Shampoo's Revenge! The Shiatsu Technique That Steals Heart and Soul

'''Shampoo's Revenge! The Shiatsu Technique That Steals Heart and Soul' (Shanpū no Hangeki! Hissatsu Shiatsu Kobushi wa Mukuro mo Kokoro mo Ubau シャンプーの反撃!必殺指圧拳は身も心も奪う'') is the 16th episode in the first season Digital Dojo of Ranma ½.

Relation to the Previous Episode
This episode continues the storyline begun in the previous episode and which will be concluded by I Love You, Ranma! Please Don't Say Goodbye.

Plot Summary
Akane awakens and goes down to breakfast, where Kasumi asks her to wake Ranma up. When Akane angrily asks why she should do it, Nabiki teases her about still sulking over Ranma and Shampoo. Akane is not amused, as proven when Soun tells her to just admit her true feelings from him and she promptly snaps at him. The fact that this makes him curl up into himself and start crying does not make her feel any better, and she promptly storms up to the Saotomes room and shouts at Ranma to get up. To her fury, she discovers Shampoo sleeping in Ranma's futon, chui placed peacefully above the pillow and resting quite comfortably at Ranma's side. Trembling with rage, Akane goes and fills a bucket with cold water, which she then dumps on Ranma.

Ranma, naturally, is startled and irritated by this, but Akane refuses to answer why and walks off. It is at that moment that Shampoo wakes and, still groggy from sleep, begins to get ready to kiss Ranma... only to realise she is now sharing her bed with the female Ranma and promptly begins chasing her. Akane nonchalantly sits down at the table and begins eating her breakfast, even as Ranma and Shampoo go racing around the table.

Ranma finally manages to lose Shampoo, slipping into the bathroom and resuming his male form in the process, but as he walks out for breakfast, Shampoo sees him and resumes chasing -- this time, with the intent of kissing him rather than killing him. Around the table they go once again, Akane now getting upset. Shampoo ignores Akane, even going so far as to use her head as a stepping stone to finally leap ahead of Ranma and latch onto him affectionately. As Ranma tries to talk her into letting go, Akane angrily throws the rice cooker at Ranma's head, which makes Shampoo herself quite annoyed. The two share some angry talk before Akane declares she has to go to school and storms off.

On the way there, Ranma finally tries to explain his innocence in Shampoo's presence, but Akane refuses to listen, prompting Ranma to remark that there's just no getting through to her once she's made up her mind about something and which starts yet another argument. As they head bickering through the streets, Ryoga watches them go and thinks to himself that it's time to leave Akane forever, noting to himself that she only loves him as P-chan. However, he is torn when a voice from his subconscious points out that Ranma has just given him the perfect opportunity. Thinking to himself of a scenario where Akane tearfully declares she really is in love with Ranma, he declares his heart would shatter into a thousand pieces if he heard her say that and tearfully leaps off of the roof... and, somehow, gets splashed by that old woman with her purification ceremony again. As he gives her a look somewhere between incredulous and dirty, Shampoo stumbles across the apparent piglet and tries to make him allow her to touch him.

At lunch, the students of Furinkan are disturbed by a series of dull, muffled explosions, each accompanied by powerful tremors. Finally, the cause reveals itself when the wall behind Ranma explodes and Shampoo cheerfully enters with a covered silver platter in one hand, Ranma flatly inviting her in but suggesting she use the door next time. When Ranma asks what's going on, she explains she's brought him some homemade lunch; Canton-style Pork with Hibiscus. To the horror of both Ranma and Akane, she reveals a cooked P-chan. Shampoo irkedly takes the pig back from Akane, declaring it's for Ranma and not her, and gives it to Ranma, who tries desperately to coax some sign of life from his transformed rival and is rewarded with P-chan springing back to life and sinking his teeth into Ranma's arms. When Akane ecstatistically hugs her saved pet, Shampoo has evidently had enough of Akane's interference and gives her the Kiss of Death. Akane arrogantly declares she will accept Shampoo's challenge, and punches Ranma straight out the window when he tries to talk them both down.

