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tobiasdrake · 18 hours

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Okay after that ask about Ranma at a Tenkaichi Budokai, I have been haunted throughout my entire day of work by this concept. So this occupied my mind instead. And now I have a tournament bracket.

Please note that this is not based on, like, Versus Feat Analysis and stuff. Just thinking about what would make for an interesting crossover tournament arc.

Note: I am not a writer so this is all probably pretty janky but these are just the broad strokes ideas I had.

Also please note that it's been like a decade and a half since last time I read Ranma 1/2 so my memory's pretty fuzzy on a lot of things. But like here are some vague notes for what I think would make a fun and interesting Dragon Ball vs Ranma 1/2 tournament arc.

Some narrative considerations to take into account:

We want every match to be a Ranma 1/2 vs. Dragon Ball fight, so that means two characters from both have to win their matches in the quarterfinals. This is a bracketed tournament so in story terms it wouldn't be specifically these four guys against those four, but for the purpose of storycraft that'd be the intent nonetheless.

Goku and Ranma have to be the final, so they're on opposite halves of the bracket. Both of these guys are going to fight their way through 3/4 of the other guy's cast, including each other. That's just how tournament arcs go.

Dragon Ball cast are at an ambiguous placement in ability. Somewhere after 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai but before Raditz landed on Earth. Somewhere in the general ballpark of 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai.

Ryoga is Ranma's biggest rival so it would be sensible for him to make it to the semifinals, but we have two women in this tournament and I don't want them both to get creamed in the first round.

Instead of a Tenkaichi Budokai, this may work better as some other undefined tournament to allow use of weapons. Ryoga, Ukyo, and Shampoo all utilize varying degrees of weapon fighting in their arts, so standard Tenkaichi Budokai rules would be a significant nerf. If the DB cast get to fly, then the Ranma cast should be allowed their weapons.

There should be a sudden inconvenient rainstorm that sweeps in, timed at a moment when all the cursed Ranma characters can be forced to shapeshift but not in a context where it will decide the outcome of the fight. Like. Three of the four Ranma characters here have curses, and I don't want Ryoga or Shampoo to lose because they turned into a pig and cat respectively in the middle of their fight. So it should start pouring during one of Ranma's matches, preferably quarter- or semi-final.

The Kamehameha is generally portrayed as unimpressive compared to other ki techniques in Dragon Ball; It's pretty basic but its versatility allows practitioners to do tremendous things with it. For his part, Ranma's self-taught Moko Takabisha, a variant of the Shishi Hokodan he invented because he can't get as depressed as Ryoga, is powered by his own self-assurance. So I think it should be treated as stronger than the Kamehameha when Ranma's cocky but weaker if a fight's turning against him.

So, brackets and some vague outline notes.

QUARTERFINALS

Round 1: Ryoga Hibiki vs. Son Goku

If Ryoga's only going to get one fight then it should be a good one. An opening quarterfinal match worth of a semifinal or final round, to set the stage for the fights to come and establish Goku as the Guy To Beat for Ranma's cast.

Fighting Goku would give Ryoga a great opportunity to pull out all the stops and unload everything in his arsenal. Bandana missiles, using his heavy umbrella like a sword, his Breaking Point technique, and of course, his signature Shishi Hokodan.

Ryoga's Shishi Hokodan is shown to be tremendously powerful, potentially rivaling Tenshinhan's Kikoho. The qualifiers would be a great place to show off its full might and set up tension for this match. Ryoga blows away a formidable Dragon Ball character, maybe Jackie Chun, by blasting them with a full-power Shishi Hokodan.

But I think his reason for losing the match would be because he can't bring out its full power. It's fueled by depression ki; The more Ryoga allows himself to be absorbed in depression, the more powerful it becomes.

But Goku historically is fucking fun to fight. He has always had a knack for not just enjoying his matches with others but being enjoyable to face off against. Most of his rivals were redeemed specifically by how much they enjoy fighting him. Even the ultimate evil Frieza has made suboptimal decisions out of a fascination with matching fists against Goku.

