Akari Unryu

Akari Unryu (雲竜 あかり or Unryū Akari) is a manga-only character, that appears in the manga: Volume 30 Chapter 1-3 and 11, Volume 31 Chapter 4-5, Volume 35 Chapter 1, Volume 36 Chapter 2. She is in a romantic relationship with Ryoga Hibiki.

Akari means "light or glimmer". Unryu means "cloud dragon" and more specifically is a sumo wrestling style involving both offense and defense.

History
Akari Unryu comes from a family that raises giant sumo wrestling pigs. Akari loves pigs and their strength as warriors, her favourite being Katsunishiki, the 14th yokozuna champion, and she frequently uses it for transportation. After her grandfather decreed that only a man who could defeat Katsunishiki in battle was worthy of becoming Akari's husband, she let it attack any available fighters to find someone suitable.

One day Ryoga noticed Katsunishiki rampaging through Nerima, and makes short work of the champion. When Akari witnessed this, she becomes instantly infatuated with Ryoga, and claims to have loved Ryoga for a long time, even showing Ryoga her diary to prove it, but Ranma is quick to notice that all the pages containing Ryoga's names are only a few minutes old.

Ryoga initially has a lot of reservations about Akari. At first he thinks she's too good to be true, and then when her compliments towards him all seem to compare him to a pig, he mistakenly thinks she is trying to insult him. Finally he sees her for the kind, genuine person she really is, and reciprocates her feelings while still being torn between Akari and his devotion to Akane Tendo.

Akari is head over heels in love with Ryoga. So much so that she even tries to learn to hate pigs for him. She is unsuccessful at breaking her joy of pigs, and feels unworthy of Ryoga, but once she discovers that he himself is actually a pig, she dances with joy that she has found the perfect man.

Ryoga initially has a hard time deciding whether he loves Akari or Akane more, unintentionally leading to a comical episode when both of them unexpectedly decide to visit at once, and he vainly tries to keep them out of the way of each other.

However, Ryoga's gradually strongly accepts Akari, and he takes their innocent dates very seriously, although he has a very hard time finding his way to them.

During the Saffron arc, he adds Akane's photo (purchased from Nabiki) into a photo holder he has which also has Akari's picture in it. When battling Saffron for the first time and he happens to lose this holder, Ryoga is desperate to regain the photographs, as he values them immensely.

By the end of the series (in the Ranma½ Memorial Book) the couple is described to have strong romantic feelings for each other, whereas Ryoga only has lingering affection left for Akane.

Personality
Akari has spent so much time around pigs that she incorporates references to them into her speech-patterns. Calling people she likes "strong as a pig", "kind as a pig", and similar as a way of complimenting them.

She was very determined in her pursuit of Ryoga, so after she noticed that Ryoga took offense at consistently being compared to pigs, she tried to give up her obsession to show the depth of her love.

However, she is unsuccessful, as she loves pigs too much, and feels unworthy of Ryoga, but once she discovers that he turns into a piglet, she dances with joy that she has found the perfect man.

Beyond for the goofy pig quirk, Akari is at heart a very sweet, and comparatively "normal" girl. Patient and kind, she loves Ryoga despite his curse, and is very understanding of his stumbling in the ways of the heart. She also understands his poor sense of direction and provides him with a map to his destination before their dates (though they usually don't help him much).

Ryoga is likely at least as fiercely loyal and protective of Akari as he was for Akane, given that the latter never truly even returned his feelings.

Anime
While Akari does not appear in the Ranma anime, a very similar character called Anna appeared in the episode Ryoga, Run Into the Sunset. In addition to having a similar relationship to Ryoga, Anna lives on a farm and is followed by a bipedal bull who is similar to Katsunishiki.

As Anna appeared a while before Akari, she may very well be the inspiration for her.