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By Chris Snellgrove
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As an older, somewhat casual anime fan, I have mixed feelings about classic shows getting rebooted or otherwise revived. For example, I really love Dragon Ball Z Kai because it turns the most iconic shonen into an all-killer, no-filler thrill ride. However, Sailor Moon Crystal left me a little cold. It similarly cut out the notorious filler of the earlier anime, but the newer animation lost some of the over-the-top charm of the original series. Because of this, I was a tad nervous when I heard that Ranma ½ was getting remade. How well, I wondered, could a new show do justice to the original, genderbending masterpiece?
As it turns out, pretty damn well! To my surprise, the new Ranma ½ (2024) is a very faithful adaptation of the manga that preserves all of the franchise’s trademark weirdness. The show has something of a split personality: it’s got wholesome messages about love, friendship, and family, but it’s also got some of the kinkiest and downright raunchiest scenes you’ll find outside of hentai. Oh, and did I mention there’s more nudity in any given season than you’ll find in a vintage Playboy? To see what the fuss is about and possibly find your new favorite anime, you can currently stream Ranma ½ on Netflix.
A Tale Of Two Genres
The premise of Ranma ½ is that a young warrior, Ranma Saotome, is pledged to marry a beautiful young woman. Just one problem: while training in China, Ranma and his father fell into cursed springs. Now, all it takes is a splash of cold water to turn Ranma from a strapping young male to a generously proportioned young female, and hot water changes him back. This condition makes it harder for Ranma to fit in when he moves in with his bride-to-be’s wacky family and begins attending high school. But he slowly learns more about himself and about women while battling one bizarre new challenger after another.
In the best possible way, Ranma ½ feels like a love child of two very different anime genres: slice of life and action/adventure. How does that work? Basically, Ranma is a warrior who is always training with his father, and he’s engaged (more or less) to the toughest girl in town. Collectively, these two have to do plenty of conventional fighting, settling conflicts with one perfectly-placed kick after another. But their biggest villains (like martial arts gymnasts, ice skating champs, and even lovesick students) all have the mouthfeel of low-stakes, local drama. Tonally, Ranma ½ is like a cross between shows like Komi Can’t Communicate and Dragon Ball Z.
It’s an audacious approach to storytelling, one that could have easily proven overly boring or overly derivative. Against all the odds, though, Ranma ½ finds its groove right away and manages to tell a beautiful, brilliant story unlike anything you’ve seen before.
When Wholesome Meets Raunchy
Ranma ½ is more than just a tale of two genres; it’s also a tale of two tones. Much of the show is relatively wholesome, with a narrative driven by a surprisingly engaging will they, won’t they love story. The series is also filled with wholesome messages about friendship, dedication, self-acceptance, and so much more, giving it squeaky-clean themes you wouldn’t normally find outside of an after-school special. At the same time, this otherwise wholesome show is hilariously raunchy, with Ranma having her naked breasts out for far too much runtime. The juxtaposition is surreal, with characters giving and receiving wholesome life advice while showing off their entire birthday suit.
Basically, Ranma ½ manages to perfectly ride the line between being wholesome and being raunchy. As mentioned above, the sugar-sweet messages about personal growth are undercut by spicy scene after spicy scene of swinging breasts. At the same time, the show avoids being overly explicit: in place of sex scenes, we get endless scenes of characters sharing baths together. Oh, and the nipples that were so abundant in the original Ranma ½ are completely absent here, a somewhat controversial creative choice. On one hand, this makes important scenes less (ahem) titillatingly distracting. On the other hand, having every woman look like a Barbie doll under her clothes is its own flavor of distracting!
A Surprisingly Kinky Anime
The new Ranma ½ is fairly true to the original show; like many anime revivals, it is designed to cut out some annoying filler and serve as a more faithful adaptation of the original manga. But I was much younger when I watched the earlier anime series, and I was too focused on all the boobies to notice something fairly obvious: Ranma ½ is deeply, obviously, and super-shockingly kinky. Like, the gender-bending exploits of Ranma (which force him to explore womanhood while forcing his fiancée Akana to explore her sexuality) are just the start, and the series just gets weirder with each episode.
For example, one character turns into a pig when splashed with cold water; in animal form, he snuggles up to Ranma’s fiancée each night, which makes Euphoria’s pet play seem downright tame. Later, some pig-related shenanigans have this guy wearing a day collar in his human form while his new master tries to track him down. The entire show is filled with guys who clearly have a fetish for female domination and dudes discovering, all while Ranma discovers a love of exhibitionism in showing off a beautiful female body. Mercifully, none of this kinkiness disrupts character development, but it adds an extra layer of transgressive naughtiness to every second of its raunchy runtime.
The Messiest Love Story Ever Told
Based on the description above, you might think that Ranma ½ is mostly a sex comedy. However, this is a show ultimately driven by romance rather than raunch. While there are plenty of spicy shenanigans and kinky character moments throughout, the central story revolves around Ranma and Akane’s adorably messy relationship. The characters have amazing chemistry and manage to strike the perfect “will they, won’t they” romantic balance as they banter from one episode to the next. This approach to relationship-building feels remarkably modern, and the show will resonate particularly well with any anime aficionados who are fans of the “enemies to lovers” trope.
Ranma ½ is, ultimately, a show with a little something for everyone. It’s got fun characters, engrossing slice-of-life adventures, and some of the craziest fights you’ll find outside Shonen. On top of that, the show features the most extensive nudity and weirdest sexual situations you’ll find outside of Cinemax. You can currently stream Ranma ½ on Netflix, so you’re just a click away from a modern revival of the ‘80s most ambitious anime. If nothing else, this is the show that figured out the secret to making everyone care about gender studies: boobies, boobies, and more boobies!
RANMA 1/2 (2024) REVIEW SCORE
