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| “ | 我的愛人 (Wǒ de àirén) | „ |
| ~ Shampoo's typical line in Chinese to Ranma, meaning "My lover" |
Shampoo is a major characters in the comedy manga and anime series Ranma ½. She is a Chinese martial artist who sought revenge for Ranma Saotome in his female form after her defeat against her when the latter and his father devoured her supposed price for a tournament during their time in China. As a result, Shampoo sought to initially kill Ranma, chasing down anywhere he goes, from China and eventually finds him in Tokyo, in Japan where he now lives with Akane Tendo and her family. After developping feelings for him for his original male form, she abandonned her thirst to kill him and sought to become his fiancé with the help of her grandma, Cologne. She is also a rival of Akane and Ukyo Kuonji.
She is voiced by Rei Sakuma (who also voices Sakura in Ginga Legend Weed and My Melody in Onegai, My Melody) in Japanese and by Cathy Weseluck (who also voiced Snoozer and Spike in G4) in English version. In the reboot, she is voiced by Grace Lu in English.
Appearance[]
Shampoo has knee-length dark hair (purple in the anime) with a fringe and two strands hanging in front that are secured with ties. She dresses in various forms of Chinese clothing, usually a matching blouse and pants, over which she may wear an apron while working. Her combat outfit consists of a light colored long-sleeved blouse and pants with the addition of a dark breastplate and a pair of metal arm-guards, making her one of the few characters to wear any form of armor. For formal occasions she favors sleeveless Cheongsam.
Her cat form is light colored with dark ears and paws, a characteristic fringe, and similar strands that frame its face. In the anime, it has light pink fur with darker pink paws and ears.
Personality[]
Shampoo speaks with a simplified mode of speech, most notably rapidly switching between ignoring and using personal pronouns, because of having a limited amount of time to learn the Japanese language. She is described as "innocent and aggressive", being very affectionate and cheerful, while simultaneously being devious and forceful. Her personal motto is "obstacle is for killing", and she is more than willing to assassinate any "obstacle" in the path of a goal or just for the sake of convenience. For instance she has attempted to brainwash Ranma into loving her. She will also relentlessly bully people, or to put others, including her "groom", through sadistic and sometimes painful games for her own amusement. She has very little modesty, and attempts to use nudity to seduce Ranma in public places. She is sometimes compared to Lum Invader from Takahashi's earlier Urusei Yatsura due to the similarities in their character designs and openly clingy personalities.
She has shown that she is not past hurting Ranma's other fiancees. She is considerably more insistent than any of them, though her plans to woo Ranma are generally more violent and devious than his other suitors with the possible exception of Kodachi. She is not above hurting Ranma either, and is shown to be mostly uninterested in winning his affections by playing fair, though she isn't completely heartless.
Biography[]
The champion of the Chinese Amazon village, she came to Japan to kill the female Ranma. After her defeat against him in an annual martial arts contest, since he and Genma had hungrily devoured the prize, a well-stocked banquet table, while coming upon and watching the contest. Shampoo gave Ranma the "Kiss of Death", a promise to track 'her' down and eventually kill 'her'. Later, after male Ranma accidentally defeated her, she gave him the "Kiss of Marriage", since the laws of her village force her to kill any female defeaters and marry male ones. Once she learned of his curse, she returned home, heartbroken.
As punishment for her failure to kill female Ranma or marry male Ranma, her great-grandmother Cologne brought her to Jusenkyo for retraining. During this training, she fell into the "Spring of Drowned Cat", making her cursed to turn into a cat, the one thing Ranma fears most, and she blames him for this status. Despite this, Shampoo is no longer fixated on wanting to kill Ranma, and now just wants to marry him. Having returned to Nerima, Tokyo, she waits tables at the Cat Cafe (Nekō Hanten), her great-grandmother's restaurant. She also sometimes delivers ramen by bicycle, occasionally running down people — particularly Ranma — on the streets and rooftops. She is actively pursued by Mousse, a childhood friend for whom she generally shows nothing but disdain.
Abilities []
As a Chinese Amazon, Shampoo is a skilled martial artist, as she was the champion of Joketsuzoku before being defeated by Ranma, and she can be a dangerous opponent. Similar to Ryoga, Shampoo loses her abilities in her animal form.
Trivia[]
- The kanji in her name are shān "coral" and pú "uncut/unpolished gem". The real pun in Shampoo's name though, is that some of the characters from her village are named after beauty products such as Mousse and Cologne.
- 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 Invader, a character from one of Takahashi's first manga series, Urusei Yatsura.
- Shampoo bears a virtual resemblance to Renka Ma from History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. Oddly enough Renka was called "kitty" and even has a tendency to act like a cat, possibly a reference to Shampoo's cat form. The two also compete against the lead females for the attention of the main protagonists.
- Shampoo's mother is never shown during the series. Her father appears several times in cameos in the manga but never in the anime.
- In Slayers NEXT there is a pair of characters, called Mimi and Nene, who have a strong resemblance to Shampoo, sharing similar hairstyle and Chinese clothing.
- The manga has a running gag of Shampoo making her entrance by running over people, mainly Ranma, with her bicycle. This also appears on a few occasions in the anime, but is usually directed against other people and only appears roughly half a dozen times in all of the anime episodes and specials.
- Fans of the series often mistakenly refer to Shampoo's weapons as bonbori, which is incorrect: bonbori are a spherical shaped paper lantern that are hung outside in Japan, which her weapons do resemble.
External Links[]
- Shampoo on the Ranma ½ Wiki
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 Heroes
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Ranma Saotome | Akane Tendo | Ryoga Hibiki | Shampoo | Ukyo Kuonji | Konatsu | Kodachi Kuno | Sasuke Sarugakure | Genma Saotome | Soun Tendo | Tofu Ono | Mousse | Cologne | ||