Thinking to herself that this is her chance to get even with Shampoo, she reacts to Ranma's angrily pointing out she doesn't have a chance against the Chinese Amazon by sliding the window shut before Ranma can finish jumping back in, causing him to flatten himself against it and go sliding down the wall. By the time Ranma has regained his senses and come scrambling back up, both girls are gone and Ranma goes racing frantically after them, terrified for Akane's sake. Hearing P-chan's squeals, he follows them to an unconscious, but unharmed, Akane. To his relief, she seems only to have been knocked out and he angrily scolds her for going off to fight Shampoo... only to be dumbstruck when she asks if she knows him.

As Ranma wonders what's going off, Akane wanders off back towards school, trying to remember what happened in the fight. She recalls that Shampoo effortlessly dodged her attack at the last second, leaping behind her, but she can't recall what happened afterwards. When Ranma catches up to her, she asks who he is to keep addressing her so familiarly, which makes Ranma figure she can't remember him at all and wonder if she has amnesia. When some of her friends catch up, though, she seems to remember them fine -- to Ranma's bemusement. When they express their concern over Akane having gone to fight Shampoo, she laughs it off as nothing she couldn't handle, Ranma unable to resist pointing out in concern that Akane was out cold when he found her. Her angry reaction to this makes Ranma come to the conclusion that she might be playing to pay him back, but her genuine curiosity as she inquires as to her friends about Ranma's identity puts that conclusion to rest. When she suffers a painful headache, then suggests a variety of other vaguely similar sounding possibilities as to Ranma's identity, Ranma decides to interrogate P-chan. Much to Akane's outrage as he first takes her pet against her will, then effortlessly handles her to get away.

Hiding in a sports equipment shed, Ranma changes Ryoga back and demands he reveal what he saw of Akane's defeat. Ryoga refuses to do so at first, taunting Ranma with this apparent edge, but quickly changes his tune when Ranma threatens to expose him (literally) to a Furinkan girls team outside. Of course, Ranma is rather irked to discover Ryoga literally saw nothing, Shampoo having basically landed on him before she made her attack, denting the kettle on Ryoga's head and telling him he could have saved them both the trouble.

On the way home that evening, Akane still does not recognize Ranma and grows irritated at his presence. Finally, in an effort to jar her memory, Ranma shows her his curse. It doesn't work: she wonders if he's a crossdresser, calls him a pervert, and takes off. The two girls race through the street until Akane manages to "lose" Ranma thanks to the latter ploughing facefirst into a telephone pole, though the youngest Tendo keeps on going until she has come to a halt at Dr. Tofu's clinic. She is, understandably, rather surprised to discover Ranma has gotten there ahead of her, but while suspicious of the boy-turned-girl, agrees to see the good doctor.

From Ranma's description, and his own knowledge, Tofu suggests that Shampoo has used a powerful shiatsu technique known as the Xai Fang Heng Gao on Akane, a fact that Genma arrives in time to prove... once he's been restored to human form. Tofu explains that this technique combines the application of herbal extracts and manipulation of pressure points on the head to modify the victim's memory, and when pressed on a cure, suggests trying to retrieve some of the original shampoo in order to create an antidote. Confident that he can do so, Ranma grabs Akane around the waist and bluntly hauls her out of the clinic, leaping from wall to rooftop all over Nerima, ignoring Akane's screams of fright and demands to be released even as he calls out for Shampoo.

Ironically, perhaps moments after Ranma has left, Shampoo comes smashing into the clinic, where Tofu introduces her to the now-pandafied Genma as his new nurse.

Unaware of this, Ranma keeps roaming the city, Akane plaintively begging him to put her down or at least tell her who he is.

Trivia

 * Despite the fact that the living room was torn apart at the end of the previous episode, in this episode it is immaculate again.


 * When Akane discovers Ranma and Shampoo sharing a futon, Ranma is shown sleeping flat on his back and limbs neatly arranged under the covers. In all previous scenes showing Ranma asleep, he was depicted sprawled out messily with the covers kicked off and prone to tossing and turning.


 * When Akane makes her suggestions about who Ranma is, in the dub version, she suggests Ranma is the German Field Marshal known as the Desert Fox (Rommel), the company that sells Ginsu knives (Ranko), computer memory that can't be changed (R.O.M) and the title of a song by the band The Beach Boys (Help Me Ronda). In the subtitles, she instead suggests the word used to signal time out in hide-and-seek (Tanma), a fish traditionally caught in fall (Sanma), an exclamation of surprise (Arema) and the main character from the baseball manga Kyojin no Hoshi/Star of the Giants, via his famous quote "Father! I'll win this game!" (Hyuma Hoshi).