“ |
There's alot more to being a woman than I thought. But you know I'm not giving up. The day I can wear you will come for sure! Just wait for me Sailor uniform! |
” |
—Ryūnosuke in episode 16
Ryūnosuke Fujinami (藤波 竜之介, Fujinami Ryuunosuke?) is a major character in Urusei Yatsura.
Biography
Ryūnosuke Fujinami was born the only child of her unnamed father Mr. Fujinami and his wife. Unfortunately, Ryūnosuke had the misfortune of being born a daughter to a man who was obsessed with passing on his beachside café, the Hamachaya, to a male heir. As a result, he tried to bring Ryūnosuke up as his son, using lies and violence in an ongoing failed effort to force Ryūnosuke to accept his delusional wishes.
At some point, Ryūnosuke's mother left Ryūnosuke's life, and Ryūnosuke has no idea what happened to her; it is possible that she may have died, that she may have run away from her demented husband, or even that Mr. Fujinami stole Ryūnosuke from her mother because she wouldn't let him raise her as a boy. The only one knows for certain what happened to Mrs. Fujinami is her husband, and as he is an incorrigible liar with a shaky grasp on reality, the truth may never be known.
Ryūnosuke enters the story during late spring, when Ataru Moroboshi, Lum, Shinobu Miyake, and Shūtarō Mendō arrive at the beach for a vacation. Here, they discover the ever-feuding daughter and father duo engaging in their ritual of insulting the sea for not always being sunny, pleasant and warm, thus restricting their business to a limited window of the year. As they get to know the pair, they discover Ryūnosuke's status as a girl and her father's delusional wishes to raise her as a son to inherit his café. The quartet attempt to intervene in their squabbles and help them come to term, but their well-meaning efforts go awry and cause the pair to inadvertently tear down the café. [1] [2]
A week later, the Fujinamis move to Tomobiki; Mr. Fujinami has gotten a new job running the school shop at Tomobiki High School, which leads to his daughter becoming a transfer student - ironically, in Class 2-4, the same class shared by Ataru Moroboshi, Lum, Shinobu Miyake, and Shūtarō Mendō. Ryūnosuke is incensed to discover that her father has enrolled her as a male student, and her desire to beat up her father only increases when he flaunts a girl's uniform of the "sailor suit" style and promises that Ryūnosuke can wear it if she beats him. She immediately accepts his terms, but loses the fight due to interference from Ataru (who glomps onto her) and Lum (who zaps her whilst zapping Ataru). Once she is formally introduced to Class 2-4, the class's female students swoon over her bifauxnen looks and rugged charm, which doesn't sit well with the male students; they resolve to help Ryūnosuke get some female attire, in the hopes that when she dresses like a girl, she will be less attractive to the other girls. They go to the school store and take a sailor suit, beating up Mr. Fujinami when he tries to stop them, but unfortunately Ryūnosuke is too honorable for her own good; whilst she appreciates their intentions, she refuses to wear the sailor suit until she earns it by defeating her father. [3] [4]
Ryūnosuke next appears during her first PE class at Tomobiki High School. Despite Onsen-Mark attempting to talk sanity, the combination of Mr. Fujinami's delusions and the airheadedness of the Tomobiki High School Principal sees her assigned to attend PE class with the boys of Class 2-4. She is first seen attempting to buy bloomers from Kotatsu-neko whilst he is managing the school store in her father's absence; unfortunately for Ryūnosuke, her father bribed the bakeneko to refuse to sell any female underwear to Ryūnosuke, and the ghostly cat beats her up with his trademark tsukioshi (sumo thrust technique) when she threatens to get violent. Ryūnosuke's father then challenges Ryūnosuke; if she can defeat all the boys in the judo match that will be PE class today, then he'll give her the bloomers she wants, a challenge she accepts. Unfortunately for Ryūnosuke, whilst she manages to triumph over the boys of Class 2-4, her father hides and refuses to come out and acknowledge her victory, evading her just long enough for a recovered Ataru to grapple her, whereupon he pops out to proclaim her the loser of their bet. [5]
Ryūnosuke's next appearance covers her first encounter with Ran. [6] When Ran comes to the Tomobiki High school store for an eraser, she spots Ryūnosuke emerging for class after a morning brawl with her father, and takes pity on the battered girl, giving her a handkerchief to staunch her bleeding. Ryūnosuke is awestruck by Ran's f eminine grace and charms, and when she learns from Lum that Ran is her childhood friend, she begs the resident alien for Ran's address and phone number. This shocks the boys of Class 2-4, who wonder if Ryūnosuke's upbringing has made her a lesbian - the fact she responds to Shūtarō Mendō placing his hands on her shoulders and asking her to be his girlfriend by decking him in the face and shouting that she's not interested in boys doesn't help. Ryūnosuke watches Ran at PE class, and finally musters the courage to leave a letter asking her if they can get to know each other better. Curious and flattered by what she takes as a love letter, Ran approaches Lum to ask about who Ryūnosuke is - when Lum tries to warn her that Ryūnosuke is actually a girl, Ran believes that Lum is jealous, and decides to accept Ryūnosuke's offer, immediately heading to the school store and asking Ryūnosuke on a date the next week.
When the appointed day comes around, Mr. Fujinami is extremely excited by the idea of his "son" going on "his" first date. Ryūnosuke has no idea what he's talking about, but sets off, gloating to herself that thanks to this outing, she'll finally get the chance to learn how to be more womanly at long last. Unfortunately, her plans go less well than she had hoped; Ran is convinced that not only is Ryūnosuke a boy, but she's making Lum jealous by dating "him", causing her to play up her femininity, whilst the livid Ataru continually tries to disrupt their date. [7]
The next day after her date, Ryūnosuke tries to mimic some of the behavior she saw Ran using, only for her father to mock her that she has been so suffused with masculine behavior and instincts that she will never learn how to act like a girl. This thought leaves her deeply depressed during class, which inspires Ataru to offer to teach Ryūnosuke how to act more girlish. This goes horribly awry; not only do Shūtarō, Lum and Shinobu also continually interject in the lessons, but Ataru makes it clear he has ulterior motives to teach her, constantly attempting to get handsy with her. It goes so wrong that even her classmates start to wonder if maybe Ryūnosuke will never learn how to be a girl, something that makes her even more depressed than before. Her father showing up and scarring the whole class by claiming that he was originally a girl as a bad joke doesn't help. [8]
Ryūnosuke's next appearance covers her first encounter with Ten. After inadvertently and unknowingly catching Lum's cousin in the crossfire of a morning duel, the vengeful young oni follows Ryūnosuke to school. When he tries to blast her with his fire breath, Shūtarō Mendō interrupts and scolds him for attacking a girl. After some bickering, Ten demands proof that Ryūnosuke is a girl, which doesn't go so well for Ryūnosuke; her first efforts to "show love", inspired by her father's own treatment of her, are to flick Ten's nose and roughly noogie him. Then, when she lets Ten nuzzle against her chest, her sarashi causes him to declare that she must be a boy. She finally convinces him when she takes him back to the school store's backroom, removes her bindings, and lets him hug her now-unbound breasts, despite her father's pathetic attempts to claim otherwise. [9]
Ryūnosuke is next seen during an art's lesson with Class 2-4 at the local zoo, where they are challenged to draw a picture of the trouble-making ostrich Yotaro. She gets furious when he stomps on her picture like he does with all the boys, and tries to chase him down, beating up a bear that gets in her way. She finally joins the class in their plan to outwit the ostrich with a collective artpiece. [10]
The next appearance of Ryūnosuke comes when she is unknowingly selected as a husband candidate for Kurama. On her way home from a public bathhouse, grumbling about how the receptionist and the women in the bath all mistook her for a boy, she is accosted by two of Kurama's crow goblins; she beats up what she thinks are two thugs attacking the first, and then fixes a broken sandal for the second. When they follow her home and tell her that these were tests of character, she is flattered to hear that she passed with flying colors... but less than thrilled when they reveal they were testing her worthiness to marry their princess. She promptly throws them out. The next morning, the crow goblins show up and knock out Ryūnosuke with sleeping gas, carrying her to Kurama's spaceship - and also bringing along Ataru Moroboshi and Lum by accident. She protests that she is a girl, but the crow goblins respond by trying to zap her with a genderbending ray gun, which she breaks. (Chapter 155: The Female Groom) A week later, the crow goblins come to visit her with a love letter from Kurama - as well as a bigger, stronger genderbending ray. Ryūnosuke has absolutely no interest in their plea for her to become a boy and marry their princess, so she runs off to school to get away from them. There, she is amongst the crowd of students shocked to see that Ataru has been turned into a girl after the crow goblins accidentally zapped him with the sex change gun. She initially thinks that Ataru was actually a girl disguised as a boy all along, similar to herself, but Shūtarō Mendō and Lum correct her. When the crow goblins arrive looking for Ryūnosuke, they blackmail her into agreeing to becoming Kurama's husband by promising to change Ataru back if she does. Unaware that they are lying and only have one shot left, she agrees, shedding a tear for having never gotten to wear a girl's uniform, but is saved when Ataru nobly destroys the gun before it can fire. [11]
