Ranma vs. Mousse! To Lose Is To Win

Taiketsu Mūsu! Makeru ga Kachi (対決ムース! 負けるが勝ち) is the eleventh true episode in the second season of Ranma ½, Anything-Goes Martial Arts, though it is treated as the fourteenth episode, and is the 32nd episode overall.

Relation to the Previous Episode
Continues on from where the previous episode left off, using its ending as this episode's opening. This concludes the "Mousse Returns" storyline.

Plot Overview
The ringmaster announces it is time for the show to begin and a stagehand slips down onto the giant tap, slowly pushing it open. As the first drop narrowly escapes hitting her, Akane struggles in a desperate effort to free herself, to the consternation of the ringmaster. Just as the tap finally starts gushing water, though, Ranma comes flying in and kicks the tap off... only to realise that this has just made the problem worse. In a remarkable display of agility and quick thinking, he grabs the tap, swings off of an acrobat's rope, and then leaps onto the pipe for the Yahzuniichuan, slamming the tap horizontally over the opening. This blocks the water for a moment or two, but then geysers of it start spurting around the blockage - luckily for Akane, she manages to wriggle and thrash so hard that the tank she is in overturns, causing the water coming her way to just wash harmlessly off of a glass wall, while Ranma quickly repositions the tap in its proper place.

He barely has a heartbeat to relax before he narrowly evades a jet of water from an industrial hose, leaping back to the acrobat's rope as Mousse gleefully shouts how Ranma has been tricked; Akane's tap was nothing but ordinary water, but the hose Mousse has is real Yahzuniichuan. Ranma manages to evade blast after blast, but it is the intervention of a tiger-riding Shampoo that saves him from one final splash. Seeing her come to Ranma's aid leaves Mousse horrified, and in disbelieving rage he runs over, demanding to know how she can help Ranma. While Ranma has to push him in the right direction, Mousse can only weakly ask if Shampoo hates him - to which she immediately replies "sure do". Aghast, Mousse, begs to know that she's joking, only to once again be told, in the same conversational tone, that she hates him, she hates him big time, she hates him more than the Great Wall, and she H-A-T-E-S him.

Wailing in despair, Mousse collapses pitifully to his hands and knees, sobbing a question as to how Shampoo can say such things when he's loved her since they were children, recalling that he's proposed multiple times. Flashbacks to two of those times depict the two as very small children, with Shampoo angrily booting Mousse in the back of the head for confusing her with a cow or long-horned ox, and as somewhat older children, with Mousse lovingly holding the forelimbs of a pig while Shampoo walks past in the background, bundle on a stick over her shoulder, and not even looking in his direction. The audience breaks into tears and expressions of sympathy, and even Ranma looks sorry for Mousse. He encourages Mousse to not give up hope and to get rid of any obstacles in his way.

Mousse comments in shock on Ranma's kindness, gratefully clasps Ranma's hands and then declares Ranma to be a good person and that he's going to take Ranma's advice... before punching Ranma into the sky and fiercely declaring he'll do so by getting rid of Ranma. Ranma grabs hold of the acrobat's rope once again and goes swinging and leaping away, even as a maniacal Mousse follows him with barrages of daggers. Shampoo watches and wonders softly if Mousse really loves her that much.

Akane has finally managed to saw her bindings off with the edges of the tank, angrily wondering to herself why she got dragged into this. She senses danger and narrowly manages to evade a splash of water from Shampoo and a bucket... a bucket labelled "Yahzuniichuan", and of which she has four more. As Akane demands to know what Shampoo is thinking, Shampoo merely chirps that she feels sorry enough for Mousse that she's going to try and introduce him to a new girlfriend - one with the same curse. Akane manages to dodge the next two buckets, but when Shampoo throws the last two buckets squarely at her, it is fortunate for her that Ranma swings by and snatches her up at the last second. Mousse promptly runs to Shampoo's side with the hose and starts spraying Ranma and Akane, the latter of which pulls off one of her shoes and throws it squarely at Mousse's forehead in anger. This turns out to not be such a bright idea as the hose goes out of control, with Ranma leaping onto it to try and choke the water off... but not in time to prevent Akane getting struck in the face by such a powerful blast that she is thrown into the dark rooms beyond the main ring. Frantically, Ranma follows her, but sees no sign of her... save for a small white duck against which Akane's remaining shoe is leaning. Horrified, teary-eyed, Ranma takes the duck into his arms, guiltily admitting that this is his fault and swearing to change her back, running over towards the back tent and ripping a hole in it before heading back to the Tendo Dojo.

