The Fall 2026 Anime Preview Guide

Ranma ½ Season 3

Life's never dull for Ranma Saotome, fiancé to Akane Tendo, heiress of the Tendo Anything Goes Martial Arts dojo. Following an unfortunate training accident involving a cursed spring, Ranma's body becomes female whenever he is splashed by cold water, turning back to male with hot water. Ranma's relationships only get more complicated as he attracts suitors of both sexes, plus multiple crazy rivals, many of whom have their own cursed transformations to deal with!

Ranma ½ Season 3 is based on the manga series by Rumiko Takahashi. The anime series is streaming on Netflix on Saturdays.

Avid readers may remember I spent the entire previous season of Ranma ½ hollering about how dare they skip the Breaking Point arc. It's one of the best arcs of the manga! It has consequences for the rest of the series! It stars my sweet stupid boy Ryoga—and more Ryoga is almost always a good thing! Well, its time has finally come.

So why am I giving it a paltry 3.5 stars?

Part of the issue is that by moving the arc around in the story, MAPPA has messed with what little continuity it had. It flows naturally from the Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire arc, when Ranma was forced to train his speed and agility to be able to turn into a boy again. Shifting its spot in the story means that certain things don't make sense: Ranma saying he hasn't seen Kuno for a while, Ryoga's confusion at why Ranma was able to trounce him so thoroughly, and Ranma's revelation that he's gotten stronger. These are all direct results of his training with Cologne! While few people will probably consciously realize this, they'll probably notice that something feels distinctly off about the proceedings.

The other thing is that the Breaking Point arc, unlike the wackier storylines and one-offs, plays on Ryoga and Ranma's rivalry, Akane's stubbornness, and Cologne's manipulation to gradually build up to some of the best action the series has to offer. But for now, there's not much to go on. Yes, Ranma slapping Ryoga around so badly that his limbs become as tangled as a pair of headphones that have been sitting in a pocket for a week is a funny way to reintroduce their rivalry, but the primary joke of the episode is that Akane is bad at cooking. She joins Ranma and Genma for their training camp in the woods as “bridal training,” and makes curry for them by dumping too much of everything under the sun in the pot. She's a terrible cook! That's the joke. It's sexist, playing on the idea that as a woman, Akane should be better at cooking, because of course she's going to be a housewife in the future.

But I know it will get better. And if you've been around for two seasons by now, you're probably invested enough that one kinda-mediocre start to an arc isn't enough to put you off. The best is yet to come.

American about to talk about a Japanese cartoon inspired by a Chinese genre voice: Imagine a burger.

It's a burger from a place you've been to before. You know the burgers are delicious, and the restaurant has a new chef who is famous for their delicious sauce. You take a bite, and it's perfect: all the flavors are balanced just right. You take another bite, and it's a little dry but still good. You take another bite, and the sauce has all but drowned out the flavor of the beef. Uneven sauce application generally isn't enough to totally ruin a burger, but it's still a little disappointing.

Can you guess what this is all a metaphor for? Submit a 100-word answer in the forums now!

Wow, you guessed it! I was talking about the animation in this episode of Ranma ½! Pat yourself on the back.

“The Breaking Point” is one of the most action-driven arcs of the early series, and MAPPA traded in their reputation as a creator-driven studio picking up unusual concepts for being a fight sakuga powerhouse. So it makes sense that their adaptation of this arc would use all the techniques and tricks that made shows like Jujutsu Kaisen international sensations. And at times, it works really well! Ranma and Ryoga's fight hinges on impact and speed rather than fancy techniques and qi blasts. (That will come later). When the animation really leans into those sensations, it's a beautiful thing to behold.

However, sometimes the animators just can't seem to help themselves. The camera spins around, distracting from the actual fight choreography, or they chop the characters into parts, making the fight less legible. Instead of composing a new track for the action sequence, which feels more high-stakes and intense than typical for the show, they use the same whimsical-sounding track as usual.

Funnily, for the rest of the episode, they seem almost afraid of departing from the manga; it's almost a shot-for-panel recreation. I'm confident about that because, when this was the only manga volume I owned, I read it over and over. And honestly, I can't complain! Akane's awful cooking may be a misogynistic joke at its core, but Ranma constantly sneaking over to Ryoga's camp not to spy but to eat her horrible cooking because he's jealous is a great little character beat.