To thank Ataru for his sacrifice, Ryūnosuke lets the boy-turned-girl and Lum hide in the school store with her and her father, before the crow goblins return with news that they have a new sex-change gun ready and that Kurama is on her way to meet her future groom. They give Ryūnosuke a hiccup pill to interfere with her efforts to reveal herself to Kurama, and when the gun arrives, Ryūnosuke's dad immediately attempts to use it on his daughter. After a series of running battles, Ryūnosuke finally reveals her gender to Kurama through the simple expedient of pulling up her shirt to show off her breasts. The angry Kurama blasts Ataru with the sex-change gun, restoring him to normal, and then leaves in a huff. [12]
When Cherry brings what he claims are matsutake mushrooms to the autumn hotpot of Class 2-4, Ryūnosuke reveals that she has never eaten the famous gourmet fungus, as her father had lied to her since she was a child about it being poisonous so he could eat it all himself. Under the influence of what turns out to be toxic shrooms, she loses her inhibitions and declares her intent to put on a sailor skirt at long last, starting to strip down before her father intervenes and knocks her out to stop her.[13]
She is next seen only briefly when a curious Lum drops a haunted bottle sealing up a sake spirit into her home, where her father and Onsen-Mark are drinking hot sake. [14]
Another brief appearance is during the Mendo Family Christmas Party, where she attempts to climb the giant Christmas tree to enjoy the fabulous party at the top. Her efforts are interrupted when she thinks back on Christmases as a child and realizes that her father had been lying to her and hogging all the cake for himself on every single one, which prompts her to attack him in a rage. [15]
At her father's insistence, Ryūnosuke goes up into the mountains to train over New Year's. One week into the new year, she grows sick of how she is the only one made to actually do any serious martial arts training whilst her father lounges around eating and snuggling under a kotatsu by the fire, so she leaves their isolated hut and returns to civilization, reluctantly carrying him back with her. She is embarrassed when he raids a ski resort for food and she discovers that her four friends are there. She challenges her father to a duel over returning to Tomobiki, but when he defeats her with the "front is back" trick, she agrees to stay for at least another week. [16]
Whilst trying to learn how to apologize after angering Lum, Ten briefly spies on Ryūnosuke and her father, encountering them in another brawl. [17]
On Valentine's Day, to her shock, Ryūnosuke receives a massive array of Valentine's chocolates from the girls at Tomobiki High and, it's implied, elsewhere. When she arrives at class, she reveals another of her father's manipulations; since her childhood, he has been telling her that chocolate is a deadly poison. Her classmates inform her of how she has been tricked, but when her father shows up and she eats her first bite to spite him, he tells her another lie by claiming that eating a Valentine's Day chocolate gifted to her by a girl will turn her into a boy. Though Ataru tries to tell her this is more of her father's stupid stories, she is so horrified that she runs away without listening. When Ataru, Shinobu and Lum track her down, Ataru decides to tell her another story; that if she gives chocolate and a hug to a boy whilst telling them that she loves them, she will stay a girl. She follows his instructions, and inadvertently does so to her father, who tells her that he loves her. Then he runs away with all of Ryūnosuke's chocolate whilst she is busy confirming with Ataru that her femininity is safe. [18]
When Ataru steals Lum's magnetic lipstick, his first scheme involves offering it to Ryūnosuke in hopes of stealing a kiss from her. She is delighted to finally get the chance to wear it, but punches Ataru when it starts drawing them together to kiss. When it next magnetizes her and Lum, she is repulsed, though she manages to avoid kissing either her, Ataru or Shūtarō Mendō. After Ataru and Mendo kiss due to the lipstick's effects, she privately resolves to never wear the stuff again. [19]
When Ten buries Tomobiki High under a mountain of dirt but Onsen-Mark forces Class 2-4 to attend anyway, Ryūnosuke is less than thrilled to learn that Mendo doesn't see her as enough of a girl to be able to curb his usual claustrophobia panic attacks. [20]
When she discovers Ten asleep and hanging from a tree branch on her way home one evening, Ryūnosuke takes him to the Moroboshi house, where as a thank-you she is invited to join them for dinner. Touched by the maternal warmth of Ataru's mother, she confronts her father and demands to know what happened to her own mother. Instead, he spins her a string of different stories that make for an incoherent mess, then finally dresses in women's clothing and invites her to think of him as her mother as well as her father. Ryūnosuke blows her stack and runs off into the night; encountering Ataru, his mother and Lum, she throws herself into the older woman's embrace in a rare moment of emotional vulnerability before telling them about what happened. Her father shows up and manages to coax her into forgiving him by asking her to consider how much rembering his lost spouse is hurting him. Several days later, however, he appears on a show about families searching for lost loved ones, begging for somebody called "Masako" to come home. An incensed Ryūnosuke concludes that her mother probably ran out on her father instead of dying like he claimed. [21]
Ryūnosuke's desire to know more about her mother leads her to lament this fact to her classmates, who then suggest she look in the family photo album. Unfortunately, she discovers that her father, in an attempt to forget his grief at losing his wife, had many, many photos of himself and baby Ryūnosuke taken with sympathetic female customers pretending to be Ryūnosuke's mom, so he no longer remembers what she actually looked like. Ryūnosuke is so mad at him for this that she runs away from home for several days and crashes at the Moroboshi household. [22]
When Shūtarō's friends are informed of his recent, mysterious training regiment, Ryūnosuke goes to visit, if only to enjoy a rare access to high quality food. She subsequently follows the group in their trip through time to discover why Shūtarō is claustrophobic, where she is seen slapping the young Shūtarō for calling her a boy. She joins the girls in evading the sunglasses squad by hiding in the abundant foliage. [23] They subsequently steal the uniforms from some of the Mendō guards and use these disguises to rescue Ataru and Shūtarō before returning to their own time, though not before Shūtarō gives himself his claustrophobia in a time loop. [24]
Ryūnosuke is next seen changing with the other girls of Class 2-A after school, mentally celebrating that, at long last, she's going to be able to get a bra instead of having to bind her chest with a traditional sarashi. When Shinobu Miyake gets out from her after-school duties, though, she encounters a depressed Ryūnosuke; the two walk together and Ryūnosuke reveals that she didn't have anywhere near enough money to pay for a bra - all she had saved was a meagre 40 yen, and the cheapest one she found was 1,500 yen. She explains her father refuses to give her an allowance, for fear that she'll sneak off behind his back and buy girly clothes. This tale of her father's cruelty moves Shinobu to tears, but they are interrupted by three delinquents from Butsumetsu High, whom Ryūnosuke beats up in a rage when she learns they have mistaken her for Shinobu's boyfriend. That night, she tries to steal money from her father to buy a bra, but fails; asking him for it, of course, just leads to a fight. The next day, however, her luck changes; the delinquents from the previous afternoon offer to buy her a bra if she'll pretend to be Shinobu's boyfriend and go on a date with her, so they can convince their boss to stop trying to date Shinobu himself. [25]
Once more, Ryūnosuke's father is delighted to hear that Ryūnosuke is going on a date, but the only thing on the crossdressed girl's mind is finally owning her very own bra. When the delinquents demand she give them a kiss shot to really break their boss's heart, she instinctively goes in for Shinobu's lips. When the superstrong girl slaps Ryūnosuke and asks if she really is into girls after all, a blushing Ryūnosuke asserts that she's straight, before mentally chastising herself for getting so caught up in her excitement about finally owning a bra that she let herself get carried away. Things swiftly go downhill from there, with Ataru showing up to interfere out of jealous fury, Mr. Fujinami showing up to gloat about Ryūnosuke's apparent girlfriend, and the delinquent boss from Butsumetsu High trying to pick a fight with Ryūnosuke. In the end, Ryūnosuke ends up with nothing; the bra the delinquents promised her is torn in half, her father sets fire to the bra that Ataru tried to bribe her with, and when she attempts to steal Shinobu's bra, she gets slapped. [26]
