Ranma ½: Difference between revisions

This is the series which brought the "[[Harem]]" trope to its ridiculous extreme—thereextreme: there's a reason that the [[Love Dodecahedron]] trope exists, and this series ''is'' that reason. The core cast numbered more than a dozen persons caught up in a complex web of love, hate, duty, honor and rivalry... and all of it was played for laughs. More characters joined the madness every year, making for one of the larger ensemble casts in anime and manga. Drawn by popular ''[[Mangakamangaka]]'' [[Rumiko Takahashi]], the manga ran in the ''Shounen Sunday'' magazine from 1987 to 1996 and was later collected into thirty-eight tankoban and shinsoban volumes (which were condensed to fit into thirty-six volumes for the American version).

While the anime is considered a "classic", it suffers from several problems. It rapidly [[Overtook the Manga]] and was [[Cut Short|was canceled before it could complete the full storyline, ending three years before the manga itself concluded]]. The dearth of new material caused the show to become [[Monster of the Week|somewhat repetitious]] as the production team resorted to cookie-cutter [[Fillerfiller]] episodes that were unrelated to the original manga plot (of the final season's twenty-five episodes, only ten were based on the manga). This reflected a change in the manga itself, which had also abandoned an overarching plot in favor of smaller arcs and episodic comedy. The artistic quality of the show began to suffer noticeably early in its run (there is a visible decline in quality of animation, music and writing starting in the second season), but around the fourth or fifth season, this tendency had begun to reverse itself; the final seasons showed considerable improvement in the animation department, and the [[OVA]]s and movies are of superb quality.

Even with these problems, the ''Ranma ½'' anime was quite popular in its day: a popularity that surprisingly carried over to North America. It was one of the first major crossover hits that helped usher in the explosion of anime importation in the early-to-mid-1990s. The dub by Viz Video is thought by some to be one of the first decent efforts in the history of English anime adaptation. Cultural translation, bowdlerization and localization were all minimized, in marked contrast to its near-contemporary ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' (most likely because it was released direct-to-video rather than syndicated broadcast). It was even briefly optioned for a live action Hollywood film in the late 1990s, although nothing ever came of it. It was also fortunate to arrive in the the English language market at about the same time that the internet emerged from academia into public life and rapidly acquired one of the first online fan communities (the [[Fan Fiction]] Mailing List]] or FFML was for many years predominantly ''Ranma'' despite the name) and perhaps the very first scanlation effort in the [[Ranma Scan]]RanmaScan project.

Despite its age, ''Ranma ½'' still has a remarkably large and vigorous North American fan community and is still responsible for a significant fraction of the anime [[fanfic]]tion on the web, including a wide variety of [[Intercontinuity Crossover|crossovers]]. ''Ranma ½'' is probably one of the most crossed-over series on the internet: on fanfiction[[Fanfiction.net]] alone, it has overnearly 12,100200 crossovers listed as of 2021 (with hundreds, if not thousands, listed elsewhere, not even counting ''un''listed crossovers, either there or elsewhere). To put that into perspective: while that's one-eighth the number of crossovers that ''[[Naruto]]'' has listed, ''Naruto'' also has over ''twenty-four times'' as many stories listed as ''Ranma'' does total. One sub-type of these crossovers—the [[Fuku Fic]]—is common enough that it has its own trope entry. The series' length and fanbase has predictably resulted in copious amounts of [[Fanon]]. It was even the main inspiration for the comic series ''[[Ninja High School]]'', among many others.

On December 9, 2011, a two-hour live-action [[Ranma ½ (TV movie)|TV movie version]] aired on the Japanese network NTV. Based on an original story by Yoshihiro Izumi, it starred Kenta Kaku and Natsuna Watanabe as male and female Ranma, respectively, and Yui Aragaki as Akane, along with an [https://web.archive.org/web/2013020904254620120229121502/http://yaraon.blog109.fc2.com/blog-entry-4755.html impressive supporting cast]. The official NTV site for this live-action special is [http://www.ntv.co.jp/ranma/ here]. Unfortunately, it was disappointing and subpar in the view of most fans, Japanese and American both.

* [[Arranged Marriage]]: The driving force of the series. Three times in the original manga (the TendoTendō promise, Ukyo and Picolet Chardin), plus an extra two time in the anime, once to serve as the justification for a [[Villain of the Week]]'s [[Martial Arts and Crafts]] challenge and the second time as a gag at the end of the episode.

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Many characters have done this on whim, usually [[Played for Laughs]]. However, Shampoo, HapposaiHappōsai, Saffron, Nabiki and Herb are easily the most extreme cases.

* [[Evil Old Folks]]: HapposaiHappōsai, [[Alternate Character Interpretation|possibly Cologne]].

