Akane Tendo

Akane Tendo (天道 あかね) is the leading female and the deuteragonist of Ranma ½. She is

the youngest of Soun Tendo's three daughters and is one of the heirs to the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. Akane is the Japanese word for madder, as well as the crimson dye obtained from it. It is a common Japanese female name.

Background

Akane's mother died when she was very young. Perhaps because of this, she appears not to have learned many traditionally feminine skills, and her terrible cooking is a running joke during the series as nearly everything she cooks ends up making people sick, except for her curry. Akane may see Kasumi Tendo (Akane's older sister) as a surrogate mother figure, since she helps her with more traditionally feminine chores.

Akane grows up as a tomboy, getting into fights, acting tough, and improving her martial arts. In elementary school, her classmates thought she was so much like a boy that she was cast to play Romeo in their production of Romeo and Juliet: Akane accepts the role and plays a very cute Romeo, though deep down she always wanted to be cast as Juliet, a wish that she'll have fulfilled only years later (though she would have four different Romeos fighting for her).

Knownable Relatives

• Soun Tendo (Father)
• Unnamed Mother (dead)
• Nabiki Tendo (Older Sister)
• Kasumi Tendo (Older Sister)

Trivia

• The name Akane means "deep red, dye from the rubia plant" (茜).
• Despite popularity with many of the male characters in the series, Akane initially claims to hate boys, possibly due to her initial views on them as being chauvinistic, arrogant, genderist, egotistical, perverted, deceiving and etc. Some of these regards to Ranma, Kuno and Happosai and a few possible exceptions to these are Ryoga and Dr. Tofu.
• The Spring of Drowned Akane at Jusenkyo was not a pre-existing cursed spring, but was created by Kiima in order to impersonate Akane to seduce Ranma and recover the Kinjakan. As such, it does not have a Chinese name. It is unknown if the spring was sealed/destroyed afterwards, or if anyone could potentially use it.
• In the English version of the anime series, Kasumi's "violent maniac" quote in reference to Akane's nature is replaced with "she's a very sweet girl, she's just a little high-spirited".
• Her Japanese voice actress would voice Kikyo in Takahashi's next subsequent anime series Inuyasha.
• In Rumiko Takahashi's subsequent manga series Inuyasha, one of Kagome Higurashi's best friends at school is also named Yuka in the anime.
• Akane shares similar traits with Kagome Higurashi from Takahashi's subsequent series Inuyasha such as their violent tendencies towards the main protagonists as well as punishing the said protagonists in one way or another should they anger them.
• In one of Akane's dreams in Nightmare! Incense of Spring Sleep, it is revealed that she has a slight fear of Kodachi, Ukyo, and Shampoo, but this might be because of the side effects of the incense.
• Akane's hair has gotten shorter in The Ova's.
• Akane makes a cameo in episode 4 of Kyokai no Rinne, another work of Takahashi, as a doll in a claw machine, along with Ranma, P-chan, Genma's panda form, and Lum from Urusei Yatsura.

According to the Databook:

• Her birthday is ???, and her bloodtype is ???.
• Her favorite food is ???. While her least favorite food is ???.
• Her star sign is a ???.
• Her hobby is ???.

Voice Actresses

• Japanese : Noriko Nagai
• English : Myriam Sirois

Played by in (Live Action) : Yui Aragaki

Gallery