"Oh, I think turning into a girl must be much worse... fem-boy!"
- Pansuto Tarou 

Okay, so it's true... Tarou is my favorite character in the Ranma ½ universe. He's evil, he chuckles all the time, he can insult Ranma's masculinity and still kick his ass, he has the best transformation and he uses it to his advantage, he's a better skilled fighter, he's one of the more intelligent characters (at least in the top three or four with Cologne and Nabiki included), he wants to kill Happosai (actually... I kind of like Happosai too <cough>), and he doesn't have the "I can't fight girls" hang-up that Ranma, Ryoga and Mousse have.

UPDATES
yes it's true... sometimes I actually do update this site...

02 July 2003: Bet you never thought you'd see me again. Well, I'm back... but don't get too excited. I can't stay. I just wanted to make some minor updates and tell you to visit me at my main site. It's a general anime site called sugoiweb.com. I archive fanfiction and fanart there as well as host images from various anime/manga titles, etc. Check it out sometime.

In any case, I'm sorry about the state of this site. I know it's loaded with dead links. I know the fact that I haven't updated in two years totally sucks... I know! I'm sorry. What can I say? My long time love affair with Ranma ½ has finally cooled. There are other anime and manga titles that have my interest... plus, I simply don't have time to maintain a Tarou Shrine AND my other site. I'm a busy woman!

Anyway, to make up for my total lack of updates, etc. I'm putting the gallery back up.

11 February 2001: I can't do it anymore.  I've totally forgotten about this site and don't have much time for it anymore - so I'm going to close it.  The first time that is going to go is the gallery.  Sorry kids.

Webmasters Comment:  This has nothing to do with Ranma ½ so please bear with me.  As I'm sure most of you realize, the current version of DBZ running on the Cartoon Network is trash when compared to the original Japanese version.  Don't worry, I'm not going to start bitching about FUNimation and DBZ... but I am going to bitch about The Vision of Escaflowne that is now airing on Fox Kids.  <GAG!>  Talk about crap!  Escaflowne is probably one of the best anime series I have ever been privy to see and the editing done to that show is atrocious.  Never mind the fact that they didn't even air the first episode, but they screwed up the musical score (which is incredible in and of itself), conveniently replaced Hitomi's visions (hence the name: The Vision of Escaflowne) with flashbacks to the unaired first episode AND effectively "edited" the show so it would appeal more to young boys!  Gah!  Please people, if you haven't already seen the subtitled version of The Vision of Escaflowne I whole-heartedly recommend that you run out and buy it (or rent it if you have that option).  My husband and I bought it on a whim and were awe-struck and addicted by the end of the first episode (you know, the one that wasn't aired on television because it didn't "go with the flow of the anime").

Okay, end of bitch fest.

23 August 2000:  Oi!  It's been quite a while since my last update, ne?  Well, I have been really busy as of late and my whole life doesn't completely revolve around anime/manga (at least not all of it).  So there! 

Actually, I am working on creating a new anime site.  One that isn't specifically geared toward Ranma ½.  One that covers both my husband and my self's favorites.  Like Trigun (note: this Trigun link goes to the web site of the Trigun anime translator - I want a cool job like hers...), Rurouni Kenshin, Evangelion, Inu-Yasha, Dragonball Z, Escaflowne... to be honest, I think I'm just getting a little bored with Ranma ½.  I still love to read the manga, but it doesn't catch my interest like Inu-Yasha does.  It is for this reason that I have been so lax about updating this site (that and I just started a new job).  Not to worry though, Tarou is still my favorite Ranma ½ character and I still love to read about him.  So this site probably still have some life left in it.

I added a couple of links to the Fan Fiction section, updated a couple more and corrected some errors.  No major changes for right now.

09 May 2000:  I got an email the other day asking me permission to link to my page.  I guess I go about this whole link thing wrong because I just link to whatever page I want and don't even bother asking.  Is that wrong?  Well anyway, if anyone out there wants to link to me, go ahead and do it.  Due to this email I got I decided to create a couple of banners for my page.  My favorite one is an odd sized banner, but I think it looks good.  The second one is a normal sized banner, but I think it's ugly.  I'll probably create some more eventually, but right now what I have is what I have.  You can see them displayed below.

Webmasters Comment:  This is more of a petty gripe, but I'm a fan and this is my page so indulge me.  As many of you Ranma fans may already know (specifically the ones out there who regularly read the manga released here in North America), Tarou has been translated as saying "huh, huh" and "cross dresser" in the last few issues of Ranma ½.  I certainly don't claim to be any sort of translation goddess or anything even close to that so my gripe could be a bit unfounded.  But from what I know of the original Japanese version of the manga vs. the English translated version, Viz has done a good job of keeping the manga accurate.  I understand that in the original Japanese version, Ranma and company do a bit of swearing.  That isn't seen in the Viz release and I'm fine with that.  However, all the information I have gathered regarding Tarou quotes him as calling Ranma "fem-boy" for his favorite insult (hence the name of this page).  I like the term fem-boy a lot more than cross dresser, so I hope that insult will change.  

My real gripe is with this "huh, huh" business.  That's just got to go!  One of the many fun little quirks about Tarou is his constant chuckling... his constant evil chuckling.  For those of you who are fluent in Japanese please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe in Japanese manga chuckling, snickers or laughter that is meant to be "evil" in nature is sometimes written as "kukuku."  I'm not certain if Tarou's chuckles were written as "kukuku" but my point is I can see some of the trouble trying to translate that into English.  Why Viz chose to use "huh, huh" to illustrate this evil chuckle instead of something like, "heh, heh" is anyone's guess.  And "heh, heh" isn't even that much better.  "Huh, huh" just sounds dumb and I just hate to see my favorite character made to sound like a moron.  It's bad enough he has a name like Pantyhose.  Give the man a break!

26 April 2000:  I've been doing little updates on this site since the big update on March 20th like adding some Tarou quotes, etc.  I am still working on making sure all the links go to where they're supposed to, etc.  Once again I invite any of you out there who know of a great Ranma ½ page (or even better, a Tarou page) that you think I should add to my site, please email the URL to me.

I added a guestbook.  Why I bothered to do that, I don't know.  My experience is most people ignore guestbooks in general.  But I figure someone out there may choose to fill it out and I'd enjoy reading it (you can read it here).  So if you have something to say and you don't want to bother with an email, please feel free to speak your mind with the guestbook.  

20 March 2000: Can you believe it?! It's only been... what? two years since I've updated this site (let alone really looked at it). Sheeeesh..! What can I say? I've been super busy recently.. but now that Tarou has made his grand debut in the American release of Ranma ½ I've been feeling the need to update this site.

Anyway, as you can see I went and did a complete overhaul (like any of you care). I realize that a lot of the links are bad and I need to get off my butt and create some real thumbnails for the gallery <sigh>... so I'll be working on that. However, I'm adding a whole lot more to this page than just Ranma ½ stuff. I'm going to add some Evangelion, Dragonball... and maybe some Inu-Yasha.. we'll see kiddies. I know you're all super excited to hear about that. So anyway, on with the show.