History: There is not a good deal known about Genma's earlier years; it is known that he used to wear bizarre hats, and that at one point in his youth he dated two girls at once, chose the prettier, richer one, and dumped the other one while bluntly telling her why he preferred his other girlfriend. (It's not known if the girl he chose was actually Nodoka Saotome, Ranma's mother.) In any case, in his youth Genma trained with Soun Tendo, his longtime best friend, under the tutelage of Master Happosai. Happosai... was not a good master, and although he was quite powerful and the two young men learned a number of techniques, most of their training seems to have consisted of enabling the old man to commit debauchery around town, helping him escape, and then taking the brunt of the retribution from the women of whatever town they were in. Hating their master, Genma and Soun tricked him and sealed him away - under demon ward sutras, no less - in a cave for many years. Free, the two men married - er, married women, not each other *G* - and vowed that their children would one day unite their two clans through an arranged marriage. Genma decided, while his son Ranma was still an infant, that he would not let the boy be softened up by his mother's coddling, and so he took Ranma out into the world for training. Being something of an idiot, he promised his wife that he would not return until Ranma was the "manliest of men", and that if he failed in this task, both he AND Ranma would commit seppuku. Nodoka, as the wife of a martial artist, was to make sure that Genma stuck to his promise. With that, Genma set off on a 16-year training trip with his infant son, and proceeded to completely botch all aspects of raising him except the training. He not only sold Ranma for food (and then stole his son back while the buyer's back was turned), he tried various untested, dangerous training tactics in efforts to teach Ranma every kind of martial arts he could. His final mistake came in taking Ranma to China, to train at the grounds of Jusenkyo. Before the guide could explain the tragic history of the pools littering the grounds, Ranma had knocked Genma into one of the pools; Genma emerged as a giant panda, which the Guide explained had drowned in that very pool many years ago. As a result, he said, anyone who fell into that pool emerged as a panda. Enraged, and not entirely aware of what had happened to him, Genma shoved Ranma into the nearest pond; this happened to be the Spring of Drowned Girl, and Ranma emerged as a young girl instead of a boy. This pretty much ensured that, when he next saw his wife, Genma would be losing his head.
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