Forum - View topicRanma ½ (TV).
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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Ranma ½ (TV) Genres: action, comedy, romance, supernatural Themes: body switching, fanservice, gender switch, harem, martial arts, slapstick, tsundere Plot Summary: Saotome Ranma, a teenage martial artist, and his father Genma travel to the 'cursed training ground' of Jusenkyo in China. There, despite the warnings of the Chinese guard, they fall into the cursed springs. From now on, whenever Ranma is doused in cold water, he turns in to a girl, and a cute, well-built red-head at that. Hot water changes him back into a man again, but only until the next time. To make matters worse, his father engages him to Tendo Akane, a girl who hates boys. ---------------------------------- (I diligently browsed through all of the forty pages of forum search results on Ranma ½, and found no proper general thread about it, so lets make it here.) Visuals/animation/style/music: 1) design of characters' heads is made in the 1980s style: everybody apparently has serious medical condition where head blows up (Hydrocephalus or something), though it is never stated so. I would want to ask manga historians: who was the person who came up with this drawing style and thought that it looks good? This issue is common for many works from that time, including Akira and Dragon Ball. To be fair, drawing style of earlier 1980s works, including by Rumiko Takahashi herself (the author of this Ranma ½ project), is even worse than this; 2) but besides the issue with heads, body proportions and hair colour are more realistic than now. In modern anime hair colours are more random, and everyone looks much taller. I am not arguing for one way or another here, it is just matter of style and preference as neither variant make characters looking ill (unlike extreme cases such as Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE or, even worse, xxxHOLiC by CLAMP); 3) clothes in this show are very old-fashioned. Those super long dresses and the style overall are from 1950s; 4) the animation quality is simplistic (as basically in all of older anime), but is consistent. If this anime would be re-done, this part could be greatly improved; 5) one of the best funny/comical music in anime. Also great Chinese-styled tunes. Other, non-comical music pieces have dreadfully outdated with its late 1980s sound. Concept/characters/story: 1) the "½" concept is one of the most original out there, and it has amazing opportunities for the author. However, accepted social norms of the time -- though Japan did not progress much at all in this regard even to this day -- did not allow Takahashi go do more daring things with it. The product could be even stronger, if she could go crazier; 2) another issue is that the genre of this project is gags, which also limits the way how author could have possibly developed the concept; 3) to make this project about gags, author had to make many other aspects of it unrealistic. Like panda wandering around and no one paying attention or everyone getting wet all the time. Yes, it does provide laughs, but it always keeps you aware that this is not a world and story that many can truly submerge into; 4) additional issues with gag project is that it is all around that, and the variations of gags are not infinite. Hence it becomes repetitive. Yet, if you do not care about stupid gags such as characters getting hurt or fell "funny way", you can still find places that are not that and laugh out loud (as in my case); 5) the same point as #4 relates to slightly bigger scope: the mini-stories that are told. All kinds of fights for main heroine, for main hero, for the pig, for whatever or whoever else, are not a continuous big-scale story. It is basically the same thing over and over again. So the only hope this project has is being funny in its gags. Thankfully, it does deliver most of the time; 6) even though it is supposed to be a shonen show, Ranma is shown behaving uncharacteristically, in shoyo fashion. In the early part of series, he faces highly attractive (though evil) gymnast, but declines opportunity to hook up with her. Of course, it is meant to signal that he has romantic affection towards main heroine (even not realizing that), and it is not impossible, but more likely scenario would be Ranma using every opportunity to have sex. Shoyo genre in general and shonen genre, if author is a woman, sometimes underestimate how powerful and overwhelming man's sexual drive is; 7) I really hate violent women characters. But I almost forgive it in this case since main female protagonist here is created by author who is woman herself -- so besides being violent, the heroine does have a character. When after this project many more (male) authors have followed the suit, they have made it poorly. What they did was an insult to women; 8) the amount of violence this project has is amazing: most of the characters want either murder or malign, cripple each other. While it is done to be funny, I still think that most of it is painful and I am not always ready to laugh at others' pain (however fake those "others" are in this case of imaginary characters); 9) of course, this project is probably the earliest big one where perverts, disoriented people and those who can not cook got a stage. Also, the panda and piglet characters, among others, are super cute. Takahashi's talent for characters is superbl; Summary: This is good (or even very good) project, but I wish it could be completely re-designed/modernized visually and musically, as well as expanded in the very "½" concept -- to be more daring. And yes, it could be still funny or even funnier with such crazier version. For example, why would not make girl-part of Ranma falling in love with Ranma's male friend? Ranma loves his friends (which are non-existent in this version of manga/anime), but, obviously, has no sexual desire towards them. But when he turns into a woman, it is apparent that she has hormones that drive her sexual attraction -- and since it is a woman, the attraction is towards men. So all of the sudden Ranma finds out that he/she is sexually attracted to her male friend. And maybe she could even become pregnant and give birth to a child -- all while switching bodies with the male part. Of course, this would be even crazier and even more confusing than comparing to how things are now, but it could be made interesting. I am obviously not insisting on more daring development of Ranma ½'s core concept, it is just stupid crazy thought, but video/audio redesign would definitely help. Rumiko Takahashi would not draw those characters that way now. The same music composers would not make the music sound that way now. The concept is worthy to be refreshed and get another huge wave of popularity among younger generations. [EDIT: Spruced up the opener with Encyclopedia info. -TK] [EDIT: Thanks to TK for the opener.] Last edited by MaxSouth on Mon Jan 12, 2015 3:55 am; edited 2 times in total |
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GEO9875
Posts: 202 |
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Nostalgic show for me. Weird show but really entertaining. Hoping to get the BDs soon.