There, he finds the bathtub full of hot water and, not questioning this good luck, prepares to put the duck into the bath, promising that he will neither reveal this secret of hers nor look at her while she's naked. As he goes to put it in, though, Soun pops out of the water, much to Ranma's shock, and jokingly tells him to wait for his turn to use the bathroom. He then loses his good humor and demands to know what is going on, having overheard Ranma's talking to "Akane". Ranma weakly tries to hide it, but Genma, Nabiki and Kasumi pick that moment to appear and ask what's with the duck in the bath. Ranma, horrified, pushes past Soun to see that, yes, the duck is still a duck, frantically splashing it with hot water before screaming in disbelief.

Back at the circus, the real Akane finally regains consciousness and crawls out from under the tarpaulin she had been pushed under by the force of the water jet. She does so just in time to hear Shampoo asking if it really was just more tapwater that Akane got splashed with, with Mousse stating that this is so, as he only has one bucket of Yahzuniichuan left and it's far too precious to be used on anybody except for Ranma. Akane promptly kicks it out of his hand so that it drenches him, though Shampoo doesn't seem all too emotional about this.

Back at the Tendo Dojo, Ranma finishes tearfully admitting to Soun, Nabiki and Kasumi that this is Akane, how she got cursed, and he doesn't know why she's not changing back. Soun promptly declares that the only proper thing to do in this situation is for Ranma to marry Akane, to make up for his failure to prevent her from being turned into a duck, something that gets Genma and the other Tendo girls very excited. While not exactly pleased with this twisted logic, Ranma says nothing, feeling that they have a point and this is the responsible thing to do.

Drenching Mousse with hot water, Shampoo reasonably asks Mousse to be a real man, give up at last and go back home, to which he stubbornly and childishly refuses. In a more tired tone of voice, she declares that Mousse is never going to win against Ranma (or to win her heart), and makes a final decree for him to just go home already before turning to leave. Mousse petulantly snivels a question about who would want somebody as icy as Shampoo anyway as she goes, which makes her mad and sends her leaping back in a flying kick to Mousse's face to express her irritation. Sticking her tongue out him, she leaves the scene, which prompts Mousse to start crying. Akane watches his display of sorrow with disdain, mentally dubbing him pathetic, then tells him to stop crying and promises to help him out, encouraging him to challenge Ranma once more and promising victory, much to Mousse's confusion.

At the Tendo dojo, an impromptu Shinto ceremony has been thrown together to celebrate the wedding of Ranma and "Akane". While Nabiki does raise the question of whether this might actually be a real duck to Kasumi, neither sees any reason to interrupt Soun, who, sobbing about how this is such a happy occasion, tries to make the duck drink sake - much to the water fowl's displeasure. Annoyed, Ranma finally takes the duck and starts snapping at it, declaring "she" should be grateful because even if she wasn't a duck, he still wouldn't marry her if he had a choice, running off some of his favorite insults about her physique. Unfortunately for him, the real Akane arrives home just in time to hear his rant addressed to "her" and whallops him over the head with a table. Nabiki notes with some diappointment that things would have been really interesting if she'd just waited a little longer to arrive. Ranma, needless to say, is quite confused when he realises the mistake he almost made.

At the Nekohanten either later that evening or early the next morning, Akane delivers a challenge letter from Mousse to Ranma, much to the latter's dismay. Shampoo confidently declares that Mousse will never beat Ranma, something that Cologne agrees with as she dishes up two plates of yakisoba/chow mein for Ranma and Akane. Akane asks Shampoo just what would happen if Mousse did win, much to Ranma's indignation, while Shampoo confidently declares that if that happened, by some million-to-one chance, then she would go on a date with Mousse. Mousse promptly appears in the restaurant, parking his unicycle on the back of Ranma's head and triumphantly declaring he'll beat Ranma to a bloody pulp in front of Shampoo. As Ranma pulls his face out of his food and shouts in rage, Akane furtively encourages Ranma to let Mousse win, declaring it'll put him out of his misery and that it also means that Shampoo will have to give Ranma up.

By the time the sun has come up, the quartet of martial artists have gathered in a vacant lot for the duel. Akane whispers to Ranma her encouragement to lose on purpose, which Shampoo watches in irritation. She's aware that something is up and has a strong suspicion that Akane may have something up her sleeve. So, she has made some preparations of her own. Giving Mousse a staff-like polearm with a model duck on the tip, she tells him that she made it just for him, which leaves him ecstatic. After he gloats about he is certain to win with this, the fight begins - but a two-footed leaping kick to the face from Ranma is the first blow, leaving Mousse apparently unconscious from the blow. He gloats over this and is promptly whacked over the hand by Akane with a paper fan for forgetting the deal, seconds before Mousse kicks him in the back of the head. After some minor scuffling, Ranma blocks a vertical strike from Mousse's weapon... which promptly spits several eggbombs out of its rear. Ranma evades the blast, but Mousse is not so lucky.

