Ukyo Kuonji

Description \ Bio

Ukyo Kuonji is Ranma Saotome's childhood friend and one of his three fiancées. Ukyo has long black hair (brown in the anime) that she will usually either secure with a headband or bow, or hair tie if she is in school. She normally wears the attire of okonomiyaki chef, which consists of a short-sleeved blouse with the sleeves tied back (blue with white trim in the anime) and form-fitting black pants. This outfit is equipped with a bandolier holding several small throwing spatulas, while her larger combat spatula is worn across her back. After she began attending Furinkan High School, instead of wearing the girls' uniform, Ukyo wears the gakuran from her former school. This is a medium color in the manga and a medium gray in the anime. She has also worn a variety of other outfits. Overall, Ukyo is charming, determined and reliable, getting along with Akane most of the time, including spending time socially independent from Ranma. However, she is not above trying to hurt Akane or guilt-tripping Ranma into being with her if it suits her needs.[citation needed] She frequently attempts to indirectly break Akane and Ranma's engagement, but with little success. To assist her, Ukyo will often get Ryoga to help with her schemes, but usually becomes infuriated with him given his lack of judgment, abysmal sense of direction and general cowardice towards Akane. Ukyo has shown charitability by temporarily hosting the Tendos (albeit unintentionally) and permanently providing room and board for the male "kunoichi" Konatsu, due to feeling empathetic when hearing about his horrible background. She generally seems dependable to her friends, as she turned very concerned and immediately ran to the aid of her fellow okonomiyaki cook Occhan, when she thought they had been hurt by the Cursed Spatula. However, she's also been shown as being somewhat rude and having a harsh tongue. She can be quick to insult others and even had a tendency to refer to people as "Jackass", namely Ranma when they were younger. She is extremely principled and proud of her work, to the degree she felt compelled to devour a batch of okonomiyaki as punishment for it failing to ferment correctly. Ukyo is generally unconcerned about skipping school, since she learns more by visiting/eating at other restaurants. She appears very business-minded, being very excited at the opportunity to "make a killing", and strictly manages her finances, but occasionally feels the need to take a vacation from the "salt mines". Beyond her regular occupation she has been shown to work extra as a miko, and is allegedly a very talented artist. Mostly likely due to her training as a child after being abandoned by Genma, Ukyo displays no fears in her hardworking personality, as shown by her being unfazed by the several ghosts which haunt the Tunnel of Lost Love. Her style of fighting is a legacy style from her father based on their food preparation, and vaguely reminiscent of ninja patterns, but this status as an apparent "ninja-cook" is never expanded upon. It is somewhat noteworthy that the Iga clan of shinobi resided in Ukyo’s home area, Kansai. Unlike her relationship with Akane, Ukyo shares a rivalry with both Shampoo and Kodachi over who'll become Ranma's fiancé with the three of them becoming very possessive when the other's are around, resulting in several skirmishes. Despite this, Ukyo and her rivals also regularly team up against a mutual threat. Despite finding it embarrassing to admit, Ukyo has admitted to having strong romantic feelings towards Ranma and as such is willing to give up her business, even her entire lifestyle, for his sake. Though, while Ranma has shown concern about her feelings and considers her a good friend, he has also made it clear that he does not feel the same in return, and goes to extremes to get rid of her when she gets too close. Unlike Shampoo and Kodachi however, Ranma does not consider or treat Ukyo as a pest. He usually calls her "Ucchan" and she calls him "Ran-chan" ("Ranma-honey" in the english dub), the nicknames they used for each other as children. Even though she moved to Furinkan, Ukyo continues to wear the uniform from the all-male school she previously attended. She does, however, choose to wear the female gym uniform. In spite of her short-temper and initially appearing rather masculine, Ukyo often displays more of a feminine demeanour, and becomes easily embarrassed when forced to talk about her affection for Ranma. That said, she has shown highly amorous desires towards him, as shown by her urging Genma to remove his fingers covering the crotch of a photograph of a nude adult Ranma. She also cheerfully entered the Tendo bathroom whilst Ranma was using it so that she may wash his back before offering they sleep in the same bed like they did during their childhood. Ukyo appears to have some strict standards for masculine behaviour and has shown great derision towards Mousse for "disappearing" without her during the Hot Springs Obstacle race and, repeatedly, towards Ryoga's extreme shyness. Inversely, Ukyo found the discovery of Ranma's curse rather humorous and initially used him a play-thing after she first learnt of it.