Ranma ½ and Transgenderism
In the U.S. we call them cartoons, but in Japan they call them anime. There's an incredibly wide variety of anime shows, but one of them strikes a note with a lot of transgendered people, and that one is the series Ranma ½.
Ranma ½ is about a boy who is around sixteen years old. He's an expert in martial arts. His father, pretty much a loser, basically kidnapped Ranma when he was very young and took him on a training trip to develop his martial arts skills.
While doing this they encountered an area in China that had magical springs, and Ranma fell into one, giving Ranma a 'curse' whereby anytime he is exposed to cold water, his body changes into that of a 100% woman; when doused with hot water he returns to his male form.
The Ranma character is male, physically and mentally, and is absolutely positive about it, including holding some rather narrow views about women in general and their abilities.
The change (in the series) is physical but not necessarily mental. Ranma always insists he is a male, no matter what his physical appearance. At times Ranma uses his female appearance to serve a purpose such as get extra helpings of ice cream free, to fool Ryouga and so on but never really wants to experience fully what being female means.
The one exception, in which Ranma truly believes that his natural gender is as a girl, is Pretty Womanhood. In that story, Ranma hits his head, falls into a pond, and changes into a girl as usual. However, the nature of the head injury causes Ranma (known in girl form as Ranma-chan or Ranko) to sincerely believe that his real gender is female. It is during this time that we get an appreciation of just how much an adjustment to being female Ranma can make.
Many fan-fiction writers seem to like to write about situations where Ranma actually welcomes being female, or at least is trapped forever (or at least it seems it will be forever) as a female and has to deal with that fact. The stories range from where Ranma, even female, is still mentally male (the minority of stories) to ones in which Ranma fully embraces being female, even wants desperately to be a female her entire life.
This is shown in many of the Ranma-chan/Ranko fanfiction pieces, where the male Ranma "knows" that "he" is really a "she." In those pieces, once the male Ranma starts living as a female then her life improves dramatically, especially in her relationships to other people. Now, I'm not saying that everything would be automatically better if a person changed to their "real" gender, but the inter-personal relationships could become much, much better, making life easier to live.
As I noted, in the episode Pretty Womanhood, Ranma is changed into Ranma-chan when she is hit by Akane into the pool and hits her head on a rock. When Ranma-chan wakes up, she is sure that she is a woman. Her language (there are very gender-specific words in Japanese) is female as are her interests and body mannerisms.
She and Akane are eating and she says to Akane:
"How do I explain it? It feels like I've just awakened from a long, refreshing sleep. As if I've experienced an amazingly long dream. I don't know quite how to describe it. It's as if my experiences until now aren't mine. It seems so unreal. As if I have another person's memories. And this morning, the real me awakened. I finally realized that I was a woman."
To me. this is one of the most beautiful ways of describing how a M2F person feels when they realize that they really are supposed to be female.
In my favorite Ranma fanfiction of all, Genma's Daughter, Ranma is born a girl but is cursed to become male. She is finally able to rid herself other. She describes her feelings about realizing that she really is a girl and not a boy in this way:
"Ranko looked deep in thought. For a minute, she looked into the fire, as the others waited. Finally, she spoke. 'I...it hasn't been like I expected. I...I haven't had the feeling that I've been changing into another person.'' She paused a moment, then continued with wonder and realization in her voice. 'I...I feel like I 'was' another person, and...and I'm become 'me'. Like I was a puzzle put together the wrong way, and not I'm slowly being put together the right way.'"
M2F people know, also, that if they had been born female then they would also have some of the negative things that come along with that, things such as periods. Yet, the transgendered person considers that type of thing a price well worth paying if they could be their "real" gender.
So, in general, the transgendered person is often an outcast from society, subject to hatred and physical attack, cheated out of the life they know they should have had growing up and knowing that they will never, ever be a "genetic female" or "genetic male". Although some transgendered people get sexual reassignment surgery and are very happy with that and can live a life as their "real" gender, there will still be the sadness there knowing that they never were and never will be fully, completely the gender they know they actually are.
So, everyone raise their hands who would choose this way of being. No takers? Not surprising. Again, knowing that you are should be the opposite gender is not a conscious, logical choice. It's a soul-level, core-being knowing that. can lead to intense emotional and psychological pain.
There are, in many places, support groups set up for people who are transgendered. There are numerous on-line resources the transgendered person can explore. For some people psychological counseling can be helpful. So the sadness and the emotional pain can be tempered somewhat by turning to these sources but, no matter what, each day the transgendered person wake up knowing that this is another day that they will live in the "wrong" physical form.
A M2F person can easily identify with Ranma-chan/Ranko in the fiction pieces. By some wonderful magical means the male Ranma becomes Ranma-chan/Ranko without having to go through the entire psychological/medical process that they would have to go through in the "real" world to become a female. In some stories, there are also F2M themes, including stories where Akane goes to the cursed springs and willingly becomes male, or where Nabiki does the same thing to become male (although, in those cases, it's not because the girl mentioned really is transgendered; it's done as a matter of love for Ranma or out of self-preservation.)
The life denied the M2F person can be lived vicariously through these Ranma-chan/Ranko pieces. At least for a little while the person reading the story can become, in their mind, Ranma-chan/Ranko and live their life as they know it should have been.
One of the things about the Internet is that people's interests circumstances change, and, from time to time, sources of information and stories basically disappear forever. This is why that on my website I have collected a bunch of these stories, noting the source (if there is one anymore), and giving a short review and a synopsis of the story.
