Ranma ½ (2024)

During their martial arts training expedition in China, Ranma Saotome and his father Genma suffered an accident, which in turn, afflicted them with a curse—whenever they are doused with cold water, Ranma transforms into a girl, while his father turns into a panda! Only hot water can reverse these changes, but any further with cold water opens the can of worms once more.

Unfortunately, the trouble does not end there, as Ranma finds out about his betrothal to one of the daughters of Soun Tendou, his father's closest friend. During the families' first meeting, it is decided that Ranma is to be married to Akane, the youngest daughter, a decision that is met with vehement protests from both sides. The two are simply not compatible, yet they are forced to live under one roof. Ranma's status quo further adds to the chaos, leading him to a series of comedic situations and misunderstandings that, in the grand scheme of things, may just be what he needs to work with Akane.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Saotome, Ranma Main

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Tendou, Akane Main

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

Hibiki, Ryouga ing

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Shampoo ing

Sakuma, Rei Japanese

Tendou, Nabiki ing

Takayama, Minami Japanese

Saotome, Genma ing

Cho Japanese

Kunou, Tatewaki ing

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Tendou, Kasumi ing

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Tendou, Soun ing

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Kunou, Kodachi ing

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Ootsuka, Manabu Producer

Hasegawa, Hiroya Producer

Kondou, Shuuhou Producer

Hayashida, Norihiro Producer

Reviews

Dec 21, 2024

Marinate1016

Recommended

Fresh off the coattails of the success of the amazing Urusei Yatsura remake comes Takahashi Rumiko’s latest “oldie but goodie”, Ranma 1/2. Even with just 12 episodes done, I can confidently say this is better in every way than the UY remake and is one of the best remakes of all time. High praise, I know, but it’s really how I feel. This show has perfectly captured the magic of 80s anime and brought it to the modern audience without compromising on what makes it great. For all the hype MAPPA get about their battle shonen adaptations, this is among the best work they’ve done ... and we’re only getting started. If you’re on limited time this season, this is one of the few shows you need to check out.

If there’s one thing Takahashi-sensei knows how to do, it’s write great character driven stories and cute romances. Ranma is where you really start to see that take shape in her work. My one big complaint with UY was Ataru not ever growing up and things staying stagnant for large portions of the series. It felt at times like we were running in a circle and getting nowhere. Opposite here. One cour in and I’ve already seen a ton of development from both of the main leads, episodes feel connected, romantic progression and frankly better mini-arcs. I don’t want to seem like I’m bouthing UY, because I do love Lum and that story, but this is much more my speed. The relationship feels a lot more natural. Akane and Ranma bounce off each other so well and I love how they fight like an old married couple, but never stay mad at each other too long and will always be there for one another.

The main gimmick that makes Ranma 1/2 unique and the meaning behind the title is Ranma’s ability to go from boy to female with the splash of water. This is such a funny gimmick to me. It never felt forced or out of place and made so many scenes in the show hilarious. But more importantly, it’s a nice allegory for gender dysmorphia and another example of Takahashi sensei being ahead of the curve on things. From creating popular romcom tropes we see everywhere today like tsunderes, to being a trailblazer for lgbt representation, this woman’s impact can never be overstated. The transformation also serves a really cool narrative purpose as it allows Ranma to connect with Akane more intimately as a woman than a man at times. Akane has a lot of insecurity about her femininity that serves as a driving force behind her character development in this first cour, I really liked how she was able to take strides towards accepting herself more thanks to Ranma. Them starting out as sworn enemies and gradually becoming sweet on each other and not knowing how to act around one another is some of the cutest stuff I’ve ever seen. To me their relationship felt like watching little kids who don’t know how to express themselves so they just tease the person they like. Thankfully, it’s never excessive or cringe to watch here!

The other characters in this are also great! ing cast will also probably end up being better than Urusei Yatsura. You really just see a gradual evolution in Takahashi’s writing coming from her last work and that’s so cool to be able to retrace one of your fave creator’s path. Shampoo alone clears a lot of shows’ whole casts. Akane is going to have her work cut out for her in the second half. Ryoga is a riot and a nice rival for Ranma, as well as reminding me a lot of Koga from Takahashi’s most famous work, Inuyasha. Had no complaints with any of the cast really, even all the ones that came in for mini-arcs like the skating duo, or the ballet dancer, I need them all back in the future!

MAPPA get a lot of hype for the work they’ve done on big battle shonen series, but what they’ve done in this remake can’t be overstated. It looks gorgeous, the animation is awesome, direction is great and most important the soundtrack bangs. They got the Inuyasha series composer and I cannot tell you how excited I feel every week to just hear the music in this show and be transported back to the early 2000s. I’m not sure if he worked on the original series, but it definitely fits here.

