Episode 16 – Ranma ½

yes Ranma ½ Is it true that there is no “Meet Ranma Saotome” episode when you come back? The episode opens with Akane strolling through a museum, admiring paintings by actors based on famous works of art: Akane in a gi as the Mona Lisa, Ranma looking back like “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” and finally, Ranma as a girl curled up on her belly with cat shampoo in an “Ophelia” pose. Given the conservative nature of the adaptation’s choices outside of Ichiro’s ever-present color commentary, these opening sequences feel like the crew’s greatest opportunity for creativity.

I can’t even get mad this week because seeing this arc animated feels like such a long time ago. Please allow me to explain.

At this point in the story, the original 1980s adaptation has been canceled and replaced with Ranma ½: ​​Hot Peach Chapterthe animation quality and action direction dropped significantly. exist Rumiko TakahashiIn the original manga, the Cat Cafe moves to the beach to escape the heat, and the joint Tendo-Saotome family follows suit, searching for the Phoenix Maru so that Ranma can endure enough hot water to return to his male form.

However, water is difficult to activate well. Fluid dynamics are tricky, and the arc’s climactic battle takes place mostly on and in the ocean. Instead, the staff of the original animation moved the scene to a ski resort and transformed the martial arts watermelon competition into a snowboard-moving snowman competition. Not that the animation team was really up to the challenge, but as a solid form of water, at least snow tends to stay in one place as expected. While I usually encourage anime to deviate wisely from the original manga, the mountain background felt like a step up. Imagine if I was the type of person who got excited about changing from a swimsuit to a down jacket!

Everyone heads to the beach, where Ichiro announces a watermelon-splitting contest with a tempting first prize: a kiss from the shampoo! While Ranma originally planned to avoid the competition, Cologne (who I realized while watching she hadn’t actually been named in the show yet, oops) let him know that she was packed with Phoenix Maru. Of course, Ranma joins in, easily defeating the competition until Akane joins the fight, and she’s not exactly looking for a kiss either. Although Akane is technically one of the smartest members of the cast, jealousy tends to drive Akane out of her mind. But even Soun in a pink sunflower vest trying to make Ranma choose between the two couldn’t distract him from his goal; nothing focuses Ranma like gender dysphoria. Just when he seemed to have succeeded, Cologne blocked him like the final boss.

I’m a little disappointed with this episode so far. Of course, I had a great time – speaking of Ranma ½I rarely don’t enjoy it, at least a little. However, the animation for the watermelon race is a bit lackluster. Like the last episode, it relies too much on still frames and other shortcuts. They avoided high-impact cuts, such as sticks beating watermelons, which deprived the game scenes of their metaphorical punch.

But then Ranma and Cologne moved to the water, and it became clear to me that this was the moment they’d been saving all their juice.

Cologne pretends to be cornered, but she saves the day when Ranma agrees to marry Shampoo if she wins. She drags him into the ocean, where she’s just as powerful as she is on land, attacking him with her aura, waterspouts, water shark-shaped attacks, and finally an actual shark. Ranma probably made it through the fight through sheer force of will until Akane jumped into the water to try and help because I guess she forgot she couldn’t swim? Akane’s intelligence seems to come and go depending on the needs of the current plot. The water animation for this sequence is gorgeous, full of bright blues and reflections. If you don’t remember half of it like me (this was in the first part) Ranma ½ I once owned a comic book that I read over and over again) and seeing the fight unfold was absolutely exciting because of how fast-paced and quick the reveals were.

Back on land, Shampoo tries to convince Ranma to give up because he can’t defeat her great-grandmother, when he gets a great idea: with her help, he can unlock his ultimate technique. After he jumps into the water with her on his back and runs around screaming like a little girl, Akane shoves cat shampoo in his face, eventually causing him to unleash his cat fist, quickly dispatching Cologne’s fellow sharks. In the end, the old woman gave up and gave up on the pill, allowing Ranma to regain his manhood.

This arc brings new characters and ideas, but it also marks the first time in the series that Ranma has to Work for something. Ranma was a talented martial artist; after all, it was pretty much the only thing he had ever done since a very young age, when other kids his age were busy living out their childhoods. Yes, he’s arrogant, but as we’ve seen, that arrogance is well-deserved. Even when he had to learn new techniques, such as rhythmic gymnastics and skating, he was mostly learning to work About This way he can utilize his basic skills.

However, this does not apply to Cologne. She is cunning and ancient, a pure martial artist like Ranma but with decades of training and experience. Ranma not only had to learn how to swing an instrument, or kick like usual, but this time with a knife strapped to his body; he had to dig into something more basic to get to the point where he could use the cat punch technique. Even now, Colon isn’t as defeated as she admits. Roasting chestnuts over an open fire changed the way he fought, making him faster and more agile than before, something that would continue to influence how he fought throughout the series.

If the anime continues to follow the manga, then the Ryoga arc should be next. I’m looking forward to seeing our favorite wet cat…er, pig.

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Caitlin Moore has been a fan of “Ranma 1/2” since two episodes were available on VHS for $30. She also Anime Feminist and posted pictures of her cat on her blue sky.

Ranma ½ Currently live broadcast
Netflix.