(This material can be found at: http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/ranko/ranfict.html.
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In many of the stories Ranma-chan makes a wonderful adjustment to being fully female and, in most cases, the type of life she ends up leading actually is much better than the life she was leading as a male. Gone is the macho-ness and the narrow views of what women are capable of. Replacing that is a warmth and an understanding and, most of all, happiness.
(For explanation purposes: Genma is Ranma-chan's lousy father. Nodoka is her mother. Genma and Ranma-chan are staying with the Tendos. Soun is the father (his wife is dead), and Kasumi is the eldest sister, staying at home and taking care of the house; Nabiki is the middle sister, and Akani is the youngest sister who was promised by the fathers to male Ranma as a wife. Also, Genma had promised Ranma as a husband to Shampoo (a Chinese girl) and Ukyo (who runs her own restaurant).I told you he was a creep.
A few examples of such stories include the following:
A Different Path:
The story starts out with the premise that Ranma was extremely happy when he fell into the Spring of Drowned Girl, rather than upset. It then proceeds basically through the same events that happened in the first episode through the point where Ranma and Kuno had jumped from the window, fallen into the pool, and Kuno had ended up grabbing Ranma-chan's breasts.
The differences then begin. Ranma-chan wanted to talk to Akane about everything that was going on, but outside her door she heard Akane refer to Ranma as a pervert. That was exactly what the young, extremely vulnerable girl did not need to hear at that moment.
Kasumi ends up comforting Ranma-chan as she breaks down into tears, still unable to tell Kasumi everything that has happened and is worrying her. Then comes the strongest scene of the short story where Kasumi confronts Akane. Akane still talks violently against Ranma and Kasumi ends up slapping her sister, then says "Little sister, there's a girl, our GUEST, outside the dojo who is struggling not to hate herself, and all you want to do is hate her some more?"
Kasumi ends up apologizing to her mother at the family shrine and says that "...I never felt such pain from anyone before..."
Akane then talks to Ranma-chan who reveals to Akane that she is really happy at finally being able to be a girl, but is extremely sad over having virtually no friends her entire life and she had been hoping that Akane could have been her friend.
Am I Smart? Ranma-chan's Declaration of Womanhood
The story is based on Pretty Womanhood, and is another fanfic using that episode as a jumping-off point. Ranma-chan is in female mode, but has really become female. She and Nabiki get along very well, and Ranma-chan has become finally happy.
Genma's Daughter
This is one of the best stories. It is revealed that Ranma was actually born a girl, but was changed by Genma into a male (using a magical spring) on purpose. The story concerns her finding out about this and having to learn to adapt to being a real female after years of being told she was really a he.
It's a very moving story, and has two sequels, Equal Halves and Notes from Julliard.
Hello Again
In the Ranma 1/2 episode Pretty Womanhood, Ranma-kun is hit by Akane and cracks his head on a rock in the backyard pool. Upon awakening, Ranma-chan is convinced that she is really female, basically was meant to be female, and wants to remain female. In the series, of course, that doesn't happen, but a number of fiction pieces have been writing using the premise that Ranma-chan did want to remain female, permanently.
The story "Hello Again" is one of those stories that expands on that premise. It's a relatively short story, but one of the most moving that I have read. Ranma-chan wants to remain female; Genma and Soun don't intend that to happen, and so Genma has threatened to kick our Ranma-chan, leaving her with no home at all.
This proves too much for her and she flees into the night. Akane has seen the expression on Ranma-chan's face, though, and is terrified by the look on her face. The line the author uses to describe Ranma-chan's crying is particularly noteworthy: "This was the weeping of a soul beyond hope."
That one sentence invokes so many images and depths of despair that it's almost an entire story unto itself. This is definitely a must read fanfic.
Ranko's Big Decision
This is one of the types of stories in which boy-type Ranma realizes that "he" really wants to be "she" and to stay that way. Caught in a rainstorm, Ranma-chan takes refuge in the store of a dressmaker. Gradually, over time, she reveals her story to the elderly owner of the store and finally finds a good friend. The mental anti-female training that Genma gave him gives Ranma-chan some problems, but she realizes that being a woman is what she really wants.
Ranma-chan tells her family that she has decided she will remain female, with the expected rather harsh reactions from Genma and Nodoka. Akane, though, does not react violently and ends up becoming a really close friend to Ranma-chan. (In the context of the actual series, I doubt Akane would be very understanding, though. She reacted very violently to Ranma-chan being female in Pretty Womanhood. Still, for the sake of the story, it's good to have Akane being willing to listen, for once.)
Things become somewhat complicated, though, when Ryoga ends up asking Ranma-chan out on a date. It gets even more complicated when Ryoga informs Ranma-chan that he has a map to one of the springs that will enable Ranma-chan to stay physically female forever, and Akane reveals that she actually loves Ranma (but not Ranma-chan, at least physically), forcing Ranma-chan into a very difficult position In the end, though, it's Akane that comes up with a solution to their problems.
The story does a good job of showing just how deeply Ranma-chan feels about "really" being a woman, and the problems that would result from a decision on her part to live full-time as a female. This also shows Ranma-chan being more relaxed, carefree and happy than she ever was in the actual series. The complication with Ryoga is a good addition, and the ending of the story is upbeat and good.
Those are just a few of the many fanfiction pieces I have been able to find that involved a transgendered Ranma.
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