Overall, Ranma 1/2 is an extremely promising start for what looks to be one of the best ever anime remake projects. Great production values, an amazing main couple, hilarious comedy that actually lands and some nice character development! If you’re a fan of any of Takahashi’s works, it’s a no brainer to check this out, or if you’re just looking for a new cute romance couple to get behind! Can’t sing enough praise about this show.

Ranma 1/2 gets 9 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 29, 2024

EcchiOujisama

Mixed Feelings

It's like, how much more mid could this be? And the answer is none. None more mid.

While the Urusei Yatsura remake largely hit it out of the park, this is so okay I don't even know how to describe it. In this form it certainly has no reason to exist. The 2008 special showed how awesome Ranma could be in an era of faster and cheaper CG production, making it all the more disappointing.

In order to get through enough of the story to get to a point where Shampoo shows up within 12 episodes about 35-40% of everything had to be cut. ... In some cases this is a lateral move, in others it sucks the humor or the story out of the scene. OTOH, the fights don't get cut, and actually feel longer than do in the original, which means you're losing more story content than the shorter runtime would imply. If you have to cut time, you cut the fights. Takahashi has said they're only there to advance the story for more than 30 years. No one is watching a proto-harem ecchi comedy for the 40 minute fight sequences.

Hayashibara Megumi remains the GOAT and is doing Ranma's voice like it's 1993 within a minute, but the new voices are adequate at best. The subtlety of Kuno's narcissism and upper class arrogance are gone. Kodachi is still out of her mind, but in a way that makes you reach for pepper spray instead of making you think "Yeah, but I'm sure she'd be a ton of fun in the sack." There is something off with Soun and Genma, and the figure skaters. When Aeka was replaced in the Tenchi Muyo anime I immediately felt the new voice was Aeka when I heard it. That isn't the case here. They got Sakuma Rei to come back as Shampoo, but she never gets it quite right and sounds more like someone in seiyuu school trying to do Shampoo than she does Shampoo. Shampoo is a stereotype built on top of another stereotype. This is not the kind of role that calls for realism or subtlety. If it's not absurd, it's not funny or sexy.

An attempt is made at some nostalgia bait by recreating the opening bumper and freestyling new ones, with one channeling the Super Famicom games. That popped me, but the rest fell flat. Some of the effects and styling from Takahashi's color illustrations that would have been difficult to paint are here as they were in the UY remake. And unlike the abortion that was the second season of Maou-sama, Retry!, everyone here looks exactly right, proving that college geometry is not that hard.

The cuts made for time make Akane come off as being as much of a bitch as she did in the old Viz dub. You may like Ucchan, Shampoo and/or Kodachi more, but she's supposed to be likeable enough so you could understand why Ranma might come like her. There was a time when her name was almost as much of a slur as Minmei, and this is bringing me back. Most of the online community was dedicated to hating her in the 90s and early 00s because she was misportrayed the way she is here.

Bottom line: With hindsight from mistakes made in later seasons of the original and having the whole story finished long before production began, this should crush the original. But it doesn't. Old fans miss nothing by skipping it and new fans would be better served with the manga or the original anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 27, 2024

MidniteAndBeyond

Not Recommended

Funny

Ok, look. I know this is a beloved classic to a lot of people. I have no nostalgia for this series and previously only knew of it by name. If you've been enjoying it, I'm happy for you. I wouldn't dare ridicule someone for liking something I did not. So I hope you'll provide the same courtesy to me as I share my own thoughts. Ok? Ok... this is the worst anime I've ever seen in my entire life.

So ya know how my least favorite part of InuYasha was all the terrible ship dynamics and how all the couples had absolutely zero chemistry with ... one another and we were just expected to interpret their constant fighting as them conveying their feelings for one another? Imagine if they made an ENTIRE show about just that one concept. Every time, and I do mean EVERY TIME a new character got introduced, I was like "Oh, thank god! Hopefully this new character will provide us with some new storyline to focus on and the horrible interactions between Ranma and Akane can be sidelined for a while!" But no. Instead they make every single new character obsessively predatory towards one of the two main characters and aggressively jealous of the other one. Every. Single. Time.

The obliviousness of everyone not realizing Ranma or Ryoga's alter egos are also just unbelievably stupid. Not to mention that there's literally zero plot reason for them to hide their identities other than to repeat the same insufferable gags every stinkin episode. It's just nonstop love triangle after love triangle. And they're ALL awful. There's also a lot of very uncomfortable dialogue for LGBT viewers to listen to. I'm sure someone will defend it by saying it was a product of its time, but isn't the point of a remake to... REMAKE things for a modern audience? I really don't have much else to say. I hated every second of it. I have no clue how long this remake will last, but I hope I'll have at least ONE good thing to say about this series when all is said and done.

1/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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