Watching Ranma 1/2

[Arizona]

Although I'll be talking about Sogna/Viper related stuff here as needed, the way I'm addressing the show is in a general enough sense that it probably wouldn't be appropriate for the research forum, although I'll leave that up to the mods.

So yeah, I'm watching Ranma 1/2, and one of the things I'm doing is watching the credits for Sogna/Silence staff - unfortunately, I'm not Ben Ettinger, and can't really pick out particular people's animation styles just from watching it. Nor do I have the reference or literary skill necessary for thorough credits searching: I'm just going off of the regular old end of episode listings. Thing is, these tend not to be complete anyway and for this show in particular seem to be "general" credits rather than real episode-by-episode credits - they only  change here and there, mainly where there's a new ending sequence (whether it's like this in the original or because of how it's done in Viz's English release, I'm not sure).

Anyway, aside from the obvious Atsuko Nakajima, so far I've seen Atsuko Ishida (animation director/key animation), Shinya Takahashi (key), and Hiroko Kazui (AniD/key - although I never did figured what they did at Silence/Sogna). Also, Yuji Moriyama did the second opening animation, something I hadn't seen mentioned in my searches before and tying him to Ranma as well. Or, er, I should say, Ranma 1/2 Nettou Hen's first opening.

And that's one of the interesting things about it: The original Ranma 1/2 aired starting in April 1989, and was cancelled by September, 18 episodes having aired, the last one being a recap no less. Thanks to Ranma 1/2 being an English language anime fan staple for so long, the details of that are fairly well documented (click "About the Anime"). It felt like something was up when episode 13 didn't have an episode preview...and then episode 15 has a flashback to something that, as of then, never happened! The reasoning for that, as mentioned there:

But, as mentioned before, Ranma ½ got off to a fairly difficult start, it was stuck in a tough timeslot that it was unable to win, and had to do some quick episode reshuffling when a series of high profile kidnappings occured when the unfortunately named "The Abduction of P-chan" was ready to go to air. This entire storyline wound up being pushed back by four months, and causing some continuity errors in the process.

lol, damn!!

Of course, the rest is history, with Nettou Hen premiering in October and cranking out 143 episodes after that. The interesting detail there, on top of the different time slot, is the mention of a lower budget - I'm wondering how apparent that'll be going forward, as while the original series is clearly a TV show in appearance, it does have a number of nice sequences throughout (mainly in the fights, of course). Right now, I've watched up to the first episode of Nettou Hen, which opens with the delayed "Abduction of P-Chan", the second episode being the next part of that story (and appears to also be a leftover - judging from the preview, it's what episode 15 was flashing back to).

Another main reason I felt like watching this now, aside from how I realized I never really got around to watching much Ranma in all the years since I dreamed of seeing those expensive VHS tapes, is from seeing images of the character designs again. The latter day Ranma, especially the OVA stuff, is more obviously ATSUKO NAKAJIMA, her style having really carved itself out for sure, and, well...they all look more deformed and bug eyed in general. This was something of a trend up through the mid-90's (and I'd wager may have influenced the even later, practically inhuman look of things like Air and Kanon), arguably seen in its most extreme degree with the likes of Saber Marionette J.

The early episodes, by comparison, look far more controlled - not exactly like Rumiko Takahashi's stuff, that's to be expected in the transition to anime, but not quite as cartoony and more in line with what a lot of the trendy, cool, cute characters looked like in the 80's up to that point.

I may try to do some screenshots or link to some videos to demonstrate this more clearly - the transition starts showing itself just a bit over halfway through in the original series, no less.

So yeah, maybe some interesting observations may come of this. Although really, probably not much more than that. I may not sit through the whole thing, or just skip around (I'm watching the dub, so I get the feeling I may bail when Richard Ian Cox takes over for Sarah Strange doing the voice of male Ranma - he's a pretty good actor, but ummm...talk about a weird jump, from tough-guy boyishness to man-shrill).

WELL.

THAT WAS LONG.

[Moge]

My gripe with Ranma is that all the drama and character development pretty much ends with the first season.

Onward it's full-on comedy with a hint of Inuyasha when super villains start showing up.

[g0f3r]

I could never get into Ranma 1/2. I thought some of the comedy during the episodes were pretty good, but I was more a fan of inuyasha.

[kappacha]

Ranma 1/2 Animation Directors: http://www.furinkan.com/features/articles/director3.html

Not sure if that site has been mentioned before.  Masako Goto, character designer for Kimagure Orange Road, was responsible for alot of Ranma 1/2's first season look.  When it looked like it was cancelled, Masako never returned.  Was a shame since I liked the original look, but in the end I am a Nakajima fan.  I personally like the look of the OVAs & movies most.  As the Ranma 1/2 series goes on though, yeah, the animation really suffers as well as having many non-canon "filler" episodes.  Though some of the non-canon episodes are really good.

