Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Just perfect...

It is a performances centric movie

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

admittedly, I first picked up Ranma 1/2 when I was around twelve. I was in the library and searched desperately for something good to read. Then, I went to the Comic/Manga section and spotted this book. At my first few reads through the chapters I didn't really know what was going on, but I knew that I LOVED it. I even took it home for a few more reads over. Frankly, I wasn't getting anywhere. And then, about five months (I'm 16 now) ago my friend was watching some anime series and I remembered about this Manga. I couldn't remember what it was called, but recalled that the author was Rumiko Takahashi, creator of Inu Yasha. I Googled it, and then made a rash decision to watch all 161 episodes. At first I was a little thrown off by the 1990 graphics, but it didn't really matter in the end. No anime has ever made me laugh so hard and rewind, watch again. I once watched 45 consecutive episodes within a day. I don't know how I did it... but I couldn't stop. Eventually, after about two days, I grew obsessed. I even dreamt--as crazy as this sounds--about watching Ranma. Never have I found a series so enjoyable, so funny, and so heartwarming to watch. To this day 161 episodes are not enough to keep me satisfied. Of course the cliffhanger ending was enough to make me go bonkers, but the series alone was enough to make me continue reading. Ranma 1/2 is about a boy named Ranma Saotome and his dad Genma Saotome. INTENSE martial artists. They are so intense, that they went to the ancient training grounds in China and became 'cursed'. The grounds were full of different pools of springs, and if you land in one, you take the shape of whatever drowned there when doused in cold water. For Genma, that was a PANDA, and for Ranma that was a... girl! It's a very crafty fun loving story. On top of that, Genma promises his friend that Ranma will marry one of his daughters to keep the Tendo dojo alive. 'Course the one he gets matched up with hates his guts and the feelings mutual. Obviously they start to like one another, but both way to stubborn to admit it. But.. Genma has a history of doing this. He promised Ranma to many girls. Trust me. It's worth watching. It's humorous, heartwarming and all around amazing.

''Ranma ½" is my favorite anime by Rumiko Takahashi. The woman really knows how to entertain us with a good story, that is not only a comedy, but also an action anime. The main character of the story is Ranma Saotome, a teenager boy who is also an expert in martial arts. Ranma is engaged to Akane because of an arrangement of both fathers, who are great friends and trained together during many years. Akane is the younger and most violent sister of the Tendo's: Kasumi is the oldest and is very sweet and Nabiki is the middle and loves to win money no matter what.Ranma and Akane fight all the time,specially because both have a very bad temper, and when they discover that Ranma becomes a girl when splashed with cold water as well as his father becomes a panda,many new characters and situations starts to happen. They also discover the reason of the transformation: while fighting, Ranma and his father fell in a cursed river. But not only them had this kind of fate...If you watched ''Ranma 1/2'' and liked, I would recommend you ''Inuyasha'' and ''Maison Ikkoku", two other good creations from Rumiko's hands.

What more can I say? This show is the best anime show I've seen and is perhaps the first one to get me into that genre among others. I first laughed at the title, because it sounded ridiculous, and I was new to this, and I was just a kid. And as I watched, I laughed even more, to learn this is worthwhile and a great show, a great love comedy or martial arts show. With references to ancient China and traditions, except turned upside down to bring hilarious and chaotic results! And the character are unforgettable, Kuno Tatewake, Ryoga who is stupid but my favorite character of the show! Mousse, Cologne, Happosai, Akane and Genma, and not to mention Ranma's other suitors, Shampoo, Kodachi, Ukyo, this came before Tenchi Muyo! to those who say harem anime was copied from Tenchi! Without a doubt, this is a very funny and memorable show brought to you by Rumiko Takahashi who also made Inu Yasha, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura and Fire Tripper. Great show, recommended to all fans of the shows mentioned earlier. >>>>> 10/10

I pretty much got into manga and anime because of the first season of Ranma 1/2 (my first manga was the first appearance of Ukyo, and then a friend of mine loaned me his copies of the first season back in 1996). It's funny, clever, emotional, and well-animated. The dubbing was terrific--and after all these years, it's still the best dub I've ever seen, except for the Tenchi series (which, for some reason, I liked better than the Japanese voices)--but I just bought the DVD box set and watched the entire series in Japanese, and it's even better! I've been a big fan of Megumi Hayashibara (Girl-type Ranma, Tenchi's mother, Lina Inverse, Rei Ayanami, Momiji from Blue Seed, etc.) and I was not disappointed with her voice acting (I can't wait to hear her do the "Ranma's Declaration of Womanhood" episode). A bigger surprise for me was that the voice-actress of Nabiki also was Kiki from Majo no Takkyubin. Wonderful voices all around, but the Japanese Ryoga's voice is so strong and deep that I found it hard to believe he was as stupid as he is (interesting to note that he also plays the Jusenkyo Guide--I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen the credits!). Also, the subtitles gave some information that was important that was left out of the dub, and sometimes (such as repeatedly in the "Pelvic Fortune Telling" episode and that scene in Akane's lost love when they fight after eating hamburgers), I didn't understand what was really going on until I watched the subtitle. Still, I did find myself missing some of the Americanized jokes, especially in the episode where Akane loses her memories of Ranma and lists off a bunch of things that he must be ("That 1986 remake of King Lear directed by Akira Kurosawa" "That's Ran!" "That song by the Beach Boys!" "That's 'Help Me Ronda'"). Anyway, this is a wonderful series that doesn't have too much nudity and isn't too "kawaii" like Pokemon or Mon Colle Knights.