Ranma ep 1.7: "Enter Ryouga: The Eternal Lost Boy!"

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Characters in this ep:
Ranma
Akane
Genma
Soun
Nabiki
Kasumi
Dr. Tofu
Ryouga (first appearance)

Summary:

A strange boy wanders through the desert. After finding himself on a cliff overlooking a small town, he decides to go and ask where he is. The town is under attack by a wild boar, and the boy defeats the boar in short order, then presents the villagers with a map of Tokyo and asks to be directed to Furinkan High School. The perplexed villagers reply that he's in Shikoku, and the boy leaves, infuriated. He stands by the raging sea and swears vengeance on Ranma Saotome.

Meanwhile, in Nerima, Ranma is running around the house in girl form, topless. Nabiki and Kasumi tell him/her that it's improper to run around that way, but that keeping Ranma supplied with hot water is sending their bills through the roof so as long as Ranma's clothes are in the wash it would be very very nice if Ranma would just wear some of Akane's clothes. This naturally leads to Ranma pissing off Akane by insulting the fit of her clothes... And Nabiki enjoys playing dressup FAR too much.

We rejoin the strange boy, who is still searching for Tokyo. We learn that he has trouble with directions, and it's reinforced when someone tells him to just go straight down a road and that'll take him to Tokyo eventually; the boy plows right OFF the road when it curves, and keeps running straight for miles. He ends up back in Shikoku.

After a long, long time travelling, the boy finally ends up in front of Furinkan High School just as Ranma is leaving. He attacks and Ranma fails to recognize him. After a lot of shouting, Ranma finally recalls him - vaguely - as having been in the same class at junior high school. He seems quite pleased to see his former classmate, but the feeling isn't mutual. The boy gives his name: Ryouga Hibiki. He demands to know why Ranma ran out on their duel; Ranma replies that he waited for three days at the appointed spot. Ryouga answers sure, Ranma waited for THREE days, but when Ryouga got there on the FOURTH day Ranma had already run off like a coward!

So it turns out that Ryouga's bad sense of direction caused him to somehow get lost on the way to the vacant lot behind his house, which was where they were supposed to fight. Ranma, however, can't recall why they were fighting. It hits him as Ryouga is attacking, and he runs off and returns with a lot of bread, which he explains he had a habit of stealing from Ryouga at lunchtime and that was what their fight was about.

Flashback now and picture, if you will, Leetle!Ranma and Leetle!Ryouga in their junior high uniforms. So cute! So small! (actually almost the same as usual but, you know, in uniforms.) At lunchtime the school cafeteria woman tosses the last of each kind of bread out to the clamouring crowd, and Ryouga seems to be the best contender for it - until, that is, Ranma comes along and jumps on his head to get to the food first. Ah, Ranma, you never let anything stand in the way of your stomach, do ya. In any case, the bread abuse didn't stop there: Ranma goes out of his way on a daily basis to beat up Ryouga and steal any possible kind of bread out from under his nose. One sort of gets the impression that he thinks they're just playing around, but Ryouga clearly doesn't agree. As ever, even when Ranma seems to be trying to be friendly, he Just Doesn't Get It.

So Ranma dumps a pile of bread on Ryouga and figures they can call it even. Ryouga, however, denies that this is a bread fight and he refuses to let it go, even after being presented with all the bread Ranma can carry (and which Ranma and Ryouga subsequently sit down and eat). He calls for revenge, and without further explanation, Ryouga charges at Ranma, gets lost on the way, and smashes his way through the high school and out of town. When he finally stops for directions, he finds himself back in Shikoku. But, he swears, he shall be BACK!