Atsuko Ishida is always creditted for her early work on Ranma 1/2 but I have yet to see which episodes she worked on extensively.  There was a rumor that one of the Ranma 1/2 episodes credited to "Yoiko Hibiki" was Yuji Moriyama.

I actually got into Ranma 1/2 first as Takahashi series goes, and pretty much dislike anything after that.  Especially Inu Yasha.  I liked the manga in the beginning but after that just didn't care for it.  I prefer everything from Ranma 1/2 and prior.

[Arizona]

Thanks for all that. It's been so long I don't remember if I ever picked up on it, but my previous writing doesn't seem to indicate that I did - it certainly makes sense, given the apparent style shifts.

Although I didn't get as far as I would've liked with seeing it directly: I ended up slowing down, and then the Blu-rays were announced...I need to pick some of those up sometime.

There was this great column in Animerica by Takashi Oshiguchi, and in an Inu-Yasha cover issue he talked about how it seemed each of Takahashi's series had its generational divides. People who were into Urusei Yatsura weren't necessarily into Ranma 1/2, but it felt like she was targeting the next generation anyway - and then the same went for Inu-Yasha, but it was likely the children of Yatsura fans enjoying that. He lamented not quite being able to fully get into Inu-Yasha himself despite being a Yatsura fan.

That particular issue was from back when the Inu-Yasha anime was brand new - I first discovered the series before that in Viz's floppy comic form. Now, of course, it's rather infamous for taking forever to go absolutely nowhere. Ranma is oft criticized for running out of steam, but its reputation never took as much of a hit. It was kind of a different matter with an adventure story.

Now, it seems like Rin-ne never picked up any traction at all.

Still, interesting how that worked for a while.

[kappacha]

Thanks for all that. It's been so long I don't remember if I ever picked up on it, but my previous writing doesn't seem to indicate that I did - it certainly makes sense, given the apparent style shifts.

Although I didn't get as far as I would've liked with seeing it directly: I ended up slowing down, and then the Blu-rays were announced...I need to pick some of those up sometime.

There was this great column in Animerica by Takashi Oshiguchi, and in an Inu-Yasha cover issue he talked about how it seemed each of Takahashi's series had its generational divides. People who were into Urusei Yatsura weren't necessarily into Ranma 1/2, but it felt like she was targeting the next generation anyway - and then the same went for Inu-Yasha, but it was likely the children of Yatsura fans enjoying that. He lamented not quite being able to fully get into Inu-Yasha himself despite being a Yatsura fan.

That particular issue was from back when the Inu-Yasha anime was brand new - I first discovered the series before that in Viz's floppy comic form. Now, of course, it's rather infamous for taking forever to go absolutely nowhere. Ranma is oft criticized for running out of steam, but its reputation never took as much of a hit. It was kind of a different matter with an adventure story.

Now, it seems like Rin-ne never picked up any traction at all.

Still, interesting how that worked for a while.

I probably have that Animerica issue.  I was collecting them when Inu Yasha made it's way stateside, and I vaguely remember reading that.  I think Ranma is different because it was always sort of episodic without a real plot, where IY had one, and it just took forever to get through.  I really enjoyed the series up until Kikyo and Naraku became main villains/arcs in the story, and just completely lost interest.  And Rin-ne I found cliched and boring. 

The Blu Rays are great, I have the first one, I like how many of the title cards with the original Japanese were kept in tact, and the episode order is now unchanged.  I guess the later seasons also have their alternate animated intros shown after the opening, and I'm really hoping the movies and OAVs get the same treatment down the line.  I'd like to see Viz release Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku on BR as well.

[Moge]

I still stand up by statement from two years ago above. I'll just add that Happosai completely ruins the show when he's pulling the same antics ad nauseam.
s

[kappacha]

I still stand up by statement from two years ago above. I'll just add that Happosai completely ruins the show when he's pulling the same antics ad nauseam.
s

I never had a problem with Happosai, but he's a main character in ALOT of the fillers in the anime, and appears pretty frequently.  And most who are familiar with the anime more than the manga always hate him. 

[Moge]

I've read some of the manga. Very disappointed so many of the stories didn't get animated.

I still like the series, so i might watch it selectively in the future. Have you seen the new OVA or the live-action movie btw?

[kappacha]

I've read some of the manga. Very disappointed so many of the stories didn't get animated.

I still like the series, so i might watch it selectively in the future. Have you seen the new OVA or the live-action movie btw?

There were a lot of the Ranma 1/2 stories I wanted to see animated.  I don't think I'd like to see them animated now though, the 2008 OAV was sort of disappointing on the animation front.  And I was upset they chose a story which it seems like they'd done before.  It was okay.  The music wasn't as good as the original, using really tacky chinese restaurant sounding music instead, and overall I didn't like the updated new anime look of some of the characters at times. 

