Nodoka Soatome
Personality: strong willed and motivated
Psychology: pathologically obsessive

Nadoka Saotome is the wife of Genma Saotome and the mother of Ranma Saotome. When Ranma was six years old, Genma told Nadoka he was taking the boy on a ten-year martial arts training trip. Nadoka was not exactly enthused with the idea. In order to get her to agree to the trip, Genma promised, in writing and signed by both himself and Ranma, to make Ranma "A man among men." He promised that if he failed in this task, both he and Ranma would commit seppuku (ritual suicide). Nadoka promised that if they failed she would serve as the kaishaku (the one who cuts the head off the one commiting sepaku after they slit their stomachs).

Needless to say, with their curses the fact that Ranma becomes a girl when splashed with cold water does not exactly make him 'a man among men', rather more like half a man. As a result, both of them are deathly afraid that she will find out their secret curses and force them both to commit seppuku. When Nodoka comes around the Tendo dojo looking for her son and husband, Ranma and Genma throw themselves into the Tendo's koi pond and become Ranko, the Tendo's country cousin and Mr. Panda, her pet.

Nodoka dresses in a traditional kamono and constantly caries a katana in a cloth wrapping so that she will be always ready to serve her duty as kaishaku.