Shampoo (Ranma ½)
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| Shampoo 珊璞 or シャンプー |
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|---|---|
 Shampoo and her cursed form |
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| Gender: | Female |
| Age: | 16 |
| Curse: | Human to Cat |
| Family: | Cologne, great-grandmother Unnamed father (manga only) |
| Love Interest: | Ranma Saotome, fiancé |
| Loved By: | Mousse Maomolin |
| Rivals: | Akane Tendo Ukyo Kuonji Kodachi Kuno Hinako Ninomiya Pink and Link |
| Occupation: | Cook/Waitress Chinese Amazon Fighter Assistant (briefly) to Dr. Tofu Ono |
| Residence: | Formerly: Joketsuzoku Village, China Now: Cat Café, Furinkan |
| Fighting Style: | Chinese Amazon |
| Attacks: | Bonbori Hissatsu Shiatsuken Hohoemisannengoroshi Delivery Box Blowout |
| Seiyū: | Reiko Noda(as Rei Sakuma) |
| Voice Actor: | Cathy Weseluck |
| 1st Appearance (Manga): |
Volume 3 |
| 1st Appearance (Anime): |
TV Series, Season 1 |
Shampoo (珊璞 Shānpú or シャンプー Shanpū) is a fictional character in Rumiko Takahashi's anime and manga series Ranma ½.
She is one of the three (main) fiancées of Ranma Saotome, and a rival of both Akane Tendo and Ukyo Kuonji.
Contents |
[edit] 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 (女傑族 - "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" (死の接吻), 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 ball off of her bonbori, 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 father 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 (ailurophobic) 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 Yaokaicun, 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 cold, cruel and derisive treatment. Shampoo generally seems annoyed and contemptuous towards him, 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 both derision and appreciation.
[edit] Character
At first glance, Shampoo might seem like a bimbo. But in reality, this appearance is simply because she's not good at speaking the Japanese language, which she has had to learn in a very short time period in order to pursue Ranma in the boy's home country. It likewise doesn't seem to improve after her second appearance (Her simplified mode of speech may be exaggerated in western translations). Additionally, she isn't above scheming, play-acting, misdirection or completely ruthless behaviour to advance her position towards the object of her affection. That said, she doesn't mind having fun by making trouble for him in the meantime.
She has stated variations on 'obstacle is for killing' as a personal philosophy of expediency, and has attempted to hold true to this towards Akane, Ukyo, Miss Hinako, Nabiki, and presumably anyone else she'd suspect of getting too close to her declared groom. She is unafraid to occasionally use mind control techniques to try and make her airen love her or to achieve other goals unrelated to Ranma. This includes attempting to enslave him for life through a permanent love-inducing pill, while Mousse made a conscious choice to free her from Kiima's mind-control when given the same opportunity. Even if Shampoo can tolerate or even get along with Akane at times, she's occasionally attempted to assassinate the latter, even when she was tied up, gagged and completely defenseless, since it presented an opportunity to blame Pantyhose Taro for the incident.
When she came back to Japan with Cologne, her great-grandmother opened a Chinese restaurant in Furinkan called the Cat Cafe. In addition to her pursuit of Ranma, Shampoo works as a waitress and cook at the restaurant. She also has a bicycle that she uses to make deliveries and occasionally enters scenes while riding it en route to a customer's house with their order. If she spots Ranma in the midst of one of these excursions, she sometimes uses it to slam down on top of him with an energetic "Ni hao!" Otherwise, she often enters a room by punching or kicking a hole in the wall.
Of all the fiancées, Shampoo is the most sexually uninhibited and the most sensual, possibly due to her upbringing in a female-dominant society. 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. Despite her frequently harsh treatment of other people and occasionally even towards Ranma himself, her love for him generally seems pure and genuine. In the Memorial Book, she is described as 'innocent and aggressive,' which is an accurate summation of the dichotomy of her simultaneously cheerful, open, affectionate, hard-working, spiteful, sadistic, murderous and manipulative personality.
