Ranma ½  is a comedy manga and anime series created by Rumiko Takahashi. The story revolves around a 16-year old boy named Ranma Saotome who was trained from early childhood in martial arts. As a result of an accident during a training journey, he is cursed to become a girl when splashed with cold water, but hot water will change him back into a boy.

In Japan, the manga was serialized in Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday where it ran from 1987–1996. Takahashi has stated in interviews that she wanted to produce a story that would be popular with children. Ranma's main audience was boys from elementary to junior high school age.

Ranma ½ was extremely popular among American anime fans in the 1990s and popularized many of anime's most common visual gags. The infamous 'cursed springs' plot device has even come up in anime-themed custom role playing games as a quick transgender device. The anatomical logistics of the cursed condition were purposely glossed over by Takahashi to avoid complications or detractions from its comedic effect.

On a training journey in the Bayankala Mountain Range (Bayan Har Shan) in the Qinghai Province of China, Ranma and his father, Genma, fell into the cursed springs at Jusenkyo (loosely translated, it means "cursed springs village"). Each spring is associated with a story about someone or something that drowned in it hundreds or thousands of years ago. When one falls into a cursed spring, they take the physical form of whatever drowned there. Cold water initiates the curse while hot water reverses the effect. During a sparring match, Genma fell into the Spring of the Drowned Giant Panda, and Ranma fell in to the Spring of the Drowned Girl.

Upon returning to Japan, Genma informs Ranma that he has been arranged to marry a girl that he has never met. At the same time, Soun Tendo tells his three daughters that one of them is set to marry Ranma (whom they have never even heard of) for the Tendo dojo legacy to be carried on. When they first meet Ranma, he is in female form. This causes some confusion until Akane Tendo sees Ranma in his male form after walking in on him, as a stranger awaiting her in the family bath. When Ranma's curse is explained, Akane's older sisters push the engagement on her since she "hates boys" (due to being relentlessly pursued and attacked by a portion of the male student body) and "Ranma is half girl." The awkward relationship between Ranma and Akane is one of the focuses of the series.