Principal Kuno Intro Arc

The is the 26th story arc covered in the Ranma ½ manga, spanning six chapters. This arc was included in volume 12 of the  and volume 10 of the Viz Media tankōbon.

Plot Summary
When a strange man is found running around the school, Ranma reveals it to be the principal who has just returned from the United States. He announces that all male students must get buzz cuts and all female students must get a bowl cuts. To prevent this, students must acquire a special coconut with a pardon inside.

While searching for the coconut students find that the principal's office transformed into a jungle. Akane starts opening all the coconuts in the office but find that none of them contain the pardon. Meanwhile, Ranma is told that Principal's son has been missing for three years. Ranma learns that Tatewaki Kuno is the missing son and reunites them. The Principal tells the students that the location of the coconut can be revealed by a map on Kuno's head.

They attempt to shave Kuno's head to find where the coconut is, but Akane convinces them otherwise. Ranma fails to convince Kuno to shave his own head, and decides to chase the Principal to a remote hut. Once at the hut, Ranma is briefly incapacitated when Principal knocks him out with the pardon coconut.

The tied up Ranma tries to defeat the Principal without getting caught in his shears. Ranma manages to dodge Principal Kuno's shearing techniques and hit him from below, defeating him. Principal agrees that the haircut policy will not be implemented. Soon after, he announces that boys now must get topknots while girls now must get geisha cuts. He is then beaten and bandaged.

Later, the Principal announces that anybody coming in late must clean the bathrooms for a week. He also does everything he can to prevent them from entering the school. Ranma manages to enter the school before the bell and make the Principal step outside, making him tardy. The Principal uses this opportunity to close the bathrooms while he cleans.

Major Events

 * Introduction of the Principal of Furinkan High School; he is revealed to be the father of Tatewaki Kuno and a major annoyance to students through bizarre rules and harsh punishments.

Changes in anime

 * The last chapter wasn't adapted.
 * The Story doesn't take place during winter (or at least there is no snow), making the Principal's snowman disguise very random.
 * Akane doesn't escape herself, Ranma must do it.
 * In the anime, Principal has numerous fake offices.
 * The plot line of the Principal looking for his missing son was removed from the main story and done in a separate episode, "Me is Kuno's Daddy, Me is". Writing on the back of Kuno's head is also in that episode, although for a different reason. Most of that episode is still filler though.

Characters Introduced

 * Principal Kuno