Like, I think about Akane being so young when her mother died. I think about her father probably having wanted a son to take over the dojo actually, and Akane being the youngest takes it upon herself to fulfill that role because her sisters already knew who they were. She wants to be a strong and capable martial artist. She must’ve trained so hard and she still does.
I think about how she wanted to be Juliet in a play, but all her classmates told her to be Romeo because she was so strong. As if Juliet couldn’t be strong. As if Akane couldn’t be a princess just as she was. And I think about when she finally got to be Juliet in high school, it was all messed up.
I think about how her whole life, Akane wanted to be just as good as a boy, but still be seen as a girl. She wanted to fulfill every role without relying on a man.
And for a while, she was extremely successful in a way. She was insanely strong and so beautiful that she was sought after to the point where guys tried to beat her in fights in order to date her—which she never agreed to. She just got attacked daily for being a strong and pretty girl. They terrorized her daily, and treated her like a prize to win instead of a person. No wonder she hated boys!
And then enters Ranma. Ranma whom she is forced into an arranged engagement with by her father—how despite all her work both trying to be head of her family’s dojo AND stay away from boys, she is now stripped of both. She is now face-to-face with a guy who is easily a better fighter than her, and he gets everything she’s worked for. And he’s mean to her.
Oh, and he can turn into a woman.
And I think that aside from how shocking and strange that phenomenon would be… it would also be the solution to Akane’s own problems if she could so easily choose her perceived gender.
And it doesn’t help that somehow, Ranma can basically do both extremes very well. He is a tough macho guy—he is a sexy cute girl. He’s cursed and there are plenty of times he is forced into being a girl, but at the end of the day he has the power to choose. And Akane doesn’t.
But, okay. It’s not like she wants the Jusenkyo curse. She doesn’t! Again, Akane wants to be a capable fighter and still retain her femininity. She struggles with that a lot.
Shampoo is basically everything Akane wants to be.
Shampoo is feminine and attractive AND an extremely good fighter. She’s much stronger than Akane. She’s more confident than Akane. Shampoo doesn’t question her strength or her looks. Not to mention how Shampoo is so blunt and forward with Ranma.
That’s must be such a blow to Akane’s confidence.
But again, Ranma and Shampoo have lived very different lives. They’ve gone through intense training where the circumstances essentially created two fighting machines. Of course she’s out of her league. Also they’re both cursed! It’s almost like karma.
Not cursed. Can be perceived as a male when she wants. Still manages to be a cute girl. Totally a great fighter. Honest with her feelings while still being shy. And she can cook professionally—another thing that Akane relates to ideal femininity (like Kasumi) yet it’s one of her biggest weaknesses.
So Akane is surrounded by women who, at times, literally flaunt in her face about how they are “better” than her at all the things she wishes she could do—all the things she’s tried her whole life to do! She’s ridiculed for her looks and called mean names like “Baka-ne.”
And despite all that she’s still a good person. Unlike the other fiancés, Akane always is willing to help the others when they are in trouble. Each one of them gets jealous, but she doesn’t let that stop her from caring about them.
And that’s her strength. She is the most considerate and compassionate. She pushes herself beyond what she can handle all the time, sometimes for normal things like swimming or cooking, but then sometimes it’s sacrificing her life in order to save Ranma.
She deserves so much love and kindness! I wish she could have everything she wanted!
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