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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"Good" is subjective. 
Large heads make characters appear more youthful and cute, which appeals to children and female viewers. There's really nothing wrong with it. I liked Ranma, despite hating Akane.....but the real reason I dropped it was because they kept changing voice actors and that is always a major turn-off for me when it comes to dubs. I might give the sub another chance some day. I do like Rumiko's works, especially her quirky comedy and creepy horror. Tried an episode of Urusei Yatsura and it was painfully stupid but I am a big fan of Inuyasha and her other series. |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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GEO9875: physical carriers are thing of the past, so it is better to hope to get this show via iTunes Store (with basically the same quality, dual audio, subtitles).
Chiibi: yes, there is some reason like that behind big heads, but in this case there is also discrepancy between normal-sized face and huge skulls. Anyway, thankfully, that style is gone forever, including for Rumiko. As to voice actors thing, I always prefer original Japanese voice cast. In this anime there were times when actors were replaced for a while, but this was a rare and short occurrence. |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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That is not true. Ranma 1/2 is getting a Blu-ray release in North America right now. The fifth set is scheduled for release in March of next year. Just in general the majority of shows are still getting physical releases. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Are you not aware of "chibi" styles? The Lucky Star cast have large heads. I wouldn't count on ANY style being "gone forever". |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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Chibi (Chiibi
 ) style is way different from depicting normal sized people with those strange head issues. And Lucky Star, while having big heads, does not have the issues of Ranma, Dragon Ball, Akira, where the face itself is normal-sized, but the surrounding head is giant. That style is gone forever by all accounts.
Touma: yes, right now Blue Ray is still produced. But it is anachronism, just like vinyl albums. I meant that it is not effective to use the outgoing format while you can have the same quality (for anime; for films Blue Rays are slightly better) that accessible on all of your devices all of the time. |
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Bugnin
Posts: 575 |
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Ah, my first anime. Loved this series.
The quality visibly dropped off after season 3. Fillers piled up and their animation budget got slashed. You never really saw the Ranma/Akane relationship develop as it did in the manga because the series ended before it could catch up. Aside from a handful of episodes from seasons 4-7, the anime is almost a better experience if you just stop after season 3. This show wrote the book on terrible filler. The OAVs really did this show justice, albeit the movies did not. Characterization has always been Takahashi's strong suit and this story was probably her best. Very diverse cast of frenemies. No real villain here but also no real allies. Ranma's two closest friends in this show are the fiancee who's relationship with him is built on frustration and insults, and his boyhood friend who wants to kill him and marry said fiancee. If you look at the entire cast like an extended family, it works. They can't stand each other and fight all the time, yet they align whenever outside forces threaten them. The entire show is like a satire of a Thanksgiving dinner. I loved the Ranma/Akane dynamic. Their relationship is easy to buy, despite outward appearances. Neither one has any clue about the opposite sex and now they have to manage an engagement that would be virtually impossible for anyone. I found it very convincing because although they were not engaged by choice, their relationship grows organically. They fight like a lot of married couples and their bond grows stronger because of it. There's a great episode in the OVAs where Ranma and Akane are tricked into traveling to a cursed haunted house by their various suitors interested in seeing them split up. The house is basically one big trap to encourage resentment and betrayal. One by one, the miscellaneous couples in their group begin to fight with each other, but as everyone else splits up, Ranma and Akane are arguing in their own little world, totally oblivious to the various spirits/demons trying to pull them apart, and they're almost frozen in shock watching as the couple storms out together. By the end of the episode they're happily eating together, oblivious to the fact that the plan to break them up had totally backfired. That episode sums up their unique relationship to me. It might not be what any of us would want for ourselves, but it's genuine. They express their feelings for each other through conflict. It's been done before certainly, but not nearly this well. This show is incomplete to me because (again) they left out the all-important Saffron arc that really ties a bow around everything. The anime ends rather abruptly with nothing resolved. Still, it stands the test of a time as a show worth watching. If Takahashi ever decided to go back and write a continuation of this series post-timeskip, it would be gold. That forumula would still work today. |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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I still can not stress enough Concept/characters/story, item #6, from the first post. I do not like Ranma character since he betrays his manhood. He did not kiss Akane, or any other girl (especially soliciting ones), even to episode forty. He only (was) kissed (by) a guy (!).
