Kasumi Tendo (
Plot[]
Nineteen-year-old Kasumi is the eldest daughter of the Tendo family. Although she is out of high school, she took over the role as the family matriarch after her mother's early death. She handles most of the housework and cares for her family and anyone who visitstheir home. While her life is largely that of a traditional Japanese homemaker, she doesn't appear to be devoid of social life, given that she has been shown to go on trips, visits her friends and regularly accompanies her family on various entertainment. She is interested in traditional medicine books and is on friendly terms with Tofu Ono, the local physician, who has a long-time crush on her and goes haywire whenever he sees or hears her. But given that she always encounters him in this mode, she considers him somewhat odd and seems unaware of his affection.
Kasumi's role in the series is usually peripheral, though she is present in a large quantity of the stories and she is sometimes used in a comedic manner. Examples include the two times she told Akane to clobber men in case they try to molest her, the one time she got rid of an extremely powerful 'bean-gun' plant through calmly throwing it in the wastebasket, or when she was compelled by an oni to carry out her concept of evil actions on those who annoyed her. In the original anime, she sometimes explained unusual phenomena or makes observations about bizarre fighting methods during matches in the dojo.
Kasumi's most notable story line happened when Happosai was possessed by 6 "devil cards". No longer considering Kasumi off limits, the old grandmaster tried to force her to be his wife and lunged to attack Ranma and Akane, who attemped to defend Kasumi in vain. However, Kasumi herself unexpectedly grabbed Happosai by the tail and gently wacked him at the floor, whereupon Nabiki had enough time to calmly burn the remaining cursed card to return the lech to his usual obnoxious self in a rather comical unexpected fashion. Some viewers interpret this incident as that Kasumi may be a highly capable, but currently non-practicing, martial artist. Others see it as Happosai being simply surprised afterwards and find it reasonable that she has received some training from her father, but hardly anywhere near the required great grandmaster skills to genuinely overcome Happosai.
Appearance[]
Kasumi has been remarked as being very beautiful. During the The Battle for Miss Beachside episode, she was surprised at just how many men wanted to ask her out. It was also notable that she won the contest in a landslide victory over Akane, Shampoo and Ukyo despite not being an actual contestant.
Personality[]
Kasumi in the manga
Kasumi is a peaceful character in a cast of frantic people. She is invariably shown as kind and pleasant, seldom seeming fazed by the wild events that surround her. Once the lunacy subsides, she amiably helps to clean up any remaining destructions and generally seems content in working hard to take care of her family, their household and make any houseguests comfortable. Even she was saddened when Nabiki ruined their family's economy, she was prepared to walk the streets to sell flowers to pay their bills. She may keep a cool head and cheerful attitude to help maintain the tranquillity of the household (or whatever is left of it) and hold her family together. It is heavily implied that she trained herself to stay calm as a defense mechanism after the first few chapters, when she was rather upset by seeing the results of Akane's sudden haircut.
Kasumi sometimes serves as an emotional confidant for her family. She gives wise and sagely advice, having made spot-on, if somewhat harsh, character observations, and wields a 'soft power' when she thinks it seems necessary. Given that she has tried to talk Ranma into seeing Akane in a forgiving light rather than directly berating her little sister, it seems that Kasumi is unwilling to cause any form of anguish whatsoever towards others if possible. While having more scholarly hobbies, Kasumi often cheers on Akane when her youngest sister participates on martial arts competitions. Akane herself has admitted to viewing Kasumi as a surrogate mother and as a personal role model in certain respects, and has often tried to emulate her looks, personality and "feminine" talents. Like the rest of her family, Kasumi has never held a grudge against Nabiki for any of her middle sister's ruthless business schemes, no matter how much she has suffered from them, and instead has tried to talk Nabiki into showing consideration. In fact, the sisters generally seem to be confidantes of each other, despite their diametrically opposed personalities in which they frequently state highly dissimilar considerate and cynical views of the antics surrounding them. In fact, Kasumi was the one who revealed to their father that Nabiki wanted to sell the dojo and play with the money to ascertain that he tried to bring together the flustered Ranma and Akane when her middle sister had taken up the engagement. Likewise, Kasumi is not afraid to firmly berate her father when he almost lost their house to the 'Gambling King' and after having learnt about his mishaps with the Chardin family. They generally get along well, though, and he is upset by the very thought of budging a hair on her head.