When the Miss Tomobiki Contest is announced, Ryūnosuke initially has no interest. When she finds out that she received a landslide for votes, and that the contest is about determining the most beautiful girl at school, she changes her tune, weeping ecstatically over this relevation that so many people see her as a girl. (The boys don't have the heart to tell her that most of her votes were from the other girls.) Her father initially objects, but changes his tune when he learms of the 150,000 yen grand prize. [27] She's confused when the contest is finally held, but excited to prove herself a woman at long last. She alone of the five competitors isn't insulted by the first test, a basic IQ puzzle, and so takes the top prize. She only comes in second in the second test, a ramen eating competition, giving up at 4 bowls to the 58 consumed by Sakura. She's most excited for the third test, the swimsuit competition... until she learns that her father's delusions trumped his greed and he gave her boy's swim trunks instead of a swimsuit. She happily accepts Lum's gracious offer of her own swimsuit, but neither are aware that Ran sabotaged it earlier. [28] Her father's stupidity rears its ugly head once again as he sneaks into the changing room and keeps reattaching her sarashi, insisting that they need to stop the judges from "realizing that Ryūnosuke is really a boy". He steals the bikini top that Lum gave her, and she ends up chasing him out into the contest, wearing nothing but her sarashi and borrowed bikini bottom. They battle for a brief while, and Ryūnosuke is humiliated when her father steals her sarashi, leaving her topless in front of the entire school body before Lum, Shinobu and Sakura come to her defense. Once she is redressed, they are issued their ring shoes; believing that they are about to face off against each other, Ran immediately kisses Ryūnosuke to steal the Earth girl's strength, leaving Ryūnosuke blushing and screaming over having been kissed by another girl. She is so stunned by this turn of events that it's all she can think of, even when their real opponents, wild beasts from Tomobiki Zoo, are loosed into the ring. [29] Even as the other girls try to fend off the beasts, she continues going over and over being kissed by Ran in her head, until her father finally snaps her back to her senses and throws her into the fray.... where she learns the hard way that her strength has been stolen. [30] When Ran tries to kiss Ryūnosuke to return her strength, Ryūnosuke is horrified at the prospect and tries to run away. It's only when Lum intervenes and uses a giant snake to wrap them together that Ran is able to kiss her, an act that leaves Ryūnosuke weeping in shame. She quickly gets over it, and with Tomobiki's four female powerhouses in full fighting fitness once more, the beasts are soon defeated. She is less than thrilled to discover her prize is 1/5th of the grand prize; 30,000 yen worth of taiyaki. [31]
When summer comes, the Fujinamis return to the beach, selling food from neck-slung vending trays in hopes of earning money to rebuild their cafe. Ryūnosuke is less than pleased to be made to use her girl-attracting skills for this job, but plays along because her father has promised to let her use her cut of the profit to buy her very own bikini. When Ataru Moroboshi and Shūtarō Mendō discover a mysterious woman who claims that Ryūnosuke is her missing child, Ryūnosuke is skeptical, despite her father claiming that this is indeed his wife - especially because the woman addresses Ryūnosuke as her "son". [32] Unable to bury her hope that maybe this isn't some cruel joke, Ryūnosuke spies on the woman as she interacts with Ryūnosuke's father and friends. What she sees eventually convinces her that this might be her mother, but by the time she goes in to reunite with her, the woman has gone back to the beach to look for her child. She searches frantically, but when she finally reunites with her, the truth comes out: the woman isn't her mother, she's a sea-dwelling lizard spirit, and the Ryūnosuke she was looking for turns out to be a turtle spirit. Ryūnosuke is left heartbroken and, once again, enraged with her father. [33]
When the teachers of Tomobiki High ally with the local merchants to hold a High Summer Evening Festival, Ryūnosuke is part of the crowd of students who braves the teacher-crafted haunted maze in hopes of getting to enjoy a free night of food and drink. During her wanderings, Onsen-Mark attempts to capture her, mistaking her for Ataru; she beats him up in punishment. When she finally makes it to the end of the maze, she is disappointed to find the merchants welching on their bet by hiding away all the food and drink and putting out various household goods and metalwork instead. [34]
Ryūnosuke is briefly seen picking pears with the rest of Class 2-4, with her father exhorting her to pick lots so they can sell them back in TOmobiki. She is briefly possessed by Kuriko the chestnut spirit, before her father literally beats it out of her. [35]
One evening at the public baths, Ryūnosuke contemplates her ever-growing bustline, which has now reached such a size that this is the most top-heavy girl in Class 2-4. When she gathers her things to leave, she finds some pervert has stolen her sarashi. But, on the way home, a traveling sweet potato vendor calls out to her as "young lady" - the first time anyone has ever called her that. Excited by this revelation that without her binding, her gender is obvious, she vows the next morning to never wear one again... but she soon regrets this vow; today's PE class is rugby, and as she's too big for any of the sports bras that the girls try to loan her, the class's horny male population are all chomping at the bit to touch her unrestrained chest, even if it means coming in reach of her brutalizing blows. She finds herself overwhelmed, and it is only when her father throws her a new sarashi, which she uses to beat up the class hornballs, that she finally regains control of the situation. [36]
Ryūnosuke is next seen briefly when Ten brings the ghost girl Kotori to class. [37]
When Shūtarō invites his classmates to see his rare South Pole Octopus, Matsuchiyo, Ryūnosuke is one of the teens who comes to see. When Matsuchiyo runs away and Shūtarō offers a reward to whoever helps find it, Ryūnosuke joins the search, thinking of all the girl's clothing she can make the wealthy boy buy for her. She ends up being taken captive by the now-supersized cephalopod, though Lum saves her before anything too ecchi can happen. [38]
When Shūtarō throws a Christmas party inside of an oversized Christmas cake, Ryūnosuke is amongst the students from Class 2-4 that attend, though she doesn't do anything of note. [39]
When the Principal of Tomobiki High School holds a Hanetsuki tournament to celebrate the coming New Year, Ryūnosuke and her father compete in the hopes of winning real prize money. They quickly turn from fighting together to fighting each other over Ryūnosuke's desire to use her share of the prize to buy women's clothes. When they find out that the Principal tricked them for a worthless prize again, Ryūnosuke is ready to beat him up. [40]
When Lum brings an alien judge in to judge Class 2-4's talent show, Ryūnosuke shows off her brick-breaking skills, and only narrowly avoids being zapped to the punishment room by Ataru showing off her bandage-wrapped chest to the perverted judge. She is less than happy about the way she was saved. [41]
When Ataru steals some transformation spray from Ten, he complicates Ryūnosuke and Shinobu's relationship by assuming Shinobu's form to get physically close to Ryūnosuke, and vice versa. Never seeing Ataru change back, Ryūnosuke is left wondering just why Shinobu was acting so weird, which means that when Lum ruptures the can and spills the spray throughout Class 2-4, a very startled Ryūnosuke finds herself turning temporarily into Shinobu. [42]
Sakura interrupts one of Ryūnosuke's battles with her father, intent on asking her if she's ever been in love. After some deep thought, Ryūnosuke admits she's never been in love, although she has known multiple girls that she's admired over the years, including Shinobu Miyake. She quickly corrects Shinobu that she's not attracted to her or any of the girls she's admired. When Sakura declares that falling in love will bring out Ryūnosuke's more tender, feminine side, Ryūnosuke is intrigued, though not enough to just let Ataru and Shūtarō Mendō get handsy with her. When asked straight up what she would like in a guy, after some thought, she declares she'd like a guy who is "strong and wild like the ocean", and also tougher than she is. The next day, a well-meaning Sakura arranges a combat tournament where any guy interested in dating Ryūnosuke can battle her to prove they're strong enough to be worth it. Ataru, of course, enters, and nearly beats her by cheating, though Ryūnosuke's father saves her from Ataru's lecherous clutches. Her gratitude doesn't last long, however, and the father and daughter duo are soon at it once again. [43]
Ryūnosuke, like the rest of Class 2-4, gets very drunk off of Lum's alien juice and starts putting an impromptu samurai drama. [44]
