Cologne



Cologne is the leader of the Chinese Amazons and the great-grandmother of Shampoo.

History
Cologne accompanied Shampoo when she returned to Japan, opening the Cat Café in Furinkan. She is a contemporary of Happosai, and possibly a leader (or the leader) of the Chinese Joketsuzoku tribe. Cologne is very elderly, being either 118+ years old (manga) or around 300 (anime). Many years ago, as a young woman, she was quite beautiful (and normal sized), in contrast to Happosai, who was basically the same, only younger. The cause of her shrinkage is unknown but is probably an exaggeration of the tendency for some people to get slightly shorter as they age.



In the anime, her relationship with Happosai is expanded in the episode Back to the Happosai!. At 18 years old, she secretly loved Happosai despite his shortness, thievery, and unpopularity among the Amazons. Sadly Happosai's two timing ways ended up breaking the Amazon girls heart and he left the village with Cologne's stolen family heirloom, the Nanban mirror.

Cologne calls Ranma Saotome "bride-groom" and "future/son-in-law," and though she tries to trick and scheme to get Ranma to marry Shampoo at first (as well as at a couple of opportunities that fall into her lap), most of the time she is there as an aside, seeming to find joy in just watching the madness. She is a grand master of martial arts, and occasionally teaches Ranma new techniques, sometimes doing the same for his rivals. She gets around by pogoing on a gnarled wooden staff that she sometimes uses as a weapon.

Fighting Ability
Of the entire Ranma cast, only Happosai could compare with Cologne's sheer skill, though the latter's full battle aura, Ryoga's perfect Shishi Hōkōdan, or Rouge's and Saffron's fire projection all seem quite beyond her in terms of raw power. She is the grand master of the Chinese Amazon martial arts and likely knows many ancient martial techniques that have been passed down for thousands of years. In addition to the martial arts, Cologne is knowledgeable in several other disciplines such as arcane lore, cooking, Chinese mythology, and magic artifacts. It is likely that she trained generations of Chinese Amazon warriors before she trained Shampoo, making her at least partially responsible for the Chinese Amazon tribe being the powerful warrior tribe that they are today. Cologne is also capable of trickery in combat such as holding back her true martial arts abilities in order to lull her opponents into a false sense of confidence, which once worked on Ranma all too well. Overall, she is truly a force to be reckoned with.

Non-canon Appearances
In the Ranma Hot Song's contest, a scene in Shampoo's song "My Lover" shows a movie starring young Cologne and idealized young Happosai.

Cologne is playable in the debug mode of Ranma ½: Chōnai Gekitōhen combat.

Trivia

 * In the Latin American dubbing she is said to be 3000ish, possibly a translation mistake. There is a Christmas episode where she says (referring the death of Jesus Christ and not literally): "Yo sólo tenía 500 años cuando todo ocurrió" ("I was only 500 when everything happened".) Possibly related to this is Genma's insultingly calling Cologne a "3000 year old ghoul" in the English dubbed version of the second Dragon's Whisker episode.
 * Although Cologne is Shampoo's great-grandmother, she often refers to Ranma as her "future son-in-law", which on a technical level would be incorrect unless she was Shampoo's mother. Alternatively, she may simply consider "Future great-grandson-in-law" to be something of a mouthful. (It could also be because she raised Shampoo or because she is the matriarch and he is marrying into her tribe.)
 * A running gag in the series involves someone (usually Mousse) insulting Cologne by calling her a disrespectful name (e.g., Mackerel Jerky, Mysterious Mummy, old ghoul, Dried Up Monkey, etc.) which is quickly followed by Cologne whacking him over the head with her staff, even if he is well out of its reach.
 * In the anime, when introducing or talking about a technique Cologne has mentioned historical figures who succumbed to or were fooled by it.
 * In the fourth ending, she is referred to as "Obaba", meaning "old lady" (respectfully) or "honorable hag". The name Obaba is used in italian dub
 * She bears a resemblance to Myōga's anime-only fiance Shōga from InuYasha, Takahashi's subsequent manga series. Cologne and Shoga also share the same Japanese voice actress.
 * In one of Cologne's flashbacks, it was revealed that she used to speak like Shampoo.