It might not be the same as the food, but the number of other characters with comedic names kinda puts paid to that idea. Ranma's name means Reckless Horse/Entangled Thread (Ranma) and Rice-planting Girl/Early Maiden¹ (Saotome). The mangaka figured it was a cute name for both a boy _and_ a girl, plus Ranma comes straight from one of her favorite idioms: kaitō ranma wo tatsu (快刀乱麻を断つ), which means "tackling plenty of tasks diligently." Ranma's life is a tangled thread of good and bad fortune, he's as reckless as a bucking bronco, but despite all that he's exceedingly diligent at completing the tasks he _wants_ to do. ¹ This isn't so much two different translations of the same kanji, as it is the same kanji _"spelled"_ differently. An "Early Maiden" is a pretty classical way of referring to a young, unmarried girl, who was ubiquitously depicted as the daughter of rice farmers helping with the planting and harvest.
Ranma's dad and Akane's dad are very manly men and very fixated with upholding a hyper-masculine image of Ranma and of their dojo, so Mr. Saotome wouldn't want the school knowing that Ranma turns into a girl. Mr. Saotome and Mr. Tendo see Ranma being a girl as a disgraceful thing, although they accept it. Because of his hyper-masculine upbringing, Ranma is very self-conscious about how manly he is at first. But imo he's a femboy.
Ranma is neither genderfluid nor a femboy. Ranma solidly identifies as male, and sees being a girl as a curse. Throughout the series, he holds an intense desire to return to China to cure himself. There's a reason he doesn't act like a girl, even when he's not thinking about it.
@@MaliceInCandyland Yeah, cause it's a gag romance/comedy first and foremost. But if you're actually paying attention, he constantly shows his hate for it, sees it as a curse(hence his first interaction with Ryoga as a girl), and he even swims back to China to try and fix this later on. Here's a spoiler, nothing in this story has an actual resolution.
@@SakuraAvalon I'm very familiar with the original anime and somewhat familiar with the manga, and I don't agree that Ranma hates being a girl throughout and that there's no sense of resolution. But you do you.
There’s so much water always around Ranma because it’s a Curse. 😂
Dr. Tofu's name is "東風 (toufuu)", meaning "east wind", it's completely unrelated to the food tofu (豆腐, toufu). It's not supposed to sound comedic.
It might not be the same as the food, but the number of other characters with comedic names kinda puts paid to that idea.
Ranma's name means Reckless Horse/Entangled Thread (Ranma) and Rice-planting Girl/Early Maiden¹ (Saotome).
The mangaka figured it was a cute name for both a boy _and_ a girl, plus Ranma comes straight from one of her favorite idioms: kaitō ranma wo tatsu (快刀乱麻を断つ), which means "tackling plenty of tasks diligently."
Ranma's life is a tangled thread of good and bad fortune, he's as reckless as a bucking bronco, but despite all that he's exceedingly diligent at completing the tasks he _wants_ to do.
¹ This isn't so much two different translations of the same kanji, as it is the same kanji _"spelled"_ differently. An "Early Maiden" is a pretty classical way of referring to a young, unmarried girl, who was ubiquitously depicted as the daughter of rice farmers helping with the planting and harvest.
@@SuperiorPosterior interesting
❤
Thank you!!
Ranma's dad and Akane's dad are very manly men and very fixated with upholding a hyper-masculine image of Ranma and of their dojo, so Mr. Saotome wouldn't want the school knowing that Ranma turns into a girl. Mr. Saotome and Mr. Tendo see Ranma being a girl as a disgraceful thing, although they accept it. Because of his hyper-masculine upbringing, Ranma is very self-conscious about how manly he is at first. But imo he's a femboy.
I could see that, but I could see Ranma being genderfluid and just not having the word for it
Ranma is neither genderfluid nor a femboy. Ranma solidly identifies as male, and sees being a girl as a curse. Throughout the series, he holds an intense desire to return to China to cure himself.
There's a reason he doesn't act like a girl, even when he's not thinking about it.
@SakuraAvalon He says that he wants to break the curse, but he sure has a lot of fun in girl form.
@@MaliceInCandyland Yeah, cause it's a gag romance/comedy first and foremost.
But if you're actually paying attention, he constantly shows his hate for it, sees it as a curse(hence his first interaction with Ryoga as a girl), and he even swims back to China to try and fix this later on.
Here's a spoiler, nothing in this story has an actual resolution.
@@SakuraAvalon I'm very familiar with the original anime and somewhat familiar with the manga, and I don't agree that Ranma hates being a girl throughout and that there's no sense of resolution. But you do you.