RpM-acct2/5 <RPM@UH.EDU> writes:

>the summaries for vol. 30 don't seem to be available from the web.
>I was just wondering if anybody knew any ftp sites with it or has it and
>can e-mail it to me.  

>help?

I don't remember ever seeing them.  Here's a quick (maybe) summary:

1.  Ryoga's Spring

The title is a common idiom, connotating the turning point in a youth's life
when he is loved as opposed to loving someone he can't have...

Rumors of a pig roughly attacking all the young males in Nerima abound.  
Meanwhile, Ryoga has returned from yet another trip with copious presents
for Akane...but is still unable to confess his love.  Ranma finds Ryoga,
suspecting that he is the "monster pig" people are talking about.  While
Ryoga attacks Ranma for accusing him, the real sumo pig comes out, which
Ryoga quickly disposes of.  A girl then comes out to Ryoga, announces that 
he has "won," hands him a piece of paper, and leaves bashfully.  It turns
out that the girl is Akari, whose family has been training sumo fighting pigs
for generations, and that her grandfather's last order is that she may not
associate with anyone who cannot defeat their best pig.  In short, Akari
falls in love with Ryoga: "You're as brave as a pig, as kindly as a pig, as
smart as a pig, as nice as a pig, as handsome as a pig; I've never ever
in my wildest dreams imagined a person so much like a pig than you!"
Akari thinks of this as the best possible compliment, but you can guess how
Ryoga takes it...

2.  I love pigs

Ranma, realizing that Akari is not making fun of Ryoga, promises to her that
he will clear up the misunderstanding.  Taking Akari back home, Akane announces
P-chan's return.  Akari: "Waa...what a cute little piggy!"  She introduces 
herself to the family as Ryoga's girlfriend while Ranma tries to corner Ryoga
and explain to him.  Unfortunately, Ranma does not succeed in getting the
message across before Akane says: "As your friend, I was worried that you
wouldn't have a girlfriend." and Akari's gift of pig animal crackers and pig
sweater.  Ryoga screams "YOU'RE JUST MAKING FUN OF ME!" and rushes out.
Akari comes to the conclusion that Ryoga hates pigs (uh-oh).  Ranma gets
a Pavlovian artifact from Cologne so that whenever someone says "pig," Ryoga
will hug that person and say "Darling, I love you!"  (unbeknownst to Ryoga,
of course).  Ranma arranges a date one week from now.  When Akari hears of
the date, she swears that within this week, she must hate pigs for Ryoga's
sake...

3.  The Perfect Couple

The date happens.  You can pretty much guess what happens when male
bystanders utter words that contain the syllable for "pig" in them:
"Darling, I love you!  Darling I love you!  Darling, I love you!"
"Is Ryoga...a pervert?"  Ranma attempts to slink off...but Akari
says that she'll overlook all that.  She closes her eyes and puckers her
lips, Ryoga's heart starts beating rapidly...and it starts to rain.

Akari: "It's a pig!" As P-chan vaults himself toward Akari, she tries
to hit the pig away, but she breaks down and confesses that she cannot
truly bring herself to hate pigs..."Ryoga must really hate me for that...
that's why he ran away without saying a word..."  Ranma (now female) grabs
P-chan and Akari and rushes to the Tendo bathroom and throws P-chan into the 
steaming bathtub.  Akari is shocked.  Ranma says, "Gee, and I thought she'd
be dancing with joy..."  Ryoga dejectedly puts on his clothes and leaves...
until they realize that Akari is dancing with joy in the bathroom.
And the rest is happily ever after...until Ranma says the word "pig"
accidentally.

4.  Baldness cure sample...

Cologne gets a sample for a baldness cure.  Since she has no one to test it
on, she gives it to Ranma for his father.
 Genma: "What?  A cure for baldness?  Forget it!"
 Ranma: "Really?  I thought you cared a lot for your hair..."
 Genma: "Ranma.  Listen carefully.  Hair is a gift to humans by the 
         omnipotent power of the gods.  Us ignorant humans cannot
         master the power of creating hair!"
 Ranma: "In other words, none of these other remedies that you tried worked."
 Genma: (looks away, trying to ignore Ranma as Ranma pushes over a box
        labeled "unsuccessful remedies" as all the bottles fall out)
 Ranma: "Oh well, might as well return this."
 Genma: "I didn't say I wouldn't try it."
Eventually they discover what happens to one who tries the remedy:  Whenever
that person gets angry, they spurt a large growth of stiff, spiky hair.  But
when they get amused or happy, it falls off.  Ranma ends up not being able
to stand his father accidenally poking, scraping, and cutting him with his
hair.  They fight, and accidentally fall into the Tendo pool, the result of
which a giant black and white sea anemone like creature rolls down the streets
of Nerima, spiking innocent bystanders...

