7/365: Ranma 1/2

Ranma will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the first manga I ever read. I wore that book out until the binding came unglued and the pages fell out.

I loved it. It was hilariously funny and a little big naughty and full of ridiculous characters in even more ridiculous situations.

It was great fun to read.

And it was actually a few years after reading that first manga volume that I found out it was an anime series as well. I spent forever hunting down a VHS with the first two episodes on it. The print was fuzzy, the subtitles were off, and the sound sucked, but I loved that too.

I meant to revisit it over the years as I moved on to newer shows, but somehow never got back to watching more of it. Seeing it now I'm reminded of why I loved the Ranma concept so much. It is also made obvious just how far anime has come from the days when Ranma was first released (1989 or therabouts).

While the art between the book and the show isn't as different as, say, that found between the Sailor Moon manga and anime series (beautiful manga art style, not quite as beautiful animation art style), there are still some very noticeable differences. The character heads are a little too large, a little too cartoonish, and a little too prone to changing between scenes. Overall everything is a bit more cartoonish than what was found in the manga, but it isn't horrible to look at and after a while I stopped noticing.

The story, in case you were wondering (and why wouldn't you be?) revolves around a 16 year old boy named Ranma who fell into a cursed spring while doing martial arts training and now turns into a girl every time he's splashed with cold water. His father has been similarly cursed to turn into a panda. While the boy wants nothing more to return to the scene of the crime to get his curse reversed, he instead has to deal with a sudden engagement to a girl who hates boys, constant duel requests from a boy who gets lost standing in place, and a whole slew of enemies and admirers constantly out to get him (many of whom are also cursed to turn into different things when they get wet).

As the series progresses it gets more and more ridiculous - with anything-goes gymnastics tournaments, pervy martial arts masters who steal underpants, and romantic rivals that refuse to take "no" as an answer - just a few of the things that pop up.

Even after all of these years (at least 15 I'm thinking) I still love Ranma. It is nice to see that hasn't changed even with all of the manga and anime that has come after I was introduced to it.