In the anime continuity, Shampoo is occasionally shown with strongly manga-contradicting characteristics. An early example of this is the plot line surrounding the appearance of the Dojo Destroyer. In the manga Shampoo gleefully torments and outsmarts Ranma on a date in return for a fake cure, and tries to prevent him from assisting Akane in a hopeless fight, while in the anime she does relent in the end and willingly allows him to return to help Akane. She was also completely removed, along with Ukyo and Kodachi, from the introductory story of Miss Hinako in the anime. Most notably, she was included to save Akane from harm in the Phoenix egg storyline, which is in direct opposition to her manga willingness to dispose of Akane at first opportunity she can get away with it. The combined result of these changes seems to be to turn her more sympathetic.
[edit] Love life
Ranma's attitude towards both her and Ukyo seems conflicted between consideration for their feelings and keeping them around for ego-gratification. 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 happened during her first appearance. However Ranma does consider her physically attractive, as she here for once successfully broke down his sexual resistance (until Akane interfered), and he is consistently flustered when she embraces him in the bath. Like most cute girls in the series, she can usually manipulate him by feigning tears. In the anime episode 'Shampoo's Cursed Kiss' he's been implied to carry some romantic affection for her, but not comparable to his feelings for Akane.
There are hints in the manga/source material that her feelings for her childhood friend Mousse are not restricted to contempt, loathing and annoyance. For instance she beat him up in the regular manner while wearing the Reversal Jewel incorrectly (which turns love to hatred - and possibly hatred to love but this was never explicitly stated), which Cologne commented on by saying that 'It seems as if Shampoo does not hate you as much as before'. She also agreed to go on a date with him, when he eventually abstained from using magic apology-inducing glasses during his duels with Ranma, while the latter retaliated by using any petty cheats available. However the goodwill he earned by appearing in a better light than his nemesis, the person she loved, was eradicated when Mousse took her to a zombie-demon show, which she found disgusting and not romantic in the least. Later, when Mousse was almost drained of life while enchanted into dating a jizou statue he believed was Shampoo, she initially didn't care and stayed home to play video games instead. Eventually, she reluctantly gave him a scarf she was making for Ranma to wake him from the trance.
Nevertheless, it always takes extreme circumstances for her to give him any leeway whatsoever because she generally harshly rejects Mousse. For example, she was gladly willing to thow bombs(which are non lethal by Ranmaverse standards) at him after finding Ranma was supposed to lose on purpose, since she didn't want to give him a promised date if he prevailed against Ranma. While she temporarily felt bad about it and cradled his beaten duck form afterwords, she quickly got over it, tying him with a chain to the neck and taunted him by holding his food out of reach. When she found his duck form beaten (by Taro) on the street she didn't bother to brake and intentionally ran over it, but seemed somewhat concerned or at least curious afterwards. After Ranma pinned Mousse's duck form to a wall and said 'If you weren't such a moron I wouldn't have Shampoo pestering me all the time,' she did turn into a cat and began to chase Ranma, but not to save Mousse, but because she was maddened by the statement.
In the separate anime continuity there are occasional hints that Shampoo actually does hold some love for him, despite vehemently professing the contrary. In the later part of the series Shampoo was the one who convinced him to stay in Japan rather than go back to China, and she tearfully cradled him in her arms when he saved her life but was almost killed in the 'Nihao, My Concubine' movie.
[edit] Special Techniques
Having been trained in the martial art techniques of the Joketsuzoku since birth, with Cologne as her personal instructor, Shampoo is very strong and highly skilled in a wide range of combat abilities, particularly those which involve speed and acrobatics. She is also an excellent unarmed fighter. However, she commonly uses a pair of bonbori — solid metal spheres on the ends of handles — as her main weapons, though she is shown using sword, spear, bow, and a variety of polearms. Her only true weakness is that she turns into a cat when hit with cold water. Shampoo, however, doesn't begin to compare to Ranma himself and was completely overmatched the two times she's seriously faced him in one on one combat—during her village's martial arts competition and the 'Reversal Jewel' arc.
