Manga Extras
Volume 7
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| The Making of Ranma 1/2, Part 7: Akane Tendo | |
| Translation provided by: Robby Stine of Kanabits |
What is the story behind Ranma 1/2’s heroine, Akane Tendo? And how is she as a martial artist?
Q: Akane Tendo is a daughter of the proprietor of the Tendo Dojo. Was a dojo always part of the plan?
Takahashi: Well, I thought that’s what would work best, or maybe you could say that I thought the series would be better off not taking place in a typical household. When I used the dojo idea, I found it quite convenient. The dojo setting naturally leant itself to those times I needed a place for the characters to have secret training sessions and such.
Q: There are three girls in the Tendo family, but the only one who seems to have taken a liking to martial arts is Akane. Why is that?
Takahashi: My line of thought was something like “Well, one is enough, right?”
Q: As far as Akane being a martial artist, she definitely seems stronger than the average person.
Takahashi: She is pretty strong, yes. Pretty strong, but when you line her up against all of the other characters who appear in the series, she’s probably one of the weaker ones.
Q: She doesn’t have any special attacks or anything, yeah.
Takahashi: Hmm…she’s just not that kind of girl, I guess. She is just your average, everyday girl, after all.
Q: Did you always plan on cutting her hair short?
Takahashi: No, not at all. The story of Ranma 1/2 itself is not something I had planned from the start, but something I thought up as I went along. And Akane was a pretty tough character for me. I had her first appear as she did, but there was just something that didn’t fit. But the story kept moving, and there was the Dr. Tofu stuff and all that. Throughout it all, I was slowly developing her as a character, and somewhere along the line I began to think I’d like to change her hairstyle. I was able to work it in with Ryoga’s introduction story, and that’s how she got her short hair. Man, was Akane tough….
Q: It does seem like she came into herself after that cut. And speaking of which, I do think Ranma’s ケガがなくても毛がなくなったんだぞ (Kega ga nakutemo ke ga nakunattan dazo) line is one of the more memorable in the series.
Takahashi: People have been saying that for a long time. (laughs)
Q: Akane gave it her all, from beginning to end. Because of her role as heroine?
Takahashi: Yes of course. If she, as the series’ heroine, couldn’t hold it together, who else would?
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Translator Notes:
The quote referred to in the Akane interview happens soon after Akane’s hair is accidentally cut off by Ryoga’s umbrella. Ryoga says ケガがなくて良かったじゃないか (“Well, at least she wasn’t injured.”). Ranma then replies with the famous ケガがなくても毛がなくなったんだぞ (“She may have no injuries, but she also has no hair!”) The reason this line stands out in Japanese is because of a bit of punny wordplay, as ケガがなく (kegaganaku, no injury) and 毛がなく (keganaku, no hair) sound so similar in Japanese.
In Viz’s version of the same exchange (from the recent 2-in-1 retranslations), we can see Ryoga says “Feh! She didn’t get an injury, did she?” to which Ranma replies “No — but she sure got a bad cut!” It doesn’t sound as smooth and natural as the Japanese version (who says “get an injury”?), but does manage to keep the original’s wordplay alive, the pun lying instead in the usage of cut (cuts of skin vs haircuts).