Ranma 1/2 Review by Amber Novak

One thing anime is missing a lot of these days is an anime that can combine both comedy and romance perfectly. Usually, the tone is either all romance and will-they-wont-they, or focused on being as flashy and have as many antics as possible without romance being top of mind. But this is where Ranma excels. It perfectly is able to blend the two and is a true rom-com anime that anyone can enjoy.

And not only that, Ranma also will genuinely make you laugh, cry, and care about its characters. Even though it’s a remake, originally releasing in the 90s, anyone can enjoy it with no previous watch time. It is a true remake, and it is able to retain that beautiful 90s art style while also becoming an updated, fresher, and more modern version for new audiences to enjoy.

Our story starts out with Rama, a boy who, after engaging in a fight above a magical spring, now can be turned into a girl if he comes in contact with any form of water. This creates a lot of hairy situations that are turned quite comedic, especially because he is already engaged to be married! Yes, in high school! To a badass character named Akane. Akane is spunky, independent, and different from her more demure older sister. Which drives Akane a little crazy as she has a huge crush on the doctor in their town who only has eyes for her older sister. But as we see the anime progress, we see Akane really grow into herself and accept her traits more, which I love. And one of the reasons for this is the tension she has with Ranma.

With Ranma, she can be herself and it doesn’t scare him away. He acts frustrated sometimes, but he consistently always wants to be in Akane’s presence. This push-and-pull dynamic is one of the greatest things about Ranma and makes it both a rom-com and true enemies to lovers anime as well. Akane acts annoyed at Ranma, but you see the affection from her build slowly episode by episode, which makes it a really satisfying watch. She slowly warms to him, and he slowly learns to become more flexible with her as well.

Not only are the main characters extremely entertaining, but every single side character is fascinating too, and funny! Theres P-Chan, a pig who is always following Akane around, but wait he’s actually a boy who was also thrown into a spring? There’s Shampoo, who is kind of in love with Ranma, and wants to get engaged to him, but just boy Ranma. Girl ranma? No thank you, she must be dealt with a swift and painless death. These silly juxtapositions go into what makes Ranma great. It’s humor is absurd, and every single character is memorable.

Ranma is also one of those shows where every single episode will keep you coming back for more, and is very binge-worthy. Both the sub and dub VAs are excellent. The voice acting just adds to the whole experience of the anime along with the animation. You may be wondering, there must be something wrong with it? But genuinely, Ranma really is that good of an anime that there isn’t much, if anything to critique about it. The most that can be said is that there is some fan-service scenes, but the way the anime frames it is very tasteful and doesn’t come across like that’s what it’s trying to do, but is more a plot device for the story.

Ranma is vey unique as an anime releasing today. It retains that 90s style sense of humor where people randomly jump off buildings, have unexplainable powers, and may or may not show back up the next episode.

You may be wondering, does it ever get old to see Ranma and Akane not get together? We are up to season 2 after all, and while we can tell they like each other, it’s still very back and forth and very Love is War esque. And to be honest, no, it’s done so well that the tension is always enjoyable. It’s the kind of couple you could watch in real life because you just see that spark they have that sometimes they don’t always notice themselves, but it’s so noticeable to everyone else in the room. Sometimes they do get into the misunderstanding trope, but it never feels old, annoying, stagnant, or tedious. It’s ever-changing and creative enough that it never gets boring. You can see how Ranma ½ inspired future rom-com animes, but you can also tell in many ways it invented the wheel itself.

And that’s the thing that makes Ranma special. The characters feel real. The chemistry feels real. Even when people are being turned into pandas, more people haven’t heard about these magical springs and fall into them after Ranma, or Shampoo’s elderly grandma is riding on the back of the shark, there is a charm and realism to who these people actually are that makes you care, and makes the hijinx fun entertaining pieces.

If you’re a fan of anime from this time period, mind games mixed with romantic comedy like that of Maid Sama, Love is War, or Ouran High School Host Club, you have to check this out! You will thoroughly enjoy this anime. The only people I can’t see enjoying this are just if you absolutely hate the absurd, laughing, or jokes.

As an anime-only and first time watcher myself, and having not seen the remake, I look forward to seeing if and when Akane and Ranma get together, and I hope it’s soon! It makes me want to see Inuyasha, and Urusei Yatsura’s remake. And if you’re a fan of these, you will probably also love Ranma ½, because it’s written by the same mangaka, and from what I hear she always does absurd concepts and romantic comedies to an excellent level.

Ranma ½ can be found on Netflix and is currently releasing weekly. I never miss an episode, and I recommend you don’t either!