Personality: Genma is a dishonest, weak-willed posturer, but he has one thing going for him: he knows his martial arts. He's studied it enough to know a large variety of different attacks, defenses, and forms; he practices it well enough to still beat Ranma much of the time when they spar; and he understands it well enough to have taught Ranma extensively and (usually, anyway) well. Even though, by the time the series begins, Ranma has pretty much exhausted his father as a source of information on martial arts, he still has clearly learned a lot from him over the years. With that aspect out of the way, Genma is really not much of a father. He has dragged his son all over the country (and in at least one case, out of it) and put his son's life at risk on more than one occasion; he's tight-lipped about the mistakes he's made in the past, until those mistakes come back to bite him, and then he leaves Ranma to do the clean-up. There is no one, Soun included, whom he has not disappointed at least once. He wishes to be seen and respected as a strong and noble father figure, but he has not raised Ranma to see him that way, or to respect anyone in such a manner anyway. Genma does love his son, and is willing to go to strange lengths to keep him safe. And yet, he's also willing to go to some pretty strange lengths for a lifetime supply of free ramen. So who knows. Although he found it inconvenient and irritating at first, Genma became accustomed to his panda form pretty quickly, even discovering that he could use signs to communicate (since pandas can't talk). He even got a part-time job, early on, in his panda form. As the series moves on, quite often Genma is found simply lounging in panda form, evidently not considering there to be much of a difference unless he is sparring. In fact, at times it's pretty clear he prefers being a panda: at least, since pandas can't talk, he doesn't have to explain the stupid things he's done.
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