Ranma 1/2 ##
らんま1/2

YEARS ago when I lived in Japan, I was formally introduced to Japanese animation due to a nutty title called Ranma 1/2. I received a culture shock due to the casual, animated nudity shown in the late afternoon on broadcast TV. That, combines with the wacky premise with a panda, it made for a very memorable series. As such, there was no way I would miss out on a modern remake.

Spoiler Summary/Synopsis

A panda and a red haired teenage girl battle in the streets of Nerima, Tokyo. The panda eventually defeats the girl and takes off with her. Elsewhere, TENDO Soun gets a postcard from his old friend SAOTOME Genma. Soun shows the card to two of his teenage daughters, Kasumi (19), Nabiki (17), and the strong, martial artist Akane (16). He informs his daughters that one of them will marry Genma’s son, Ranma.

There’s a commotion at the door when the panda and girl show up. The girl introduces herself as Ranma. While Soun recovers from the shock, Akane takes Ranma to her family dojo. There, she discovers Ranma is superior to her in martial arts. However, since Ranma is a girl, Akane is okay with it. Kasumi makes Ranma take a bath, where the hot water changes him into a teen boy.

Meanwhile, the panda already took a bath and changed into Genma. As Genma and Soun discuss the situation, Akane walks in on male Ranma and negatively reacts. Eventually, Ranma and Genma are able to prove they have a curse from Chinese onsens they trained at. It is decided that Ranma will marry Akane to preserve the dojo, something neither relishes the thought of.

Female Ranma attempts to take a bath, only to discover Akane there. She slaps Ranma and both seethe at their betrothal.

Thoughts/Review

Well, Ranma 1/2 01 marks another return to a Takahashi-sensei franchise. And yeah, good or ill (and there’s some of that already), I’m in it for the long haul.

Humorous Start

Takahashi-sensei has no trouble starting an interesting, and in this case wacky, story. As such, Ranma 1/2 01 gets things off with an interesting premise. Even though I’ve watched all of the OG anime episodes and such, I still laughed at the absurdity of a giant panda battling a teenage girl in the streets of Nerima.

I also laughed at Akane’s reaction to seeing the naked, male Ranma. The calm, collective response that gives way to a scream just cracks me up every time. Then the way Akane just goes overboard adds to the humor for me.

Beyond the humor, the setup for the story is done well. We are introduced to all of the major characters and understand their roles in the series. However, knowing what I know, I fear that much like Urusei Yatsura, I’ll become weary of the remake before it ends. Takahashi-sensei is notorious for not letting characters grow, instead choosing to introduce an endless array of new characters.

Returning Seiyuu

One of the lovely things about Ranma 1/2 01 is the return of most of the Japanese seiyuu. (If you are an English dub person, you get an entirely new cast.) Right out of the gate, HAYASHIBARA Megumi knocks it out of the park as female Ranma. It is great hearing her voice a character in anime again. She’s done so many iconic characters in her career.

Likewise, hearing  INOUE Kikuko as Kasumi really took me back. Much like Megumi-san, Kikuko-san just took me back to my early days of anime fandom. She too has voiced so many iconic characters.

That said, the other returning seiyuu haven’t missed a beat either. It is great hearing all of them sounding pretty good. YAMAGUSHI Kappei’s voice isn’t quite what it was, but he’s still able to do the job.

Sadly, OGATA Kenichi didn’t return to voice Genma, though he is the narrator voice at the beginning of the episode. It is going to take some time for me to get used to Chou’s performance as Genma.

Netflix Adaptation Rubbish

And now we come to the rubbish aspect of Ranma 1/2 01 — the terrible subtitles. Had it just been the lack of Japanese honorifics, I would have bitched, rolled my eyes, and moved on. Unfortunately, this “localization” seems to have been done by someone (or someones) who on one hand, want to rewrite stuff to jazz it up.

On the other hand, they don’t seem to have a good grasp of English. Some of the subtitle sentences are stilted and rough. When you have rubbish for subtitles, it really reduces the enjoyment level of the product. LinkAsobi had AI translate the episode, just to see how it would do vs. a real person. Shockingly, the AI not only created a more readable script, it was more faithful.

No wonder translators are panicking over AI taking over their jobs. In another couple of years, AI will produce accurate but readable subtitles without some “localizer” injecting either their politics, topical humor, or other stupidity in the name of “making it better”.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Ranma 1/2 01 with some final thoughts.

• This is another title set in the 80s, but it often doesn’t feel very 80s, even if there’s a boob-tube in the corner.
• As I’ve mention, the original TV series had a lot of nudity in it, which originated from the source manga. Ranma in female form tends to forget about modesty, thus will walk around without a shirt. The modern adaptation decided to remove the nipples from female Ranma. Further, they removed female Ranma’s butt crack. 😅
• I gotta say, the music for this modern adaptation isn’t jazzing me. Jajauma ni Sasenaide by Etsuko Nishio was so iconic. When I first heard the song, it stuck in my head. Indeed, this was one of the first anime songs I purchased back in the day. Listen for yourself.

In the end, Ranma 1/2 01 amused and entertained, even if Netflix subtitles were absolute rubbish that is an insult to rubbish.