Even if you don't like to fight, it's hard to be unhappy when you're trading fists with Son Goku. He is the embodiment of pure martial arts enjoyment. Despite himself, Ryoga would simply be enjoying himself too much to unleash a full-power Shishi Hokodan, and be undone by how fun this fight is.

Unable to access his ultimate technique, Ryoga opts to remove Goku's options. Using his Breaking Point technique, Ryoga destroys a corner of the ring under Goku's feet, but when the dust settles, Goku managed to make it away from the corner and avoid ringout. Implied but not directly shown that he used Bukujutsu. Ryoga keeps it up, destroying chunk after chunk of the stage until there's only a little bit left. Goku baits him with a Zanzoken/Afterimage into destroying that as well, appearing behind Ryoga and striking hard enough to send Ryoga out of the ring and into the dirt.

Round 2: Ukyo Kuonji vs Krillin

Okay gonna be real with you at first I was gonna put Shampoo as the other Ranma character who makes it to semifinals but then I was thinking about Ukyo's abilities and realized I wanted her to fight Goku so, so bad you have no idea.

Krillin's built around sucker punches and unpredictable techniques. For her part, Ukyo's culinary fighting style is fucking weird and difficult to read. From tempura bombs to flour smokescreens to adhesive batter and yakisoba binding ropes, Ukyo's got her grill and her giant melee spatula (plus smaller throwing spatulas), and she's here to cook up a victory.

Krillin mistakes Ukyo for a boy? As a flip-flop reference to when he thought Upa was a girl by way of Ukyo's canonical androgyny and non-binary presentation? Is this something? IDK.

For the first exchange of the match, Ukyo brings out her grill and cooks up some tasty okonomiyaki, then gives some to Krillin as a gesture of good will. It's a bomb, comically exploding in his face; Ukyo draws first blood before Krillin even realizes the fight has started, and they begin trading blows from there.

Krillin has Ukyo on the ropes for the first portion of the fight. He surprises her with his quick movements and distracting ki blasts, every move and exchange meant to pull attention away from where his next punch is going to come from. Physically, he's tough; Ukyo clonks him on the head with her spatula full strength in an early attempt at a KO, but he's just too strong. But he starts losing steam as the battle progresses.

He only realizes what's happening too late, as the adhesive batter that the okonomiyaki bomb covered him in sets in. The heat from his own ki attacks makes the batter harden more quickly, slowing his movements over time.

Once Krillin realizes he's mired in glue, Ukyo detonates tempura bombs around the ring for her victory plan. Then she lassos Krillin with her yakisoba and ejects him from the arena before he has a chance to break free from the batter.

Round 3: Ranma vs Yamcha

I had to. It's tradition for Yamcha to go down in the first round against one of the major plot characters, typically the main rival to Goku. One of Yamcha's two main jobs in these tournaments is to act as a yardstick to establish how tough the other guy's going to be.

But he still usually gets to put up a good fight. The 22nd match with Ten had him debut his Kamehameha, while his 23rd gave him some solid moments too. Yamcha's going to lose this match but he should get to apply some pressure to Ranma while he's at it.

This might be a good place for the rainstorm. IDK. Would need to seriously consider how Yamcha would react to Ranma sexshifting mid-battle and whether that would make the fight more or less entertaining.

One image I have in my head for this match is Yamcha using his Rogafufuken/Wolf Fang Fist, only for Ranma to match his moves. The technique is based on a relentless assault, an overwhelming flurry of attacks. But Ranma's Chestnuts on an Open Fire training - cultivating striking speed by grabbing chestnuts out of a firepit without getting burned - taught him incredible manual dexterity, allowing him to parry each and every strike of the Rogafufuken.

Yamcha needs to break out the Sokidan/Spirit Ball in this fight, surprising and pressuring Ranma with his ability to remotely control his ki bullet. Ranma eventually stops dodging and uses a small Moko Takabisha to deflect, but this distraction opens him up to Yamcha rushing in with Rogafufuken. Yamcha admits that he borrowed this idea from his bro Krillin.