* [[Indecisive Parody]]: While some people consider it an action comedy series where the humor extends into the depiction of martial arts tropes, other people see it as this. Especially since it pokes fun at otherwise serious scenarios (a duel against a nigh-invulnerable opponent whose fingerpoke can explode a person to bits<ref>Or so they believe.</ref>, a teamup against a two story-tall minotaur monster, a no-holds-barred battle with a murderous ki master, a duel against a deathly-serious opponent with layers upon layers of meaning about family honor), with hilarious [[Lampshade Hanging]]s of techniques and deconstructions of the foes' motives (an "Ultimate Secret Technique" that consists of running away to think up something better, the monster is actually a [[Jerkass]] martial artist named "[[Embarrassing First Name|Pantyhose TaroTarō]]" by HapposaiHappōsai, Ranma stealing the deathly-serious opponent's clothes and leaving him in boxers, etc). And that's the "serious" fights against "serious" enemies: the comedy-oriented [[Martial Arts and Crafts]] contests fully embrace the trope, showing eating contests or martial arts cooking battles with the same [[Serious Business|exaggerated drama]] of ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' or ''[[Saint Seiya]]''.

* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Ranma and Ryōga. Ranma is a rude, obnoxious, conceited, petty, manipulative, braggart, but will generally feel sorry about being an ass and is compassionate and helpful towards most people in trouble. Ryōga gives a harsh first impression, his anger can run away with him, and he is prone to idiotic behaviour, but behaves in a more polite and considerate manner in general, is just as helpful as Ranma when confronted with people in trouble, and his compassion is as overemotional as the rest of him (typical example: when Ranma is rendered weak by HapposaiHappōsai, and needs someone to fight seriously against him, Ryōga tries to help, but finds that he is unable to consciously strike someone so much weaker than himself, and runs away crying [[Tender Tears]]... Also earlier in the same arc, it's Ryōga who saves Ranma from Tatewaki Kuno, Principal Kuno and Mousse because he couldn't bear to see anyone taking advantage of his weakness).

* [[Lovable Sex Maniac]]: HapposaiHappōsai, not so much lovable, but is a sex maniac. Kuno, on the other hand, is that and a [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl|masochist]].

** Ranma himself tends to dress up, usually in girl form, for his schemes. Akane is the only one [[Paper-Thin Disguise|to see through his disguises.]].

* [[The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body]]: Animal-curse characters can fly or run on all fours instants after being cursed. Pantyhose TaroTarō's octopus tentacles burdened him with octopus instincts. [[Yamato Nadeshiko|Rouge]] goes [[Ax Crazy]] when transforming into [[A God Am I|Asura]]. Hinako acts childish as a young girl, but cold as woman. Ranma normally acts the same whatever his form but will react in a feminine manner whenever [[Rule of Funny]] requires it.

* [[Power-Up Food]]: The legendary [[Applied Phlebotinum|Super Strength Soba]] noodles confer herculean strength to whoever eats them. After Akane mistakenly ate HapposaiHappōsai's, she was able to lift, toss, juggle and ''split in half'' multi-ton, two-stories-tall iron bells. Unfortunately, they had the side-effect of sprouting whiskers on her face until she took the antidote.

* [[Road Sign Reversal]]: Ranma and Genma travel back in time, switching the arrows pointing to Jusenkyo so their past selves will go the wrong way. HapposaiHappōsai sabotages the attempt by reversing them again. It wouldn't have worked anyway because {{spoiler|the whole thing takes place inside Ranma's dream}}.

* [[Sleeves Are for Wimps]]: Many of Ranma's Chinese outfits, and also Pantyhose TaroTarō and Ryu Kumon's entire look. Ranma readily wears heavy sleeved outfits when the weather is cold: he rolls them up often for fights (which happen often).

* [[The Unwanted Harem]]:

** The former [[Trope Namer]], both played straight and [[Deconstructed Trope]]: Ranma's status as a chick magnet gives the [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]] a fairly debilitating guilt trip. But though he's not enough of a cad to abuse the situation, it also soothes his [[Testosterone Poisoning|manly]] [[Pride]]... badly battered by his [[Attractive Bent Gender]] curse. And though all the girls involved adore him, they're also rather exasperated by his [[Cannot Spit It Out|wishy-washy]] attitude. It should be no surprise that the end-of-series {{spoiler|attempted marriage}} ended in a {{spoiler|[[Blast Out]]}}.

** Somewhat subverted during the Reversal Jewel arc when Shampoo, under the jewel's effect, attempts to leave the harem, Ranma rather insistently runs after her to get it back, at first because of her abrupt change of temperament, thanthen due to his ego rather than true feelings. Lampshaded by Cologne when she notes that he got so used to Shampoo chasing him, he ''had'' to find out why she stopped.

* [[Vanity Is Feminine]]: Ranma takes insults to his female form's attractiveness ''much'' harder than he does to his male counterpart. One specific installment had Ranma insult Akane on her looks, which naturally put her into a temper. Kasumi confronted him afterward and said he had to apologize, because even if she was tomboyish, "...she's still a girl.".

** HapposaiHappōsai and Cologne. Their old age makes them physically weak, but their (hundreds of) years of training and researching martial arts makes them nigh unstoppable.

[[Category:ShōnenShonen mangaDemographic]]