Review of Ranma ½

Overview : Seen as the original innovator that would come to influence the modern harem genre, Ranma 1/2 is a very simple and non-episodic slice-of-life comedy that has an overarching theme of ‘martial arts’. To address the elephant in the room, this anime has many cliches and tropes that have become the norm in modern anime, however it is something that is easily forgivable considering the time of its initial airing. Plot / Characters : In each episode our protagonist Ranma Saotome usually gets involved in a situation involving martial arts battles or involving a way to reverse his curse that makes him a genderbentfemale upon contact with water.

True to its SoL genre, the show doesn’t take itself too seriously and rather the battles can range from typical shonen fights to more bizarre battles such as ice skating or fine dining contests.

Because of its non-episodic nature, very little progression occurs or even carries over as the series progresses.
Furthermore there is little character development and many characters remain unchanged as walking tropes from the episodes they were introduced in.
This isn’t to say there isn’t any character development however. What you will notice is that the progression of relationships between the main cast and Ranma, aside from some loud mouths is something subtle and never directly spelled out.

This ties into the romance aspect as this is after all a harem anime. I won’t spoil too much but Ranma’s harem consists of 3 finances who he has each agreements to marry with.
Although Ranma himself doesn’t explicitly show romantic interest most of the time, on the contrary most of the romance moments in the show are conveyed by his fiancé’s.

In particular the main girl Akane Tendo is a literal tsundere and constantly bickers with Ranma in the earlier episodes. Gradually however she opens up to Ranma and although they still fight, it is usually because she cares about him.

Generally I’d say that the anime itself does contain its share of wholesome moments but at the same time it is not so easily rewarded and it is largely up to the viewer to interpret certain visual and dialogue cues as emotional development.

Animation / Art :

The hand drawn animation is very pleasant to look at and generally remains consistent throughout the whole series.

During some fight scenes there are certainly moments where it can get a little choppy, but the choreography itself isn’t something too sophisticated and therefore it simply gets the job done most of the time.

Likewise the art style has aged like fine wine and you can really appreciate the late 80’s to early 90’s aesthetics such as the way hair and eyes are designed.

You will notice that in the later episodes, the way faces are drawn do change but this is something extremely subtle and you will probably not notice it during your initial viewing.

Sound :

Personally aside from the first opening nothing was really that special and I found myself skipping it most of the time. That isn’t to say the OST’s are bad by any means as some of them were absolute bangers.

Primarily produced by Kenji Kawai, I found the BGM used for fights to be nothing too amazing but where the soundtrack really shines is in its tracks dedicated to SoL and emotional moments.

To name a few some of my favourites are;
•Just so long as you realise
•Okay is not the word
•Happy, Shining, Morning
•Akane’s Daydream

My only complaint is that the track usage is sometimes disproportionate, and you usually hear some songs more often than others. For example the track “Okay is not the word” only gets used like 4 times in the entire show.
Aside from this minor nitpick, although some tracks are mediocre and get used way to often, for the most part the soundtrack is good and helps accent the laid back SoL nature of this show.

As for the voice acting they absolutely nailed casting the right voices for the right characters. For an anime made in the late 1980’s I went in expecting awkward and out of place voices as seen in for example ‘Urusei Yatsura’. To my surprise I was actually quite pleased with just how professional and talented the voices were compared to the amateurish voice acting that was normal in the 1980s. Funnily enough I didn’t expect to see Takehito Koyasu (Dio’s va) playing a high pitched perverted grandpa character, so seeing that gave me a laugh.
Overall I have no complaints about the voice acting and it definitely is one of Ranma 1/2’s consistently great points.

Criticisms :

For the most part I think the anime delivered interesting and funny comedic oriented episodes but unfortunately there were some which made me want to skip to the next.
Personally I believe that the decline started to occur around episode 124, but this isn’t to say that there aren’t any good episodes past that as I really liked episodes 128-129, 150 and 154-155, but rather it did feel that they got rarer to some degree.

Adding on to the that, I found that quality of directing itself had gotten blander overtime compared to the charm it had in earlier episodes.
For example, if I hear the track “Just So Long As You Realise”, I instantly think of the first 30 seconds after the title card in episode 3, with the slow panning shots over a very warm and tranquil scenery of the school.
Of course there are plenty more examples which come to mind but to return to the point, whether through shot composition or use of audio, it does feel like a lot of the aesthetic and iconic scenes had become limited as the series progressed.

My final criticism I have is that unfortunately the anime ends abruptly and never gives you the satisfying final conclusion at the end of the 161 episodes. There are OVA’s to fill that void afterwards but it should be noted that they are either missing chapters from the manga animated or completely original content.

Verdict :

Having watched Ranma 1/2 in 2021 and it being one of my first Rumiko Takahashi works,
I can safely attest that my review is not clouded in nostalgia.
Overall the anime is relatively good for the most parts and just as the series has its ‘high’ peaks in terms of episodes, it also has its fair share of ‘lows’.

I understand that it’s episode length may be an intimidating factor, however because of its non-episodic format it makes it friendly for the viewer to gradually watch episodes over long periods of time yet not feel lost.

Although I criticised a lot about this anime in my review, at the end of the day I did get genuine enjoyment out of it and it easily sits within my list of favourite animes despite its obvious flaws.

I definitely recommend this anime for those who like a good SoL shonen with a simple premise that is laid back and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

I give Ranma 1/2 a
9 out of 10

tldr; Good laidback and fun SoL martial arts anime. Kind of like a SoL Shenmue mixed with Nisekoi and genderbending.