Ranma Saotome is a 16-year-old student and heir to the "Anything Goes" style of martial arts. However, Ranma is not your average student: since a "fateful" day at a Chinese training ground called Jusenkyo, he turns into a cute girl when he comes in contact with cold water. Only a dose of hot water can reverse the effects...temporarily.
Yet the craziness of Ranma's life does not end here; due to an agreement between Soun Tendo and Ranma's father, Genma (who himself is cursed with transforming into a panda), the gender-wise unusual boy is now engaged to Akane Tendo, a rather violent and tomboyish girl. Sure enough, romance unwillingly blossoms and time brings about problems including cute pig-boys, ego-inflated Sempais and countless new fiancées...
Synopsis: Caya
Story & Playability
Ranma 1/2 is about the life of a teenaged martial artist named Ranma Saotome who goes on a decade long training mission
with his martial arts father, Genma to the cursed training ground known as Jusenkyo, where falling into one of the many
springs instantly turns into whoever or whatever drowned there last. As luck would have it, the two fell into the
magical hot spring. Now, whenever Ranma gets wet, he turns into a girl and has to be dowsed with hot water in order to
change back. Genma on the other hand, turns into a panda. Conveniently, there were hundreds of these cursed springs and
it would be quite hard for them to change back to their usual form.
When Ranma was just a child, his father promised to marry Ranma to Akane, the daughter of the father's best friend.
Akane, an accomplished martial artist in her own right, doesn't even like boys, let alone "pervert" ones
that are half girls all the time. Even so, Ranma and Genma have moved in with Akane, her father, and her two sisters at
their martial arts school. This is when all the comical adventure began with them living together and slowly learning to
accept each other after going through a lot of troubles. The ending is quite a happy one but there is a small twist with
the ending which fits perfectly with this witty nonsensical manga.
Rating: 7
Graphics
There are a lot of characters as every new chapter comes out. The graphics of the characters are not bad but there are a
lot of similarity between them and the artwork contains nudity. However, the graphics match with the style of the story,
both supposed to be made in a hilarious way. The detail of the artwork is not as promising but is still quite
satisfactory in a traditonal way. For example, their clothing portrays the japanese style quite well. There are also
numerous interesting designs but they are mainly focused on the clothing and not much about the background. The art of
the effects like Ranma flying out of the window is not bad but not really realistic.
Rating: 6
Sound
I have only heard some of the sounds but overall the sound is not bad and it is quite funny in some terms. The song
themes managed to bring out the atmosphere and feeling of some of the scenes with its cartoonish and funny style. The
voices are also quite suitable for the characters and nicely done but overall, the sound quality could have been much
better.
Rating: 6
Fun
I am quite satisfied with the anime overall but there are some disappointing parts that could have been better. For
instance, the characters could have been moulded more deeply with more description on their history and personalities
and there are too many new characters coming out. The anime never fails to make you laugh at times though with its
comical and hilarious style. The connection between the characters are also quite touching with some of its romantic
scenes. The imagination of the anime though is great. For example, there's lots of creatures and ways that one
could never have expected and when you think the story has reached a dead end, something else pops up to keep it going
on and continues giving us hope. However, the storyline and concept is a bit perdictable and repetitve with its numerous
fighting scenes; some of which are not necessary and just for the sake of completing the manga. It seems that sometimes
they have runned out of ideas and some parts are plain boring. Furthermore, there are some crude humor with violence
that are not so suitable for some people but it is still watchable. Nevertheless, Ranma 1/2 is still an enjoyable anime
and quite recommendable.
Rating: 7
Final Verdict
6.6667 (above average)
Reviewed by Milkiyo, Dec 01, 2005
