When Ranma was young, his father tried to teach him the Nekoken (Cat Fist) technique. The training technique described the trainee being covered in fish sausage and thrown into a pit of starving cats, but that only made him afraid of them. Only then did Genma read the final page of the training book, which stated that the technique should never be used, as it only results in severe mental scarring. Genma then tried to make his son less fearful of felines by repeating the training, covering the boy in some other fish-based food each time. His efforts failed to cure the phobia, but they did teach Ranma the intended technique, albeit with potentially dangerous ramifications. Ranma became permanetly afraid of cats; he couldn't even get near one and would faint if one touched him. While his phobia seems to have gotten slightly less drastic over the course of the manga, it does not help that Shampoo, who is obsessed with him, is cursed to turn into a cat when hit with water.