Hot Springs Obstacle Course Race Arc

The  is the 37th story arc covered in the Ranma ½ manga, spanning seven chapters. This arc was included in volume 16 of the  and volume 14 of the Viz Media tankōbon.

Plot Summary
Akane wins a trip for two to a three-legged hot springs race. The winner of the race gets to go to any hot or cold spring in the world, including Jusenkyo. She plans on asking Ranma to go with her. Mousse wins a ticket as well and asks Shampoo, but she steals the ticket and asks Ranma to be her partner before Akane gets the chance. Ryoga also gets a ticket but miss his chance to ask Akane when she asked Mousse instead. He accidentally asks Ukyo who was more interested in business opportunities.

As the race begins, the six of them race ahead of normal competitors. While they were on the log ride, Shampoo and Ukyo meet each other for the first time and begin fighting. This leads to complication as they try to descend. All six of them begin switching sides to get ahead. After passing another challenge, Shampoo accidentally steps on a land mine which unleashes a geyser of cold water. Fortunately they find a hot spring right after and turn back to normal. After relaxing in the hot spring, Ryoga and Mousse beat up Ranma and plan to team up, but find that their clothes were lost during the geyser. While they argue, Mousse punch a plug out of frustration and a whirlpool sucks them all to the next stage.

Akane finds Ranma and they team up but realize that they fell in a giant sand pit, and the clothes they received were too heavy to lift themselves up. They start arguing with each other again when Ranma finds that he is unable to free himself and tells Akane to just save herself, but Akane manages to save him and they continue to the next stage. They get to the next stage and Shampoo takes this opportunity to leave Mousse behind and go with them. Shampoo and Akane approach a fork in the road and force Ranma to choose which direction to go in.

Ranma chooses Akane's path realizing that Shampoo's leads to ice water. When Shampoo gets upset Ranma follows her to console her, but they both fall into the ice water. Ranma flees into Akane's path, a room filled with warm sake baths. Shampoo and Ranma get drunk and Akane drags Ranma out to finish the race. She splashes him with cold water which sobers him up. When they get close to the finish line, they find that The Major of Zekkyo is moving the goalpost further away to prevent them from winning. When they finally get to the finish line, Ryoga and Ukyo pop out of a rock and cross before them, winning the race. However, because of Ryoga's extremely poor sense of direction, they could not make it to Jusenkyo.

Major Events

 * All the major characters compete in an obstacle course for a chance to go to Jusenkyo.
 * Ukyo and Shampoo meet each other for the first time.
 * Ryoga and Ukyo manage to win, but due to Ryoga's poor sense of direction they end up far away from Jusenkyo

Changes in anime

 * Unlike in the manga, Ukyo and Shampoo have already many few times before.
 * Race is much simpler, consisting only of water with crocodiles, sinking sands (no helicopter with lifeline), and desperate attempt to move finish line.
 * Chapter 163 is skipped completely.
 * There is no partner switching beyond Ranma changing to Akane. No one transforms either.
 * There is no snow in the anime version.
 * The gag where the boys and girls go around the rocks to check the other side of hot spring was adapted in filler episode The Mixed-Bath Horror!.

Characters Introduced

 * The Mayor of Zekkyo