When the principal decides to open the school nurse's office to perform medical consultations, Ryūnosuke isn't interested. She ends up there anyway, interrupting her father's efforts to get a consultation about his "troublemaking son". She then inadvertently crushes Shūtarō's ego by complaining about all the love letters she gets from girls, and showing that she receives far more than he does. [45]
When Ataru receives a voodoo doll of Shūtarō Mendō from his sister, his efforts to flirt with Ryūnosuke are one of the daily dangers that Shūtarō is forced to try and protect him from. [46]
When Lum agrees to duel Sōban, the boss of the Butsumetsu High delinquents, without her powers, Ryūnosuke briefly offers her some training advice. [47] During the duel itself, she offers Lum a vital moment's respite by stepping in and temporarily knocking out the raging Soban. [48]
When Asuka Mizunokōji is sent to Tomobiki High School to meet up with Shūtarō Mendō, Ryūnosuke is initially oblivious... until the super-powered androphobe comes crashing in through the roof and lands right in the crossdresser's lap. [49] It's only moments before Ryūnosuke's androgynous look and Asuka's androphobia results in her violently hurling Ryūnosuke away and fleeing. Insulted more by being confused for a boy than for the attack, Ryūnosuke gives chase, trying to clarify her gender, each time being repulsed. Learning about Asuka's intense fear of men only further strengthens her resolve to find the super-strong girl and make her understand that Ryūnosuke is a girl, even if it means braving the gauntlet of Tomobiki's perverted male students. [50] With the aid of some coaching from Shinobu, and some unseen meddling by Asuka's mother, Ryūnosuke finally gets Asuka to stop running away from her. And immediately regrets it, as she realizes the now-friendly Asuka wants to hug her... meaning she risks being crushed to death. Now it's Ryūnosuke's turn to be chased and Asuka's to do the chasing. In the end, Ryūnosuke's goal turns out to be for nought; Asuka is so messed up from her isolated childhood that she still thinks Ryūnosuke is a boy even after seeing her topless, on the basis that both Ryūnosuke and Tobimaru wear sarashis. [51]
When Lum shares her alien ice cooler technology with the sweltering students of Class 2-4, only Ryūnosuke seems to have no trouble handling the mentally-controlled alien tech. [52]
When Tomobiki High School held its obstacle swim meet, Ryūnosuke is eager to participate, but first has to overcome her father in order to get there, as he is insistent that she won't participate unless she wears boy's swimming trunks. [53] When she finally reaches the swimming pool, she is, like the rest of the school, very unimpressed with the idea of a kiss from the principal as a reward. She is the first to snap and attack Onsen-Mark with one of the exploding water basketballs, and when Lum stuns her with a well-intentioned shock attack, she considers pretending to be unconscious rather than deal with this mess anymore. [54]
Ryūnosuke and her father are next seen renting a small, out-of-the-way location for an impromptu revival of their beach cafe. To Ryūnosuke's rage, her father advertises to hire waitresses rather than admit that she could do the job just fine if he'd admit she was a girl. They end up hiring Ataru Moroboshi, Lum, Shinobu Miyake and Shūtarō Mendō as waiters, but between Ataru and Shūtarō's endless hitting on girls instead of waiting, Mr. Fujinami's beating up all the customers they send his way instead of going out and buying stuff to feed them, and Lum bringing in alien customers who pay in worthless junk, it's just a disaster. [55]
When a blowfish mutated by one of Ten's candies goes wandering through Tomobiki, Ryūnosuke nearly gets cut by her father as he tries to catch the flying fish with a knife. [56]
When her father starts acting really odd, even for him, one evening, Ryūnosuke wonders if something is wrong. She is initially intrigued when her father finally comes clean about some titbits about her mother, revealing that they met when they were working in an amusement park (a fact that Lum confirms with a truth detector). Ryūnosuke is initially pleased to be asked to wear her mother's old clothes to job her father's memories... but her joy gives way to rage when she discovers those old clothes are a superhero outfit; apparently, her parents met when they were working as a superhero and a supervillain in costumes for the amusement park, something Lum notes also seems to be true based on her detector's readings. [57]
Ryūnosuke is amongst the students of Class 2-4 that partakes in the mochi sculpting contest, and her presence is cited as a reason to handicap Class 2-4's students due to the number of abnormally strong students in that class. [58]
Ryūnosuke joins the usual gang of four from Class 2-4 to travel to an obscure temple at Sakura's behest to help them ring in the new year, in exchange for a promise for many bills if they do a good job. Except it turns out the priest was actually offering them many bells, to her fury. She promptly joins Ataru and Shūtarō in beating the old fool up. [59]
When Lum and Benten hold another of their raucous Setsubun battles in Class 2-4, Ryūnosuke is ordered to scavenge as many beans as she can by her father, who plans to resell them. [60]
One morning, whilst fighting with her father over the last fish at breakfast, when he flings Ryūnosuke through the window, she is caught by Benten, who cheerfully launches her back throug the window with such force she is embedded face-first into the wall. Later that day, Benten bursts into Class 2-4 whilst trying to use Ten as a slingshot target; Ryūnosuke scornfully wonders if Benten was raised as a barn, casually dodging her shots. This prompts Benten to continue attacking Ryūnosuke specifically in hopes of picking a fight; Lum tries to tell Benten that Ryūnosuke is a boy, but Ryūnosuke calls the alien outside before Lum can finish. Outside, they have a brief tussle before Ryūnosuke finally explains that she doesn't want to fight, she wants Benten to stop acting so unladylike, because the way she acts isn't feminine. She then walks away... which she'll learn later was a mistake, as it gives her father a chance to assert that Ryūnosuke is a boy with a crush on Benten. When the cheerful returns to Class 2-4 to tease Ryūnosuke about this, Ryūnosuke is left deeply confused. That evening, though, they run into each other at a public bathhouse, which is when Benten finally learns the truth. Now feeling insulted, she calls Ryūnosuke out on making such statements when she's even more of a tomboy than Benten is. Bickering soon turns hostile, and the two get ready to fight. [61]
A brief brawl ensues before Ataru Moroboshi intervenes - of course, Tomobiki's greatest lech can't bear the thought of girls injuring each other. Though he inevitably goes too far and cops a beating from the two angry girls, he convinces them to settle their difference with a contest of womanhood. First, he has Onsen-Mark pretend to be a stranger attempting to hit on Benten, which leads to Ryūnosuke beating up her teacher. Then he takes them to the school's flower arranging club, where neither has any clue what he intends to do, though Ryūnosuke at least knows what flowers are called (and that you can make an edible stew from chrysanthenums). That's when the Tomobiki High School Principal takes an interest. For the next challenge, they are taken to the nurse's office, where Sakura attempts to hypnotize the two girls to test their mothering aptitudes with Ten. Under hypnosis, Ryūnosuke races off and grabs a baseball bat and plenty of baseballs, which she starts roughly batting at Ten whilst screaming abuse at him - Lum and Ataru can only deduce that her father is a seriously bad influence. Once snapped out of her hypnotic trance, Ryūnosuke agrees with Benten that she'd rather go with their original plan and settle things with a duel. Before they can start, Kotatsu-neko and the Principal interrupt; they plan to have the girls perform in a psychodrama written by the principal instead, carrying them off to the school gym. [62]
Ryūnosuke isn't thrilled with the idea, asserting that they can settle things with their fists. This prompts Sakura to draw blood from the two of them in hopes of calming them down. Naturally, the play turns into a disaster; they reverse the "flip-the-table" sketch on Onsen-Mark, immediately try to storm off when the script calls for him to demand a divorce, and ultimately fight their way off of the stage when Ataru takes advantage of the kidnapping scene to try and get some free groping in. As they are swarmed by horny male students eager to touch the two beautiful but ferocious girls, they put aside their differences and work together to clobber the entire pack of hornballs. When the dust is settled and unconscious bodies litter the gymnasium, their feud is forgotten; they share some friendly roughhousing and congratulate each other on being good women. [63]
When Lum uses some fantasy-fullfilling bubble gum to try and lure Ataru Moroboshi into a trap for stealing it first, she creates sexy doppelgangers of several of the girls at Tomobiki High School, including one of Ryūnosuke, which the real Ryūnosuke quickly snatches up and tries to hide in embarrassment. Lum inadvertently brings her, Shinobu and Sakura onto the rooftop where Ataru is hiding, where they take the chance to pop the giant bubble Ataru was using to try and create his dream harem. [64]
When Ataru gets his hands on Lum's Cupid Sprout, he attempts to shoot Ryūnosuke and make her fall in love with him. Despite catching her as she argues with her father about his attempts to resell the Valentine's Day chocolate that he stole from her, Ataru fails and instead hits her father. [65]
