Editing List of Ranma ½ characters (section)

===Ryoga Hibiki===
:{{Voiced by|[[Kōichi Yamadera|Koichi Yamadera]]|[[Michael Donovan]] (Viz Media dub), Dave Bridges (Animax Asia dub), Damien Haas (2024 series), Rachel Slotky (P-Chan, 2024 series)}}<ref name=":1" />

{{nihongo|Ryoga Hibiki|響 良牙|Hibiki Ryōga}} is Ranma's long-time rival, and the only one the latter has stated to truly consider as such. He has no sense of direction and is always lost on long strenuous journeys – traits he inherited from his parents. This caused him to be four days late for a duel he and Ranma had planned to fight, and Ranma left on the third day. After spending months looking for male Ranma to have the belated duel, Ryoga finally ends up at Jusenkyo in China, but is pushed into a cursed spring by female Ranma (while chasing Genma and not looking where she was going). Ever since then Ryoga turns into a black piglet when doused with cold water, which makes his constant wanderings much more dangerous from hungry hunters and predators, and he initially carries a large grudge at Ranma for that once he learned the truth.

Ryoga is the first major challenge to Ranma in Nerima. Their first fight showcases their strengths, and it is a close match. Akane accidentally discovers Ryoga in cursed form, and not knowing the pig's true identity, adopts him as her pet and names him {{nihongo|P-chan|Pちゃん}}. She is the first person to show him real kindness, and Ryoga falls head-over-heels in love with her, and consistently acts as a fierce protector from both real and imagined threats, whether in normal or cursed form. She even takes him to bed with her, and generally beats him severely with her sleep-movements.

Ryoga accepts training from Cologne because he feels that he can use it to best Ranma, and win Akane's interest. Cologne is equally using Ryoga, hoping to remove Akane from the picture, which would in turn free Ranma to wed Shampoo. She teaches him a technique, ostensibly to use against Ranma, for striking a boulder at precisely the right point to shatter it. Repeatedly being hit with a large boulder while attempting to master the technique makes Ryoga's body tremendously durable. He toughens even to the point that great impacts, such as being buried in a rockslide, or being repeatedly struck with large boulders, cause no visible damage. Engaging Ranma for a second time, he forces Ranma to also rely on training from Cologne, used in an inventive manner, to counter his newly toughened constitution while evading the technique. Only after the fight does she reveal that the technique does not work on people, and the only real advantage he gained is his durability.

When not upset Ryoga is usually shy, humble, helpful, and polite, especially around women. He tends to stock up on an assortments of gifts and local food specialties from the highly diverse locations where he ends up during his travels. Ryoga is also shown to have a chivalrous streak, and consistently protects any maidens in distress, or victims of bullies, monsters, or bandits that he comes across, and is sometimes emotional enough to be brought to tears from compassion, including for Ranma. However, he also recurrently tends to be led more by impulse and emotions than common sense, is prone to anger and misunderstandings, and although he is generally more considerate and naive than Ranma, and needs considerably stronger reasons to turn petty and spiteful, when sufficiently pressed he has displayed a few more ruthless moments than his rival seems capable of. Ryoga is largely clumsy with his own strength when he is not engaging in combat, often going through walls and destroying property whenever he feels embarrassed. Ranma often takes advantage of Ryoga's good nature: Ryoga is utterly incapable of seeing through a lady in disguise (mostly Ranma), though this is not a unique trait in him, as Shampoo and Ukyo have also used (blatantly obvious) disguises on other people with success.

Ryoga's grudge towards Ranma for causing his second curse eventually disappears, and is replaced with a professional rivalry. This morphs into something of a mutual respect in the later story arcs, and Ryoga comes to save Ranma's and/or Akane's lives more times than the reverse. However, he remains annoyed with Ranma for recurrently arguing with Akane or manipulating him, and their mutual battle prowess competition will likely persist forever. In the late part of the manga series Ryoga's affection for Akane starts to shift towards the sumo-pig breeder Akari, who becomes his girlfriend.

Ryoga is one of the first characters to use [[Qi|Ki]]-projection as a means to combat Ranma. His ki attack is named the "Shi Shi Hokodan", or "Lion's Roar Shot", which in the anime is inconsistently displayed as either a green or red globe, alternately a beam, of energy. He taps into his reservoirs through the weight of feelings of depression, loneliness, frustration, pain, anger, hopelessness, and likely determination, to blasts an opponent with a vertical ray of pent up personal energy. Although Ranma does learn the same technique, his personality is much more suited to using emotions of confidence and arrogance, naming his own technique "Moko Takabisha". Ryoga further refines the technique, but the "Shin Shi Shi Hokodan" or complete form of the attack requires extreme levels of despair and projects Ki in a towering pillar, which then crashes down, pulverizing his opponent. Ryoga uses the final version of this technique while being strangled by Lime. His sorrow at the prospect of dying without being loved by Akane causes him to produce a powerful chi-attack that defeats Lime in a single strike, and causes the Musk dragon-prince Herb to wake up (due to the energy output) and feel awed by the display.

By the end of the series Ryoga spends his time wandering through the wilderness, attempting to find, and go on innocent dates with, his pig-breeding girlfriend, while striving to get over his old crush on Akane, and as usual, likely training and amassing new techniques to exceed Ranma — if he can ever find his friend and nemesis.