Jusenkyo is the fictional 'cursed' springs from the Ranma ½ manga and anime. Jusenkyo is located in a secret area of Qinghai Province, China. A spring is a place where an underground stream flows out of the ground. ... Ranma ½ Graphic Novel, Volume 1 English version, Second Edition Ranma ½ (らんま½, Japanese pronunciation: Ranma Nibun no Ichi) is a comedy anime and manga by Rumiko Takahashi (高橋 留美子) about a boy named Ranma Saotome (早乙女 乱馬) who was trained from early childhood to age 16 in the martial... Rurouni Kenshin manga, volume 1 (English version) Manga (漫画) is the Japanese word for comics; outside of Japan, it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics. ... A scene from Cowboy Bebop (1998) Anime (アニメ) is Japanese animation, often characterized by stylized colorful images depicting vibrant characters in a variety of different settings and storylines, aimed at a variety of different audiences. ... Qinghai (Chinese: 青海; pinyin: Qīnghǎi; Wade-Giles: Ching-hai; Postal System Pinyin: Tsinghai) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, named after the enormous Qinghai Lake (Koko Nor). ...

Many bad things have happened in Jusenkyo, mainly that people and animals have drowned in the various pools hundreds or thousands of years ago. Legend has it that when something drowns in one of these pools, the pool becomes cursed, and anyone falling into that pool will become whatever drowned there, although they retain their mind, personality and abilities. The cure (albeit temporary) is to be splashed with hot water. Then you remain in your natural form until again encountering cold water. For some strange reason, Jusenkyo has become a 'proving ground' for martial artists. Wiktionary has a definition of: Curse A curse is a prayer asking that a god or similar spirit bring misfortune to someone; an imprecation or execration, the opposite of a blessing or charm. ... A falling water droplet Water (from the Anglo-Saxon and Low German wæter) is a colourless, tasteless, and odourless substance that is essential to all known forms of life and is the most universal solvent. ...

On the Ranma ½ series, people have accidentally fallen into the springs of the drowned girl, panda, duck, piglet, and cat, and at least one character chose to voluntarily bathe in one of the springs. However, most characters featured who have the curse find it to be obstructive and would rather be rid of it. A girl is a female human child, as contrasted to a male child, which is a boy. ... Panda can have several different meanings: The Giant Panda is a large black-and-white bear-like mammal native to China. ... Subfamilies Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Merginae Drake Mallard Duck is the common name for a number of types of bird in the family Anatidae. ... A piglet is a juvenile pig Piglet is the name of a character in A. A. Milnes Winnie the Pooh books This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Trinomial name Felis silvestris catus Schreber, 1775 The cat (also called domestic cat or house cat) is a small feline carnivorous mammal. ...

Due to the series' enormous popularity in anime fandom, the springs were often used as a quick plot device by role players wanting to create characters who were essentially functional transsexuals without the emotional or social baggage. Purist fans of the series point out the original Japanese wording does not technically imply the original victims of the spring needed to actually drown; he or she can be involved in a near drowning. One of the characters in the series (Akane Tendo) in fact caused a pool to become cursed without actually dying. Speculation abounds (particularly in comedic fanfiction) about other possible springs, often with such absurd choices as the Spring of Drowned Magical Girl, the Spring of Drowned Cabbit, and the Spring of Drowned SUV. This article pertains to the Ranma ½ anime and manga series. ... Fan fiction (also spelled fanfiction and commonly abbreviated to fanfic) is fiction written by people who enjoy a film, novel, television show or other media work, using the characters and situations developed in it and developing new plots in which to use these characters. ...

External links

• The Cursed Springs of Jusenkyo (http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/3136/ranmasprings.html), a listing of the different cursed springs that appear in the manga and anime.