5.  Infinite "Fighting ki"
6.  Let us study well

In this storyline, Hinako-sensei realizes that if she puts tropical battle
fish in a round fishbowl, she can constantly absorb the "fighting ki" that
they exude and maintain her adult form, which is annoying to Ranma because
he can't goof off in class as easily.  He makes a trip to Hinako-sensei's
house to try to find the reason for her permanent adult-form.  Meanwhile,
Hinako-sensei eats dinner with Akane, a silly plot twist to get Akane to
come to Hinako-sensei's home as well.  Lots of funny things happen, but
no real advances in the plot to be worth describing in a summary.

7.  The tragedy of the male cherry tree

Kuno Tatewaki carves his name and the "pig-tailed girl" on a cherry tree in
his backyard.  It turns out that the cherry tree is a cursed cherry tree,
and merges with the body of Kuno.  The only way to save Kuno is to sacrifice
the female whose name is also carved on the tree.

8.  Ranma gets a fever

The plot idea here is stroke of genius.  Happosai catches cold on a midnight
run and it gets transmitted to Ranma.  It turns out that Ranma's fever is
so high that whenever he falls into water, the water heats up, so he turns
back to male almost instantly.  Nodoka chooses exactly this time to visit.
Ranma is ecstatic, but due to the interference of Genma, Ranma is unable to
meet her.  (Genma tried to get the cold too, but then they discover that
the fever isn't as high when it's spread across two people.  Don't ask.)
All Nodoka discovers is that "Ranko" has a fever, and rushes her off to bed,
acting very motherly all the time.  Ranma enjoys it, except that Genma 
takes this time to apologize and give the fever back...so Ranma (now male)
has to manage to hide from his mother, who can't figure out what happened
to Ranko.  Ranma rushes out into the rain, and sets it up so that he'll look 
like he's just returned from training...

9.  A "Warm" Welcome

Right before he manages to greet Nodoka, Happosai kidnaps Ranma and tries
to cure him by sucking the cold back.  Ranma: "AA!!  Give me back my cold!"
Happosai: "I won't!  I won't!  A Ranma who won't turn female is no Ranma
at all!"  Nodoka and Akane prepare to investigate the commotion on the
rooftop as Ranma dresses up in a bra to catch Happosai.  Happosai gives the
cold back just as Nodoka and Akane climb over the edge of the roof...
Akane and Nodoka race through Nerima, Nodoka wanting to verify if that 
"pig-tailed, bra-wearing boy" was really Ranma, Akane wanting to hide
Ranma before Nodoka can find him.  Ranma falls unconscious (he's been in the
rain with a fever, remember?) and Akane takes him back to her room and
tries to cure the now-delirious Ranma.  She goes downstairs to look for 
an icepack just as Nodoka enters Akane's room...

10.  Ranma before the sunrise

Unable to find an icepack, Akane returns to her room with the Tendo
refridgerator.  Unable to bear the intense heat in Akane's room, Nodoka
leaves without seeing who was in the bed.  Akane slams Ranma into the
refridgerator.

Later that day, Akane takes the fridge to the dojo and opens it to
reveal a ice-coated, feverless Ranma.  He pleads with Akane to bring 
Nodoka to meet him (since he's frozen to the ground).  But when Akane 
brings Nodoka, Ranma sneezes...and Nodoka falls unconscious with the cold.

I'll leave the ending unrevealed.

11.  The accursed bamboo spatula

Ukyo gets a phone call from a fellow okonomiyaki cook.  He utters "the...
accursed...bamboo spatula..." and the phone falls dead.  Ukyo, Ranma,
and Akane (who were eating at Ucchan) rush over as Ukyo relates the story:
"All Okonomiyaki cooks know about this...any cook who fancies himself to
be good at his work dreams of challenging the bamboo spatula.  But to this
date no onehas been able to control it.  Not only that, but I hear that
all cooks who have tried to use it have because of it been placed in
extreme peril!!"  Ranma picks it up stupidly, and he finds it stuck to
his hand, which the cook says "unless you do the right thing, it'll be
stuck to you forever..."  and the rest of the story is a madcap chase
around Nerima involving Kuno and Ryoga.  A nice, light-hearted story
compared to the previous one.

-- 
   -- Wei-Hwa Huang (whuang@cco.caltech.edu)
Homepage (under construction): http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~whuang/
Microsoft: small and limp.