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Title (English) Ranma 1/2
Title (Japanese) Ranma nibbonouchi
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book cover

Fantasy Novel

Notes Dates: April 15, 1989-September 16, 1989; Number of episodes: 18, and: October 20, 1989-September 25, 1992; Number of episodes: 143;
from a manga by Rumiko Takahashi. Also 2 movies, 2 series OVAs

Classification -
Synopsis Ranma goes on a martial arts training trip with his dad, but they fall into a magical pond, with the result that every time Ranma gets wet he turns into a girl. And Dad turns into a panda. Dad tries to marry Ranma off to a girl (Akane) whose father runs a martial arts dojo.
Review The first six or seven episodes are very good, but without an ongoing plot it soon starts to falter.
Takahashi did not like the initial adaptation, and it was re-launched after 18 episodes.
At least in the early episodes, there is, along with some incidental nudity, some good characterisation, as the three Tendou daughters are revealed to have quite different personalities. The fathers intend to have Ranma engaged to marry the youngest daughter, the stroppy and violent Akane, but as Ranma makes the mistake of revealing that even as a girl he can fight better and has a fuller figure, their relationship is doomed to be stormy. There are some good scenes in the first few episodes where the characters interact in various moods. Later, more characters are added to maintain interest in the absence of any ongoing plot. Some characters share Ranma's unfortunate fate of turning into something else when wet. Other characters are sexually attracted to one of the Ranmas but usually don't know there are two of them! While is is often very funny, the constant re-use of variations of the same jokes becomes a little wearisome.
It's still good, as a recent outing on German TV indicates, but now overshadowed by newer series, and one has to ask how much of it one really needs to watch.
Ranma TV #142 & 143 include the episodes in which Ranma meets his mother, but remains in his female form because his father is afraid to reveal himself because of an unwise promise he made years earlier. Good fun, but it seems nothing much has changed in the Tendo household.
Credits 1st series:
Voice Actors (regular characters): Kappei Yamaguchi (Ranma Saotome), Megumi Hayashibara (Ranma Saotome), Noriko Hidaka (Akane Tendou), Inoue Kikuko (Kasumi Tendou), Minami Takayama (Nabiki Tendou), Kenichi Ogata (Genma Saotome), Ryunosuke Ohbayashi (Soun Tendou), Hirotaka Suzoki (Kuno Tatewaki), Saeko Shimazu (Kodachi Kuno), Kouichi Yamadera (Ryouga Hibiki), Yuuji Mitsuya (Dr. Tofu Ono)
Genre(s): fantasy, comedy, martial arts, high school
Episodes 161
Release US:DVD, US:VHS, Fra:TV, Ger:TV
TV Showing See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.
Date 1989
Production Kitty Films
Broadcaster Fuji TV
Animation
References & Help Look up the latest data on this title at:
Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or
Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) ,
or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001).
Help & further information.

 

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