Shampoo (Ranma ½)

Shampoo, also known as Purple Fur Ball and Sweet Tootsie, is one of the main characters from the Ranma ½ series.
== Charactah Account ==
Shampoo is a mysterious female martial artist from China, who initially chased Ranma with a kiss of death over a confused first meeting, then stopped and began trying to court him instead. As with all of the main teens, a contradictory sort of girl; she genuinely loves Ranma, yet is still willing to try and use trickery in order to win his heart, and while normally bubbly and playful she's quick to make death threats and start tearing up the surroundings. She is generally a friendly, playful girl, but has no qualms about attempting to kill her rivals for Ranma's heart, if she thinks she can get away with it. Outside of Ranma, the closest friend she has is Mousse — although "close", in this case, is something of a misnomer.
Initially working at Dr. Toofuu's clinic, Shampoo eventually starts working as a waitress and delivery driver for her great-grandmother's ramen restaurant, often encountering Ranma and Akane en-route on her bicycle.
Shampoo is another victim of the Jusenkyo cursed springs, making her transform into a small cat whenever she comes in contact with cold water. Considering that Ranma has an extreme phobia of cats, she often uses her transformation to take advantage of him.
== Appearance ==
=== Anime ===
* Ranma ½
* Ranma ½ Movie 1: Big Trouble in Nekonron, China
* Ranma ½ Movie 2: Nihao My Concubine
* Ranma ½ Movie 3: Team Ranma vs. The Legendary Phoenix
* Ranma ½ OVA
* Ranma ½ Super
* Ranma 1/2: Hot Song Contest
* Ranma ½: Nightmare! Incense of Spring Sleep
* Ranma ½: Yomigaeru Kioku
=== Manga ===
* Ranma ½
=== Video Games ===
* Ranma ½
* Ranma ½ Battle Renaissance
* Ranma ½ Byakuran Aika
* Ranma ½ Datou, Ganso Musabetsu Kakutou-ryuu!
* Ranma ½ Kakugeki Mondou!!
* Ranma ½ Ougi Jaanken
* Ranma ½ Toraware no Hanayome
* Ranma ½: Akanekodan-teki Hihou
* Ranma ½: Chougi Ranbu Hen
* Ranma ½: Chounai Gekitouhen
* Ranma ½: Hard Battle
== Trivia ==
* As with her fellow Joketsuzoku, Cologne and Mousse, the gag in Shampoo's name is that the romanization of her name - Shaan Puu or Shaanpuu - sounds like a beauty product in English.
* Uniquely amongst the Joketsuzoku, Shampoo's name can be written with either of two pairings of kanji/hanzi that share the same pronunciation. The first set of kanji/hanzi that can be used to write Shān Pú are the characters for "Coral" (Shaan) and "Uncut Gem" (Puu). The second set uses the characters "Mountain(-like)" (Shaan) and "Chest" (Puu).
* A fundamental quirk of Shampoo's character is that she does not have a native speaker's affinity for Japanese, and how this is portrayed varies depending on the language into which the series has been dubbed. In the original Japanese, and in its Chinese translation, Shampoo speaks in an archaically formal manner. In the English, she uses a form of "broken English", referring to herself in the third person and utilizing a minimalistic dialogue that emphasizes nouns and verbs whilst omitting prepositions, indefinite articles and definite articles.
* Shampoo seems to have been designed as a reference to the female protagonist Lum Invader from Takahashi's earlier comedy series Urusei Yatsura. Both characters are exotic "foreigner" girls characterized as being highly loving and affectionate, but also temperamental, violent, scheming and jealously possessive, with an imperfect understanding of proper Japanese behaviors.
* The manga has a running gag of Shampoo making her entrance by running over people, mainly Ranma, with her bicycle. This also appears on a few occasions in the anime, but is usually directed against other people and only appears roughly half a dozen times in all of the anime episodes and specials.
* Fans of the series often mistakenly refer to Shampoo's weapons as bonbori, which is incorrect: bonbori are a spherical shaped paper lantern that are hung outside in Japan, which her weapons do resemble. The english manual for Ranma ½: Hard Battle mistakenly refers to them as "Lanterns." Her weapons are actually a pair of Chuí. Chui are maces with a large spherical head made out of solid iron or bronze, as such they are extremely heavy and cannot be used by most people.
* Shampoo's seiyuu also provided the voice of Masato's Mother of the Rumiko Takahashi Theater: Mermaid's Forest.
* Shampoo's English voice actress would provide the voices of the Mama Higurashi and Urasue on Inuyasha.
* Shampoo's mother is never shown during the series. Her father appears several times in cameos in the manga but never in the anime.* Two characters in other anime series seem to have been inspired by Shampoo.
* Shampoo's hair color in the anime adaptation can vary depending on episode. The vast majority of her episodes depict her with dark blue hair, but the OAVs and Movies, as well as certain episodes, show her with dark purple hair.
* Shampoo seems to be the inspiration for several female characters who have appeared in other anime.
** One episode of Slayers NEXT features the traveling twin martial artists Mimi and Nene, aspiring idol singers whom Lina encounters during a search for a magical ritual whose origins she has misunderstood. The twins are clearly based on Shampoo in terms of their designs, sharing her odango hairstyle, wearing qipao, and having purple colored hair similar to Shampoo, as well as having her affinity for martial arts in a series where swordplay and sorcery are the normal means of combat.
** Renka Ma from History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi is another apparent homage to Shampoo; like Shampoo, she is a very beautiful female martial artist from China with exotic purple hair and superhuman physical abilities who acts as a rival to the female protagonist Miu Fūrinji for the love of the male protagonist, Kenichi Shirahama. Renka's tendency to act with feline mannerisms, and her cat-themed hairstyle, acts as an homage to Shampoo's transforming into a cat due to her Jusenkyo curse.
== Gallery ==
File:Shampoo (Ranma ½) Render 01.png
File:Shampoo (Ranma ½) Render 02.png
File:Shampoo (Ranma ½) Render 03.png
File:Shampoo (Ranma ½) Render 04.png
File:Shampoo (Ranma ½) Render 05.png
== External Links ==
* Shampoo at Ranma Wiki
Category:Characters
Category:Females
Category:Ranma ½