Ranma 1/2: One Page Per Volume, Part 30

[rainsometimes]

Art reads from left to right.

Volume 30 sees the introduction of Akari Unryû, a sweet girl who loves pigs and owns a gigantic sumo-wrestling pigs. She runs into Ryoga and quickly becomes very infatuated with him. There are ups and downs between them in her introduction arc due to misunderstandings and Ranma's meddling, although Ranma is of some actual help as well in his attempts to speed this development along. At the end of the story she does end up as a kind of semi-official girlfriend in this volume, and they start to write letters to each other. (I do wonder where Akari addresses her letters...) Ryoga's monumental crush on Akane won't go away so easily, but it's here that he does take his first steps on the path that will lead him, and him alone of the regulars, out of the Love Dodecahedron of the series.

(Note Ranma's hand in the penultimate panel: whenever anyone whips out a microphone in this series, which is often, they always, always have their pinky extended.)