When Tomobiki High School holds a schoolwide costume contest, Ryūnosuke's father takes boh Ryūnosuke and Shinobu Miyake hostage before shackling them together and dressing them in a groom's tuxedo and a bride's wedding dress. Ryūnosuke happily follows Shinobu's lead in beating up her father and leaving. [66]
When the Bluebird visits Tomobiki High School, Ryūnosuke finds herself briefly turned into a boy, courtesy of her father's wish, which causes her to try and beat him up. [67]
When her father tries to hold a rigged fish-catching scam in hopes of earning money, Ryūnosuke is merely a bored and mildly contemptuous onlooker to his failed machinations. [68]
On a day Tomobiki High School holds a swim class, a ferocious brawl erupts in the school store, as Ryūnosuke tries and fails to beat her father into giving her a girl's swimsuit. As Sakura tends to Ryūnosuke's injuries, she offers Ryūnosuke a girl's swimsuit that she bought earlier in case her father pulled such a stunt, but Ryūnosuke reluctantly turns her down, explaining that she can't wear any girl's clothing until she beats her father. At this, Sakura muses that the problem is that Ryūnosuke's father is far more cunning than his daughter. Ataru and Shūtarō Mendō try to help Ryūnosuke earn a swimsuit by stealth, but fail, largely due to Ryūnosuke's own distaste for acting in an underhanded manner. After two failed attempts, Ryūnosuke demands a fair fight to win the swimsuit; avoiding an attempt by her father to feed her poisoned rice before they start, she and he start to brawl. Thanks to some timely help from Ataru and Shūtarō, she wins the match and claims her prize... but it turns out her father tricked her again, and gave her a boy's wrestling singlet instead of a girl's swimsuit. [69]
When Ten starts a particularly destructive brawl in Class 2-4, Ryūnosuke somehow manages to avoid getting involved enough that she is ordered to report to the reflection hermitage afterwards. [70]
When Shūtarō Mendō invites his classmates to see his newest private vacation spot, Ryūnosuke tags along and runs a pop-up beach cafe to feed them. She is briefly attacked by the giant mother squid during this time. [71]
In Midsummers, Ryūnosuke and her father return to the beach. Sick of her father's stupidity, Ryūnosuke abandons the tumbledown shack of her father's cafe and tries to go independent. The two fight a brief battle to prove their skills as beach cafe managers, and for a brief moment, seem to reconcile over this one shared bond. Then onlookers start throwing money their way for their performance, and the moment is over; Ryūnosuke's father sucker-punches her to try and steal all the money, but is instead made to give it all up for the many years of unpaid loans and property taxes he owes. [72]
When Onsen-Mark decides to visit the homes of his students, Ryūnosuke's residence in the school choice is his (extremely unwise) first choice. He promptly gets caught between one of the Fujinami's infamous brawls and is beaten senseless. [73] (Chapter 298: The Home Visit Blues)
Ryūnosuke is next seen rescuing a baby Dappya from being hit by a car, inadvertently inspiring an aspiring prima ballerina, Kanna Stardust, who is unknowingly being sabotaged by her jealous compatriot Violet Driedfish. After hearing that ballet is regarded as an extremely feminine sport, Ryūnosuke eagerly agrees to become Kanna's personal trainer. At the end of it all, Kanna succeeds... at becoming a very skilled martial artist. [74]
Ryūnosuke is one of the usual gang of five in "The Case of the Battered Principal", protesting when Onsen-Mark suggests she may have knocked the Principal unconscious out of filial loyalty. [75]
When a bioengineered turkey escapes into Tomobiki one night, Ryūnosuke is busy washing her sarashi when the turkey wanders into her yard, now the size of an ostrich. When her father suggests that they catch it and turn it in for the reward, she agrees, but quickly loses interest along with everybody else when the turkey is accidentally thrown into an instant ramen factory and bloats up into a giant. [76]
Whilst chasing her father around Tomobiki one morning, Ryūnosuke accidentally runs into a pet shop owning widow named Kayo, causing her to drop and break the sculpture of her beloved dog Sentaro in the process. Whilst Ryūnosuke is sincerely apologetic, she isn't happy with the way her father shoves all the blame onto her, but Kayo only has eyes for Ryūnosuke's father. Several days later, Kayo tracks Ryūnosuke down and takes her out to a small cafe with Ataru Moroboshi, Lum, Shinobu Miyake and Shūtarō Mendō. Ryūnosuke gets the shock of her life when Kayo asks her how she'd feel about getting a new mother. That evening, Ryūnosuke is left trying and failing to understand what Kayo could see in a bum like her father. [77]
Ryūnosuke gets the shock of her life when she wakes up the next morning to find Kayo in her house cooking breakfast. She is less than thrilled when she cannot convince Kayo of her true gender, despite showing the young widow her breasts, and even less so when Kayo reveals the meal she made for them is her late dog's favorite dish. She storms off to class and spends the day stewing over her feelings, before calling her father out for a fight after school, venting her frustration that he would take a new bride when he's never even had the guts to tell Ryūnosuke about her biological mother. This is when she learns that her father hadn't even realized that Kayo was crushing on him. Her disappointment grows when she realizes that her father is now sincerely taking an interest back in Kayo. Upon learning that Kayo's employee Hanakichi is in love with her, she encourages him to win Kayo away from Ryūnosuke's dad. When it seems all is lost, she resigns herself to it... but, fortunately, Kayo ends up falling for Hanakichi after all when he provides her with a number of animals who share the same distinctive eyebrows as Sentaro and Mr. Fujinami. [78]
When a group of fleas take control over Kotatsu-neko, he tries to raid the Fujinami house, only to find that Ryūnosuke and her father are skipping food that night due to being too impoverished to buy anything. [79]
Whilst coming home one night, Ryūnosuke gets into a fight with Shingo. During the battle, she loses her sarashi and then has her breast touched by the eccentric young ninja. When Shingo shows up in Class 2-4 the next morning and starts plucking hairs from all the girls, Ryūnosuke stands up to defend them, leading to, unbeknownst to the two, a second duel. It's only when Shingo catches her in the same grapple that he used the previous night that the two recognize each other... but then they hit the floor head first and are both knocked unconscious. [80]
The next day, Shingo shows up at Ryūnosuke's house, seeking to claim her as his bride. Ryūnosuke's father naturally refuses, asserting that he has no daughter, whilst Ryūnosuke herself wants only to duel the electric-powered ninja again. She almost loses the duel, but when Shingo blatantly gropes her breast, a sudden surge of rage gives her the strength she needs to win by crushing him under a tree. [81]
When Shūtarō Mendō is instructed by his father to undergo the Room of Poverty challenge to prove himself a worthy heir to the Mendō family name, Ryūnosuke and her father enter the room and take up the role of cafe owners to earn some extra money. [82]
Some time later, when Shūtarō Mendō loses his octopus flute and the various octopuses of the Mendō estate go flocking into Tomobiki, Ryūnosuke and her father show up hoping to catch as many as they can to cook and sell. [83]
When Ryūnosuke's father buys a private island and beach cafe, Ryūnosuke is skeptical. She is proven right when she discovers the island is a tiny, uninhabited spit of land four miles offshore of the nearest community; when Ataru Moroboshi, Lum, Shinobu Miyake and Shūtarō Mendō, she is calling her father out on this stupidity in her usual violent manner, and she remains mad at him through dinner. After dinner, as she bathes, Ryūnosuke senses somebody watching her, and believing it to be Ataru or Shūtarō, she throws a bathpail at the figure. To her shock, the figure she assaults is a young girl... who fades away into nothingness even as her pail sails through the spot where she was standing. She listens with unusual patience as her father admits that the island belonged to, and is now haunted by, his old friend Mr. Shiowatari and said friend's daughter, Nagisa Shiowatari. When the ghosts in question appear, Ryūnosuke is as frightened as everybody else. When she discovers that she and Nagisa were engaged to be married, she is furious, punching her father through the roof and denouncing the idea as stupid, something that upsets Nagisa. She tries to comfort Nagisa, explaining that the issue isn't that Ryūnosuke doesn't like ghosts, but that they're both girls, only for her father to interrupt. After hearing the story of how the Shiowatari's die, she tries to stop her father from agreeing to create the sea urchin kakigori, recognizing it would be a disaster, but soon has bigger problems to worry about: Nagisa's one wish before passing on to the afterlife is to kiss Ryūnosuke... [84]