And there you have it: “The Breaking Point.” I'm glad we finally made it.

The Ranma ½ remake is back for Round 3, and it still feels like a miracle that this show has managed to stay so consistently charming. Considering that the anime still has a mountain of material from the manga to adapt, and the 1989 anime took a pretty noticeable nosedive in quality once a certain ancient sex pest started popping up in practically every other episode, I wasn't sure if it could maintain its momentum from the first season, but against all odds the second season managed to survive Happosai's presence, so it feels like the sky's the limit for what this adaptation could pull off. Since there's so much left to burn through, it's a little surprising to see this new season kick off by adapting an arc that the last one ended up skipping over, but it does look as though the team at MAPPA is opting to simply rearrange some of the material rather than cutting anything, and while it's hard to know how long that'll continue to be the case, for now, it certainly seems to be working.

This new arc also lets us catch up with Ryoga, whose existence still continues to be littered with nothing but suffering. He's no closer to having his one-sided crush on Akane be reciprocated than he was last season; his sense of direction is still so bad that he couldn't make it to a door directly in front of him. Whereas he could at least manage to be Ranma's equal in combat previously (or at least one of the few people he struggles against that isn't Happosai or Cologne), that doesn't seem to be true anymore, as Ranma's “training” from Cologne seems to have made him significantly stronger. All these indignities make it pretty easy for him to get tempted by Cologne's offer to train him in her latest attempt to force Ranma to marry Shampoo.

Since the last season didn't go all that heavy on the martial arts side of this show's martial arts comedy setup outside of Mousse, this seems like a pretty good excuse to watch these boys engage in some good old shonen fisticuffs. A lot of that looks like it's happening next week, though, and in between all that martial arts training, we get plenty of the usual misunderstandings between Ranma and Akane when the latter offers to cook.

There are few romantic comedy tropes in anime more exhausting than that of “look at this girl who can't cook,” so it really speaks to how well the anime staff is nailing the visual comedy that this whole sequence manages to actually be hilarious. Between how exaggerated the animation is with Akane dumping everything but the kitchen sink into her food and all the ghoulish sound effects, it's hard not to laugh at least a little bit—which has me pretty excited to see how far the rest of the season is willing to go with the gags. It is a little frustrating to watch this all end in another argument, but that's just a regular day for these two. Watching Ranma complain about how inedible Akane's curry is only to attempt to eat it all anyway is pretty cute—even if he probably should have just done that the first time. Even at its most basic, Ranma ½ is a lot of fun—and although it's a little disappointing we'll have to wait a bit to see Ranma and Ryoga's big duel, if the previews are any indication, it'll be more than worth the wait.

With how much Ranma and Ryoga's rematch was hyped in the season's promotional material, I expected it to be a real showstopper, and in most respects it delivered. This fight is easily the most fluid action this show has ever had, and there's a clear effort to make the camera work look as cinematic as possible. In most respects, it felt more like I was watching a battle out of Jujutsu Kaisen, which is pretty cool in its own way. At the same time, it's also probably the biggest reason why I wasn't quite as impressed as I had hoped. The heavily cinematic approach leads to a lot of wide shots that make the fight look epic. That works well for something like Jujutsu Kaisen, where characters toss around big, flashy superpowers, but for a martial arts fight, it's a little distracting.

It creates a few moments where it feels like there's more distance between Ranma and Ryoga than there should be, and a couple of those are resolved by having them practically slide toward each other like magnets. None of this looks bad by any means, but personally, if I'm watching a martial arts duel, I'd prefer a lot of the combat to be more up close and personal (like, say, the hand-to-hand fights in Naruto or more recently, Dragon Ball Daima), which this doesn't quite do enough of. I'm sure that this is probably going to be a pretty unpopular opinion, and most viewers will be more than happy with how spectacular the presentation is, but as is, it didn't totally do it for me.

