Preface

If you’re a fan of Ranma ½ or its fanfic, you can skip this part and go directly to the story. All you need to know is that it’s a serious (both dark and hopeful) treatment of the Cat’s Tongue Arc. But if you’re unfamiliar with Ranma, this preface tells you everything you need to read the story as a standalone work.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rumiko Takahashi’s manga (i.e., graphic novel/comic) Ranma ½ was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday in Japan. The central premise was that the protagonist, martial artist Ranma Saotome, age 16, had fallen into a cursed spring during training in Jusenkyo, China, and as a result, if he was splashed with cold water, he transformed from a handsome young man into a quite physically different pretty young woman (hair color changed from black to red, body shape changed, voice changed, etc.). Hot water reversed the transformation. This led to all kinds of comedic situations, especially given Ranma’s macho personality (instilled by his father’s endless demands that he be “a man among men”), the various romantic entanglements he found himself in (courtesy of his father), and other rivalries (romantic and otherwise) he picked up along the way.

It was a shōnen manga (i.e., aimed at boys primarily), so it had plenty of fights. Often a character would be in love with one of Ranma’s forms but eager to fight the other one, unaware they were the same person, producing plenty of comedy opportunities.

Ranma’s main foil was 16-year old Akane Tendo, a strong-willed martial artist who had to deal with Ranma’s sudden arrival and the discovery that their fathers had arranged their engagement without telling them before they met. Akane had been the de facto inheritor of the Tendo Dojo, but now the pair were to marry, merge their respective martial-arts schools, and continue the dojo. Both resented the engagement, and yet found each other to be both lovable and exasperating. Their complicated relationship created more opportunities for comedy, and sparked conflicts ranging from teasing, to bickering, to extreme (but comical) violence, but there were moments of tenderness, too, as they got to know one another better. Beneath the bluster, they cared for each other deeply, and readers hoped that they’d one day take a step back from their rivalry, see how they were obviously meant to be together, and just be happy.

In 1989, the manga was adapted into an anime television series, which deviated somewhat from the manga’s storyline. In 2024, Netflix began remaking the anime series and has, at the time of writing, created two seasons that (thus far) more closely follow the manga’s storyline. Across all three versions, there is a sequence of events called The Cat’s Tongue Arc, which spans a period of a few weeks where Ranma is “stuck as a girl”; each version has its own take on various details, but they mostly share the same story beats. As usual, it’s just meant to be funny, but watching a third version of this story made me think about what it might really be like for someone to be in such a situation. I could see, in my mind’s eye, a variety of ways that things could play out, and a particular story that I wanted to tell. I dismissively said, “The fan fiction writes itself,” but, of course, it doesn’t. I actually had to do it.

To my surprise, I ended up with a novel. One that explores themes of love, identity, belonging, and what it means to truly know yourself. To do justice to these themes, the story necessarily sometimes spends time in some dark places, and, as in any story of this length, there must be challenges and setbacks; surprises that make your heart leap or sink. Depending on where you’re reading this story, there may be content (warning) tags that you can check if you want to avoid certain themes or situations. But those tags are also spoilers in their way, so perhaps you might prefer to just start reading and see where it takes you.

Phoenix may not be the story you would tell, but this is mine. I hope you enjoy it.