Hikaru Gosunkugi



Hikaru Gosunkugi (五寸釘 光, Gosunkugi Hikaru) is a fictional character in Rumiko Takahashi's anime and manga series Ranma ½.

Hikaru is a common Japanese name that means "flashing brilliance". Gosunkugi is a pun whose kanji can mean "five inch nail".

Appearance
His eyes are extremely big and seem to be lost and lonely. He usually wears the Furinkan High Male Uniform. Ranma took quite some time to finally notice him; his friends pointed out Gosunkugi is not the type you would notice as he hangs out at the back of the class by himself. He is often seen performing occultic rituals.

Personality
Gosunkugi is a quiet, antisocial individual, noted by his classmates as tending to blend into the background. He is shy and uncertain, but has something of a vengeful streak and is rather obsessive, particularly when it comes to things that interest him greatly, like the occult or Akane Tendo. He is something of a daydreamer and can be vindictive.

History
Little is known about Gosunkugi's past, except that he has always been an outcast and has, like the majority of Ranma's rivals, been in love with and pursuing Akane Tendo. His family share his large absent minded eyes and presumably his social distance with others. Many of the girls at school make an effort to be polite to him in person, though Yuka and Sayuri said he was strange when he was out of hearing range.

Neko-Ken Arc
Tatewaki Kuno pays Gosunkugi for the photos he takes in hopes of discovering Ranma's weak spot. Eventually after spending a significant amount of time stalking Ranma he discovers it to be a fear of cats. He sent Ranma a letter (badly disguised to be a letter of help from Akane that "she" had been kidnapped and was held hostage in the gym). Dressed as Akane, Gosunkugi pleaded for Ranma to save him, while secretly luring him into two traps designed to send him into the basement under the gym, full of cats. Both traps failed as Ranma easily evaded them, while they both backfired on Gosunkugi, Akane however fell into the gym. In a bid to save her Ranma goes down to but finds Gosunkugi having placed fish sausages on him. Ranma immediately sees the room is full of cats and using every bit of his will power manages to refrain from screaming at the sight of the cats, while taunting Gosunkugi, whilst Gosunkugi becomes confused Ranma becomes near paralysed. Akane tries to drag Ranma out and accidentally went into a room where gosunkugi had placed a tigger (in another attempt to scare Ranma). The tigger forced all three of them to the corner of the room so Ranma was confined with a large number of cats. This was too much for him to bear and his neko-ken activated. While this happened Kuno had assembled a party above for winning over the 'pig-tailed girl' when once he had exploited Ranma's weakness. He and a large number of students witnessed a large number of cats being blown out of the basement along with a tigger. Neko-Ranma emerges and in a fury shreds Kuno's sword with sir swipes, but eagerly runs after the shredded sword when Kuno throws it out of the gym. Later when Akane and Ranma's friends desperately try to send Ranma out of the neko-trance Ranma bounds to Akane and purs upon her lap, and unintentionally kisses her. Gosunkugi manages to photograph this incident. Whilst nailing the photo onto a power line pole rather like a voodoo doll, Ryoga shows up and in a fit of anger punches and breals the power line. Later he and Gosunkugi confront Ranma with the photo (which Ranma had no recollection of), but are pushed away by Ranma. The events of this arc, Akane's rage at Ranma kissing her as well as Shampoo coincidentally showing up from China in an express delivery in her cat form. She witnesses that Ranma is actually a boy under a Jusenkyo curse, sets off the next arc. The cat's tongue pressure point arc.

Romeo Juliet Play
Gosunkugi is one of the many characters to 'audtion' for the play upon discovering that Akane was playing Juliet. He along with Ranma, Kuno and Happosai all fought over the part for Romeo. Though Ranma was the only one who went fot the part with no desire to have alove scene with Akane but was after the reward to 'see China'. Gosunkugi however was the only one who had no ability in combat, so he suggests instead of the guys usual method of fighting to settle their problems, to use a contest of drama and acting to settle the dispute on stage. As the other three fought on stage, Gosunkugi disguised himself as part of Juliet's balcony so he could do the love scene with Akane whilst the others fought. He was however spotted by the others and is quickly put out of action. Later however Ranma turns into a girl in order to put his rivals out of action by seducing them, as a second Juliet. Ranma manages to put both Happosai and Kuno out of action by intoxicating Happosai with sake, distracting him with a bra and then trapping him in a barrel that she nails shut. While taking care of Kuno by letting his guard down by "kissing him" with tape over his mouth, and then tying him up. However in the confusion Gosunkugi manages to use chloroform to knock out Akane, but fails to drag her away as she is too heavy for him. After this Ranma and Kuno boot Gosunkugi away and he does not show up for the rest of the play. Later Ranma recevies the unpleasant surprise that "seeing China" was not in fact a chance to go to China for free but the holding of a China themed party, Gosunkugi is seen among the people enjoying the party.

