Ranma ½

Ranma Saotome is a top-class martial artist and prodigy at the Saotome "Anything-Goes" school of martial arts. While training in China, he and his father meet a terrible fate when they accidentally fall into a cursed spring. Now, Ranma is cursed to turn into a girl when splashed with cold water, and only hot water can turn him back into a boy.

Things are only complicated further when Ranma discovers that his father has arranged for him to marry one of Soun Tendo's three daughters in order to secure the future of the Tendo dojo. Though Soun learns of Ranma's predicament, he is still determined to go ahead with the engagement, and chooses his youngest daughter Akane, who happens to be a skilled martial artist herself and is notorious for hating men.

Ranma ½ follows the hilarious adventures of Ranma and Akane as they encounter various opponents, meet new love interests, and find different ways to make each other angry, all while their engagement hangs over their head.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Saotome, Ranma Main

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Tendou, Akane Main

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

Hibiki, Ryouga Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Shampoo Supporting

Sakuma, Rei Japanese

Kuonji, Ukyo Supporting

Tsuru, Hiromi Japanese

Tendou, Nabiki Supporting

Takayama, Minami Japanese

Happosai Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Saotome, Genma Supporting

Ogata, Kenichi Japanese

Kunou, Tatewaki Supporting

Suzuoki, Hirotaka Japanese

Tendou, Kasumi Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Mochizuki, Tomomi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Nishimura, Junji Director, Storyboard

Shibayama, Tsutomu Director

Sawai, Kouji Director, Script

Reviews

Sep 8, 2024

DrMechano

Recommended

Ranma 1/2 is recognized as an anime classic, and for good reason. It's got fun action, likable characters, and humor that still holds up decades later.

Importantly, Ranma is (aside from the occasional callback or new character) a mostly episodic series. There's definitely a loose overarching plot, but I feel Ranma can best be described as an "action sitcom," with most plots being self-contained little stories. This isn't a criticism; I think that Ranma works so well as a funny show to just put on and relax with.

I do think the main "romance" (if you want to call it that) between Ranma and Akane is a ... little weak. They don't get along all that well and it's hard to buy any real chemistry between the two. However, it's not a huge focus most of the time, and I think the series is still really enjoyable despite this.

If you want a wacky comedy with some cool martial arts fights thrown in for good measure, Ranma 1/2 is a great choice.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 12, 2024

Suwanaide

Mixed Feelings

There's a lot of funny and outlandish stuff in this series, even after all these years. I binged the entire run in less than a month. And there's a lot of endearing stuff as well, like I really started to care about quite a few of the characters. But man, there's a couple of characters that basically ruin every episode they're in, and kill every scene (looking at you, Happy). And character development takes for-e-ver. It's very frustrating in that sense. That said... once the opening theme starts, it's like being a time capsule, and you kinda can't help getting ... a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Nov 25, 2020

SNEAUXDAY

Not Recommended

Preliminary (11/161 eps)

Where to begin.

Growing up i loved inuyasha, and credit it as one of the shows that got me started on anime. i decided to try out ranma as it was written by the same author, and i was MASSIVELY dissapointed. in fact, it made me like inuyasha less.

ill keep this short and sweet.

The art is fine- for its time they did a good job and some of the scenes were animated very well and the art overall is decent. DECENT, not amazing. im going to ignore the constant 360p nip slips that occur throughout the series, because fan service has existed in so many ... different anime at this point i dont even think its worth criticizing, its just a byproduct of the average degenerate who consumes the medium.

the story is absolute garbage. a *wacky* premise i can forgive, but the endless misunderstandings and frustrating garbage writing i cant. falls under typical anime trope of "its not what it seems!" but does more to frustrate the viewer than offer any humorous response. without spoiling anything (whats to spoil, the show is as predictable as adding bleach to ammonia), there is just a series of minor character progressions that amount to nothing. if you want THE most stereotypical plotlines (i say plotlines because they are just a series of disjointed mini-arcs) maybe this show if for you.

the sound is meh. its 1989 though, so ill give it a break. the opening is catchy but thats about it.

the characters are all absurd, but in furiously disgruntling ways. copy paste ranma as inuyasha, copy paste akane as kagome, and copy paste ryoga as kouga- it seems she didnt vary her bland character design one bit and it shows. while the show is supposed to be a comedy, it ends up being a slapstick back and forth between 2 dimensional characters. every single one has a bad and a good side, and thats it. black and white. no depth, just 2 sides to a coin, and whichever one serves the plot best is what appears. i guess you could say the characters are all consistent, but consistently bad isnt something to write home about. Ranma isnt the only anime to have these trends, but it definitely relies on them heavily and it shows. typical MAL trends rate everything highly because its impossible for the average anime fan to even understand let alone enjoy good writing because most of them are stuck in their teens long after they should have grown into adults. if you find the characters relatable, congratulations- you have the mind of a 5th grader. the characters are the strongest part of the show, and they suck, plain and simple. the Dad in panda mode is the most redeeming, but hes just a gag at the end of the day.

i didnt enjoy this series. a few moments made me chuckle at best, but beyond that i kept waiting for it to "get good". spoiler: it just got worse. it actually made me like her other works LESS. its that bad.

feel free to disagree, but i ask you this: would you ever recommend this to someone who WASNT an anime nerd? if not, then dont dare rate it above a 5. i acknowledge its age and its intended audience, but im not going to rate the teletubbies higher because its intended for children under the age of 3. its still garbage if analyzed like the media its supposed to be.

contrary to what ive heard, if you have taste, DONT watch this. or if you do, acknowledge that its a guilty pleasure and nothing special by any means. Its not even "So-bad-its-good", its just poorly done in so many regards. typical MAL inflated rating will give this around a 7.5- and it should be a warning not to trust the masses of socially inept "otakus" who rate everything above a 7 because its apparent that with the level of education they have, they havent learned how numbers work yet.

dont waste your time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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