Realising that Shampoo has sabotaged her plan, Akane whirls to her in outrage, even as the Joketsuzoku darkly declares she has no intention of ever going on a date with Mousse. With a pelican version of her former weapon, she offers it to Mousse - blind to the truth of what's going on, he accepts it and attacks Ranma with renewed fervor. Once again, he ends up getting blown up by a concealed stockpile of egg bombs within it - the next weapon Shampoo forgoes even the crude subtlety of her previous one, consisting of a fuse-bomb on the end of a pole, which blows up the second Mousse takes hold of it. As he lies sizzling in a small crater, Akane declares in an aghast tone that she can't believe how heartless Shampoo is, even as the Chinese girl laughs that Mousse has finally been defeated.

Ranma himself can't help but feel sorry for Mousse, though his respect rises when, with a groan of "it's not over yet", Mousse rises from the ground and gets ready to fight again. At this, Ranma declares he will not hold back either, at which Akane protests that Mousse has clearly had enough. Dodging some strikes from Mousse, Ranma locks the Chinese boy's arms with his legs and asks, deliberately and loud enough for the girls to hear, how Mousse would feel if the fight was fixed so that he won. Akane realises in shame that Mousse's ego would be crushed... only for both her and Ranma's feelings to switch to disdain when Mousse promptly hits Ranma on the head with a weapon that resembles a chui head on the end of a chain while declaring he'd be happy for Ranma to throw the fight in Mousse's favor, right before sprouting scythe blades from the underside of his wrists and declaring he doesn't need pride if he can have Shampoo.

With that, he viciously attacks Ranma, the two fighting hard and furious over the rooftops of nearby houses until Ranma finally manages to shatter all of Mousse's sets of scythes before outmanuevering him and sending him crashing face-first into a junkpile. Chest heaving from exertion, Ranma hastily begins burying the unconscious under various junk, just managing to place a broken refridgerator on top of him before Akane and Shampoo catch up. Ranma tries to act cool, claiming the victory was foregone but giving Mousse some credit for how hard he fought, but he still ends up panicking when the fridge starts moving, Mousse rising up and holding it above his head while hissing that the fight isn't over yet... but then the fight goes from his eyes and he falls unconscious with a last whisper of "Shampoo".

As Akane marvels at how he's fainted standing up, Shampoo splashes Mousse with cold water and then takes the unconscious duck to her breast, her expression blank, yet slightly sad, with a soft exclamation of "stubborn duck". With that, she turns and walks away with him, leaving Akane happy that it looks like Mousse has gotten through to her after all. When they check in at the Nekohanten the next day, however, they see Mousse still in duck form, chained to a chairleg as Shampoo gleefully taunts him with some small fish, sticking her tongue out at his efforts to get to that which is out of his reach. Ranma declares, perhaps mockingly, that Mousse is living the good life - Akane can only feebly declare that "to each his own".

Trivia

 * Two scenes from the manga are missing in this version; Mousse's attempt to dig a boulder-drop and pit-trap for Ranma, only for Shampoo to trigger it onto him, and Akane splashing Shampoo and using her to terrorize Ranma into agreeing with her plan to fake a defeat for Mousse after he declares that he'd rather be stuck with Shampoo than lose a fight on purpose.
 * Even if Ranma had gone along with Akane's plan, it wouldn't have really solved anything; Shampoo's promise was simply a date with Mousse, nothing more long-term than that (the subs do have Shampoo say she'll go steady with Mousse, but manga and dub alike just make the prize a date). If Mousse had won, in fact, he would have just hated Ranma all the more afterwards, because Shampoo would have gone on one date with him and then gone right back to chasing Ranma.
 * In the manga, Ranma approaches Mousse to cheer him up by kicking him in the back of the head. Here, he simply walks up to him and encourages him to get rid of anything in his way.
 * In the anime, Soun actually makes a verbal joke about why he's in the bath with snorkling gear; in the manga, the joke is simply that he pops up with it at just that particular moment.
 * In the dub, Shampoo makes a mildly annoyed comment of "Great, now there no more Yahzuniichuan left," after Akane spills it, but in the sub, her comment is simply "Now Yahzuniichuan out of stock".
 * In the manga, this story actually comes directly after the stories told in the episodes Ranma Gains Yet Another Suitor, Ryoga & Akane: 2-Gether, 4-Ever and All It Takes is One! The Kiss of Love is the Kiss of Death, which occur in that order.