Ryūnosuke absolutely refuses to kiss Nagisa, but when she tries to explain that she's a girl, Nagisa runs off in tears, blaming it on her being a ghost. Before Ryūnosuke can pursue, her father strikes her, chiding her for being so coldhearted towards her fiancee. Punching her father away, Ryūnosuke tries to talk sense into Nagisa's father, but whilst he listens to her explanation, he tells her that it doesn't matter if Ryūnosuke is a girl, elaborating that Nagisa devoted her life to being his cafe's poster girl, and never experienced love. Ryūnosuke is the only person that Nagisa ever believed would love her. Touched by this declaration, Ryūnosuke starts to consider the matter, only to be knocked unconscious by her father, who drags her onto the beach for Nagisa to kiss her... except the ghost can't touch Ryūnosuke's lips. Ataru's groping shocks Ryūnosuke awake, just in time to see something magical: a giant sea urchin arrives to lay its eggs, and by drinking its tear, Nagisa is restored to life. When the newly revived girl sets her sights on Ryūnosuke for that kiss, though, Ryūnosuke panics and runs away, only stopping when Nagisa grabs a bathing barrel and catches her in the back of the head with it. She finds herself pinned against the wall of the cafe, and when Nagisa stoops in for a kiss, she finally resorts to raising her shirt, showing Nagisa her breasts. She is gobsmacked when Nagisa repeats the gesture...showing that "she" is a boy. She is mortified to discover that Mr. Shiowatari is just as crazy as her father is, living in denial of Nagisa's manhood. Nagisa stoops in for that kiss, but is caught off-guard by the rising sun, which banishes Nagisa's father. Nagisa himself, however, remains behind, being a living boy once more. [85]
To Ryūnosuke's chagrin, her father decides to allow Nagisa to move in with them, having decided to support the engagement. Ryūnosuke is most frustrated by this, as she regards Nagisa as a lazy, gluttonous, free-loading crybaby. This only get worse when her father decides to treat himself to a brief trip to a hot spring, leaving the two behind. After a set of mishaps that end with Nagisa inadvertently walking in on her as she changes, Ryūnosuke storms off, intent on staying somewhere else whilst her father is away. When Nagisa asks if she is afraid of him, however, Ryūnosuke's pride won't stand for it; she attacks Nagisa, but to her immense shock, he easily overpowers her, tossing her onto his shoulder and preparing to carry her back to their shared home. Luckily, he is interrupted by Sakura, who scares him away with an exorcism ofuda. Whilst the crossdressing boy is gone, Sakura offers Ryūnosuke the opportunity to stay at Sakura's home, but Ryūnosuke refuses; having been defeated by Nagisa has enraged her, and now Ryūnosuke wants revenge! [86]
Ryūnosuke returns to her home, and after some initial misunderstandings, chases Nagisa into the garden outside. As Sakura, Ataru Moroboshi and Lum arrive, Ryūnosuke formally challenges Nagisa to a fight to "settle things between them". She is mortified when the confused Nagisa points out that he already beat her in a fight earlier that evening, to the shock of the onlookers, and this only spurs her own. To her horror, once he accepts the challenge, Nagisa proves it was no fluke; a lifetime spent practicing beach sumo has made the crossdressing boy incredibly strong, and he soon overpowers her. Ryūnosuke's reaction makes the victory quite pyrrhic for Nagisa, who accepts a moral loss and prepares to leave in defeat. But this finally stirs a sense of pity in Ryūnosuke's heart, and she declares she won't let him leave until she's beaten him. But she soon regrets her generosity when Nagisa, thrashing about in one of his dreams, accidentally gropes her, causing her to lock him in the closet for the rest of the night.[87]
Ryūnosuke is largely a bystander during the great tag match between Ataru and Lum to determine if their relationship should be renewed or ended for all time. After the oni's memory erasing device is activated, she joins in the futile attempt to deactivate it by force. Ultimately, she is a witness as Ataru and Lum reconcile at the last moments, deactivating the machine and ending the conflict.[88]
Personality
Ryūnosuke's personality is surprisingly complex, shaped extensively by her background and the demented influence of her father.
At her best, Ryūnosuke combines some of the best attributes of womanhood and traditional Japanese manhood. She is confident, kind, compassionate, forthright and honest. She has a personal code of honor that she takes very seriously; she will not strike other girls, and she considers her word to be her bond. She sticks up for those who are in need, and can be surprisingly chivalrous; girls flock to her as much for her "gentlemanly" attitude as for her androgynous beauty when dressed in her usual apparel. In many ways, she's a better "man" than her father, who is dishonest, sneaky, an incorrigible liar and never upholds his promises.
At her worst, however, Ryūnosuke can be quite thuggish. She has a short temper and speaks quite coarsely when angered. She favors a direct approach and, when not dealing with girls, she is quick to resort to violence. She often expresses her anger by throwing things or hitting whoever has made her angry. When she gets worked up, she can forget about little details and act impulsively, such as when she tries to steal Shinobu's bra at the end of their abortive date. She is at her worst when interacting with her father, whom she considers her bitterest enemy.
Ryūnosuke's honorable nature can be something of a weakness. She has at least twice put herself at a disadvantage because she couldn't take what she considered a dishonorable approach; she refused to wear the sailor suit that Class 2-4's boys got for her because she felt she had to succeed at her father's challenge to beat him first, and agreed to return to harsh training in the mountains after her father beats her in a duel with a cheap trick.
Whilst Ryūnosuke can be more worldly than her father, such as recognizing the foolishness of setting up a beach cafe on a deserted island four miles offshore from the nearest village, she can also be quite naive. Her father has repeatedly tricked her since she was a young age in order to not have to share delicious foods like chocolate or cake, although she has grown to recognize these were lies as she aged, and on her first Valentine's Day at Tomobiki High, is able to successfully trick her into believing that eating chocolate gifted to her by a girl on Valentine's Day will make her turn into a boy.
She also hates to be touched, due to the constant physical abuse she received from her father's hands growing up.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of Ryūnosuke's personality is her relationship with femininity. Ryūnosuke is deeply unhappy with being forced to dress and act like a boy, and yearns to be a woman - to dress like a girl, act like a girl, and recognized as a girl by others. Her great issue, besides her father's active and ongoing interference, is that she simply doesn't know how to act like a lady. It deeply troubles and annoys her when others mistake her for a boy, typically eliciting an angry confession - she even repeatedly endures attacks from Asuka Mizunokōji in her drive to correct the androphobe's mistaken impression ofRyūnosuke's gender.
Early in the series, she goes on a "date" with Ran hoping that she can learn to be more ladylike from her, and her efforts to acquire girl's clothing are a recurring element in her stories. She holds a deep admiration and envy for other girls, and idealizes proper feminine behavior; somewhat hypocritically, she is shown to look down on tomboyish girls, as seen when she first meets Benten. When her sarashi is stolen whilst bathing one night and a sweet potato vendor addresses her as "young miss" for the first time ever, Ryūnosuke is ecstatic, forcing him to repeatedly call her that term, and even resolves to never wear her sarashi breast-bindings again... though she is forced to give up on this when it causes the Class 2-4 boys to amp up their perverted behavior.
It's brought up in her first meeting with Ten that she literally doesn't know how to act around kids because her only memories of "expressing love" are from her father doing things like yelling at her and giving her noogies, something that also becomes apparent when she attempts to duel Benten in a contest of womanhood. It's called out by Ataru Moroboshi that she has no grasp of the womanly dialect of Japanese, and when she is initially presented with flower arranging implements during her brief feud with Benten, she has no comprehension of what they're supposed to do with them.
In short, Ryūnosuke hates being seen or treated as a boy and wants to be seen and treated as a girl... unless that means enduring the lecherous attentions of Ataru or the other perverted boys of Tomobiki High.
Relating to this is Ryūnosuke's attitudes towards romance, which are very mixed. She doesn't like being touched, and this isn't helped by the fact that it most frequently comes when Ataru or some other guy is trying to get gropey. When Shūtarō Mendō asks her to be his girlfriend, she flat out declares that she isn't interested in boys. When Sakura asks Ryūnosuke about her first love, Ryūnosuke's immediate response was that it was a female teacher she had as a small child, and when she thinks of other people she really liked, she realizes they were all girls. She has been on dates with both Ran and Shinobu Miyake, although with ulterior motives both times - to study feminine behavior and after being offered a bra to do so, respectively. She even nearly kisses Shinobu on their date, although when Shinobu slaps her, Ryūnosuke clarifies that she got carried away in her excitement at finally owning a bra.
