Ranma ½

Episodes 13-15

You know, it's nice having Cologne here. She's not my favorite character by a long shot – that honor goes to Ukyo Kuonji, who is in the opening but by my estimation probably won't show up until close to the end of the season. Still, a wily old crone like her fills a gap in a cast of characters that, on average, have the thinking power of a nematode. Thus far, Nabiki is the only other character with two brain cells to rub together, but she's only interested in what's happening around her when she can make a profit off it. Cologne, who is actively antagonistic to Ranma and his relationship with Akane, has the age and experience to make her a threat.

Speaking of Nabiki, I'm surprised she wasn't around in the season's first episode – finding and selling information about Ranma's weakness would have been an excellent business opportunity. The episode follows Hikaru Gosunkugi, a minor rival for Akane's affections, who lacks the combat prowess of his peers, preferring to sneak, skulk, and hammer fruitlessly at voodoo dolls. He and Kuno strike up an agreement to find Ranma's weakness to remove him from the picture.

It's not the most exciting of episodes – there's a reason Gosunkugi never joined the cast of regulars – but it is load-bearing. Gosunkugi throws basic phobias after basic phobias at Ranma, who remains unfazed by the various creepy crawlies. It turns out that while he doesn't fear the dark or snakes, what he is scared of… is cats. Not feral or unpredictable ones, but any cute little harmless kitty like the one sitting in my lap right now. The fear stems from when he was a small child, his father tried to teach him “cat-fu” by covering him in delicious poultry and fish and throwing him into a pit of cats.

I try not to think about how much of what Genma inflicted on Ranma qualifies as child abuse. I recommend you do the same.

But just when Gosunkugi and Kuno think they have the upper hand, it becomes clear that while cat scratch hell has left Ranma with a crippling phobia of felines, the training was, in fact, effective. Once he loses his mind with pants-pissing terror, his mind becomes that of a cat, allowing him to commit superhuman feats like shredding Kuno's bokken. Robbed of his inhibitions, he snuggles himself into Akane's lap and kisses her on the cheek before coming back to himself. Ranma's cat-fu doesn't come up often, but his fear becomes an important element in his relationship with Shampoo.

Yes, Shampoo. She's back from China with a new understanding of how Ranma's curse functions. Like pretty much everyone else in the show, she's not the brightest bulb, so how did she figure it out herself? Well, she's got a brand-new curse of her own, having fallen into the Spring of the Drowned Cat at Jusenkyo. As far as she's concerned, her engagement to Ranma is still valid, and her great-grandmother Cologne agrees. Mousse, a nearsighted boy from her hometown who fights using hidden weapons, begs to differ and challenges Ranma to a fight, but when Shampoo roundly rejects him again, he declares that Akane will be the prize in their fight. Ranma is sure he has this in the bag, but Cologne jabs him in a pressure point that makes his body hypersensitive to heat, making it so transforming back into his male form is unbearably painful. The only remedy is the Phoenix Pill, which Ranma must take from her himself.

Besides the introduction of two new characters, this arc also represents an important shift in dynamics for the cast, in that the whole school now knows about Ranma's curse. They don't think he's a freak or a weirdo for it – in fact, they think it's really cool that their bud can turn into a hot girl! They might even like him better this way, because his casual attitude toward nudity means they might get a glimpse of his incredible rack. After the first few episodes of the series, when he worked so hard to keep his secret, this is almost comically anticlimactic. Most likely, Ranma keeping it a secret became inconvenient, so this was a way to just move past it.

These episodes are chock-full of stylistic flourishes; the passage of time is communicated as pages flipping by, a key moment of comeuppance is rendered as manga panels, Cologne emerges from the darkness like a ghost, and so on. Moments like this are fun and add some visual interest, but I found these episodes to be lacking where Ranma ½ should really be packing the most punch: the fights.

Other than a few fun shots, such as a point-of-view of Mousse plummeting into a cloud of steam to find male Ranma waiting for him, the direction and storyboarding in the action sequences lack the weight necessary for them to really work. Instead, the animation team relies on noticeable shortcuts, such as mostly-still or repetitive shots against a background of speed lines, cutting away at the moment of impact, and other techniques that give the impression of movement when very little actual animation is happening.

On the bright side, the dub cast continues to be strong. While I'll always miss the old dub voices, I can't complain too much when Cologne is voiced by voice acting legend Barbara Goodson, who has dozens of credits to her name but is probably best known (at least among my cohort of fans) as the voice of Rita Repulsa in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and Naota in FLCL. She's excellent as the tricky old woman, mocking and sly. While I have a hard time hearing someone other than Brad Swaile as Mousse, I can tell SungWon Cho knows the character well as an old-school fan himself and is having a great time playing him.

I really hope the animation team can pick things up with the action, because that's been this version of Ranma ½'s greatest advantage over the story's previous incarnations. I'll continue having a good time watching it regardless, but it's held back by its devotion to sticking to the manga and pacing issues.

Episode 13 Rating:
Episode 14 Rating:
Episode 15 Rating:

Caitlin Moore has been a fan of anime since a VHS of Ranma 1/2 cost $30 for two episodes. 

Ranma ½ is currently streaming on Netflix.