Shampoo

Shampoo Gender: Female Height: 5 feet 2 inches History: Soon after getting cursed at Jusenkyo, Ranma (as a girl) and Genma (as a panda) drop into a contest in a village of the Joketsuzoku "tribe of women heroes" ("Chinese Amazons" in English versions). Half-starved, they feed on the next available food-stuff - the feast that was to be the first prize for the contest - and are instantly challenged by Shampoo, the village champion. He swiftly defeats her, but this was a bad move. According to Chinese Amazon tribal laws, if a female Amazon is defeated by a female outsider, she must give the outsider the "Kiss of Death", hunt her down to the ends of the Earth, and kill her (as Ranma tells Akane, "and when they say 'to the ends of Earth', they mean it"). Ranma and Genma manage to elude her and settle down in Nerima, thinking that they've lost her.

However, Shampoo eventually tracks female Ranma down and resumes her attempts at murder. She finds Ranma, this time a male, in the Tendo household—where she managed to enter courtesy of Kasumi, who thought Genma had invited her, when she was actually stalking him—and declares her intent to kill Akane for hiding female Ranma from her. Ranma stops her attack by kicking the head off of her chuí, which knocked her cold when it landed on her head, accidentally defeating her a second time. However, instead of receiving a "Kiss of Death," Ranma gets a kiss on the lips; it turns out that if a female Amazon is defeated by a male outsider, she has to marry him. She continues on the path of trying to marry male Ranma and kill female Ranma, until Ranma tricks her into thinking that the male side is a disguise for the female side. Heartbroken, Shampoo returns to China, where she undergoes re-training at the hands of her great-grandmother Cologne and finally receives a cat curse at Jusenkyo, which causes her to become concerned. Realizing that Ranma had been cursed as well, she goes back to Japan with Cologne to try to marry Ranma once more, learning in the process that he is actually male. Unfortunately, this revelation came at a price: Ranma has been completely "phobic" about cats (ailurophobia) since childhood. Shampoo has managed to gain at least two strong rivals in the herbalists Pink and Link, a pair of twin sisters who live in Yakusai, a village near Joketsuzoku. The twins and Shampoo have held a grudge against each other since they were very little girls, and there’s no sign of it ending anytime soon. In their latest attempt at getting back at Shampoo, Pink and Link declared to Joketsuzoku’s local newspaper that Shampoo’s husband Ranma was ugly and weak; Shampoo had previously lied to the newspaper, stating that she was already married and living with Ranma. Even if she has been chased by the Ghost Cat Maomolin a couple of times, Shampoo really has only one strong suitor, her childhood friend Mousse, whom she rejected when they were both three. Cologne has stated that this holds true by Amazon law, regardless if he manages to beat Ranma, but he remains stubborn despite her multiple rejections and frequent cruel and derisive treatment. In Shampoo's defense Mousse is very clingy, often trying to glomp her and will not take no for an answer. Then again she behaves exactly the same way towards Ranma, to an even more severe degree, and has been repeatedly shown as far more inconsiderate towards him than Mousse is to her. As is standard for the series, either behavior is frequently used in a comical manner. Shampoo generally seems annoyed and contemptuous towards Mousse, but occasionally shows some concern when he drives himself too far. Late in the series, when her love has been turned to hate by a magic jewel, and Mousse decides to take advantage to approach her, she rejects him in the normal manner, which may hint that her feelings towards him contain elements of both derision and appreciation. Appearance: Shampoo has knee-length dark hair (blue/purple in the anime) with a fringe and two strands hanging in front that are secured with ties and dark pink eyes. She dresses in various forms of Chinese clothing, usually a matching blouse and pants, over which she may wear an apron while working. Her combat outfit consists of a light colored long-sleeved blouse and pants with the addition of a dark breastplate and a pair of metal arm-guards, making her one of the few characters to wear any form of armor. For formal occasions she favors sleeveless cheongsam. In the remake version, her hair is now bright purple with a white shine and her pink eyes are no longer darkened. Personality: Shampoo shows elements of the tsundere character, given her initially hostile temperament towards Ranma Saotome before slowly becoming more attracted to him until she finally stops her plans for revenge in favor of ensuring her marriage to Ranma. She is manipulative. She has repeatedly shown as devious and strategic as well as not being above scheming,[citation needed] play-acting[citation needed] or