I've seen the Live Action Drama special, and I wasn't expecting much from it, so I enjoyed it for what it was.  My favorite thing about it was that Dr. Tofu seemed more utilized.  The least favorite part of it was they used a no-name made for the drama villain, and some fan favorite characters don't appear.

[Moge]

I thought the OVA was an enjoyable romp. I wasn't blown away by it, but i thought it was decent.

Same sentiment with the live-action movie. Yeah, the villain was a bit out of place; Principal Kuno would have been a better choice. Female Ranma was perfect, but the guy casted for male Ranma was a bit too thin for my liking, but his acting was spot on otherwise.

I wouldn't seeing a new OVA with the art style from the 2011 Pachinko game. Pink haired Ranma plz!

[Nitorin]

Ranma was one of my first love...Great show but lots of unneeded drama and fillers.

[Arizona]

Not that I had anything illuminating to say or add to begin with, but I resumed watching the show. I wanted something 90's to watch and was bummed out about the whole Sailor Moon Blu-ray debacle, so I finally decided to go back to this. I bought the first two blu-ray sets upon seeing the first was getting a "standard edition" re-release in a month...but now it's apparent all SEVEN sets are getting such a release on the same day, meaning the current, gorgeous limited edition sets are probably going to get harder to get. So I totally flipped out and bought the rest too...better to spend 200 dollars today to get a matching set than 1,000 dollars tomorrow.

Also, a blu-ray box with all the movies and OVAs came out in Japan in September, so I sure hope we get an announcement about that here sometime this year.

Although not really related to the animation aspect, as I get further along, I'm probably gonna start buying up some of the Ranma video games. I already have the American version of the one SNES fighting game, Hard Battle. At the very least I'll be getting the sequel to that, which interestingly enough is apparently the first fighting game to have a tag team feature.

[G-1]

I was bingin on Ranma 1/2 a couple of months back but I didn't complete that recap. I  did buy the S.H.Figuarts of Ranma-chan though and preordered Shampoo. Actually I hope Ukyo gets the same treatment but Bandai gets real weird about stuff. Also plannin on nabbin the blu-rays soon as well.

[Moge]

I need to get around to watching Ranma again one of these days. Last thing i saw was the live action movie, which was actually kinda decent.

[Arizona]

Happosai really is the Freeza of this show. Although I am still early on, so it is still fun how desperately Genma and Soun want to straight up stone cold murder him.

Episode 19 (37) had some interesting animation during a tussle with Ranma and Kodachi - I'd have to dig deeper to see who was behind it, so that would probably mean scouring Japanese sites. Still, as tempted as I am to see it looked "familiar", it's always easy to see a different movement style in a show and jump to totally wrong conclusions about who did it...

[Moge]

Happosai is the worst thing in the series.

[Arizona]

Netto-hen 24 had a really well animated fight between Ukyo and Ryoga at the start.

Speaking of whom, it was nice to finally reach the part where Ukyo is introduced. I think I was only familiar with her from the video games and maybe the first movie. I always liked the whole giant spatula as a weapon thing, and it had me interested in trying okonomiyaki - in those halcyon days when it seemed anime and manga could do no wrong, and anything from Japan HAD to be good, the prospect of so-called "Japanese pizza" was especially intriguing. Still haven't gotten around to it...

For a long stretch here at the start of Netto-hen, there's no OP at all, just a short intro quickly explaining the show's basic premise (likely, of course, to catch up everybody who didn't watch the cancelled first part). In the episodes where there is an OP, the short intro comes after it, but most have no OP at all. Quite a few confused people thought there Blu-Rays were borked and were mad at Viz, but as it turns out this is actually accurate to the original - the original broadcast had no openings for those episodes either. So any releases after that that did have the opening had added it. This means the second OP, "Little Date", was only around for like, seven episodes or so.

[Moge]

Season 3 was the last good Ranma season to me. After that the quality was variable.

Later seasons of One Piece had no closing credits. That really threw me off the first time i experienced it.

[Arizona]

It looks like I was right to freak out and buy all the limited edition blu-rays when I did: prices on sets 4 and 5 have suddenly fucktupled. Obviously wouldn't have been the end of the world if I were late since the standard sets are easily available, but it is nice having all the extra trimmings.

Also, Viz announced they're bringing out the OVA and movie blu-rays in one set next year. Hope that doesn't take too long. I am moving through the show at a very slow, leisurely pace at the moment though. Basically, hoping to go through those in order of release if I can (so sometime I'll have to sit down and figure out which came out between which episodes).

Gotta get around to the games too, although right now I'm enamored with Wonderswan crap...