Nevertheless, she was the only female the author allowed to join Ranma, Ryouga and Mousse during their gang-up battle against Taro, which indicates that she's the strongest, or at least most competent, of Ranma's 'fiancées'. Though this is by no means conclusive evidence. She seemed evenly matched with Ukyo during their onsen race battle, and the latter managed to hold her own against Ranma for a much longer time during their initial conflict (but likely due to her various cheats/preparations). In the anime their comparative ability is more clearly shown, as they fought to a draw in "Ranma the Lady-Killer". Shampoo's most impressive moment in the manga came when she was freed from Kiima's enslavement, became supremely motivated, and apparently managed to hold her own against the Phoenix tribe captain. In the anime, a similar fight occurred with Mon Lon in the movie "Big Trouble in Nekoron, China", but no details of either battle were shown.
Her first attack is the Hissatsu Shiatsuken (必殺指圧拳 Xi Fa Xiang Gao), which she uses a shampoo and massage technique involving pressure points on the head to erase certain memories. A variation of the technique appears in the manga version of the waterproof soap story arc, which shows it can be used to create a mind control effect.
There is another technique called the Hohoemisannengoroshi (微笑み三年殺しThree Year Smile of Death). It is a horrible technique involving pain and fear for three years. Normally used by married Chinese Amazons as a way of retaliating against their partner, the attacker constantly and subtly causes painful "accidents", which eventually turns the victim into a nervous wreck. At the conclusion of the chapter in which it is featured, it is revealed that Shampoo doesn't even know about this technique.
Another attack she has is the Delivery Box Blowout (also known as the Box-Blower Blow), which involves a restaurant variant of the Bakusai Tenketsu and allows Shampoo to utterly ruin the food contained within a delivery box with a touch of the finger. This technique only appears in Shampoo's arsenal in the manga; in the anime it is the property of the Martial Arts Takeout Master Kaori Daikoku. A Similar "transplanted" technique is the Chow Mein Strike. This technique enables the user to turn a bowlful of ramen noodles into a versatile whip. These are just two techniques of a whole school of Martial Arts Takeout moves, which Shampoo is implied to be a master of.
[edit] Trivia
- The kanji in her name are shān "coral" and pú "uncut/unpolished gem". The real pun in Shampoo's name though, is that all of the Chinese characters from her village are named after beauty products, such as Mousse and Cologne.
- She had three voice actors in the Latin American Spanish dub: the deceased Aracelli de Leon (TV series), Mónica Villaseñor ("Big Trouble in Nekonron, China"), and Isabel Martiñon ("Nihao My Concubine"). Aracelli de Leon was Shampoo's only voice actress to not voice a Tendo sister, and Akane is the only Tendo sister who wasn't voiced by a Shampoo voice actress.
- Her name was changed to Bambou in the French Version and was voiced by Barbara Tissier who voiced female Ranma until episode 40 when she was replaced by Amilie Morin.
- In the Hong Kong version of the anime, she speaks more fluently than she did in the original version.
- She bears a passing resemblance to Lum, a character from one of Rumiko Takahashi's other mangas, Urusei Yatsura.
- Albeit briefly, she is seen jogging in Lum's bikini in the InuYasha episode "Battle Against the Dried-Up Demons at the Cultural Festival".
[edit] References
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Ranma ½ Characters
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| Saotome Family | |
|---|---|
| Ranma Saotome | Genma Saotome | Nodoka Saotome | |
| Tendo Family | |
| Soun Tendo | Kasumi Tendo | Nabiki Tendo | Akane Tendo | Mrs. Tendo | |
| Chinese | |
| Shampoo | Mousse | Cologne | Jusenkyo Guide | Pantyhose Taro | |
| Kuno Family | |
| Tatewaki Kuno | Kodachi Kuno | Principal Kuno | Sasuke Sarugakure | |
| Notable Furinkan Residents | |
| Ukyo Kuonji | Hikaru Gosunkugi | Dr. Tofu Ono | Hinako Ninomiya | Konatsu | |
| Major Adversaries | |
| Ryoga Hibiki | Happosai | Mariko Konjo | Herb | Ryu Kumon | Saffron | |
| Recurring / Other Characters | |
| Akari Unryu | Tsubasa Kurenai | Shinnosuke | Minor Characters | |
| Media | |
| Manga | TV Series | Movies | OVAs | |
| Other Articles | |
| Anything Goes Martial Arts | DoCo | Items | Locations | |
