Fujinami Ryuunosuke (藤波 竜之介, Fujinami Ryuunosuke?) is a major character in Urusei Yatsura.
History
Ryuunosuke in a sailor uniform, in one of Lum's parallel dimensions
A transfer student at Tomobiki High School, Class 2-4. She is a girl, but because her father says the successor to the Hamachaya must be a man, he raises Ryuunosuke as a boy and insists that she is one.
When Ryuunosuke first appears, she and her father are shouting at the sea, blaming it for the fact that the Hamachaya receives no customers except during the summer. They fight so much that they accidentally destroy the Hamachaya, so they move into and operate the Tomobiki school store in order to raise money to rebuild it.
Personality
Ryuunosuke frequently fights her father not because of their martial arts-style training or for the joy of it, but simply because they have grown accustomed to fighting over the years.
She is at heart a kind and honest person and wishes no harm on anyone other than her father; her gentlemanly acts are thus as natural. She hates being touched by men and repeatedly denied them, and even the idea of being with one disgusts her. She is solely dedicated to regaining her femininity, so she only has women in her sights. Her first love was her elementary school teacher, whom she later realizes was a woman.
Because her eccentric father has raised her as a boy, Ryuunosuke behaves a lot like one, despite in fact being a girl, and hating being treated like a boy. She wou
With the passage of time in the anime, Ryuunosuke's appearance became more feminine
ld love nothing more than to let her feminine side show, but her father interferes in every attempt she makes. When her father enrolled her in Tomobiki as a boy, he refused to buy her a sailor uniform, which he had promised her if she can beat him in a fight (which she is yet to accomplish).
In school, she is just as popular as Mendou with the girls–something which bothers both of them. Only Moroboshi Ataru treats her like a real woman.
Her warped upbringing also made her a bit naïve, susceptible to being suckered into or convinced of pretty much anything.
Appearance
Outfit
Ryuunosuke is usually wearing a gakuran like her male peers and a sarashi. Wanting nothing more than to be more feminine, she is saving up money to buy a bra and sailor suit, in the belief that bras cost several thousand yen (most probably thanks to her father). At one point, Shinobu promised to buy her a bra if she posed as her boyfriend in order to scare away gang leader Soban; as usual, Ryuunosuke's father interfered.
Powers and Abilities
- Martial-Arts Expert: Due to having a generally abusive relationship with her father and constantly fighting with him her whole life, Ryuunosuke has developed exceptional physical capabilities and is an incredibly skilled martial artist.
Relationships
- Benten: She gets along well with Ryuunosuke, mostly because of their similarities. Despite Benten's feminine figure and outfit, she is also hard-headed and violent. Their chemistry becomes obvious when they fought a gang together. She is also one of the few characters that acknowledges Ryuunosuke's femininity without making a joke out of it. As for her feelings towards Ryuunosuke, she became very flustered and shy when teased of the possibility of Ryuunosuke falling in love with her.
- Moroboshi Ataru - She ultimately hates Ataru, but still sees him as a friend, despite his lechery.
- Miyake Shinobu - She is often supportive of Ryuunosuke, and checks on her in case the latter's spats with her father go overboard. She might have some budding feelings for Ryuunosuke, which are not explored in the series.
- Shiowatari Nagisa - He is her fiancé.
Speech patterns
Ryuunosuke refers to herself in the first person as ore (おれ, ore?), which is typically used by males, instead of atashi (あたし, atashi?), which is typically used by females.
Appellations
| Name | What They Call Ryuunosuke | What Ryuunosuke Calls Them |
|---|---|---|
| Moroboshi Ataru | Ryuunosuke-chan / Ryuu-chan | Moroboshi |
| Lum | Ryuunosuke | Lum |
| Miyake Shinobu | Ryuunosuke-san | Shinobu |
| Mendou Shuutarou | Ryuunosuke-san | Mendou |
| Shirai Kousuke | Ryuunosuke | Unknown |
| Ten | Nee-chan | Unknown |
| Cherry | Unknown | Unknown |
| Sakura | Ryuunosuke | Unknown |
| Onsen-Mark | Fujinami | Sensei |
| Principal | Fujinami-kun | Unknown |
| Ryuunosuke's Father | Ryuunosuke | [Kuso–]Oyaji ([shitty–]father) |
| Ran | Ryuunosuke-kun | Ran |
| Mizunokouji Asuka | Onii-sama | Unknown |
| Shiowatari Nagisa | Ryuunosuke-sama | Nagisa |
| Shingo | Ryuunosuke-dono | Unknown |
Quote
- "I'm a chick, dammit!" (Untranslatable.)
- In detail: Japanese has many pronouns that mean "I". Different pronouns suggest different degrees of familiarity. The more familiar ones tend to be gendered, the less familiar ones tend to be unisex. As in English, familiarity can indicate intimacy or hostility. Ryuunosuke becomes hostile when people mistake her for a boy, so she uses the familiar, male "I" that she was brought up to use.
Trivia
- Ryuunosuke resembles Saotome ranma and Female ranma from Rumiko Takahashi's later series, Ranma 1/2. In addition, she shares similarities to Ukyo, also from Ranma 1/2 , due to her tomboyish nature and tendency to cross-dress.
- In addition, Ryuunosuke's life style resemblance is that of Ranma himself, In this manner: Ryuunosuke was raised to become a man despite her real gender, similar to Ranma being raised by his father to become a man, despite falling into the spring of the drowned maiden existing his female counterpart.
- Her father remains a largely disliked character amongst the fandom.