears.

Neither Ranma or Akane fall for the extremely poor disguise. Ranma the proceeds to spin a with one arm before pouring over herself whilst taking off her dress in order to change to his male form. After complimenting Ranma's transformation skills, Ranma beats up Gosunkugi and sends him flying high into the air as Akane comments that the stalker has bitten the dust, but can't understand why Gosunkugi did it. Ranma enlightens her by explaining that Gosunkugi has a crush on a girl, but he was in his way.

By the next day, Ranma explains about him being framed and gets an apology from everyone who fell for the rumour. After adding that the stalker won't be bothering them anymore, Hiroshi and Daisuke add that there's till one thing they don't understand, did the two of them find out who the stalker was. Akane admits that they were close, but didn't find out who it was. Just then Gosunkugi walks in with several buns for Ranma and the pair decide to go outside to eat them. Seeing this, Akane is asked if the two of them have always been such good friends, but Akane just looks on in disbelief. On the school roof, Ranma reminds Gosunkugi that he won't reveal he was the stalker so long as Gosunkugi does everything he says. Gosunkugi attempts to jab Ranma with a nail whilst rubbing his shoulders, but Ranma remembers he agreed to be goalie, so he runs off, leaving Gosunkugi with the blunt end of the nail up his nostril...

Trivia

 * As Yuka tells Akane about what the other stalker victims have told her, Sayuri can be clearly seen in the background, but when Yuka reveals the stalker having a pigtail Sayuri is at the table with the others again.
 * When Ranma turns back into a guy from being a girl, the hair style went from down to back into Ranma's pigtail.