completely ruthless behavior to advance her position towards the object of her attention. However, Shampoo does seem to enjoy having fun from the trouble she causes, particularly if it means she can get close to Ranma as a result. Given Shampoo's violent and protective behavior, she views anyone who attempts to get between her and Ranma as an "obstacle" which must be killed.] However, she has also resorted to other methods to remove an "obstacle", such as when she used the "Xi Fa Xiang Gao" to wipe Akane's memories of Ranma; until they return at which time she decides to resort to her usual violent techniques. With her knowledge of pressure points and moxibustion, Shampoo is open to the idea of manipulating other's will to her advantage, whether that be to eliminate Akane or increasing the likelihood of Ranma returning her feelings for him. Of all the fiancées, Shampoo is the most sexually uninhibited and the most sensual, possibly due to her upbringing in a society including extensive warrior training for both males and females. Nudity is also not a problem for her, as she rather enjoys being naked and has attempted to seduce Ranma many times, even in dangerous places like under a giant bell. Early in the series, Kasumi Tendo had a talk with her about modesty. Although she did cease her faint-inducing habit of popping out of the tub naked anytime Ranma tried to take a bath, the conversation has apparently had little effect on her behavior other than that. Abilities: Having been trained in the martial art techniques of the Joketsuzoku since birth, with Cologne as her personal instructor and the young female village champion, Shampoo is an excellent armed or unarmed fighter, is very swift and acrobatic, and strong enough to casually walk right through reinforced stone walls on a regular basis. She uses a pair of chuí as her primary weapons, but is also shown using other weapons. These include a dao, spear, a bow, and a variety of polearms, including a Monk's Spade. She's noted to be a competent fighter by many other characters, and she seemed to scare Ranma while she was still attempting to kill her in her female form. Shampoo is outclassed by Ranma however, and was swiftly overpowered the first few times she has seriously faced him in combat. She suffered a 1-hit loss during her village's martial arts competition, where the goal was to knock the opponent off the log they were standing on, and an accidental identical result when focused on killing Akane, both times before she was powered-up by Cologne. After Ranma lied to Shampoo that she was a girl all along, Shampoo made a strike at female Ranma, but Ranma's hand was positioned to block it, and Shampoo stopped herself before delivering it. In the anime continuity she actually seemed to overpower Ranma, Shampoo attacked more aggressively using her chuí, and Ranma tripped while dodging Shampoo's attacks and was left on the ground seemingly helpless. Fortunately Shampoo was unwilling to land the blow and stopped her attack. During the "Reversal Jewel" arc, Shampoo was again outmatched in unarmed combat, despite his holding back by only using restraining tactics, and her 'programming' to truly hate him. Relationships: Ranma-Shampoo Relationship: Because of her traditions and Ranma defeating her (accidentally) in his male form, it is law that she marry him, and she tries everything possible to accomplish that. Frequently, she glomps (jumps and pull Ranma into a tight hug, where she rubs her body against Ranma's own body) Ranma on sight and asks for a date, much to his chagrin. She is not above using trickery and magic to get Ranma to fall in love with her. Because of this, Ranma generally sees her as a nuisance, but tolerates her and seems to have a good degree of friendship with her, going to the Cat Cafe for free bowls of ramen and helping Mousse to rescue her when she's held captive by Maomolin. When he was first hugged by her, he blushed and thought to himself that she was cute. Unlike Ukyo, who he at least apparently considers as a regular, non-romantic old friend, Ranma has stated outright that he views Shampoo as a pest. Regardless, his attitude towards both of them seems conflicted between consideration for their feelings. He was moved by Shampoo's tears when she believed that he rejected her during the onsen race, and had a similar problem with Ukyo during the 'Secret Sauce' arc. His pride took it as a direct challenge to win back Shampoo's affections during the 'Reversal Jewel' storyline, where he also forces a confession out of Ukyo to feel desirable again. His only attempt to directly get rid of Shampoo (beyond encouraging Mousse in his efforts) happened during her first appearance. Like most cute girls in the series, she can usually manipulate him by feigning tears. If that fails, Shampoo can sometimes get Ranma to bend to her will by transforming into her cat form and taking advantage of his fear - she usually performs this stunt when he makes her angry.