Ah, good ol' Ucchan. ^ ^

I really took my time with this picture, and shaded it really carefully with pencil and all that, and then when I put it in Photoshop, I tried doing all of these retouches, filters, and effects and other photoshop manipulation stuff....

And then I realized that, at least in this case, the original pencil drawing all by itself was pretty much good enough not to need any manipulation or retouching.

....Unless you count writing her name in Vicfieger's "Maxine Script" font, a "manipulation", anyway.




Anyway, good old Ukyo....

She was one of the first few fictional anime characters that I developed an honest to goodness crush on.

I think a lot of it had to do with her being probably one of the more magnanimous characters in Ranma 1/2. She was naturally sweet, and pretty much willing to be anyone's friend, granted that they didn't actively (or accidentally) piss her off, or really annoy her.

She's even formed short alliances with, who she probably has the closest thing she has to a heated rivalry with in the series, Shampoo, several times.

Another reason I always liked her was that Ukyo is always kind of a center to everyone else, often times, and usually only getting legitimately angry when push comes to shove or a situation is incredibly frustrating.

Despite her penchant for using cooking as a style of martial arts and the fact that she carries a giant spatula around with her everywhere she goes, she's arguably the sanest character in the series, after she drops her grudge against Ranma in her first episode and adjusts to life in Nerima.

And let's not forget the fact that she's just darned cute, has a rather modest sensibility about herself, and yes, there's something just naturally appealing about someone so pretty that makes delicious looking food for a living. It's true!

Overall, I always liked Ukyo because she's just a rather sweet girl, a good natured center in the midst of everyone else's insanity, and because some of her scenes where she takes poor Ryoga's side are some of the most adorable in the show.

And there's a lot to say for anyone that can interact within the volatile triangle of Ryoga, Ranma and Akane, and be good friends with each of them on their own terms.

Especially when she's got pretty good reasons to be irritated by all three, despite the fact that the three of them are always at odds with each other.

Whether it's Ranma's refusal to see her as the love interest she wants to be towards him, Akane basically being the finance to the guy she likes, and Ryoga for sorta being at times, well, in her own words... "a jackass."

And yet, instead of being spurned by Ranma, insanely jealous of Akane, and flat-out frustrated with Ryoga, she's a REALLY good friend to each of them.

Yup.

Ukyo = Win.