This is where we see Ranma's chestnut training allowing him to match Ryoga's strikes, and he starts backing off from the assault. Letting Yamcha push him back while pulling Yamcha into the spiral motion. Then, right at the crucial wolf-bite moment that ends the Rogafufuken, Ranma lands his punch instead and blows Yamcha away with the ensuing tornado. An ironic end to a technique that, in Japanese, is called "Fist of the Wolf Fang Hurricane".

Thus setting the stage for how formidable Ranma truly is, and giving Goku a chance to start doing the analysis for what he'll need to beat in the finals.

Round 4: Tenshinhan vs Shampoo

This is going to be such a weird match. Tenshinhan's got all the bizarre techniques: Taiyoken/Solar Flare, Shiyoken/Four Witches, Shishin no Ken/Multiform, enhanced three-eyed perception, etc.

For her part, Shampoo is highly proficient in a variety of weapon styles. Since weapons have been permitted here, she's got an endless supply of blades and staves and polearms to bring to fore. However, her most dangerous arts are what she's capable of when she gets up close, as she has an encyclopedic knowledge of bizarre pressure points that can do anything from memory erasure to instant KO to puppeting someone's body.

I don't remember if it works like this. But I have this image in my head of Shampoo sitting on the shoulders of a Tenshinhan copy and Ratatouilling him against the other Tenshinhans. And I would be very happy if that is a thing that is possible to happen in this fight.

In any case, Shampoo's weapon arts and pressure point techniques give Ten some trouble. She has potential instant-wins if she can get her hands on him, which he's able to learn about after using Shishin no Ken to tease out her abilities at the start. But after reforming back into one, he counters her with Shiyoken, using the extra dexterity of four-armed fighting to parry and counter her weapons while keeping her at arm's length and getting hits in of his own.

While also baiting her into mistakes by using Zanzoken/Afterimages. This is a pretty straightforward fight, and Ten's weird abilities let him clinch the victory.

SEMIFINALS

Round 1: Son Goku vs Ukyo Kuonji

For the first exchange of the match, Ukyo brings out her grill and cooks up some tasty okonomiyaki, then gives some to Goku as a gesture of good will. He ravenously devours it in seconds. The bomb explodes in his stomach and he comically opens his mouth to belch out the smoke from the blast.

This sets the stage for what the fight is going to be like. It's Ukyo's culinary martial arts vs Son Goku's bottomless stomach. He eats her tempura smoke bombs. He eats her yakisoba ropes. He eats her adhesive batter. He eats and he eats and he eats everything she has to throw at him.

He just. He won't stop fucking eating her moves. Finally, she goes to her grill and, in seconds, comically cooks up the largest okonomiyaki ever made in history and slams it down on the arena stage, crushing Goku beneath it. It spreads out so far it even reaches the audience stands.

As Ukyo watches Goku inhale her giant okonomiyaki, she concedes defeat and forfeits the match. Goku shakes her hand and thanks her for the most delicious fight of his life.

Round 2: Ranma vs Tenshinhan

Ranma's chestnut training allows him to parry attacks from Ten's Shiyoken, not unlike how Goku's Hasshuken once did. Still, I want Ten to really pressure Ranma for the first half of the fight in hand-to-hand, much harder than Yamcha did. Ten is stronger, faster, and better trained than Ranma, is the vibe.

First appearance of a killer move is when it works; Second is when it's thwarted. With that in mind, this is a good place for Ranma to pull the Hiryu Shoten Ha again, only for Ten to catch himself in midair with Bukujutsu and continue the fight; Forcing Ranma to grapple with the complexity of fighting an opponent who can freely levitate. With attention drawn to Goku on the sideline, studying Ranma's technique.

This leaves Ranma in the unenviable position of having to fight a Tenshinhan who is able to levitate in the air out of reach and fire Dodonpas. Ranma returns fire with his Moko Takabisha, but Ten easily floats sideways to evade the shot.

