Genma the villain of Ranma 1/2?

[Noy Telinú]

I argued with tuatara over this and I wanted to see what you guys think.

Genma is responsible for nearly everything wrong with Ranma's life and continues to make him miserable. I don't know about you, but that seems like a villain thing, right?

Not to mention ruining Ukyo's life and has a ton of people wanting to kill him.

While others were more cruel (Happosai) or more dangerous (Saffron) Genma was the one who made Ranma suffer the most in the most ways.

Maybe it's because I know good fathers, but the stuff Genma did... I just see him as the villain.

[Spokavriel]

You should have allowed multiple results putting potato in there like that.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

Neither, for me. He can appear villainous to readers and characters in the series, but he's not the villain of the series. On occasion he takes on the role of a villain, if you can call it that (such as when he wanted the dragon whisker), but by and large he's simply antagonistic.

As for how his parenting relates to Ranma, well, I think a real villain could have done a lot worse. When all is said and done, Ranma seems fine with the kind of person he's become and the life he's led, even despite his present troubles (not all of which are attributed to his father). I think if Genma were really a villain in Ranma's eyes, I think we'd know it because he'd likely show a lot of antipathy toward him without needing a reason, or be some kind of mental and/or physical wreck. On the other end of that, he could have also become a lot more like his father rather than be as disrespectful and uncooperative as he tends to be.

[Spica75]

He´s kinda villain. More villain-y than villain though.

[jasonjkay]

I just think of the Neko Ken and start thinking stupid evil moron, enough said. Yes I know he didn't read the last page but come on, having a little kid be clawed and eaten alive by starving cats doesn't sound evil to you?

[Crescent Pulsar S]

Not me. He didn't do that to Ranma because he exclusively wanted his son to go through that experience and nothing more. He did it for a martial arts technique, and did it more thinking it would help cure him of his newly-acquired fear of cats. I'm sure we all know where good intentions can lead, but does that make a person evil or a villain? If yes, it'd be like calling a blind person a klutz for tripping over something they couldn't see.

Genma's far from being a saint, but being evil and/or a villain? He's living in a house surrounded by potential enemies from within and without (Nerima, Tokyo, Japan, perhaps beyond) and he continues to not get harassed by heroes, vigilantes, avengers and the like? That doesn't sound evil or villainous to me. They do tend to get the kind of reputation where living idly, openly and (relatively) normally in society just wouldn't work out (for various possible reasons) without some kind of disguise or something being required.

[uragaaru]

He's not evil on purpose, but he is the right combination of greedy, ambitious, stupid, and lazy to cause a lot of problems.

Genma is one of the three parodic takes on the martial arts masters we get in the series (Happosai and Cologne being the other two). He's strong and skilled, but foolhardy and aside from the most basic of child welfare (and even that is questionable given the Nekoken and who knows what else), careless about his protege's health. It begins to point to the real reason Ranma is such a skilled martial artist: he would have been dead before the series starts otherwise.

[Spokavriel]

Genma is a Selfish Lazy Greedy thieving Idiot who is also a highly skilled martial artist with a heart that gets ignored in favor of what appears to be the easiest path. He's not malicious enough nor really brave enough to be a villain.

I know I know there have been cowardly villains in the past but Genma doesn't have any of the contempt for others that keeps them going.

[Noy Telinú]

I'll put it this way, if Ranma 1/2 had a villain, I'd choose Genma since he is the only real threat to Ranma's happiness and well being.

Just like other anime parents control their kids lives and be labeled as villains, Genma does whatever he can as a main effect or a side effect to make Ranma be shaped into what Genma wants.

But since the series is comedic and Ranma is manipulated to not fight against it as much as others, it's not as obvious.

If Ranma walked out when she said she would before Akane smacked her with a table, what would happen? Genma would probably get him back through manipulation and such. That's very villain like. Canonically, he also is the reason why Ranma hasn't seen Nodoka is 12 plus years, is terrified of cats, and is cursed to be a girl. Not to mention that he engaged Ranma twice plus anime fish and indirectly picolet, which could be counted as one since Ranma is eligible due to Genma's actions.

Thats nearly all the main problems in Ranma's life caused by Genma, who raised him. Not all villains want to kill the hero, they just want them to do what they want. Which Genma did evilly.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

Not to mention that he engaged Ranma twice plus anime fish and indirectly picolet, which could be counted as one since Ranma is eligible due to Genma's actions.

I was under the impression Picolet Chardin was due to Soun's foolishness, not Genma's. Ranma's 'engagement' to him was due to Ranma's foolish chivalry. Or did Genma goad him into it? At this point, Genma's responsibility for both the curse and Ranma's foolish chivalry are less significant than Ranma's actions.

[LawOhki]

I was under the impression Picolet Chardin was due to Soun's foolishness, not Genma's. Ranma's 'engagement' to him was due to Ranma's foolish chivalry. Or did Genma goad him into it? At this point, Genma's responsibility for both the curse and Ranma's foolish chivalry are less significant than Ranma's actions.

After being beaten, Ranma took it up as a Tendo in order to train and defeat Picolet. And of course return status quo. Soun was the one who made the deal. Never any implication that Genma volunteered a daughter.

As for Genma, he's sometimes antagonistic, but all the characters take their turn in that regard. People like to focus on his faults as though he's got worse ones than everyone else. The anime doesn't help because along with dumbing down stories/characters it used him as a way to easily create their filler content. And for some sad reason that's the portrayal that's stuck.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

But since the series is comedic and Ranma is manipulated to not fight against it as much as others, it's not as obvious.

No, it's very obvious. Heaven knows how many fan-fiction stories portray Ranma's life as being terrible and/or unbearable, with Genma usually being one of the many reasons for it. A lot of people take the events in the series out of context for one reason or another.

While it's understandable and there's nothing really wrong with that, one shouldn't make up things that aren't true, based on said out of context events. The why of it should be obvious: because the reaction to those events are still those pertaining to how they happened in the series' natural context. Ranma's not depressed, suicidal, a ticking time bomb, ready to run away from it all, considering himself a freak, planning his father's or others' demise for all the wrong done to him, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Ranma's the type who arm-wrestles Akane a bunch of times after the events with the strength-enhancing super soba, and intended to profess a false love for Nabiki to get back at her after she had toyed with him so much. It's hardly a match for what one might expect according to the false context's standards.

[Noy Telinú]

Huh... I thought that both of them promised their daughters if they had any...

Oh well.

The characters and Ranma don't see him as one, but that doesn't mean he isn't.

Just like no one treats the "good witch" from the oz movie as a vilain, doesn't mean she isn't.

Yes, she is the biggest, sneakiest, sly villain in all of fiction in my book.

And Genma is the villain for me for Ranma 1/2. In a more serious story, people would say that he is one most likely. It's that he won and that he is a lazy panda that people are more likely to say no.

[Spokavriel]

Glenda is a Good witch relative to the other witches. That doesn't mean she isn't still a Witch.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

Anyone can be made a villain if someone wants them to be one from the start, but to say that Genma is the villain of the entire series -- or even the greatest one -- is a grievous error in logic. To start with, I can easily think of several individuals who have wished and attempted to do far more physical and mental harm to Ranma than Genma, simply for the sake of it, with quite a number of them wanting him dead. Genma is Ranma's father and shows no inclination to go that far, and he at least has his good intentions, stupidity and even selfishness as excuses for many of his actions, whereas the characters who better qualify for the role of villain in the series do not.

Unless, of course, someone would be willing to argue that killing Ranma would somehow be for his own good?