That's okay though, because even without any big fights, Ranma ½ is still a lot of fun. The buildup to the duel has a lot of the slapstick that makes the show so hilarious, and watching Ryoga get flattened like a pancake against a giant boulder was the funniest thing I've seen so far this season. There was also some pretty good back-and-forth between Ranma and Akane, with the former spending at least half the episode pouting over Akane looking after Ryoga, which was pretty adorable. Since he both lost the duel and endured so much punishment to learn a technique that wouldn't have done much for Ranma to begin with, it's hard not to feel sorry for Ryoga again, but not too much. After all, when it's all said and done, he goes right back to masquerading as P-chan, so while he's far less terrible than Kuno, he isn't exactly the nice guy he presents himself as. Everyone being terrible is half the beauty of Ranma, though, and even when the show isn't at its funniest, that fact usually makes up for it. Even if I wasn't as blown away by this one as the trailers suggested, I still had a lot of fun with this episode, and with a whole season's worth of new hijinks on the horizon, I'm sure that fun isn't stopping anytime soon.

Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½ was one of the very first manga I ever read. I snatched up as many Viz floppy comic issues as I could after my friend, and I rented the Ranma ½ Hard Battle SNES game for a weekend, and I was won over by the insane humor, bright colors, and bizarre character designs. It's no exaggeration to say that, for a few years, I was obsessed. I'm really happy, then, that MAPPA's super-shiny and fun modern anime remake has finally got around to adapting one of my very favorite storylines: The Breaking Point arc.

I was worried they might skip it, as last season adapted some manga chapters from later volumes, but I guess it's not unheard of for adaptations to reorder chapters, especially from such an episodic source material. This particular story works so well because it centers the main trio: Ranma. Ryoga, and Akane—and their particularly weird love triangle/rivalries.

As a result of Ranma's training with Shampoo's great-grandmother Cologne, he's now so much faster than his opponents that he perceives them as slow. This is an issue for Ryoga, who feels humiliated in front of Akane when Ranma effortlessly beats him. The last thing Ryoga wants is to see a look of pity on his beloved's face.

Ever the opportunist, Cologne seizes the chance to train Ryoga in the hopes that, by besting Ranma, he can win Akane's affection, freeing up Ranma to marry Shampoo. The secret she wishes to impart? The terrifying Breaking Point technique that shatters boulders with the slightest touch. It's pure martial arts fantasy nonsense, but also about as serious and dramatic as this very silly show tends to get. Ryoga could potentially rip Ranma's body apart with such a move. Ranma does usually deserve a beatdown for his cocky attitude, but instant explosive evisceration is probably going a bit too far.

This episode's best animation sequence is easily Akane's cursed attempt at campfire cooking. The female protagonist being a poor cook is an overused trope these days, but I expect it was somewhat fresher back in the 1980s when first written. Everyone's reactions to her unintentional lethal poisoning are still very funny, and Ryoga's bloodshot eyes got the biggest laugh from my 15-year-old son, whose only exposure to the series has been via this anime. Sometimes the old gags remain the best.

MAPPA's work on Ranma ½ remains top-notch, and I'm excited to see what other chapters they've planned to adapt in the upcoming episodes. As long as there's more Shampoo, please! She only appears for such a brief moment in this episode, and she remains my favorite character after all these years!

I can safely conclude that MAPPA's handling of one of my favorite parts of the original Ranma ½ manga has exceeded my expectations. This episode takes the series' usual comedy violence and ramps it up to eleven with a JJK-like blowout battle between Ryoga and Ranma that must have consumed a good proportion of the season's resources in one go. Will it be only slide shows from now on?

In some ways, the spectacular fight between doom-punching Ryoga and fast-evading Ranma is even better than many battles in MAPPA's signature action series, JJK. I sometimes find JJK's fights overwrought and flashy, making it hard to parse what the hell is going on. In this relatively simple bout between two ridiculously overpowered opponents, I had no difficulty following the flow of battle, which was smooth, creative, and, above all, extremely entertaining.

Ryoga's hellish training under Cologne has paid off; he can now use the terrifying Breaking Point technique, and he plans to shatter Ranma's body and win Akane's favor. Oddly, Akane seems almost resigned to her fate, though she still needs to be incapacitated and trussed up by a demonic-looking Cologne first. Perhaps she assumes that no matter how powerful Ryoga has become, Ranma will still best him? Her anxiety about Ranma getting hurt suggests she has some doubts, however. Although she cares a great deal for Ryoga, I don't think she ever sees him as a true romantic prospect.

