Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart (骨まで愛して?あかね恋の複雑骨折) is the 5th episode in the first season, Digital Dojo, of Ranma ½.

Ranma and Akane's relationship just doesn't seem to be getting any better; they are, if anything, fighting even worse now than they were before. Things start to come to a boil over the matter of Akane's precocious crush on the local medic, Dr Tofu Ono.

Relation to the Previous Episode
This episode leads directly from the previous episode, and opens with Ranma reacting to Akane's attacking him at the very end of that episode. The old woman who splashes Ranma is from the second episode, where she did much the same role, and is engaged in a Shinto purification ritual.

Continuing from the Previous Episode
Having returned home after his fight with Kuno, Ranma vents his anger by messily eating a packet of potato chips and ranting about Akane striking him for his comments, which he defends as "honesty". Genma eavesdrops on this, then tries to fade into the woodwork when Ranma storms out of the living room. As he congratulates himself on his apparent success, though, Ranma angrily shows up and tosses him into the koi pond, telling him to find something better to do. Genma watches Ranma leave in silence.

In the training hall, Akane and Soun are having a sparring session, until Akane remembers Ranma's insult about her appearance and unthinkingly slaps Soun so hard that he is knocked unconscious. Akane is horrified by what she has done and calls for Kasumi to help her tend to Soun's injuries, after which Kasumi asks Akane to heed her as if Kasumi were their mother and begs her to promise Akane to never strike somebody in anger again. Akane tries to avoid doing so, but agrees in the face of Kasumi's insistence. She is then sent to buy some ground pork and white onions for dinner.

After she has left, Kasumi gives a kettle of hot water to her father, currently sitting on the small verandah outside the living room and overlooking the garden with Genma. Soun comments that things seem to be getting worse between their children, to which Genma agrees, and the two mutually declare that they have to think of something or the engagement may be in jepoardy.

On her way to the market Akane runs into Ranma, currently walking along a fence and still stewing over how Akane has been hitting and insulting him since he was brought here. He expresses this resentment by snarkily telling Akane that if she keeps following him some of his looks might rub off on her, which infuriates her. She leaps onto the fence and threatens to slap him if he doesn't shut up, cutting herself off in mid-sentence and telling him about the promise she made to Kasumi. Ranma, still in a bad mood, hops to the pavement and starts to walk off, throwing the insult over his shoulder that it's a little late for that and Akane should be more worried about how she's going to trick some poor jerk into marrying her. Incensed by this insult, Akane declares that even her own mother wouldn't expect her to tolerate something like that, leaps off of the fence and charges him, brutally overpowering and thrashing him.

To Dr. Tofu's
After she has finished venting her anger, Akane drags Ranma to Tofu's clinic for treatment. Tofu is aghast over the injuries that Ranma has suffered and asks if Akane knows who was responsible for such a terrible thing. Akane is abashed, but when Ranma painfully tells Tofu that it was a tomboy of a girl who did this to him, she is unable to resist tossing Ranma out of his bed for it. Much to Akane's embarrassment, Tofu asks if it truly was Akane who injured Ranma, and, when she makes the answer a "yes" by refusing to speak, begins laughing as he declares that he should have recognized the damage as having her characteristic touches, like joints twisted backwards. Ranma, needless to say, is not happy by Tofu changing his tune and treating his injuries as something amusing after finding out Akane did it, but is too busy crying in protest as Tofu makes the painful, but neccessary, manipulations to fix his dislocations and twisted bones. Akane, meanwhile, forgets about her embarrassment to instead become withdrawn and upset over Tofu calling her a child.

At the Tendos, Nabiki isn't happy to hear from Kasumi that it'll be boiled potatoes for dinner, as Akane still hasn't gotten back with the meat and onions, while Soun and Genma are still trying to think of a way to make Ranma and Akane start treating each other more like the couple they're supposed to be. Soun earns Genma's distaste when he playfully splashes Genma with cold water to see if being a panda will help him concentrate.

As Akane and Ranma leave Tofu's clinic, Tofu calls Ranma back and privately suggests he put the fiancee thing aside and simply try being nice to Akane, which prompts Ranma to point out that he doesn't start all of the fights. Tofu insists that Akane really is very sweet and kind, to Ranma's surprise and skepticism, then insists that Ranma will understand before giving him a hard thump on the lower back to send him after Akane.

On the road home, Akane mildly asks what Tofu wanted to speak to Ranma about, to which Ranma replies by mocking her that Tofu was expressing his sympathy over Ranma being stuck with such a tomboy for a fiancee, purposefully trying to goad her to a fight. Akane, however, is too depressed over the fact that Tofu still sees her as a child to react at first, though Ranma's persistent barbs do start to wear through.

At that moment, in his clinic, Tofu counts down three seconds in satisfaction.