But then Ranma brings it back, landing a surprise hit on Ten's back. He's had time to think about Yamcha's Sokidan and how he can incorporate its remote-control movement into his Moko Takabisha. Once this reveal is made, Ranma raises the stakes with his Double Moko Takabisha, controlling each with separate hands - while filling one with hot ki and the other with cold ki.

Ranma harasses Ten in the air with his twin Moko Takabishas while Ten takes shots at Ranma with the Dodonpa. Unbeknownst to Ten, Ranma uses the two shots to form another spiral in the air, concluding by crashing them into each other and creating a new Hiryu Shoten Ha - This one snatching up Ten and drilling downward, driving him into the grass outside the ring.

FINALS

Final Round: Son Goku vs Ranma Saotome

Having devoured Yamcha and Tenshinhan, Ranma brings everything to this match. They fight up-close in quick and brutal melee exchanges where both give as good as they get, and they fight at range with ki blasts and Moko Takabishas.

There's a lot of I Know You Know I Know to this match. It's as much a chess game as a fight, with Ranma and Goku matching and devouring each other's skills. Goku takes Ranma by surprise with a Zanzoken, but Ranma figures it out pretty quickly and gets in a Zanzoken exchange with Ranma, flickering attacks in and out at each other. (Goku wins that exchange because of his superior sensing of an opponent's presence).

Ranma hits Goku hard enough to knock him up in the air, but Goku catches himself with Bukujutsu. Ranma attempts his spiraling remote-Moko Takabishas against Goku, but Goku's been watching his fights and is ready for this. He avoids the shots while following their motion and quietly building a pair of Kamehamehas, one in each hand. When Ranma's ready to collide his shots, Goku flies up between them and fires outward in both directions, dissipating the two Moko Takabishas with his twin Kamehamehas.

After landing back in the ring, Goku and Ranma go at it again, with Goku taking the upper hand and overpowering Ranma enough to hurl him from the ring. At which point Ranma catches himself in midair, revealing he's worked out the principles of Bukujutsu himself after going over that fight with Ten in his head. Neither opponent will be easily rung out. Ranma and Goku then take to the sky, pummeling each other.

The fight rages until both combatants are exhausted, left standing in the ring and unable to muster the ki for Bukujutsu - though not completely drained. This is Ranma's moment. All their blasts and heated fighting has filled the arena with lingering residual ki. Hot ki.

Meanwhile, with the last of his strength, Goku takes his stance and begins to intone. "Kaaaa meeee"

Similar to the Hiryu Korin Dan, Ranma uses a small spiral of cold ki to draw in all of the residual ki floating in the arena around them. He's two steps ahead of Goku, spinning all this floating energy up into what amounts to an energy grenade. The hot ki of Goku's Kamehameha will be drawn in with the rest of it, and the impact force will detonate it into a Hiryu Shoten Ha, firing back on Goku and blowing him out of the ring.

"Haaaa meeee"

Ranma hurls his grenade at the same time Goku fires his Kamehameha. And then Goku begins to curve his beam, twirling it in a large circle and getting steadily smaller and smaller. Rather than being drawn into the cold ki of Ranma's bomb, Goku's Kamehameha is drawing in all of the hot ki from it as it approaches.

Because Goku's been watching Ranma. And he's figured out how to adjust his ki's temperature from seeing Ranma do it so many times. Goku's Cold Kamehameha collides with Ranma's bomb, reversing its intended effect and detonating the Hiryu Shoten Ha back at Ranma. The blast hurls Ranma into the back wall, ending the match.

Goku ends the match on a friendly note, helping Ranma to his feet and showering him with praise for what a great martial artist he is and how cool it was to fight him. This fight really came down to the wire!

CHAMPION

The Winner: Genma Saotome

However, when it comes time for Goku to take his prize, it turns out Genma already plundered both the prize winnings and the trophy. Racing out the door, he physically picks a confused Ranma up and books it over the hills.

The Saotomes did not win the championship trophy. Nonetheless, they proudly have it in their possession.

#dragon ball #ranma 1/2 #son goku #tenshinhan #yamcha #krillin #ranma saotome #shampoo #ukyo kuonji #ryoga hibiki

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