Ranma's only able to beat Ranma because he internalized Cologne's earlier tutorials on the “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” technique, plus his father's insane, angry bee training. It's a wonder Ranma isn't more screwed up, considering the kind of adults he has to look up to. Cologne's a menace, training both Ryoga and Ranma in mutually exclusive techniques, then setting them against one another. What's next? Her teaching Akane to cook?

This is one of the funniest, most visually appealing episodes of any anime so far this season, and with it, MAPPA proves they're an excellent studio choice for this adaptation (if they hadn't already). I just hope they're treating their animation staff properly; this episode looks like it was grueling to work on.

Episodes like this one really capture everything I love about Ranma ½: the comedy, the characters, the messiness, the martial arts, the animation, and, of course, the cartoonishness. Somehow, this show manages to balance its rom-com ratio, even as it succeeds tremendously in both aspects. I mean, the episode opens with Kuno—the best character, I'll die on this hill—telling Akane his summer dating schedule, since he presumes both she and his beloved pigtailed girl will want nothing more than to spend as much time with him as possible. Oh no, did it rain? No worries—he's keeping Sundays open as a flex spot in case that happens. How can you not be totally locked into this instantly?

Still, no one is more locked in than Ryoga is to his training—he felt embarrassed after Ranma absolutely wrecked him in front of Akane at the top of the episode. And after all, he loves Akane and wants to look cool in front of her—that's not only why he trains so hard, but also why he suffers through some of her absolutely vile homemade curry. Comedy doesn't usually age well, but the timeless “character is comically bad at cooking, everyone is forced to eat their food anyway” still hits as hard as when the previous version of this show aired decades ago. Takahashi's expressive art style only makes it better.

Speaking of visuals, this reboot has always emphasized style and brought visual personality and flair to Takahashi's iconic romcom. That's not to say it looked poor before (certainly not!), but the action scenes look more dynamic and even more stylish than usual—and naturally, I love that. It suits Takahashi's style perfectly.

As far as I'm concerned, Ranma ½ is the gold standard of anime reboots. The visuals look their best ever, and even today, nobody does romcoms quite like my queen, Rumiko Takahashi. It's close enough to the original to make me nostalgic, while still distinct enough to feel like its own thing. Few anime reboots pull that off gracefully, yet Ranma ½ makes it look effortless. If this is a sign that this season will be anything like the previous seasons of this reboot, we're in for another set of fun episodes.

If you ever doubted how much better the animation quality has gotten in this reboot, even just between seasons 2 and 3, let this episode put those doubts to rest. Takahashi's art style has always leaned toward simplicity, which helped the first season of the reboot shine by taking a more stylistic approach, especially with its color palette. Building on that, season 3 is showing off MAPPA's chops when it comes to animating fight scenes—as though rubbing it in everyone's face that they don't need their fighters to have explosive superpowers (for the purposes of this—which is to say, compared to other MAPPA shows—I don't think Breaking Point quite counts as a superpower) to still have some absolutely electrifying fight scenes. And also, I want to highlight the absolutely superb sound design in the fight as well. Perfectly timed sound effects, and those crunchy bone noises when Ryoga started up the Breaking Point—absolute perfection —really helped push this fight the extra mile.

And that's to say nothing of the comedy. For example, within minutes of the episode, we see Ryoga become 2-dimensional after he gets hit with a boulder. There's Akane's cartoonishly disgusting food. Dare I mention the bees! All of this happens within minutes of each other. Ranma's humor has such a Looney Tunes quality, which, again, the new animation style really highlights in a way that's impossible not to love.

Of course, this all speaks to the timeless charm of Ranma. Not to say every aspect of it has aged well (it most certainly hasn't!), but it speaks volumes that more of it has aged pretty well than not. Fight scenes are tough to age poorly, so I mean this more for the humor than anything else, since humor, of course, can age like milk. But no one does things quite like Takahashi, who knows just how to balance the funny, sincere, messy, and martial arts of it all so perfectly.