Ranma 1/2 (199x)

Anime Review.

Revisiting the past... ever heard of Ranma 1/2? Boy meets girl, which appears to be just another fiancée. Credits to daddy. Girl meets boy. But boy is, sometimes, a girl.

Don't go and look for anything politically correct, or any LGBTQ+ sensitivity. This dates back to the early nineties, and is slapstick anime comedy, aimed at younger teens.

Slapstick gender bender

Funny Japanese anime series, mostly slapstick, about a bunch of characters that change shape when getting doused with cold water, and change back into their original form when doused with warm water. The main character (Ranma) is a young boy that turns into a young girl... and somehow, in Ranma's world, there's a *lot* of water being splashed around.

Good series, but repeating itself after a while, and although funny it doesn't always make the best of the theme... often, the changes of Ranma (boy to girl or vice verse) doesn't serve much purpose, especially later on in the series. I'm now at 3x11 and season three is already showing some fatigue. On the net it is told that all remaining seasons are worse... with a small sense of redemption for the OVA's (original video releases) and the movies (yes, there were two full feature films). If so, and if I have nothing better to do, I might pin point a few of the better episodes so you can forget about the rest...

Now, I'll only have to find all episodes of seasons four, five, six, the ova's and the two movies and then I will be able to give you a sound well based opinion.

Update

Yes. Stop watching the regular series after season 3.

At the start of season four, the animation quality dropped, so did the quality of the whole show...

The OVAs are somewhat redeeming, but be prepared. For example, in the second Ranma movie Nahao my concubine the character style changed so much that it was often called 'Silicone Beach'. With these characters supposed to be around 16 to 17 years old they are rather... overly endowed, a somewhat touchy subject in certain Asian circles.

I mean... that's a lot of cleavage... eh, I mean hair!

But whatever you do, stay away from the dubbed versions.

Understandably there's even some Ranma hentai around... Let's not go there.


Dapper / TellTales! 35