Volume Three


Continuing on, the martial arts figure skating match officially begins, with Akane and P-chan both on the line.
Ranma and Akane
vs
Mikado and Azusa

The figure skating duo wastes no time and end up pretty badly injuring Ranma. Ryoga , not wanting to be won as a prize by Azusa and spending the rest of his life as "Charlotte", tries to pair up with Akane. Unfortunately, he instead ends up pairing up with the injured Ranma, now in female form . Things continue to deteriorate from there with Ryoga instead challenging Ranma for Akane's heart. They end up breaking the rink which reveals a pool beneath. After much fighting, Azusa and Mikado are pretty much out of it as Ryoga and Ranma battle it out. Unfortunately, Akane gets caught in the middle and nearly drowns as she can't swim. Ryoga, splashed with cold water, turns in to P-chan and tries to rescue her. Ranma ends up pulling them both out. Luckily for Ryoga, Akane never saw him transform.

Before the gang can get settled too much though, a new crazy shows up in town that goes by the name of Shampoo . Shampoo is a Chinese amazon warrior, strongest in her village according to a tournament she had just won. Unfortunately, Genma and Ranma (transformed) ate her prize meal. Challenging female Ranma and losing, Shampoo hit him with the "kiss of death", a promise to follower him (her, in this case) to the end of the world and kill her in order to recover from the shame of losing to an outsider.

After Shampoo's latest attempted murder, Ranma, this time in male form , accidentally defeats her again. But this time, Shampoo instead promises to marry him. There is much jealousy between Akane and Shampoo, Ranma's two fiancee's at this point. Shampoo tries a special technique on Akane that causes her to complete forget who Ranma is. Ryoga is pleased with this development, but Ranma is not. Male Ranma then promises Shampoo that he will severely beat up female Ranma in order to cure Akane. Shampoo accepts this deal and is beaten to a pulp by everyone else in order to fulfill his end of the bargain.

Shortly after, Ranma shows Shampoo that male Ranma and female Ranma are one and the same person. Shampoo goes in for the kill before crying and saying goodbye.

This volume introduces Shampoo, one of my favourite characters, so that's always a plus. I also liked it more, it was less all over the place and had a lot of good moments.