Kasumi appears to be virtually devoid of negative instincts. An entire story was devoted to this point. The other household members falsely assumed that their lack of consideration and various destructive mishaps had turned her murderously ferocious due to 'dammed up aggression'. However, when faced with these troubles and with the author noticing stated that her anger had reached its peak, she simply reprimanded Ranma, who had been tagged as scapegoat for each incident, by lightly tapping him on the forehead. Yet even here, she thought that she might have been overreacting. Another character observed that she is "a perfect saint" in conjunction. During the time she was possessed by an oni, her concept of evil seemed to be non-lethal but highly annoying pranks such as ironing Genma's panda fur, knitting "crossdresser" on Ranma's clothing, scratching Soun's back bloody with oversized nails/claws, and placing paralysis potion in the family dinner,
Abilities[]
Kasumi very occasionally shows a variant of her family's signature frightful battle aura, shown as a giant image of herself. The three known instances are: when Soun lost their house in a bet, when Picolet Chardin claimed one of the Tendo girls for marriage since their father had accidentally indebted himself by accepting expensive food from the Chardin's family, and (anime only) when Happosai tried to steal the underwear of all three Tendo girls due to the fact heavy rain had made it impossible for him to raid elsewhere. However, like Nabiki, and unlike her father and Akane, it doesn't seem useful for anything beyond intimidation.
While sometimes appearing oblivious, in reality Kasumi is highly perceptive. She has been able to see through Nabiki's business schemes and immediately noticed that something was amiss with Akane when a spirit doll possessed her youngest sister. In the second instance, her more patently attentive middle sister took considerably longer to notice. Likewise, Kasumi appears to be quite intelligent in an academic respect. Early in the series, she borrowed from Dr. Tofu a book about shiatsu (human pressure points), an advanced topic for somebody outside of the medical profession. She also managed to translate an excerpt from a French book, but has stated that her knowledge of the language was quite limited. It is, however, unclear if she is too occupied by her housework for scholarly pursuits.
Non-canon Appearances[]
In the live action special, Kasumi is portrayed by Kyōko Hasegawa and her preparation times for meals takes hours.
Etymology[]
- The name Kasumi translates as "mist". If intentional, this may imply that her perspective is rather clouded, in case Japanese cultural symbolism overlaps with Western in this respect, but could also symbolize grace, amongst other connotations.
- Kasumi's surname Tendo means "sun, heaven, providence, way of heaven, destiny, divine justice/divine guidance/divine intervention, fate, fortune, chance, predetermination, lot" (天道), which literally means "the laws of heaven and nature" altogether.
Trivia[]
- In both the manga and the anime, Kasumi has never been drawn with a comical face and she seems to be a "gentle" variant of the pokerface stock character.
- Kasumi and Nabiki were respectively portrayed as an angel and demon in 'The Memorial Book'/'The Art of Ranma ½' (Page 45).
- Kasumi stated that she finds younger men boring when she and her sisters learned of Ranma's pending arrival.
- In the manga, Kasumi generally seems to treat Happosai with consideration (volume 13, chapter 2; volume 19, chapter 9; volume 28, chapter 11) even calling him "grandpa" in one translation. (volume 13, chapter 3) He has also never been shown to directly pester her, unlike in the original anime continuity.
- According to the concluding "Memorial Book"/"'The Art of Ranma½", Tofu's love for Kasumi is supposedly one-sided in the manga. In contrast, her lyrics and accompanying scenes in the DoCo music video for "Red Shoe Sunday" strongly suggest that she likes him and is waiting for him to make the first move. By the end of the original anime, she appears set to be paired up with him.
- Kasumi's seiyū provide the voices of Yukie of the Mermaid's Scar OVA, Ruruko Tonegawa of Inside the Pot from the Rumiko Takahashi Anthology, protagonist Inuyasha's mother in Takahashi's subsequent series Inuyasha and Mendō's Mother from Urusei Yatsura (2022).
- Kasumi's first English voice actress would provide the voice of Kikyō in Inuyasha.
- Kasumi's second English voice actress previously voiced Sesshōmaru's mother in Hanyō no Yashahime.
Media Appearances[]
Manga[] |
Anime[] |
Gallery[]
Main article: Kasumi Tendo/Image Gallery
References[]