Youkihi

Youkihi, also known as Yohkihi and Yang Gui-Fei, is a one-off female antagonist from the anime continuity of Ranma 1/2. She makes her appearance in the 3rd season episode The Witch Who Loved Me: A Japanese Ghost Story.

History
In life, it's said, Youkihi was an evil and jealous woman, who craved the attention of men and bitterly resented other women. Such was her obsession with capturing the hearts and minds of men that she would kill men who she caught looking at other women. When she died, her spirit remained tied to the earthly plane by haunting her favorite brassierre. Should any man dare to touch it, the brassierre would animate and wind itself around their face, covering up their eyes and then remaining magically sealed, becoming all but impossible to remove.

At some point, Youkihi's haunted brassierre came into the possession of a Japanese antiques dealer, who resided in the Nerima district. Worried due to the recent rash of underwear thefts plaguing the area, he sought help in protecting the brassierre from the martial artists of the Tendo Dojo; Soun Tendo, Akane Tendo, Genma Saotome and Ranma Saotome.

Ironically, doing so brought the existence of Youkihi's brassiere to the attention of the very underwear thief that he sought to protect it from, as the Tendo Dojo was also the reluctant hiding spot of Happosai, whose depredations had motivated the antiques dealer. As such, Happosai followed his students to the antiques shop, and after a brief confrontation, forced them to give him the brassierre. When he touched it, the bra's curse activated and it latched onto his head. Due to Happosai's perversity, he was not truly bothered by this, and began sensually caressing it.

Perhaps because of this, Youkihi's spirit emerged from the bra and manifested itself. When she saw whom her bra had captured, she was instantly disgusted, and ended the curse, making the bra drift over to her and merge back into her body. The perverted Happosai was, of course, instantly smitten when he saw the beautiful woman who had sprung from the bra, but she violently repelled him, disdainfully noting that whilst it had been a long time, it hadn't been long enough for her to be desperate enough to hook up with the likes of Happosai.

The young and handsome Ranma Saotome, on the other hand, was much more to her liking. She attempted to hypnotise him into becoming her sexual plaything, but was interrupted repeatedly by Akane Tendo, Soun Tendo, Genma Saotome, and Happosai. When Akane drenched Ranma and activated his Jusenkyo curse, it was the last straw for Youkihi's patience. She transformed into a monstrous serpent-woman and attacked the teenagers, threatening to crush the life out of them in her steely coils.

She was distracted from this ploy when Genma, rushing to restore Ranma to normal in order to appease her, accidentally spilled the kettle of hot water he was carrying over himself due to Youkihi throwing Happosai in his direction. To Youkihi, Genma's human form was the spitting image of the one man she had truly loved in life. She changed back into her human appearance, and began chasing after Genma, who dove into a fountain and returned to panda form to escape her amorous intentions.

When Happosai seized this opportunity to grapple onto the disgusted spirit from behind, it was the final straw. After she failed to escape his grasp, Youkihi dissipated into nothing, and her brassierre promptly crumbled into dust, as the spirit had evidently chosen to finally move on to the afterlife rather than remain in a world with Happosai in it.

Personality
Youkihi is arrogant, regal, demanding and lustful. She craves handsome young men to be her lovers, and is very picky in her tastes. She disdains women and will quickly move to violence against them when angered. She has a very short temper. However, from her behavior when she sees Genma in his true form, it seems she can also be loving and doting to a chosen partner.

Abilities and Weaknesses
As the ghostly spirit of a sorceress, Youkihi potentially has a wide array of abilities, but only two confirmed abilities appear during her episode.

Firstly, she has the ability to hypnotize any man she desires, although it seems like it only works on men whom she is sexually attracted to, as she does not try to use this power to make Happosai or Soun leave her alone. This power has no effect on women, so Ranma was able to shield himself from it by assuming female form.

Secondly, she has the power to transform into a monstrous form, consisting of a scaly-skinned, bestial woman from the waist up and an enormous serpent from the waist down. In this form, she is quick-moving and incredibly strong, with even Ranma and Akane being unable to free themselves once caught in her coils.

Youkihi's precise weaknesses are unclear, beyond a general inability to tolerate the coarse lechery of Happosai.

Relationships
Youkihi absolutely despises Happosai, who she finds ugly and unappealing on a physical level, and disgusting in terms of his behavior. His harrassment of her aggravates her so thoroughly that she ultimately chooses to move on from the physical world rather than be near him any more.

She is quite smitten with Ranma Saotome, whom she finds very physically attractive. This amorous interest changes to violent rage when he transforms to his female form and tries to fight her.

She hates Akane Tendo, mostly for interfering with her attempts to make Ranma her plaything.

Ironically, she absolutely adores Genma Saotome, whom she believes is a reincarnation of her original lover - but Genma very much does not reciprocate the feeling and seeks to avoid her.

Trivia

 * In the subtitled anime, Youkihi is named "Yang Gui-Fei", a reference to the famous Empress of Tang Dynasty China, regarded as one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China. To further the connection, the subtitles also clarify that Youkihi mistakes Genma Saotome for Emperor Xuanzong, who was Fang Guifei's husband in history.
 * Whilst watching Youkihi chase Genma around, Akane mockingly notes to Ranma that Youkihi could be one of Ranma's ancestors.