On the road, Ranma's legs suddenly give out, causing him to collapse into the street, distracting both teens from their argument. Ranma angrily realizes that Tofu must have hit some kind of pressure point when he slapped Ranma on the back at the clinic, but is distracted by Akane's offering him a piggyback, pointing out that Ranma can't get home as he is. Ranma's kneejerk is a refusal, claiming it would be embarrassing to be seen having to depend on a girl to get home, which prompts Akane to splash him with cold water and ask if it's alright if it's two girls. Ranma's silence is taken as agreement and she carries Ranma home. As she does, Ranma thinks on Tofu's last words to her, and is both still doubtful and admits to herself that she doesn't understand Akane yet.

The Next Morning
After Ranma and Genma spar before breakfast, Genma unthinkingly drags them into the pond when he stops in midair to thank Kasumi for making the meal. Genma somehow manages to explain he's got a new parttime job as he sits down at the table, still a panda, even as Ranma blithely pulls off her gi to wring out the excess water and sarcastically asks if there's an opening at the zoo. Soun chooses that moment to come onto the scene; naturally, he is disturbed by the sight of Ranma unthinkingly sitting there naked from the waist up, which prompts an angry Akane to douse Ranma with boiling water and starts another argument between the two. Kasumi ignores the argument and distracts it by bringing up the topic of a book she needs to be returned to Tofu, though Akane insists she can't take it as today isn't a good day for her. While Kasumi accepts this as fact, Ranma curiously asks why Akane can't go, pointing out that it's the perfect excuse.

Immediately, Akane grabs Ranma by the wrist and drags him out of the house at top speed, ignoring his protests even as they run by the old woman and her purification ritual, resulting in Ranma being turned into a girl. She stops only when they have reached Furinkan, slamming Ranma against the gate and berating her for hinting about her crush on Tofu. Her argument is cut off when she realises Ranma has been turned into a girl, unthinkingly pulling her shirt open to bare her breasts. At that moment, they realize Akane's horde of unwanted suitors are standing there and watching them, Akane turning to face the inevitable assault.

Instead, they begin to weep and explain that they are going to call the assaults off, as Akane is now engaged to Ranma. When the girls ask what brought this on, Kuno arrives and declares that a "falsehood" that Ranma has beaten him has spread like wildfire, insisting he will never admit defeat... despite the fact he is currently bandaged from head to foot and collapses to his knees in pain as he speaks. The boys explain that Kuno was Furinkan's greatest champion (also its greatest pervert, which Kuno objects to), and that they've decided it's time to get over Akane seeing as how her fiance is so very formidable. Outraged, Kuno declares he will never stop, no matter whether Ranma kicks him 100 times or 200 times, pulling the bandages on his face aside to reveal he's still bearing bruises in the shape of Ranma's boots.

Ranma, unable to resist her anger at Kuno's denouncements of her male form's skill, confronts him, ignoring Akane's warnings to avoid revealing her secret. Fortunately, Kuno ignores that to instead try to woo her again; though Akane claims she is ready to stand aside and let Kuno and "the pigtailed girl" be together (much to Ranma's aggravation), Kuno is so touched by her noble declaration that he declares himself unable to choose between the girls, finally being knocked out cold by Ranma's kick. At this, the boys declare that they have said their peace and leave, telling Ranma's female form to give their regards and congratulations to Ranma.

Later that Day
Physical Education class sees things start to swing back down again. After impressing the boys in his class with his gymnastics skills, two of them, Hiroshi and Daisuke, start up a perverted, innuendo-laced conversation with Ranma about Akane, who is part of the girls playing softball nearby. When Ranma, in irritation, finally tells the two that Akane has somebody she likes, he gets hit in the face by a softball Akane was batting at, though it's unclear if this was intentional or truly accidental. On the way home, Akane asks if it's still hurting, then gets sniffy and declares she's apologized enough already, even as Ranma insists to himself that this is clearly not going to work.

They stop at Tofu's clinic when they see Genma, still in panda form, sweeping up outside, being invited in by Tofu for some tea. Tofu offers to take a look at Ranma's bruise, though Akane distracts him when Ranma begins to hint at how he got it, then wanders off to get something for it. Answering a phone for Genma, who can't talk as a panda, Akane discovers that Kasumi is heading over to return her book and tries to leave, though Ranma stops her. Finally, in aggravation at Ranma's bringing up her crush on Tofu, she tells him that Tofu is in love with somebody else, though she refuses to tell him who, despite his hounding her.

Trivia
STAFF:

Script: Yoshio Urasawa

Storyboard: Tamiko Kojima

Director: Kazuhiro Furuhashi (later chief director of Rurouni Kenshin and GetBackers)

Animation Director: Masako Goto