Weak-Point Moxubustion Arc
When Happosai used the devestating weak point moxibustion on Ranma, he spread leflets saying "Ranma is weak" causing all of Ranma's adversaries to come rushing over to beat him up. Gosunkugi is among them, but as he is combatly challenged he waits until Ranma has received a very thorough beating by his over rivals; Principal Kuno, Mousse and Kuno, before striking at Ranma with his hammer. He charges at Ranma along with his other rivals but is booted away along with the others by Ryoga, who had stepped in to save his weakened rival. Gosunkugi is not seen for the rest of the arc.

Relationships
Like many of the other male characters in the series, Gosunkugi is in love with Akane Tendo, even though he is too shy to tell her. He usually stands longing along the sidelines watching the more potent characters such as Ranma or Kuno battle over her, and on occassion hatching a non-violent plan to overthrow his rivals in love to win Akane for himself. Most notable in the Neko-ken Arc he goes to a lot of trouble in teaming up with Kuno in order to exploit Ranma's weakness, which he eventually discovered was cats, and then setting several traps to expose Ranma's ailurophobia to the whole school, hense shaming Ranma and winning Akane. His plan failed as at first Ranma kept dodging the traps, whilst they back fired on him, and also when Ranma was placed in a room full of cats (and a tiger) he not only succeded in hiding his ailurophobia, but his neko-ken activated and was turned into a potent force of destruction.

Though not friends and normally rivals, Gosunkugi has toadied up to Tatewaki Kuno to get revenge on Ranma in several storylines.

In the anime his reason for hating Ranma and loving Akane is more personal. When Gosunkugi first arrives in Nerima, Ranma accidentally knocks him down while he is first coming to Furinkan High School, whereas Akane helps him up and speaks nicely to him. Things are cemented when Akane tries to offer a boxed lunch she made to Gosunkugi, Ranma having refused it, and Ranma immediately tries to snatch it back; though Ranma is merely trying to prevent Gosunkugi from having an agonizing stomach ache, this makes him look like he bullies Akane to Gosunkugi, and then, for added measure, Ranma accidentally spills Akane's lunch all over Gosunkugi's head.

In the Anime episode Gosunkugi's Summer Affair he bonds with Kogane Musashi over their shared love of the occult and the macabre.

Abilities
Gosukugi's fighting ability is relatively weak and limited especially in comparison to the major cast of martial artists. He has a tendency to let the main fighters do combat while he takes the prize they are fighting over when they're to busy to notice. When he is forced to fight he wields a hammer, with or without the use of nails; his name, meaning "Nine Inch Nail", makes reference to his usage of nails. Despite his fixation on the occult and constant attempts to perform rituals, he has no magical abilities. He is consistently targeted by the school bullies and is usually saved by Ranma from them. In the one punch manga arc Gosunkugi brought a special armour which gave him temporary power, but only worked if he was handcuffed to his target, he would be given a chance to land one punch on Ranma in 30 minutes or the armour would explode. He failed to accomplish this so the armour blew up leaving him, Ranma and everybody around covered in ash. Gosunkugi is a playable character in Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle.

Trivia

 * In the anime, Gosunkugi's parts in the Neko ken and Romeo Juliet play were given to Sasuke Sarugakure. He was eventually introduced in Season six of the anime as a Transfer student
 * In the Nightmare! Incense of Spring Sleep OVA Gosunkugi's skintone has become a ghostly white.
 * The small straw dolls that Gosunkugi is always seen carrying around are called "wara ningyo", and they can also be made from paper. Wara ningyos are a common feature in many Shinto rituals, with uses from casting love spells to warding off sickness to driving away yokai and evil spirits. Particularly in the latter categories, nailing them to objects or pounding nails into them is a common theme.
 * The ritual that Gosunkugi is frequently seen performing is a form of cursing ritual from the 800s; dressed in white and either wearing candles on their head (a common feature for Shinto rituals involving the spirit world) or carrying a torch in their mouth, the caster comes to a tree or a shrine gate at the hour of the ox (between 1 and 3 AM) and nails one or more wara ningyos to it while calling upon the kami to curse the individual they hate. This needs to be done on at least three days to at most seven days to work, and for best results the dolls should be nailed in place facing the northeast; according to the yin-yang philosophy, this is the direction from which all evil spirits come.