At the same time, Ryūnosuke has also expressed that she is not attracted to girls. When discussing her first love with Sakura, she clarifies that the girls she liked, she liked in a non-romantic sense, and even declares that if she had to think about it, she would like a guy who is "tough and wild as the ocean, and stronger than me", which leads to her agreeing to duel the boys of Tomobiki High School to see if she can find one who measures up. She is annoyed by the fact that the girls at Tomobiki shower her with love letters and Valentine's Day chocolates despite knowing that she's a girl, regarding it as yet another attack on her fragile sense of femininity. When Ran kisses her, she freaks out, and fights to prevent Ran from giving her a second kiss to restore her drained strength, even having a minor breakdown when Ran succeeds. She is repulsed when magnetic lipstick nearly compels her and Lum to kiss, fighting to avoid making lip contact. She rejects the idea of becoming Kurama's husband, especially if that means turning physically into a boy. When she meets Nagisa Shiowatari, she rejects her fiancée's pleas for a kiss because she abhors the thought of kissing someone that she believes at the time to be another girl.
In conclusion, Ryūnosuke is a noble yet confused soul, torn between the womanhood she dreams of having and the manhood she has been forced to embrace.
Appearance
Outfit
Ryūnosuke is usually wearing a gakuran like her male peers and a sarashi. Wanting nothing more than to be more feminine, she is saving up money to buy a bra and sailor suit, in the belief that bras cost several thousand yen (most probably thanks to her father). At one point, Shinobu Miyake promised to buy her a bra if she posed as her boyfriend in order to scare away gang leader Sōban; but as usual, Ryūnosuke's father interfered.
Powers and Abilities
- Martial-Arts Expert: Due to having a generally abusive relationship with her father and constantly fighting with him her whole life, Ryūnosuke has developed exceptional physical capabilities and is an incredibly skilled martial artist.
- Near-Superhuman Strength: As a side effect of her constant training and brutal brawls, Ryūnosuke is one of the strongest people at Tomobiki High School; her strength is inferior to that of Shinobu Miyake, but she is strong enough that she is capable of battling on equal terms with lions, tigers and bears, as seen during the "Miss Tomobiki High" contest.
- Chick Magnet: Thanks to a combination of her androgynous beauty and the combination of gentlemanly behavior and "tough guy" appeal she exudes due to her father's forced lessons in masculine behavior, Ryūnosuke is very attractive to teenage. It's shown that even though her gender is common knowledge around Tomobiki High School, she receives vast quantities of Valentine's Day chocolates and love letters, dwarfing even the sizable piles amassed by Shūtarō Mendō. During her brief stint as an independent beach cafe owner, she easily parlays that attractiveness to lure in customers, although it's made clear, even if she'd rather not do so.
Relationships
Ryūnosuke's relationship with her father can be best summed up as one of deep, passionate and possibly mutual hatred. Ryūnosuke despises her father's stupidity, his lies, and most of all his constant efforts to force her to pretend to be a boy. The two are usually shown arguing or outright attacking each other, and they fight brutally. Her father seems to take an active glee in tormenting her, often holding women's clothing over her head as the prize for promises he never intends to keep. Whilst they very rarely show signs of caring for each other, Ryūnosuke's typical attitude towards her father is of frustration, resentment, or outright explosive anger.
Ryūnosuke's relationship with Ataru is complicated, but might be best summarized as "friendly enemies". They are friendly enough that they are often seen hanging around, and Ataru is the one character who consistently treats Ryūnosuke as a girl, which normally she would be very appreciative of. The problem is that Ataru expresses that awareness of Ryūnosuke's feminity by trying to hug, grope and kiss her the way he does all the girls he knows, and Ryūnosuke is not so desperate as to put up with that. Still, Ataru has helped Ryūnosuke on several occasions, such as stealing a sailor suit for Ryūnosuke in her second story or trying to reassure her that eating chocolate won't turn her into a boy.
Shinobu is probably Ryūnosuke's closest female friend, given that she is the most respectful of Ryūnosuke's wishes to be seen as a girl and so doesn't fawn after her like the other girls in Tomobiki High. Ryūnosuke has stated outright that Shinobu is the person she likes most at Tomobiki High, though she then clarified that she doesn't mean this in a romantic sense. She allows "Shinobu" (actually Ataru transformed into Shinobu) to cuddle up close to her without rejecting her the way Ryūnosuke does with other girls in the series, though she does note that this is very weird behavior for Shinobu and is quite confused by it afterwards. Ryūnosuke's abusive father initially greatly admires Shinobu, and wishes that Ryūnosuke would become a couple with her, due to his delusion that Ryūnosuke is really a boy. He even goes so far as to capture the two, force them into a Western-style wedding tuxedo and dress, chain them together, and start praying to Masako Fujinami about the "beautiful bride" that their "son" had won. However, he stops supporting this relationship when Ryūnosuke's arranged spouse Nagisa enters their lives.
Ryūnosuke deeply admires Ran for her feminine grace and beauty; "cute" Ran is essentially Ryūnosuke's ideal of womanhood, and she even asks if they can spend time together, hoping to study Ran's mannerisms so she can mimic them herself. After this story, however, the two don't really interact again, save for when Ran kisses Ryūnosuke during the Miss Tomobiki Contest, an act that Ryūnosuke is shown to be very unhappy about.
Ryūnosuke's relationship with Benten is a little complicated. When they first meet, Ryūnosuke is very put out by Benten's tomboyish behavior, which contradicts Ryūnosuke's idealized vision of how girls should act, and she chastises Benten several times for being unladylike. Whilst Benten initially tolerates this, in part because she mistakenly believes that Ryūnosuke is a boy with a crush on her, when she learns the truth of Ryūnosuke's gender (and hypocrisy), she is very angry. The two nearly begin to fight before Ataru Moroboshi intervenes and then, when the Tomobiki High Principal gets involved, they are forced to enter a farcical play that culminates in their having to work together to fend off the collected hornballs of Tomobiki High. Battling together like this ends the bad blood, and they conclude the storyline with a warrior's respect and admiration for each other.
Ryūnosuke only interacts with Sakura briefly, but she seems to respect the older woman, and to appreciate her for providing both a rare maternal figure and an even rarer sane adult figure in Ryūnosuke's life. Shortly after Nagisa moves in with the Fujinamis, Sakura takes it upon herself to protect Ryūnosuke's virtue, offering her the opportunity to stay at her place rather than stay home alone with Nagisa.
Nagisa is Ryūnosuke's fiancé - or, rather, her fiancée in the eyes of her demented father, who refuses to accept Nagisa's masculinity any more than he does Ryūnosuke's femininity. Nagisa is utterly smitten with Ryūnosuke, having evidently been brought up knowing that they were supposed to be wed, despite the confusion their fathers had on their respective genders. In contrast, Ryūnosuke has much more conflicted feelings towards Nagisa. At the start, she has a highly negative opinion of him; she objects to her father giving her hand away without her say-so on principal, and this distaste is heightened by the fact that she initially believes Nagisa to be a girl. After getting to know Nagisa, she remains equally hostile; living with Nagisa gives her first-hand experience with her faults. As she later complains to her friends in Class 2-4, Nagisa is lazy, gluttonous, and a huge crybaby. After Nagisa reveals he is actually such a strong fighter that he can even defeat her in battle, and impresses upon her the depth of his feelings, Ryūnosuke's own feelings seem to soften. Most notably, she refuses to allow a demoralized Nagisa to slink away, instead ordering him to stay at her home until she can beat him in a fight.
Ryūnosuke only interacts with Kurama once, when the alien princess mistakenly believes Ryūnosuke to be a boy and a suitable spousal candidate. Ryūnosuke is angered at being chosen and immediately tries to correct the mistake, going so far as to expose her breasts to Kurama when the crow goblins feed Ryūnosuke a hiccup pill to prevent her from communicating. Once she learns the truth, Kurama leaves and Ryūnosuke is glad to see her go.
Asuka first thought Ryunosuke was a man and sent her flying. It angered Ryunosuke who proceeded to chase Asuka around and try to convince her that she was actually a woman. Asuka did not believe her but instead became interested in Ryunosuke as a man. When she saw Ryunosuke's chest and saw it was the same as Tobimaro's, she began to believe that Ryunosuke was also her older brother. Ryunosuke was shocked and scolded her mother for raising Asuka so badly.
Speech patterns
Ryūnosuke refers to herself in the first person as ore (おれ, ore?), which is typically used by males, instead of pronouns more typically used by females, like atashi (あたし, atashi?) or uchi (うち, uchi).