I refuse to accept such character, it is not real, I do not believe in it. Maybe he has hormonal issues and hence no sexual attraction whatsoever or an extremely impaired one? As fellow man, I do not find this part of the show funny at all. I am angry at Ranma and/or feel pity for his medical condition. The way he acts is literally unimaginable. (I know it is funny to be angry at fictional character, but you get the point. )
______________________________________________________ I love the voice of female Ranma -- she is also the famous Lina Inverse from Slayers. And the voice of Akane's money-loving sister Nabiki; she is also Anissina from Now I Am Devil King (Kyo Kara Mao) anime. Unique timbres. |
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Touma
Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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It is not real. Real people do not change gender when they get wet, so there is no way of knowing how such a thing would affect a persons masculinity if it could happen. The way that Ranma acts is not very realistic, but it might actually be reasonable under the circumstances. There is just no precedent for judging it in terms of realism. |
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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If you want a horndog, watch Urusei Yatsura. Ataru, he's your guy. no "betraying his manhood" there, no sir. But no, you are overreacting. Ranma is just a comically repressed character. He loves fighting, has a boyish ideal of what "manly" is and has no social skills. He is a little boy who teases the girl he likes. Akane, meanwhile, is a tomboy who similarly has unrealistic ideas of what a relationship with a boy should be. You really shouldn't look for realism in a cast of exaggerated oddball characters. |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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Touma: we are talking about different kind of realisms. Accepting the axiom of magic that is part of the world authors create is one thing, and realism of characters is another. Giving an axiom to viewers does not give you a green light to be unrealistic in any random way you want; it lowers the class of your work.
Spastic Minnow: thanks for advice, I plan to see all big works by Rumiko. Though, specifically for "horndog", there is no need to change the anime, there is the flea elderly Happosai for that (though he is overboard). Also, basically any other young male character in Ranma ½, besides Ranma himself, wants to kiss girls. But main pair of characters is an unfortunate pair: Akane took the worst from "typical" man, her violent nature, and Ranma from "typical" woman: tepid or no sexual drive. If I did not see Inuyasha, I could say the latter for done for comedic purposes, but no, this is just how Rumiko presents men in general -- unmanly. |
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Bugnin
Posts: 575 |
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You're probably the least qualified person here to define masculinity and femininity for the rest of us. Thanks.
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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Bugnin:
I did not define anything for specifically you, there are no "for all" or "for everybody" qualifiers in what I write, I am careful about that. Also, your phrasing implies that you think that your understanding of masculinity (which apparently does not include key behavior difference between men and women, according to scientists) is somehow a common place. But you fail to explain, why -- you provide no actual counter-argument and just turn against the opponent himself. Really classy; it breaks the rules of this discussion board -- just so you know. This is discussion of anime, not of members (not at least in the manner of personal attacks). _____________________________________________________ Related, but different topic: in the episode #42 (under the butchered order by Viz) there is a scene where a transvestite, Ranma, was attacked by a group of women for no other reason than wearing a woman dress. Usually, such attacks would be expected since Ranma would be falling to a place like women's part of the public bathroom, but not this time. Whatever anyone's attitude towards this and however slowly social norms progress in Japan, I hope that this "funny" barbaric antics would not be possible to depict if such project would be done now. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Inuyasha is VERY manly; despite his childish, stubborn personality, he at least knows how to make moves on the ladies. spoiler[He kisses and hugs both Kikyou and Kagome several times and marries Kagome at the end of the series.]They seem quite happy together.
I didn't like RanmaxAkane because they fight TOO much....and that's saying something because I really enjoy love-hate ships. ..........and Ataru is just annoying and stupid. |
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