Appellations
Name | What They Call Ryūnosuke | What Ryūnosuke Calls Them |
---|---|---|
Ataru Moroboshi | Ryūnosuke-chan / Ryū-chan | Moroboshi |
Lum | Ryūnosuke | Lum |
Shinobu Miyake | Ryūnosuke-san | Shinobu |
Shūtarō Mendō | Ryūnosuke-san | Mendō |
Kōsuke Shirai | Ryūnosuke | Unknown |
Ten | Nee-chan | Unknown |
Cherry | Unknown | Unknown |
Sakura | Ryūnosuke | Unknown |
Onsen-Mark | Fujinami | Sensei |
Principal | Fujinami-kun | Unknown |
Ryūnosuke's Father | Ryūnosuke | [Kuso–]Oyaji ([shitty–]father) |
Ran | Ryūnosuke-kun | Ran |
Asuka Mizunokōji | Onii-sama | Unknown |
Nagisa Shiowatari | Ryūnosuke-sama | Nagisa |
Shingo | Ryūnosuke-dono | Unknown |
Quote
- "I'm a chick, dammit!" (Untranslatable.)
- In detail: Japanese has many pronouns that mean "I". Different pronouns suggest different degrees of familiarity. The more familiar ones tend to be gendered, the less familiar ones tend to be unisex. As in English, familiarity can indicate intimacy or hostility. Ryūnosuke becomes hostile when people mistake her for a boy, so she uses the familiar, male "I" that she was brought up to use.
Trivia
- Her name Ryūnosuke means "dragon" (竜) (ryū), "this" (之) (no) and "help, assist" (介) (suke). Her surname Fujinami means "wisteria" (藤) (fuji) and "wave, breaker" (波) (nami).
- Ryūnosuke's name is a pun that works best in the original written Japanese. Whilst the "suke" suffix is an exclusively masculine one in Japanese, loosely analogous to the English suffix "son", the true gag is that her name uses the ryū kanji meaning "dragon"; 竜 - this is exclusively used in boy's names under the rules for writing kanji. A girl's name in Japanese would use the ryū kanji character 柳, meaning "willow". Because the two kanji are homophones, sounding the same when spoken, the joke loses some of its impact when spoken or converted to a non-kanji script.
- It is widely accepted that Ryūnosuke was an inspiration for Takahashi's subsequent manga series Ranma ½, with both the main character Ranma Saotome and the secondary character Ukyo Kuonji having clear thematic links to Ryūnosuke:
- Ranma and Ryūnosuke are both strong teenage fighters who have antagonistic relationships with their fathers and who have lived a rugged lifestyle, and both have a strong devotion to honor. However, Ryūnosuke is a girl who is forced to dress like a boy by her insane father, who also insists that she is really a boy. In comparison, Ranma is a boy who, thanks to falling in a magical spring, can turn into a girl, with circumstances often conspiring to force him to pretend to be a real girl. Both characters hate their gender-blurring lifestyle and would dearly love to be "normal".
- Ukyo most directly copies Ryūnosuke, in that both of them are extremely tomboyish teenage girls who consistently dress like men. Ukyo chooses to cross dress, in contrast to how Ryūnosuke is forced into the role, and Ukyo is not portrayed as being super-popular amongst the girls of Furinkan High School in the same way that Ryūnosuke is amongst her female peers at Tomobiki High School.
- Her father remains a largely disliked character amongst the fandom for his violent and selfish treatment of Ryūnosuke.
- Ryūnosuke and her father make a surfing cameo in Maris the Chojo OVA.
- Ryūnosuke's name and design may have been inspired by a character in the Rumic World one-shot manga story The War Council named Ryuko Fujinami, who is characterized as the leader of the Combat and Sports School Clubs of Wartime High School. The War Council was published in February 1st, 1982, whilst Ryūnosuke made her debut on August 25th, 1982.
- Ryūnosuke and her father's relationship mirrors and parodies the harsh father-son relationship between Ittetsu Hoshi and Hyūma Hoshi from the manga and anime series Kyojin no Hoshi's which came out many years before Urusei Yatsura, as it also deals with an incredibly harsh father punishing his son and pushing him to his physical limits in order to carry on his legacy. However, whereas the Hoshi's relationship is portrayed as more of a romanticized serious drama, with them occasionally finding common ground and affection in improving their baseball skills in overly idealistic scenarios, Ryūnosuke and her father's relationship is portrayed as a tragic comedy and any instance where it seems that Ryūnosuke and her father find common ground and affection immediately falls apart due to Mr. Fujinami's own reasoning being completely insane and pointlessly cruel and Ryūnosuke quickly realizing that her father is a moron, with Mr. Fujinami sometimes just bullying, tormenting or even poisoning Ryūnosuke for no discernible reason, with the abuse being portrayed as an actual negative with no idealization, that in no way helps to prepare her to run her family's teashop which normally results in both parent and child beating the stuffing out of each other.
- Several chapters and episodes even have both of them parodying instances from Kyojin no Hoshi.
- Their relationship may also be a parody of Oscar François de Jarjayes and her father from The Rose of Versailles manga and anime which came out years before the release of the Urusei Yatsura anime and manga, where instead of both characters being portrayed as wealthy aristocrats and the father's desire for a male heir being glossed over and romanticized, Ryūnosuke and her father are instead portrayed as poor and unkempt civilians and with Mr. Fujinami's actions being fully shown as realistically and unnecessarily cruel by putting his daughter through his brutal treatment and training regime since infancy just to meet with his selfish desire for a male heir.
- This is seemingly further enforced in Episode 65 where Ataru, Megane and Mendo imagine Ryūnosuke naked in a surreal setting wrapped in rose thorns when thinking about how her father's upbringing might have messed her up, mirroring the final image of the opening sequence of The Rose of Versailles anime where Oscar was also naked and wrapped in rose thorns in a surreal setting.
- The true name of Ryūnosuke's mother is unknown; names her father uses in Chapter 176 are, in chronological order: Yukie, Yoko, Kayoko, and Masako. it is implied that Masako Fujinami was her real name, as Mr. Fujinami uses it whenever the topic of Ryūnosuke's mother arises in the rest of the series.
Media Appearances
Manga
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Anime
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Gallery
1981 Anime
Movies and OVAs
2022 Anime
References
- ↑ Chapter 147
- ↑ Episode 63
- ↑ Chapter 148
- ↑ Episode 63
- ↑ Chapter 149
- ↑ Chapter 150
- ↑ Chapter 151
- ↑ Chapter 152
- ↑ Chapter 153
- ↑ Chapter 154
- ↑ Chapter 156
- ↑ Chapter 157
- ↑ Chapter 158
- ↑ Chapter 159
- ↑ Chapter 163
- ↑ Chapter 165
- ↑ Chapter 166
- ↑ Chapter 169
- ↑ Chapter 172
- ↑ Chapter 173
- ↑ Chapter 176
- ↑ Chapter 177
- ↑ Chapter 178
- ↑ Chapter 179
- ↑ Chapter 184
- ↑ Chapter 185
- ↑ Chapter 186
- ↑ Chapter 187
- ↑ Chapter 188
- ↑ Chapter 189
- ↑ Chapter 190
- ↑ Chapter 193
- ↑ Chapter 194
- ↑ Chapter 196
- ↑ Chapter 204
- ↑ Chapter 210
- ↑ Chapter 211
- ↑ Chapter 212
- ↑ Chapter 213
- ↑ Chapter 214
- ↑ Chapter 215
- ↑ Chapter 220
- ↑ Chapter 223
- ↑ Chapter 228
- ↑ Chapter 230
- ↑ Chapter 232
- ↑ Chapter 235
- ↑ Chapter 236
- ↑ Chapter 237
- ↑ Chapter 238
- ↑ Chapter 239
- ↑ Chapter 241
- ↑ Chapter 242
- ↑ Chapter 243
- ↑ Chapter 245
- ↑ Chapter 248
- ↑ Chapter 251
- ↑ Chapter 263
- ↑ Chapter 264
- ↑ Chapter 268
- ↑ Chapter 269
- ↑ Chapter 270
- ↑ Chapter 271
- ↑ Chapter 275
- ↑ Chapter 277
- ↑ Chapter 279
- ↑ Chapter 281
- ↑ Chapter 285
- ↑ Chapter 288
- ↑ Chapter 289
- ↑ Chapter 294
- ↑ Chapter 296
- ↑ Chapter 298
- ↑ Chapter 307
- ↑ Chapter 311
- ↑ Chapter 312
- ↑ Chapter 314
- ↑ Chapter 315
- ↑ Chapter 321
- ↑ Chapter 323
- ↑ Chapter 324
- ↑ Chapter 334
- ↑ Chapter 336
- ↑ Chapter 341
- ↑ Chapter 342
- ↑ Chapter 349
- ↑ Chapter 350
- ↑ Chapter 366